024: How to Preserve Your Treasures – and Their Stories – While You’re Downsizing – Artifcts.com

Marty Stevens-Heebner (00:00):
I recently did my own closet audit and some other decluttering. Just like my clients, I find certain things laden with stories and memories difficult to let go of, even when I don't use them. Fortunately, at my industry's national conference, I came across a wonderful new company to help with items that I and you want to let go of, without losing those stories. On this episode, I get to talk to the creators of this easy to use and brilliant solution.

(00:33):
Moving your mom or your dad or yourself isn't just about moving things from one place to another. It is much more complicated than that, as are so many things having to do with later life. How to Move Your Mom and Still be on Speaking Terms Afterward provides in-depth conversations with professionals, older adults, and their family members who share their stories with warmth, understanding, and humor. I'm your host, Marty Stevens Heebner. Here you'll find answers to many of your questions, as well as different perspectives that I hope will inform and inspire you.

(01:12):
I am so lucky to have here with me today the two co-founders of this amazing new platform called Artifcts. I have Ellen Goodwin and Heather Nickerson here with me, and they are just terrific people. Welcome. Thank you so much for this interview. Let me tell you a little bit about them. Prior to co-founding Artifcts, Ellen Goodwin served as Chief Solutions Officer of NOMA, managing NOMA's strategic client engagements and working to drive their product roadmap. Prior to that, Ellen served as an intelligence analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency. She served for more than a year as a briefer to a cabinet level official. Ellen holds a BA in business and economics from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and a Masters of Public Policy from Duke University.

(01:57):
Her co-founder, Heather Nickerson, prior to co-founding Artifcts, served as the Chief Growth and Strategy Officer of Red Five Holdings and President of Red Five Privacy Labs, driving corporate growth and pursuing new entrepreneurial lines of business. Before that, Heather served as an intelligence analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency, including serving as a briefer in a war zone tour in Afghanistan, where the only body armor that would fit her was child sized. Is that right, Heather? Heather holds a BA in international relations from Brown University and a Masters of economics from the London School of Economics. You have such impressive backgrounds, it's unbelievable. I'm going to start out with the first question I always ask, what's your favorite memory of your grandparents?

Ellen Goodwin (02:45):
One of my fondest memories was of my grandfather, who would drive from Chicago up to visit us in Wisconsin. He was a male carrier, and he'd bring with him a little pouch of coins that he had that was a United States Postal Service pouch. It would have pennies and nickels. He would teach us how to play blackjack, poker, and hearts. I wasn't even counting at the time, but I would learn to count. I would check with my siblings on my math and show my cards. This is one of my fondest memories.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (03:15):
That's so great. Thank you. Heather, how about you?

Heather Nickerson (03:19):
One of my favorite memories is of my mother's mother, who I called Nana. Nana had a date bread recipe that she would bake every holiday season. She would only ever bake this for the holidays. My mother tried repeatedly to replicate the recipe, but I don't think my Nana ever gave her all the ingredients because my mother's bread was always really dry, and Nana's was amazing. It was moist and delicious. I think I probably ate half the bread in lieu of any other food during the actual holiday meal. It was awesome. I can still picture it to this day. I wish I knew what actually went into it.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (03:56):
You're making me hungry. That recipe, if you had it, would be perfect for Artifcts. Before I do anything else, let me say Artifcts.com, it's spelled uniquely, A-R-T-I-F-C-T-S. There's no "A" in the "facts" part of "artifacts." We have the link to Artifcts on our website. It's just wonderful. I tried it out this weekend, and it is so easy to use. They have training videos on YouTube. I didn't need them, it was that straightforward. What is the focus of Artifcts? What do you feel that it does for people?

Heather Nickerson (04:33):
The goal of Artifcts, Marty, is really simple. It's to help people capture, preserve, and share their history, stories, and memories behind all their stuff. That could be kid art that your child or grandchild made, or it could be a priceless family heirloom. Right now, without Artifcts, there's really no good way to connect the story, the history, the memory with the actual physical object. We created a space where people can combine stories and stuff, connect with family across generations, and really ensure that it all lives on in one place.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (05:07):
That's so wonderful. Can you please explain how it works? What's the process?

Heather Nickerson (05:13):
We've tried to make it as simple as possible. There's four easy steps. The hardest one is choosing which object to start with first.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (05:20):
[inaudible 00:05:20]

Heather Nickerson (05:23):
People are always like, "Where do I start?" Pick an object, step one. Step two is take a photo. You could also add audio or video, but start with a single photo. Step three is adding the story. It could be five words, "My mother gave me this," end of story. It could be 500 words or more. I'm very guilty of writing those long stories. Then step four is you upload, save, and you're done. You've created your first artifact in four really simple steps. But there's so much more you can do after that. We've built in a ton of functionality, everything from QR codes to being able to export your Artifcts to your home insurance policy or your estate plan, even the ability to add, "What do you want to happen with this item next? Who's going to get it when you're no longer here, or where's it going to go?" There's a lot you can do with your Artifcts once you've created them and saved them to the platform.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (06:16):
What's great in terms of sharing is you can keep them completely private. You can choose to share them with family members, friends, whomever you want to individually share them with. You can also, with certain Artifcts, go public, especially with things that are related to history.

Ellen Goodwin (06:31):
One of the things you mentioned at the very beginning about our background with the agency, privacy, and security is the only way you can live by that as a product is to say, "Leave it all private." Actually, it's private by default. You have to actually take action in order to share. That's also why you can try it for free. Create five Artifcts, see what you think. Heather and I both make a lot of our Artifcts public so people can see and learn about us and about the product. I took my grandfather's silver ring, I Artifcted it, and I shared it to Facebook with a Korean War veterans group. The reason is the only thing I could learn from the ring itself was that it was marked with the word "Seoul."

Marty Stevens-Heebner (07:12):
You mean Seoul like the city, correct?

Ellen Goodwin (07:14):
That's correct. It had [inaudible 00:07:16] on it. On the inside, it had a year and the marking that it was made of silver. But my grandmother didn't know anything about the ring. We found it at the bottom of an open box of my father's report cards from elementary school that he received. I had people from Seoul directly contact me through Facebook to tell me what they thought about the ring. Then other veterans just said that they were happy to see it.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (07:39):
That's remarkable. A pewter platter I inherited from my dad was used in 1777 to serve hot cakes to George Washington's army at Valley Forge, and I will be Artifcting that.

Ellen Goodwin (07:53):
This is where personal history and our nation's history merge. It's really great to be able to uncover that.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (08:00):
I know there's a great story, Heather, about your boots.

Heather Nickerson (08:03):
That's true. When we talked at the NASM conference, I think we talked about the hiking boots. Artifcts don't have to be historically relevant or have monetary value. They don't have to be significant in any way, shape, or form other than they mean something to you. The first Artifct I created when Ellen and I first built the platform was an Artifct of my beloved hiking boots. You can search on Artifcts.com, search for hiking boots, they'll pop up. My boots have been with me for well over a decade. They have tracked thousands of miles. I'm an avid hiker. They've gone from North America, Central America, Europe, even in Afghanistan. They were, until three years ago, falling apart at the seams. They were hideous to look at. They're caked in mud, they're well worn.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (08:48):
Can I just say they're well loved?

Heather Nickerson (08:50):
Very well loved. For me, they are the one item if something happened to me tomorrow, I'd want my daughter to know the story behind these boots. That's why I Artifcted them. Part of that story is very special. My husband, before he got married, offered to buy me a new pair of boots because we were going to go hiking on our honeymoon. I broke down in tears and I was like, "No, these boots have to last through our honeymoon." I got them right before Afghanistan. In my mind, these are the bookends, it's Afghanistan. Then getting married and going on the honeymoon, that's a really good bookend for these boots. But they have to last that long. He knew there was no way these boots were ever going to last that long. I came home one night and found the boots up on his workbench with pliers and all sorts of things. He was super gluing the soles back onto the boots so I could wear them hiking in Italy. One of the many things I'd want my daughter to know about me, my history, and why I love these boots so much.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (09:40):
They literally traveled through your history with you, and what a romantic thing for him to do. He's a keeper, just saying.

Heather Nickerson (09:48):
Yes, he is.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (09:49):
Not only do Artifcts not have to have any monetary value or anything like that, they don't have to look pretty. My dad's World War II Navy bombing jacket, I wore it a lot when I was in graduate school. The leather is not in great shape. But I'm definitely Artifcting that because it's such an important part of my family history. They don't have to look pretty. Just show them off and tell the story. What do you guys really love about what you do? Obviously, you love that you are enabling people to share their stories, even if they're letting go of those items, like I will be.

Heather Nickerson (10:24):
One of the things I love most is when we hear from our members who may be in a downsizing situation, they're moving or going through life's events. For them, stuff becomes a burden. When we hear from them, "You've helped me keep the memories, let go of the items," or, "My family didn't know the story of whatever this item was, and now they do. They want to keep. It's going to stay in the family." You're keeping that story alive for the next generation to come.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (10:47):
Especially for this generation of older adults who survived the Depression and World War II, or were born immediately afterward and had that pressure from their parents, it's so hard to let go of items. I think more, it's the memories they're concerned about disappearing and the stories. This is such a great way to preserve all that. It allows them to find a way and the resolve to let go of it after they've been able to just tell that story, and knowing that it will be preserved.

Ellen Goodwin (11:14):
I think that one of the joys for us is watching how the act of Artifcting across generations really opens up conversations. I actually published with Heather an article about Artifcting with my mother. I went home, and we Artifcted together for five days. I had made a list of things I wanted her to Artifct. When she reviewed the list, about half of them she thought, "Yes, great story. Let's talk about this." The other half, she says, "I don't know, Ellen. I picked it up at a garage sale." I said, "Hold on," because I had my own memories associated with the item. She was going to chuck it, but I wanted the item because of my own story. I got to share with her my own version of its history. We hear people who are like, "I'm less lonely because I'm provoking my adult sons by sending them Artifcts, and they're calling me to talk about them," or, "I've invited my granddaughter over to Artifct with me." It's that connection and that discussion, opening up the door to having conversations. You don't need prompts. The object prompts you.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (12:12):
My staff finds it fascinating when they're working with people in their homes, going through their various belongings. They get to find out the story of the person through their objects, especially if somebody has passed away. That's a way for us to learn a bit about their stories.

Heather Nickerson (12:27):
You start talking about stuff, you very quickly learn so much about them. They're suddenly sharing childhood memories or a family legend. That's been really fascinating.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (12:37):
What distinguishes Artifcts from, say Shutterfly or wherever you can store your photos and maybe a little bit of information about them?

Ellen Goodwin (12:46):
One of the things that people need to consider when they're picking the right platform for themselves is, are you putting onto a platform where they're going to compress and make the files smaller? If you're considering a Dropbox or a Google, you need to understand what the long-term cost is and what will they do with what you put in it. Someday, you take that photo out, you want to enlarge it, and you can't because it's been compressed. It's too small. Or are you putting it into a photo book builder or a storybook builder, it's a proprietary platform that will change over time, and there isn't a guarantee that what you created will still be there. I've had this happen with calendars I've made for my parents. I did it for years. Now they're all gone because that template is no longer supported. It wasn't designed to be my permanent storage of that calendar.

(13:33):
At Artifcts, the entire point here is it will continue living on because we're going to make sure it does. If we're going to change any kind of format, template, or anything, we're going to make sure all of your content lives on with it. You have to pick the platform that will allow you to preserve what you're trying to preserve.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (13:48):
You'll notice that different platforms, Zoom, Google, Shutterfly, they update and upgrade what they've built on the web, and what you just said happens. There's so many photos, they start compressing them, so there's a lot of pixelation. They don't save the templates, they don't save the information. Your goal is to preserve that for generations to come. This is what Artifcts is for.

Ellen Goodwin (14:12):
We like to say that we're building human media 1.0 because this isn't social media. This isn't about follow counts, view counts, emoticons, and ads. All of that, we very purposefully have removed. We're trying to get to know each other on a very human level. That's what this enables, where you can build a circle of friends and you can share what means most to you and who you are.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (14:32):
Also, with the generations, they start to realize how much they have in common.

Ellen Goodwin (14:36):
That's right.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (14:37):
You had mentioned how you can use these for your estate plan. One of the things I talk about on every episode is please set up a plan. Set up a plan. It makes such a difference not only for your loved ones as you get older, but also, because you'll feel more secure. Let's talk more about involving Artifcts in estate planning.

Heather Nickerson (14:57):
Yes. We have made it super simple to allow you to use Artifcts as you work through your estate plan or your will. It's the click of a button. You can export either an individual Artifct or your entire collection over to your estate planner or your attorney. But also, when you go to create the Artifct, if you know the value, you can enter that range in. You can also designate what happens to this object next. If you choose to bequeath it to someone, you can put the name in and their contact info. If you choose to donate it, you can even specify where you want the item to be donated. If you want it to be sold... One of the biggest questions sometimes is some of them passes away, and then what are you supposed to do with this stuff? That's what happened to my mother. She had an estate plan, that was the easy part. The hard part was on page 23 with all other tangible assets divided equally among three children. What do you do with that?

(15:46):
It's been one of our goals to ensure that Artifcts can help people in those situations ensure that their stuff and their stories get passed down. Another feature we have is sometimes they may not know the value. If you're an Artifcts member, we have a really great feature called "What's it Worth?" We've partnered with Heritage Auctions, one of the largest collectibles auctions house in the US. You click the button, and you send the Artifct information over to Heritage. Within five to seven business days, they will send you back a valuation that helps you make a decision. The best part is rather than having that valuation get lost in an email, we custom-built the integration so it's attached right back into your Artifct. You send them the Artifct, a week later, they send you back the valuation. It's right in your Artifct.

Ellen Goodwin (16:29):
That's right. This is a conversation that has to be had, and a lot of people aren't having it. This is in part why we have the field in the future. They're going to see it every time they Artifct or they edit their Artifct. They'll remember, "What am I going to do with this?" First, we want you to pause and think, "What does this thing mean to me?" Then maybe think about the future so that it becomes something that isn't a burden. It's a source of connection, it's a source of intergenerational wealth transfer. It can be so much more than an object.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (16:55):
That also helps for insurance purposes.

Ellen Goodwin (16:57):
When you say Insuretech, we're also working our way towards that. Are you underinsured? Are you sure that your homeowner's policy and any addendums actually cover what you have? If you lost that ring, you had a home fire, you can send these Artifcts to your insurance agent and say, "Here you go. Start processing the claim."

Marty Stevens-Heebner (17:14):
It's so important to have that all documented because your insurance broker wants to get you compensated. But they have to deal with the behemoth they work for, who doesn't want to have to deal with that. There are so many different kinds of people who can benefit from this: family members, friends, possibly historical societies too. What do you guys think?

Ellen Goodwin (17:37):
We have yet to find someone who can't benefit from Artifcts. We didn't expect artists to come calling because we thought artists would want to put their artwork where they could sell it. All of a sudden, we had all these artists coming to us. Why? It's because they could have a private portfolio where they're storing many versions. They're creating these pieces and attaching original documents to them. They're attaching the videos. We even have folks using the QR code feature. Once you Artifct, you can print a QR code. They're putting it on the wall in a gallery showing, or they're putting it into the certificate of authenticity. You buy that photo, you can always scan the QR code, and up pops the story of that photo that you purchased. These kinds of unexpected things come up all the time.

(18:17):
I did a story sharing event with the Daughters of American Revolution. These women, who love heritage, family history, genealogy, a lot of them have hundreds of files on their computer about their genealogical research. But connecting the dots to understand this photo of the homestead goes with this gentleman, and here's his documentation when he immigrated the US, they're all separate files. Nothing's linking them together to convey this is the family story. We are finding that we have an accidental synergy with folks that are very interested in preserving literally national history, sometimes global history.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (18:51):
I love that bit about the artists. We work with a lot of clients who have been artists, watercolorists, painters. They never sold their art. It was really a hobby. How much more wonderful to have a story behind each painting. I painted this when my niece was eight years old. It was hot out, and she didn't enjoy it, or I had to feed her chocolate all the time.

Ellen Goodwin (19:16):
Having not just the photo in the story, but you can have audio or video of you telling that story.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (19:20):
What a gift to give your grandparents to get closer to them, to sit down with them, "I want to learn all about this story, grandma or grandpa. Here, tell it to me, and I want to preserve it."

Heather Nickerson (19:32):
At the very beginning, the launch of our company, we had a grandmother and granddaughter pair an Artifct together. They spent two weeks, essentially. The granddaughter was home from school before going back to college. Grandma was like, "Come on over. I got all this stuff." After two weeks, grandma had created just under 200 Artifcts with her granddaughter. She was in tears because, "Even my grown sons don't know this much about me. This is my life story through stuff." The granddaughter was amazed. She uncovered all these histories about grandma, the fact that she lived overseas in Africa and not only went on safari, but sometimes had to go hunting to get food or to protect the family. It was crazy stuff.

(20:13):
You may take for granted that you've known someone your entire life. But they never had the moment to stop and ask, "Hey, grandma, why do you have this eight foot python snake skin sitting in your cabinet? Tell me the story behind that." Through the objects, the stories came out. Both were actually in tears in telling us about their experience. They're already making plans to do it again on the next break.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (20:33):
Ultimately, life really is about those stories and the connections between people. In addition to the different kinds of people that can use this, there's also so many different reasons to use it. It can be for historical purposes, and also, after someone's passed, perhaps in remembrance.

Ellen Goodwin (20:50):
This is something that our members brought to us, the idea of Artifcts in lieu of flowers. We had a mother with a young son who died in a car crash come to us with this idea. In those moments of grief, you're trying to process a lot. While people might come to you with stories, or they'll write them into books that they have at a memorial service or online, you might not be ready for them in the moment. You can easily have someone create a free Artifct and share it with you that captures a moment of your loved one's history that you didn't even know about.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (21:20):
Once you finish Artifcting, you can go in. Not only can you add to it, you can edit it.

Heather Nickerson (21:25):
A lot of parents are using it to deal with all the kid stuff. Think about all the stuff that comes to the front door every single day. How many watercolored rainbows do I need for my five-year-old? As they get older, you get graduation stuff, prom stuff, and the list goes on and on. It's an awesome way to capture your living life. Whatever comes in that front door, whether it be a piece of pottery shaped like a pizza slice made in art class, the graduation program, or the recital pamphlet. All of that can easily be Artifcted. You get to capture your child in that moment in time. We all know how fast they change. It's building a virtual time capsule for your child when they're older.

Ellen Goodwin (22:05):
Otherwise, you have 10,000 photos and you're like, "I don't even know what that was anymore. Why did I take a picture of it?" If instead, you ask your child, "What was this?" You just record them saying it, attach it to the Artifct, and off you go, now you actually it.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (22:18):
Another thing that I really love about Artifcts is that you offer a training and setup package to teach people how to use it and to help them set up their accounts so they understand it. You have your training videos too on YouTube. Plus, you have those checklists for people who are doing it for different reasons like travel, genealogy, or insurance. That's so helpful.

Ellen Goodwin (22:37):
That's taken directly from the ARTI community. We started watching trends. What were people Artifcting, what were people asking us about? We just put them into checklists because so many of our folks that would write into us were saying, "I know I can Artifct anything, but can you give me a headstart?" Those ideas came straight from the ARTI community.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (22:55):
The most important thing is just start doing it.

Ellen Goodwin (22:57):
Walk by your bookshelf, pick up something that means anything to you, and just try it. You'll see how easy it is, and it'll inspire you to keep going. They tell us, "I finally did my first Artifct on Monday morning. I'm 10 Artifcts later. I was late for my meeting, and I had to stop."

Marty Stevens-Heebner (23:11):
It just shows how wonderful it is to do and fascinating, the things you discover, especially as you're downsizing, decluttering, and finding that thing at the back of the closet and going, "I didn't know where that was."

Heather Nickerson (23:24):
We had one of our members go through his own downsizing process. He was going from a 3,600 square foot house all the way down to a 1,200 square foot condo. In his Artifcting process, he was able to Artifct high school homecoming pictures, yearbooks, letter jackets, and then all the kids stuff. He was able to let go of the items, then take what mattered most with him to his new space, but then keep the memories of everything else, and share it with his grown children and share it with his siblings. It was this whole very good and positive process, which could have been a really tough moment of having to literally cut your living space in half. He made a really positive experience out of it with Artifcts.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (24:07):
Very cathartic for him too, I'm sure. It's the stories and the memories that we're concerned about losing. What a wonderful company you've created. Again, it's Artifcts.com, A-R-T-I-F-C-T-S. Artifcts.com, go check it out. It's just wonderful. Thank you both so much for joining me on this episode. It's been wonderful talking with you.

Heather Nickerson (24:31):
Thank you so much, Marty, for having us. We really appreciated the conversation.

Marty Stevens-Heebner (24:36):
Thank you so much for listening to How to Move Your Mom and Still be on Speaking Terms Afterward. Please visit HowtoMoveYourMom.com for more information about this episode and for additional podcast episodes featuring other extraordinary guests and conversations. Until next time, this is your very grateful host, Marty Stevens- Heebner.