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From Wildfire to Business: Rachel's Photo Organizing Journey · Carlsbad: People, Purpose and Impact

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an essential podcast for those who live, work, visit, and play in Carlsbad.
• 0:14
  Bret Schanzenbach: Good morning and welcome everyone. My name is Brett Schonsenbach. I'm the President and CEO of Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce, and I'm the host today. And I'm excited to have with me Rachel Arbuckle, who is the owner of two thousand Paces Photo Organizing. Good morning, Rachel.
• 0:30
  Rachel Arbuckle: Good morning, Brett. Happy to be Yeah,
• 0:33
  Bret Schanzenbach: thanks for joining me. It's great to have you. I was slinking around your LinkedIn profile and your website and stuff. So it looks like you were a Poway kid who ended up at SDSU, is that right?
• 0:50
  Rachel Arbuckle: That's right. I grew up in Poway. Was a Navy brat, so we lived all over the world, Japan and Maryland and Washington, and then ended up in Poway where my dad got stationed, and then ended up actually joining the military.
• 1:05
  Bret Schanzenbach: I saw that. And the Navy yourself, right?
• 1:07
  Rachel Arbuckle: The Navy, that's right. Third generation. And while I was in the Navy, I attended San Diego State and got my undergrad and went to graduate school there as well.
• 1:16
  Bret Schanzenbach: Very cool. Well, thank you for your service. Course. Appreciate that. I saw while you were in the Navy, it said something like, something really scary, like neurological, psychological technician.
• 1:27
  What was that all about?
• 1:28
  Rachel Arbuckle: Yeah, it's just a bunch of big words. So I was a corpsman. I was enlisted. I went, you know, again, right after high school. And I worked, for the military in a couple of different capacities and then eventually became what's called a psych tech or neuropsychiatric technician.
• 1:42
  But, so I worked in the psych department at Belleville Hospital, actually, Naval Hospital San Diego for a number of years. Yeah.
• 1:49
  Bret Schanzenbach: All right. So, you weren't like, you know, putting probes in people and like shock therapy? Nothing I
• 1:56
  Rachel Arbuckle: can talk about here. No, no, it was great. It wonderful to have the opportunity to do that. I had obviously some medical experience, but along with that, you know, any opportunity to better understand people's personalities and how to interact with people. And I think that, interestingly enough, at that time, I had never had a vision of starting a business.
• 2:22
  But in hindsight, I think that has really helped me in dealing with, you know, all different kinds of personalities, whether it be colleagues, clients, employees, and working with photos. There's a lot of emotions behind that.
• 2:36
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah, for sure.
• 2:37
  Rachel Arbuckle: So, yeah.
• 2:38
  Bret Schanzenbach: For sure. Now, after, the military and graduating at San Diego State, you know, go Aztecs, it looks like you had a few stops along the way before you even got to 2,000 paces. Tell us about that journey and what were some of the things that you were doing professionally.
• 2:58
  Rachel Arbuckle: Yeah, it seems like a lifetime ago, right? When we look at this before business, after business. Yeah. I both my degrees are in geographic information systems. And so it was always my intent to, you know, work in that field.
• 3:12
  So I did work for Sandag. I worked for an environmental consulting firm. And I really I enjoyed the work I was doing, but it was just a computer in me.
• 3:22
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah.
• 3:23
  Rachel Arbuckle: And I needed that people component, you know? I really I missed talking to people. And, so I hired a headhunter at that time and said, Listen, I want a job in which I can, you know, utilize my personality and and be out there working with people. And I ended up, funny enough, working in life insurance and wealth management, on the marketing side of things. And so that kind of took me down a different path where, I think that's where that business acumen came in and being able to, to understand, you know, how a business works.
• 3:57
  And, I just, that's when I recognized that that was something that I could see myself doing.
• 4:02
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah, for sure. So the GIS stuff was just too computer and not enough human.
• 4:07
  Rachel Arbuckle: That's right. That's right.
• 4:09
  Bret Schanzenbach: To analytical and analysis. Not that you I'm sure you were good at it, but I get you. And that's like, I need to talk to somebody. So roundabout, it looks like yeah, twenty fifteen Well, actually, I know, because you and I have chatted. I know this story starts in 2014 with the fires that hit all of North County.
• 4:33
  Almost all of North County was burning in 2014. We had the Poinsettia fire in Carlsbad, and What was it called in San Marcos?
• 4:41
  Rachel Arbuckle: The Cocos Fire.
• 4:42
  Bret Schanzenbach: Cocos Fire in San Marcos. Then some of our other neighbors had their own fires. That was a crazy time. It was May, beginning of May or May.
• 4:53
  Rachel Arbuckle: It was around May, June.
• 4:56
  Bret Schanzenbach: And I remember because of what the effects had on what I was involved in at that time.
• 5:01
  Rachel Arbuckle: Oh, wow.
• 5:02
  Bret Schanzenbach: But So those fires hit, and I would love for you to pick up the story and share how what you experienced, going through those fires led you to what is now two thousand Paces photo organizing.
• 5:20
  Rachel Arbuckle: Yeah, absolutely. As I said, it was not my intent through this you know, journey in my life to start a business. I think I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Even when I was in the Navy, actually, I, I started a little side business, doing gift baskets,
• 5:37
  Bret Schanzenbach: Nice.
• 5:38
  Rachel Arbuckle: For dental offices and things like that. And, and it was a short lived, but I could, I could feel that excitement and energy, but it, it wasn't my intent. And then as you said, the, the fires that just, it ravaged through all of North County, you know, you'd, you'd say, I'm going to go to my cousin's house in Carlsbad. And she'd say, Well, I'm being evacuated too. Right?
• 5:56
  And you remember that.
• 5:57
  Bret Schanzenbach: Was everywhere.
• 5:58
  Rachel Arbuckle: It was, it was everywhere. And the Cocos fire started about a hundred yards from our home. And so our neighbor knocked on the door and she just pointed to the fire and ran back in our house. This was before the fire trucks were even there. There was no official evacuation.
• 6:11
  It was so fast. Right?
• 6:13
  Bret Schanzenbach: And the wind's blowing.
• 6:15
  Rachel Arbuckle: Oh, right.
• 6:16
  Bret Schanzenbach: TIM: scary.
• 6:17
  Rachel Arbuckle: It's very scary. And when you see it right there, you know, coming down the hill towards your home, growing up, spending most of my youth in San Diego, of course, we all have been most of us have been evacuated. We know the drill. You grab your stuff, put it in a car, you know, you go stay somewhere and you go back to your home.
• 6:34
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah. And everything's fine. Right. You know, and, and you have the warning and, you know
• 6:39
  Rachel Arbuckle: Exactly. And you just go, you know, the worst thing about it is now I've got to put all this stuff away. And it's more of a nuisance in, in that regard. Right? But this particular one, we didn't have time to grab anything beyond, of course, our family and our pets.
• 6:53
  And we got out very quickly and it was terrifying. I remember I was in my car. My husband was in his car because we were trying to fill it up with as much as we could. And we were in a gated community. And so I kept trying to get out and I looked in my rearview mirror and I could see the fire in my rearview mirror.
• 7:10
  Bret Schanzenbach: Oh, wow. And- That's so scary.
• 7:12
  Rachel Arbuckle: It was, it was really scary at the time. And then I, I was at the bottom of the hill by Cal State San Marcos because it was right behind there. And my husband and I were looking up and we truly thought we were going to lose everything. And the winds shifted. We got very lucky that our community was spared.
• 7:28
  Obviously, as we all know, there are many others that lost their homes. Yes. Right? And that fire in my heart goes out to all of them. I can't even imagine.
• 7:36
  The nuisance of putting things away is small compared to what, you know, they've But as I stood down there and looked up and I was thinking about, there's always a memory keeper in the family, I like to say, right? There's one person that just is really passionate about, and nostalgic about keeping those memories, whether they want to be the memory keeper or not. Are people listening going, Yep, that's me.
• 7:58
  Bret Schanzenbach: That's me. Yep.
• 7:59
  Rachel Arbuckle: And everybody drops off the photos and things. And that was me. And so I had my parents' childhood photos. I had my grandpa's journals from when he was a pilot in the Navy.
• 8:07
  Bret Schanzenbach: Oh, wow.
• 8:08
  Rachel Arbuckle: Right. I had these journals from the eighteen hundreds. My, even just my kids' artwork and their preschool drawings and things like that. I didn't have time to grab that. And I started thinking about all the old computers I've kept that have photos on them and, the frame photos on the walls and, and just everything was all over the place.
• 8:26
  And the anxiety I felt, during that period of time.
• 8:30
  Bret Schanzenbach: Thinking you might lose all of that.
• 8:32
  Rachel Arbuckle: Absolutely. And it, it just, it terrified me because I we're so connected to our photo memories, you And, so in that moment, I, I said to my husband, if our memories survive, I need to find a way to preserve these. So I started looking around and I didn't find anything that I thought our photos deserved. That sort of, excuse the pun, but sparked this, idea to help other people avoid that anxiety and fear that I experienced during the Cocos fire.
• 9:02
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah, this is, just yesterday, we were hosting We had 26 middle school students here at the chamber, and we were talking about entrepreneurism. And they're in a five week course with us called Future CEO.
• 9:19
  Rachel Arbuckle: Very cool.
• 9:20
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah. And the session yesterday about entrepreneurism is exactly what you're saying. Like, look for a need, look for something that's missing or something that you see that you can do better or something like that. And that's, you know, to be your spark for a business idea. And that's exactly what you did, right?
• 9:36
  You saw this, something that wasn't being fulfilled, and you looked for it, couldn't find it, and you're like, Then I'm gonna start it. That's right. You know? It doesn't exist, so it needs to exist. Absolutely.
• 9:50
  Because you knew what you experienced with that whole fear of losing all those memories, so you wanted to create something that would help others who would experience the same thing. So with that, tell us what 2,000 does.
• 10:08
  Rachel Arbuckle: Oh my goodness. You know, really it's about reconnecting. The overall goal is to reconnect our clients with their photo memories, in a way that, that kind of captures their journey. 2,000 paces in, the Old Testament or the Torah, depending on your affiliation, represents a day's journey. And so that's where the name two thousand paces comes from.
• 10:33
  Journey. Right? So we're, we're trying to capture that journey. And so the idea is that we take all those photos that, that you have in albums and envelopes and, you know, that are at risk.
• 10:44
  Bret Schanzenbach: Boxes.
• 10:44
  Rachel Arbuckle: Boxes. Right? They're in the garage or they're in the attic or they're in the basement. And and then all the digital photos that are on, you know, CDs and floppy disks and all that old technology. And we consolidate everything together.
• 10:58
  We get rid of duplicates and the non storytelling photos. Right? The ones where we gave our kids a disposable camera to go to camp and they took photos of their feet by accident. And, and
• 11:10
  Bret Schanzenbach: Or six photos of the same flower.
• 11:12
  Rachel Arbuckle: Right.
• 11:13
  Bret Schanzenbach: Okay.
• 11:14
  Rachel Arbuckle: Right. You know, because we were trying to be, you know, so creative then. And that's before we had the opportunity to look at our digital phone. But digital phones, I mean, that's a huge issue too. People who have, you know, screenshots and photos of fabric and recipes, and it just, it feels chaotic, and people can't enjoy those memories.
• 11:32
  So our goal is to help you preserve them and protect them so future generations can enjoy them, and organize them in a way that you can find them and share them.
• 11:43
  Bret Schanzenbach: Perfect. We are going to take a brief pause. We're talking to Rachel Arbuckle, the owner of two thousand Paces Photo Organizing. When we come back, we're going to dig into this deeper to talk about how they do what they do. So stick with us, we'll be right back.
• 11:56
  So Rachel, before we took a break, we were just getting to the point where you were talking about what you guys do. And so I want kind of get into the details of this a little bit more. So full disclosure to the listening audience: You helped us at the Chamber.
• 12:12
  Rachel Arbuckle: Yes.
• 12:12
  Bret Schanzenbach: A little over a year ago. Well, you and I started this a year and a half ago, probably, because the Chamber was celebrating its one hundredth anniversary as an organization.
• 12:23
  Rachel Arbuckle: Right.
• 12:25
  Bret Schanzenbach: And I don't know how many of your clients are dealing with a hundred years worth of history that you're trying to help them organize, but it was intimidating to me. And as you pointed out, I mean, were stuff in albums. There were stuff in boxes. There's stuff on hard drives. There's stuff on phones.
• 12:46
  And your words you used right before we took a break was so apropos, it's chaos. And as a steward of an organization like the chamber, we want to preserve all of that in a meaningful way. I hope the chamber is here for another hundred years, and somebody's doing their bicentennial. But they have a way to easily kind of pull photos and memories from various years out. So you got involved and helped so much.
• 13:19
  Talk about, you know, these different things like that you can take, I guess we call it digitizing. We take the physical and make it digital. Right. And then you can take the digital and make it meaningful. So go ahead and walk us through how you do what you do.
• 13:34
  Rachel Arbuckle: Right. Well, you know, and it was such an honor to work with the chamber, particularly for such an incredible event. I mean, hundred years of such history. And that's, that's what we want to capture and remember, whether that is, a family's personal history or a business. And we work with both consumers as well as businesses.
• 13:56
  And the idea is that for the chamber, for example, that you can look back and see, well, what were we doing then? Where did we start? And it was a really interesting evolution for me and for my team to see. It was so small. The buildings were small.
• 14:11
  To see what Carlsbad Chamber has become. You know, think sometimes in life we were in the moment and we think, Oh, I've got so many things on my checklist, or I haven't accomplished these goals. But when you look back and you look at this journey that the Chamber experienced, it's pretty remarkable. And so we love telling that story. So there were, for example, a number of scrapbooks with newspaper articles, And handwriting from people.
• 14:36
  And that's something that's really powerful, particularly now when, people aren't writing letters like we used to, right? I mean, it's very rare to get a snail mail, if you will.
• 14:46
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah.
• 14:47
  Rachel Arbuckle: So when we look at these scrapbooks that our clients have, and they have handwriting from their grandmother or their great grandmother or their great, great grandmother, back in the eighteen hundreds and to capture that story as well. So it's not just about digitizing the photos or converting home movies, right? It's about telling the story so that you, you can kind of see where you came from. Yeah. You know, there was, if I could share, we had a client who, hurt, she had lost her mom, many years ago and had kind of put everything aside.
• 15:22
  She lost her mom, when her mom was far too young. And she'd kind of put everything aside because of course it's very painful to revisit those memories. We deal with a lot of that. We've got a lot of tissue And, we were going through the photos, you know, when we were done and she had picked up one photo in which she and her sister were wearing, you know, a really nice dress. And it wasn't a particularly interesting photo from somebody who didn't experience it.
• 15:50
  It was just two girls, you know, wearing little dresses. But she just brightened up. And I said, what's the story behind this photo? And she said, this is back when we had to dress nice to get on the plane. Right?
• 16:01
  No yoga pants and sweats.
• 16:02
  Bret Schanzenbach: And you
• 16:03
  Rachel Arbuckle: had to dress nice. And they were going on this trip. And she said, my mom was adamant that my sister and I wore this really nice dress. And she said, I was sick. And I, excuse me, but threw up all over my dress.
• 16:14
  And I made this big mess. And my mom's only focus was when we got off the plane, we had to go buy a new dress because, you know, and it just, it brought her a smile because it was that connection. It was the story behind that photo that was so powerful for her.
• 16:30
  Bret Schanzenbach: One of the stories that, came back to the surface that when you guys were helping us go through all the chamber history, it's just a funny back and forth letter that went between Carlsbad Chamber in California and the Carlsbad Chamber in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and this little rivalry about who was the better Carlsbad and all this stuff. And it was hilarious seeing these letters back and forth with the competition. And it's awesome that we've been here a hundred years, but I've only been here, you know, six and a half. So I didn't have that. I didn't you know, I can't even remember what year that was, but I wanna say it was like in the fifties or
• 17:15
  Rachel Arbuckle: It was. I think forties or fifties. Yeah. It was a few years ago.
• 17:18
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah. It was a while back. If you don't take the time to unearth stuff like that and revisit it, it gets lost.
• 17:25
  Rachel Arbuckle: That's right.
• 17:26
  Bret Schanzenbach: But it was great. And the other thing I like about what you helped us do is some of it now we framed and put on our walls, you know? And so I think you saw in our conference room just a few months ago, we got some of that stuff that you helped us with framed up, and so it's there. And, you know, when we put something on our walls, it usually lasts for five, ten years because then changing it's too big of a task. So it's probably going to be there a while.
• 17:55
  But it's great. It's got that historical stuff there. So I love that. And I thought of it because, like you were saying, you're helping us reconnect with our story.
• 18:08
  Rachel Arbuckle: That's right. That's right. And it's interesting that you bring up with the frames that are on the walls. We have so many clients that say, you know, one of the motivations and I always ask, you know, what prompted you to come work with us? Sometimes, I've heard, I have these photos on the walls, that are sun damaged.
• 18:26
  They've been up there forever, and it was my kids in fourth grade, and now they're graduating high school. Right? And so part of what we're doing is organizing photos in a way that allows you to update those better. So for example, we do things like assigned facial recognition. We rename every file rather than the IMG 1234, right?
• 18:48
  We name it with the date it was taken. We add keywords. So, for example, every year, of course, now I have to give my parents a photo book.
• 18:56
  Bret Schanzenbach: Of course you do.
• 18:58
  Rachel Arbuckle: I kind of dug a hole for myself on that And after doing this for quite a few years, I had to get creative. And now this past year, I was able to type the word Thanksgiving, and I typed certain family members in because I'd done facial recognition. And I was able to put together a photo book of all of the Thanksgivings and give that as a gift. Yeah.
• 19:17
  Bret Schanzenbach: That's very cool.
• 19:18
  Rachel Arbuckle: Isn't it fun?
• 19:19
  Bret Schanzenbach: That reminds So, for a couple years in a row, I did, you know, like on Shutterfly or whatever, I did personalized calendars for, you know, the grandparents. It's a lot of work. And like you said, the files on the phones and the computers aren't don't have the labeling changed, and so you're, like, looking at every stinking picture. And so, this year, I didn't do it.
• 19:43
  Rachel Arbuckle: Oh, no.
• 19:44
  Bret Schanzenbach: And then I felt kind of bad. I'm like, oh, I should have put the effort in. But you know, it's a big lift.
• 19:48
  Rachel Arbuckle: It is. It's a it is. And I think that's that's one of the powers of what we do. It's not just about, we're going to digitize it for right now. It's about creating a system that allows you to, do things like that moving forward.
• 20:03
  So I will give you a quick tip on that. So the calendar, because I know a lot of people do this, I actually, of course, have to make a calendar for my family every year as well. And the tip is that as you're going through your photos, so if you've got them organized, and, and you've got them labeled by name, what's kind of nice is if they're organized by date, you can pick a few from every month and then you can bring them into something like Shutterfly and they have what's called a storyboard. And so you can say, I want to throw these in January. I want to throw these in February.
• 20:35
  If you've already gotten rid of those non storytelling photos, right? The recipes, the screenshots, the receipts, you don't have as much to sift through. But a little tip, even if you're not working with a professional organizer is when you find photos you really like, create an album on your phone that's called calendar. And when you have a few photos that you think these are great, just put those right in there. So at the end of the year
• 20:56
  Bret Schanzenbach: You're ready.
• 20:56
  Rachel Arbuckle: Makes your process a lot easier.
• 20:58
  Bret Schanzenbach: That's a good idea. There you go.
• 20:59
  Rachel Arbuckle: So you're ready for next year.
• 21:00
  Bret Schanzenbach: I know. I should do that. I should start now proactively. Now, we've been talking a lot about photos, but I did see that you have video conversion services as well. So talk about that.
• 21:13
  Rachel Arbuckle: So, you know, when I first started, it was, obviously this is a newer industry. Tell people, sometimes I'll be asked if we're a franchise. And I take that as a compliment. It means that it sounds like we look like we know what we're doing. And I think we do.
• 21:29
  There was no blueprint. So I started with a piece of paper. Now we have three fifty pages of operating procedures. So it's creating this whole process.
• 21:37
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah. The video conversion or VHS to,
• 21:42
  Rachel Arbuckle: Right. So, yeah, absolutely. I'm sorry. It's so exciting talking about this. My brain just goes No, that's okay.
• 21:50
  So the, you know, my point in bringing that up is that I wanted it to be a one stop shop because it really, it takes a lot of courage, believe it or not, for clients to hand over these precious memories.
• 22:05
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yes.
• 22:06
  Rachel Arbuckle: It's difficult for them to say, Here, I'm going to give you everything. And we we actually we work with clients all over the country. So we're thrilled to work with local clients. They can come in the office. We can meet with them, and it's wonderful.
• 22:18
  But we're really honored that we have clients all over the country. And we had a client in New Jersey, but he was so nervous to ship his stuff that he hired somebody at his golf club to drive all of his photos from New Jersey to San Diego for us to work on them. It was such an honor to do that. I was thrilled. He just trusted us so much.
• 22:37
  So anyway, getting to your
• 22:39
  Bret Schanzenbach: He trusted you, but not UPS. That's right.
• 22:42
  Rachel Arbuckle: Or FedEx or any
• 22:43
  Bret Schanzenbach: of these others.
• 22:44
  Rachel Arbuckle: Absolutely. Because that's how precious these photos are to us and to our clients.
• 22:49
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah. If they screw it up and they just, you know, Oh, here, we'll file an insurance claim. That doesn't replace They're gone forever.
• 22:59
  Rachel Arbuckle: You're absolutely right, Brett. And I'm glad you brought that up. Working in insurance before this, although I was on the marketing side, one of the things is you cannot insure your photos. Can insure your art, you know, you can insure jewelry, your car, your home. But we can't insure what's most precious to us.
• 23:14
  You know, you you hear, with unfortunately, so many people lost homes in the Palisades fires. And of course, we've gotten a lot of calls from people who grabbed whatever they could. But when you hear it on the news, they say, I even John Mayer, he posted on social media that he grabbed one little box that was his dad's, you know, letters and journal, and that's what was most important to him. So circling back to your question about the videos, I wanted to make sure that I learned that it's once we earn the trust of our clients, I don't want them to feel like they have to go somewhere else with these other services. So we did we didn't start that way, but now, we have for quite a few years, we offer video conversion.
• 23:55
  So that's you're right. The VHS tapes, the VHS C, the Hi8, the Mini DV, even the audio cassettes that we all used to have. And the micro cassettes, do you remember for answering machines? There's those little tiny Yeah. You'd be surprised how many people have them.
• 24:09
  And they're really cool because those have, you know, our voices when we were younger. And then even the old film reels, you know, those old projectors. Like eight millimeters? Eight millimeters. Exactly.
• 24:21
  Yeah. And what, what I love about it is you can watch these home movies, and we've got this really cool program, that allows you to watch movies on your TV. And, it's I actually went back to Kansas where my family lives, for Thanksgiving. There were 22 of us. And I was able to put these film reels that I had converted on the TV, on this app, and all of us sat there, ate snacks, and watched.
• 24:48
  Wow. Memories from the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies. It was really, really fun to be able to do that because it's outdated. We can't watch that stuff, right?
• 24:57
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah, it's very difficult. Yeah. That's great. So, you mentioned for your own family that you have to make photo books every year, but one of the services that you guys provide is also creating photo books for your clients, which I'm sure is a popular option. Absolutely.
• 25:14
  So many people You know, I think the whole camera on our phone thing is amazing. The convenience is phenomenal, and the quality has gotten so good. Right?
• 25:29
  Rachel Arbuckle: But
• 25:30
  Bret Schanzenbach: now we have untold number of pictures and videos trapped on this little device that we carry around in our purse or our pocket or whatever.
• 25:41
  Rachel Arbuckle: And,
• 25:43
  Bret Schanzenbach: you know, it's not as easy to actually sit down and watch them as you just mentioned. It's almost as bad as the old, old stuff.
• 25:52
  Rachel Arbuckle: You're right. Well, because it's overwhelming. Right? It's so overwhelming. You get on your phone and you think, Oh, I want to find this video where I was swimming with dolphins in Hawaii, you know, and, and, and you can't find it.
• 26:03
  Bret Schanzenbach: You're scrolling and scrolling and
• 26:06
  Rachel Arbuckle: one of the things that's interesting when you brought up photo books, there have actually been studies that show that kids who, feel more connected with their family history and their roots and sort of their own journey, it actually provides confidence for them. You know, like any time you have those roots, right? It makes sense.
• 26:28
  Bret Schanzenbach: See, this is going back to your psychological stuff, doesn't That's right. It all
• 26:31
  Rachel Arbuckle: comes full circle. And so being able to see these photos, you know, we used to look at them in albums, right? And we've all got those memories. I hope most of us have those memories of sitting down with our parents or grandparents and flipping the pages of the albums. Unfortunately, those are bulky.
• 26:47
  You know, those sticky albums are yellow. They're degrading our So putting them in a photo book and allowing your kids to flip through and not have that digital component. Yeah. To flip through a photo book or to flip through actual printed photos, there is a calming that you see. My daughter graduated from high school almost two years ago now, and we made a photo book, for her where everybody wrote letters of encouragement and advice and, and it was married with photos of that person.
• 27:18
  And she took it with her to college and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. And, after she was at college for a few weeks, of course, she got homesick her first year. And she told me that looking through that book brought her some peace and comfort.
• 27:30
  Bret Schanzenbach: Awesome.
• 27:31
  Rachel Arbuckle: It is. And so being able to connect the photos that way. So once they're organized, creating the photo books is easy. Sure. When you've got the keywords and things.
• 27:42
  It's also worth mentioning that there have been some studies, that show that, the elderly, you know, our parents and grandparents with dementia or early onset Alzheimer's, by seeing some of these photos, it has actually sparked some of those memories. Because as most of us are aware, we, when, when dementia kicks in, it's usually the most recent memories we lose first. So we have, we have heard stories from clients, remarkable stories, where they've shown these photos, to their parent that has dementia and shown photos of their childhood home and things they did. And they can actually talk about those stories in a way that they weren't able to communicate before. So there's so much power behind what we're doing.
• 28:30
  Bret Schanzenbach: That's great.
• 28:31
  Rachel Arbuckle: Those
• 28:32
  Bret Schanzenbach: are awesome, awesome stories to share about the power of this. And I know you mentioned it already, you were just sharing about one of your clients, but you know, another aspect of this is, you know, if somebody were to kind of proactively meet with you now versus waiting for somebody to pass away. Because when somebody passes away, I feel like it's the mad dash. Like, somebody's, you know, like, I gotta put the PowerPoint together or the slideshow or whatever it is. Who's got pictures with Papa?
• 29:08
  You know? And everybody's looking through a drawer, a phone, an album, and it's chaos, and the poor person who's in charge of putting this all together is pulling their hair out, and versus, you know, if they meet with if somebody has thought this through ahead of time, you can make their life so much easier at that point.
• 29:29
  Rachel Arbuckle: Yeah. You know, Brett, I'm I'm glad you said that. It's always a sensitive topic, you know? Prepare for the future, of losing a parent. It's not something any of us want to think about.
• 29:39
  But it happens all the time. We get so many phone calls from people that say, you know, lost mom, lost dad, lost grandma. And we've got all these photos. Of course, if it's dad or grandpa, you know, somebody older, they're going to be in print or slides or negatives. And it is, it's very frantic.
• 29:58
  Recently, it was just a few weeks ago, actually it was at the end of last year, we got a phone call from a client who, you know, that had happened and all the siblings were getting together and trying to send photos and they brought boxes and our whole team paused on the projects they were doing and, you know, full board focused on this one because it's, we need to get that done quickly. But now what we're having to do in a very short amount of time is go through all the photos, get them organized, get them digitized, then do facial recognition to find, you know, mom, then create the photo slideshow. And that's fine for us. But the, what you're experiencing is that anxiety of, as you've said, trying to gather the photos and call people and what do we have? And then you might realize later, Oh gosh, I didn't even remember about that album from my mom's childhood.
• 30:44
  I wish I'd grab that. And it becomes very, there's so much anxiety already. Right? So for those clients that, have gotten them organized, whether they work with us, another photo organizer, or do it on their own, when they have that prepared, they are able to focus on the healing and the loss and supporting each other, in the family rather than having to spend the time getting that all done. So I always encourage people, although it's difficult to imagine, getting this done will prepare you for that as well.
• 31:15
  Yeah.
• 31:17
  Bret Schanzenbach: Yeah. And like you said, it's not a fun subject to bring up, but it's real. We all deal with it. We all do, you know? So, it's better to talk about it than to just pretend it's not going to happen to us because it's if somebody is listening today, and I love that you said that you work with clients all over the country, because the beauty of podcasts is once they're published, they go everywhere.
• 31:38
  Or they can go anywhere. I was looking at some statistics from last year to who was listening, it's like, Why do we have listeners in Ohio?
• 31:51
  Rachel Arbuckle: What fun!
• 31:51
  Bret Schanzenbach: Other parts of the country, it's just like, This is wild. But
• 31:55
  Rachel Arbuckle: I'm in Carlsbad, Texas, though. I don't know.
• 31:57
  Bret Schanzenbach: Oh, you mean Carlsbad, New Mexico?
• 31:59
  Rachel Arbuckle: Carlsbad, New Mexico, excuse me.
• 32:00
  Bret Schanzenbach: I don't know. I should have looked at that closer. Good question. But you work with clients all over, so that's wonderful. Anybody listening today can take advantage of your services.
• 32:12
  But if somebody is hearing this, and it's the first hearing of 2,000 Paces, and they're like, I really need to talk to Rachel. I to know how this process works and how do we start and all that stuff. Best place for them to start their journey with you? Your website, maybe?
• 32:29
  Rachel Arbuckle: Absolutely. Just 2000paces.com. So two zero triple zero P A C E S dot com. You know, you can kind of see some before and after pictures, see what we're all about, but there's a consultation button. So one thing is, again, recognizing how important these memories are.
• 32:46
  And what, what really makes us stand out from sort of the big box companies where you just ship things is we have a conversation first. And I personally try and have those conversations. So, by signing up for a free phone consultation, we can hop on a call. I love to listen to, you know, what are your goals? What are you trying to achieve?
• 33:07
  What's kind of provide, you know, what's causing that anxiety for you? Then we customize the plan and talk about it. I share, this is how we can make those goals become a reality. And if I give them some tips and they decide to do it on their own or, they decide to move forward, either way, it's just a really enjoyable opportunity to just see what your options are. A free phone consultation.
• 33:27
  We also have our number is (760) 290-3957. And you can call or text us. And on our website, there's one of those little bot features, and you can always submit questions if you're not quite ready for a phone consultation. So a lot of ways to get some information and get connected with us.
• 33:46
  Bret Schanzenbach: Perfect. So 2000paces.com is a great place to start, or your phone number, which they just heard and can pause the podcast and back up, and if they need to hear it again, write that down. And then they can have a consultation with you. And I love what you said. So you start with conversation to learn what they're trying to accomplish, what their goals are, what their needs are, versus just some anonymous service at whatever big box store.
• 34:17
  So that's great. And I know, you have a couple of kiddos of your own. You mentioned your daughter's in college, and I think your son's older, right? Your daughter's the youngest, Yeah.
• 34:27
  Rachel Arbuckle: So, my husband and I are married to my best friend, Dan. And actually, his dad used to be the president of the Carlsbad Chamber. So we've got a lot of connections here. At Arbuckle and Helen, we are, we're, we're very focused on our family. We have two kids.
• 34:43
  Our son, Isaiah lives up in Oregon. And then our daughter, Darian, is just turned 20, she's at San Francisco State.
• 34:51
  Bret Schanzenbach: Wonderful. Yeah. Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to come down and share with us about 2,000 Paces. And we love having you in our chamber family.
• 35:01
  I appreciate your services for our chamber, but love having you here. Your business is so unique and is filling a need.
• 35:09
  Rachel Arbuckle: Thanks, Brett. I love working with you and everyone in the chamber, and I really appreciate that, the opportunity to be here and share a little bit about what we do.
• 35:17
  Bret Schanzenbach: Our pleasure. Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People, Purpose, Impact podcast. If you got value out of our episode today, please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app and please tell a friend. Can't wait to see you next time on Carlsbad People, Purpose, and Impact.