February 25, 2025 • 9 mins
HOW TO GET YOUR LIFE TOGETHER FOR WHEN YOU DIE This seems like an excellent product that I looked into after a listener suggested it recently. The NokBox is a system of organization that puts EVERYTHING in one place in case something happens to you. This is literally the best gift you can give your family, trust me. I've got Maria Fraietta from the company on today for the short show at 12:30pm. Find out more and order yours by clicking here. If you buy something I get a small commission. By the way, THIS MORNING I realized that NOK probably stands for Next of Kin but I'll ask today.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And you drop dead and all of your affairs are
(00:03):
left to your children. Well, i'll tell you what happens.
It sucks, that's what happens. And joining me now is
a woman who recognized the suckiness of that situation has created.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
A product to address it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
In Knockbox, Maria Frietta, Welcome to the show. She's the founder,
the CEO, the inventor, the chief bottle washer. She is
a lot a lot of hats going on over there
at Knockbox. Welcome to the show, Maria.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you so much, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Where did this idea come from?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Well, several years ago, about three and a half years ago,
my father passed away in upstate New York, and it
was relatively expected, and I went up there with my
two brothers, and he had a will and a box
full of.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Things, and you know, we thought it would all be fine, and.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
We went up there to figure out what to do next,
and we learned we had no idea.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know, a will isn't quite good enough.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
You know, you can't just start driving a person's car
or living in their house or you know, doing all
those things. So you know, we learned how to operate
probate and how to make friends with the county.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Clerk and do all those things.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
But in the meantime, I said, we have got to
get organized with this pile of papers that we've got,
And so I created a very small system to organize
the whole process, organize the key to the golf cart
and the snowmobile and all the things that he had,
and we divided all the work up in those holders
and went about our merry way and managed the estate,
(01:27):
which did take, by the way, a full year for
a really small estate in New York.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It was a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
But then I got home and realized that if something
happened to me, my brother, who would be my next
of kin, who would come take care of everything, would
not have a clue how to start. You know, I
had a will, I have a trust, I have all
the things that I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Really prepared, you know, I thought, Wow, I've got this covered.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
And I thought he wouldn't know how to pay my
electric bill or take care of the dog, or drop
my daughter up at school, or you know, all those
things that we make up our lives that are complicated,
and all the things we have online.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
You know, I was like I've got to get a
handle on this.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And so I made my own kit, and then friends
wanted a kid, and then neighbors wanted a kit, and
I started making the kid and without me even trying,
it turned into a business.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, let's be real, this is a topic. No one
wants to talk about this, No one wants to think
about the fact that they're going to die someday, even
though we all are going to die someday.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So if you can just make.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
It idiot proof, which it looks like you have made
this idiot proof, then people go, Okay, I'm just doing
a task.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I'm not thinking about when I'm going to die.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I'm just doing a task that just happens to put
all this information in one place, So well, go go ahead.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Not only that, you know what people do is they
go through the kit. Is they realize I haven't done
these life things I need to do anyway. Yeah, so
maybe they start going through their insurance policies. And many
people write us and say, wow, thanks because I had
my ex wife on my life insurance, or you know,
I have this coverage I don't need, or you know,
whatever it is. It kind of requires you to go
(03:02):
through every little aspect of your life, and we don't
take the time to do that either.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know, I forget about dieting someday.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
It's like you still have to see when your car
insurance is due next, or when the registration's coming up,
or manage the pins on the different bank account cards,
you know, all of those different things.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So the box really helps with all.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Of that as well, and sort of districts you from
the fact that you're preparing for, you know, your ultimate demise.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And I mean I look around my house and like
in my home office, I have all of this memorabilia
that listeners have sent me over the years, and it's
just full. To me, it means something. For my children,
it's going to mean a bigger dumpster.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
You know what I mean, It's not right.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
So that's the last thing I want to do is
leave them trying to figure out how to cancel my
Netflix account.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
So what kind of things are in this box?
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Everything that you just said, You know, one thing is
our possessions that maybe mean something to you and not
to your next of kin. And we advise you with
some tips, you know, make a video of those things
and say verbally to your next of can you can
throw this away right so that they don't hang onto
it with guilt, you know, So we sort of address
that piece, and then we say, go to all those
subscriptions and sit down and figure out. You know, we
(04:11):
just did a cable all of those subscriptions for TV,
Netflix and all that stuff, you know, put them on
a list and find all the passwords and get yourself organized,
and then you've got it. So it's easy for someone
else to cancel. But again it's also easy for you
to manage.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Now, do you guys recommend that people sit down what
once a year just to update make sure that everything
is still good because passwords change. They will not let
me just keep my password. I have to keep changing
it even though it's I have no passwords left in me.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yeah, it's an ongoing process, just like our lives are anyway, right,
you always have to change these passwords and that sort
of thing. We do suggest that you revisit the box regularly,
depending on which section. You know, maybe you've gone through
those possessions and you don't need to do that again.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Ever, right, But maybe your.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I don't know, your bank accounts change for LA, or
you get new ones or something like that. You know,
as your life gets updated or changes happen, we just
say toss a little of that information into the box.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Somebody just asked, has Knockbox been on Shark Tank?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Were you on Shark Tank?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You know, in the beginning, we wanted to.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I was going to apply, and I was ready to go,
and it was covid was finishing and it was all online,
you know. But then as I kept going, we actually
don't need to you're doing it, really have any other
investors in the company.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I don't really need any other investors in the company.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
And you know, We've been super profitable from day one,
so I've never had to ask for money. That is,
and I don't really want to go on Shark Tank.
That's how I really wish I did. Seemed like a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
But I say that you've got the basic box, and
you also have a fireproof box.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
What is that fireproof box rated to?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
It is rated, you know, and we disclaim this. You know,
it is rated for a fifteen minute fire house fire.
It will not sustain. Neither will any thing you can
buy really commercially or on Amazon or anywhere. A Colorado
wildfire where the cars melt, right, you know that that
sort of thing. You need a big, heavy industrial something
to withstand that kind but it is it is rated
(06:13):
for a kitchen fire, you know, just something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So it gives you a little protection.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yes, a little bit of protection.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But you know, we do say we have that product
because people want it and demand it. But we we
say everything in that box, it doesn't need to be
it's replaceable. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
It's an index for your life. Like here's where you'll
find this online, right, right, you're sure you'll go for this,
So it's.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You would have to do the box again, which is
a lot of work, but the information in it is replaceable.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It's not the olden days where there's one copy of
this one thing.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
You know, you're simply just again creating an index or
a paper trail for everything that you've got digitally. We
do give you a separate little bag to put things
like passports and birth certificates, things that are harder to reprice, right,
and we say take that, here's a list of what
goes in it, and put that in your safe or
somewhere really secure so that it's protected.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
But inside the.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Kid is it's like your stack of bills, your stack
of online accounts, you know, just all those things that
we have. You know, I always sew people there wasn't
a need for this product twenty or thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's because we live online now.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Everyone says, why isn't it online.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I'm like, because because of online, we sort of need
this tracking system for everything that we do have online.
And that's why we're a paper product rather than something digital.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Somebody, and also, I think a lot of people are
more comfortable with a paper situation. They feel more secure,
They feel like that you know that they're going to.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Be able to hand.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Maybe you give it to your kids, you know, if
you live near your kids, you take it to their house.
Here you go, here's all our stuff. Somebody just asked
a good question with passwords, what do we do with
the password managers? So do you just sort of say,
here's my password, manage your account? I mean, because that's
like a whole, that's a horse of a different color.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
You can we we simply give people advice on different
ways to store passwords. Use a manager, use the password book,
put them here, put them there, you know, because everyone
wants to secure those in a different way and your
next of can Really you can give them your passwords legally.
Should they be logging into your accounts without your permission,
they should not, you know, So that is up to
(08:21):
you on how you want to convey that information to
your next of kin, And it's really a personal preference.
We do not say put every password in this box
because to your point, it's hard to change.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
As they change. You may not.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You may want it to be a little more secure
than that. So there's all kinds of ways to track passwords.
But what we do do is we were we encourage
you to reset them all. Okay, we're going to start
the vehicle section now, so let's think of every password
you can think of for XM radio, for a toll pass,
for your DMV log in account, Like, go right now
(08:54):
and do all those passwords today, so that you have
them and you know that that section of your life
is under control.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I am the action.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I have multiple people on the text line that are
making statements like this. Knockbox is a lot of work,
but so wonderful to accomplish. I love my knockbox. Thank
you so much for talking about this. After friends, I
have lost parents or spouses, I know how important this is.
Thirty seven year old and I tell my friends about
this all the time. Maria Frayetti, it's a great idea.
By the way, knock is no ok box, and I
(09:27):
told her this morning. A little light bulb went on
my head. I bet that's next of ken box, and
that's what knockbox stands for.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I put a link on.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
The blog today where you can go and find out
more information.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Maria.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I really appreciate you making time for me today. This
is just such a good idea. I know my listeners
need to know it, so thanks. Thanks for coming up
with it.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
This was great, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
That is Maria Frayetti with Knockbox.
And you drop dead and all of your affairs are
(00:03):
left to your children. Well, i'll tell you what happens.
It sucks, that's what happens. And joining me now is
a woman who recognized the suckiness of that situation has created.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
A product to address it.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
In Knockbox, Maria Frietta, Welcome to the show. She's the founder,
the CEO, the inventor, the chief bottle washer. She is
a lot a lot of hats going on over there
at Knockbox. Welcome to the show, Maria.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Thank you so much, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Where did this idea come from?
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Well, several years ago, about three and a half years ago,
my father passed away in upstate New York, and it
was relatively expected, and I went up there with my
two brothers, and he had a will and a box
full of.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
Things, and you know, we thought it would all be fine, and.
Speaker 4 (00:48):
We went up there to figure out what to do next,
and we learned we had no idea.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You know, a will isn't quite good enough.
Speaker 4 (00:55):
You know, you can't just start driving a person's car
or living in their house or you know, doing all
those things. So you know, we learned how to operate
probate and how to make friends with the county.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Clerk and do all those things.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
But in the meantime, I said, we have got to
get organized with this pile of papers that we've got,
And so I created a very small system to organize
the whole process, organize the key to the golf cart
and the snowmobile and all the things that he had,
and we divided all the work up in those holders
and went about our merry way and managed the estate,
(01:27):
which did take, by the way, a full year for
a really small estate in New York.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
It was a lot.
Speaker 4 (01:33):
But then I got home and realized that if something
happened to me, my brother, who would be my next
of kin, who would come take care of everything, would
not have a clue how to start. You know, I
had a will, I have a trust, I have all
the things that I thought it was.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Really prepared, you know, I thought, Wow, I've got this covered.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
And I thought he wouldn't know how to pay my
electric bill or take care of the dog, or drop
my daughter up at school, or you know, all those
things that we make up our lives that are complicated,
and all the things we have online.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
You know, I was like I've got to get a
handle on this.
Speaker 4 (02:02):
And so I made my own kit, and then friends
wanted a kid, and then neighbors wanted a kit, and
I started making the kid and without me even trying,
it turned into a business.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Well, let's be real, this is a topic. No one
wants to talk about this, No one wants to think
about the fact that they're going to die someday, even
though we all are going to die someday.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
So if you can just make.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
It idiot proof, which it looks like you have made
this idiot proof, then people go, Okay, I'm just doing
a task.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I'm not thinking about when I'm going to die.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
I'm just doing a task that just happens to put
all this information in one place, So well, go go ahead.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Not only that, you know what people do is they
go through the kit. Is they realize I haven't done
these life things I need to do anyway. Yeah, so
maybe they start going through their insurance policies. And many
people write us and say, wow, thanks because I had
my ex wife on my life insurance, or you know,
I have this coverage I don't need, or you know,
whatever it is. It kind of requires you to go
(03:02):
through every little aspect of your life, and we don't
take the time to do that either.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
You know, I forget about dieting someday.
Speaker 4 (03:09):
It's like you still have to see when your car
insurance is due next, or when the registration's coming up,
or manage the pins on the different bank account cards,
you know, all of those different things.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So the box really helps with all.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Of that as well, and sort of districts you from
the fact that you're preparing for, you know, your ultimate demise.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Well.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
And I mean I look around my house and like
in my home office, I have all of this memorabilia
that listeners have sent me over the years, and it's
just full. To me, it means something. For my children,
it's going to mean a bigger dumpster.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
You know what I mean, It's not right.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
So that's the last thing I want to do is
leave them trying to figure out how to cancel my
Netflix account.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
So what kind of things are in this box?
Speaker 4 (03:50):
Everything that you just said, You know, one thing is
our possessions that maybe mean something to you and not
to your next of kin. And we advise you with
some tips, you know, make a video of those things
and say verbally to your next of can you can
throw this away right so that they don't hang onto
it with guilt, you know, So we sort of address
that piece, and then we say, go to all those
subscriptions and sit down and figure out. You know, we
(04:11):
just did a cable all of those subscriptions for TV,
Netflix and all that stuff, you know, put them on
a list and find all the passwords and get yourself organized,
and then you've got it. So it's easy for someone
else to cancel. But again it's also easy for you
to manage.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Now, do you guys recommend that people sit down what
once a year just to update make sure that everything
is still good because passwords change. They will not let
me just keep my password. I have to keep changing
it even though it's I have no passwords left in me.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Yeah, it's an ongoing process, just like our lives are anyway, right,
you always have to change these passwords and that sort
of thing. We do suggest that you revisit the box regularly,
depending on which section. You know, maybe you've gone through
those possessions and you don't need to do that again.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
Ever, right, But maybe your.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
I don't know, your bank accounts change for LA, or
you get new ones or something like that. You know,
as your life gets updated or changes happen, we just
say toss a little of that information into the box.
Speaker 1 (05:08):
Somebody just asked, has Knockbox been on Shark Tank?
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Were you on Shark Tank?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
No?
Speaker 2 (05:14):
You know, in the beginning, we wanted to.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
I was going to apply, and I was ready to go,
and it was covid was finishing and it was all online,
you know. But then as I kept going, we actually
don't need to you're doing it, really have any other
investors in the company.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I don't really need any other investors in the company.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
And you know, We've been super profitable from day one,
so I've never had to ask for money. That is,
and I don't really want to go on Shark Tank.
That's how I really wish I did. Seemed like a
lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
But I say that you've got the basic box, and
you also have a fireproof box.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
What is that fireproof box rated to?
Speaker 4 (05:52):
It is rated, you know, and we disclaim this. You know,
it is rated for a fifteen minute fire house fire.
It will not sustain. Neither will any thing you can
buy really commercially or on Amazon or anywhere. A Colorado
wildfire where the cars melt, right, you know that that
sort of thing. You need a big, heavy industrial something
to withstand that kind but it is it is rated
(06:13):
for a kitchen fire, you know, just something like that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So it gives you a little protection.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Yes, a little bit of protection.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
But you know, we do say we have that product
because people want it and demand it. But we we
say everything in that box, it doesn't need to be
it's replaceable. Right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
It's an index for your life. Like here's where you'll
find this online, right, right, you're sure you'll go for this,
So it's.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
You would have to do the box again, which is
a lot of work, but the information in it is replaceable.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:42):
It's not the olden days where there's one copy of
this one thing.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Right.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
You know, you're simply just again creating an index or
a paper trail for everything that you've got digitally. We
do give you a separate little bag to put things
like passports and birth certificates, things that are harder to reprice, right,
and we say take that, here's a list of what
goes in it, and put that in your safe or
somewhere really secure so that it's protected.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
But inside the.
Speaker 4 (07:07):
Kid is it's like your stack of bills, your stack
of online accounts, you know, just all those things that
we have. You know, I always sew people there wasn't
a need for this product twenty or thirty years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
It's because we live online now.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Everyone says, why isn't it online.
Speaker 4 (07:24):
I'm like, because because of online, we sort of need
this tracking system for everything that we do have online.
And that's why we're a paper product rather than something digital.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Somebody, and also, I think a lot of people are
more comfortable with a paper situation. They feel more secure,
They feel like that you know that they're going to.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Be able to hand.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Maybe you give it to your kids, you know, if
you live near your kids, you take it to their house.
Here you go, here's all our stuff. Somebody just asked
a good question with passwords, what do we do with
the password managers? So do you just sort of say,
here's my password, manage your account? I mean, because that's
like a whole, that's a horse of a different color.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
You can we we simply give people advice on different
ways to store passwords. Use a manager, use the password book,
put them here, put them there, you know, because everyone
wants to secure those in a different way and your
next of can Really you can give them your passwords legally.
Should they be logging into your accounts without your permission,
they should not, you know, So that is up to
(08:21):
you on how you want to convey that information to
your next of kin, And it's really a personal preference.
We do not say put every password in this box
because to your point, it's hard to change.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
As they change. You may not.
Speaker 4 (08:33):
You may want it to be a little more secure
than that. So there's all kinds of ways to track passwords.
But what we do do is we were we encourage
you to reset them all. Okay, we're going to start
the vehicle section now, so let's think of every password
you can think of for XM radio, for a toll pass,
for your DMV log in account, Like, go right now
(08:54):
and do all those passwords today, so that you have
them and you know that that section of your life
is under control.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
I am the action.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
I have multiple people on the text line that are
making statements like this. Knockbox is a lot of work,
but so wonderful to accomplish. I love my knockbox. Thank
you so much for talking about this. After friends, I
have lost parents or spouses, I know how important this is.
Thirty seven year old and I tell my friends about
this all the time. Maria Frayetti, it's a great idea.
By the way, knock is no ok box, and I
(09:27):
told her this morning. A little light bulb went on
my head. I bet that's next of ken box, and
that's what knockbox stands for.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
I put a link on.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
The blog today where you can go and find out
more information.
Speaker 3 (09:37):
Maria.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I really appreciate you making time for me today. This
is just such a good idea. I know my listeners
need to know it, so thanks. Thanks for coming up
with it.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Thanks so much.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
This was great, all right.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
That is Maria Frayetti with Knockbox.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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