I Love Hosting Scrapbooking Retreats: Being a Creative Memories Advisor is not only fun and profitable but flexes with the important things!

One of my favorite things that I do as part of my job is orchestrate amazing scrapbooking retreats. Many attendees could tell you what THEY get out of them and why they come over and over again.

My croppers know that this is a vacay just for them.

One where packing is easy because it’s about tossing in all your most comfy clothes. It’s about a weekend where everyone eats what they want to eat without having to consider anyone else, without having to cut meat for anyone, or pack up leftovers or put anything in the dishwasher. It’s a weekend where, even if you were the new scrapper on the block and everyone is a complete stranger, you leave with life-long new friends. It’s a weekend where you will wake up to fun gifts at your seat, where others celebrate with you when you share your most favorite page, and they genuinely care about the story you just have to tell that popped into your head when you pulled out that photo! It is no surprise that 60% of those that attend my retreats sign up for the next one before they leave!

But what’s in it for ME?

When I share with others about the opportunity to be a Creative Memories advisor, some comment that they LIKE coming to MY events. They think that if they sign up to be an advisor, the FUN STOPS THERE. I can assure you that I wouldn’t continue to do this for over 20 years if it wasn’t FUN. YES, your experience as an advisor will be DIFFERENT, but it still will be fun. You will be partnering with others to do your own events BUT… BUT… BUT, you will be MAKING MONEY instead of SPENDING IT and you will continue to make LIFE-LONG friends & beautiful albums. While some are working a desk job Monday to Friday that they hate, I am either scrapbooking in my office with built-in shelves and scrapbooking cabinet (paid for by my business, by the way) or enjoying a day out or weekend out with my scrapbooking friends. Yes, I come early and leave last and even “have” to do a demo or two throughout the day, but it is FUN and I love sharing with others and serving my clients in this way.

Furthermore, many on my team are enjoying real money and real fun too!

Recently, I was reminded of another reason that my biz is so perfect for me. I have always said that scrapbooking is not a life or death type of thing.

There really are truly no scrapbooking emergencies. Hence, I have typically been able to shift things around, even after I have scheduled business events, so that I don’t have to miss special things in my life that, well, I DON’T WANT TO MISS!

A few weeks ago, Ricky, my daughter Reagan’s boyfriend of 8 years, surprised me with flowers. He came with “ulterior motives” and proceeded to ask my husband and me for Reagan’s hand in marriage. It was extremely touching. He came bearing the gorgeous engagement ring for us to see and shared the story of how one of the diamonds in the ring came from his momma’s first engagement ring. He was proud as a peacock with the ring that he designed specifically for his future bride. Ricky is kind of an old soul and loves family and tradition. His vision was to ask Reagan to be his wife in front of both sides of the family at an annual event at his Nana and Papa’s house on the beautiful James River. The only problem with his plan was the date that had been selected was a night that I would be 90 minutes away, at one of my biggest events of the year in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. I KNEW I could not miss this special moment and so as soon as I heard, despite it being less than 2 weeks away from my big retreat, I started making plans, along with teammate, Melissa Fago, who was co-hosting this event, on how I COULD be there and not disappoint my clients at the same time!

So, now let’s fast forward to my retreat. Friday night, the night before the engagement, I made the announcement to the 42 guests that came to scrapbook with us, about the precious story of Ricky and his visit to our home. Next, what I saw was a roller coaster of emotion from my clients. First, I watched many of my clients wipe the tears of emotion away as I shared the story. I next saw immediate disappointment when they thought I would have to miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity. And last, I was overcome with the sheer JOY I saw when I shared that I couldn’t miss this and would be leaving to go the next day, but would be back! I KNEW they didn’t want me to miss it either! Leave it to a bunch of scrapbookers to know that THIS was a moment NOT to be missed!

I love having my cake and eating it too and my business has been that for me. I am so grateful to God for blessing me with the gifts I needed to be such a success story and to my parents for being excellent role models in entrepreneurial spirit, to fellow advisors all over the United States and Canada who have supported ME like I have supported THEM in time of need. Our advisor sales force and our home office staff is just another type of family and I am sincerely grateful for being a part of it.

If you want to learn to be a business owner with Creative Memories, too, please reach out. I would love to help you make your own success story!

You can email me at beckie@scrapbookwithbeckie.com so I can answer any questions you may have and to see if being a CM advisor would be a good fit for you.

Thanks to all of my clients that are so much more. You are special friends. Friends that cheer for me, pray for me, cry with me and love me despite my shortcomings. I feel the same about all of you. I love our community of women and am truly so blessed.

Thanks for reading!

Blessings, Beckie