Building Teams—One Great Leader at a Time!

Our first-ever Team Builders event was held this past weekend and I can’t think of a more extraordinary way to begin a new year. We had an intimate gathering of Close To My Heart’s top leadership—we were grateful to all who could attend, and certainly missed those Directors whose busy lives and businesses required them to remain at home—and what an incredible time we had!

A key priority for Close To My Heart is compensating our Consultants well, and for the past several months, we have been reviewing, number crunching, and proposing, analyzing, and re-proposing enhancements to our compensation plan to help achieve several key objectives, including:

•   Provide even better rewards for great performance
•   Motivate recruiting and team building with real incentives
•   Deliver the right benefits for Consultants at all levels—from our top leaders to our consistent hobbyists who love and value product as well as a generous base commission
•   Bring “sexy back” to leadership (OK, that’s more Kristine’s term than mine—but you get the idea! Our leaders are wonderful and we want to elevate them for their consistently great work!)

Friday began with an unveiling of our proposed plan. We call it a “preliminary” plan because we’ll be putting together all the final details preparatory to a Convention launch of the plan and to use the next few months to gather feedback from our Team Builders participants. The entire program was phenomenally well received—we heard clapping, saw huge smiles, and even a few happy tears. In the afternoon, “corporate mentors” met with every single Consultant at the event for a personal business review which analyzed how the proposed comp plan might impact their businesses specifically. It was a refreshing, honest, and truly exciting opportunity, both for our corporate staff and for each Consultant. If the reaction at the event is indicative of the reaction among all Consultants (and prospective Consultants!), let’s just say 2011 will be an amazing year. And I know it will be!

Friday afternoon also included an extended stamping-technique-focused create and take, plus a product giveaway of nearly $1,000 in retiring product to each Consultant. After the product buffet, everyone enjoyed a delicious food buffet at a downtown restaurant orchestrated by Monica and our incredible Events department.

On Saturday, Consultants got to pepper our Vice Presidents with wonderful questions—ranging from comp plan insights, to IT needs, to questions about our upcoming Studio J Boot Camp, Canadian Regional Celebrations, enhanced Leadershare program, our Scrapbook Spa Getaway contest and more. As you can tell, 2011 is definitely a year when we’ll be “wherever you are” working to deliver marketing support, training programs, and fun events no matter what type of Close To My Heart business you own. And I just have to give a plug to our annual Convention, planned for the “happiest place on earth,” Disneyland! It really will be where all the new products and programs—and there are so many to be excited about!--will come together. I hope every Close To My Heart Consultant will plan to join us for the biggest party of the year.

In the afternoon, several inspiring Consultants took the stage to deliver great business classes and panel insights. We learned mentoring programs that work for growing teams, recruiting ideas that are practical and exciting, how to hold team meetings that drive activity, and much more. Huge thanks to all the participating Consultants for their hard work and eye-opening ideas. Although I was unable to be in the ballroom for all sessions, I was thrilled and engaged by every presentation I heard—and very comforted that the future of this company is in excellent hands.

By the close of the event, we bid a tearier-than-usual farewell. The cozy numbers of the group and the level of sharing, discussing, and planning really brought us even closer together and it was tough to say goodbye. How I love each one of you! Thank you for being at this event and for sharing your hearts and minds to make this company even greater. And thank you to each Consultant who finds joy and purpose in being a part of our Close To My Heart community—together, we are making magic happen!