sad day for the craft community 😭 [& where to go from here]

y'all I was not planning on filming a video today whatsoever but I got to work I opened my computer up and I opened YouTube and I saw a very odd title from an amazing Creator right here and I was like this is so weird I was like I've got to click on this I've got to see what's going on and it is some shocking news that I definitely wanted to make a video on and give my thoughts my input um just because I know so many people are being a Ed by this announcement and if you are one of those people one of the thousands of people affected by this I hope you find this video because as we dive in and go through I will be kind of giving some tips and tricks on what I would do to move forward and through this I think this is terrible for our industry um I think it's very shocking and I am just so sad to see a company um go through something like this so abruptly um and so on and so forth so if you have no idea what's going on I'm going to go through that today with you and even though this is not just you know a Cricut industry this company has dabbled with Cricut I believe has partnered with Cricut and other diecutting machines but it's just sad for the industry altogether they had thousands of customers they had thousands of people's livelihood and money invested into this organization um and I find it just so hard and so sad so what I'm going to do is after my research I found on a form the email that the close toy heart CEO um actually sent out to their customers I'm going to read it and I'm going to kind of dive in to why it's important even if you have no commitment or interest in close to my heart why it's important for our industry um and just something to be aware of especially when you're considering working with an MLM and you know the different options for you I've been a creator for over 12 years online I've made my whole living online since 2011 2012 so I'm going to share with you my thoughts on where to go from here later in the video but if you again are just a you know a good friend of crafting and you want to stay up with current news I thought you wouldd be just interested to know about this and I'm going to give my thoughts so um it it reads dear close to my heart Community as the founder and owner of close to my heart I have devoted my life's work to building and supporting this Community Helping millions of people preserve memories celebrate relationships in meaningful ways this company has grown and developed into a beautiful Vibrant Community devoted to touching hearts with vital creative arts offering incredible products rewarding business opportunities and deep connection with fellow Crafters as much as I love what close to my heart stands for after a great deal of deliberation prayer and counsel I've come to a heartbreaking conclusion that the Tom has come to discontinue the business close to my heart will cease operations effective June 30th 2024 they're not selling they're not doing any of that it seems they are just closing doors it continues the reason that has brought me to this decision are that too many to fully explain here my health is a major factor the stressors demands of the business to continue to take their toll on me at the same time we have not seen the kind of growth we were needed in order to achieve long-term sustainability the way the company and the economy are trending I see considerable challenges ahead that we are simply not equipped to overcome ultimately I am choosing to end close to my heart on my terms rather than being forced to close as some future day in less for foreseeable circumstances as upsetting it is for me and for thousands of makers by taking this course of action now we can provide our community and our employees with as much notice and as many opportunities as possible because I cherish the community we have built together I've been working with my team to find a new home for our makers where they can continue to benefit from the years of work that I have poured into their individual close to my heart business we're in the midst of conversations with stampin' up collaboration um on a solution that we hope will help our makers make the most of their investment in time and resources and that will maintain at least a part of the Legacy we hoped to build in the meantime we have lots of products to choose from we continue to fulfill orders it is possible that turnaround time May grow a bit depending on order volume but we'll do our best to process orders timely we encourage you to continue shopping I express my appreciation for you to join me on this journey and respect my decision at this time um it's been an honor to be able to serve this amazing Community for over 40 years yall they've been around 40 years um it goes on to say I have given all of all to my success of this company and I'll forever cherish the love I have felt from you and for you my heart goes out for each and every one of you as your personal Journey takes you beyond the time that we have blessed to share with one another through this marvelous company you will remain close to my heart and it was from their founder and CEO Janette um who from my research has been going through a lot of health things over the past few years that I believe she has been open about sharing um and it seems like that's priority but there's so much to digest in this email in this you know notice the first thing I wanted to you know just say is that you know where we are at in an industry and just like economical times over the past like three four especially covid with the craft industry you saw a major blow up of crafts I think if you all are not aware the number one objection to why people do not craft is they don't have time and one thing the pandemic did really really well was that it created time for people to craft which we saw it I know every in you know almost everyone in our industry um saw a lot of fast rapid growth and after the pandemic you know kind of ended you a lot for us and other companies it's not that we you know went down it's just that we didn't continue to grow at the I mean some companies in this industry through Co like more than doubled um ours being one of which I believe um so I think they are feeling the effects of that shift in the economy um and that's why we see a lot of the economic things right now I don't think it's necessarily something to be scared of but we're just not in a rapid growth phase so that's where I stand I do a lot of research in our industry in the craft industry I try to read a lot just to be aware of where the market is and things like that I would love to know what you all think about this email down below I find it really interesting that they are not even trying to be acquired um but they are just ceasing operations I think a really interesting part of this um email is that they not only name dropped stampin Up which is an interesting move but they go into saying they hope to be like finding you a new home um and if you're not aware close to my heart is a company that is kind of like an MLM where you have a downline and you can actually direct cells so they have people be standing up called demonstrators I don't know exactly what they're referred to at close to my heart um but you would kind of sign up and have an investment and I think that's why I wanted to make this video is to kind of talk about you know if you were affected you know if you were here and and you're affected by this decision where do you go and you know as a independent creator that has been sharing crafting over the past you know 10 12 years I think it's 14 now I started in 2010 as a card maker that's I think why this is so close close to my heart about the close to my heart closure is because I got involved in this industry through companies like close to my heart you know attending a stampin Up class and before that attending A Creative Memories class learned about scrapbooking learned about paper trimmers learned about card stock like learned all of that through these companies that literally have impacted My Life um the YouTube Community has impacted it because that's where I went to find people making cards um my pink Stamper like uh Robin Carden was like one of our mining Courtney's both first people we watched online and and we've just really been impacted by companies like this um so to have you know a company like this not just get acquired but really close is really I think an interesting time for our industry I don't want to say we should start expecting this with other companies but what I want to say to those of you that may be considering doing a MLM or you know joining being part of another company or have been affected by this decision of close to my heart what I really want you to you know kind of see and kind of think about is not all the missed opportunity a lot of you may be here and be like oh my gosh I have so much money you know invested in close to my heart I have so much expectation of what I was going to do with my close to my heart business this year but my friend what I want to offer you and just what I want to touch on is that um my friend who prompted this video who posted said it in her video really well is that she's going still continue creating which I was like when she said that I was like yes I was like that's so good I love that so so much I think it's so important that people are going keep creating and even what she said in her video which I'll link down below again is that um she's going to start opening up and sharing other brands and I think that's a really smart move for taking the kind of the infrastructure that you have built I just want you know if you're a demonstrator or been with close to my heart whether you're at the you know brand new or you've been making your livelihood through close to my heart what I want to tell you my friend is that the people who buy from you the people that consume your content it's never been about close to my heart for your clients and your customers it's been about you so they need you right now to step up to show them where you're going to show them what they need to do and to bring them along with you and it might not always be a super easy and it may not even be a seamless transition as you find your you know your next steps or your next footing and your grounds um to figure out where you're going and what you're doing but I think it's a really awesome time for you even if it doesn't feel like that today what I hope for you is that a year or two years down the Road you look back at this and you'll actually be grateful for you know having to Pivot and having to grow and having to shift one thing we say around here very often is that you don't grow when you're comfortable you know sometimes we make decisions to go out and get uncomfortable to grow but for a lot of you who have been dealing with this over the past couple of days you know this decision wasn't made by you and that brings me to my next point when you are considering working for another company when you consider building um a business on rented land what I want you to see here my friend because I coach a lot of people inside of my community and work with people that want to make money online through their creations and social media I do that a lot it's my I'm a certified life coach um and I really have worked hard to help people kind of decide what they want to do so if you are considering joining an MLM or anything like that what I want you to consider is this you are building a business on rented land now it's not to say you cannot partner with companies you cannot you know do amazing things working in partnership with a brand but you don't have to do it in a direct sales way you can do this in so many amazing ways so what I want to offer to to you is some other ways that you can make money online that isn't exactly marrying a company or building a business on rented land now when I say that and when I think of mlms you know as an MLM I think most of these companies don't allow you to promote other brands so if you're I stampin Up rep or have been a previous close to my heart rep you know you can't really talk about other brands and companies so I want to offer to you is you know whether you are considering joining or you have been a part of this you know effect right of close to my heart closing this is opening you up to a lot more opportunity to join the regular craft industry and some things I just want to offer to you that you can sell and that you can do um is number one you can monetize the products you love through what's called affiliate marketing so if if you check out the description if you check out the description of my channel you can see we are an affiliate with different companies Amazon is a really easy one they just verify you have a website and social media um number two is you know your favorite companies Cricut has an affiliate program you can earn 10 to 15 to 12% of sales you drive for Cricket um we partner with 143 vinyl they give us I believe 10% Commission for helping them sell vinyl um and things like that so affiliate Partnerships is a great way to just have money coming in when you are using products all right it's a very basic um it's really affordable and it's at no cost to your clients which is really neat um so that's an option for you number two is if you have a blog or a YouTube channel you can monetize it with ads which I think is really really neat um again very passive you just post videos and they find advertisers to be on your video and you get paid 50% of what they charge the advertiser at no cost to you like it you literally put in no work you just make the content which is really neat and then number three that is the actual way that I have a staff and I have a team and that I can sit here and consider this to be my full-time job is you can build your own membership you can build your own Community you can build and sell digital courses you can sell craft classes you could sell a virtual crop you can create an offer and Market it to the world and create value for them and I think someone out there someone out there watching this video needs to know that you don't need permission from another company from another brand to get out there to make an offer to build a program to build a product no one ever gave me permission to build a company and no one's ever going give you permission either so my friend if you have been affected or you've been considering joining a company or whatever you should do what I want to invite you to do is to bet on yourself because you never have a better person to bet on than you as the vehicle and the reason why I think this so TR fully and truthfully is because at the end of the day when I'm on my deathbed I think about if I don't bet on myself I am going to be disappointed and I'm going to think what if right notice that even if I bet on myself and I fail or whatever failure looks like I usually failure is not what we think it is could be totally different if it doesn't work out like we think I would much rather in my opinion as I've thought through this a lot would much rather be on my deathbed knowing I tried and I bet on myself rather than sitting on my deathbed thinking what if what if my life could have looked a little different if I bet on myself more so my friend I want to invite you and I want to open this up to you to bet on yourself to believe in yourself and have so much fun all right I am super super excited for your next steps I am actually going to be teaching a completely free class explain my journey of taking my hobby which is Cricket crafts and how I turned it into my full-time job just that simple result how I did it I'm going to link it down below I wasn't going to but I want to invite you guys if you're here at this part of the video chances are you need to be at this Workshop all right I was planning on doing it and not even telling anyone on YouTube about it but I saw this video come out and I was like you know what I think this is what the community needs and if you're a friend of our show if you are are just a friend of the papercraft industry I've been in here you know participating on YouTube since 2010 and I love this industry I think it has changed many lives I know it's changed mine I was telling one of my team members um Alicia who works very hard for our YouTube channel um that I'm so passionate about YouTube because in 2010 2011 where I had really poor life circumstances I escaped I escaped my current life circumstances at the time through YouTube so it's thanks to creators just like yourselves to create content that helped me through and this is just me giving back so I hope to see you at my workshop it's going to be completely live coming up in a few weeks I think March 14th and at 1 p.m. Eastern and I cannot wait to see you there my friend if you have any questions I would love to know your thoughts about this news and I can't wait to have a conversation with you in the comments down below see you guys very soon bye guys