Friday, August 22, 2014

Stop the Roller Coaster: I'm Done

I was hoping to use this blog as a way to promote my Ahni and Zoe by Creative Memories business, but it went out of business before I could. 

I had been one of the sheep to follow Rhonda Anderson (hereafter known as RA) to Heritage Makers and Youngevity but soon realized that I hated their "Amway" way of doing things (all the conference calls were about recruiting and promoting the *other* products that Youngevity sells). My distaste for Our Memories For Life only increased when Mark Mizen (formerly of CM science/tech support) started pointing out the quality issues with the product and RA came back defensive and dismissive to his comments. But that wasn't the worst that came from being with HM and RA.

One instance that really disgusted me was with the refill pages for the albums not being punched right. The email from RA/HM said to just cut off the holes/jeeping and slide them into the top-loading photo sleeves that were coming out. I was appalled when I read that: it sounded a lot like same dialog that happened before CM's first bankruptcy, where the execs didn't seem to care anymore about what happened to us little guys and our albums/photos. And suddenly I began to think that maybe the drama with RA leaving wasn't from CM/A&Z execs but from RA. I suddenly felt that RA didn't really care about our albums, that she only cared about getting ahead, and suddenly I wanted OUT. I cancelled my consultant status with HM and started looking for something else when I came across Donna's wonderful blog.

I immediately hopped on board with what seemed like the old CM I'd fallen in love with when I first joined 18 years ago. I imagined it being like one of those easy-going trains that gently take you around the amusement park, allowing you to do the business at your own pace and with your own style (read: fun parties and crops where people are excited to buy this fun, easy-to-use/do, new product). Time was running out to get the promotion for that month, so I foolishly let A&Z pick my leader...someone I didn't know and who didn't even bother to contact me even though she was just down the road from me (I should have realized then that something was wrong b/c that's the same situation I was in when I was last with CM).

And then I too heard the click-click-click that Donna talked about in "Creative Memories Bankruptcy Roller Coaster" entry but didn't realize what it was b/c I hadn't been on the ride for either of the two bankruptcies.

I am heart-broken about all this. I wanted to make the business grow for the first time since I first heard about CM 18 years ago. I had a ton of ideas about how to promote, sell, and hold parties. I wanted to meet Donna at one of the incentive parties b/c she seemed to care more about the product, the company, and the people than a certain person who had left A&Z and took 1000s with her (coughcoughRhondaAndersoncoughcough). But I had joined June 30...I had practically hopped on the roller coaster the instant it had started its descent into the screaming terror full of loops and sharp turns and horror.

I still plan to pay attention to what happens with the future of A&Z/CM/Flowerdale Group, BUT...secretly, I'm hoping that they just go to an online direct-to-consumer model and cut out the whole direct-sales thing b/c I'm tired of that ride. For me, it's just been a ride filled with people who ignore me or destroy my photos (one CM leader was "helping" me remove my photos from a non-CM album with a multipurpose tool and ripped my expensive, professionally developed photos in half--I never recovered from that b/c the photo developer who had originally printed the photos was gone, and I never found a photo developer who could even come close to that quality of work) or people who would use me to recruit others to promote their business without returning the favor and helping *my* business to grow. It's been a ride filled with heartache, headache, and wallet-ache, and I'm done. I'm done with direct selling; I'm done with selling product just so I can have some for myself. I'm done. I just want to buy the high-quality product without all the pain of having to recruit or promote the business to justify the expense of getting product for myself. So bring on the direct-to-customer Creative Memories. I'm ready for it.

Monday, March 5, 2012

I love scrapbooking and Creative Memories

This blog's purpose is to show what I've done with my scrapbooking. It's said that the best way to get something done is to tell someone else about it; doing so commits you to the task.

I chose the title I did b/c those are 3 of the things I love to do. I may come up with a better title some other day, but for now this is what I got.