Make A Change Monday - Following Your Passion (and a Giveaway!)

A lot of people ask me how I got my start in this business. "Timing and luck" is my short answer, but the long answer is of course a little more complicated.

I have always enjoyed crafting, but got hooked on scrapbooking when I was in college. I loved going to crops with my girlfriends and working on projects when Don was deployed, and I'd even joined a small home-based scrapbooking business, but it was just for fun. I was a social worker with a military husband in a time of war. Every time we moved I had to look for a new job, and that got more and more difficult as the years went on. We had just moved for the fourth time and I was looking for work when the owner of the scrapbooking business asked me if I would be willing to help her with marketing. She couldn't pay me much to start, but she would give me a bigger discount on my scrapping supplies, and as we (hopefully) grew, so would my paycheck.

I continued to look for a job in my field, but as time passed and nothing was coming my way, Don and I had to make a decision.  Did I go out and find a job that didn't pay as much just to cover the bills?  Or did I take a chance on this little scrapbook company? It was a VERY tough decision for us.  Don is incredibly responsible and smart and wanted to make sure we would have a secure future, but he is also amazingly supportive and knew how unhappy I had been with how my career was unfolding. So we took a leap of faith.

I'm not going to lie and say the next few years were sunshine and rainbows - it was not easy.  We had to make some deep cuts to our budget and there were times when the company struggled to pay me and I had my doubts along the way, but I loved the creativity, I loved working with people who were excited about crafting, I loved being able to work from home no matter where in the world we lived, and I loved the industry. Don and I stuck it out and in the end that little company was bought by Xyron, and the rest is history. I am an incredibly lucky woman who followed my passion and found happiness and success making a living doing something I love.

So why am I rambling on about this now?  Because I recently reunited with two women who were consultants in that little scrapbooking company so many years ago, and they too have decided to follow their passion.  I am just so excited for them I could burst!

I've known Ginger Cooper (an attorney) and Michelle Young (a teacher) for years. They - like me - were two successful women who were looking for something to feed their souls as well as their pocketbooks. They - also like me - were offered an opportunity that could offer great reward, but also offered financial risk. So you know what they did?  They followed their passion, and are now the proud new owners of Scrap Jammies - a monthly kit club dedicated to helping people preserve their memories quickly, affordably, and creatively. I had the chance to meet them for lunch in Florida not too long ago, and am just in awe of their drive and how many wonderful successes they have had already, and you can just SEE the happiness in their faces. That is what makes all of the worries and long hours and questions and risk worth it - to find happiness and success and passion in what you do.

To celebrate their new business Ginger and Michelle have given me a BUNCH of kits to give away to you my fabulous friends...and you are going to have two ways to win!

1. Leave a comment here and you will be entered to win.
2. Head on over to the Scrap Jammies FB page, tell them I sent you, and you will be entered to win again!

THREE lucky winners are going to win a prize pack containing three Scrap Jammies Kits and a Xyron Tape Runner, so you can literally start creating as soon as you open the box. I'll announce the winners on my Facebook page tomorrow morning. Not a bad way to kick off the week!

Congratulations Ginger and Michelle - I am so thrilled for you and can't wait to watch you grow!