2016 CTMH Team Builders

January 18, 2016

This picture above represents over 900 years of combined service to Close To My Heart!

I've just returned from my very first Team Builders event hosted by Close To My Heart. The event was held in Salt Lake City, Utah from Thursday to Friday. Over 60 Leaders from Close To My Heart attended this event and I was so honored to be among them. In smaller settings such as this it is easy to get close and personal with the Executive Team and staff. We had jammed packed sessions on Time Management, Team Recognition, Leadership, Mentoring and even some creative time. The meetings at times, were frank, personal, enlightening and entertaining. I learned so much and I'm anxious to put into place the many tips I came away with.

The most special time of the entire event was when we were surprised with a visit by Jeanette Lynton, CEO of Close To My Heart on the last day. She is such an inspiration. You can tell without a doubt that she loves this company and deeply cares about every consultant.

I flew out of Nashville on my Birthday. Since I spent most of the entire day up in the air traveling, my roomies made sure I celebrated. We went to the nearby Cheesecake Factory and they treated me to dinner!! Krista and Jamie are two of my dear friends that I meet years ago at the Spa Retreat we all won. If you follow my blog you should be very familiar with them by now! I talk about my Spa Girls all the time. It is nice to get to see them more than once a year at convention!

Krista, Jaime and Me!

We got alot of training information but we did get some creative time too! At the first creative session we were given a sheet of watercolor paper and a sheet of white daisy cardstock. We had a box of stamps at our table along with some watercolor paints and ShinHan Markers. Our art work was to surround the word "Meraki". It was really hard for me to get started. I didn't know whether I wanted to use watercolors or markers. Watercoloring for me is still new and usually I don't like what I do. I finally decided on the watercolors because I needed the practice! This was out of my comfort zone. Here is my work of 'art' -

The other creative class we had was called Brushed Lettering. This is something that has gained alot of popularity of late. We were given 3 different types of brush tip pens, a practice pad and a practice sheet. Below are the practice sheets. We traced over the strokes - just like we did in kindgergarten when you learned to write letters. When I was young, I used to do calligraphy alot. So I really thought this brushed lettering thing would be easy. It is not. I need to keep practicing - alot.... before my letters look like they should.

One of the highlights of the event was our treat to Waffle Love. We had all heard about Waffle Love. Close To My Heart treats their Home Office Staff every year with Waffle Love and they like to flaunt it on their blog... ha ha.... making us all jealous. Before the Team Builders event they announced that they would be bringing Waffle Love to the event. When Waffle Love arrived they announced that they would treating US and we could order whatever we wanted. SO generous of CTMH and sooooo YUMMY!!

I met so many wonderful ladies at this event. I loved it that during our meals (CTMH provided a breakfast and 2 wonderful lunches) that the Executive Staff would come and sit with us and we could talk so openly about everything. It is so hard to put into words the experience that I had at Team Builders. It was fabulous! Thank you Close To My Heart for making this possible!

In closing - here are just a few more pictures from the event. Enjoy!