A Note from Kristin, the owner of the Society for Creative Founders (and also, the owner of Grace and Serendipity, where you are reading this now) ——

I wrote this in January of 2024, and originally was shared on the Society for Creative Founders website. It was a beautiful blessing of a business in so many of our lives for so many years, but earlier this year, I came to the incredibly tough, heartbreaking, and gut-wrenching decision to close the loved business that was SCF … a business that I loved dearly, and also, a business I never thought I would close.

To learn more about this decision (and perhaps have it guide you here on your own journey, too), please read this note from me, that is now available here for you.

Thank you for being a part of SCF, for hearing my heart below,
and for everything that this business meant to all of us over it’s 13 years of goodness.

Cheers, friends.

January 2024

to a season that has been SO loved.

I’ve always had a thing for dates - special moments that come up pertaining to certain dates in my journey as a business owner, especially. And today, as I sat down to finally write this from my heart to yours because I knew this was the day I needed to share this decision with you and I was going through photos to prep this post, I realized something.

Six years ago today, I was at the beach welcoming in the first group of women to ever experience a retreat that I was hosting for the Society for Creative Founders.

When I realized that, I couldn’t help but smile at the fact that this announcement is being shared today, because of the chapter that this has been in my life for so long, and it is one that I have absolutely loved.

Being a small business owner, there are so many seasons of joy, of happiness, of triumphs and tribulations, and so many tests of patience, of faith, of tenacity and perseverance.

But what I don’t think we always remember, through all of this, is that as much as we go through all of this as seasons as business owners, we’re going through this as seasons in our lives, too.

And who we are as year one of being a business owner is a very different version of who we are as a person when we are on year thirteen as a business owner.

This month, I have been a creative entrepreneur for 14 years. Fourteen years!! And through all of those years, I have learned a lot - not only have I learned how to help women build their businesses well, but I’ve learned so much about who I am as an individual, about who God has designed me to be, about the gifts He has given me, and about what I want to create the most with this one precious life.

About what matters most, what to say yes to, what to say no to, and what to let go, even if you still absolutely love it.

This last year, I needed to step back from running the Society for Creative Founders full time due to health hiccups that came up throughout the year. Truth be told, it was an incredible season of learning to surrender rather than keep pushing through. More on that another day, but even through the frustrations of it all, I knew it was for a reason.

I was in a season of growth in a way I wasn’t expecting as a business owner, but in an entirely different way.

I can’t become the person I could be when I’m still thinking about what used to be.

And so now, at a decision I absolutely have prayed over, cried over, and many more emotions as I’ve processed this decision, I need to tell you that it’s time for the Society for Creative Founders to close its doors. As of January 2024, we’re going to be raising our glasses to simply to remember all of the moments, all of the blessings, all of the relationships, the triumphs, the goodness that the 13 years held for the Society for Creative Founders.

Because when you’re leading a business like this, and continually encouraging people through coaching to create a business and a life they love,
you can’t help but ask + answer what that looks like for yourself as your own life + business needs change, too.

And who am I,
if I am asking everyone else to do that,
if I don’t grant myself the permission to do the same,
even if it means making big and scary decisions in the process?

I am here to simply be ME,
to give myself permission to go in a different direction while still being a business owner,
because my life, and running a successful business,
has changed since I started running SCF 7 years ago …
and as hard as it is, it’s time to let it go.

So rather than shift and adapt the Society for Creative Founders to meet my purpose, priorities, and plans as I have continued to grow and change as the years have gone on, I am choosing to let it be remembered for what it was best at as a general business building resource for women who are creative entrepreneurs,
and to let myself use the gifts that God gave me in a more specific way while giving myself room to grow moving forward, too.

The Society for Creative Founders will forever be known as a place where women from all walks of life were able to come together to learn how to build and grow their business well, through the signature seven-pillar method that you came to love. Our systems worked whether you were just getting started or you had been around the biz block a time or two and were in need of a business refresh.

I fully believe that some things aren’t meant to change and adapt and pivot,
but they’re meant to be treasured for what they were originally designed for.

We were the first ever conference for creative entrepreneurs in 2011 (as Stationery Academy, because hey, let’s just say it one more time for those of us who first attended as the original StatAcad family ;) , and that is something that we will treasure dearly for the rest of our days, knowing all that came from that one giant leap into the unknown.

I am choosing to close the doors to the Society for Creative Founders as 2024 begins,
to let this beautiful business be remembered with fondness for what it was,
and to give myself the space to grow into the person I have become in the process of leading it for all of these years.

I have been praying through this for months,
and am ready to stand tall and strong with the Lord leading the way, to step into what He has been calling me to for a while now.

I am ready for my days be filled differently, with less time being spent facing a screen,
more flexibility built into my days for my health,
creating art with my hands from flowers grown in my garden,
while helping you to create a life you love with the plans you create,
with grace surrounding all of it.

More on what’s to come will be shared in the future, but this is all I’m going into, today.

To everyone who joined us for a Conference or a Retreat since our very first one in 2011 to our last in the fall of 2022, I hope you will hold those memories as close to your heart as I do.

Remember what happened while we were all together, who you were then and who you are now. Who you were surrounded with, who you still chat with, who you have seen grow and change alongside you. These friendships have meant the most, and I’m forever grateful to SCF for this detail in particular.

We’ve had babies, we’ve had breakups, we’ve experienced tremendous joys and incredible losses. We’ve said hello to new businesses and let go of the ones that were no longer serving us well. I’m simply doing what I have seen so many of us do, even if we never thought we would. At the root of it all, we are all still a family, our Alumni Group isn’t going anywhere, and I’ll still be only a hello away from a conversation … just in a different capacity than we’ve all grown used to over the years.

To everyone who was a part of our community, our courses, our summits or who attended even one of the more than 92 workshops I hosted over the years, I hope that you absolutely loved them. I hope that you still believe it was time well spent, still look back at your workbooks and conversations had over the years, and that you still remember what you learned, even if it’s something you simply refer back to now and then.

As hard as this was to write today, I know that it’s right. And this next step in my own journey is one I will forever be so grateful to SCF for, as I’m still the person you’ve gotten to know who has a love for planning, whimsy, and way more than energy than most other people (apparently…), I’ll simply be sharing life and business goodness here, instead of on the SCF site as the creative soul who led the way for so many of you over the years.

There will be more to share in the future, but this is enough for now.

Thank you for being a part of SCF, and for everything that SCF meant to all of us.
Take care, friends.

Sincerely,
Kristin