We recently connected with Katelen Watkins & Mandi Robertson and have shared our conversation below.
Katelen Watkins & Mandi Robertson, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
My mom and I have always bonded over our ability to be creative. Making something out of nothing… true DIY’ers. From school projects growing up to spirit week outfits, Halloween costumes, wreath making…. we’ve had fun with it all!
2020 was a tough year for most. It was a time of uncertainty, anxiety, sickness, fear and extreme isolation. It was the year of my (Katelen’s) destination wedding in Mexico, which unfortunately had to be canceled. It was the year my nephew/mom’s first grand-baby was born. During this time, many of us were robbed of first moments, once in a lifetime moments, exciting lifelong moments, fellowship, you name it. 2021 rolled around and we decided the global pandemic wasn’t stopping us from joyful moments, in the safest way possible. It was the year of my nephews first birthday. It was the year I found out I was pregnant with my first baby. Life continued regardless of the circumstances, so my mom and I decided we were going to celebrate these moments with balloons! You don’t have to have a house full of people to enjoy balloons. It can literally be a photo op for the immediate family or even a porch drop off. Either way, balloons spread happiness and create picture perfect memories that last forever. It went from us celebrating personal moments with balloons to people reaching out asking for us to help them make sure their child felt celebrated in the house on their birthday to porch drop offs for those that were at home sick. In the midst of isolation, we were still able to spread happiness! This was a feeling we wanted more of! It felt so good to help make people’s life moments special and memorable. Our endeavor took off from there. We design and create customized balloon designs for any event: weddings, showers, graduations, conferences, corporate events, grand openings, birthdays and more!!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
We are a mom-daughter duo who have always bonded over arts and crafts. Our love for creativity landed us with a balloon design and creation business. We design and create customized balloon decor for any event! We offer organic balloon garlands, arches, columns, helium giants and bouquets, and much more! What makes us special is that we are a mom and daughter in business together. The beauty of our duo is that we bring different creative perspective to the table when serving our clients. Between the two of us, we are sure to bring your vision to life and can create something personalized for you!
Not creative? Don’t have time? Just simply don’t want to do it? That’s what we are here for! You share your vision, theme and/or color scheme, we design, create, deliver ansd install while you sit back and enjoy seeing your vision come to life!
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
When we first started creating balloon designs for personal celebrations, we had no idea it would turn into a business. One thing led to another and we started getting leads. We knew if were were going to welcome paid clients, we needed to at least have a name, a logo and an instagram page. We quickly came up with the name Pretty Poppin’ Moments and designed a logo on Canva. We were up and running very quickly and honestly learning as we went.
Fast forward to summer 2022. We decided we wanted to rebrand. It was scary to think about. We asked ourselves so many questions: Would people be confused? Would people like the new name and look? Would we lose traction? We had to remind ourselves that people fall in love with the people behind the business and the services offered, not so much a name and logo. We just wanted people to love the whole package. Pretty Poppin’ Moments was good to us in our first year of business but we wanted a name that had true meaning, a name that told a story, a name that intrigued people to look a little further.
We hired a brand designer and ran with our gut. We took the risk. On October 10th we launched our rebrand campaign and we’re overwhelmed with the love we received. We went from Pretty Poppin’ Moments to Tied Twogether.
Tied Two•ge•ther
/tīed/ tū’gether/
• an eternal mother-daughter bond
• the two of us are bound together in love & creativity
• we offer blended perspective and creative charm
• our balloons are tied together in pairs to make magic
• our love for creation brings happiness to others
• our balloon designs tie all your events together
Moral of the story is that you have to start somewhere. If you wait until your have it all figured out, you’ll never start and miss out on what could have been.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
Word of mouth is GOLD! Create such an amazing and memorable experience that your clients not only come back for more but they name drop your business in conversations and shout your business from the rooftops.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @tied_twogether
- Facebook: @tied twogether