We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kathy Abia a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Kathy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today 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.

A few friends of mine actually convinced me to start my business. Prior to COVID, we were always planning events with each other and paying other people to decorate until one day my only task for a friends gender reveal was to do the balloons with a kit she bought at Party City. It took forever the first time but, since that 1 event I was approached by friends of friends and businesses to do their balloons as well. At the time I was skeptical because I had no prior experience besides that 1 event and as a perfectionist, I wanted to make sure I was providing the best service I could before getting paid. From there, I started doing the balloons for all my close friends and family events and began building a profile for myself before even making my first dollar in September 2021.

In September 2021, it was my first gender reveal for a family friend and it was a question mark balloon set up I never knew was even a thing. I was so terrified when it was booked I bought so many balloons to practice, the stand I bought at the time was staying together so I had to keep adding and reading duct tape. It was still boiling hot in Texas and the event was outside in the middle of the park. I just knew everything that could go wrong, would. I thought it would be too hot for the black gender reveal balloon and it would pop. I thought the stand was going to fall apart. I thought the foil balloons would fall or melt off. But in the end everything went perfectly fine and I knew I was just in my head about the whole thing. The only way to learn is to try. From there I knew I was doing the right thing!

At the time I started, balloon styling was a hot commodity. There were so many large balloon companies offering the service, but their prices were not affordable for a lot of people since they have large production teams and fees and overhead. With Goddess Balloons, LLC, it’s a one man team, so I get to charge what is necessary but yet still affordable as a for profit business and creating beautiful memories for my customers and their events.

Kathy, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Although my business is for profit, what sets me apart from other balloon stylists is this isn’t a job for me, it’s a hobby which means I’m actually doing it because I love what I do. All the time and effort I put into each event is pure enjoyment for me as I am a creative person. Every event is also a learning experience. I never stop learning when it comes to anything I stamp my name and business name on.

I would like people to know that I appreciate every like, follow, comment, share and save. Since Goddess Balloons, LLC is a 1 man team, I see all of it and I never thought I’d get to this place in my business venture but I’m so excited to see it through and see what the future holds!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Social media and word of mouth. I’ve had inquiries from friends of friends who I haven’t spoke with since high school reach out just based off what they’ve seen on my Instagram and Facebook.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Any time I have an outdoor event in the summer I’m always nervous. My first mid-summer event was just a simple column balloon display that was 90s themed. Since it was so hot, I was exhausted, the balloons kept popping and I kept having to replace them, even though they were under inflated. The inflatables were falling off from the adhesive melting in the heat. At that moment, I just coached myself through that if I could just make it last 2 hours the event would be over, then the giant foil and focal point of the stand popped. I could have just let it go, refunded the money, quit and never looked back but I used that almost fail as a learning experience. I replaced all the popped balloons and the giant foil balloon, it cooled down a bit and everything worked out fine in the end!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/goddessballoonsllc?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoddessBalloonsLLC?mibextid=LQQJ4d

Image Credits
Kathy Abia