Episode 35 Trimmed
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Erika Radis: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's episode of the Working Moms of San Antonio podcast. We're here with Jessica from Bluenhouse as our guest, and I'm just going to turn it over to her so she can talk about all the fun work she gets to do.
Jessica Davilla: Hi,
everyone. I'm Jessica. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm so excited to be part of this community.
It's been challenging for me being here. I moved here from Mexico two years ago. Well, almost three now. My business started back in Mexico when my kids were little, but with being a mom and little kids, you know, it's like super hard to keep a business going. So when I moved here to San Antonio I had some more.
Free time. So I was like, I'm going to get really into this. But when I started there were like a lot of balloon artists out there. And I was like, maybe a little unmotivated. Because I mean, it's a new, it's a different country, different rules to start a business is so much [00:01:00] different here than in Mexico.
I think it's harder and, but there's a lot of help out there too. for small business owners. So I started getting into this and starting asking for help. My brothers that live here, they have their businesses, but they couldn't help. It was another industry. So it was like a kind of. Challenging start, I guess, and trying to get a new clientele.
Cause I mean, I don't know a lot of people here, just my friends. Cause I used to live here when I was in high school. So I met some friends. Yes. They stayed here a few of them. So I started doing balloons for them to see if they really liked my work and everything. And they did. So I started going stronger, registering my, my brand.
And then starting getting new clients doing stuff for the school of my kids. And that's how I got going.
I mean, that's a
Marie Lifschultz: great way to start like getting out there, like with the schools. Cause I mean, people it's, I [00:02:00] mean, and the balloon, the balloon art has, for me, it was fairly new in the last couple of years.
I'm like, when did this start? I mean, this is really cool. And it's really popular. Like, any kind of party you go to, birthday parties have it, graduations, weddings, quinces.
It's not for kids
Jessica Davilla: anymore. That's what it used to be when we were little. Oh, it's out. Yeah. It was for kids. It was like kids have fun.
Kids have balloons, but adults can have fun too. I mean, and whenever you see like a big balloon set up, it always like, it's like a wow factor. You're like, wow, that looks amazing. And I want to take pictures with it. It creates memories. So that's what I like about it. It creates memories for adults and kids.
Yeah. Because everybody's using the balloons right now.
Erika Radis: Yeah, that's true. I'm so curious, like, how did you get into it? Were you just like doing it for yourself and you were like, I'm really good at balloons and I want to do it for
others.
Jessica Davilla: No, I started [00:03:00] doing it for my kids, Bernie, when they were younger.
And they were actually not that good. But then when I got here, but when I got here I did some balloons for my son and it's like a, it was a balloon bouquet. And it was really good actually. And I got it off from a YouTube tutorial. I was like, okay, I can do this. I'll try to do something more premium to say like that, not just like the Amazon balloon garden that you put on the string and that, you know, I wanted to do something more.
So I did that and it turned out really good. And I was like, okay, I'm good at this now, not before, but now I'm getting better, I guess. So I started taking a course. I even have certification, a balloon artist certification. It was a course that I took for a year. That was a thing. That's cool. Yeah. That's amazing.
Yeah. I mean, not everybody has it, but I wanted to get certified. Cause I mean, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right. And I'm a perfectionist. So I want to do it like really, really good [00:04:00] and know all the techniques and all that. So I got that certification and. I've been going on from there and I always keep practicing.
That's like the main thing you need to do in the balloon industry. Practice follow the trends because trends keep changing. I mean, as in fashion and everything trends change, so you have to keep up with everything.
Erika Radis: Yeah, I was going to ask that, like, are there new, there must be, you know, just like any other, cause it's an art really.
I mean, it's creative and you know, it's that kind of thing. And so there must be just new, innovative ways to like use balloons that change all the time.
Jessica Davilla: Yeah, no, no, no, there is. It's amazing. I mean, if you go into the balloon world, it's amazing. But there's some balloon artists out there that do amazing things like big, big setups animals, characters and all that.
I'm like, wow, I'm not into that, into the animal characters, but all the garlands, I mean, it's amazing what they do out there. So that's what I want to [00:05:00] create too. And you would, you would
Marie Lifschultz: think it'd be a, a less expensive way, like flowers were a big thing for a long, like, like when you, it's like a wedding, it's extremely expensive to get fresh flowers and it's very tiny to me and you have to do it really fast.
And I just thinking like, so I'm assuming a balloon would be you know, I think they're prettier a less expensive way to really, really decorate your space and make it, you know, fun and inviting, you know, Right. Yeah. I
Jessica Davilla: mean, there's a price ranges for everything because there's some balloons that go over a thousand.
It depends on how big you want to go and how much you want to spend too, because it's a lot of time, time, garlands. That's what people don't see behind the, the lines. I mean, you see a garland, you may think, Oh, that's easy. I can do it. It's fast. And no, because there's there's a lot of things going on, the inflating, the time consuming, the preparing, the transportation, [00:06:00] and all that.
So, yes, it's different from flowers. You
Marie Lifschultz: have to try it, because even if you did it ahead of time, how do you get them from one place to another? That's hard. Without popping. Yeah.
Jessica Davilla: You should see my, my, my car. It's like always full of balloons. And I have videos on my Instagram and like putting everything in there and just pushing it in.
But it's not that big. It's amazing how much balloons you can fit in a trunk.
Erika Radis: Wow. That's crazy. Yeah, that's yeah. Well, so since you did come from another, you know, city, and you've come here and you've had to rebuild, what are some of the ways that you're trying to get yourself out there.
Jessica Davilla: Actually, right now I'm just doing Instagram, Facebook and from recommendations.
That's how I've been getting my business going along. I'm now doing some work in Austin too. So which is amazing because it's for a nonprofit organization. I have two scheduled [00:07:00] for this year. I did one amazing last year and people are getting to know me. I'm growing like really, really fast, more than I expected, which is like really good for me.
I'm so happy that I, that I got to put my word out there.
Erika Radis: Yeah. Yeah. Balloons seem like it would be fun. I mean, that that's like good social media content, right? Like when we're talking about, cause Marie and I are in real estate, when we talk about that kind of thing, like you can only show so many houses and it's like, okay, you know, this kitchen, they all look the same, like it's no big deal, you know, but all these like fun balloons and like different decorations and stuff, that just seems like that'd be great content for.
For the Instagram.
Jessica Davilla: Yes, it's true. And it's really creative and competitive. You just have to, I mean, put yourself out there, be creative, do something different, do it better than everybody else. And yeah, have people trust your work because I mean, you're always going to find balloons cheap balloons.
There's always Amazon. There's I don't know, different brands that you can find cheap, but a good quality balloon can last for more than a [00:08:00] month. And Balloons. I have balloons here. Yeah. Yeah. I've had balloons here from New Year's, which I didn't get to pop all of them. So I just brought them home and they were standing in my garage with cold heat and, you know, that winter thing.
And when I brought them in, like, after a month and a half later, well, not a month, like I just popped them a few weeks ago. So they were perfect. I was like, I can, Use this again. I mean, just like put a little shine on it and they're perfect. They look really good, but that's good quality balloons. Cause if you buy just whatever brand they're going to pop the next day or two days, they're going to just deflate.
Erika Radis: Yeah, sometimes they pop as you're blowing them up. I don't even do balloons anymore because I don't have the patience. It's just not there for us. So my kids just like dream about the balloons.
Jessica Davilla: You need a lot of patience to do this. It's like patience, patience, [00:09:00] patience, and be creative, I guess.
Marie Lifschultz: Well, and I think it's a very creative, creative art.
Like, it's really just because you can do so much things with it. You just have to kind of I mean, tying them together and stuff. I, I try to help at a school dance for my son and there was four of us and I had never used one of those blow up. When I came in, I'm like, I have to blow them up. Like, well, they're like, Oh no, use the thing.
And I could not, I popped, I think 10 of them, like just pop and they're like, now you're blowing them up too much. I'm like, why? Like, we have to be able to tie them. I'm like, Oh, Yeah,
Jessica Davilla: it's a whole thing to learn. I mean, like I said, everybody can do it, but it depends on your style, your patience the big setups, the time consuming.
That's why we're here for, for to do all that for you. And Just create something beautiful and a happy memory for your kids, family, coworkers, whatever you want to do.
Marie Lifschultz: Jessica, do you ever bring people along to help you with the setup? I mean, when [00:10:00] we were doing this little bitty school dance, I mean, I, there's no way I can hold this garland thing up and tape it to the ceiling or whatever we did.
Like there had to be several people. Do you bring anyone along with you when you do setups?
Jessica Davilla: Yeah, the big setups. Yes. I have somebody that comes with me and helps me. The one in Austin it was last year. So I didn't have anybody and I haven't hired anybody to do that kind of things. So my brothers and sisters were the one that helped me over there.
They came with me. I showed them everything. This is what we have to do. It's going to be two different setups. I have everything planned ahead. So just follow along with me and I'll keep like guiding you and Tell you what to do. Cause I mean, they're, they've never done balloons. They're like, what do I do here?
It's like a big setup. But every everything came out perfectly. It turned out so great.
Erika Radis: That's awesome. I
Marie Lifschultz: think it's going to keep going. The trend, I think it's going to continue to grow just because I've seen it more and more. You know, I know you said Like I'm a wedding. I saw, I saw one, I think maybe on Instagram.
[00:11:00] It was the whole place was in bullet. Like, not just like an you know, the nice pretty arch. I mean, it was everywhere. It was everywhere. Their tables, the entrance around the DJ everywhere. Yeah, everywhere. Yeah.
Jessica Davilla: No, and it's growing so much. I mean, a few years ago, I started seeing them more after, no, during COVID and after COVID because I think before, I mean, my, my personal experience, it wasn't that much of a trend and right now everybody's using them for everything.
It's amazing. And it's wonderful. I love seeing all the types of creations that they make out there. Yeah. It's great. Yeah,
Erika Radis: yeah, I mean with the popularity, I imagine then like you said, and there's, it's maybe like a, it almost feels like it's a saturated industry, and Marie and I can relate to that obviously there's a lot of lenders out there, A million real estate agents.
Yeah. And so do you have any advice for dealing [00:12:00] with maybe trying to stand out in your industry or like working in a saturated industry or anything like that? What is your opinions on that?
Jessica Davilla: I think just like customer service is mainly the thing. If you give a really good customer service and. Like help the client throughout the whole process because I mean clients keep changing.
I want this. No, it's too expensive I want this no add a little bit more remove this so it's like a whole thing you need to do before the final final installation And as long as you give good customer service and your client likes you They're going to recommend you and you do good work. I mean, good work with quality balloons, good set up and give them what they pay for because they're expensive.
So you need to like provide, okay, I pay this, I don't know, 600. It's worth the 600. Yeah. She gave me like a call customer service, like really good customer service. I think that's the main thing. I mean, whenever you [00:13:00] get good customer service, you're always going to recommend the services. Right. Yeah. And your work and your work also.
I mean,
of
Erika Radis: course, yeah, good quality
Jessica Davilla: work. And I think that's basically how I stand out. And how I get my
Marie Lifschultz: clients. Well, I think I would, I would refer someone that gives, Hey, you know, they, they gave me quality work. They're always available. They answered my questions. They taught me whatever, you know, I would refer that person.
If I use them like, Hey, this person's great. You know, and I, people always talk about, when you talk about costing these, you know, small businesses, right? Like you get with what you pay for. So if you're going to go cheap, you're going to get cheap. Of course, you know you're and you're not gonna be you're not gonna be happy with the end product Maybe me and again, maybe not even the customer service.
I've seen
Jessica Davilla: that with clients. I mean, they've i've done everything everything like the the mock up the quote the time everything and at the end they're [00:14:00] like, oh, i'm so sorry You're too expensive for me and then I see them on their instagram And they're doing the same thing somebody that didn't do all the mock up.
They're copying my work. I'm like, That's, I mean, I don't mind. That's always going to happen. People are going to think that I'm too expensive, but I'm not going to reduce my prices for that kind of people. I mean, if you want my services, you have to pay for what I give you, which is good quality work, good customer service.
Basically, yes.
Erika Radis: Yeah. I mean that, that's such a good point. I just feel like, and there are customers for every, I think price point, you know what I mean? Mm-Hmm. . If you put yourself out there as somebody that does do good work, that really prides themself in customer service, you're going to end up attracting the kind of customer that is comfortable paying.
The, the prices that you're charging, I believe that. And so there's plenty of people that need balloons. Maybe if you're too expensive for this particular person, they can find it cheaper [00:15:00] elsewhere. I mean, I just, and I just am a big believer in when you start getting in these low, low prices. Like Marie said, you are going to get what you pay for.
And some people, unfortunately, either they're fine with it or they learn the hard way, you know, and that's how that goes. But yeah, I mean, if you're putting yourself out there with quality work, you're going to get the clients that are comfortable paying your fees.
Jessica Davilla: Yes. And I've been, I mean, investing time in just like my course, my certification, all that comes onto my work.
I mean, that's why I charge what I charge because I have the backup that I I'm certified. I've been taking courses lately. I'm keeping up to trends and all that is time and investment.
Erika Radis: Of course. Yeah, for sure. I'm curious now, what do you get asked for? Like, what do people ask for the most? Is it like these arches?
Is it the garlands? Like what are your most popular setups?
Jessica Davilla: Kids parties. Like the garland, yes. Theme [00:16:00] parties. Yeah, that's the most that I have right now. Theme parties and heliums. I make big helium bubble balloons, which are hand painted inside. They look beautiful. Oh, that's so pretty. Yes, they're cute.
They're like three feet. They're, they're amazing. I mean, when you see them, you're like, wow, this is huge. And I get that. I get asked that a lot. For the helium ones parties and helium the bubbles, especially
Marie Lifschultz: about like your most popular design. Okay. What's the most? I guess, design that you've, or maybe odd thing that people have asked for.
I think anything kind of. I'm trying to think. On
Jessica Davilla: different maybe, but it's just, it was just a, it's not different. It's a trend now, actually. It was a foil balloons, a wall, foil balloon.
Erika Radis: It's like
Jessica Davilla: the foil, the shiny, a whole wall made of that.
Marie Lifschultz: Oh, I've seen that. I like it. Sports pictures. [00:17:00] Yes, they're doing that right now.
I've seen that, where the kids were taking like their sports photographs or whatever they have. And it's neat in the back. Like maybe the school colors, yeah.
Jessica Davilla: It's a trend right now for that. And that's the, I did it last year actually. It's like really going on right now. They use it for photo booths. It's like filled with foil balloons.
They look amazing, but like odd, not really. It's just like, I try to keep up with everything and I can do pretty much everything the client asked me for.
Erika Radis: That's amazing. Wow. What would you say, if you could. What do you think is one of the, your favorite things about, you know, working in this industry?
Jessica Davilla: I think everything.
I love the creative part. Once I started doing well from the beginning, when the client asked me for something and they just tell me, I need a balloon garland for this. And this is the theme, show me pictures, their inspiration, this like all the [00:18:00] creative part, like looking for pictures, inspiration and all that.
And then doing my work, Based on that and seeing the final result, it's amazing. I love all the parts of the of the industry. I mean, just creating, looking at pictures, inspiration, doing the garlands. Sometimes they can be like really big, sometimes small, but everything I do it out of my passion and love for balloons.
Erika Radis: Yeah, I bet it's nice to have like, some of it must be quite challenging. And so trying to figure out how you can, you know, make this look like this or, you know, get the result that they want. That's the part that I would like is if somebody would say like, Hey, can you do this? It's like, okay, let me figure out how to do that thing.
And yeah, I can definitely do that. So the challenging part, I bet.
Jessica Davilla: Yes. It is challenging sometimes because they ask I need you to hang, I don't know, like a hundred balloons from the ceiling. I'm like, how am I going to install all the way up to the ceiling and trying to figure it out? [00:19:00] Yeah, what's the best part?
I don't want to damage their ceiling. I want to, I want it to look the best. So yes, there's a lot of like challenges going on. Yeah, but I mean, I always get through and I always accept everything. I'm like, okay, this is new. I'll do it. I don't mind.
Erika Radis: That's awesome. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Well now would be the time that I guess we would typically ask for you to share how our listeners can get in touch with you for your, all your balloon services.
Jessica Davilla: You can find me on Instagram as Balloon House, also on Facebook I am as Balloon House, and I'm actually just about to launch my webpage where you can find all my helium balloons without getting in touch with me, just like the basic ones. You can just order them online, not have any contact with me, because sometimes people just like, don't like to go back and forth with information, so you can just click on On the balloon that you [00:20:00] want and have it delivered to your house and they're going to be a little less costly than what I usually make them for since you're not having to deal with me.
So that's a big project that I've been working on for a few months now and it's about to go up so I hope everybody likes more more of the balloons than the flowers.
Marie Lifschultz: I think that's great but that like you can say it's kind of another channel of your business. That's awesome. It's a different
Jessica Davilla: part. Yes.
Oh, that's great. And sometimes, I mean, it's like, whenever you order online at CCR, you don't have to have contact with anybody. It's just like order and just get it, get it sent to whoever you want to.
Erika Radis: Oh, that's great. No, I like that. That is nice. And so what we'll do is we'll put all that information in our show notes so people can reach out to you.
And if your website is live by the time this airs we'll include that in there as well. So,
Jessica Davilla: it's almost done.
Erika Radis: Oh, perfect. Okay. Well, that'll be great. Well, I just want to thank you for [00:21:00] being on with us. This was such a fun one. We got to talk about some fun party stuff. And so I love that. Thank you so
Jessica Davilla: much for having me.
Yeah.
Erika Radis: And then thanks so much to our listeners for tuning into this week's episode of the working moms of San Antonio podcast. And we will just catch you guys next week. See you guys next week.
