Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Tibble.
Michelle, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My balloon career is much like a fat cat that showed up at the door, sat in my lap, and decided it wasn’t going away, and I am blessed and grateful to have this fat cat, but it still continues to surprise me, when my balloon business creeps in and takes me to a new fun chapter of my life. It’s also interested that I just came up with that analogy, because I’m not a cat person and I wear these cute cat shoes when I twist balloons. Not because I love cats, but because I thought they were cute and now I love them. I now own 4 pairs. Maybe I am a cat person. A closeted cat person. If that doesn’t sum up my balloon relationship, I don’t know what does. Basically, sometimes life picks you, and you have very little say in the matter. And that is how my journey began.
I have a musical theater/acting back ground. I was in college getting my BA in theater at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA, and I got a job during the summer where the entertainment needed to learn a circus skill. I’m a horrible juggler and balance act, so I learned a few balloon animals and hung out with the clowns. That is the first time I picked up a balloon and the first time I was introduced to balloon art and variety performance.
From there, I had a few really amazing artists teach me cooler balloon designs and some party tricks, and I took it and made a lot of money at children’s birthday parties. I would go dressed in princess costumes, and I would tell stories and sing songs, and then twist a balloon creation for the kids. It was a lot of fun, I loved hanging out with the kids, it paid my bills, and it was flexible enough to get me through college and allow me to do theater.
Today, Chicago Balloon Twister, is so much more than one girl standing at a birthday party twisting balloons in a Cinderella dress. I still do theater and commercial work occasionally, but my entertainment company has grown into a career of its own. It’s like its own beast. I don’t even think I could go out of business. If I just woke up one day and say “That’s it, I’m going to be an engineer. Enough of this latex twisting!” People would still call me every day. It literally has a life of its own. But we don’t JUST do balloon art anymore. We do all kinds of party art. Everything from face painting to henna to body art. We do performance art. Magic. Music. We do decor. We design creations for marketing materials.
I have about 10-15 subcontractors that I work closely with, who all represent Chicago Balloon Twister. We all “jam” together on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. So we’re constantly learning and helping each other grow, and get work and keep work. We help each other with our kids and our families sometimes. Balloon artists and face painters are a tight nit group of people. I don’t work with everyone in the city, I am picky, but the people that I do work with, I trust in their abilities, I trust in their work ethics, and I see them all of the time, so they have nowhere to run (ha!), and I know what they need and that helps me to better organize us as a team, so that they/we can provide a fun, smooth, memorable experience for our clients.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like any business we have challenges, and they are constantly changing, depending on the goals. I’d say my constant struggles usually boil down to three things. One, family time. This is a 24/7 job. I try to keep business hours, but hard. I have to turn my phone off and force myself not to look at my emails, and every time I do that, I lose at least one event, but it’s a must to balance that down time. Two, getting the client’s expectations aligned with a realistic outcome. That can be hard when you are dealing with deco. Decor is so much harder than the average birthday party client realizes. And they are usually the pickiest. It takes hours to help them make decisions, and then it takes hours to buy the supplies, and then it takes ours to build it and deliver it. I am constantly trying to figure out the fastest way to help a client make a quick deco decision. Sketches and pictures can help, but if somebody can’t imagine it in their space with their colors, then it gets tricky. So then comes my number three, communication. I am constantly taking notes or forcing the client to communicate through email, because the modern way of life seems to be multi-tasking, and nobody remembers what they did or said, including myself. So communication will always be something that I work on for myself and for my clients. It’s the key to making your clients happy. If a client only has the budget for one artist and they have 50 kids. You have to help them understand why they need to edit their expectations. Even when you are entertaining and you are at the event. You constantly have to check yourself for communication. Checking your crowd. Are the kids destroying the room? Then you should stop twisting balloons and do the show. Is your line 30 people deep? Then you need to stop making Mickey Mouse and stick to simple choices. That keeps the fun rolling and gets you re-hired.
“Chicago Balloon Twister” has grown into something far bigger than what it was when I started, so the struggles have definitely changed over the years. When I started, it was cake. I worked for other agencies 90% of the time and my biggest struggle 16 years ago was juggling my schedule and showing up on time. Back then, party art and entertainment were more of an outlet that paid my boring bills, than a reliable entertainment company. And I’m so glad that it became more than an outlet and a day job! And I had to grow into the idea that this was “a business” and I was amazing at it, and I wasn’t a bad business person and that I could be the boss. In my early twenties I could barely keep a calendar, let alone, keep track of subcontractors, and assistants, and clients. So that was a growing pain for sure. Making the decision to do more with my “side job”. Getting the courage to sell myself. Those were real struggles for me.
Chicago Balloon Twister – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
So Chicago Balloon Twister used to be, just me. I’ve been doing this for 16 years. I was one girl who happened to be amazing at making kids laugh and twisting a balloon into a piece of art work, and I slowly added things to my “party schtick” over the years. I try not to say “no” to any balloon challenge. The only time I will say “no,” to a balloon request, is if the line is insane or I’m out of time and the request is ridiculous. Example: Willis Tower or Batman in a flower costume……are just a few of the many crazy things that people come up with, and when I say people it’s usually a 12 year old boy. Ha! Oh by the way, balloon artists hate that Wedding Crasher’s joke. If one more guy comes up to me and says “Make me a bike clown!” I’m going to personally find Vince Vaughn and throw a pie in his face. Yes, daddy clowns, we can make you a bike.
All that aside, at a birthday party setting, I will do anything. Detailed animals, princesses, superheroes, favorite cartoon characters, Pixar characters, wearable costume pieces like wings or caps or hats or masks, sports related designs. Anything, within reason. But my favorite requests are cartoon related characters. Pokémon is super popular right now, and if the kid brings up a photo of a character I don’t know, I’m game. Let’s try it. That’s what I specialize in. I specialize in looking at a picture of a cartoon and making it into a balloon animal. I love it!
I also have a passion for animation. I wanted to be a Disney Animator for a very large part of my childhood, so I was constantly drawing Disney characters. And after I did a few years of balloon art, I decided to add the face painting, which, because of my back ground in art, was fairly easy.
Then I started getting tired of putting princess costumes on, so I taught myself how to play guitar, and I created a music and balloons show, that I could do as myself, and not have to put those extremely hot, cumbersome princess dresses and wigs on, all of the time. I now sing and tell stories and do simple magic tricks for kids, and it’s great. My show is geared for kids 6 and under. Although, I get the parents and the older kids involved sometimes. It depends on the group. Some people are more open to singing than others. And I have a few clients who have been hiring me since the beginning, and their kids are teens now, so I’ve come up with some things for them like dance parties and escape rooms with Henna and balloon art. Everyone loves balloons. You don’t have to be a little kid to get a balloon. I’ve had 40 year old’s and 50 year old’s hire me for their birthday parties.
I would say that I’m most proud of myself for allowing this small business to grow into more than one girl working small parties for other companies. I got brave, and figured out how to stick up for myself, and sell myself, and other artists. It’s very hard to talk about what you charge for yourself to other people. It feels like bragging, and money can have such an awkwardness to it. One of my pet peeves, from day one, is when people pay me in front of the kids and their guests. They just hand a wad of cash or write the check in front of everyone and ask how much they owe me. They know how much they owe me. We all have a contract and about 10 emails. You know how much you owe. Have that ready before hand, put it in an envelope, and hand it to me that way. I just made magic for 2 hours, and the money just made it seem dirty and too real. Again, the Disney in me. Even if I’m not dressed as a princess, the kids really believe I’m magic sometimes, and then their parent starts talking about money, and the Mary Poppins magic gets popped.
So getting over that idea was hard for me. And actually, I got better at it. Especially, once I started to sell other people. If a client was questioning another artist’s ability and pricing, I got really good at explaining why they were worth it, and in turn, it taught me how to be my own agent.
But I’m proud of myself for figuring out how to do that without going to business school. I’m proud of creating my own business based around art. I’m also proud of being able to make just as much money as my husband, and yet be able to care for my two young children with very little help, Monday-Friday. It’s crazy at our house some days, but we make it work, and the hard days have made me a stronger woman.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Oh boy. Not sure. When it comes to actual projects, I have done a few installation balloon pieces that make me extremely proud. My most recent installation was for a balloon costume piece for a commercial for Knotting Berry Farms in California. I and another artist created this amazing 8 foot balloon costume. I can’t talk about details until September 10th, after it airs, but it was really cool, and I can’t wait to see the commercial, and to do more projects like that. I love balloon installation art.
Had you asked me ten years ago, what I would be doing today, I would have laughed at you. I have two kids under the age of 4, I have no free baby sitter options and my awesome neighbors just moved (sad clown), I have a husband, a house that I own, and I run a small business with 10-15 subcontractors, one office assistant, and we book about 30-40 events a month. I feel like 50 people are constantly asking me for something. It’s both stressful and satisfying. And I’m sure that a lot of women my age with kids can relate to my everyday insanity, but I’m really proud that I’m strong enough and educated enough and brave enough to juggle it all. My mother could have never done what I do. And I make her proud that I’ve stepped up from her world, and I make myself proud too. And I feel blessed that I have this thing that I created and it is successful and it is special. What we provide, is simple, but it’s special and it makes people smile and laugh. That is something to be proud about.
Pricing:
- Fill out the online contact form for a quote.
- Pricing is based on an hourly basis, location, number of services, and for Decor it’s priced per piece.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.chicagoballoontwister.com
- Phone: 773-818-0196
- Email: Michelle@chicagoballoontwister.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/chicagoballoontwister
- Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/chicago-balloon-twister-chicago
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