What are Balloon Buddies and What Do They Have to do With Flowers?

Episode 121: Many flower shops sell a variety of gifts and balloons, in addition to flowers. In episode,  Lori speaks with a Flower Clique member, Denise Chresos, owner of The Flower and Balloon Gallery LLC in Indiana, PA who has taken the balloon side of her business to a whole new level!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

And it's opened up a whole new market for us carrying the balloons. Before we sold some flowers to send to children, little girls mostly, but now.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. Hey everybody, it's Lori. I am without my partner in crime today, Vonda. She has the week off. So, Vonda, if you're listening, I hope you're having a good week. I am not alone though. Um, I have one of, I always say this anytime a member a flower clip member comes on, one of my favorite members, but you truly are. Like we have a we have a friendship, right? We have a texting relationship and we've been friends for quite a while. And I've been wanting you to come on, or I've been wanting her to come on. I was thinking about this last night. You know, the name of this podcast is The Business and Pleasure of Flowers. And I was like, to me, this is definitely the pleasure part of the podcast because I get so inspired by something new that you are doing that we're gonna talk about a little bit later. But I would like to formally introduce Denise Christos. She is the owner of Flower and Balloon Gallery in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Yes, you heard that right. The town is Indiana and the state is Pennsylvania, and I ask her this every single time because I get confused.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

Hi, Denise. Hello, Lori. How are you? I am fantastic. I hope you are well too.

SPEAKER_02 1:53

Yes, yes. I'm so excited that you finally did this with me. And I think it is only feding that you and I decided 24 hours ago to do it. So I think had we planned it, no, we probably would have never really happened. Um, but you inspired me to reach out to you because of a lot of stuff you've been posting, and I don't want to give it away yet, but you had an opportunity last week to go do something super cool that isn't like totally floral related, but it kind of is. We're gonna get to that. But first, I'm gonna start asking you some more formal questions, and then we'll just kind of take it uh wherever it goes. Number one, how did you get started in the floral industry?

SPEAKER_00 2:47

Well, I was working three part-time jobs, and one of my part-time jobs was at the sunglass hut, which I'm not even sure exists anymore in our mall. Okay, and my manager said, Oh, there's a lady that owns a flower shop that's looking for some help. Are you interested? And I'm like, Well, I don't know anything about flowers.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

And was he firing you or he was just offering?

SPEAKER_00 3:14

No, I was looking for more hours, so yeah. So I went and met with her and she hired me, and it turned out to be a full-time job. So I was able to just work one full-time job, and she trained me. I mean, she taught me like proper ways to cut in flowers and the care of flowers and your You knew nothing, nothing. I had never received flowers in my life. I I mean, I knew what carnations, roses, and daisies were, and that was about it. Yeah, right, right. And then I would look at pictures and duplicate them. She would, you know, tell me that needs to be taller or you know, whatever. And I just learned on the job, and that was in '96 or '97. I worked for her for 16 years, and she decided she was going to retire, and that's when I bought the shop, it was in 2013.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

So you purchased the shop where you started part-time for extra money. Yes, it worked out really well. So when you took over, did she already have employees set in place?

SPEAKER_00 4:25

So that transition was fairly easy, or like I said, I was full-time, and there was another girl working there who I had actually brought was a friend of mine, and she was basically full-time, and then one other person that was part-time, and they all stayed, and now I have two pretty much full-time and three part-time girls uh working, so we've grown substantially. We were in the same location that the shop was in um up until last August. We relocated and we rebranded. It was a really big decision because I mean the shop was already established in town, and yeah, but we were kind of tucked away in uh on the corner of two one-way streets and there was no parking, and we've moved to a new location with a more open floor plan, and um, it's at the one of the busiest intersections in our town, so we've been pretty fortunate.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Well, and I gotta say, I don't know if you designed the inside or if you had someone, but I love anytime you come to uh one of like our shop talks or any kind you you and I were doing as a name, you got such a cool design walking, like you have a big table, everything's open.

SPEAKER_00 5:49

Yeah, at the old shop, they were it was in a house, so our workstations were basically kitchen countertops with cabinets underneath, and everything was on the outside of the room, and there was kind of a lot of wasted space. Yeah, this floor plan, our workbenches. We each have our own toolbox, like on wheels, so we can move our um things around.

SPEAKER_02 6:10

It's like a hair salon, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:12

And then they all have butcher block tops on them, so yeah, it works out really nice.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

I love it when when I see the inside of your shop, it's very um appealing. It would make people want to come in.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah, we get a lot of compliments. The vibe in here is so much more, and it's so much more me. The house we were in was like Victorian, and it was a beautiful house. Yeah, I remember it.

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Okay, here's here's the exciting part. So your business has changed a bit over the last how many years? Four years, uh four or five years, it has changed. Okay, with two years of COVID in the middle, like everything jumbles together. I have no concept of time. You found an additional love slash passion, and that's what we're gonna talk about today. And what would that new passion be?

SPEAKER_00 7:08

Balloons, balloons, yeah, balloons. So yeah, and I'm not talking about helium-filled balloons.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

No, you are not talking about just a little mylar. Hey, would you like to add a balloon to that bouquet? Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:22

So, how did this journey start? Well, about a year after I started at the flower gallery um with the previous owner, she bought a balloon business. And at the time it was helium tank rentals, um, mylar balloons. They sold like bags of latex balloons, and she bought the business. The only addition really was, you know, we tried to push mylar balloons more as an add-on to, you know, a flower arrangement.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

And then we started getting these magazines in the mail called balloon images, and I had no idea that a world of balloons even existed. I mean, the creations that were in these magazines, they were making sculptures, like huge sculptures out of latex balloons. Yeah. And I was leafing through one of the magazines and they had a balloon man and they had a recipe to make them. So I asked the owner if she would consider purchasing the balloons that I needed to make this, and it became such a huge hit in our town. All I had to do was send one or two out, and people were, are you the place that makes the balloon man? The balloon man stands about six feet tall. It's he looks like he's wearing a tuxedo. He's got black, black balloons for the bottom, black and white for the top, and then a big smiley face for a head and arms, and then he will hold like a happy birthday, Milo, or whatever the occasion would be.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

And you made it like they got you the stuff, you just follow the directions, and boom, it was made, and you're like, Well, that was easy.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Yes, pretty much. So I started making other things that um we have a balloon octopus that's really popular.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Yeah, I've seen that one too.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Yeah, it's it's super popular, and then we just started making different things, and whenever I bought the shop, I don't even remember how I found out about like there's balloon conventions. Like I went to um teleflora, they would come to our wholesalers and have design classes, and I would always go to the ones that were around here as much as I could to you know keep up on new techniques or products out there. I've actually met Vonda twice, and um Tom Simmons is another Teleflora designer, and I won a scholarship to Tellaflora in Oklahoma City, um, where he taught for a week, and that was a lot of fun. But so I started looking into the balloon conventions, and it's the only really one that I've yet been to. Last year was my third one, and it was uh Balloon Boss Summit in Orlando, Florida, and it's a week-long um training for not just balloon design, but about business practices and things like that. And um I just met so many amazing people from going to that convention or training, um, learn new techniques, and they would show us different things to make, and I was able to bring them back to my town and make them after my first convention. There was a woman there. I don't know, do you know who Conrad the Unicorn is? Have you ever heard of him? He was on America Scott Talent, but he's made a balloon costume, and she was one of the instructors, and we were taught how to make balloon costumes. We made a penguin, an Uncle Sam, an eagle, a reindeer head, and a leprechaun and a pot of gold. And um, I brought those skills that I learned there back here, and we were in parades with our costumes. I mean, the first year we did the balloons in a parade, people were saying you were the best part of that parade. Yeah, and we partnered with like the after-school programs, and the kids would wear the costumes or you know, balloons on their back, and it just was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

So one of my favorite, favorite pictures of you ever, and you know I asked for permission. I think I maybe asked for permission after the fact, but I didn't tell you I used that picture last year when I was presenting at SAF of you in your flamingo.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Oh, yeah, that was so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

Was that part of the parade, or what were you doing? You were like standing out on the street corner or something in a balloon flamingo costume.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, we made that for the one of the parades, probably like our homecoming because we have a small university here, so we made it for the parade. And last year for the parade, I made a llama, a llama costume, and it's so cute. Use glasses, and but it's it was really cute.

SPEAKER_02 12:18

You're so creative, it's very obvious that you have found a really deep passion.

SPEAKER_00 12:27

I enjoy the balloons because it they make so many people smile, and especially little kids. I mean, yeah, and it's opened up a whole new market for us carrying the balloons. Before we sold some flowers to send to children, little girls mostly, but now we have a whole part on our website for balloons, and the um the amount of orders that we get to send to little kids is just great. And you know, I know that it's making them happy, and the people will send me pictures of their kids with the balloons, and that's that's really the great part about it.

SPEAKER_02 13:03

Do you get many opportunities to send uh any of them to like during teacher appreciation week to the schools, or do they allow that?

SPEAKER_00 13:13

Um, we haven't yet. One of the things I learned at Balloon Boss Summit was how to market to different things, different businesses. And you might think I'm an outgoing person, but I'm really not. Um, unless you know where you are. I um I didn't really feel comfortable like going and saying, hey, I really want you to get our balloons. Like car dealerships was a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:41

I hired somebody recently to help me with office and going to like the chamber of commerce after hours because I go, but I don't talk to anybody.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

But she's really good at it, and we got one car dealership already by her first attempt. Yeah. So we just go once a month, put up some balloons, go back the next month, change out the decor, and that's it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

You know what we need to do because you're in our flower click email marketing program. You and I need to come up with um a couple of emails just customized for you to send out during teacher appreciation week to your customer to go, hey, what teacher would not love this screen being delivered to the classroom? I mean, the kids would get such a kick out of that.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Last year, whenever we were big into COVID and all the restrictions, the balloon community created this nationwide movement, if you will, called Adopt a Grandparent. And we presented it to the nursing homes and said, we're gonna put this out there. Um, we're gonna do one nursing home at a time. And I went and I called and found out how many residents they had, and I said, okay, on we only went on Facebook and Instagram, and then the nursing homes would promote it as well. But okay, so St. Andrew Village had, I don't know, 87 residents. We would get people from the community, people that have family in the nursing homes to adopt a grandparent, and they would pay for a balloon buddy, and that's what that is right there. He doesn't have any arms, but that's basically what a balloon buddy looks like. Once we had like 87 balloon buddies paid for, then we made 87 balloon buddies and delivered them to the nursing home with a tag that said you weren't forgotten, and we the community cares about you, and here's a hug for you, or something like that. Was this little tag that we wanted? And we did that for all the nursing homes in our county, and I don't know how many balloon buddies we made, but a lot, and it just made so many people happy.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

So, how did they pay for it?

SPEAKER_00 16:00

They called in, they called in, and people were buying like two and three balloon buddies, and actually, my um chiropractor he got um somebody from Pittsburgh, which is like 60 miles east of us, and they made a I don't know what the donation was because she was giving away free x-rays and an adjustment for a balloon buddy purchase. Oh yeah, and she raised enough um money for us to get like two or three nursing homes done all at one time.

SPEAKER_02 16:34

Yeah, that makes me want to cry. I remember when you were doing that and I was noticing on your Facebook page, and I was like, What is a balloon buddy? And I think I called you and I could not believe it. That presses so many buttons in marketing your business, also right. First of all, reaching out to the community, right? You're just doing a good thing, and that was your your motive wasn't to get more business. Your heart really just wanted to make these people understand you are not forgotten. I know you're locked in, yeah, it's a scary time, but it's not forgotten. Um, but you've reached so many people, and in doing that, you got your name out there.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

I did, and we've actually picked up a few of the nursing homes, will now call us and order flowers for either someone that's ill or that has passed or something. So we've made connections doing doing that. That, like you said, that's not the reason I did it. And it we we were able to go into one of the nursing homes, and the newspaper actually was there and took pictures of us. And I was handing one of the residents a balloon buddy, and she was just so so happy, and she was like, Now I have a friend, and I just you know it breaks your heart, but you're so you know, I felt so good that I was able to make her happy.

SPEAKER_02 17:59

Yeah, yeah. Well, you clearly you were sowing seeds and you were reaping the benefits that you didn't even know, like you didn't even realize it. But so it's all about that heart motive, and you were definitely made a name for yourself. Okay, we gotta keep going because we haven't even got to the cool part. So, what did you have an opportunity to do last week?

SPEAKER_00 18:25

So there's something called the big balloon build, and it's always been over in Europe. Um, and this year was the very first year it was coming to the United States, and I put my name in there to um get chosen to be on this project, and they picked 65 balloon artists from around the world, and I got chosen as one of them, which I was so excited about. Yeah, such a big deal. You're a big deal, yeah. I feel like a big deal. You are a big deal. Wow, there were five countries and 22 states represented at the build. Yeah, okay. So where was it? It was in um the state of Indiana in a town called Vincennes. It was Vincennes, Indiana. Okay, and we went there, we spent a whole week there. The people there were so welcoming and so appreciative that we were there. We were it was to raise money for the Knox County United Way, and then they they um support a bunch of other um nonprofit organizations as well. Um, so we built this life-size Candyland board game. We were in a building that was a rec center. Um, I apologize, I can't remember the name of it. Stuart Davies, who is from Wales, created the the design for the Candyland um build. Okay, and they got permission from Hasbro Incorporated, who created Candyland to use their board game to um create the floor in the game, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Was that made a balloon?

SPEAKER_00 20:19

No, the flooring was made out of vinyl or okay, it was just a big vinyl candy land board that they stretched out over the whole floor, and so when you walked through, you were walking on the board game itself, and there were um different teams. I was on the peppermint woods team, okay, and everybody created their own section, and then we all we put it together as one cohesive unit at the end. I mean, we put up what balloon walls, we used 125,000 balloons to create the candy land. Wow. You know, I didn't know what to expect when I went there, and it was just beyond anything I could have even imagined. I mean, there were 20-foot candy canes, there was a castle, there was Plumpy's Forest, that trees were just massive. That you when you walked in, you walked through the forest, and then you went around the board game to all the different cupcake comes. Who was able to come through there? Did you buy a ticket or how how did they so Liz Ramani, who is from Valley Party Supply in Vincennes, Indiana, she was the host. Okay, and she was very active in her community, and there was a balloon dress fashion show. I saw that those people that create those are amazing.

SPEAKER_02 21:53

I couldn't believe it. Yeah, a pretty amazing one that was like a wedding dress, it had a train.

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Yeah, they were just phenomenal.

unknown 22:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

The United Way used that as a fundraising dinner. On Thursday, we had a ribbon cutting where we turned the build over to the United Way, and then they used it for the um fashion show. And then the next morning, Saturday morning, they had breakfast with the Easter bunny. So you could pay to go into that. And then Saturday it was open to the public. And the price of admission was a bag of groceries, like canned foods and things like that. Yeah. So they collected 14,300 pounds of food that were um filled up nine of the local food banks. My dad came from St. Louis, which was about a three-hour drive, and we stood in line on Saturday, and it was open at one, it was about 2:30 for an hour and a half to get in through the build. And it was like that until 10 o'clock at night. Wow. There were so many people that came from all over the country to go through this build.

SPEAKER_02 23:13

That is so amazing. And I can't even imagine how many people you met.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

The um mayor of Vincennes made us all honorary citizens of the county, and the people there were so nice to us. And um Qualitex provided the balloons for us to use, and um premium balloon accessories provided the air inflators because the balloons have to get inflated somehow. Um I you're not just sitting there blowing them up. No, I tied my fair share of balloons.

SPEAKER_02 23:48

I was wondering about that. Like, is there some sort of tool to tie, or is it all like back in the days? Just use your finger. Just your fingers.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

Yeah. Wow. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. And you know, the I love making flower arrangements and I really love making balloons, but this has provided me like right now, organic balloon decor is huge for weddings and bridal showers and baby showers. And not only are they ordering their balloons from us, but they're like, well, let's get some flower centerpieces. So they're ordering balloon backdrops to use for photos, but then they're also ordering their flower arrangements for their centerpieces. So it's really been a good business decision for me to take on the balloon part of things.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

What would you say if you gave me an estimate percentage-wise? What percentage of your sales are balloons and what percentage are flowers? Is it still mostly flowers?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

It is mostly flowers, and you know what? I wrote, I went on before the our talk and figured it out. The balloons right now is about 13% of our sales. Okay. But we had a really good year last year, and that was like $40,000. So yeah. And the the profit margin on balloons is pretty nice.

SPEAKER_02 25:17

So yeah, it's the the key to it is to have a talented laborer that knows how to do it, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:27

You gotta be, you can't take all day to make something, or you aren't.

SPEAKER_02 25:32

No, but and you gotta have an interest in it. So that kind of leads me to my next question. Do you have any proteges on staff that I do?

SPEAKER_00 25:41

Okay. Um, there's two girls that really seem and they're younger, okay. So they really seem to enjoy the balloons, um, maybe as much as I do. I did pick up one of the ladies that I met there, is a uh a clown, and she does twisting, like she makes balloon animal, they're called twisters. Okay. So she taught me how to make like because I could only make like a basic dog and a flower, but she taught me how to make all kinds of balloon animals. So if I'm gonna teach one of my employees to do learn what I did, so we're gonna go do a kid's carnival and be twisters for three hours.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

And that's something I would not have done prior to going there. Or thought, yeah, that's not gonna be worth it, right? Right, because I would take forever. But I mean, it's the I've learned a lot of basic twisting skills that I can make different things now.

SPEAKER_02 26:39

So you should also bring just like a little balloon person to put in there for so people can see what else you guys can create. Yeah, for sure. You can call it a birthday gift for the birthday boy or girl, but it's also advertising. Oh, she does more than just twisties, right? Yeah, that's that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Yeah, and I was said earlier about the organic, like the organic balloon garlands and arches. We've incorporated fresh flowers in with those, um, especially for weddings and showers. We just have incorporated the flowers into the garlands along with the balloons, so it's really worked out pretty well. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:24

I have noticed since you start doing this that I've actually taken more notice. And even here in Texas, Houston area, I've seen a lot more photographs of like surprise to the birthday girl, and they have the arches, or I'd say, um, baby shower, and they have the balloon arch, like it's becoming way more prevalent.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Um most of the I'm gonna say 99% of the people that I have met either at Balloon Boss Summit or at the Big Balloon Build are just balloon artists. They just do balloon decor. I think I've met two people so far that are also florists, but a lot of them have worked with florists or you know, refer back and forth to each other.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Okay, I have one question for you, or I've got a couple because I know we're running. Number one, do you have a piece of advice you would give to one of our listeners right now that they're probably listening because they're in the floral industry and maybe they're like, oh, I wonder if I don't think we have this niche in my neck of the woods. If you have one piece of advice for them on maybe the first step to take or what to do first, what would you say?

SPEAKER_00 28:48

I would suggest looking online for like there's Balloon University, there's Balloon Boss Summit, like there's conferences and you can learn so much there. And if you are one of those people like me who can look at something and kind of duplicate it, yeah, I that's how I started, but I have learned from other balloon people that there's easier ways to do the same thing, so you know it is hard on your fingers, and you know, all this cross work that we've done and wedding work and all this. Sometimes I have problems with my thumb. Yeah, um, so make sure you got somebody young to give them a reprieve when you need to, right? Yeah, and it's all air-filled, there's no helium involved, so you know. So that's nice. Yeah, some people can't get helium, right? So far, we haven't had that problem, but there's nothing helium about it, it's all air-filled, and it's the way the balloons are put together so they stand upright. Um, it's a lot of fun. I like it, it will open up a whole new um demographic for you. Right. It is an investment, but it's it's well worth it, and it just makes so many people happy.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

I mean, flowers do too, but I mean, yeah, it's nothing like little kids come in here and you give them a just a helium-filled balloon and you've like made their day.

SPEAKER_02 30:18

Well, and it makes them happy, but I also know it makes you it brings you a lot of joy, or you wouldn't be doing it. All right, last question for you. Okay, it's the question I ask everybody. What is inspiring you right now, Denise?

SPEAKER_00 30:32

Well, I'm still on a high from the balloon build. Um, I have several balloon jobs coming up, prom is coming up, and this is our local prom. Last year we did a balloon arch for them, and that's all we did. Well, this year they ordered 30 centerpieces, floral centerpieces to go with their balloon arch. So that that's amazing. Yeah. So, you know, they might have been going somewhere else for their flowers. There's only a couple other shops in the area, yeah. Um, but they came here for balloons, and then we just said, Hey, do you need flowers? Well, yeah, actually, we do, you know. That is so cool.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

I think that's my favorite story of the week.

SPEAKER_00 31:14

I'm I another thing that is, I guess, inspiring me is there's gonna be more balloon, big balloon builds in the states, so I want to be picked again. So I'm just gonna, you know, keep doing what I'm doing. And I learned this from you guys social media, doing Facebook Lives, and I don't do them all the time, one every week or every couple of weeks, maybe. Right. You know, I just try to do that. Keep just keep your faces out there, get involved in your communities. I mean, that's that's important.

SPEAKER_02 31:45

It's absolutely important, if especially if you are in a smaller town where there are you have a local downtown and a chamber and a community, that's it's worth the its weight in gold. The other thing I was thinking, and we can leave on this, is what I think would be fun. You know, we always talk about one of these days we're gonna have a flower click members only weekend retreat. You know, I don't know if it'll, but my vision for the whole thing is to have little one-hour classes for just again flower click members only, about what who's has a niche where and you could teach a little one hour. I love that. Wouldn't that be so much fun? It would be because to inspire the other people, you can do this too, or someone's gonna sit through it and go, that is amazing, and no, I don't want to do it. Right, and that's okay too.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah, yeah, there's just so many simple things that you could do, and you don't have to go out and buy every single balloon there is and do even if you just do one balloon thing that's different from the other shop in town. Yes, like we do a lot of balloon deliveries with birthday marquees that which have like a number on them and like a spaceship or whatever the little kid might like. But if you can just get that one thing, you can always sell your customer something else. So if you're gonna get flowers, say, Hey, how about this balloon buddy or whatever it is that you decide to get? I mean, yep, or if they order balloons, you say, Well, you sure maybe you would like to send flowers along with it, or even a bud vase.

SPEAKER_02 33:30

Yep, exactly. 10 bucks is 10 bucks. Exactly. That is the best advice for the week. You just need one thing, all you need is start start with one thing, and then you never know how that's gonna grow. So, thank you so much, my friend, for coming. And I'll let you get back to work. We'll talk again soon. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

We look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.