A balloon business was never on Jessie Brown’s radar.
“It just kind of happened. I was actually a therapist and school counselor,” Brown said. “This business only started about two years ago and that was after some trial runs with my family.”
Brown said her current business, Balloon Therapy, started at her mom’s house.
“My mom sent me a picture from Pinterest asking me had I seen these balloon garlands. I thought they were pretty cool and I just have an artistic family in general which helps. So we did a garland at our house. It was a little messy though. We brought in the chicken wire which scraped off all the paint on my parents’ wall in their house,” Brown said.
As with anything though, it got better with time.
“After I learned some new techniques and started doing things for friends at showers and graduation parties, [things got better.] It just kind of took off and formed on its own. It was really neat to see how it grew and then about a year ago, my business partner and I rebranded it to Balloon Therapy,” Brown said.
Word traveled fast about their balloon art. Many of their installations going viral on social media and catching the eye of California celebrities who wanted balloon art at their next big party.
Then, the pandemic hit and there were no more big parties. Brown found a way to reinvent the business for the time being.
“We had hosted a giant balloon conference called Balloon Con before where we had people from all over the country come and learn from us, so we were right pretty high [before the pandemic.] When it started, we decided to come up with digital classes because why not? We wanted everyone to have a chance to learn since we couldn’t do it in person anymore. We started doing it on our website,” Brown said.
Then, people started calling for outdoor installations to celebrate birthday parties and graduations in a grand way, even though they couldn’t host big parties.
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It’s a business Brown says is good for her soul too.
“My main goal is just to bring people joy and happiness. I think that is part of the counselor's side in me or the therapist's side in me as I love to see people’s reactions when we make these big backdrops. This is just kind of a weird time right now and its fun to bring people joy,” Brown said.
It’s not just about business though, its also about people. Balloon Therapy has donated several installations in the past to nonprofits like The Human Impact, STEM and Beyond, Bryan’s House and Children’s Hospital.
