EP # 195 - Balancing Business Growth & Family Life - A Balloon Artist's Journey to Building a Dream Life

Guest: Paola Di Fonzo, Owner of Balloonique

What started with a $30 DIY balloon project during maternity leave has blossomed into Balloonique - a flourishing event decor company serving the GTA. In this episode, Paola shares her entrepreneurial journey, proving you don't have to choose between family dreams and business success.

🎈 The Journey:
• Maternity leave creative project → Professional decor company
• Solo creator → Team of three + company truck
• Weekend installations while homeschooling during the week

💫 Key Moments We Explore:
"I thought maybe in 5-10 years we could do this..." Paola reflects on how her hobby unexpectedly accelerated into a thriving business within just one year.

🔑 Business Growth Insights:
• Using creativity beyond balloon art - in marketing, processes, and problem-solving
• Building systems that protect family time while allowing business growth
• Finding and trusting team members who share your vision

✨ Most Surprising Discovery:
"Business sense is very close to common sense" - Paola shares how she transformed from doubting her business abilities to confidently leading a growing company.

💡 Biggest Takeaway:
You can build a successful business that works around your life priorities - not the other way around. It's about getting creative with your systems and trusting the process.

🎯 Connect with Paola:
Website: https://balloonique.ca
Instagram: @ballooniqueto

Transcript

Maggie Perotin: [00:00:00] Welcome everybody to the next episode of diamond effect podcast. Today. I have one of my fabulous clients, Paola. Paola, welcome. Welcome. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Thank you, Magge. Thanks for having me back. 

Maggie Perotin: Yeah, I'm so happy. I love to bring back my clients and talk about different topics or even the same topic, but from a different perspective, because, as time goes and we grow.

There is different perspective. But we will start as always with introductions in case somebody sees you for the first time. So please introduce yourself, tell us a little bit about you and your business. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Absolutely. So my name is Paola. I'm the owner of Balloonique. We are a balloon decor company here in the GTA specializing in event decor throughout Toronto, Vaughan, Durham region.

This is our fourth year. In business. And I was looking back at notes from a previous podcast we did together, Maggie, and it said, and this is my, it's like we've been in business for one and a half years. And I thought, Oh, we were just such a little baby business. I have so [00:01:00] much more insight now to talk about.

So we're here, which is nuts. It started as a hobby and it grew pretty quickly. And here we are with a team and a company truck and hopefully a workshop down the line too, but we're having fun. 

Maggie Perotin: That's awesome. And I can't believe it's been already a couple of years since I interviewed you. I thought it was like six months ago.

Paola Di Fonzo: I don't know if we've done one or two or three, but one of the scripts that I was reading, it said one and a half, and I thought, wow, what did I have to say back then? 

Maggie Perotin: You had a lot to say. We always have, when we sometimes discredit ourselves, right? Thinking that oh, two years ago, I didn't know what I was talking about.

And now, of course, as we grow, we have more insights. But I think we also have insights that we wouldn't have had in each stage of our. Because I'm similar. I try not to watch whatever I recorded [00:02:00] three years ago. That's probably not great, but I'm sure there would be some gold nuggets in there.

There's 

Paola Di Fonzo: still value in it for somebody. 

Maggie Perotin: Yes. Yes. So if you can talk about a little bit about your business growth, right? Going from being alone in your business to now having a bit of. And starting really as a hobby to now being a professional business with a team with the track. If you could go through a couple of stages, how your business grew.

Paola Di Fonzo: Yeah. So as I mentioned, I, it started as a bit of a hobby. I was on maternity leave itching for just like a creative outlet. I just, my whole world was baby. And I was creating ways to find myself again, as most moms I know would resonate with, and creative outlets have always been a way that I've reconnected with myself.

So whether that's music or writing poetry or art and through different mediums, I was searching. In that season, my sister had, brought up to me this [00:03:00] stuffed balloon concept and I was like, what are stuffed balloons like these balloons with gifts inside and the whole magic about it is like, how do they get a big stuffed animal inside a little opening of a balloon?

And so we started to do our research and. Found out the machine that they used to make, it was like 500. I said, that's too expensive for a little hobby. But then we found out how we could build it for 30 from materials from Home Depot. And then we did that and it was a lot of trial and error, but we figured it out, this bucket, we had this bucket and, we started to gift things to friends, to family.

Friends of ours who own some businesses, little things for their businesses, like giveaways, and then it snowballed. Once you hit the balloon algorithm on Instagram, there's no going back. You're stuck. I can't get it off my explore page, even when I want to de stress and not think about work, it's there.

But you start to see like decor pieces and. beautiful things people were doing. And back then when we started, I thought, wow, maybe in [00:04:00] five, 10 years, we can think about doing that. I don't know like where this will go, but within a year we started having friends and family just ask, Hey, would you be interested in trying to do a garland for my baby shower or my birthday?

And we thought, okay. And Yeah people are very generous with their tips and tricks on YouTube for free. So we just watched a bunch of YouTube videos and started to teach ourselves and pick up different techniques. And it just became serious so quick. And at that time, my sister sat me down and was like, I have a career.

She's a teacher. She's built to be that way. That's her vocation. She's if this is going to pick up and go I can't walk with you. And so that was about within the first year, and I said, no problem I think I can see this as something that I can use to, leave my nine to five.

I knew I didn't really want to go back to the job I was in. I wanted to be home, potentially [00:05:00] homeschool my babies down the line. And I saw this as my shot, like it came out of nowhere. And I dove in head first and I got a coach, thank you Maggie, and here we are. And now I have a team of three amazing people.

We got our company truck. We are doing corporate events all over the GTA. We work with incredible clients for personal events. And it has become the catalyst for living out the life that I always dreamed of as a mom. It's been a wild ride. 

Maggie Perotin: I'm so happy to hear that.

Yes. So now let's talk about creativity, right? Because A, you're super creative. Clearly you were looking for the outlet. You love poetry, arts, and so on. And I remember our first conversation, I think it was in the first interview, where you were thinking I'm this creative person and I'm not. Business person.

You thought that was two opposite things, right? And we coached on it and so on. So now going back a little bit of first [00:06:00] circle, I want to ask you how creativity is actually helping you grow your business. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Yeah. And I remember that conversation. Because my job is obviously it's a very obviously creative one.

I take materials and build something out of it. That's like the definition. But I'm finding creativity popping up in so many other areas. Prior to three months ago, I would say things like web design, right? Until I outsourced that to an incredible agency and they did my whole rebrand on my website.

But up until that point, like I was designing my logos and my social media platforms and how I was showing up there and organizing that space. But even things like developing strategies to reach my ideal client, like that takes a bunch of. Creative thinking, to understand, how can I. Market myself for potential clients who might not have thought about balloon decor and in the ways that I might pitch it to them.

Another thing for me, which is one of the [00:07:00] biggest parts of the job is problem solving. So it involves a large amount of creativity. Especially when you're on the job, something doesn't go to plan. It doesn't happen too often, but when it does, like you could shut down, you can panic. A big part of serving my clients in that moment is brainstorming ways to, to pivot, to bring the vision to life in a new way, despite whatever hurdle we're facing, coming up with plans like B and C all involved.

Creativity. And most recently, which has been like super thrilling, which is going to sound so pathetic, but it's creating processes that work. Holy moly. I know we've coached on that quite a bit, but processes that make the customer experience more pleasant. That saved me so much time on the back end.

And seeing the processes come together and flow seamlessly is so rewarding. But bringing them to life took a lot of creativity [00:08:00] and time because it's not my forte. 

Maggie Perotin: You're putting together a process or a strategy is creative. It requires problem solving, it requires imagining, okay, what outcome do I want at the end?

And what are we doing now? How can I improve it? Or how can we get there? It's creative. One thing that I want to talk about is marketing. I see, my creative clients are so good at marketing. And especially like content creation, right?

And social media, online marketing. Because it does require like ideas. you get ideas, and ideas that stand out. And that creativity when you channel it that way, it works for you so well. And, I always refer everybody to your Instagram because it's so beautiful and it's so creative and innovative, not only with the things that of course you create with the balloons and the decor, that's beautiful, but also ideas you have for [00:09:00] posts and reels.

Paola Di Fonzo: Yeah. Yeah. I'll have one message, but there are 500 ways to deliver that message. And I know this one, I'm like burnt out on social media. The most when I'm like, I got nothing left. I don't know how to rephrase this and make it, compelling and exciting. But you're right.

Even in coming up with those different concepts, it takes creativity too. I really don't like the social media space. I think that's a big challenge for me, creating on that platform, but it's nice to hear that it resonates and it's enjoyable for some. It's hard. I'm not a content creator.

Oh my gosh. 

Maggie Perotin: It is. And it's funny. You don't think about yourself as content creator, but I would think of you as content creator and not for content to make money out of the content, but really that natural content creator where you create very engaging posts. And of course, you'll get rewarded.

If the, for the lack of a better word with that, because people [00:10:00] come to you that way, right? Like you find clients not only but also through Instagram or through, through social media, because they resonate with that content. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Thank you. That's nice to hear because it, yeah, we say I think a lot of us who aren't doing content creation as the job itself, find it very taxing, but it's an investment and it has a return and, social media.

It's hard. 

Maggie Perotin: That's a whole other, podcast we could do about it. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Totally. I 

Audio Only - All Participants: know. 

Paola Di Fonzo: But 

Maggie Perotin: yes, creativity and business totally go together, and there's so many ways, right? You can use it, to the benefit of your business. Okay, so now let's talk about having a young family, you have a very young family, and running a business and doing it in a way that works for you, right?

And I'm not saying, Oh, it's all, roses and butterflies, right? It takes [00:11:00] maybe intention and boundaries and whatever, and sometimes has challenges, but how do you do it? So it works. So running a business works for you in a way you want it, right?

Paola Di Fonzo: I'll start by saying that like my family is my number one priority and I think any mom would say that. But what I mean by that is like the lifestyle we chose as a family that involves me being home. Homeschooling our children and just doing things a little bit off the beaten path.

That vision is also my number one priority. So I homeschool my soon to be four year olds. My weekdays are built around that. I build in a few hours a week for admin and prep. And then my weekends really are my time to go out and spread balloon magic across the GTA while my husband is home from his job.

I do that with my team now, but in the beginning it was solo installs, sometimes bribing my husband or sister to help, and then slowly started to assemble a team of people who I could trust and train to slowly replace [00:12:00] me so I could continue living out that dream of ours where I am home because, there's been an ebb and flow as we've evolved in this business where it's like, Oh, wow, we're getting traction and clients and I'm getting busy and it's what we want, of course, but then it's Oh, I haven't, I'm not really at home, like in investing that time and energy.

And so it's do I have to scale back? Do I have to pull back? But no, then you implement a certain strategy to allow for that growth, but still, and it's been that over the years, getting very creative again with balancing that, those processes I mentioned. That minimized my time on admin, like my inquiry form that captures so many details from potential leads.

So it saves me so much time when it comes to communication has been a game changer. The software I use for sales, for invoices helps me keep track of sales and expenses very seamlessly. Email templates. I have email templates typed up for so many different scenarios. And [00:13:00] that has been huge.

Like I was typing the same thing over and over and over to clients. And it was insanity. Like it was just a waste of my time. I'm in my fourth year of business and it's taken me about three of those years to get to this place of momentum and ease and clarity around my processes. But I'm finally starting.

To see the fruit of it, which has been huge. And it's been a long time coming and a lot of preparation, especially because like I mentioned earlier, these things don't really come easily to me. Like I can sit and create a mock up. For hours or a balloon arrangement and get into that creative flow, but organizing an inquiry form or trying to streamline, like how can I streamline the customer experience?

Those tasks make me want to pull my hair out. So it's just been a long time coming to get here, but I see it now. And as this business wants to grow, it continues to push [00:14:00] into new realms. I find myself at crossroads every few seasons, do I hold it back, prevent it from taking off the way it naturally wants to, or do I put plans in place so that I can let the business soar without losing focus on the goals that we have for myself and my family.

So again, introducing a team, getting that truck, it's all allowed for that expansion. 

Maggie Perotin: Yeah, and I love how you talk about it. As our business takes off and grows, there will be a point where, okay, whatever worked for us so far starts not to work, right? And we always have different choices.

The choice could be, okay let me pull down because I don't want it to grow or I'm scared or I think that I have to continue the same way and with that things will break or I will lose the balance that I created for myself or I can get creative and think [00:15:00] about what do I need to implement as you say to allow it to grow and yet still keep the boundaries that are important to me, right?

And that requires sometimes learning a new skill now I need to hire people and lead people. I got to become a people leader, right? And if I'm willing to do that opens another level of business growth, or I've got to do things that maybe don't come to me naturally, or I don't know how to do it because I've never done it.

I got to learn how to create processes and systems. So then, my people know what I'm doing. I'm saving time. Everything is streamlined and so on. So it's not like we never have. solutions or choice, or we have to either give up our balance or slow down our business. I don't believe in that.

It's just a matter of introducing new things that require a bit of effort, that require learning skills, that require overcoming fear, whatever that is, [00:16:00] discomfort. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Yeah, absolutely. I've noticed too a shift, I think in the first Call it two years, two and a half years.

It was the pattern of something's calling me to expand and then I'm trying to catch up to that call 

Audio Only - All Participants: and 

Paola Di Fonzo: fix my processes or make it what can I do better to make this work better? But now, and this is the work we're doing in the diamond effect group with getting into the mindset of a CEO, I'm like ahead of it.

So I'm like, how can I prepare for when the business grows again. Getting a team of three assembled way earlier than I might absolutely need a team of three. That way it's, I think the way you frame it, Maggie, which really resonates with me is that. You are inviting that growth.

You're like almost manifesting the growth by making your processes work. What would this look like in five years? Start acting like that now. I love that thinking and that's really helped me. So I'm almost trying to stay ahead of [00:17:00] falls for growth and they don't sneak up on me and I have a meltdown.

Maggie Perotin: Yeah, exactly. Because you see it coming. You can imagine you believe in it and now you're thinking, okay if that's coming, what do I need? 

Paola Di Fonzo: Yeah, and I'm already mapping it out in my brain, but I do want to say to be very transparent for any other moms who are listening. I'm also very honest about accepting this stage of the life of my life that I'm in right now.

Like I have one young child, another on the way. This is my season. My season is slowed down to be present to not girl boss, like too hard. And I'm okay. with that, like somehow through all of this, all the ways that I've just mentioned, I'm achieving both, but I also accept no, I don't want three, four installs every weekend.

I want to be with my family. That's just the season I'm in and I'm okay with that. So I think that's part of the balance that like, I really want to make sure is mentioned. 

Maggie Perotin: Yeah. And it's important because as you say, maybe 10 years down the [00:18:00] line when the kids are at a different stage, you might be like, okay, bring all the growth, right?

Whereas now you're, yeah, I do want to grow, but you don't want crazy growth because I also have young family that's expanding, which is very exciting that, I want to create a balance for this stage of my life. 

Paola Di Fonzo: 100%. Great. 

Maggie Perotin: Okay. So talking about different stages of entrepreneurship. What are the most rewarding parts of being an entrepreneur?

And what are maybe some challenges that you've experienced or experiences that 

Paola Di Fonzo: the hardest part I was reflecting on this question and I went in a few different directions, but I landed here. The hardest part for me has been trusting others to care about this business the way I do as I've been hiring a team.

So I know I shared that with you and coaching to Maggie, like finding individuals who are equally as reliable, excited. creative, [00:19:00] want to give our clients the best experience possible. Early on, I shared that fear of, this is like one of my babies. It was born the same year that my firstborn was born.

And, I care about it so much because it is a, Part of me and extension of me, right? It's not just a way I'm making money. Like I really love the work I do and working with the families that I get to work with. I cherish that. How will I find people who cherish that too when they haven't birthed this the way that I have.

When you asked me, you said, how were you when you worked part time? And I thought, yeah, I really wanted to thrive in all of my part time jobs, even though I didn't own the business. I just wanted to do my best. And you encouraged me that there are other people like that out there, and I found them and now I have three amazing team members who I can trust to make the business continue to soar.

It doesn't have to be me alone. That has been so rewarding, like such a load off my shoulders that I can train people and they can do the [00:20:00] things and it's not always me, but that was really hard for a while. Like I dragged my feet a lot in terms of hiring. Because I just thought everything I've built is just going to crumble in other people's hands, but it's been the complete opposite.

They've brought their own gifts and talents to the table. That I don't have, like I have, I talk about them differently. Like one of my team members, he's just so good at problem solving. So if you run into something, a hurdle on site, he's okay, he stays calm and he like, here X, Y, Z solutions.

Or I have another team member who's so creative, like she can. She can see the shape of a garland the way like I would, or even better, in her own way, but it's beautiful, right? They just bring their own thing to the table and it doesn't feel like a challenge anymore. But that was the hardest part for a while.

Maggie Perotin: It 

Paola Di Fonzo: was worth overcoming. Yes, absolutely. And that leads into what the best part of entrepreneurship has been [00:21:00] so far, is just surprising myself and seeing What I'm capable of, I would have never considered myself capable of starting a business and growing one successfully. I didn't go to school for business.

I didn't do the traditional things that I thought you needed to do to be an entrepreneur. Sales don't come naturally to me. I'm not like, I wouldn't work at a car dealership. I would suck at that. But I'm slowly learning about being courageous and taking leaps of faith and. I guess I'm just amazed at what I've been able to achieve alongside the wonderful people that I work with.

So 

Maggie Perotin: yeah. And it is when you look back the four years or five years, even before you started a business. Would you ever think that you would be here -where you are? It's so amazing, and I'm so proud of you. 

Paola Di Fonzo: I owe a lot of it to the support you've given me truly, I'm not even, yeah, it's been wonderful.

Maggie Perotin: Let's talk about Diamond Effect Group. You joined it, I don't even remember, was [00:22:00] it two years ago?

Audio Only - All Participants: Two years, maybe? Maybe, yeah, two years ago when your business was I think when you were deciding, okay, I want to take that hobby to something more professional. So if you can talk about it, were there any other reasons why you joined and how did it help you, to get where you're at?

Paola Di Fonzo: So to keep up with the momentum that was generating pretty organically with the business, I knew I needed to enhance my business sense. I really just didn't think I had any of it. I'm learning now that like business sense is very close to common sense. So I can come up with a lot of good strategies that I didn't learn from a textbook.

It's just this is what makes sense. So that's been nice to learn. But in order for the business to grow, I knew I had to be intentional about developing a CEO identity. And I had no idea what that meant, and I still feel silly about using that word. I feel like an imposter, when I think of myself as a CEO, but this group has helped me primarily to see myself [00:23:00] in that way, and learn how a successful CEO not only runs a business, but how they conduct their day to day life.

Bringing that into my whole life. What is their morning routine look like? What attitude do they bring to their work? Are they frantic and stressed and throwing anything at the wall to see what sticks? Or are they calm and calculated and courageous and prepared? Do they have strategies, how can I be more of those things? And I, that's the main takeaway for me so far from the group is helping me do that. It's helping me step into that identity and see myself as, a big girl, who is capable of doing this. And, I think that's my biggest takeaway from every session we have so many people like myself are doing it, succeeding, we're doing it.

It's possible in my mind, like a CEO is. a pantsuit and a briefcase and at the financial district and that's it. But it's not that it can be compassionate. It can be, I can bring my own unique gifts [00:24:00] to that, to that role, but I can still lead and build something pretty amazing. And that, yeah, again, going back to one of the biggest takeaways, that's a huge takeaway and it's from this group.

Maggie Perotin: Ultimately, we all have the capability or expanding and learning anything we want. Because you mentioned that, Oh, I'm not good at sales. I could never sell cars via car, but it's not because you're not good at sales. It is because cars don't excite you.

It's not something that you would stand behind and tell the person, Oh my God, you got to get this car, but when we have something that we're believing, we're excited about, we know it brings value to people in one way or another, what you offer brings a lot of value. It elevates the events, it elevates the experience people have, how they feel, it creates memories for them, 

for every event and you know that you believe in it, then selling [00:25:00] is easy in a sense because it's all you need is like Telling that to the client who already wants it. This is what I can create for you. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Yeah, a hundred percent. I resonate with that. 'cause I think about I'm not even passionate about balloons per se and hear me out.

I'm passionate about, helping people celebrate in a beautiful space, but also give them their time back. And I work primarily with a lot of moms. My main passion is motherhood, truly. And I think it's important for me to have that clientele because we all need help and we all need a load off to know that I can provide that for so many moms in the area has been huge and that's where you can see the passion behind what I do.

Maggie Perotin: Yeah. Balloons are the vehicle to create memories while offloading your clients trying to do it all by themselves or not doing it and maybe, not regretting it down the line. Yes. 

Paola Di Fonzo: Yeah, 100. 

Maggie Perotin: Yeah, that's awesome. So now is there anything else that [00:26:00] maybe you wanted to share that we didn't touch on before we 

Paola Di Fonzo: No, I think that, even just preparing for this podcast episode reignited the excitement that I have for this business and just building a business, whatever it is, like in this context, it's a balloon business, but just realizing wow, we're capable of so much when we just believe in ourselves and set up.

Build people around us who are going to encourage that and cheer us on. Yeah, I just feel really proud and grateful for this crazy journey. It's been crazy. 

Maggie Perotin: Yeah, we are capable so much more than we give ourselves credit for, and we're capable of really learning anything we need to get where we want to go, right?

It's just a matter of going towards what we want, and that gives us So I believe that it gives us really that motivation to Oh, I can learn this because in the end of this, I'm [00:27:00] getting what I want. Whatever that is. Yes. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So how people can connect with you, where they can find you.

Paola Di Fonzo: Sure. I suggest visiting our brand new, beautiful website. We just rebranded a few months ago and I just can't get enough. So our website is www. balloonique. ca. That's B A L L O O N I Q U E, balloonique. ca. And then you can follow us on socials to stay connected. That's at Balloonique, B A L L O O N I Q U E T O.

Maggie Perotin: And we will share all those links in the show notes or, we'll tag each other on social media as we post it. So it will be easy for everybody to find. Thank you so much, Paula, for doing this with me. 

Paola Di Fonzo: That's awesome. Thank you, Maggie, so much. We'll talk soon.