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January 14, 2014

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SHARKS! …. in balloon hats.

Shark Tank posted this pic on their Facebook wall today, and various bloggers have written about us ALREADY so there is no secret that our episode airing THIS Friday will be a BIG moment in latex history.

HUGE THANKS to all the members of the Los Angeles team who came out the day before and made these amazing shapes; the motorcycle for Robert Herjavek, Shark Hat for Lori Greiner, Fruit hat for Mr. Wonderful, Crown for Barbara Corcoran and Dallas Mavs player for Mark Cuban.

Most people have seen an artist twisting in a restaurant and never realized that you could build a fun and profitable business around that concept. We are the first company to establish a decade-long reputation with NATIONAL brands like Chili’s, IHOP, Applebees, Texas Roadhouse, etc.

Our online Orientation makes sure that 100% of our artists are trained to a very high standard, and 100% of our bookings are CALL CHECKED across 4 time zones.

We know that there are people out there who are looking for a fun business built on family values with a corporate culture of creativity and compassion towards children.

If you would like to work with us to build a region in YOUR area please go to:

http://balloondistractions.com/build-a-region.html

Feel free to hit the SHARE button below and work with us to bring more people into our fun and creative enterprise!

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Solar Guy in Florida.

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January 13, 2014

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What my company is REALLY about.

This is a little girl in a village outside Trojes, in the southern portion of Honduras. I made her a flower bracelet when we were in Central America in 2012 to install water filters with an organization called Pure Water for the World.

The $60 water filters we install prevent these beautiful children from dying of cholera, dysentery and E coli infections. A simple filter keeps the shadow of death from darkening the door of this little girl’s home.

One my main motivations in growing Balloon Distractions is to be able to buy 1,000 water filters each year across Central America. This is my GOAL by my 50th birthday.

It will cost about $60K for those filters. You have to build a pretty big business to be able to spend that much.

I’ll be going back to Honduras in April of this year, and every year after that, for as long as I’m able.

Maybe you are reading this and looking for SOMETHING of purpose in YOUR life. This company is just a conduit, a blessing, a force of good for children here and abroad.

If you decide to work with us you will gain far more than a paycheck, join me next year in Honduras, make these beautiful children a balloon and help us bring clean water to a village that has never had it, you’ll never be the same afterwards.

-Ben Alexander

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Solar Guy in Florida.

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January 10, 2014

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Faith transformed me as an entrepreneur.

I had struggled for a long time, chasing dollars instead of purpose and finding neither.

My business was slowing down and I felt lost.

It was at this point (in my late 30’s) that I humbled myself in prayer and accepted Christ into my heart.

“I can not handle this burden, tell me what to do God, come into my heart, guide me in Your wisdom.”

For a long time the rational / logical side of my brain had resisted Faith. If I couldn’t touch it and feel it I had trouble believing in it. But then I realized that I was surrounded by miracles; the love of my daughters, the love of my parents and friends, even a business that gave joy to children.

And I was SURROUNDED by many Regional Leaders in my company who are also people of abiding Faith.

I had realigned my heart with God, so then I set about realigning my company with a mission of helping people and becoming a conduit for God’s love.

Balloon Distractions brings joy to children, a blessing not only to the recipient but also to the artists creating those smiles and fond memories.

Over the last 8 months I traveled out to all our regions and got to know our Regional Partners better as well as their teams. We sold new clients together and trained new people, from Scranton to Seattle to Houston to Los Angeles. I was truly inspired by the energy and creativity that I found in our team.

I prayed for MORE good people to come to us and help us grow an amazing company, one that would glorify HIM and teach 10,000 people how to earn money for their families by bringing joy to children.

After all, Balloon Distractions does not belong to me, it belongs to the Creator. I’m merely a steward of the organization, and I’m tasked with making this the BEST company in our niche that touches the lives of the MOST people.

It was a miracle that BD was chosen out of 32,000 applicants to appear on Shark Tank, I hope that someone who sees us on the show will find this post and decide to JOIN us on our mission.

It is hard work, and the income is modest, but you can TOUCH LIVES in our business, and this is the greatest blessing of all!

Benjamin T. Alexander

January 9th, 2014.

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January 4, 2014

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The Simplest Business in the Ballooniverse.

This is all the equipment you need to run a BD region with 10, 20, even 50 artists.

You can earn an excellent income with the simple objects in the photo.

An apron, a hand pump and a few balloons to do tryouts and land new clients.

A phone to close deals and contact your team.

A laptop to access our online orientation and online X-scheduler. Here at HQ we handle the billing, payroll, licensing, background checks on new artists and all the other back office functions crucial to the smooth operation of a national company.

Of course, you also need a mode of transportation to get around, which was not included in the picture. Our Regional Partner in Los Angeles gets around on a motorcycle with his balloon apron in a backpack, you don’t even need 4 wheels to make this work!

Back in 2011 we entertained the idea of branching out into Balloon Décor. At our company HQ we bought heavy helium tanks, shelves of balloons, PVC, and all the other equipment you need to do balloon arches, columns, balloon drops, etc. We did a handful of jobs, but we realized that scaling a décor business nationwide would require tens of thousands of dollars in equipment that could be lost, stolen, damaged etc.

By keeping this concept light and simple, with online tools that organize people and clients we have an enterprise that can scale anywhere there are restaurants and families.

We can scale this globally, the internet knows no borders.

If you are reading this blog from somewhere else in the world and you have a business background please reach out to us:

http://balloondistractions.com/build-a-region.html

If you live in a city anywhere in the USA and you want to have a business that is super simple and efficient we would like to talk with you. You can go through our Online Orientation in under a week and start earning cash within about 10 days.

There is no financial investment to join us other than balloons (which you can buy anywhere) the gas in your vehicle and your time spent building a team.

You will be a 1099 Independent Contractor, so you determine your schedule, the pace of your work, and the size of your income.

You determine the SIZE of your success.

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January 4, 2014

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A Construct of the Mind.

written by Ben Alexander, January 2014

The only physical manifestation of our company is a balloon artist in a restaurant making a balloon for a child. After the customer goes home with a cool balloon there is no evidence that we were ever there other than our promo poster on the door.

We don’t have any storefronts or billboards next to the highways, no trucks or warehouses filled with product, no lasting “widget” that will be sold at yard sales and later discarded in landfills and left to rust.

We are a memory in the minds of children everywhere, something they will recall with vague fondness when they become adults….

Balloon Distractions is a virtual business, a business of information, ideas and memories.

It all started as a rough idea in my mind in 2003, through training systems that idea has been multiplied in the minds of hundreds of people across the United States, as well as information stored in the ones and zeros of our software in order to organize tens of thousands of bookings each year.

The most expensive component of our business has been our online scheduling program and our training / orientation interface. Both of these are the most effective way to spread information across time and distance, across 4 time zones, to pursue a common goal.

With the ongoing evolution of technology there will be more businesses that have little to no physical assets, with software that is parked on servers that are rented on an as-needed basis.

Is there a limit to these “constructs of the mind”?

As a student of economics I’m going to theorize that there are NO limits to how many different ways we will find to monetize the movement of information in the global economy. Just as Twitter, Facebook and E-harmony started as ideas there will be hundreds and thousands of “mental constructs” that create wealth in the future.

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January 2, 2014

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Get a $384 check next month!

NEW TRAINER COMPENSATION Starting in February 2014:

If you recruit and TRAIN a friend you will EARN $12 every time your friend fills a gig with no complaint.

If you train 4 friends, and they all fill 2 gigs / week, with no complaints ?

Your monthly check will be: $384

You get the Independent Contractor TRAINER BONUS every month that you personally meet our Active / Inactive requirement.

Active means you do one of the following:

Fill 4 gigs OR train 1 new Entertainer who fills one gig OR sell one new client.

If you are Inactive in any given month you will not qualify for a Trainer bonus for that specific month, but if you go ACTIVE the next month your Trainer commission will resume.

If you are interested in becoming a TRAINER please email Ben:

BenAlexander@BalloonDistractions.com

The basic requirements:

1. You must be a proven and reliable artist already on the team.

2. You must be willing to go through our “Be a Trainer” written training.

3. You will remain as a 1099 Independent Contractor with us, paid all commissions monthly.

4. You must be on Direct Deposit through our corporate HQ.

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December 30, 2013

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Lynch Mobs, Seduction and Balloon Twisting.

Recent advances in brain science have revealed that when we watch another person do something there are complementary, or “mirror neurons” in our brain that fire off in parallel with whatever we’re watching, even if we don’t actually move from our armchair.

If you are sitting and watching your friend bounce a ball off the sidewalk there is a part of your brain doing exactly the same thing, even if your arm is not moving, weird, eh?

This is why if one person in a room starts yawning everyone else will start yawning.

This is why you are more likely to feel like dancing when you see other people dance, cry when other people are crying, and laugh when everyone in the room is already laughing, etc.

When I used to lead sales meetings in my previous career I would nod my head at the other people in the room, invariably the people watching me would start doing the same thing without even realizing it. Mirror Neurons at work.

If you are on a date and trying to look more desirable to a member of the opposite gender you can sit in the same posture, and adopt the same cadence and tone of voice to put them at ease.

Con men use body posture to establish rapport with a potential rip off victim.

Mirror neurons explain why angry people in a lynch mob will riot, murder and cause property damage in a way they would never do if they were acting alone.

Humans are highly social primates, and this weird mammalian quirk helps us blend in, and ostensibly survive. Since our brains (and our neurons) are more active when we’re younger it seems that people under the age of 25 are much more susceptible to the group activities surrounding them, whether in a church, a cult, or even in boot camp for the Marine Corp.

If the Marines tried to indoctrinate 50 year-old recruits they would have a much harder job building a cohesive platoon willing to take orders without question.

So how does this tie into making balloons for folks in restaurants?

If you smile at the customer they are more likely to respond back in the same manner.

If you have an awful attitude the customer will reflect that back to you.

I found that when I had a great attitude, my restaurant tips went through the roof, but if let myself get frustrated I would not do well.

Children respond very well to positive energy and a sincere smile, even as young as a few months old.

-Benjamin T. Alexander

written in 2012

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December 30, 2013

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NOTHING is Permanent.

Written by Ben Alexander in 2008.

I was in New York during the spring of 2001 on business and I found myself in lower Manhattan.

I had never gone to the top of the World Trade Center, but when I pulled into the parking garage at the center the rate was exorbitant, about $15 an hour.

I had gotten a $50 parking ticket from NYPD the day before so I said to myself “To heck with it! I’ll check it out the next time I’m in the Big Apple; it’s not worth the 15 bucks!!”

Of course, the next time I was in Manhattan the parking was not $15 anymore because there was NO garage, NO giant towers above—just a 10-foot tall cyclone fence surrounding a gargantuan hole in the ground.

Ground Zero, indeed.

The last time I was in Asia I bought some interesting books on Buddhism and read them while I was on the 14 hour flight home over the Pacific….

One of the concepts in Buddhism is: Nothing is permanent.

Back in the spring of 2001 I never would have imagined that those gargantuan buildings would be gone in the next hundred years, let along the next 6 months….and they fell in the same time that it takes to read the business section of the local newspaper.

If the Twin Towers are not permanent then neither is your marriage, your children, your career, your wealth, your house, your car…. anything that you can touch.

Failure is not permanent, but neither is success!

Our current economic doldrums are not permanent; it will pass and things will pick up again.

Even knowledge is not permanent; when humans disappear and our books disintegrate—the Bible, the Koran and the Talmud will all be gone, along with the religions upon they’ve been promulgated.

Even the people who want to BURN books will be long gone as well.

There will always be change; so if everything is always changing, how can anything be permanent?

Just as the World Trade Center looked solid, strong and immovable, that was merely an illusion quickly dispelled by a team of suicidal terrorists at the controls of two fully fueled jetliners.

If there is a negative situation in your life, you can gain perspective by realizing that whatever IT is, it is NOT permanent.

We are really tiny in the grand scheme of things. Humbling, isn’t it?

Even the most famous person is just a speck of sand on a beach that stretches a thousand miles.

Depending on what you believe perhaps the only thing that is an exception to this rule is God, but while we are still alive there is no sure answer to that question as well.

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December 30, 2013

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Simplicity.

written by Ben Alexander

LIFE is not easy. It will pull at your sweater and unravel you thread by thread until you stand naked in front of a room full of everyone you’ve ever known, then you’ll wake up from your nightmare realizing that in real life it’s 2AM and your fish tank has just sprung a leak and is flooding your living room floor.

Yes, this scenario actually happened to me.

Thankfully all the fish survived, so I gave them back to the pet store and no longer have to worry about maintaining a fish tank as large as a coffin.

There will be random events in your life that complicate things, so for this reason it makes sense to clear the path of all the challenges that you CAN control and strive for Simplicity, a philosophy designed to smooth the path a bit and clear the way for whatever success you were destined for.

The Simplicity Concept is one that I wish I had been aware of when I was a young man starting out in life, a philosophy that I formulated through countless boneheaded mistakes as well as a handful of successful ventures as well. These concepts come from being the father of 2 lovely ladies, living a lot of life in 40 years (and making mistakes) along with owning a national company with hundreds of young associates and seeing them undergo various challenges, from dating woes to drug addiction to just general disorganization.

Simplicity thinking looks at all areas of your life and asks one (simple) question: IS this complicated for no reason, can we simplify this?

In high school and college you might learn about the victor of the 100 Years War, the sublime use of the periodic table and Gregor Mendel’s theories of genetics but they fail to teach you the common sense lessons that you need to navigate the shoals of our modern adulthood without wrecking your ship on the hidden rocks beneath the water.

I personally embrace a lifestyle of Simplicity; in my community work, as a husband, a father and as an entrepreneur.

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December 29, 2013

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The Unlimited Creativity of the Ballooniverse.

Famous balloon artist Jason Szabo and his amazing Yoda….

Balloon art really took off in the 1990’s when people started sharing pics on this website:

http://balloonhq.com/

Previous to that there were a few basic books and some small conventions around the world, but once the folks in the Ballooniverse started to collaborate there was an explosion of new ideas.

Balloon Distractions has had over 4,000 people learn balloon twisting in our organization since 2003, so we’ve been a small part of the expansion of the Ballooniverse, no pun intended!

Twisting balloons in restaurants is a great way to get very fluent at the art and earn some decent cash as well, the CEO of our company worked in restaurants during his last 2 years of college and graduated with no student debt!

There is also the added benefit of bringing joy to people through balloon twisting…

Balloons represent a colorful medium for creativity all over the world, and we are proud to be a part of it!