Tag Archives: Ben Alexander

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June 6, 2014

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Acorns and #Entrepreneurs.

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As the founder of Balloon Distractions I have one simple goal that will probably take me another decade to achieve: get a team of twisters going in every city in the United States…. a couple thousand restaurants, and over a thousand balloon twisters.

No company has ever done this before in our little entertainment niche, but with existing teams in over 40 cities we have a good foundation and all the online systems in place to reach our goal.

During the work week I’m on the phone every day, talking to entrepreneurs in target cities and coaching all the new Regional Leaders that we’ve recruited since we appeared on Shark Tank earlier this year. Developing a Regional Leader is like planting an acorn, it takes time to grow but eventually you’ll grow a forest if you plant a new acorn every day, consistently and over a number of years.

During the weekends I’m out there filling balloon twisting gigs in our client restaurants, earning cash and staying in touch with the very basics of our business. Developing new leaders and then going out to entertain children keeps me grounded. I find tremendous in satisfaction in filling a gig, making kids laugh, and then driving home at the end of the shift tired, but with a pocketful of cash.

I used to think that it would be awful to be out twisting balloons at 40 years old, as if I had failed in some way…. but if we get this company to 200 cities and 3,000 bookings each week I’ll still be out there filling gigs. A child doesn’t care how big your business is, or even what you’ve achieved, they are in the moment and as an entertainer I’m bringing them a small memory of joy.

Nothing wrong with that.

If you are reading our blog and you would like to start a team with us take a look at this link:

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

Have a GREAT weekend!

Benjamin T. Alexander

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January 4, 2014

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A Construct of the Mind.

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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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December 30, 2013

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Lynch Mobs, Seduction and Balloon Twisting.

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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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Simplicity.

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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 28, 2013

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2 easy ways to Stay Happy.

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written by Ben Alexander

#1. Be useful and DO something every day.

Do something every single day that is measurable and productive. It could be exercise, a chore around the house, gardening, etc. I work from home 99% of the time, today I was closing new clients over the phone and talking with my database expert about changes to one of our systems. I also did the dishes and went food shopping.

One of the roots of depression is the feeling that you are worthless, but if you DO something you can draw satisfaction from that, at least for that day.

This is why I take care of my own yard, at the end of the day it feels great to sit on my back porch in sweaty clothes and drink a beer while the sprinklers run over my freshly cut lawn.

If you work hard every day, and get stuff DONE you will sleep well and have a great sense of daily satisfaction.  

#2. Serve others.

This does not mean you have to go out and solve the homeless issue, this can be as simple as cooking a nice meal for your family or cleaning up your home. When you are focused outward you gain perspective on your own life.

This upcoming April I’m going on my third trip to Honduras to install water filters with my fellow Rotary club members and Pure Water for the World. Going there, and seeing how people struggle with everyday life makes me tremendously grateful for what we have here in the United States.

Serving others also translates into my business, by making Balloon Distractions BETTER I am serving the independent contractor Artists and Regional Partners who make our concept possible.

The flip side of serving others is doing NOTHING for anyone but yourself.
We all know people like this, they never lift a finger to do anything… and then they wonder why they have no friends and are wracked with depression. If you are a business owner and you don’t serve your clients and your team you will be OUT of business pretty fast!

Serving others can be as simple as going to a local nursing home and just spending time with the people who live there. You can volunteer to mentor a youth group in church each week, or volunteer to frame out a house with Habitat for Humanity. During the recession there were several empty houses on my street with knee-high weeds, I started cutting all those lawns on a regular basis, which kept my street looking decent until those empty houses eventually found buyers.

As a member of the local Rotary club here in Wesley Chapel I was fortunate to serve as the president of the club 2 years ago, my goal during my year of leadership was to grow the membership of the club and we were very successful.    

There are so may ways to serve others if you just look around….

So, if you are feeling down try my 2 suggestions for the next few weeks, let me know if it helped you feel better about life!

 

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December 27, 2013

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Chiropractic WORKS!

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On the adjustment table at Dr. Pablo Rivera’s office @ Core Chiropractic. 

 

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Written by Ben Alexander

A few years ago I was taking a corner on my ’78 Honda and hit a patch of sand. I went down pretty hard, scraped my leg and broke a turn signal on my motorcycle, I thought I was fine….

… but I wasn’t.  

Two days later my lower back was totally tweaked, I could barely stand, twist, walk or do anything. I felt like a cripple.

Many people in this dilemma would go to a General Practitioner and get pumped full of dangerous pain killers or take muscle relaxants that zonk you out. I went to a Chiropractor and he adjusted my spine, I was fine a few days later.

Chiropractic WORKS!

My dad had been having difficulty walking because of an issue with his hip when he was 60 years old. I took him for an chiropractic adjustment and he left the treatment feeling better instantly. He had never been to a Chiro before that day, now he goes about once a month and he can walk pain free again!  

I strongly recommend Dr. Pablo Rivera in Wesley Chapel, owner of Core Chiropractic:

http://www.corespineandrehab.com/

Pablo is not only a member of the Wesley Chapel Rotary, I’ve also gone to Honduras TWICE with Pablo to install water filters with Pure Water for the World.

Dr. Rivera is my good friend and a great guy as well, he’s married with two sons in elementary school.

Pablo really has a Rotarian philosophy of taking care of people, and I have no doubt that his practice in Wesley Chapel is going to grow like crazy once people get to know him and experience how beneficial chiropractic can be.

I like the idea of maintaining optimal health without drugs, I’ll continue to use chiropractic throughout my life…. especially since I still ride that darn motorcycle!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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December 19, 2013

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Vultures and Sinkholes.

A giant sinkhole in Winter Park back in 1981.

A giant sinkhole in Winter Park back in 1981.
 
Written by Ben Alexander in February 2010
 
Florida is a really strange place. Predatory hawks swoop down into backyards and snatch small dogs for a quick meal, alligators longer than a sofa wander into random kitchens, and little lizards mate on the windowsill right outside my office window.
 
I’ve lived here almost 7 years and sometimes it starts to feel just like everywhere else, until yet another weird thing happens. In the first weeks of January of this year we had an unprecedented cold snap in which the temperatures dipped below 30 degrees for almost a week.
 
The sudden cold caused sinkholes and huge flocks of vultures wheeling over my neighborhood.
 
There was a cause and effect, let me explain.  
 
In order to protect the citrus crop all the farmers east of Tampa (in the Plant City area) started to mist their crops with millions of gallons of water. A thin layer of ice on the oranges keeps them from dipping too far below 32 degrees. Meanwhile all this water is drained out of the underground aquifer and it caused numerous sinkholes to open up in that area. Here is a great article about a giant sinkhole near Orlando back in 1981:
 
 
I wonder how many lakes were actually sinkholes that filled in with rainwater? The name of my town is Land O’ Lakes, Florida…
 
And that brings us to the flocks of vultures. There are several large lakes around my development that are chock full of gators, fish and every type of heron, gull and hawk you can imagine. When the lakes fell below a certain temperature all the fish died and floated to the surface.
 
There are always a small group of turkey vultures hanging out near my development because we live near a wooded area full of deer that regularly get killed on the busy road that passes nearby. They are highly social birds, and sometimes you’ll see them hopping excitedly over a deer carcass like college kids around a full beer keg.
 
When the fish died the area around the lake turned into a huge vulture party. Instead of just 5 or 6 birds there were over 100, perching on the roofs of the houses near the lakes or circling in the air 200 feet above their abundant food source. I think the circling in the sky is a way to advertise to all the other vultures in the vicinity:
 
“Hey fellas, there’s plenty of dead food over here, check it out !!”
 
When I walked around the lakes there were over a thousand fish carcasses on the grass, big bony skeletons with arched spines drying in the Florida sun, many of them over a foot long. The big ugly birds stayed in the area over a week, and by the time they departed there was no flesh left on any of the dead fish, and the unpleasant smell was gone.  
 
If the vultures had not arrived it would have been a much bigger mess…. this was nature’s way of cleaning up after itself I suppose.
 
As for the sinkholes, maybe one will appear under my neighbors house and I’ll finally get that lake front property I’ve always wanted.
Lovely to look at, isn't he ??

Lovely to look at, isn’t he ??
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December 19, 2013

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Really cold water.

Written by Ben Alexander in 2011

Some people are born with a genius-level IQ, these rare folks can fathom college-level calculus and play the violin while still in grade school. Not me. I’m stuck with the dull gray matter I was born with, so I’m doing my best to maximize my mental effectiveness.

Every morning around 8AM I’ll hit the pool for a cold swim… the pool in our development is NOT heated.

For the swim all I’ll need is earplugs, goggles, a swimsuit and a Timex watch to measure my time in the water… and a bunch of crazy determination. The water was a tad colder a few weeks ago when I started doing this, about 50 degrees. It will be just over 60 degrees tomorrow, and I’ll stay in the water about 30 minutes.

There is a strange relativity to exercise that reflects back upon your everyday life: when you conquer a physical challenge early in the morning it seems as if everything ELSE that you have to tackle that day feels easier.

You really never know how much you can do until you just go out and try it. 

Swimming in cold water does many things at once: burns tons of calories quickly, gets the blood pumping and focuses the mind on a singular task. It takes a certain level of personal discipline to get in cold water in the first place, yet once you get in and start swimming it feels pretty good.    

I have a very ambitious agenda on the table for the expansion of Balloon Distractions and I need to be at the top of my game as we implement these big changes. My crazy exercise routine grants me clarity, and I need it now more than ever. 

 

Tools of the trade...

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December 17, 2013

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The apple does not fall far from the tree….

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written by Ben Alexander

Next month my oldest daughter Claire turns 16. When I started Balloon Distractions she was only in kindergarten, she’s been there all along from Balloon Jams in our living room to expanding this across the entire country. Many times Claire and her sister Grace went with me to restaurants to train new artists, and they’ve been there all along when my wife and I have discussed business challenges across the dinner table.  

There are a handful of event gigs that I’ve been doing year after year, Claire has been going along with me as my “apprentice twister”. She’s wonderful with children and very good at handling people in general so I’m getting her ready to rock some restaurant gigs once she’s mastered a few more shapes.

My youngest daughter Grace has ZERO interest in doing this, so I’m glad Claire has stepped up to the plate. I don’t want to push them, I’m just glad to spend time with Claire, she is a joy to work with.

We’ve been in business 10 years already so it makes sense that we will still be around in another 20 or 30 years. I think Claire has some natural leadership talents that could lend themselves well to helping me lead this company, not just in the United States but internationally as well.  

At the same time I don’t want to be the type of business owner who promotes his child just because of blood, Claire will have to prove herself at every level.

As a parent I’m doing my level best to make sure both my daughters get a solid academic foundation that opens many doors to them, whether in business or elsewhere.