Balloon Twisting Kits & Online Learning

 

Having been a professional level balloon twister (www.UpJasbo.com) for around 15 years now I have seen a few changes. When I first got started things were simple. the designs were basic and tended to be virtually the same from twister to twister. Then slowly twisters took to the internet and the ideas began to flow and progress was quickly made away from creations that used one balloon to creations with several and even thousands. Back in those days balloon twisters knew one home on the internet.

We all lived at www.balloonhq.com, scrolling pictures and scouring the "guide" which was hundreds of pages of discussions and articles about the business of working at fairs, festivals and restaurants. I would know how many pages it was because I printed it out at my local library and watched the faces turn to frowns as that sucker churned off page after page. I read each and every one of those pages in hopes of making my fortune by making balloon animals, I needed to know as much as I could and in those days the internet was not something most people spent all day staring at, how could you? That connection tone screaming and connections as unreliable as they were. It was the late 90's, need I say more?

This community seemed to spawn a market where people would design balloon creations and then sell them in the form of instructional VHS tapes. I bought my fair share and slowly built up to working 4 nights a week in restaurants and other events on weekends. I was a busy twisting fool and it helped me pay my own way through college.

    Mr. Rainbow An Early Balloon Teacher Of Mine

 

In fact I even turned down an offer to begin working with the radio stations I was interning with because making minimum wage at a radio station would have been such a pay cut over making balloons part-time. Besides I had a bigger plan which would take me to Asia and help pay back those student loans I had to take out when the balloon money fell short.

So, I took a little break from the business so to speak and went off to teach English in Japan for three years as a part of the JET program. There I figured out how to work balloon twisting into a few lessons and even began teaching young kids how to twist basic balloon shapes. After returning to Colorado in 2006 I got back into the old balloon habit of working table to table a few nights a week.

It must have been the teaching experience melding with my mind always trying to figure out how to stay self-employed when I though I could create some instructional videos and sell high quality balloon kits.

My videos were shot, edited and posted on youtube, nobody was watching them! I tried teaching for the city recreation department, not so many students were signing up. I started giving the kits away as gifts and hoping I could figure something else out. The balloon kits went onto the back-burner where they stayed for several years.

                                                            My First Balloon Video From 2007

 

YouTubeChannel

Then I heard about www.udemy.com and www.skillshare.com. These were marketplaces to sell instructional courses. My idea was reborn! Now, these websites do have some pretty high standards and so I have been working on the fourth version of my video balloon twisting course and I am hoping to have it up and running this summer.

The great thing is that I discovered this amazing resource for learning! I love the courses on www.udemy.com! Some are better than others and some certainly do not seem to be put together as well as my course, alas, the work continues! My continuing work on this project finds me using Udemy courses to further my knowledge and skills which I hope will help me get my course online and see those sweet sweet dollars pour-in!

I wonder if that job offer from 16 years ago to work at the radio station is still good? Hmmmm, I think I will just continue on this self-employed project driven life. Wanna see some what else I am up to?
www.JR-Pro.com


www.JRProMedia.com
www.NorthernColoradoDJ.com
www.UpJasbo.com
www.TheOddHours.com