Meet Rachel Lipson | Founder & CEO

We had the good fortune of connecting with Rachel Lipson and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel, how has your work-life balance changed over time?
Like many founders, my life has evolved quite a bit since I started my business. I started my company in my 20s before having a spouse or children and put all of my energy into the business. Over time, as my home life developed, my work/life balance became virtually non-existent. I was constantly feeling pulled in different directions – never feeling like a great mom or a great business owner, always sacrificing something and feeling stressed and exhausted.

Once the pandemic hit, I worked around the clock, with my kids home full time and felt completely crushed and burned out. I knew I had to make a change. A chance meeting with an incredible business coach changed my trajectory. I began to focus my energy and time into building a more comprehensive team, training my staff effectively and learning how to properly delegate. Within a few months, I could feel the seas part! Suddenly I was available for small things like field trips, after school pick-up, playdates, coffee with friends and trips to the dog park — all things I had missed out on for the better part of the last decade.

In time, I found the space to start asking myself questions about what I wanted to be doing (for the first time!) — and have found a lot of joy in being a mother and a creative…and a visionary for the company I dreamt up.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
My company Blue Balloon Songwriting School connects highly passionate and creative music instructors with families looking for the most unique music lessons for their children. With a focus on songwriting, students learn to play an instrument through writing their own songs, from the very first lesson.

I founded the company in 2010 when I recognized a need for music lessons that went beyond the traditional approach. Word of mouth was (and still is!) my best friend and over the course of the past 12 years, we’ve worked with thousands of children to write tens of thousands of unique, original songs.

The ups and downs that come with entrepreneurship are extreme. The path has not been easy whatsoever but looking back and seeing that this company I built from scratch has made it through all these ups and downs and continued to grow and be so successful, gives me tremendous hope and gratitude for where things are at now, and what’s to come!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We opened our Miami branch in March 2020 – at the height of the pandemic in NYC – and my team has run the whole expansion remotely! I am so excited to visit Miami and check out the scene and meet our community down there in person ASAP!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d love to give a shoutout to my dear friend Gina Hamadey, the author of “I Want to Thank You”. Her beautiful, light-hearted approach to forging a life filled with more gratitude has had a profound impact on me! Finding new ways to show appreciation and recognize the small gifts we receive every day has given me a lot of optimism during a hard couple of years.

I also want to give a shoutout to Sel Watts who has taught me so much about people and time management but above all, has given me confidence to ask myself what I want to be doing! Momentum builds when you have your own company…as founders we give ourselves all the agency to create our business but very little when it comes to creating our own role.

Website: www.blueballoonschool.com

Instagram: @blueballoonschool

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rlipson

Facebook: @blueballoonschool

Image Credits
Isabelle Selby, Anna Schori