Hidden Gems: Meet Shayla Maddox of The Party Popperz Company

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shayla Maddox.

Hi Shayla, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Hey! My name is Shayla. I was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN. I graduated from Brainerd High School and Middle Tennessee State University. I have three beautiful children names, Kayla, Skylar and KJ, who are my everything!
A little about how it all began, well I have always been that go to person for my family and friends when they needed help with anything, especially with their events from weddings, showers, birthday parties, and more. You name it, I was there behind the scenes! During it all, I’ve always noticed how hard it was finding extra people to actually help with setting up, hosting, and staying to clean up after the event was over. I wanted to solve this problem by helping others in need and offering event staffing services for weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties, and more.

In 2018, I worked towards having a business name, website and finally applied for my business license, but that alone didn’t push me to actually launch it to the world. I was dealing with some personal issues and self-doubt that were holding me back from actually putting myself out there. In 2020, at 9 months pregnant, I separated from my ex-husband and later on ended a marriage of 5 years. I became a single mother of three. The year 2020 was very rough for me from dealing with the pandemic, having a 2020 baby, dealing with a divorce, transitioning from jobs, adjusting to being a single mother, and now working with a single income.

I had to boss up and figure out how I was going to do more to provide for my family. Why not go for what I was called to do and the things that made me happy now? I finally decided to push myself in announcing my new business venture to everyone and launched it at the end of 2020. With the opened doors and opportunities given to me, I invested my money and time (even quit a good full-time paying job that had me tied down). I wanted more freedom with my children. I wanted a better working schedule. I wanted to finally be happy. In 2021, my business started growing and more events were being booked.

Many thought of me as a lifesaver for their events. I was getting future inquiries while working an event. The word started getting out more about my company’s services. I invested more and added on party rentals where I provide inflatable bounce houses, toddler soft play rentals, inflatable movies, concessions and hosts as an option to work the events. It took me two years but I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for me finally going for what I really want, taking risks and my support system for helping me push through the tough challenges that were meant to keep me down. I was finally not afraid to actually “Just do it”. Launch that business!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
To begin with, It hasn’t been a smooth road. I had to figure out ways to get my company’s name out there and for people to trust my services for their events. I used to just post and post and there wasn’t any engagement. Felt like I was just talking to myself. It used to be so discouraging. I was like, maybe people not really feeling what I do, maybe this is not for me. But I knew I couldn’t just give up so fast. I had to come up with ways to grab more attention in which I started learning social media management with promoting and advertising through social media to gain more leads and traffic to my website.
I had to learn to post more, take more pictures and videos of work, promote, promote, promote, and even when I feel like no one is supporting or sharing my work, I had to keep going! (And this was hard coming from being a very shy person and not liking to publicly speak or be a center of attention, lol). I had to break out of that shell and overcome that in order to become a successful business owner and for others to want to work with me. I had to talk more. I had to network more. I had to become a part of vendor events. In which our first vendor event will be at Hamilton Place Mall in April (more details will be announced soon).

Learning how to manage business finances, knowing the legal stuff, marketing, insurance, responding to customers, and providing the services hasn’t been easy to do especially when you are clueless about certain things and want things done the right way. I’ve decided to take on trainings and business classes such as (LAUNCH CHA) to help me improve as a business owner and to be able to tackle any barriers that may come my way. Being a business owner is definitely challenging and the road to success is not easy but you have to make certain sacrifices and changes in order to get where you want to go in life. Now my advertisements are doing great on social media and bringing in several leads.

As you know, we’re big fans of The Party Popperz Company. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
My company provides event staffing services from setup crew/decorators, hosts, food servers, and after-event cleaners. You can book one service, two services or them all if we are needed for the whole event. We also provide party rentals from inflatable bounce houses, toddler soft play rentals, inflatable movies, popcorn machines, cotton candy machines, and more!
What sets us apart from other event and party companies is that we actually provide professional event staffing to help with your weddings, anniversaries, ceremonies, birthday parties, and more! These services are not offered as much and I want to help provide these services for those in need for their events. We also travel!

The party rentals that we provide are one of a kind because they are uniquely made to bring the fun to you! Whether your child needs a bounce house for a birthday party, soft play set rental for a toddler party or daycare event or you may want to watch movies with popcorn on a 17ft inflatable movie screen in your backyard. We got it all for you! My inflatable attractions are named after my children and the things they like to do from KJ’s Playworld (the toddler soft play rental for ages five and under), and for much bigger kids, Skylar’s Bounce Party (coming soon) and Kay’s Safari (coming soon). You can add a cotton candy machine, popcorn machine, or portable speakers to bring more life to the party!

We also provide hosts to help work for your parties with setting up, serving food to guests, and cleaning up afterward.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
To keep going! No matter what obstacles, storms, or trials may come your way. Keep going! It will all get better with time, just continue to do what you love to do! Do not limit yourself as well. Explore your options, take that class, take that training to improve yourself and knowledge! Invest in yourself! It will all pay off and be worth it. I never thought that I would be doing what I’m doing today because of some life-changing events that had happen to me but I thank God for those lessons I’ve learned. It pushed me to do better and want better for myself and family. So please keep going!