Samir Balwani 0:03
Hi. I'm Samir Balwani, host of Chief Advertiser and founder of QRY, join me as I talk to industry leaders about their strategies, challenges and successes in managing their advertising and marketing. On our episode today, I have Helen Christoni, the senior VP of AirDoctor and AquaTru by Ideal Living, she is probably one of the smartest people I've had the opportunity to talk to. I'm so excited for this episode. Thank you so much for joining me today.
Helen Christoni 0:33
Hi, Samir, how you doing? I'm really excited to be here today.
Samir Balwani 0:36
Amazing. I want to really jump right into things, because I think your story is fantastic. I love that you're passionate about what you do, and I just want to kind of get started there. So Helen, can you just give some context around who you are, what you do, and kind of how you got there?
Helen Christoni 0:55
Sure. So like you just said, I'm Helen, and I work at AirDoctor and AquaTru by Ideal Living, and we're big proponents of educating the world on the importance of clean air and pure water and and so how did I get here? I think that you know, my my journey and my career has been very interesting. I think that I started in an advertising agency. And actually I was a, I was a Traffic Manager for this great agency called ignited minds, and in Culver City, and I work, I rode around on a Razor scooter and like, drop job bags to people. And what was really great about that role is I got to work on great brands, you know, Activision, Sony, Vitamin Water, when I got packaged for sale, like, I was in the middle of this really US Army, like, all these, all these cool things that were happening with a really creative group of people. And in my role there, I was able to really learn about, kind of, all aspects of what goes into marketing a product, you know. And so it was great learning for me at that time, long time ago, I single mom, you know, the hours, agency hours, you know, people that have worked agency side, it is a grind and and so, you know, one of my colleagues had come over to work for Peter Spiegel, who's the founder of Ideal Living. And she was like, you know, you need to meet this guy. Like, I think you guys would really get on well. And he needs someone like you. And so I came over to start working with Peter, 20 years ago, and I started in product development with him. And so it's like, it's not like I started in social commerce or anything, you know, like I I learned about, like, what I learned with Peter in my early days working with him was really, you know, how to take a product idea from concept to customer and all the work that went into it. And I remember, I mean, it's not like I had no education in this. I would, I would literally be in these meetings with these engineers all day long, and I'd have to go home and Google what they were even talking about. I had no idea what anyone was saying. But, you know, I got a really great front seat education and to product development, manufacturing, and because I had that agency experience, so it was only a matter of time for me to get into the marketing aspect. And so I took some detours, like I went I started a beauty business with Peter, the founder of Ideal Living a long time ago, and I departed the company like I ended up selling that out. Like that got acquired, and I went with that business. And I was in the beauty industry for a long time. And I think, you know, I you know, before I started here in my role at AirDoctor and AquaTru, like, that's like, I've been here doing this for like, six years now, I found myself with a non compete, a non compete in beauty and and I was a little disillusioned in that space, like I was A little tired of it, and so I really, I really wanted to pivot. And I think that I was, I had my own kind of health challenges, and so I was very interested in health and wellness. So I called Peter up, and I was like, hey, you know, do you have some consulting for me? And and here I am. And so it's been great. And I'm really, I've really like, was like coming home to family when I came back to Ideal Living. So it's been, it's been a great ride so far.
Samir Balwani 4:50
That's awesome. I mean, I think one of the things that's so undervalued is, I think the best marketers actually are product people, and they. Really understand the product and and who the customer is, and they can understand the product, right? I don't think it's enough to just be a marketer anymore, like you really need to understand what you're selling, why you're selling it, and who, and you got to feel connected to it, right, and and really understand it. So I love that you know you're you've kind of experienced that firsthand and seeing it all the way through.
Helen Christoni 5:24
Yeah, I mean, look at my early days in product development. I mean, I broke my brain really, like it was very hard for me to really wrap my arms around R&D. You know, I had the privilege of, you know, visiting many manufacturers all over the world, here domestically, to really learn. You know, what it takes to actually make something. And there's so much, there's so much planning and preparation and discovery that goes on to creating products, especially when they're backed by science, like the products we have here with AirDoctor and AquaTru. So there's, it's a it's like having children, yeah,
Samir Balwani 6:03
yeah. It's interesting. So, I mean, before we kind of go into the marketing side of it, let's give a little context to our listeners. So AirDoctor and AquaTru, what do they sell? I guess. What's the you know thing that sets them apart in the market?
Helen Christoni 6:18
Sure. So you know, AirDoctor and AquaTru are wellness tech products. Our AirDoctor products, we have a line, a beautiful assortment of air purifiers that are really validated by science to really make sure that people at home are breathing as pure air as possible. And then AquaTru, which is the sister brand, is the first countertop reverse osmosis water purifier, though, which is really great because it allows people to basically bottle their own water at home, free from all the contaminants that that we're worried about these days, like microplastics, forever chemicals. And what's really beautiful about the work we do at AirDoctor and AquaTru is that our mission is that everyone has the right to pure air, clean water, backed by science, and so that's what I get to do every day. Yeah,
Samir Balwani 7:12
I love that. I think that having a mission backed business that's actually just trying to make life better for everyone makes it so much easier to get excited about and to want to do it. So you've definitely found it a great place to be. Helen, you touched on it earlier on, around this idea of social commerce, and that's what your role is now. And I think that that you know, when you and I were chatting before, I said, not a lot of people do this now that people do it well, and it is such a huge opportunity for just consumer brands, or just brands in general. And so let's kind of dig into that. So can you talk more about how you define social commerce? What is it from your perspective?
Helen Christoni 7:59
Well, I think if I were to define it, it would actually really be social community. You know that, and the benefit of that is the commerce piece. So I think that the I really, at least from my desk here, it social commerce is created with a community of people that that share education with the end user, whether it's a friend, a customer, you know, a classmate, whatever. And I think that social commerce is really interesting when I when I came out of the beauty business, when I first started working here at Ideal Living with AirDoctor and AquaTru. I mean, I did nothing but influencer marketing in the beauty business. You know, I've, I was very successful with it, broke the internet several times, had great activations, like, did all the Coachella activations, the beauty activations, like, you name it. I did it in every shape and size. And so when I, when I came here to AirDoctor and AquaTru. And I started really learning about the science behind the products. I was so passionate about, like, talking about it. And I went to Katie and Peter, the the CO CEOs here, and I was like, you have to have this conversation on social media. Like, you have to talk to people about this. And they, they, and I think at that time, like, maybe they had like, 500 followers on, maybe 200 for AquaTru. And they were like, oh, gosh, you know, social, they were a little more, like, expert driven and, and I was like, No, we have to do this, you know, like, I'll do it. And so, so I created this big plan for them on why it was so important to share this conversation on social and I think when people are starting social commerce campaign, they go to the Commerce first. You know, how
Samir Balwani 9:56
does this make me money? I know
Helen Christoni 9:58
for sure, like every. Who wants to get to the Commerce part? Like, but you cannot ignore the social piece. And I think that that is a big it's really important, because you have to show people your point of view. You need to share it on your social media pages. Like, if you don't have a point of view, you know, your your partners, your influencers, your affiliates, whatever we're going to call them, right? They're not going to have a point of view either. So I think it's, it's the social piece is super important, and people often, often forget about that piece. You know, especially today, like, you know, in 2025 people are like, what shortcuts can I get to have, like, 1000 affiliates and 100%
Samir Balwani 10:43
and it's all performance, right? Like, let's try and get performance marketing as and let's just do this. What's the ROI 100% and it's like, we tell, we tell our brains all the time, like, you guys, so the seeds before you reap the benefits. So let's sow the seeds and then reap the benefits, right? So, same situation here, for sure.
Helen Christoni 11:01
So I think, like, when I when I got started with AirDoctor and ok show, I had the units at home, I personally did the social media. That's awesome. And so, like, I would move the products around my house. I was so excited to share the conversation about, like, the benefits of clean air and pure water, and talk to, like, moms, women, people, guys, like anybody that would hear. And so I think that that was it like, in the beginning, I was very high touch on social, and then also I completely immersed myself in category. Like, I mean when I say immersed it like I went a little crazy, like I was stalking, following, engaging and really figuring out who did I want our brand to be friends with, and that was very I mean, I spent probably three months before I even talked to anybody or even reached out to Anybody, I really just immersed myself in the wellness conversation and, um, and then, you know, kind of when I really had highlighted exactly who I wanted to be the brand's friend, like our brand besties, I really went in then, and I started doing outreach. And it was very, you know, I mean, like back when I started, not that many people were moving the price point of, like, you know, I mean, the AirDoctor could be like, a $400 price point. AquaTru three price point. It was a heavy press price point, pre COVID to move with a swipe up link on social. And so I seeded a lot of product. It's, you know, I really was like, if you like it, talk about it, and then, and organically, people really love the products, and they started to have conversations. And we were, like, trying to figure out, like, how to send them links. Should we do Amazon? Should we do custom pages? Like we didn't even know we were doing and we actually started really, interestingly enough, we started driving traffic to Amazon way back when it was a long time ago, and and then we had to pivot, because we kept losing the buy box. We'd have all these challenges. So, so, but I think that it really was organic for AirDoctor. And AirDoctor took off first for us, it was a it was definitely we had, we had, so the seeds of our garden before COVID hit, and then when COVID hit, it was a very large conversation. So, you know, we were really happy to educate on on the importance of clean air during that time, for sure.
Samir Balwani 13:42
I love that. I love the concept of educating also, because I think that that's really important. I think the if I were to kind of highlight out a few things that you said, I think the foundational element of the three months that you took to build out a strategy to be really thoughtful, to have a great foundation from which to grow on. I think a lot of people try and skip that part of it, and I don't think you would have seen the success you had if you just kind of went for everyone. Right when we tell our brands, when we're working with them, we remind them your customer persona is not the customers you want, it's the customers you don't want. That negative space gives you an understanding of who you are actually going after. And so I love that you took the time to do that and then got them into the education around the product. I think what you do is so valuable from a branding standpoint, too. Because the joke amongst my team, I tell, tell them, is branding is so important, because it's like, you know, you walk into a dinner party and you scream about how awesome you are, no one's gonna care. But if you walk into a dinner party and everyone else is talking about how awesome you are, well all of a sudden, that's really valuable, and that's what you know, social commerce and helps unlock so I love that you kind of did all of that together. Helen, now you are a larger business. How do you scale. This. How do you grow it? How do you get it beyond, you know, Helen in the living room with the I mean, I think,
Helen Christoni 15:06
like, you know, you were talking about education, and education is really something that I learned in the beauty business. And you know, when you're in beauty, you are, like, out in the doors, you are educating beauty advisors. You're educating hairdressers. Like, education is such a big part of the beauty industry, and it's a part of the beauty industry that that consumers don't often see, you know? And so I think that, um, like having that experience in beauty really kind of set me up for success with AirDoctor and AquaTru and, you know, we're such a science back business that it wasn't a hard thing for me to get over the finish line as it relates to like educating our partners and so really early, we started having webinars. I do monthly webinar steel. Still today, I do monthly webinars and and where we really dig into the science and and educate people about the importance of clean air and pure water and all the, all the, you know, nasty stuff that can be in our air and water, and break it down into, you know, just really easy conversational ways to communicate it. And in the beginning, I mean, you know, there'd be, like, three or four people, you know, today I can have upwards of 100 people, and one of our webinars, you know, and so, and we have them regularly and and sometimes we get the same people have been coming for years, yeah. So I think from a scaling standpoint, just maintaining that quality of education and touch is very important. And we've had to grow the team, you know, we've had we choose here at AirDoctor and AquaTru, to manage everything internally. Like, I always make a joke, like, if someone really needs to get me in on the phone, they can, and I'm not kidding, like, you know, people can get me on my cell phone if, like, a link isn't breaking during Black Friday, Cyber Monday. It's like, I'm very busy during that time. But I think that really making sure that for us, and for the founders, Katie and Peter here, like relationships tricky and so really making sure that everybody can get someone on the phone, that they're connected with someone on the team, the right person for whatever, whatever they're doing, like, for instance, like, if we have like, you know, people on Tiktok, or like, YouTube creators or email long form, you know, writers like, we need to make sure we have them in the right hands here internally, because you can't everybody can know everything, and so we have a lot of specialists on our team that really curate a lot of creative are always here to help. And so we we have just expanded, kind of like, our internal social commerce agency to to support our growth. And, you know, one thing that I think one of the best parts of my job is I have such a young team that are so and, you know, and I get to work with all these amazing young people, and it's really been super fulfilling.
Samir Balwani 18:16
Yeah, that's really interesting. That's, I'm sure, it's super energizing. And, you know, the beauty is the culture that you've created, and the mission and vision behind the business helps kind of build that where everyone does want to help. You know, ultimately, I think that's been, you know, from an outsider's perspective, have been pretty amazing. You know, we've talked about all the successes and opportunities around social commerce and all the successes that you've seen with it. You know, it is not the easiest of programs, either. So I'd love to hear about kind of the challenges and the things like, what are the roadblocks or obstacles that you've had to overcome? And just, how are you thinking about it as you move forward?
Helen Christoni 19:01
Oh, gosh. I mean, you know, like, I, you know, very early on, I decided to have this big promotion, you know, and I was so excited, and we were going to do this big promotion, and I was going to have everybody go at the same time. And everybody was like, Are you sure? And I was like, everything broke, you know, I mean, like, everything that could break did break. And I have a joke about, like, breaking the internet, which, you know, I I've done frequently, and so I think that, you know, um, I think it's important to this is one of the reasons I think it's important to be high touch. Because if this, when you farm things out, you know, you're last to know if a Link's broken with you know when you have it like, all closed under one roof, like, everyone knows really quickly it when things are going wrong, and it doesn't have to come from, like, an agency partner. So I think, I think, like, I'm real, like, obsessed with, like, making sure I keep an eye on everything. And it's funny, because I typically know first when something's not working right. But I think like we've had a lot of tech challenges, and we've had to scale fairly rapidly with our growth, and we're constantly having to innovate our martech, which in itself is challenging also because the nature of our program, it, in some cases, requires customization. It's not, you know, like a one size fits all, so just making sure that we are able to stay nimble and and pull things off and test and, you know, I think also the nature of our company here is very entrepreneurial direct response, like the founders have been in the direct response industry since it began, you know. So we come from a culture of testing. Always willing to try something. I say, yes, a lot you want to try something. I'm, I am, I am, like, Yeah, let's go for it, you know. So, so we're always down to test and and to your point, sometimes the test don't work, and you need to, like, fail fast and pivot. And, you know, knowledge, the the the bad was. Results too. Like, I think I always say, like, good, bad and ugly, yeah, you know. And, and when you get some success, competitors come behind you, you know. And, and it's great, you know, like, if more people are in the clean air and clean water conversation, awesome. I love it. But you have to be prepared for that. And, you know, update. So it's a constant, like social commerce is not for the weary. It is a non stop, 24/7 effort, and by by many people. So it's real exciting business. I really love it. Yeah,
Samir Balwani 21:59
it's really interesting, because it's managing a lot of personalities, continually innovating, because you can't sit still, because someone is clearly watching what you're doing to try and do the same thing, the partners that you think are your best friends might become best friends with someone else. And so it's really making sure that you're maintaining all those relationships too, and continually trying to identify what makes you stand out. And it's interesting, because I think the social commerce and affiliate marketing too, I think is very similar to this around your culture of your team needs to expand out to your partners, and so if you've got a good internal culture, then that will impact everyone else, and it kind of starts to feel like a true community, right? And so I think that that is probably, you know, from, again, from an outsider standpoint, I have to imagine that that is truly challenging and something to kind of manage against,
Helen Christoni 22:57
yeah. I mean, I think look like we really, we have great partners, you know, that have been with us from, like, from the very beginning, and most of our our, you know, the bounty of this business comes from referral, and people just share it. And so I think that's really the spirit of this program, is sharing the science. And one thing is that when you do, when you're fortunate enough, like I am here at AirDoctor in AquaTru, to have brands that really are backed by science, you know, we're selling solutions to people that really help them in their life and their families. And so I think that we're also really, you know, we love to have impact. I think that, you know, if people are in trouble and they call, we'll help them. And so, like just recently with the LA fires, we were an LA based company. Half of us were evacuated from our homes, myself included. Our power was out at the age at here, at the offices and in our corporate offices here in Sherman Oaks. And we just loaded trucks up at the warehouse, we parked them across the street, and we got on social media, and we were like, if you need an air purifier, come on down. We're going to sell them at cost. And you know, we put 20,000 units into the community of Los Angeles in a week at cost, and also donated. And so I think that that's the type. And we also did it for East Palestine. We also did it for Michigan, and we also did it for Hawaii. This isn't in a Los Angeles thing, but just recently, I think that our, like our partners, that's that's meaningful. It's meaningful for us, it's meaningful for them. And, and, yeah, like, I mean, we do things, like, I have a partner, her son always does this. Like, you know, fundraising for school. I was just a little boy, and we always, like, put something up for auction. I think that's personal connection. Like, we are not a boss. Yeah, and I'm not saying that there's not a time and a place for that type of thing, but we are real people. We're having real conversations. And I really think that that is the beauty of the program that we built here,
Samir Balwani 25:12
yeah, just remembering it's people to people, and it's not corporate policy, right? It's just, it's, it's recognizing that. So I love that. I mean, Helen, my last question for you. I know we're coming up on time. So you know, as you know, we're looking ahead. There's so much new technology, and things are changing so rapidly right now. Especially, what are you looking at? How, where are the areas that you're seeing that are getting you excited? You know, what's your focus?
Helen Christoni 25:41
Gosh, I mean, you know, like, there's so much happening. It's really, it's a real exciting time, and also a nerve wracking time business. I, you know, because it's, like, with AI and everything. Like, I love it. I mean, like, AI, I call my AI, Lola, like, she and I are really friends. But I think, like, how do we, how do we everybody like? The thing about social commerce is you need to like, I always call it the Titanic, you know, you need to move. You can't move the Titanic. Can't turn too quick, because down right? So I think like getting everybody to like, like, get interested or participate. That's challenging, but I think there's so many ways that we can, we can really make things easier for people. I think like making sure that you know our conversation that we're having, having is everywhere where people are consuming content is always challenge. Like, first it was like, oh, tick tock. Oh, then, you know, Oh, you better be over there on Amazon, you know, doing lives and social, yeah, it's like, Oh, don't forget, YouTube's coming back. You know, to do like, you know, don't forget, don't sleep on Facebook, right? Like, you better get on SNAP. I mean, this is not you just gotta, like, stay in it and test and test and test. And one thing that we really love to do is explore things, you know, like I was saying earlier, like, I always say yes and, and, you know, Katie, the CO CEO here, you know, sorry, business isn't for the faint of heart. You can't be scared to fail. And so I think, as it relates to all the newness and Teck, um, we I foresee that, you know, there's going to be like this AI merge for commerce and um, and people need to start thinking about what, what selling on, you know, via AI is going to look like. And also for our, our social partners, like, you know, what is it going to look like for them? Yeah, and, you know, because there's a there, you know. So I think just number one, thinking about how we can really continue to educate no matter where. And then also, how do we set our partners up for success? How can we, like lead the way and make sure that they'll be successful and in our future endeavors? I love
Samir Balwani 28:15
that perspective and that what a great way to close so Helen, thank you so much for joining us. If someone wants to find you online, where can people learn more about you?
Helen Christoni 28:23
Yeah, so I'm always on LinkedIn, you can find me at Helen Christoni on LinkedIn.
Samir Balwani 28:28
Oh, thank you so much, Helen for being here. Awesome. Thank you.
Outro 28:34
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