Episode #120: Marina Khidekel
Please note: This podcast is intended to provide information and education and is not intended to provide you with a diagnosis or treatment advice. You should consult with a licensed or registered healthcare professional about your individual condition and circumstance.
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In this episode, Marina shares her experience with anxiety, tracing its development and how it served as inspiration for creating her new brand, Hugimals.
She discusses how she used the benefits of physical relaxation from weighted blankets with the emotional connection and support of a favorite stuffed animal to create her product of weighted stuffed animals.
Marina collaborated with therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, and pediatricians to perfect everything from facial expressions, colors to distribution of weight. Recognizing how weighted pressure had helped her, Marina believed her product could offer significant benefits to adults and children facing similar struggles with anxiety.
Marina's journey as a new founder is relatable and ultimately inspiring. She openly discusses the strategies she employed to manage her mental wellness and overcome push-backs in launching her brand. While starting a business inevitably presents numerous difficulties, the experience ultimately strengthens both the entrepreneur and the business itself.
“You have to carve out the things that help you flourish without feeling guilty about it.”
Reasons To Listen:
Learn about Marina’s experiences with anxiety and how it inspired her to create a product to cope with anxiety not just for herself but also for other people.
Understand the concept behind the brand of weighted stuffed animals, Hugimalsand the benefits you can receive from them
Gain insights from Marina's experience building her business, the obstacles she faced as a founder and how she manages her well-being
Marina’s one-minute concept and strategies that have been beneficial for her in managing her stress and anxiety as a new founder to improve her mental health.
Get tips from Marina's background in publishing on how to do your own press and marketing to get your product out to the world and make an impact
About Marina
Marina Khidekel is the founder of Hugimals World, which launched in summer 2022 with Hugimals, a TIME Best Inventions- winning line of weighted stuffed animals for adults & kids that "hug you back" to ease anxiety and bring calm. Hugimals has been recognized in Goop, TODAY, WSJ, and many more. In addition to her role as founder, Marina is a health & wellness journalist and content consultant who helps mission-driven companies, founders and thought leaders tell their stories, and writes a Fast Company column interviewing leaders about their greatest professional mistakes. Prior to founding Hugimals, Marina was Chief Content Officer at Thrive, Arianna Huffington’s workplace well-being enterprise SAAS startup, and held senior editorial roles at Women’s Health, Glamour and Cosmopolitan. All of her work centers around helping people take actionable steps to live with less stress and more joy.
How to find Hugimals and learn more about Marina: https://www.hugimalsworld.com/
Connect on Instagram @hugimals or Facebook Hugimals
Order Marina’s Book Your Time to Thrive
Resources:
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00:00:04:01 - 00:00:34:05
Harper Spero
Made visible helps people with invisible illnesses feel seen and heard. It provides a platform for people who seem fine but aren't to share their experiences. It also helps to create a new awareness of how we can be sensitive and supportive to those with invisible illnesses. The Below Please note This podcast is intended to provide information and education and is not intended to provide you with a diagnosis or treatment advice.
00:00:34:15 - 00:00:56:22
Harper Spero
You should consult with a license or registered health care professional about your individual condition and circumstance. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Made Visible. I'm your host, Harper Spero, and I'm so glad you tuned in. Today is week five of Mental Health Awareness Month, the last week of May. But certainly not the end of acknowledging mental health here on Made Visible.
00:00:57:08 - 00:01:26:16
Harper Spero
I hope you've enjoyed the conversations over the last few weeks centered around mental health. Hearing what people are going through have dealt with and how they're coping. Today's guest is someone who created a physical product to cope with her own anxiety and realized that she wasn't the only person who could benefit from it. Marina Khidekel is the founder of Hug Smiles, a line of weighted stuffed animals for adults and kids that hug you back to ease anxiety and bring calm.
00:01:27:01 - 00:01:34:16
Harper Spero
I'm excited for you to learn more about Marina, hug smiles and hear how much I love myself. Welcome, Marina.
00:01:35:13 - 00:01:37:21
Marina Khidekel
Thank you so much, Harper. It's so great to be here with you.
00:01:38:09 - 00:01:43:01
Harper Spero
So let's start off. Tell us who you are, where you're from, and what you do.
00:01:43:14 - 00:02:09:09
Marina Khidekel
Sure. My name is Marina Khidekel, and I am the founder of Huggable World, which launched in summer 2022 with our Anchor Products Hug Awards, which are an award-winning line of design, forward weighted stuffed animals for both adults and kids that hug you back to ease stress and help with sleep. Before I became a founder, I had a career as a journalist and content person.
00:02:10:05 - 00:02:35:23
Marina Khidekel
I was most recently Chief Content Officer at THRIVE, which is Arianna Huffington, wellbeing focused tech startup. And before that I was an editor at places like Glamor, Women's Health and Cosmopolitan. And so really all my work for my entire career has really centered around at one point service journalism. And now also helping people take actionable steps to live with less stress.
00:02:36:14 - 00:02:57:13
Harper Spero
I love it so much, and I'm sitting here as Marina can see, with my sloth huggable, that I'm waiting for my friend's daughter to name that I love so much and can't even believe how much I enjoy and enjoying. And we'll talk about that further. So, let's take it back a little bit. Your own experience with anxiety is what inspired you to create this brand.
00:02:57:20 - 00:03:05:05
Harper Spero
Can you speak a little bit about your experience and what your anxiety, how your anxiety showed up in your life?
00:03:06:07 - 00:03:35:23
Marina Khidekel
Sure. I think I always had anxiety, even as a kid undiagnosed. My family immigrated to the States from Russia. I didn't speak English until I was five, and I was really sort of the only foreign kid and a very small business school and community. I assimilated pretty quickly, but at the same time, we'd be out in public and my parents screaming at each other in Russia at the grocery store.
00:03:35:23 - 00:03:58:03
Marina Khidekel
And there's nothing more embarrassing for a kid than not feeling normal fitting in. So, I think I sort of internalized that. And I went into a career in service journalism and magazines because I would read magazines as a tween and a teen, just so, I felt like I couldn't really ask my mom questions. That had to be because she was from here.
00:03:58:12 - 00:04:16:16
Marina Khidekel
So, she had a different experience. And I would read them to understand, how do I talk? How do I ask how other people are doing it? And all I wanted was to be on the other side of that masthead and help other girls and women sort of navigate life. And so that was my singular goal in life.
00:04:16:16 - 00:04:38:11
Marina Khidekel
And that's what I did. And I loved what I did. I love magazines. I love being a content officer also in the mental health space. But I did have a lot of especially nighttime anxiety. I had a really hard time calming my racing mind. At night, I would start spiraling, thinking of all the things I needed to do, all the things I didn't do, and I just wasn't falling asleep.
00:04:38:21 - 00:05:02:14
Marina Khidekel
And I was a health journalist, so I knew about weighted blankets before they went mass before they went viral. I knew the science of deep touch pressure and how it could help with stress and help stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, help you relax. So, I had a weighted blanket way before they went. They went mass, but it was way too hot for me.
00:05:02:16 - 00:05:23:14
Marina Khidekel
Like a lot of people are way too smothering in the night. So, I would wake up in the middle of the night, overheated mind, spiraling again, negating the whole purpose of the weighted blanket. The only thing that was helping me fall asleep was my partner, my arm. I was using it as a mini weighted blanket. That solution was only comfortable for one of us, not very comfortable for him.
00:05:23:21 - 00:05:52:01
Marina Khidekel
So, I was searching for or other solutions, and that was sort of the beginnings of the idea for Hub. I was looking for a smaller weighted item. I felt, some plush lamp had weighted fast, this type of thing that was still really only used in the special needs community. And as weighted blankets went, more general people started understanding weighted pressure.
00:05:52:01 - 00:06:12:23
Marina Khidekel
So, I found some weighted. I just. I wanted to love it. I didn't. There was nothing that was beautifully designed with the features I wanted and everything sort of cheaply made, very toy. Nothing sort of an adult would buy and nothing I'd be proud to have in my living room or gifts to my stylish friends. So, I decided to create it.
00:06:13:04 - 00:06:33:16
Harper Spero
I love it so much. And I had the same experience, which was a few years ago buying a weighted blanket. It was easily three or $400, and I remember it arriving in this box. It was so heavy, and I opened it up and I'm like, Wow, this is stunning. The color is gorgeous. I put it on my body and could not get it off fast enough.
00:06:34:09 - 00:06:54:04
Harper Spero
I sold it to a friend that day. That is how quickly I was clear. I am someone that overheats and while I wanted the comfort, I needed to be cool and that was not going to happen with this. So, I'd love for you to share. For those who are not familiar with the weighted stuffed animal concept, what are the benefits of it?
00:06:54:10 - 00:07:28:15
Marina Khidekel
Yeah, absolutely. So weighted pressure is known in the scientific community as deep touch pressure, and it's been studied for a long time with people on the autism spectrum or who have sensory processing issues. Only recently with weighted blankets did it become sort of a general use tool for everyday anxiety, situational anxiety. So the way that it works is very similar to when you get a big bear hug from somebody or , think of that weighted vest at the dentist's office.
00:07:28:15 - 00:07:54:04
Marina Khidekel
When you get an Xray that LED vest, a lot of people feel very comforted by it. That's because the extra pressure on the skin helps the brain stimulate the release of sort of happy neurotransmitters, the serotonin, the dopamine, and the oxytocin, those that make us feel relaxed, make us feel happy, make us feel at ease and the weight helps you feel more grounded as well.
00:07:54:05 - 00:08:24:11
Marina Khidekel
So, for a lot of people with anxiety and sensory issues, you sort of feel like you're spinning out of control, off the axis of the earth. This weighted pressure really helps ground you to the earth and help you feel calm that way. I mentioned it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. That is the system that helps tamp down a fight or flight response and stimulate a relaxation response from the body by releasing those neurotransmitters.
00:08:24:11 - 00:08:56:11
Marina Khidekel
So weighted pressure has been shown to help ease stress and anxiety and stressful situations. It has been shown in some cases to help kids focus and study better. And a lot of people find it helpful for winding the mind and body down for sleep. And so I wanted to take, the physical relaxation benefits of a weighted blanket and marry them with the emotional connection and support of a favorite stuffed animal.
00:08:56:21 - 00:09:22:12
Marina Khidekel
And that's what I did. And I worked with therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, pediatricians to perfect everything from the weight of hugging most the weight distribution to the colors to the facial expressions. I'm a nerdy journalist. I wasn't going to release something into the world without doing a ton of research, so I knew weighted pressure helped me. I knew it helped a lot of people and I wanted to create a product that was beyond what I'd seen.
00:09:23:10 - 00:09:51:01
Harper Spero
It's amazing. It's interesting you bring up the dentist's office because I'm really picturing myself in that chair and realizing I'm someone who's very claustrophobic, and especially when an X-ray machine is coming towards my mouth and there's something in my mouth that gives me a lot of anxiety. But I'm realizing, as you said, that how the weighted vest always provided me with a level of comfort and it's not until that that I'm realizing that that's to be true.
00:09:51:01 - 00:10:10:21
Harper Spero
So it really is such a powerful tool. And I appreciate you in simple terms explaining the health benefits of it, but I'm interested to know what made you decide that it wasn't just something you were going to create for yourself, but this was for other people. And it wasn't just kids, but also for adults.
00:10:12:01 - 00:10:32:12
Marina Khidekel
Yeah. So, I'm an adult. I don't have kids. I love kids. I wanted something for me. I also wanted something for kids. At the time I was thinking of this idea. A lot of my friends were buying their kids weighted blanket and finding that their kids would not accept this, they were too hot smothering. You couldn't travel with them.
00:10:32:15 - 00:10:54:08
Marina Khidekel
They were expensive. They had a lot of issues, and they were like, I wish there were something else with sort of the feel of a weighted blanket. So, I had this idea five years ago. I've been working on this for a long time, and we just launched last summer, almost a year ago now. So, in the background, while I was still working at my full time jobs, I was interviewing experts.
00:10:54:08 - 00:11:12:02
Marina Khidekel
I was sort of seeing was there this hole in the market for this type of product that I thought there was? And there was a lot of the experts, therapists I spoke with said weighted pressure is a secret weapon. I use it with my kids. I use it in my practice. There aren't enough parents who know about this.
00:11:12:16 - 00:11:33:16
Marina Khidekel
So, I knew that it would be a tool for kids and adults. And I worked with occupational therapists to sort of land on a weight that could work for both. So, whether those are differentiated from other weighted plush on the market for several reasons. And one is because their weight is distributed throughout their whole body, their head, their limbs, their tummy, their legs.
00:11:33:20 - 00:11:56:06
Marina Khidekel
So, it feels like they're sort of wrapping their arms around you and giving you a full body hug. A lot of other products have weight and less weight just sort of clustered in the middle hours of four and a half pounds. A lot out there about £2, which is heavy enough for a lot of people. So doing all this research, I also wanted to test hormones, efficacy in a place where I knew I'd learned the most information.
00:11:56:06 - 00:12:42:12
Marina Khidekel
So, I tested them in children's hospitals around the country with a partnership with the Toy Foundation. They saw this product that I was working on, and they believed in it and we tested it. And children's hospitals from Austin to Maine to Florida. That feedback from the hospital staffers, the child life specialists who actually work with families and kids who are going through a really hard time navigating the health care experience, which can be really stressful, said to me that the comfort and sensory support that hug animals were able to provide not just to the kids who are patients but to their families, their siblings or parents, was so incredible that this hospital started keeping hospitals
00:12:42:12 - 00:13:09:08
Marina Khidekel
under lock and key. One of them a Miami children's hospital, said that they deploy a hug more when a child needs extra intervention. They said it in passing. To me, they're like, oh, we use them with our code, their kids. And I said, what’s it called, Bear Kid? And they're like, well, we can't take Code Red over the loudspeaker when a child needs medical intervention, security, when they're having, an acute experience and they're struggling.
00:13:09:15 - 00:13:29:02
Marina Khidekel
So, they deploy them. And they said these things calm, these kids within minutes and change their perception of what's happening in the room. And when I got that feedback, I knew this wasn't a hobby. this was something I wanted to pursue full time. I knew these worked and I needed to pursue it.
00:13:29:15 - 00:13:57:02
Harper Spero
Oh, my God. I have chills up and down my spine. That is so spectacular. And I love that you did that approach. I mean, again, you're a researcher. You are certainly someone who is going to dig and find out that everyone loved it and how to make it the best and all of that. Prior to launching, did you receive any level of pushback or anyone questioning the efficacy of it or anything of that nature?
00:13:57:02 - 00:14:18:18
Marina Khidekel
I didn't receive pushback of that sort prior to launching, I think people who know me maybe didn't foresee I would launch a stuffed animal company. So, I had a lot of people in my life, , asking, are you sure you want to do this? , this is not what you do. You're a journalist, you're, content person.
00:14:19:13 - 00:14:36:18
Marina Khidekel
And so, I had I had some pushback on that front being like, you've never launched a company before. Are you sure you want to do this? You can do this. I got prepared to do this. And my answer was, no, I don't feel prepared to do this, but I know I need to that that was more of the pushback.
00:14:37:08 - 00:15:09:22
Harper Spero
I think that's really relatable, and a lot of entrepreneurs would say that of like, there's no manual for how to start a business. There's no manual how to create a product-based business. You can study and read books and learn from people, but ultimately, it's really about going through the process and learning as you go. And I feel that way, eight plus years into running a business or multiple businesses and seeing that like there's nothing that someone could have told me eight years ago that would make this business run so differently.
00:15:10:03 - 00:15:34:11
Harper Spero
I had to have the bumps along the way and figure it out for myself. So, I think that that's really good point. Before we started recording, we were talking about your anxiety and what it's been like for you since you started this business. Your schedule, your routines. Can you speak about what building this business has been like for you and managing your own well-being?
00:15:34:11 - 00:15:58:03
Marina Khidekel
Yeah, absolutely. And I think when you were talking, Harper, I thought about what I hear from so many founders, which is that if I knew how hard it would be, I would never done it. And we learn that as we go. I look back and I look back at some of these steep obstacles that I had to overcome to launch this business at the beginning, which we could talk more about.
00:15:58:03 - 00:16:33:12
Marina Khidekel
But I knew I'd have to go through some of that stuff. I don't know if I would, but in hindsight it makes us stronger and it makes the business stronger. And, , one thing I did realize about working for myself on something that I truly believe in and that I see helping people is that when I left my full time job in last summer, I realized pretty quickly and after that I no longer got the Sun Blues, , all of us, at one point or another, how that feeling on Sunday, like I'll have to go to work on Monday.
00:16:33:12 - 00:16:56:14
Marina Khidekel
It's going to be a stressful week, and I don't want to I don't get that feeling anymore. And I thought that was remarkable because my weeks are no less stressful running a startup. It's just a different kind of stress because I am working on something with a mission that I'm 1,000% behind and that I see every day helping people.
00:16:56:19 - 00:17:24:03
Marina Khidekel
One of the things that really keeps me going through, the uncertainty as a founder life and the roller coaster that we all hear about and we all see if our founders is reading our customer reviews and hearing from customers just the stories that people tell really hit my heart. The other day, this woman was saying she and her whole family had been in the ICU for over a week, visiting her dad, who had like a health scare that was unexpected.
00:17:24:10 - 00:17:46:15
Marina Khidekel
And she brought all her family members, hug them all, including her dad, and they named them after characters from MASH, which was her dad's favorite show. And so and, it was their inside joke. And she wrote to me that husband was become once this product has become part of their family journey, my heart just broke open when that when I hear things like that.
00:17:46:22 - 00:18:00:22
Marina Khidekel
A mom reached out to me and said her daughter had panic attacks every time she flew on an airplane until she brought her husband. And now she hugs it all the flight long and she doesn't have the panic attacks anymore. These kinds of stories, it's hard not to keep going when you hear them.
00:18:01:05 - 00:18:07:12
Harper Spero
Yeah. And it's such a reminder and proof of what you're doing is truly making an impact on people's lives.
00:18:07:19 - 00:18:29:16
Marina Khidekel
People like to rename them some people keep the names. Each one has a gender-neutral name. So, they're Sam, the sloth, and Marie the elephant, Charlie the puppy. And we just introduced preorders for our newest Horgan-Wallace character, Frankie the cat. The cat. People are very vocal. Why don't you have a cat? You need a cat. And so that was our we knew that was going to be the first the new huggable that we had.
00:18:29:16 - 00:18:52:00
Marina Khidekel
And I had so much fun designing, designing Frankie with my product designer and choosing the colors and know Carla, all the facial expressions are neutral intentionally because, you see a lot of stuffed animals are smiling when you're not feeling well. You don't want something stupid smiling at you. So that was an intentional decision with input from psychologists.
00:18:52:07 - 00:19:13:08
Marina Khidekel
It's more emotionally supportive, if you can imagine it, feeling any feeling or feeling any feeling alongside of you. A lot of people tell us like, why are these so like they I just want to stare into its face. And when one reviewer wrote, at the end of the day, I come home, and I stare at his face and he tells me everything's going to be okay.
00:19:13:14 - 00:19:25:04
Marina Khidekel
And that just I loved hearing that because it just validated that that little choice, to make them not smiling because they're just empathetic. No matter what you're feeling, I'll feel it along with you.
00:19:25:22 - 00:19:44:17
Harper Spero
Yeah, that's an interesting point. As I stare at Sam, the sloth whose name will be changed, then I think about, like, going to friends houses with kids that have, like, tons of dolls and stuffed animals in their bed. And I was at my friend's house in D.C. a few weeks ago, and his son was like showing me and giving me a tour of all the stuffed animals.
00:19:45:00 - 00:20:04:19
Harper Spero
And some of their faces were so creepy. And I'm thinking, this kid's sleep with these, and then all of a sudden wake up in the middle of the night and looks at that. So, I think there's really something to be said about like the neutral and this not this massive smiling face or it's not sappy looking, but there's really something comforting about it.
00:20:05:00 - 00:20:21:18
Harper Spero
I want to go back to your mental health. A little bit more and your anxiety and talk about what are some of the things that have been beneficial for you in managing your own anxiety, your own stress as a new founder, aside from obviously having these new bodies?
00:20:22:17 - 00:20:50:07
Marina Khidekel
Absolutely. I've really had to lean on a lot of my learnings and a lot of the work that I did in my previous life, which was as a health and wellness journalist to thrive. I led the content team. I coauthored threads for a book called Your Time to Thrive, and we really talked about micro steps we called them, which are just tiny science backed steps you can take to improve your mental health and physical health.
00:20:50:07 - 00:21:18:16
Marina Khidekel
And it sorts of echoes atomic habits or tiny habits, those books from James, James, Claire and PJ on really just behavior change science. And I've been doing a few of the things for a long time, and I've continued to do them and some things I'm doing our new. So, one thing that has really changed my mental health ahead of a day like in the morning is to not check my phone for one minute after I wake up.
00:21:18:16 - 00:21:48:01
Marina Khidekel
And it sounds tiny, but like many other people, what I was doing is just rolling over in bed, looking at my phone before I'd even gotten out of bed, had a glass of water, anything. And what you do when you do that is you start your day thinking about what other people want. When you look at your email or what motivates other people or inspires other people, when you look at your socials or the scary news headlines of the day, if you look at the news and you're doing everything but focusing on what you need and want from your day and so I say a minute, it can be longer.
00:21:48:05 - 00:22:04:16
Marina Khidekel
People like do it sometimes exercise or take a shower and sometimes before looking at their phone. But even just that one-minute helps and in that minute I'll do something. They call it habit checking, doing something else, but I'll just drink a glass of water, or I'll do some stretches or I'll to an intention for the day. And it's a tiny thing.
00:22:04:16 - 00:22:30:20
Marina Khidekel
It's one minute, but it really, really helps me not see this anxiety spike that I was seeing every morning. So that's one thing. Another thing is, I mean, I'm big on sleep, I'm huge on sleep. I think sleep is incredibly underrated, the whole founder trope of your sleep when you're dead and there's no time to sleep, I'll cancel class sometimes in favor of sleep, and I will unabashedly reject the science and sleep in on the weekends because it's what I need.
00:22:30:22 - 00:22:50:09
Marina Khidekel
I feel like it's what my body needs. There's no shame in that for me. So, there's no shame or out sleep at night to wind down. I use my own thing. I use a huggable every night like that pressure. You're watching TV or reading or whatever. It just helps you sort of wind down from all the stress of the day.
00:22:50:21 - 00:23:12:08
Harper Spero
Yeah, I could not agree. More on the sleep front. And you acknowledged when we were supposed to record that you had had a bad night's sleep and nothing in me was like, oh, she's complaining about sleeping, about not getting enough sleep. I was like, Let's reschedule. I need some space as well. And I'm such a big believer in that.
00:23:12:16 - 00:23:37:19
Harper Spero
I do not function well. My friends give me a lot of shit for it of like, oh, what are you doing up at nine? Isn't it early for you? And it's like, what's, what's the problem? Why can I not sleep in? What? Why does this affect you so much? And I don't know if it's like a jealous thing, especially because some of them have kids and that's not really an option for them.
00:23:38:01 - 00:24:03:07
Harper Spero
But I value sleep so, so much and don't see that changing. But I really have to say I love that you share this concept of one minute, because I think people think that they need to change their behavior so drastically and they forget the need to start somewhere, which is a huge, huge motto of mine. Just start. Start somewhere one minute can make such an impact.
00:24:03:14 - 00:24:15:23
Harper Spero
And when you phrase it the way that you did of, you're basically taking on other people's stuff by waking up and looking. I am starting that tomorrow because I feel sick just hearing you say it like that.
00:24:17:02 - 00:24:32:23
Marina Khidekel
I mean, it's true. I was having this anxiety spike and I think you're so right. Sleep is one of the last things we feel okay shaming people about, if you can get it, get it, a lot of people can't get to sleep, like you said this week that they want all the time. But when you can get it, no shame in that.
00:24:33:07 - 00:24:57:02
Marina Khidekel
Absolutely no shame. And I love what you said, too, about, I did have a rough night's sleep and I knew I wouldn't have shown up as my best self or you or me for everybody listening. So, I don't see any shame and, and that either like we felt close enough to each other that we could share, what we were each going through and, and take a time that really worked for us.
00:24:57:02 - 00:25:24:14
Marina Khidekel
And so, I really appreciate that impression of you for that. Absolutely. And I also have a habit of blocking off my mornings before, let's say, 1130 or noon for deep work or anything else. Like, I know like if I to schedule a meeting at like eight in the morning, it's going to be a disaster. I'm not a morning person, and that's also something that people feel okay shaming people about.
00:25:24:20 - 00:25:43:10
Marina Khidekel
I'm a nice person. I'll be able to in the morning working and I'll get, a creative streak then. And I might sleep until nine or 830 or on the weekends later, and I don't see any problem with that. Any shame with that. I know the sleep experts say go to sleep, wake up at the same time every day.
00:25:43:10 - 00:25:50:19
Marina Khidekel
But that is just a general blanket advice, and it might not work in all circumstances for all people.
00:25:50:19 - 00:26:20:01
Harper Spero
Yeah. I also think the normalizing of being able to communicate this stuff would be really, valuable to everyone. And hosting this podcast and then facilitating writing workshops for people with invisible illnesses. I've learned to make really, subtle accommodations that can benefit people in such a major way of people not wanting to have their zoom camera on or turning on closed captions, whatever it may be.
00:26:20:01 - 00:26:53:01
Harper Spero
How small of an impact, how small of an action that is for me to take to make such a huge impact on someone else's life. And I think that there is so much judgment to your point of like hustle culture where you need to be on and available at all hours and that's not healthy for anybody. I mean, and I'm sure you can speak to that from the work that you did previously of just people being constantly attached to their phone and computer and realizing how much that doesn't benefit them.
00:26:53:01 - 00:27:31:19
Harper Spero
And it's funny because as I say that I'm like holding on to my huggable even tighter, going like, Oh, I do not deserve at all what you did according to people and having to be places at certain times. And , the other thing I'll say to your point about like working late hours and not waking up early and having the morning to yourself, one of the best things for me about choosing to live in Tel Aviv and coming here for several winters prior was the time difference and running a business that was 7 hours ahead of New York and East Coast time and having an entire day to myself where I wake up and
00:27:31:19 - 00:27:57:02
Harper Spero
don't feel like I must respond to emails immediately to your point and feel the pressure of like, I got to get on this right now, I got to jump out of bed. I got to deal with this. I can have a slow morning. I can do the things that need to be done personally, professionally, for my health, etc. And every time I come back to New York, I feel such a sense of pressure that I need to be on, that I need to respond immediately.
00:27:57:07 - 00:28:09:06
Harper Spero
It's self-induced, but it's so much about being in New York and just the vibe of New York, which I love and hate at the same time, and not really missing the time difference.
00:28:10:00 - 00:28:33:20
Marina Khidekel
Yeah, I have taught myself to just never feel FOMO. No, I don't know. I used to be like you, I would get an email from a coworker or my boss, and I definitely feel the need to respond right away. But my team, I work with a team of amazing contractors on this company. I couldn't do it myself if I tried.
00:28:34:13 - 00:28:57:11
Marina Khidekel
They know that like I may email them after six and they do not have to respond, until the next day. And I just lay that out, I try to schedule emails, when I can for the workday and like, running a found startup, it's not a 9 to 5. It's more than that.
00:28:57:11 - 00:29:20:04
Marina Khidekel
But you have to carve out the things that help you flourish. And for me, that's not waking up at five in the morning like all these, like startup say, I'm like, biohacking and all that garbage. I just that doesn't work for me. It might work for somebody. And I just don't feel any guilt about it. I really don't.
00:29:20:04 - 00:29:42:01
Marina Khidekel
I I've learned not to and I did for a very long time. And I just think the sooner you can sort of eschew that guilt that we put on ourselves, like nobody cares. Think about all the people who haven't responded to you right away and you didn't you didn't care you're just. Oh, great. They responded to me the next day, like, let me get this conversation going.
00:29:42:02 - 00:29:51:06
Marina Khidekel
It’s, they're not thinking about that as much as you are, probably. So, relieve yourself of that guilt and a lot of the stress will fall away.
00:29:52:01 - 00:30:16:01
Harper Spero
Yeah. And I think it really relates to invisible illness of like not knowing what people are going through on the other side of an email, you have no idea what's going on. But I guess the question I have for you is if you're sending emails past five, 6:00 and you're not scheduling them, do you not think that that's an invitation for people to be emailing you at all hours and expecting things of you at all hours?
00:30:16:01 - 00:30:38:12
Marina Khidekel
I think it was different when I was in a full-time job. I felt really tethered. I felt really tethered to my work and my boss and, I just had a different mindset and it wasn't necessarily a healthy one. Now, if people send me emails, I just don't get back to them until, until it's convenient for me.
00:30:39:03 - 00:31:11:00
Marina Khidekel
And I expect people to do the same. And I admit I was a manager. I managed teams and I got caught up in sort of that, the rat race. And when people didn't respond to me right away, I understood. I've always been empathetic. But did I wish things could move faster and faster and faster? Yes. I think leaving sort of the full-time hustle and working for myself expanded my boundaries and made me understand not, everyone's working on their own thing.
00:31:11:00 - 00:31:25:04
Marina Khidekel
Everyone's got their own issues. Like you said, you don't know what's going on with somebody. And I've seen that enough in person firsthand that I really don't care if somebody doesn't get back to me right away. That's fine. They're busy and I expect the same.
00:31:25:09 - 00:31:31:22
Harper Spero
What other lessons have you learned from your past jobs that you've been able to take in to building this business?
00:31:32:05 - 00:32:00:05
Marina Khidekel
I have always been told by people on my teams when I had full time jobs that I was a very collaborative leader and that's the way I have liked my leaders to be. And Community creating what you need and want from people who you're working with is super important. Nobody is a mind reader and if you need to hop on a zoom with them and do a work session, that is very useful time because I'll see how you think.
00:32:00:08 - 00:32:34:10
Marina Khidekel
you approach it like you're in it together. It's not you barking orders at somebody. So the more collaborative you could be as a leader, as a founder, I think the better. , the other lesson I've learned, and I've always been a proponent of community when I was an editor at magazines, I would create these reader nights where I would have, , invite ten writers over for pizza and champagne and ask them what they like best about what we were doing, what they like, at least tell us about our lives and those nights for a gold mine, for story ideas that also were a mirror back at us.
00:32:34:13 - 00:33:02:10
Marina Khidekel
Like what? What are what's resonating with people, what's not? And you get to see your reader. You're not talking about them, you're in a room with them. And I have sort of taken that into every job I've had. And as a founder, that kind of community mindset has made me extremely customer obsessed. And so, these founders of small companies who think there, too busy to deal with customers, that's a mistake because your customer is the one that's going to tell you what you're doing right, what you're going what you're doing wrong.
00:33:02:10 - 00:33:22:10
Marina Khidekel
They're going to be your biggest evangelist, or they'll be your biggest detractor. So, I have a write every customer who writes a review for them personally and thank them. There will probably come a day where I don't have the bandwidth to do that, but I will try for as long as I can, because there's nothing more important, I think, for a founder than your customers.
00:33:22:10 - 00:33:23:19
Marina Khidekel
And speaking one on one with.
00:33:23:19 - 00:33:57:05
Harper Spero
Them, yeah, that personal touch also goes a long way and people really appreciate being connected to you and feeling like there's someone on the other side that cares. And you're also able to get the kind of data that you're getting of how valuable it's been for people and for their families. So, knowing that you came from the industry that you did and obviously had lots of contacts in publishing, I'm curious to know how you approach the marketing and getting the product out into the world.
00:33:57:15 - 00:34:18:04
Harper Spero
I, if I recall correctly, you and I started talking in, in, in knowing each other previously. You and I started talking because I was seeing your posts everywhere. I was seeing press everywhere and I was like, what is the deal with this thing? I need to know more, and I need to get my hands on one of these guys.
00:34:18:11 - 00:34:25:14
Harper Spero
So yeah, tell me about the like marketing and strategy for getting it out into the world.
00:34:25:16 - 00:34:41:00
Marina Khidekel
So, I have never started a company. I have never launched a product. This is all very new to me and there's a lot more about it that I don't know that I know how to do. But I'm lucky to have great people who I work with on a lot of that stuff. I'm learning as quickly as I can.
00:34:41:05 - 00:35:03:14
Marina Khidekel
The press piece is something I hoped I would be able to bring my experience, some of my connections I knew without getting the word out about how I was in the press, it would be nothing, there are other weighted stuffed animals. There are so many brands out there without sort of becoming a household name and getting out there.
00:35:03:19 - 00:35:30:16
Marina Khidekel
I had nothing. I spent the first five months after launching the company myself full time doing PR and marketing, and I hired people to do the other stuff. But I knew if I didn't do that, I really wouldn't have anything to continue with. So, I had a strategy that I have a spreadsheet of about 200 press contacts, newsletter editors, influencer type people that are kind of in my orbit.
00:35:30:16 - 00:35:58:23
Marina Khidekel
Right? And some are who I know or who maybe somebody I know knows. And then the third layer is, I don't know, but they report on something, or they work in a publication that is very relevant to 200 is what I'm doing. I just started working my way through it. My strategy was to and I recommend this to everyone start with people. What you'll find is that a lot of people who you think will come through for you will not, but others who you may be tangentially know your weak ties, they might really step up and help you.
00:35:58:23 - 00:36:14:05
Marina Khidekel
So, I started the people in the press, but I knew that I had worked with who I thought would be relevant. Then I expanded to people that I knew of, and then I expanded to people I didn't know, but who I really wanted them to cover. And so, yeah, I spent full time five months doing my own PR.
00:36:14:05 - 00:36:31:14
Marina Khidekel
I didn't hire a company. And what happened was I started hearing from a lot of other founders and they were saying to me, how are you getting all this press? You've hired PR companies for 6000, 10,000, $12,000 a month and nothing. Maybe we've got a couple little hits, but we were unhappy with the experience and blah, blah, blah.
00:36:31:14 - 00:36:51:00
Marina Khidekel
And there's great PR companies out there too. I'm not I'm not saying there aren't. But the story that I hear from a lot of founders of new brands is that they're not seeing this traction. And how am I doing it? I want to help everybody, and I obviously can't while running this company. So, I've started consulting on the side for startup founders end of mission driven companies especially.
00:36:51:08 - 00:37:07:09
Marina Khidekel
And I don't I'm not a PR company, so I will not pitch for you, but I will tell you how to find editors and writers to pitch what to say in their pitch, what not to say in your pitch, how to follow up and sort of how to how to structure your work around them so you don't have to hire somebody, at least not initially.
00:37:07:09 - 00:37:26:21
Marina Khidekel
And that's been something cool that I can do on the side. And I see these founders who really didn't have an experience in it, understand like, oh, this is how you do it. Oh, like I, I feel like I can at least start this. And a lot of startup founders hire PR companies. It feels very cold when a PR company touches you sometimes.
00:37:26:21 - 00:37:50:20
Marina Khidekel
I was an editor, so I was on the other side of all these PR pitches deleting, deleting, deleting for the same reasons which I help founders avoid. But I tell founders, you started this company for a reason. Tell your story, be a person, be a human, don't be a bot. In other words, respond to that and at the same time bring them something of value, bring them something cool to cover, understand who they are what they do, don't like it, know spam people.
00:37:50:20 - 00:38:08:17
Marina Khidekel
So, I started doing that and that's been cool. But yeah, the press starts spiraling. Press begets press. Once the outlets see that other outlets have covered and validated you, they're more likely to do it. So that is also something very true. I was wondering, I launched in the toy industry parents and grandparents of kids who suffer from anxiety.
00:38:09:04 - 00:38:31:15
Marina Khidekel
So that was my early press toy guides. We won good housekeeping's best toy awards, parents best play awards. And then I wondered if adults would find the product, I created for myself. And they are. And now the press starting to be graduation gifts, Mother's Day guides, gifts for friends that they wouldn't expect. And so that's been something really cool that sort of started on its own.
00:38:31:15 - 00:38:39:19
Marina Khidekel
I haven't necessarily been pitching hugging roles for adults necessarily, but the press has sort of understood the wide appeal.
00:38:40:03 - 00:39:11:15
Harper Spero
That's so amazing. I love hearing that and it feels like there's so many moments in life that you'll be able to create content around and be able to share how it could be valuable to people in different moments. I now have this. What is your goal in someone having one on their own? I assume gifting, but how do you make that brand extend again for you to constantly have people coming back and have repeat customers?
00:39:12:09 - 00:39:36:01
Marina Khidekel
Yeah, that's a great question. We have a lot of repeat customers. I didn't know if we would at the start. I hope to it, but I wasn't sure. And what's happening is, a lot of people get it for a child who has or distress has a stressful situation coming up and that child's maybe teenage sibling sees it and they're like, I want one.
00:39:36:01 - 00:39:54:20
Marina Khidekel
So, they get it for them. And then a lot of times parents steal it for themselves and then they have to get another one because they actually want one. And then they'll gift it to family, friends, two cousins, to school friends. And that's the trend that we see happening. Sometimes an adult will get it. And everyone needs to know about this right now.
00:39:54:20 - 00:40:19:15
Marina Khidekel
And, those customers are our biggest evangelists and they get it for their friends. We see this is really moving sort of a subcategory of customers is Alzheimer's and dementia patients. They can't have a pet and, sometimes a stuffed animal will just get lost. But the weight of a hug, a mole is very soothing and grounding to them and it feels almost like an alive thing.
00:40:19:22 - 00:40:43:10
Marina Khidekel
So, we hear that a lot. Like I've gotten this from my mother, my father who has Alzheimer's, who has dementia, and it's been a game changer. We've also had a lot of women, people who have experienced pregnancy loss or child loss, who want to hold something that feels child like it. Really, the breadth of the customer base has really surprised me.
00:40:43:10 - 00:41:05:13
Marina Khidekel
I figured, great parents, every kid suffers from anxiety. Sometimes it's going to be great. Grandparents found us and sold us out last holiday and we'll be going on QVC in the fall, which is another amazing audience of people, which is very exciting. Yeah, it's just been amazing. And I think some of the press we've gotten only one Time magazine best inventions.
00:41:05:23 - 00:41:14:18
Marina Khidekel
We've won Glamour's best women on brands and things like this. And different little pockets of people are discovering it through that and through word of mouth.
00:41:14:20 - 00:41:30:07
Harper Spero
It's so powerful. And I just want to acknowledge all that you shared on the PR front. I'm so not surprised that you had the outcome that you did, and I'm not surprised that you didn't hire an agency because you knew the power of your own contacts and your own experience to be able to make that happen.
00:41:30:17 - 00:41:32:23
Marina Khidekel
And the power of the product is really what did it.
00:41:33:10 - 00:41:35:02
Harper Spero
For sure, the power of the product.
00:41:35:05 - 00:41:39:12
Marina Khidekel
You can have all the contacts in the world. If you have a bad product, nobody will feature you.
00:41:39:15 - 00:41:56:19
Harper Spero
I also think that it's I think it's amazing that you're paying forward and helping other founders in making sure that they have the tools to be able to pitch themselves. So, what's next for the company? New products, new animals? What's the what's next?
00:41:57:00 - 00:42:20:05
Marina Khidekel
New animals first? So, we just introduced our first new Horgan-Wallace family member, our friend, the cat. And coming after that, we're working on a couple adorable creatures coming next. And I'm also prototyping different types of products. A lot of people have wanted something, hello, one. So, four and a half pounds. A lot of people, they say to me, I want something to crush me.
00:42:20:06 - 00:42:41:23
Marina Khidekel
Like they really want to be super happy. So, for there, it's called proprioceptive input, that weighted pressure that feels really good on the body for a lot of people. And I should say some people do not are sensory seekers, they do not like weight. But for those who do, sometimes they want something heavier. So, we are prototyping different types of carving products that are not so animals.
00:42:41:23 - 00:43:03:04
Marina Khidekel
I'm really excited about that. We do have a big customer base, but it's adults. I'd say now 50% or more of our product reviews and we have thousands of five-star reviews are from adults who use have almost for themselves. So that's been really cool to see it expanding and I love hearing from parents and I also love hearing from adults.
00:43:03:12 - 00:43:26:11
Marina Khidekel
So yeah, we are prototyping different types of products. We are doing a big partnership with QVC. We're working on a couple other partnerships, and we are expanding globally. We're now in Canada, we're an Amazon here, but also Amazon Canada, different stores in Canada. And we just got a big order from a chain of 160 plus stores in Sweden and in Europe.
00:43:26:15 - 00:43:34:03
Marina Khidekel
They are ahead of the US in mental health, so they get it. We're expanding internationally and that's very cool for me too.
00:43:34:03 - 00:43:43:09
Harper Spero
I love that. Congrats. I'm so excited for you on this. I'm sitting here holding my sloth, changing positions as if it's a baby. That's like, fun. Maybe.
00:43:43:19 - 00:44:04:06
Marina Khidekel
So, what you're doing right now, that took us viral on TikTok. We have 6 million views on TikTok from videos of I just take my phone. I didn't expect this. I don't know anything about TikTok. I just took my phone and started recording people. When I went to trade shows holding a hug Elmo for the first time. And they do not expect it to be as heavy as it is.
00:44:04:06 - 00:44:15:09
Marina Khidekel
And they instantly do what you're doing and put it on their shoulder like a baby. And their reactions are so big and funny that it took this viral on TikTok, I call it the first hug, feeling it. You don't expect it to feel like that.
00:44:15:14 - 00:44:30:12
Harper Spero
Oh my God. I love it so much as I give it a tight squeeze. So, Given that this podcast is all about invisible illness and you've had experience with anxiety, what do you want people to know about invisible illness?
00:44:30:12 - 00:44:54:00
Marina Khidekel
I think it's I think invisible illness is much more prevalent than we think it is. And I think, we're seeing a lot of adults getting diagnosed with ADHD and anxiety as adults. And so much of that has gone undiagnosed. And I also think like what you were saying before Harvard, you just don't know what somebody is going through.
00:44:54:03 - 00:45:13:18
Marina Khidekel
I live in New York. It's bustling. There are people everywhere. It's tempting to grumble like, oh, this person cut me off on the street. Or This person is talking very loudly, like, why? But I always try to stop myself and think, what could they be going through? Like they might be suffering, they're not showing it, and I don't know about it.
00:45:13:18 - 00:45:27:09
Marina Khidekel
And everyone has a story, but we don't see people's stories, especially the parts that might be a struggle for them. So, I just always lean back on that and think, I just don't know. I just don't know what they're going through.
00:45:27:12 - 00:45:51:11
Harper Spero
I appreciate that so much and obviously it's something that I agree with so much. Thank you so much for creating this incredible product that I really didn't think I would love as much as I do. I'll be honest with you. And I'm obsessed and all my friends when they come to my house are like grabbing it. I'm wondering who's going to fight for it tomorrow night when I have some friends over where can people find more about Helga Mills?
00:45:51:18 - 00:45:53:22
Harper Spero
Purchase them and connect with you.
00:45:54:10 - 00:46:20:04
Marina Khidekel
Yeah. You can purchase panels on our website. Helga Mills, WorldCom to A to G. I am alliance like hug an animal. Welcome. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Helga Moles on Facebook at Animals World. Yeah, we're on socials and we're also on Amazon if that's easier for you. Our newest character, Frankie, is I don't have a little WorldCom that's not yet on Amazon.
00:46:20:04 - 00:46:35:02
Marina Khidekel
So, we've got preorders there. But yeah, I love to hear from people. I love to hear what they're thinking about the product as they've gotten it, how it is. And I really appreciate you sharing your experience with that and seeing how your friends react to it too.
00:46:36:07 - 00:46:41:02
Harper Spero
I need to write a review. That's next on my to do list. Thank you, Marina Harbor.
00:46:41:02 - 00:46:43:02
Marina Khidekel
Thank you so much. This is this is amazing.
00:46:43:02 - 00:47:10:09
Harper Spero
Thank you. Thanks for tuning into made visible. We hope you learned about something new today. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a few minutes to subscribe and rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Your support means the world to us. Visit made visible stories dot com to check out our writing workshops. Corporate offerings and more information that can help you in navigating life with an invisible illness.
00:47:10:17 - 00:47:21:00
Harper Spero
Follow made visible stories on Instagram. See you next week.