Hosting With Heart

It's the FINAL DAY of the Heartful equity crowdfunding campaign, with our public investment offer closing at 10pm AEDT on Thursday 2nd November, 2023.

As of 8pm AEDT on Wednesday 1st November, Heartful had welcomed 109 new investors, with a total of $119,392.00 raised, something Jen is extraordinarily proud of and of course, very excited about.

She touches on some of the recent successes of the campaign in this episode, delivered a little bit later than planned due to the extreme busyness of the past fortnight.

To ensure you don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to invest in a purpose-driven, female-founded startup that aims to transform the Australian and New Zealand short-term accommodation sector into one that is more inclusive and sustainable, visit the Heartful Birchal campaign page at Heartful Group Pty Ltd - Reimagining the way we stay.

Once 10pm AEDT rolls around, sadly there will be no further opportunities to invest at this early stage. It's time to seize the moment and put your hard-earned dollars where your values are!

Please follow Heartful on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn via the links below: Instagram -Instagram (@heartful.travel)

Facebook - Heartful

LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/heartful.travel

Well, it's CRUNCH time in the Heartful equity crowdfunding campaign, with EOIs closing on Monday October 16th at 10pm AEDT and Jen needing to raise $50K during the private offer period (that's just 48 short hours!) in order for the public offer to go ahead.

The private offer period opens at 12pm on Tuesday October 17th and will run until 12pm on Thursday October 19th, following which the public offer will open if Jen meets that ambitious target.

If you didn't manage to submit an EOI but still want to invest in the private offer period and take advantage of Birchal's delayed payment terms, meaning you don't have to pay for your investment until the public offer ends on November 2nd, please shoot an email to Jen at [email protected] and she'll ensure you get sent an invite to the private offer.

To express your interest in investing in Heartful, request an invite to the private offer OR to invest now, visit the Birchal campaign page at Heartful Group Pty Ltd - Reimagining the way we stay.

Please follow Heartful on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn via the links below: Instagram -Instagram (@heartful.travel)

Facebook - Heartful

LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/heartful.travel

This third instalment in our equity crowdfunding campaign mini-series is a re-recording of Jen's recent presentation at the Heartful Investor Webinar held on October 4th, 2023. It contains a wealth of info about Jen and her personal / professional background, the backstory of Hosting With Heart, an insight into how the idea for Heartful originated, the many reasons the platform is needed and what Jen's incredibly ambitious yet exciting plans are for building, launching and growing the platform over the coming months and into the longer-term future.

To express your interest in investing in Heartful, visit the Birchal campaign page at Heartful Group Pty Ltd - Reimagining the way we stay. Expressions of Interest will close on Wednesday October 11th and the no of EOIs we receive will determine if the investment offer goes ahead, so please get your EOIs in ASAP if you'd like to own a part of this groundbreaking new platform.

Please follow Heartful on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn via the links below: Instagram -Instagram (@heartful.travel)

Facebook - Heartful

LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/heartful.travel

Check out the Startup Daily TV interview with Jen here at the 43min mark.

Or have a read of Jen's recent interview about all things Heartful on the Peppermint Magazine website.

This second short and sweet episode of our Heartful crowdfunding campaign mini-series sees Jen talk about some recent wins in the press, reaching over 115 Expressions of Interest from potential investors in Heartful and her thoughts on why now is the time you need to embrace accessibility as a host.

To express your interest in investing in Heartful or register for our forthcoming Investor Webinar on Tuesday 3rd October at 1pm AEST, visit the Birchal campaign page at Heartful Group Pty Ltd - Reimagining the way we stay.

Please follow Heartful on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn via the links below: Instagram -Instagram (@heartful.travel)

Facebook - Heartful

LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/company/heartful.travel

Check out the Startup Daily TV interview with Jen here at the 43min mark.

Or have a read of Jen's recent interview about all things Heartful on the Peppermint Magazine website.

In this first episode of our 6-week podcast mini series documenting the equity crowdfunding campaign for the new ethical accommodation booking platform Jen is proudly launching in 2024, she talks about how the idea for Heartful was realised, gives an overview of what equity crowdfunding is and how it all works, and provides a general update on how things are progressing 30 hours after the campaign launch.

To express your interest in investing in Heartful, visit the Birchal campaign page at

Please follow Heartful on Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn via the links below:

Instagram - Instagram (@heartful.travel)

Facebook - Heartful

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/heartful.travel

In this milestone 100th episode of Hosting With Heart, Jen Clark and partner Kirstie Innes-Will reflect on almost four years of what has become a dearly-loved, phenomenally successful podcast and all they've learned along the way, along with Jen's incredibly exciting plans to launch a new, ethical accommodation booking platform, Heartful.

For those who've followed the Hosting With Heart journey since day dot to those who've only recently discovered the podcast, online community and website, this episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in helping make the short-term accommodation sector more inclusive, sustainable and community-focused.

My guest on today's penultimate episode of season 7 of Hosting With Heart is author, travel writer and environmentalist Nina Karnikowski.

Having worked as a travel writer for the past decade, Nina now writes about travel that conserves, educates and uplifts more than it destroys, and aims to demonstrate how travel can help solve societal and environmental problems.

The author of three hugely successful titles, Nina has just released her fourth book, The Mindful Traveller, a stunningly written memoir about the ethics of modern travel.

In this unique and inspiring book, Nina takes an expedition to the very essence of travel, reflecting on the profound and transformative experiences to be had heading into the wild or just staying put, and demonstrating how to travel in a way that is as nourishing for the places we visit as they are for us.

Nina's travel writing appears regularly in The Sydney Morning Herald's Traveller, The AFR's Life & Leisure, Condé Nast Traveller and more.

Nina mentors writers, teaches writing and creativity workshops and is also a mentor at The Conscious Travel Foundation.

It was an absolute pleasure discussing all things ethical travel with Nina a few weeks back and I have no doubts that you'll find this conversation an energising and inspiring one.

Having finished a journalism degree and set off on a post-graduation gap year abroad, Simone Williams eventually indulged her Mum's call to come back home to Australia and secure herself a job.

And that she did, although not as a reporter, but as a flight attendant for Australia's beloved Qantas - a career she anticipated might last a year at best but that ultimately morphed into a 30 year stint that would prove one of the most rewarding experiences of her life.

Yet despite the joys of constant travel, Simone had a yearning for a simpler life on a farm.

Newly married to now-husband Bruce, she spontaneously happened upon her dream property in Queensland's Currumbin Valley while scrolling the web one day during a stopover in Frankfurt.

Little did she know that sometime later, she and Bruce would serendipitously drive past that exact same property, Hillview Dairy, and find it once again for sale. The duo scraped together every last cent they could find and fortuitously, managed to make it theirs.

Since then, Simone and Bruce have welcomed three sons and have raised them on the farm, all the while chipping away at restoring both the homestead and more recently, the dairy, with the aim of one day welcoming guests to stay.

That day eventually arrived in January, 2020 and Simone hasn't looked back, having achieved an enviable 258 Airbnb reviews with an average score of 4.98, an expanse of press and a continuing 80-90% occupancy rate.

My recent chat with Simone about her journey to date and newly-hatched plans to restore the property's stables was a real pleasure and I'm sure you'll find this conversation equally insightful and entertaining. Please enjoy.

It was the acceptance that she had chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) that led Sarah Williams to seek out a lifestyle and career that was more compatible with her health and values.

After many years working in the fast-paced, corporate-like higher education sector in urban environments, Sarah had to re-evaluate her work-life balance, or lack thereof.

A subsequent relapse of CFS drew a firm line in the sand, with Sarah ultimately deciding to return from Melbourne to her home state of Tasmania and to the property on which her grandfather had painstakingly built a timber cabin some 40 years prior in the idyllic town of Meander, in the state's central north.

Following her return, Sarah decided that hosting guests at the cabin might be an ideal way to combine her need for regular rest with generating a recurring income and accordingly, set out to complete some modest renovations to the cabin in preparation.

Since finishing the renos and opening the doors to what is now known as Cedar Cottage Meander some 3 years ago, she's had enormous success, with the property receiving consistently exceptional reviews and being named a finalist in 2022's Airbnb awards in the 'Best Nature Stay' category.

Sarah is a passionate advocate for the disability and chronic illness community, a multi-talented creative and technologist and a lover of sustainability and the natural environment. As I was speaking with her, I felt an immediate sense of kinship and solidarity. I really hope you get as much out of this chat today as I did.

As our recent conversation progressed, I came to the realisation that Bel du Bois, co-owner of Queensland's Grain Shed Retreat, could almost be deemed the perfect heartful host.

Having a few years back moved to the Darling Downs region a couple of hours south-west of Brisbane, Bel fortuitously went on to reconnect with an old school friend Neil, a former dog trainer and behavioural therapist.

A highly experienced occupational therapist, Bel originally made the move in search of new adventures, but eventually got lured by the local community back into private practice.

All was not lost, however, as Bel and Neil made the decision to take advantage of Neil's incredible 900 acre property and open a multi-disciplinary health and wellness practice, Darling Downs Wellness Therapies, allowing their diverse client base to take advantage of their nature-based, holistic therapeutic approach.

One thing was missing though - the opportunity for clients to stay onsite, experiencing the benefits of a longer-term therapeutic retreat.

So with sustainability and accessibility at the forefront of their minds, Bel and Neil resourcefully converted the old grain shed on the property into self-contained accommodation that would go on to be crowned Airbnb's best regional stay in Australia in 2021.

Meeting people like Bel really does make my heart - pardon the pun - sing. I believe that her approach to hosting is truly pioneering. I was absolutely delighted to have a chat about her journey and hope you, too, will be left inspired and energised by this episode.