Coming out of the soil - Heartwood

Heartwood is one of those unique venues that you enter and are immediately inspired by the landscape, the view, the venture, and the owners. Heartwood is a regenerative farm with fresh air, healthy soil, thriving plants and happy animals. The place has a cidery, a Mongolian yurt, a woodland patio, and offers a place to cultivate your team's bonds.

Founders Val Steinmann and Brent Klassen own the place, and we spoke with Brent about its uniqueness and inspiring story.

Tell us a little bit about the business / yourself

Val and I come from very different backgrounds. As a regenerative farmer, Val has always sought ways to improve the soil, and all agricultural activities around it. My background is on the business side. I founded and ran a few creative agencies between the mid-90s and a few years ago. One of these companies was sold to a financial services company, and the other is a major player in North American non-profit fundraising. As a consultant, I am well-versed in what works and what doesn't for small businesses that are scrappy, as well as how to enhance the performance of their teams. 

Val brings the connections to land, soil, and animals, and I bring the lens of what organizations need today - being in person, intentionally, together. There is a rich bed for embodied experiences here, which leads to conversations, creativity, and different forms of collaboration. 

How did you decide to start this business

After I sold one of my agencies, I was thinking about my next career path, and the cidery business started to take off. Due to that, as more people came to the cidery, the retreat business grew as something more curated and based on a place. Retreats were never intended to scale to the moon, but rather just to allow people to enjoy the land, the animals, the cidery business, that people wanted to make use of for retreats, and there is cross pollination between the cidery business and retreats, and they can both be based on regeneration.

The whole thing felt organic, and in some ways it's a confluence of my experience and Val's expertise. 

What's the coolest / most interesting thing that happened during an event you hosted?

We did our first retreat with the executive director of a long-term care facility, and he revealed a family tragedy to his entire management team, and that vulnerability set the tone for the day. As soon as he opened up, everyone was able to open up and the day was full of laughter, tears, and strong connections. It was at that moment that I realized this is what Heartwood is all about - creating a space for vulnerability.

A second story involves inviting people to wander through the orchard quietly and to think, and afterwards one of them (in his mid 50's!) said it was the first time since childhood that he sat on the grass, just doing nothing for 10 minutes. That's Heartwood for me too - allowing adults to feel like kids again. 

What's unique about your service?

It's hard to find anything like what we offer. This is not just about renting a space, it's about bringing your team to a well-curated event. Our process can lead people through the day, giving them an interesting and very curated experience in a very unique venue from beginning to end. 

Where do you see the business in 5 years

It would be great if people could have more ongoing relationships between the times they come, more seasonal activities, and more continuity. One day is not enough, so I would like to develop more longitudinal offerings that take people throughout the year. 

We don't plan to scale, but we do plan to build deeper connections with clients. We want to go deepe

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