We’d love you to know more about the brands we partner with, and why we stock and recommend them. Who better to describe their products and their philosophies than the founders themselves.
Introducing Beckie from HartRoks. Beckie is one half of the duo behind HartRoks (Beckie’s business partner, Jess is the other half.) HartRoks offers crystals, manifesting and 'high vibing' gifts. Beckie is here to demystify the ancient healing modality of crystals for the modern day woman.
Beckie is an ex yoga teacher, Mum of two, half Swedish / half Aussie), with an A-type personality. HartRoks is the third ‘baby’ in Beckie’s life, and has evolved from a passion project to a full time role.
Can you please tell us about Hartroks and how the concept was created and brought to life?
I met Jess in 2014 when we were doing yoga teacher training together. We spoke passionately about our dream of creating a business together. Jess came to me with an idea after she had been gifting crystals to friends, giving them a particular type of energy to suit whatever was happening in their lives. The gesture was so well received, and when Jess’ friends asked where she shopped, she realised there weren’t any stores packaging crystals up beautifully for gifting. Jess saw a gap in the market, and together, in 2017, we created HartRoks.
Having little to no experience with crystals, I personified the large number of people who felt overwhelmed by them. We realised that a lack of knowledge was another gap in the market – so we began demystifying crystals and offering them in beautiful, gift-ready packaging.
There are so many choices when it comes to crystals. What advice would you give a beginner when they are first looking to purchase a crystal?
First and foremost, our advice is always to follow your intuition. Whether it’s a colour, shape, word, or just a ‘feeling’, if it draws you to a particular Rok, it’s likely exactly what you need. Whether you are choosing a Rok for yourself, or someone you love, try not to question it and go with your ‘gut’.
Ultimately, crystals teach us to care less for what our external pressures (society or media for example) are persuading us to do, and instead to look within. Crystals help us to tap into our intuition and follow our ‘Harts’.
What are your favourite parts of the collection?
HartRoks launched with one product, The Jingle Bell Rok Pack. (It was Christmas 2017). Today, that product is called ‘The Rok Starter Pack’ and it’s one of our best sellers. The pack consists of six pebbles, each one ready to work on the areas of life that see the biggest energetic leaks and peaks.
I love this pack, (and all of our pebble packs for that matter) for a few reasons. Firstly because it is through pebbles that I began my interaction with Crystals. I put them in my bra to help me stay mindful, to manifest with, to meditate with, to protect my energy with.
The second reason I love this pack is because with the six pebbles, each day I can work on strengthening my intuition by choosing the pebble that I’ll carry with me for the day. The pebbles are so easy to incorporate and it’s for that reason that I was able to continue and evolve my love for crystals.
We know that COVID has been a particularly difficult time for so many (especially for the people of Melbourne who have been in a strict lock down for more than 6 months now…) but for HartRoks this became a time of growth for your business. What do you think it was about this time that led to an increase in people purchasing crystals?
There were a few factors that we believe attributed to our growth during such a strange and unpredictable time. It just so happened to be that we expanded our product offering at the beginning of lockdown. This gave us something new and fun to present to our long-time customers. Secondly, and probably most importantly, HartRoks is not just about buying Roks to keep on your coffee table (although they look so stunning there.) We care about the healing journey that a customer may take after buying one of our packs. Many of our packs are specifically created with the intention of acting as a gateway to something more, something bigger than just a Rok in a box.
We try to nurture our customers as much as possible, and I suppose during a time when we have all been tested, we’ve found people turning inwards and opening up to crystals in a way they may not have previously done.
What’s your secret to juggling a job, the growth of HartRoks, a husband and two small children?
Ha. There’s no secret. I wish there was. Happiness and balance are so different for everyone and my ‘life see-saw’ is constantly thrown between being beautifully in balance (even if only for an hour) to totally out of whack. I think I have a personality that thrives off having a lot of balls in the air – so that helps of course.
Having said that, the other day I read a quote which has really stuck with me during lockdown, where my daily to-do list seemed to double! It went something like this…
'If you’re going to juggle lots of balls, whether that’s at work, at home, socially or personally, then learn which of those balls is made of glass and which is made of plastic. You can drop the plastic balls (kids going to school with odd socks, emails that can wait, vacuuming the house etc), and you will, sometimes daily. Just make sure those glass balls (picking up the kids, family dinners, signing off an important work contract, your own personal non-negotiables and boundaries, etc.) don’t drop. And, if they do, pick up the pieces and work out how you can change things so that another glass ball doesn’t fall again.'
In addition to a solid collection of crystals, do you have any rituals or habits that keep your health and wellbeing in check?
My non-negotiables have changed a lot over the years. This is mostly due to the needs of my little ones and my business, but also as a result of getting to know myself more and more as the years go on. My ‘cup fillers’ have also had to change during lockdown since we haven’t been able to access or do some of the things that I would normally lean on to keep my mental and physical health in check.
The ‘ritual’ of checking in with myself is something I am getting better at doing – daily. I’m learning to follow my gut, listen to my body and make amendments as I go, to try and set myself up to be the best version of myself as often as possible. When the chips are really down, there are a few things that have become my ‘go-to’ in resetting my energy. They include, getting more sleep (so powerful), cleaning up around myself for better clarity, exercising, having soulful chats with friends and/or writing things down, in order to get things off my chest.
Lastly, I find that being proactive or setting a manageable ‘to do’ list for myself is a great habit of mine. I find when I’m actively helping myself I automatically feel better for it. Sometimes I write things down just so I can cross them off!
Can you tell us a little about your sustainable and giving back practises, and why this is so important to you and the brand?
Giving back to the planet and to humankind is one of our core values.
Jess and I, as both consumers and business owners, are always looking into ‘how’ and ‘why’ a product has come to be, before purchasing it for ourselves or our business. We want to make sure that our buying power, both personally and as a business, is going towards funding families, a positive outcome, or encouraging a better way of living for everyone. Essentially, we want our dollar to do good.
Recently we partnered with i-Change, allowing us to donate $1 from every customer’s sale to one of our three chosen charities. We are so excited to be able to create positive change in this way.
Prior to this we have worked with One Girl Organisation to raise awareness and funds in support of their mission to educate girls in Sierra Leone. We created crystal bracelets and aligned with Lululemon to host a movie night for the environmental documentary ‘The 2040 Film’. We were thrilled to donate over 65% from each bracelet sold to One Girl Org.
From our packaging to our daily business habits, we are constantly working towards doing better and being better.
And to close off Beckie, tell us what creating HartRoks means to you?
I’m just so excited about the HartRoks experience we have created. It’s so rewarding for us to see and hear customers receiving their good vibes! We’re watching people become engaged with crystals and the information we provide about each Rok. We’re thrilled that people feel so special when they open their boxes, whether they were gifted an energy or they bought something they deserve for themselves. The customers experience is something we care a lot about, and take so much satisfaction from.
We are super excited to be stocked by The Bondi Wellness Co in the UK so that we can share our beautiful products across the other side of the globe.
You can check out the beautiful Hartroks collection here.