Hey, Green Junkie!
When was the last time you just stopped in the middle of a busy afternoon, crawled into bed and just read a book? Or took your time in the morning to really savour your morning tea/coffee, plan out your day and connect with nature?
Our lifestyles are extremely busy and we have often grown up with a mentality that to hustle is to succeed and that isn’t always true. Sometimes the hardest working people we know are the most broke and most unhappy people we’ve ever met – because they’re exhausted and constantly sacrificing their free time to work more.
In today’s episode, I am chatting with the beautiful Emily Padan to discuss this concept of slow living, what that really looks like and how we can all slow down to smell the roses.
You won’t want to miss this episode where we discuss,
- What does slow living really mean?
- Small ways to live more slowly.
- The benefits of slow living.
- How to shift priorities that will allow you to slow down.
- Example of a slow living day.
You’ll discover that and so much more in this episode.
If you love this podcast be sure to leave a review and share a screenshot of this episode to your IG stories. Tag @greenjunkiepodcast so I can shout you out and publicly say thanks.
Thanks for listening and being here.
Your green bestie,
xoxo Stephanie
Hang With Emily:
https://www.tiktok.com/@emilypadan
Finding Your Wave Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1SVXVS0OjHLW91otD44xld
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Previous Episodes Mentioned:
#33. Creating Sustainable Businesses with Sara Miltenberger
#29. Keeping Green Fun With Inventor & Owner of Big Bee Little Bee, Amy Leinbach
Snag 1 on 1 Sustainability Consulting with Stephanie
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Produced by: Alecia Harris
Music By: Liz Fohle
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TRANSCRIPT FOR EPISODE 41
Stephanie Moram 0:07
Hey, Green Junkie. I'm your host, Stephanie Moram and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Emily Padan about slow living. Such a great topic. She is a co-owner of Hinter, a design-focused carbon-neutral hotel. And she's also the founder of Bloom Class, a virtual education company. Emily runs the social media for both her brands and as a personal advocate for slow living and sustainability, she takes on contractional clients as well. She enjoys helping companies increase their social media presence and branding. If you love learning new ways you can reduce your impact on the environment, please subscribe to the Green Junkie podcast on whatever platform you get your podcasts that way you never miss another green living episode. Hi, Emily, thank you so much for being here. I really, really appreciate it.
Emily Padan 1:00
Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited.
Stephanie Moram 1:03
Of course, of course. So the first question… I'd love for you to tell us a little bit about yourself and your family.
Emily Padan 1:11
Sure. So, as mentioned, my name is Emily. And I'm from Montreal, currently living in Montreal, although I do travel quite often. And I used to be a teacher actually. I was an elementary school teacher for seven years. And then, around the last year of my teaching career, I met my soon-to-be husband and him and I started putting our heads together, he had already had some dreams of a certain kind of business, which now to this day exists, and we are running it together. So we run Hinter, which we'll talk a little bit more about soon, I'm sure. And I also kind of kept that education side of things. And I created an educational virtual educational platform throughout during the pandemic actually called Bloom Class. And what else, I have my own podcast as well, which I'm on a little hiatus from right now. And that's called Finding Your Way. And in general, I just really enjoy living sustainably and living slowly. And I do think that those two things go hand in hand. So I'm sure we'll dive a little bit more into that soon.
Stephanie Moram 2:24
And when was your like, aha moment when it came to like sustainability? Was there something that happened in your life where you decided I need to change the way I shop, I need to change what I eat, I need to change different things in your life to live more sustainably? Was there something that happened? Or was it gradual? Were you raised this way?
Emily Padan 2:43
I would say it was quite gradual. I remember. I mean, I've always been a lover of like, animals and nature and trees, I was the kid that would climb the trees and stay in the trees for hours. You know, that was always I think, in my blood and in my personality. But in high school, there were even like, there were some clubs like environmental clubs. And I joined those and I loved like advocating for the environment and going around and telling parents who were waiting in their cars to pick up their kids from school to shut off their engines and explained to them about idling and it was not so cool back then. Like we were kind of like seven of us and the whole grade that we would do this. But I didn't really care to be honest, I knew it was the right thing. And I cared about it. And I thought like I I just I liked I liked being green, I liked the environment, I want to take care of it. And then over time, I'm a very curious person. So I've just I've done a lot of research, I read a lot I listen to podcasts, you know, when Clubhouse was like really big, I was on Clubhouse at the time. And that's where you and I connected actually. And I just consume a lot of information. And I mean, we all do in this age, but I think I specifically tried to consume as much as I could, things that I could learn from and over the years, I got greener and greener. And every day I tried to as much as I can to keep getting better at my sustainability journey.
Stephanie Moram 4:10
You mentioned slow living.
Emily Padan 4:12
Yes.
Stephanie Moram 4:12
What is like your definition of slow living, slow living. I mean, there could be like a million definitions, but what is yours?
Emily Padan 4:18
My definition of slow living is enjoying the moment and experiencing life for every ounce of what it's here to give you with all your five senses, with all your I mean, depending on what you believe in with all your bodies, you know, or your your mind body spirit. It's just embracing it. I mean life is fast, and especially in a world full of consumerism, and just technology everything is fast. And I think that I myself very much fell into that trap. I was always in touch with nature and trying to live sustainably. But I was not always into slow living. That was something that I was, I mean, I was working as a teacher, I was grinding, waking up early, working long hours, you know, going to tutor after teaching, getting home late, I was in a toxic relationship back then I was, I was, you know, just not sleeping enough. And even when I was awake, I wasn't really awake, I wasn't noticing what was around me, I wasn't embracing and I wasn't hearing the birds chirping outside on a spring day, or I wasn't maybe taking the time to like, notice a fabric and my hands and like, really feel what it meant to me. And I think that it was over the last, I don't know, three, four years that I really started paying attention more and almost waking up. And to me, that's the living, it's noticing things, taking your time with things, taking a moment, when you feel a little overwhelmed before you get to the point where you're in a breakdown, and taking that deep breath or taking five minutes to meditate or just like curling up in bed in the middle of the day. And just like reading a book, you know, whatever it is that you need to be that that is slow living, and that is hand in hand with sustainability. Because when you slow down, and when you pay attention, you notice the natural world around you more, and then you you care about it more. And caring for the natural world and caring for yourself are so intertwined.
Stephanie Moram 6:32
And it's like living you know, the expression of love people say like, oh, smell the roses, you know, when you're walking and stuff, it's literally taking the time to enjoy that big tree that might be outside, you know, I have a friend that goes to the same tree, whenever she goes walking, and she just sits with that tree, you know what I mean? It's like, it's like a guide for her.
Emily Padan 6:52
And, and there's, there's something to say even about about nature and how it grounds you like there's something literally even called grounding, where sometimes when I go for a walk or a run, I'll stop at a tree and do my stretches. And I'll put my hand on the tree. And I am grounding because when you put your skin contact with nature, it actually I don't know the science entirely behind it. But I know that it, it helps your body become more balanced because of the minerals. And I just don't want to look like a crazy person, like just just touching the tree. So I do my stretches. But honestly, we should all embrace the craziness and hug more trees more often.
Stephanie Moram 7:29
So yeah, and it's like also like that. The opposite is like that hustle mentality where it's like, go, go go, you know, if you're, if you're not, if you're not, you know, pushing your business forward, and you're not like, you know, doing all this stuff to move your business forward, let's say talking about business, and then you're not working hard enough, you know, and I was in that roller coaster for a while of, I'm not allowed to watch TV. I'm I you know, I missed some of my kids stuff. I was traveling a lot. And it's like, just constantly hearing in my ear, like, you know, sleep when you're dead, you know, like that expression of like, just go go go now. And it's just completely changed for me specifically like, right before, you know, all the crazy went on with the pandemic. And having to be at home with my kids. I just reevaluated a lot for me, and now changing those priorities. And I think it's about changing priorities, right? It's okay, I'm going to take my priority, it's going to be that I'm going to walk every day, even if it's for 30 minutes, I'm going to take my shoes off and my socks and walk outside, you know, and just literally smelling the roses. And I feel like when we do that, and we're in a good space, then life in general is better. But then if we are if we have our own business, then our business will also flourish because we're mentally in a good space. We're not in that constant like high energy. Like where you're almost in a bit in a break down.
Emily Padan 8:59
Absolutely. Our business is direct correlation of ourselves. And if we're not okay, our business probably won't be okay either. Even if we're grinding and hustling which posts words, but if we're doing that, your business can only get so far if then you just keep it's almost like peaks and valleys and you just keep you know, okay, you hustle, you grind and then you collapse and it's not gonna sustain itself. But if you're slow and steady, and you create a slow living lifestyle for yourself, and then a slow business, for your lifestyle and for you know, if that's when your business will then be a reflection of that same mentality that you're encompassing.
Stephanie Moram 9:42
I feel like slow living is also you know, saying no, when it doesn't spark you joy. And I personally struggled with that a lot. I said yes to everything. And recently, I've been saying no a lot, because it's not sparking me joy. You know, for example, there was something happening – an event or something, and I just wasn't feeling it. But I felt like I had to go to like I had to do it. And that's what was drawing me to like, I have to do this, I have to do this. And I stepped back and I said, I don't have to do this. Now, I want to go to Jackson soccer game, I want to be present for him at that soccer game. And that event, I couldn't find another one to go to, you know? So it's like, you can't do it. All right?
Emily Padan 10:24
No, you can't. So part of slow living and living mindfully is making those decisions and realizing like you said, like, what brings me joy, and what brings me like, which activities or meetings or, you know, friend dates, whatever they are, which of those are important to me, and support the life that I want to live and support the vision I have for myself and my business, and my family, and you know, all of the things that are important to myself.
Stephanie Moram 10:56
And I feel like it's also. So slow living is, like you said, doing things that are important to you. And not necessarily getting rid of, but just kind of, again, doesn't spark me joy and realizing what truly is important. And I feel like it's a hard transition. If this is if you've been in hustle mode, whether it's business, whether it's life, like you work a nine to five, and you're always in hustle mode, the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, it's hard to transition to a more slow living life. Like it's hard.
Emily Padan 11:27
Absolutely, it's really hard. And it's like, trust me, I still have to, like sometimes stop and remind myself like, no, no, hold on, take a breath. Like you're getting riled up about like something that's not important right now, or it is important. But you can't, like getting upset won't solve it. So let's like, ground ourselves, like, center ourselves and figure out what we can do to solve the problem. And it's definitely not stressing, you know.
Stephanie Moram 11:56
And so when I was in, like very much for a period of when I started my own business, and on my entrepreneurial journey, I was in that hustle mode. And like I said, it was recently like the last two years. And it's been a struggle to change, like my mind a little bit where normally I would say yes to everything. And it's going no, no, I want to be more at home. You know, it was important for me that my friend, my best friend lives in Montreal, and she's about to have another baby and she has another little baby and my kids are older. So when your kids are a bit older, like it's different having little kids and older kids and then teenagers and then adults like it's just different. So I'm able to not always be at home with them, right? Whereas if I had a little baby be harder for me to get to Montreal all the time, I lived about 20 minutes from Montreal without traffic. And so again, it's making that a priority of like that. So living like yes, I have a lot on my plate for my business. But for the last I would say year and a half to two years. I would say almost every single week, I've gone to my child see my best friend. And it's just because and I've told him I'm like I've made this a priority, because in the past, I haven't made it a priority. Well, you knew one year or two years. And my business is maybe still here, maybe not here. I still want you here.
Emily Padan 13:18
Exactly, exactly. And not only that, but you need to energize yourself with the things that give you life like that give you meaning. Because those are the things that will fuel you to be better at everything else you do. So if seeing your friend every week is something that gives you energy and creativity or whether it's that or it's walking to your favorite coffee shop every day and getting your favorite coffee or Matcha or Chai, you know and going for a 20 minute walk while you sipping it, you know in the sun, if whatever it is that gives you energy and gives you like that, you know, Cest La Vie like reason for living that good good vibe, then you need to do that because that will that will give you more creativity in your work that will give you more energy for your, your spouse or your children that will give you more like relaxation at night before you go to sleep. And I love when you mentioned earlier about, you know, I'll sleep when I'm dead I've mentality and like my dad is literally one of my favorite people in this world. But he's always said that he's always been asleep when I'm dead. Like, you know, like he's so busy, busy, busy. And I heard that growing up and I've always looked up to him in many many many ways. So I always thought that was like the right way to see it. Like oh sleeps not a big deal. Like I have time to that when I'm when I'm dead like I want to live my life to the fullest. But you can do both. You can live your life to the fullest and rest and living to the fullest means something different for everyone. So you also have to figure out what that means for you.
Stephanie Moram 15:00
And you're speaking of chai, so I used to go to a local coffee shop, like all the time, like I was always going. And I was like, I don't think I need to go all the time. So then I switch it to every Friday, I get a chai latte. And then it kind of changed my experience. I know, it's just tea and people were probably like, okay, Stephanie, that's weird. It's a chai latte. But it's like this local place that has been open for the last two years through everything. And I've always been supporting them. And when I was going almost not everyday, but like, you know, more than once a week. It was fun. But then when I change it to Friday is like chai latte day. It just changed everything. For me. I drive there, I check if they have the vegan cookies, because they only have one type of vegan cookie. And I bring my reusable container with me. And I put the cookies in my reusable container and I go with my like Hydro Flask. And it's like an experience for me now. I'm like, It's chai latte, day.
Emily Padan 15:55
And you know, 70 you said before it's just tea. It's not just tea. Tea is like, so, so important. Like, it's I get you tea, tea, like it's a vibe.
Stephanie Moram 16:12
It's a vibe when it's like, and I then I because I decided that I didn't really need to get that chai latte all the time. Then I started making matcha at home. And it's like, a I'm saving like crap ton of money. And I'm using whatever matcha I want to use, and it tastes so good.
Emily Padan 16:29
Oh, it's the best. I mean, we could have a whole life. That's that's what I live for. And I don't drink coffee. I just drink Matcha and try and things like that.
Stephanie Moram 16:41
But I also we get along we both don't drink coffee. Yeah.
Emily Padan 16:45
And we're like a rare breed, you know?
Stephanie Moram 16:49
So we're talking about like, so living sustainability. So what are things that you do personally in your life? You know, I follow you on Instagram, I see like, very much how you slow live, you know, today posting on Instagram, like, this is what I'm doing today. And it was like a lot of stuff. But it wasn't and it was you know, pouring a Matcha it was like, I'm going to have a podcast and I'm going to record a podcast today I'm going to drink my watch, I'm going to sleep in today, I'm going to maybe speak to a client like and that kind of stuff personally inspires me because when I see the to do lists that are really, really long, I get overwhelmed and then I don't do anything. So I've started to like write down all the things I want to do in a week. But then I extract like three things a day that I really want to do. And if I do more great and if I at least get the three done. So what types of things do you do everyday personal professional, like to really achieve that full living and like the sustainability aspect?
Emily Padan 17:46
So I love that you bring up the whole like to do list and the schedule and everything like that because as I'm sure you've seen or I'm sure your listeners have seen if you're on Instagram or on Tik Tok, there's a lot of this will like that girl aesthetic and that girl thing going on. It's this trend, where it's like this girl who wakes up at 530 in the morning every day. She does a workout she showers she does perfect hair. She makes a green smoothie. And she journals and she meditates all that before like 8am Who are you? I want to meet you and understand you. But you know, and she does all that. And then she works her full day. And then she gets definitely her full eight hours of sleep and, and by some miracle she has children. So there's there's a lot of that. And if you are that girl listening like good for you honestly, I say that with like true. I'm super impressed. I myself have realized that I love to be productive. Yes, but not if it comes at the cost of my creativity and my like mindfulness as well. And for me personally, if I'm trying to achieve too much in a day, I does come at that cost. So I've realized that I do have somewhat of a morning routine. But my morning routine is also very flexible depending on how I feel that day. What part of my cycle Am I in? You know, is it sunny outside or is it miserably gray and rainy, like these things really do affect me sort of being so I like highly affected by everything around me in my environment. So in order to kind of make myself as successful and happy as I can possibly be in my everyday life. I try to set up my environment as in a conducive way to me doing the best I can in my work and in my you know, in my mentality and everything. So every morning, I do try to either do like some stretches or a workout like sometimes it's a really gentle yoga or pilates or something. But otherwise it's like it could literally be 10 minutes It's something just to move my body a little bit. And then one non negotiable is I always, always make my matcha latte. And I think that that is almost like a very meditative thing for me.
Stephanie Moram 20:15
Yeah, it's gorgeous. Like, I just, it's soothing. It just makes me feel good. It's warm, even in the middle of the summer when it's like 35 degrees.
Emily Padan 20:26
Exactly. It's just like, I mean, sometimes they even make them ice. But I have to say there's something about the hot, like the warm Macha in the morning and the ritual of it, and the pouring, like, I love it. And that has become a ritual of mine for about six or eight months. I'll record a story of me doing that every single morning. And when I skip a day, because I'm like traveling or something, people are like, where's your matcha? I'm, like, I didn't know you cared about this. But apparently they do. So all right, I show my day, and I honestly it's for me, it's a way of like, holding myself accountable. But also, I do want to share with others that like your day does not have to be like seven meetings a day and hustle culture, it doesn't. So I do a matcha. If I can I journal I don't I have been a little bit bad in the last few weeks with journaling. But if I can I do. And then I have my matcha and breakfast often, while I kind of like think about my day, and I post that story while I'm doing that. So I kind of map out my day. And I try not to book more than one more than one or two meetings. And if I am being in an interview or a podcast, then I try not to do more than one of those per day because I like to have a certain type of energy for that. And I don't want to like show up to something when I'm like my cup is not full, you know. So yeah, I do that. And of course, I'm always working on on our businesses and trying to put as much creativity into it. But like I mentioned before, cycle has a huge impact on me as well. So like, right now I'm going into like my ovulation time, like, I'm full of energy and full of creativity, I feel great. But I mean, if you catch me when I menstruating, like, I'm not the same me and I'm more, I'm much slower at getting things done.
Stephanie Moram 22:11
And I love that you share that because and built the story about the girl that does all these things before 8am. I think often like we're on Instagram, and we're just bombarded with a lot of that, like hustle culture, like not saying it's only men that talk about hustle, but a lot of the time it is that are talking about that hustle. And I see it a lot. And I was always thinking, oh, I need to be so productive in the morning, but I have kids, they only get on the bus at eight, I'm not waking up at 4am think it's not gonna happen. And then I realized I'm like, a lot of them get up at 4am. But they're partners with the kids. Like, you know what I mean, that's why they can get up at four and do all these things before 6am. And then when the kids wake up, they're still working, but they have a partner that's taking those kids for them. And that's me. Like, you know what I mean, I would be that one taking care of them. So I've just kind of also embrace the fact that we're not going to get everything done, we're all on different schedules. And our lives look completely different. And so for me like that, so living is like three times a week, I go to the boxing gym that I go to, because it's open three mornings a week, and like, that's my priority. So I make my motto when I come home. Other days I make it when I wake up, I want to walk every day. And I feel like when I do these things, like in a routine kind of like you, then my rest of my day just flows. And I also used to like, try to like jam pack my day, like, oh my gosh, like the reason, you know, I was telling you before like I do, you know two to for podcast recordings on Tuesday, but that's like the only day of the week I have that much going on. Because it takes a lot of energy to record and I don't want to deplete my energy, like every single day. So I'm like, I'm just gonna do it all on Tuesday. But the rest of the week, I'm kinda sorta like you were I might do like one or two meetings because it takes a lot you know, when you're, when you're constantly meetings, you're constantly talking, you know, your voice, your mouth gets dry, you know, a lot of brain activity going on. So I just love this whole concept of slow living and just how we don't have to do what everyone else is doing.
Emily Padan 24:11
I was actually just going to say that like that. I think the biggest key point here is, whatever works for you. That's what you should do. It's not because that girl is to wake up at 530 in the morning, you know, it whether some people work out bests at 8pm at night, you know, some people they their night owls and maybe they sleep in later, but then they work better and they're more creative at night and maybe they're a musician and they write their best music late at night, whatever it is for you. Like you have to find your way and what works for you. How do you feel the most rested, creative, productive and you know in the best way possible. Sometimes the word productive gets misconstrued but how do you feel functioned the best that's kind of our all of our biggest job to do is to figure out how, how can we serve ourselves the best.
Stephanie Moram 25:08
And I remember, I don't know if it was talking to somebody or saw it somewhere on the internet, about, you know, waking up early, and like grinding, right, like getting everything done. But then like you said, some people might sleep in, because they're most more productive at night. But it's the early risers that are always praising. Oh, my gosh, you wake up at 4am? Oh, my gosh, you got up at five. And you got three hours of work done before 8am. You're amazing. You know what I mean? But maybe I slept in till 10, which is not likely because I have kids. But if I did, or maybe I'm got still a ton of three hour the same amount of work done. But I did it from five at night to eight, because that's when I'm most creative. Exactly. So I don't think it's necessarily the time of day, I think it's just, you know, mapping out what works for you. And just this concept of so living is like something I'm personally really like leaning into a lot more where, you know, what, if something doesn't get done, something, it doesn't get done? I think it just doesn't get done. And I think we're a lot of us are programmed to like always say yes, always, like, don't give up an opportunity, and blah, blah, blah. And I had a great opportunity last week to like, be in a magazine. Something happened this weekend. And the work, they wanted it. I had a very short like turnover, they wanted it by like Monday, and some stuff happened on the weekend. And I couldn't get it done. So I emailed who I needed email and I said, Look, this is not going to get done. I appreciate the opportunity, I really, truly do some personal stuff came up, I need to choose my family right now. If you're okay for me to give you the information, like what you want it for me Tuesday morning, I will have it for you Tuesday morning. And I was completely honest with them. And they were like, Sure, get it to us by like 9am Tuesday. And I was still able to have that opportunity. And I And that moment, I had to choose my family. So sometimes, even if there's the best opportunity, you're gonna be on the Today Show or, you know, whatever opportunities that would fall in your lap that you just couldn't pass up, sometimes, you're gonna still have to pass them up. Because it's just not the right moment. And so I had to almost say no to this opportunity, which would have been such a great opportunity. But I was just honest with them and said, like an a part of me inside was like not dying, but thinking, can believe I'm giving this up like this is such a great opportunity. But I knew that if I sat for three hours and wrote what I needed to write, then I was giving up something else that I didn't want to give up. And my friend said to me, I think it was like in January, she says when you're sitting with like a decision like this, for me is what I've been doing for the last couple months like and it has to do with like that slow living mindset. You said, Your face was like two decisions, and they're both kind of hard decisions. Just sit with it. And what one will give you the most relief. Like if you have to decide right now about writing that article for this magazine, or being with your family. If you wrote the article, will you feel relief in that decision? If the answer is yes, then maybe that's the right decision. But I wasn't going to feel relief in writing that article. I knew deep down like I'm not going to have any relief. So that's why making that decision of I needed to be there for my family was the right decision. And it's just, it's all intertwined day like that. So living and making the decisions and all the decisions are best for you. But when I make a decision, I always sit and go, which one is going to give me the most relief in the moment right now.
Emily Padan 28:44
I love that. Honestly, I hadn't heard that strategy before. But I really like that idea of thinking of what gives you more relief. I'm going to try that.
Stephanie Moram 28:54
Yeah, and it just made the decision that I made yesterday. And Sunday, like a no brainer. Well, if I read the article, I'm going to be stressed out. And guess what all day yesterday I was super chill I was with my family. And there was like zero stress. But if I would have sat and wrote that article, I would have been stressed out about not being with my family at that time. That's how I'm kind of making decisions now.
Emily Padan 29:23
And then obviously it's kind of like listening to your knowing listening to your instinct as well. Following that because sometimes it's hard to hear it but if we listened like quiet ourselves a little bit and really feel what pulls you what makes you feel warm. What makes you feel cold, you know, you want to gravitate towards what makes you feel warm.
Stephanie Moram 29:41
Right exactly and that's matcha lattes.
Emily Padan 29:44
There you go. Warm matcha lattes.
Stephanie Moram 29:48
So you and your husband own Hinter House, right? So kind of how did that get started? And how do you incorporate like that slow living and like sustainability into like the design and how you like market, Hinter House and what people probably don't even know what the house is. And maybe we can just tell people what Hinter House is. Yeah, just like describe it a little bit.
Emily Padan 30:10
So Hinter is the name of the company, and it's our brand. And it's essentially, like a hotel company right now, it will be a few other things shortly. But for the most part, it is a hope hotel company. So, within hinter, we have different spaces that people can stay at. We have hinter house, which is one of them, which is a architectural piece that we built in 2020. That's when it was finally ready in the middle of 2020. And then we also have Hinter Cabin which is a prefab cabin, pretty close by about like, I mean, two, three kilometers, not even probably two kilometers away from hinter house. And that one is a little bit more like some other cabins in the area, but we put our own little spin on it within the interiors, and it has gorgeous views of mulch and blah, and like amazing mountains. Hinter house, I might add, the one I was first talking about that one also has a private sauna down a few steps into the woods, which is really special. And then most recently, we have a third space in second in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. And that space is called Hinter Hideout. And that is our largest space. The other two are two bedroom, one bathroom, very minimalist cabins in the woods, this space is also quite minimalist as well. And it's done by an amazing architect, as well. However, it's a larger space, it's we call it a space for gatherers, it's you know, a place that you can go for a small gathering of family reunion and maybe even run a retreat there, there's a lot of potential, there's five bedrooms within the main house, and there's a guest house next door that has two bedrooms as well. So there's a lot of potential to depending on the event to create different get different groups together. So all that to say we have these spaces, which are really design oriented and focused on merging architecture and design with nature. So you mean I mean, like large windows light pouring in everywhere, you really feel almost like the the inside and the outside worlds just blend together, you almost don't know where the where the boundaries lie, and we rent them out as a hotel, you know, you go on the website, and you can book them and the brand itself not only focuses on nature, and design, but also sustainability. So we started the company about three and a half years ago, the start of 2019, I believe. And we started more just you know, renting them out focusing on human the human experience. But then, by the end of 2019, we decided like, hold on, we're doing all this to benefit human beings and their well being. And, you know, we're we're encouraging people to go visit nature, but what are we doing for nature, so we decided to start planting 10 trees with for every single booking that we have, which is approximately 1500 trees per house per year. And we also as time went on, throughout the last two, three years, we have increasingly just started to become more and more eco friendly, sustainable work with small businesses, artisans in the area. So for example, like all in a hinter house, all of our cabinetry or, you know, the the kitchen island, the the cabinetry in the bedrooms, all of that is done with a carpenter, a local Carpenter, who lives like 10 minutes away from the houses. He's, you know, like a 60 something year old man, and he does everything by hand. We have, we work with a small company in Montreal, called Alphabet where they make furniture and everything is handmade and most of our furniture will come from them. We will have like light fixtures that are from you know, a young 20 something year old Montreal, young man and he makes these by hand in his workshop and he creates gorgeous, gorgeous lighting, things like that. We're always looking like because sustainability as I know, you know, Stephanie talked about these all these kinds of conversations before there's so much to it, right? I mean, it's about not wasting of course, but it's also about supporting small businesses local, not mass production. Oh, and another thing is we use all at home and body care products that are biodegradable, refillable, you know, we don't want like no tiny bottles of shampoo over here, you know, none of that. So yeah, that's kind of the gist of Hinter.
Stephanie Moram 34:43
And I just like I like how you use like local people, you really want it to be sustainable because sustainable can mean so many things, right? Like there's so many pieces to sustainability. It's like incorporating planet and people right and I like how you are using, you're putting like for the welfare of people two, that are creating these products, I thought so people forget about that part. They think like, oh, I want the organic cotton, I want to, you know, I want this, I want this. And then they forget the element of like the people like who's making it. So, I just, I liked that you're definitely bringing that and like, I want to know who's making my stuff, like, I want to who's going buy food, I want to know all these things. And I liked when I see that hinter like, I just like how you have like all the herbs like right in the kitchen, and you can just like take some basil or wherever or whatever it is, like you incorporated that in. And it's just like a really beautiful space.
Emily Padan 35:35
Aww thank you so much.
Stephanie Moram 35:37
You're welcome.
Emily Padan 35:39
And it's so nice to hear, like when people who have actually stayed there and have like, had the experience and touch things, felt things tasted things, you know, I mean, that's like, it's music to our ears to hear, like the experience come to life.
Stephanie Moram 35:53
And I think people are looking for those types of experiences where it's not just a hotel, like a random hotel, that's like a chain, where it's more, oh, I'm going to stay on this property where, you know, they have really good personal care products, you know, it's not random, toxic brand, you know, or they've taken the people that have created this piece have taken the time to decorate it, where it'll be peaceful, you know what I mean? It's, you know, the lighting, and all these things. And I think that's what people want. They want to feel not necessarily that they're at home, but they're in a nice space and are not sitting in a hotel room.
Emily Padan 36:29
Exactly. There's a human touch. And there's there's soul in the space. That's what you need soul.
Stephanie Moram 36:37
Yeah, and it's, and do you have plans of opening more?
Unknown Speaker 36:41
We do! Well, okay, so Hinter Hideout, we just opened the one in seven in the Eastern Townships that we just launched it actually just over a week ago. So that one has just started booking up. And it's pretty exciting, because it's, you know, it's a different product. For us, it's in a different location, it's a larger space, so we didn't know how it was gonna go. But it's been a really, really great, great outcome so far, and a great response. And in, you know, in the works, something that's been in the works for quite a while, but it's getting closer and closer. As you know, every step gets, we get through every step, because there's so much involved, we are planning a large project of probably approximately 50 houses, where it's going to be more of it's going to be a hybrid between a real estate project and a hotel project, because there'll be up for purchase the houses. And when you purchase the house, you'd have the option of either just purchasing it, living in it or using it when you want. Or if you want it to at least part of the time be a rental property, then Hinter would manage it under the hotel. And, of course, take a cut from that, you know, so it would be kind of an hot part of the time, your house part of the time, a small investment basically in a passive income. And the best part in my opinion about this whole thing is it's not just houses it would be kind of be part of this 250 acre piece of land where it's a community. So there would not only be the houses, there'd be other structures such as yoga pavilion, there would be most likely some sort of restaurant or cafe that's part is still in the in discussion, but definitely a library. So like people can go work from there, read from there. So there's that community aspect there. You can be permaculture, there'd be options for workshops, private, private, yoga classes, or private cooking classes, all kinds of really interesting ways of once again, bringing people to understanding why nature is so important. And then connecting with others who also care about that as well.
Stephanie Moram 39:02
Sounds really interesting.
Emily Padan 39:05
Yeah, we're really excited.
Stephanie Moram 39:07
I can't wait to home a little bit more about it. And when I you know, starts becoming more real.
Emily Padan 39:13
Yes, yes. Soon enough, soon enough things take so long as I'm sure you know, but we're excited. We're super excited.
Stephanie Moram 39:22
So where can people find you? Like on social media, your website, and I'm gonna post everything in the show notes, but just for people listening like where's that they can find you?
Emily Padan 39:34
Yeah, I think like an easy hub – I mean, to get in touch with me personally, my Instagram is probably the best place. Just my full name at Emily Pdan and I'm on Tik Tok as well. It's been about like four or five months that I'm on there and I'm actually kind of enjoying it. I did not think it would be but and then Hinter you can find it on Instagram as well. It's linked in my profile but the the account is at hinter company, or our website hinter.com. And you'll see a little bit of everything there. And you can easily find out more about what we're about and more importantly, what you can't understand through voice, you'll be able to see what you know what both you and we have been talking about love like the aesthetic
Stephanie Moram 40:19
Alright. And you had mentioned that for Hinter, if anybody booked if you're in the Montreal area, or you want to get away, that you had a discount, like a 10% off, it was, oh, they had to email you. Is that correct?
Emily Padan 40:34
Actually, we now have discount codes. So yeah, we can, we can definitely create a discount code for you. So we can do GREENJUNKIE10. How's that?
Stephanie Moram 40:46
That sounds perfect. And then I'll put it in the show notes.
Emily Padan 40:49
Alright I put it in after we record this, so it'll be ready.
Stephanie Moram 40:53
Awesome. So greenjunkie10. If you go to Hinter, if you're coming to Quebec, or the Montreal area, you can grab a spot they do fill up fast. So book in advance.
Emily Padan 41:07
Yes, thank you so much Stephanie and that would be that would be for any of our properties, by the way that's applicable on any of the three properties.
Stephanie Moram 41:16
Perfect. And so thank you so much for coming on. This has been a really great conversation. I really appreciate I appreciate you coming on. And when I met over a year ago on clubhouse, and it's kind of funny, I feel like we're having like a clubhouse conversation. As we were like recording this podcast. Hey, Noah. Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.
Emily Padan 41:37
Thank you for having me, Stephanie. It was a lot of fun and it really great conversation.
Stephanie Moram 41:41
So if you're looking for more green living inspiration, I have a couple of other episodes that you might want to dive into number 23 creating sustainable businesses with Sarah Miltonberger. Episode 29, Keeping it fun with inventor and owner of Big Bee little bee with Amy Leinbach, and number 27 eco guilt just drop it. You can stay connected with me on Instagram @greenjunkiepodcast or @thisisstephaniemoramthis. And don't forget to subscribe to the Green Junkie podcast on on the platform you're listening. If you're curious about reducing your environmental impact as an individual or as a business, I've got you covered. For direct access to me your sustainability consultant and green living expert. Click the link in the show notes where you can ask me a question and get a customized plan on how you can live more green on an individual level, or how to implement sustainable strategies into your business for positive for positive climate. Hop on a one on one call with me or ask me your questions via email. Zoom is not your thing. Thank you for listening, and I'll see you next Tuesday green junkie
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