Join us as we explore the vision of Charlotte Spence for House of Karma collective club, which caters to young, vibrant individuals seeking experiential luxury travel and unforgettable adventures.

Dynamic, bright, and passionate, Charlotte Spence follows up her father's steps in the luxury travel industry through her brainchild, the House of Karma Membership Club. In this captivating exclusive interview, the daughter of Karma Group founder, John Spence, shared her vision for the collective club, which caters to young, vibrant individuals seeking experiential luxury travel and unforgettable adventures. Drawing from her diverse professional background in events management, public relations, and digital marketing, Charlotte has crafted a unique space where luxury and rebellion intersect. With her expertise in marketing, partnerships, and her infectious love for music as renowned DJ Atomic Blonde, Charlotte is revolutionizing the way young people experience the world of luxury travel. Let's delve deep into her brilliant insight!

Interview With Charlotte Spence, Founder of the House of Karma

As the Founding Managing Director of House of Karma, can you tell us more about the concept and vision behind this members' collective? How does it differentiate itself from other luxury travel and experience offerings?

Yeah, absolutely. I think what makes House of Karma pretty cool in a short summary; it is an under-35 members club for the world of luxury travel and experiences. We call ourselves the ‘Luxury Rebels’, the ‘Pampered Vagabonds’, basically a club for me and people like me that just want to want their own little luxury travel but want it to feel really experiential, fun, and vibrant. I say club, but I’d rather call ourselves more of a collective because I want it to feel really inclusive, and fun. Of course, there's an element of exclusivity because it is a members club, but really the members club part of it is just we want to curate a really nice group of fun young people who like luxury travel but want to do it with friends. They want to socialize, they want to meet new people, they want to network, they want to enjoy the lighter side of luxury travel, I think. And I think what makes us different from other members' collectives or member's clubs is that what we're doing is really experience-driven. So what we'll look to do is do a lot of pop-up festivals and events at the existing Karma resorts. Obviously we have over 40 properties around the world, so it's kind of lucky now that I get the fun part of leveraging them and turning Karma Resorts into playgrounds for fun young people. But then we're also going to be doing pop-up events in our member's cities.

With your varied employment history in events management, public relations, and digital marketing, how have these experiences prepared you for your current role at House of Karma?

I think it's definitely a different role, definitely a challenge. But I love it! What I've done is just take bits of all the different jobs that I've loved and formed my own dream job, I think. And my own dream club, obviously, because of our demographic. It's young, and they're very digitally savvy, so digital marketing has been a massive help there. We're big on social media as well. I think that's such a big part of our advertising campaign now, will be a lot of social media and digital marketing. So that's been really helpful. But then also, what we love is a good party. My event management background has definitely been put to the test in planning good events because I think no one knows how to party like us, House Karma people. My passion is my job. I pour all my passion and knowledge into this. Yeah, exactly. I think it's really nice all of my different passions that are now coming together to create this fun experience.

As the Former Curator of TEDxSydney, what were some of the highlights or memorable moments during your time in that position? How did it contribute to your personal and professional growth?

Yeah, I think I was. Working for TEDx Sydney was amazing. It was a voluntary role. Pretty much every role is voluntary, which I think is amazing because it really fosters a group of people that are there to learn and grow personally and professionally. I worked with them for about five years. I started as literally a talent liaison, like a runner backstage, and then just worked my way up to eventually being a bit of a yeah, a curator for them. I started as an associate producer on TEDx Youth in Sydney and then I moved into the main TEDx Sydney. And it was great! I mean, the best thing ever about TEDx is that you can learn something about a topic that you didn't even think you were remotely interested in, but suddenly you become fascinated. One second you're listening about someone, how they perform operations, and then you're talking to marine biologists. And I'm not a scientist, I'm not a mathematician, but if you listen to someone that is that passionate and that skilled in their field, it's hard not to feel inspired and excited. So I think for me, that was the biggest thing about TEDx Sydney because just being exposed to so many different ideas and so many different people from all over the world was amazing. Personally, it just helped me grow and open my mind a lot, I guess, like the amount of genius that's out there and inspiring. But then professionally, it's a huge event to coordinate. And it was amazing to sort of get exposure to planning an event for 5000 people. Everything from ticketing to marketing to partnership, it's a beast. But then when you see it all come together, it's so satisfying! I love being caught up in live events, whether I'm planning it, playing it, performing it, or any kind of involvement in live events to speak. And Tedx is one of the best, so you can't not love it.

And House of Karma is exactly that. We're about entertainment. Yes, you're staying at a gorgeous resort, but it's really about the experiences you have when you're there.

Could you elaborate on your role as the Former Partnerships Manager for Sydney WorldPride? What were your responsibilities, and what impact did you have on the event?

Sydney World Pride was the best. I finished in March. It is basically the Olympics of Pride. Cities bid to host it, and then every other year it'll be in Amsterdam. Next year it will be over in New York, all over the world. We did it in Sydney in February and March this year, and I was their Partnerships Manager. My job basically involved working to deliver all the events with the help of our partners. We had Amex, American Express, Optus, Mecca, and Qantas. Big, big partners. You have to be passionate about the LGBTQA+ community. You have to make a real difference. You have to basically put your money where your mouth is and actually support the community, which is incredible. I mean, you can't not be happy working with a brand like American Express on how you can better support the community and that kind of thing. So it was great. I worked with them for just over a year. I started in marketing for them, and then I moved into the partnerships role because I love being partner-facing. I love talking to people. I like doing sort of front-end relations. So that was part of my role. And it was a month-long festival. 50 official events, over 300 extra events. And then thousands more just pop-up parties everywhere. So if I'm tired now, I was so tired then. It was like just a month of back to back to back to back parties. But it was great. It was really fun. I'm all about inclusivity. That's a big thing we do at House Karma as well. So being able to sort of really be involved in that and again, like with TEDx, learning more about different people in different communities was probably the biggest thing for me.

As DJ Atomic Blonde, how does your passion for music and DJing intersect with your professional endeavors? How do you balance your DJing activities with your role at House of Karma?

Saw me on the decks last night? (at the opening party of the House of Karma) Yeah, I played at the party too! By midnight, there are videos of me DJing. It's good. As we were saying, it's all about passions coming together, right? So I think for me, DJing became a way that I could just get paid to play my favorite music to my favorite people. It's good. It's not a bad side hustle! I started about five years ago over in Sydney. A friend taught me, literally just in his bedroom with a little, like, old mixer. And I loved it so much that a friend and I decided we'd start doing it together. I have a DJ partner called Dutch Kiss. He's over in Sydney as well. And we DJ together. It's more fun doing it with a friend. I think half of Karma is we're very music focused. We're about good nights, dancing on the sand with good music. That's the vibe of House of Karma. I think something like music curation is always going to be important to me because it really does make the vibe. And last night, I had three or four DJs over from Sydney, and we all went back to back to back on the deck. For me, this is the House of Karma, so music plays a big role in it. And I think I've had to take a bit of a step back from the DJing because the late nights are not good for my health. I'm learning how to balance myself more. But DJing will always be a part of my life, even if it's just hopping on the deck for a song like it was last night!

How has your academic background in Media & Communications, with majors in Marketing and Theatre & Performance Studies, influenced your career trajectory and approach to your current role?

Like, we were just saying, it's all about things that might not sound connected, being connected. Like marketing, theater and media, and communication. Everyone's always like, why don't you do theater instead? Marketing and media communications are more academic. But with theater, it's all about having a flair for the unknown. Something a bit fun and creative. TedX Sydney and World Pride and now House of Karma, it's how you can pull from your different strengths and your different aspects of what makes you who you are, and channel that into one dream career. So I think marketing taught me how to sell a product. reading. Communication taught me how to talk about it. Theater taught me how to make it fabulous!

In what ways do you utilize your marketing expertise in promoting House of Karma and its offerings? Are there any specific strategies or campaigns that you have implemented to attract and engage your target audience?

That is a good question! The best thing about doing House of Karma is that it's a club for my demographics, so I'm my own target audience, which really helps. Yeah, that definitely gives me the upper hand. What would I want? How would I be solved? And then I sort of angle it towards that. So, obviously, under 35, we're very digitally savvy. We're always on our phones. Probably too much. We're on social media. So what I'm all about is triggering FOMO. ‘If you weren't there last night, you should have been!’ kind of vibe. I think how we'll do that is by a lot of social media engagement, a lot of promotion over there, both organic and paid. But we'll do a mix of paid campaigns, social media marketing, all of that kind of thing. But I also wanted to feel very organic. It's about engaging with the right kind of people and having them all post (to their social media). Last night, there was no real requirement, but everyone was just sharing. It's better that way. Like, you don't need to give instructions, but when they enjoy it, they will share it anyway. It's about organic. But then, obviously, we also do a lot of I love partnerships. Obviously, as you've heard, I'm all about brand partnerships. So, so far, we've partnered with The Dose Bali IV Infusion. We partnered with the Pilates Project on our launch, Bali Buddha for the big grazing table. What I want to do is work with other brands in the community; whether that's here in Bali, or over in Sydney, and essentially see how we can help each other, you know. So let's say if a Pilates company wants to come to do a pop-up workshop, that's amazing. I think our marketing strategy is very much geared around collaboration. So you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. We'll work together to both be a success because I think all boats rise together. 

As the daughter of Karma Group founder John Spence, how has growing up in a family deeply connected to the luxury travel industry influenced your passion for creating unique and immersive experiences?

I mean, it would be impossible not to! I've been traveling since I was little. I used to meet my dad somewhere different all the time, which is great. And I think couldn't possibly do anything that didn't involve travel. Like, it's always going to be a huge part of my life. I think, firstly, working with Dad is the big shoe to fill. I had to pitch my idea to him. I had to pitch to him a couple of months ago and I was terrified. But he's good. He's a tough boss. He doesn't give me any exceptions just because I'm his daughter, so he's cracking the whip. But, yeah, he's very inspirational. I think it helps as well that your boss shares your vision and your love of travel. I share the same mindset as him in that. We call Karma an entertainment group, not a hospitality group. And House of Karma is exactly that. We're about entertainment. Yes, you're staying at a gorgeous resort, but it's really about the experiences you have when you're there. It's the people you meet, the pop-up parties. All the fun little extras that happen along the way are what make it an entertainment industry, not a hospitality one. And I think Dad taught me that from a young age. So I'm just here trying to follow in his footsteps. Tricky, but we'll get there. And this is not only in here but would be in all Karma groups around the world. We did our launch here because Kandara is obviously such a pretty one. It's beautiful. It's close to Australia, and Australia will be a big target for us. But, yeah, it's going to be global. We've got a lot of resorts over in Europe, so that's really fun. For the European market, the membership is $1,000 a year, and that includes five nights of accommodation at any Karma Resort member. Then 20% off F&B. And then there'll be lots of pop-up events in your cities as well. We want to do immersive dining, partying, and networking.