How Katleho Tsoku Turned Her Grief Into A Platform That Helps Women Nurture Joy

by Kemong Mopedi | Aug 4, 2025 | Mental Health

Following her mother’s sudden passing in 2021, serial entrepreneur Katleho Tsoku wondered if she would ever know what joy once felt like – if she would ever recognise it if it were to ever stare her in the face. “I kept asking myself: ‘What is joy without my mother?’ Following my dad and brother’s passing years ago, it had just been my mom and I – and our extended family of course,” she shares. What became loudly obvious during those moments of reflection was that redirection is one of few ways that help us find purpose and joy again. And just like that, a new business idea was born.

Picking Up The Pieces

While reflecting on the things that once brought her joy, the former restaurateur remembered how bringing people together, particularly women, had always been a source of fulfillment. “I remembered that I love to host. I enjoy creating spaces that allow women to thrive. When I looked back at my career, the roles I’d always enjoyed and thrived in were those where I held space for women. So, as I navigated this grief and the question, ‘Will joy ever be possible again?‘, the response was, ‘Well, hopefully hosting will give you joy,‘ recalls Katleho.

During her research, Katleho came across the term Joy Economy, a concept coined by Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. “The Joyconomy leverages the power of joy to connect. It is a response to people’s deliberate gravitation towards joy in the face of continued hardship globally, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic,” she explains. This, she says, was the breakthrough in her research – an aha moment, if you will. “I suddenly realised that my yearning for joy wasn’t just personal, there was a widespread movement of people globally who were desperate to find pockets of joy,” she explains.

Encountering these two concepts – Joy Economy and Kintsugi – felt like confirmation that she was on the right path in her pursuit of joy. Inspired, Katleho sat down and began to conceptualise her next move. And just like that, the platform HOSTED was born in 2023. “Hosted was literally me trying to create beauty from a place of brokenness, which in my case was navigating grief,” she notes.

Savouring Joy

To test just how effective HOSTED would be in a real setting, Katleho organised an intimate lunch with close women friends who didn’t necessarily know each other. She was very intentional about her guest list. “Well, to be honest, I also needed to start shooting content,” she says with a chuckle. “The most affirming thing about that lunch was that, from all six women who attended, the common thread in their feedback was that the lunch felt like a healing space,” she shares.

The feedback from that lunch is exactly why Katleho wants HOSTED to grow into a bigger movement. “There are always so many competing priorities that women are constantly navigating – motherhood, wifehood, work and more. HOSTED, in a way, is saying: ‘Please pause and nourish your joy,’ she explains. “At the core of it, I want to say, particularly to Black women: ‘I just want us to be able to create space for our joy. And let’s do that through intimate gatherings. Our homes and other spaces of gathering can become such healing sanctuaries.’“

Creating Pretty Spaces

Katleho is intentional about aesthetics at HOSTED gatherings, explaining that the idea is also to explore how we can elevate the way we come together. Beyond simply connecting women, she envisions HOSTED as a one-stop shop that can help women plan and execute their own gatherings from start to finish. “What I also picked up from the focus group is that women are gathering and hosting. They just want a more elevated way of doing it. HOSTED is that companion,” she explains

The Four Pillars Of Hosting

Katleho has broken down hosting into four pillars – food and drink, style and design, music and mood, community and connection. These, she says, are the four pillars for an elevated gathering. “So far, we’ve been sharing ideas for these four pillars through our monthly newsletter where we pretty much are your companion in all of those elements. We’ll share a recipe or a style of design that you can use for an upcoming gathering – everything from tablecloths to playlists,” she shares, adding that all HOSTED recommendations are by women for other women.

“If we’re featuring food and drink, it’ll probably be a recipe from a female chef or a woman-owned wine brand or tablecloths by a woman-owned brand or glasses and plates by a woman-owned brand. In as much as I’m plugging you as a host, I am also introducing you and plugging you to women in the hospitality, the design and the food industries.” And therein lies HOSTED’s impact. “Yes, I’m a host in that I would love to welcome you to my home and it’s a vibe, but I’m also a host in the sense that I hold space for women. I want to amplify women’s artistry,” she breaks it down. In late 2024, HOSTED ventured into building its online shop where they have created “the most gorgeous aprons you ever seen,” she says. “Again, we are tapping into creating our own products that help you elevate your gatherings.”

Lesson On Grief

So what started off as a really personal project, is evolving into a platform on a mission to help women nurture joy, beauty and community through the lens of hosting and gathering. And there were plenty of lessons too!

“On my healing journey, I’ve learned the importance of not creating an altar for my grief – a lesson I first heard in an interview with broadcaster and MC Kgopedi Lilokoe on the podcast The Conversation Capital. There are moments when we will feel okay, when grief allows us room to breathe. And those happy moments don’t necessarily translate into us disregarding your grief or forgetting the person we’re supposed to be mourning. Personally, I don’t want to get to a space where I’m mourning my mother from a place of grief. I want to mourn my mother from a place of joy. Because then that is heart-centered and not ego-centered,” she concludes.