This issue we meet Brian Billdt, CEO of LifeSpa Fitness whose working life is determined to make people look better, feel better and live longer long time.
Brian Billdt - CEO LifeSpa Fitness
Please tell us a little about your business, LifeSpa Fitness. What distinguishes you from other gyms?
The first reason why we are different is that we try to take advantage of our sites, which is in hotels. Being in hotels, we have an advantage because we have gardens, swimming pools, tennis courts and outdoor activities. In addition, our club gyms are smaller with limited space so we can have one-to-one experiences. We try to focus on how our community and the family atmosphere is felt more than in gyms in shopping centers that are probably more oriented to young adult adolescence. And we try to make all our members personal trainers. A good personal trainer will help you succeed. Members who do not have trainers usually get lost in the gym, losing motivation. That's basically how we try to be different. I think the fact that we also have spas make us stand out from our competitors.
Where are your gyms located in Jakarta and who is your target market?
Our gyms are mostly located in hotels, which is the Sultan Hotel and Residence Plaza Crown Park Lane Hotel, Kristal Hotel, and also complex Arcadia Bureau TB Simatupang. We are also located at the headquarters of Unilever in Prabu Connoco Philips, Chevron, Freeport, Orang Tua Group and many other corporate gyms. Our target market is quite different from our competitors "; we try to target the 30 and over crowd. We play our music a little softer in our gyms and we play music that is a bit more favorable to the 30 and over crowd.
Why did you choose to place your gyms in hotels and non-commercial?
Basically, I started my career in Asia and the health clubs of time were in hotels. When I came here in 1982, if you had money and wanted to spend time in a big city in Indonesia you hang out in a hotel. Hotels have the best restaurants, night clubs and fitness centers, so that the entire focus of the 80s to the 90s was health clubs hoteliers. In the late 90s, when malls are out, people began to move in malls and shopping centers became even more popular, leading people with money going in shopping centers changed our program.
What is your average customer spend a month to stay in shape to LifeSpa Fitness?
The average customer in LifeSpa will pay about $ 15 per month, but with staff training they would spend about $ 100 per month. We do not think it is really useful to our members, unless they join our personal training program.
What is happening in the world of fitness in Jakarta and Indonesia as a whole? Do you see a change in mentality? Are more people trying to stay in shape?
Just this morning I was watching Starbucks among people in Senayan City. Starbucks was full of people and they were eating and drinking more like Americans than Americans. They were drinking coffee sweetened drinks that cause obesity is becoming a huge problem here. When I arrived here in 1982 you could barely see obesity in Indonesia, but now you see it everywhere. I think Western habits take over and dominant companies like McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy and so on, are fast food industries that cause people to grow which means they have to go to the bathroom gym more, so I see the gymnastics business continues to grow and develop.
But again the gym business' greatest success is to help people get results with a personal trainer that really helps to change their lifestyle, which is not a thing easy to do. It is a challenge and we need trainers who are really good at doing what they do. That's why we PrimaFit Academy to train so that we can provide professional training to our customers and members.
LifeSpa Fitness is affiliated with Crossfit Senayan and PrimaFit. Can you tell us about this affiliation
Crossfit Senayan is one of our business sectors ?; others are LifeSpa Fitness, Retail and Commercial PrimaFit PrimaFit. Crossfit Senayan is for people who enjoy group training, there is a very high intensity and popular group training. Every day, somewhere in the world a Crossfit Gym is open. Crossfit Senayan is located next to LifeSpa Fitness Hotel Sultan, and we have about 70 athletes.
The crossfit trend is really taking off here, but not safe. Enjoy a crossfit insurance for your customers? What security measures do you have in place to avoid injury?
We need proper guidance. I would not give our CrossFit members without proper guidance. I am very proud that our CrossFit program emphasizes safety, diets without injury to our athletes so they can work for a long time.
The wellness industry of health and one you want to continue working? Do you see this growing industry increasingly in Indonesia?
The health industry and the well-being is the thing that keeps me going and I'm very passionate about it. I could not think of a better business than helping others to look better, feel better and live longer. This is our vision and we do it by allowing people to change their lifestyles by setting fitness not only a workout, but as a lifestyle.
This is a trend currently in Jakarta and Bali?
Trending right now is polar loop, which tracks the number of steps we take every day, how many calories we burn, and help measure the quality of sleep. It is a 24/7 activity tracker. Fitness is now more fun because of different technology and applications so you can be entertained while doing a workout.
Please tell us what your weekly exercise regime consists of.
I am a person of the morning workout and I like to lead by myself. I prefer to do treadmill and bike for my cardio exercise. I also go to Fitness LifeSpa for my weight training. And Sunday morning I have my bike training, riding from Jakarta to Tangerang and Jakarta or return to Kelapa Gading and back. I run 5 -. 10 km twice a week
What is the minimum exercise everyone should do to stay in relatively good shape and live longer?
I would say about 30 minutes of cardio, 15 minutes of weight training three or four days a week. We sit too much. Walking more is really important.
What advice would you give to our readers who are struggling to stick to an exercise regimen?
Get a personal trainer. Nutrition is very important, as is the rest time.
And finally, what is your purpose in life and how you plan to achieve this?
My goal in life is to continue to grow our business so that we can help people look better, feel better and live longer continuing to provide the newest diet and exercise trends so that we can really make an impact to help people have a more pleasant and healthy lifestyle. It really is what we live.
Thank you, Brian!