Grand Openings: Bodywize

WORDS // CASS MACKIE

Every now and then you stumble across one of those truly inspiring people who you walk away from feeling elated and eager to embrace life’s challenges. An de Smet is one of those people and my meeting with her at her new Bodywize Women’s Health & Wellbeing Club in Teneriffe left me truly awe struck.

An’s journey began in a most untypical manner which is possibly what makes her story so appealing. Always the business woman at heart, An once ran a chain of 32 restaurants across Europe from her home town in Belgium and from that point on, maintained a highly active business life. She was also an avid camera woman passionate about making political, social and cultural documentaries. After giving birth to her first child, her thirst for knowledge steered her in a totally different direction and she began fervently studying everything to do with health and natural medicine in an effort to learn more about her own body. Are you starting to get the picture?!

With an enormous and diverse knowledge base, An packed up her husband and children five years ago to grace us all with her presence here in Australia, a blessing in disguise. For the first few years they lived in “every Australian city imaginable” and did a lot of shuffling around, essentially hunting down the ideal place to start An’s dream business. They found that place in none another than sunny Queensland and set up camp in Brisbane, which their extensive research indicated was young and booming, the perfect place to introduce their evolutionary concept… a total women’s health, beauty and wellbeing club.

However, the challenges this presented were abundant beyond their expectations. Their initial idea of combining forces with an already established women’s fitness centre proved disappointing as no one was interested in integrating fitness with beauty and overall women’s wellbeing. So, An set out on her own and started from scratch… and aren’t those centres kicking themselves now!

In October last year, An opened her incredible beauty salon, Bodywize, which embraces the latest in beauty technology to ensure clients receive a unique, enjoyable and most importantly, safe beauty experience.

Not one to give up on her ultimate dream, An surged ahead and in late June this year, finally opened the Bodywize centre; a revolutionary women’s health and wellbeing club in one of Brisbane’s trendiest river-side suburbs, Teneriffe. And she really has pulled it off. The moment you walk in you feel instantly at ease, transformed almost by the calming atmosphere, the charisma of the staff and the stunning furnishings and final trimmings.

Every unique aspect of the club makes it a totally distinctive experience unparalleled by any other health, beauty or fitness centre. Everything is state of the art and nothing has been overlooked. From the European imported furniture to the individual plasma TV screens to the mineral water, not tap water, in the luxurious spas and baths…Bodywize manages to enchant from start to finish.

Inspired by the importance of women’s total wellbeing, An has endeavoured to create a centre offering a head to toe service for a healthy lifestyle. An’s mission was to make women feel comfortable with their bodies and happy with themselves from the inside out, something she says can be difficult to maintain in today’s society.

“I really wanted to bring awareness to women and give them the opportunity to create their own space to just be themselves, an individual. That’s not always easy for a woman to do these days,” An says.

“Australia is still very much a man’s society, but I like to think a woman can make her own decision to look after her body. I feel Bodywize provides a source of empowerment for women in that sense.”

Empowerment is something An has tried to bestow upon her customers in every sense of being a member. “I want my members to feel like this is their club, I want them to create for themselves the type of club within whose walls they feel relaxed, comfortable and invigorated,” An says.

Who wouldn’t want be a part of a club like that?! The state of the art technology is another captivating aspect of Bodywize, once again comparable to none.

“No one can deny we live in an age of technology, it’s a huge part of everyone’s life. People appreciate the technology at Bodywize as we are able to provide a means for tracking performance and progress. I think technology serves well if it’s suitably linked to communication,” she says.

An says it is the technological elements that makes the Bodywize system flow so smoothly, both in the shop and in the new wellness centre. Allowing her to effectively manage bookings, orders and client memberships, Shortcuts has proved to be an integral part of the Bodywize success story.

So what is it that sets a woman like An apart from other women in business? An believes her personal point of difference is her European background, providing her with an eye for prestige, constant high standards and a different vision of what is up-market. She has channelled all of these unique qualities into her business and now boasts what she believes is Brisbane’s only totally holistic club for women.

With a personal mission to maintain a daily passion for life and a fire inside, An is set to take Brisbane by storm with Bodywize, teaching women the wisdom of their bodies, inside and out.