Yvette Le Blowitz is the Founder of #spaitgirl on an online site and community that has inspired thousands of girls and women to visit the spa, practice self-care, and go on their own dreamy spa and wellness holiday so they can feel good from within.
Yvette Le Blowitz is The Original Spa Blogger – the IT GIRL of SPA, an early pioneer to on-line social media.
She started out Spa Blogging back in Bloggersphere before Facebook was a big thing and during an era when social media or blogging wasn’t on-trend or mainstream yet.
In 1999, Blogspot (i.e Blogger) was launched as one of the earliest dedicated blogging publishing tools but her first blog was a little random act of kindness to help and serve others, with the hope that if she shared things that made her feel good it might help others feel good too and still to this day in 2021 her intent, vision, the mission remains the same.
She has created online social media content and represented some of the World’s Top Luxury Spa and Wellness Resorts, Hotels, and Brands and has over 20+ years of experience in Spa, Wellness, and Travel.
Prior to mobile phones even existing she use to live in London and made that her base while she traveled extensively throughout Europe and other parts of the World.
She also had a dream to travel the world and this started at a very young age when she would sit on the ground as a kid playing with the World Atlas and drawing a line from her small country town in Australia to all of the places she could travel too.
As a young teenager, she always dreamed of traveling to the Maldives as she use to watch the Getaway Travel show every Thursday even side by side with her Mum and even though she auditioned to be a Travel Presenter on the Getaway Show in her early 20s it may come as no surprise that thanks to the power of social media she has spent the last decade visiting the Maldives as a Travel Presenter.
Yvette Le Blowitz was also the early pioneer and first-person on Instagram to start the very first IGTV Travel Show #igtvtravelshow via her Instagram account @spaitgirl_travel back in 2018 but prior to that had already been taking her audience through Luxury Resorts, Hotels in the Maldives, and other Travel Destinations so they could have a virtual tour with her and get a much better feel for each place to help then in their decision when choosing their own dream holiday, travel bucket-list holiday, honeymoon, getaway.
Whilst Videos has now become the norm on Instagram at the time she was part of this pioneering change, many people wondered why a girl from Australia was starting her own Travel Show on a Photo Platform App which traditionally was all about the perfect flawless photo, but Yvette Le Blowitz has a mantra it’s not about ME but WE and she wanted to inspire and empower her audience and literally started a virtual travel show and that virtual travel show has been watched now by millions of people globally as Virtual Travel become one of the biggest trends to take off during the World’s First-Ever Global Pandemic and Lockdown that has never been seen before in History.
Yvette Le Blowitz is one of the World’s Leading Authorities on Luxury Spa and Wellness Travel and one of the World’s Top Spa Reviewers, and the Go-To for Creating the World’s Largest Spa + Travel + Self-Care Community.
She has tried, tested, and reviewed some of the World’s Leading Luxury hotels and resort brands and still to this very day is passionate about unearthing more incredible places that can help others to feel good.
Yvette Le Blowitz is the Self-Help Author of It Starts With Me published in 2017 and also a Podcast Host of the Top Charting #spaitgirl talk show with Yvette Le Blowitz which is a Mental Health, Self-Improvement, Self-Care, Self-Help, Book Podcast and during her podcast shows she interviews some of the World’s Leading Mental Health Experts in their fields along with other incredible self-help authors that share their stories and words of wisdom, practical tips, knowledge to help the audience feel good from within and to overcome adversity.
Despite all of the Social Media Fame, she remains a very down-to-earth Aussie Girl turn Women who are all about helping others to feel good from within. Yvette Le Blowitz doesn’t follow any social media trends but instead creates them and paves the way for others to follow in her footsteps.
When she creates content it starts from within and she never needs to turn or look towards anyone else and she believes that is the real essence of storytelling and content creation and she now inspires others to do the same. She knows that true creativity starts from within and when it arises that is the time to create and often she is totally in the flow.
Yvette Le Blowitz is a Self-Help writer and spends her days writing for leading magazines and sites, along with being interviewed to share her own self-care, mindfulness, sustainable spa and wellness tips.
Yvette Le Blowitz is a Motivational Speaker and was awarded as one of Australia’s Top 50 Influencers at the Australian Influencer Awards in 2017.
Yvette Le Blowitz loves empowering other girls, women to become their own IT GIRL at the SPA and in their own lives to make their own authentic dreams happen. To love themselves from the inside out. To feel good from within.
For more details, visit their website here.
Here we sit down with Yvette, to learn a bit more about her journey as a female entrepreneur.
Q. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME AN ENTREPRENEUR?
Yvette: My journey really started as a little random act of kindness to help others to feel good from within. I wanted to share things that made me feel good from within like visiting the Spa along with Meditation, Yoga, Walking, Active Living in the hope it might help others to feel good from within if they gave it a go.
I grew up watching the Oprah Winfrey show at the age of 8 and sat beside my mother who was always into self-care, self-help books, being kind, natural beauty, exercise, healthy living, reading books and I have between my Mum and having Oprah Winfrey as my Go-To Media Icon along with of the other incredible self-help Authors like Louise Hay that came on the Oprah Winfrey Show that truly planted the seed for me wanting to make a difference, along with my love and passion for the spa, wellness, travel, life long learning, books, storytelling and empowering the underdog.
I feel very blessed and grateful that I grew up in an era that we didn’t have too many influences to look up to but in my case, I don’t think you could beat having Oprah Winfrey like a Media Personality to aspire to be as an 8-year-old kid.
When I first visited the Spa it changed the way I felt from the inside and it was the best thing at the time for my mental health and wellbeing I had never felt so good. After experiencing the profound health and wellbeing effects I truly felt like I had stumbled across an ancient ritual, spa therapy that would get us through the most testing times and it was from that moment on I wanted to inspire and empower as many people as I possibly could to give visiting the spa a go so they too could feel good, recharged, relax, re-energized, rejuvenated at the time I knew it was more than a luxury beauty thing which it was being marketed as I truly believed it was beneficial to our overall health and wellbeing and it seems now in 2021 with the constant stress of the pandemic that finding ways to de-stress has become very important and I am truly grateful to have been at the forefront of sharing the health and wellness benefits of spa therapy.
Q. HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
Yvette: I started out on a free blog site back in bloggersphere, at the time I had tried to become a Luxury Spa Wellness Writer for other well-established magazines but at the time there own Beauty Editors or Writers go all of the perks of visiting the Spa’s so they didn’t have any need for a dedicated writer who solely focused on spa and wellness, wellness wasn’t even a buzz word back then. I also tried to share some of my early spa travel stories, reviews even in Newspapers but at the time the Travel focus was very much on Sightseeing, along with the Food and Beverage with one editor even responding with what makes you think people would even be interested in Spa Travel so despite the many knock backs and constant no’s and rejections to my work and than opportunities of my work maybe being published but falling through, I decided to start my own little random act of kindness and to share things I truly loved that made me feel good in hope it would make others feel good, eventually when I saw that I had over 1 millions views of my early blog spots I soon discovered that people were totally switching off from the Glossy A4 Advertisting ADS and that they were more interested in learning about a real person, every day, real life experience like me, as I had no motivates to sell them anything, make money from them it was purely to share my thoughts, feelings, stories with them I was able to connect one on one with them and this became even more powerful than any Glossy A4 Magazine Ad and unfortnately when I blogged through the GFC – Global Financial Crisis I was able to continue as my blog was all about helping and serving others, a little random act of kindness but I learnt very early on as a writer, if you did only things for money what goes up must come down and I have seen sadly many Magazines during my time which was once an Authority cease and fold. I always had a greater vision of becoming a world recognised Spa Reviewer, traveling the world reviewing spa’s, a travel presenter, a self-help author, along with speaker, talk show host and whilst many people couldn’t see my vision or didn’t even think I had what it took to persevere through the ups and downs of life I stayed true to myself and really believe that when your dream comes from within anything is possible as the only person who knows the way you feel is yourself so even when people say no to your ideas I had a mantra of every no was my yes.
Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST STARTUP CHALLENGE? WHAT STEPS DID YOU TAKE TO OVERCOME IT? WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
Yvette: I think personally setting boundaries around social media usage. Learning to Switch the Mobile Phone off. Limit my time actually on social media in order to get enough sleep and take care of my overall health and wellbeing. When I first started out blogging it was really just a hobby, something I did on the side, it was all about writing and I could do that from home easily but there wasn’t anyone raving on about how many times you need to post content it was a very natural creative free-flowing beautiful feel-good process and when the creativity came from within that was when I would create. But as you know when social media really started to pop there was so many people turn social media experts, coaches that started raving on about how many times a person, business, blogger needed to post in order to get ahead of the rest, and really it moved away from the natural organic creative feel-good process to simply turning out content for the sake of it, which never sat well with me but like myself and I am sure many other bloggers, businesses, brands they can resonate with this.
I think the greatest workload, however, comes social media started to pop and there became a requirement to respond to every single comment, DM though at the time I really thought when don’t they have an audio recording button, I could never understand and still don’t to this day when we had to text, but I have always had the vision and I still look forward to the day that perhaps social media apps bring this in.
In the early start-up days I really only had to write a blog post a week, then it went to one blog post a couple of days a week, to then a blog post a day to then, six blog posts a day yes six that’s right in order to stay relevant and on top, so many articles would come out of the latest social media app you needed to be on, but here is the irony of it all, we got told we needed to be on google plus that it was going to the biggest thing ever I had over a million people on that platform reading my blog posts and then all of a sudden one day it came to a grinding halt and ceased and that’s the thing with any social media platform you have to know that you can create content and it can be totally wiped and you have to start over from scratch again, that any app can crash, stop, fold, and you need to either be ok with that. So many apps have come and go and I have no doubt so many will still come and go but now I am very big on telling everyone to sign up to my website emails at www.spaitgirl.com but this was something I did do early on and to be honest, I thought at the time that’s ok I will simply communicate with them through this online platform of choice but once it’s shut down and you can’t connect with them it’s too late to ask them to sign up to your email then. For me I think I underestimated how much admin would be involved in even having a blog, I seriously thought I would just be a writer, sitting behind a computer and people would read the review, well as you know now as a writer, spa travel reviewer, I had to get comfortable in not only taking photos of the bath but also getting in the dreamy bath as that become the norm seeing the blogger at the spa or dreamy spa wellness resort. I think going from a writer to somewhat a real-life reality social media TV presenter was at the time a bit of a transition as I had to get used to people jumping on to the live feeds and saying show us your T+tts plus lots of trolls and naturally if you are doing something that other people want to do sometimes people love you for that and other times people hate you as they simply want to do what you are doing but don’t know-how. So having access to the whole world via social media apps and in live real-time on live social media feeds is definitely going to challenge your mental health in the early days it was a free for all but now apps are putting better measures to help. For me making a decision to put my get a good night’s sleep and taking care of my health and wellbeing was key. I had to learn the hard way especially when once upon a time when there was no money or free products in blogging no one really wanted to be a blogger but as soon as money came into it that was when I really felt the duplication of Instagrammers and bloggers exploded, but the reality was if you don’t get enough sleep it can lead to burnout and it’s no good for your mental health and wellbeing. So I had to make some pretty big decisions and make some really big changes and set really strict boundaries which were putting sleep first and also being very strict on my social media use, use even as a social media digital creative, so when I wake up in the morning I never grab my mobile phone instead I spend time stretching, setting my intention and practicing mindfulness, practicing gratitude, journaling, doing a nice easy yoga flow or walk. I also in the evening had to set a cut off point for being on social media and being on-line and I also decided it was time that I share less content and even if I only post once a week that’s ok as long as the purpose is to help inspire or empower others that’s all that matters, I really needed to focus more on quality vs quantity but at the time there was a massive push for more more more more content and there still is today but I think covid19 was a great reminder that everyone had really been pushing to hard when it came to creating content and by actually slowing down it allowed all of us to actually read and consume the content better, and to appreciate it more and I still want to be the pioneer of slow social media even though everyone will keep telling you – you need to do more more more more and if you don’t you will get left before, but I truly believe that it’s important for our mental health that we spend time off line and have time to simply be to relax, unwind and if we are always doing and creating and sharing content with no downtime and we are constantly in the throws of content creating it’s one very fast way to burnout emotionally and mentally. Now that i try my best to put sleep and self-care first and I also no longer spend any time even looking on Instagram unless it’s a person who has left a message on my social media posts it’s seriously the best I’ve ever felt. So I think the biggest lesson I have learnt is setting boundaries, plus learning to say NO, I get invited all of the time to promote brands but if they do not align with my personal beliefs I say NO – sure the money would have been nice but if I don’t use the product, or align with the brands values, or I am not passionate about it I say NO, I have left a lot of many on the table and I would have a lot more money if I held up every held up every product that was asked of me but I made a decision to stay aligned with more core beliefs and self and to also to protect my #spaitgirl community as I get asked to sell and promote to them everything from weight loss products, drinks, cosmetic products, house hold products, you name it everything and anything but as an example if a product had been tested on animals I would decline as I love to use products that aren’t tested on animals, but whilst I could have done sponsored post after post which is always very tempting I think for me now if I do share a brand at least my audience know’s it’s because I truly do align with the brand or geninuely like it, plus by saying no to so many paid opportunities and brand ambassador roles it has allowed me to stay niche the whole time along and people know that I am authentic, real and not just doing social media or using these apps or creating content for the money or to make a quick buck I am here to help people to feel good from within and often that can simply by asking someone how are you? it has nothing to do with me holding up a product and me getting paid for the post, I have often said one day if there was no money in blogging we might see a shift in the amount of content created and I truly feel if you are creating content with a higher purpose than yourself or just doing it for the money the universe has your back what you give is what you get. I simply want to be known as the girl who inspired others to Dream Big and to do things that made them feel good from within like visiting the spa, practicing self-care, mindfulness, reading books living a very simple down-to-earth life.
Q. WHAT IS THE MOST MEMORABLE THING YOU’VE DONE SINCE YOU STARTED YOUR BUSINESS?
Yvette: I think for me it was when I was able to create the very first Instagram – IGTV travel shows @spaitgirl_travel that allowed every person who made the travel experience to be part of the show. I always wanted to acknowledge the staff, the real stars of the show, along with sharing more about the Spa and why the Spa Therapists were inspired to work in the spa, and more about what the Spa could offer the #spaitgirl community audience and viewers. For Me, I personally have a natural love for people and sharing other people’s stories so one of the greatest things to come from all of this modern technology is being able to share a travel show in the palm of my hands and to also share the people who make the travel experience at the luxury spa and wellness resorts and hotels. I am beyond grateful for all of the places, people, brands I have had the opportunity to visit, meet, create for, and share. Helping others to feel good from within and seeing them visiting the spa, practicing self-care, going on their own dreamy holiday, and sharing their own #spaitgirl experience has been truly so incredible and I get so excited to see others feeling happy and living their dreams. Meeting the #spaitgirl community also in person has been incredible too I have met so many inspiring Spa Managers and Therapists along my way and to create a real sense of community with them along with everyone else has been truly magical. Also during the Global Pandemic during the World’s very first lockdown at that moment when I was feeling so overwhelmed and I had just arrived back to Australia from the Maldives via Singapore and was at home waiting on my covid19 test not really knowing what was going on it was in that moment I thought maybe if I feel this overwhelmed and anxious others might be feeling that same way too and it was in that moment I asked how can I serve and help others and that was when it came to me to interview people for the #spaitgirl podcast – titled – #spaitgirl talk show with Yvette Le Blowitz, to find out how they are taking care of themselves during the lockdown, how are they coping, what are their self-care rituals and from there I set out to interview some of the world’s greatest mental health experts, self-help authors to help find out how we could feel less stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, depressed, and how we could cope better during the pandemic and all of the uncertainty. At the time I knew it would be a very long time till I might ever be able to travel again but I thought if I feel this anxious maybe others might too and with my platform and passion for storytelling and helping others I could read self-help books and research and during the lockdowns or times in which we had to stay home focus on what we can do vs what we can’t do so I came up with a catch phrase which was and still is: “The New Norm Is Reading Books” and then I started a #spaitgirl book club and podcast and now there are over 150 podcast episodes to help the audience get through these challenging times if you want to learn how to meditate, practice mindfulness, you want to learn more about mental health, anxiety, neuroscience or even how to stay well and not burn out the search for #spaitgirl on any podcast app or on youtube, besure to subscribe and if you do listen to an episode I would love to know if you leave a 5* rating and review I will definately read it. I think also going from blogger to Self-Help Author and finding out my book was being sold in McNalley’s in Prince Street in New York City and people were buying it globally was pretty incredible.
Q. WHAT IS ONE BOOK YOU RECOMMEND, AND WHY?
Yvette: It Starts With Me by Yvette Le Blowitz why? because it shares my go-to self-care rituals plus also a 21-day Wellness Guide and more about myself and my journey too. I wrote it to help the readers to feel good from within it’s a short, easy book form and I also wrote it for the time-poor person, who really wants to read a book but feels they don’t have time.
I actually wrote the book thinking it might only appeal to female readers, girls, and women but it turns out with a title of It Starts With Me and the words on the front cover saying – Become Your Happiest Healthiest Self, one of the greatest gifts was to find out a guy, yes male had actually read it and he said by reading it he started to practice meditation as I suggested and from there he was able to give up drinking and also his whole life turned around and he even found a job. I think for me it’s those life-changing messages that truly inspire and empower me to still want to create or share content that can help others feel good from within. In the end, I think it’s those heartfelt stories of thank you and gratitude, and hearing how someone’s life is so much better is why after every social media app that comes along the way I am still here. On a mission to share as much positivity and light, practical tips, and a message of kindness, empathy, love, and hope in what at times feels like a very dark, doom, and gloom world.
It Starts With Me by Yvette Le Blowitz is available online through all major books stores.
Q. WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 FAVOURITE ONLINE APPS, TOOLS OR RESOURCES AND WHAT DO YOU LOVE ABOUT THEM?
- Calm – I love the mindfulness meditation app
- Notes on my phone – as I find that to be such a great way to capture my thoughts feelings when I am on the go
- Booktopia – one of Australia’s online book stores as I get to see all of the incredible books that are available to read from the comfort of my own home.
Q. IN TERMS OF LEGACY, WHAT IS THE MARK YOU’D LIKE TO LEAVE ON THE WORLD?
Yvette: That I help others to feel good from within by visiting the spa and practicing self-care.
That I inspired them to dream big and make their dreams happen.
That I inspired them to forget about being on-trend and to simply be their true authentic self.
That feeling good starts from within. Making time to simply be is key.
Q. IN ONE SENTENCE, WHAT’S THE BEST ADVICE YOU’D GIVE TO SOMEONE JUST STARTING OUT ON THEIR ENTREPRENEURIAL JOURNEY?
Yvette: To Be Yourself and like no one else. To create content from within and when it arises.
To keep up to date with Yvette and her journey, connect with her on @Spaitgirl, @spaitgirl_travel, and on her personal account @yvetteleblowitz.
