‘ Goodbye Deutschland’ is one of the most popular reality shows on German television. You now appear in it regularly. Has it changed your life? Andrea and I have not allowed it to change our lives at all. We are very happy with the way things are and we are looking forward to many more years, if our health allows.
For the last series you travelled to South Africa and while you were there you visited a safari park and one of Reiner Meutsch’ s schools. And now you are involved in a joint project to raise money to build another school. What Reiner Meutsch is doing in developing countries with his charity Fly & Help is really great. So far he has built more than 100 schools in the very poorest countries, from Africa to Nepal. What the needy require is“ not to be given fish but to be taught to fish themselves”. For us, Reiner Meutsch is the Albert Schweitzer of the twentieth century. I am proud to know him and his family, and to have the means to play a small part in financing two schools through Fly & Help.
Villa Colani is of great interest to TV shows all over the world. In 2015 it was on American television, and this year Channel 4 is going to feature the property. Do you have other TV projects in the pipeline? Yes, we have been approached by some international networks and we have had a lot of fun when filming. I am delighted that the production teams understand my horrible English as it’ s not exactly“ the yoke of the egg”. What is really important is laughter, and we laugh a great deal when making TV programmes.
You are a popular guest on talk shows where the topic is‘ Does wealth make you happy’? What is your opinion on this? Wealth does not make you happy. We know some extremely rich people and some of them are the unhappiest people you could ever imagine. Happiness can make you rich if you play it right. We would all rather see a happy face than a crying one, this is why giving is a form of egotism. Moreover, wealth is only‘ borrowed’, not from banks and financiers, but for our lifetime. We don’ t know who will own our properties or any of our other possessions in fifty years’ time. Owing property is also a great responsibility. Proper use of the capital it generates can make you happy, but there is no guarantee.
You are often asked for advice when it comes to business ideas in Mallorca. You are in the process of planning your first coaching seminar. What can participants expect? After every programme broadcast by VOX I get 12,000 to 15,000 posts and messages via platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn. VOX is an amazing channel with a great audience. SADLY I can ' t reply to all the messages I receive. And I feel sorry for all the people who have often put a lot of effort and hope into what they have written. I don’ t employ a secretary to do this for me because then the answers wouldn’ t be genuine. So I have decided to write a kind of guide book to success, that is if I can find the time. I am curious myself as to how it will turn out. So far I have not had time to get on with the book.
You have more than one million friends on Facebook. Which posts affect you the most? I get a lot of messages that really touch my heart. There are very few begging letters among them, but some of them are genuinely moving. Sadly, there is no one person in this world who can help everyone- not the pope, nor a president nor Bill Gates. It’ s a shame, but it’ s the reality of the situation.
With your Royal Body Concept Studio in Santa Ponsa, you have created the concept for a franchise that is now to be found in Palma and Berlin, too. Have you any new plans for 2017? The RBC studios are running really well, even though I didn’ t want to take on any extra work myself. My wife Andrea said,“ It doesn’ t really matter if it makes any money, the main thing is that you lose weight”. Our Slimbeam training stations have produced really positive results. Clients lose weight and inches both visibly and quantifiably after only 20 minutes of treatment, with absolutely no side-effects. So much so that the studio in Santa Ponsa in Mallorca is fully booked for three to four weeks in advance. The Palma studio is larger and still has the capacity to accept more clients. We have had a great many franchise enquiries( more than 400) from all over Europe. But we finally took the decision to hire out our Slimbeam training stations( I always call them shed-fat machines) in order to give people the opportunity to upgrade their businesses. This means that anyone, a cosmetic, sport or fitness studio, a medical practice, a hotel, a holiday club or a cruise ship can rent one, for which we own the rights, and in this simple way increase their revenue. RBC provides anyone who rents one with all the necessary training in Mallorca. In this way RBC can hire out many training stations to, what I believe are very satisfied operators. It is a total win-win situation for our company, for our clients and of course for their clients, too.
Your wife Andrea is regularly to be seen working out at RBC, often in the company of Costa Cordalis. She also has a great interest in healthy eating. Does it change things when you own your own sports studio? It hasn’ t changed me at all. Naturally my wife Andrea and my closest friend Costa try to use more than just arguments to persuade me to take more exercise. But in the past five months I must confess that I haven’ t used our Slimbeam equipment once, I simply haven’ t had the time. Costa is always looking for new ways to talk me into training and I always manage to find an excuse for not doing any sport or EMS( Electrical Muscle Stimulation). But I have changed my diet – the biscuits are now stored in the right and no longer in the left-hand drawer of my desk:)
The German newspaper‘ Die Zeit’ recently ran an article about your passion for collecting. As well as Scrooge McDuck, you also have an interest in rare classic cars. Are you continuing to add to your collections? Well, in general I collect art by artists that we both like, we don’ t just have famous names on our walls; art must give pleasure to the viewer. I do own the most comprehensive collection of work by Carl Barks in the world. He was the great Disney artist, now a legend in his own right, and the‘ father’ of many Disney characters including Scrooge McDuck. Sadly I am still not all that knowledgeable about classic cars, but they can also document history. If you look at how much the value of some vehicles has increased over the past ten years, even Scrooge McDuck himself would let out a cheer.
Thank you very much for talking to us.
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