Hunte’s helping lives in more ways than one

Leticia Hunte is a mother to an energetic two-year-old son and a fire officer with the Barbados Fire Service. She is passionate about health, wellness and helping others.

The 26-year-old former student of the Christ Church Foundation School is the owner of Lutalo The Brand which is located in St Philip.

Her company offers Lutalo body workouts, meal plans, Lutalo beauty products and essentials, Lutalo kids apparel, as well as adult clothing and Lutalo heart program.

“My business offers a wide range of services . . . The service includes a tailored meal plan, consultations, and access to group chats where you can share your progress, tips and videos while getting to know new individuals. We also offer detox drinks. We are about to launch our shakes that can be used after workouts or as a snack during the day.

I also retail a portable tooth whitening and detoxifier, face soaps, exfoliating pads, makeup brushes, makeup, 100 per cent cotton T-Shits that carry motivational words to encourage and remind children who they are, as well as fitness apparel,” she said. Hunte also offers a Lutalo heart programme where she is passionate about motivating and enabling young women to achieve their goals no matter what field they may be in.

“I always wanted to help young women and young men and other programs usually have their own scope, restrictions and stipulations attached. I said to myself ‘Letti, you now have your brand you can create a programme attached to your brand’.

This is where I came up with Lutalo Hearts which is geared towards motivating and enabling young women
to achieve their goals no matter what field it may be in. I know being in a male-dominated field you must work
a little harder, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t get it done,” she said.

The owner of Lutalo The Brand said that she decided on the African name Lutalo as it is an African name that means fighter or warrior.

“I see myself as such as I am required to push through in every aspect of my life from personal to occupation and I wanted to portray this through my brand,” she said.

Hunte who has been a fire officer for three and a half years is passionate about offering holistic health at her business as she believes that persons should care for their physical, mental, and spiritual health as they are all interconnected.

“Holistic health is caring for the body or individual. If you are not well mentally it can affect you physically, and socially. If you are not well in one area it affects the other areas of the body. Persons may look physically well but are burdened mentally and socially.

Covid-19 has led to depression and increased sadness in both adults and children, loneliness, loss of jobs and suicide just to mention a few. I want that everyone who decides to be a part of Lutalo is healthy holistically and that it caters to everyone.

I want them to see that there is much more to your health than just looking fit. My first question to persons would be what is your goal? And 95 per cent of my clients always say that they want to look fit, look good or be healthy. They also send me pictures of influencers in which they wish to look like,” she said.  Hunte has had a bit of rebranding to her business as persons may know her from her former business name Get Fit Wid Letti but after some repositioning, she has decided to keep Lutalo The Brand as it signifies everything that she wants her business to become.

But the big question?

How did she become a fire officer?

She said her decision was impacted by a personal experience that ignited the passion in her to become a
fire officer.

“What pushed me to become a fire officer was an incident when I was younger. We experienced a grass fire that threatened our home. On the arrival of the fire service my grandmother’s face was filled with glee and joy. They gave her a sense of assurance. From that moment, I wanted to be a part of something like that.

I wanted to have that impact on the persons whom I encounter. The age to enter the Barbados Fire Service is
18 years old so I applied when I was pursuing my degree at the University of the West Indies and up to this day, I do not regret my decision.

Being in the Barbados Fire Service has enabled me to enhance my personal and professional skills. One of my goals in the Fire Service alongside becoming a driver is to have an impact on the holistic health of my colleagues. The Barbados Fire Service is much more than what the public sees.

Our job requires us to be knowledgeable, physically fit, and mentally strong due to the technical incidents or situations we are faced with daily. Our job is always evolving so we must stay current with what is going on and the potentials of what can occur.

Our job is high risk and can be stressful and our decisions made from now can affect our lives long-term so having a holistic healthy lifestyle is important, and I would like to improve that. I am now attached to the Barbados Fire Academy which provides training to internal and external customers.

Some of the training includes but is not limited to Fire Extinguisher, Evacuation Procedures, Working at Heights, and Hazmat awareness. Hunte, who was recently the top presenter at the recently held Bijou Media Brand Strategy Bootcamp, said that the 10-day workshops helped her to execute some of the ideas that she had for her business.

“I felt great because the Bootcamp was not ordinary. I attended the Bootcamp knowing I wanted to rebrand but was unsure of what route I would take. My mind was full of ideas but no real execution because I had limited resources.

Ashley Phillips showed us what we needed to take our business from ‘Basic to Premium’ and her slogan does not go in vain. Every night I left the Bootcamp I had something to think about because she mentioned so many details that we overlooked.

When it was time for our pitch, I was not prepared because we had so much information to pull from it almost felt overwhelming. However, I knew what I wanted from my business, and how I wanted to impact others. I spoke from the heart while using the knowledge I gained, and the rest was history. Persons saw potential in my brand and the importance of it,” she said.  Hunte had some words of advice for persons who may be feeling down because they had gained some “COVID weight” which is to be cognisant of what they put into their bodies.

“Overall, I believe since the covid pandemic has begun persons were engaging in physical activities which is great, however, there is still a lot more information to be shared and support to be given. We understand that persons do not have the same free time, everyone’s situation or circumstances are different and most of all we know that everyone can holistically benefit from a healthy lifestyle.

What we decide now can affect our lives later. Let us ensure that our food is our medicine before medicine becomes our food. Let us make sure exercise is our therapy before therapy is our exercise. Let us encourage and
be an example for others.

“The concept and drive behind Lutalo has benefited me and my family. It has benefited me with my personal life as I have a very active son and being active also encourages him to stay active. When I start my workout, he immediately joins in and that shows the impact that we have on our children.

My partner also is very active, so we all work out together and have outdoor exercise. It also helps me with my line of work, because no day is the same and a situation may arise that you may not be able to have lunch on time. But what I can control is what I fuel my body with, what food I put in that would give my body the nutrients and energy that it needs.

Assigning the correct workouts to my regime will help build my mental strength because my life or my team member’s life may depend on giving that one last push or that one last pull just to make it out alive. It works for me, and I want to be able to help others no matter what field they are in,” she said.  (Write Right PR Services)