Tech Talk Tuesday with Lexy Amaral from Mariana Tek

We were fortunate to chat with Lexy Amaral from Mariana Tek, a global platform integrating boutique fitness software, payments, and commerce-enabling services to help businesses thrive.

Lexy is the Business Development Manager for Xplor (the parent company for Mariana Tek) on all things business development, emerging tech, and finding new opportunities for studios to partner with external brands. Her primary focus is on helping her clients find the best and most efficient ways to grow.

We sat down and spoke with Lexy about why she loves Mariana Tek, how the fitness industry is changing, and of course, her do or die favorite fitness workout.

Tell me a bit about who Mariana Tek is built for. 

Mariana Tek has focused on supporting multi-location and franchise fitness businesses. Everything native to the platform is based on that premise; we offer such features as permissions being built-out based on location, reporting being accessible and quantifiable based on location—yet it is all housed under one account. This is the biggest differentiator of Mariana Tek.

What are your three favorite things about Mariana Tek?

A huge focus for Mariana Tek is investing in and supporting individual studios—and they’ve seen how important it is to have a strong brand presence, ensuring and helping your clients know what to expect from your brand. Plus, everything is customizable across the board, ensuring your brand is represented first.

Our app has a five-star rating. Clients start with the template and then customize from there. Spaces within the app allow each brand to make choices to individualize without having to build out the app on their own. People need to be able to customize for their business.

The concept “the fifth tab”—studios can enable this completely blank page and customize it to their experience depending on what they want. For instance, they can offer a rewards page or track performance metrics.

Although Mariana Tek is geared toward businesses with multiple locations, any studio with only one location should also feel set-up for success; the platform lends itself to simple growth for you and your clients in a systematic way.

People are taking their passion and turning it into business, so we go in with the mindset that growth is possible. Mariana Tek is a platform that gives you this space and we are helping provide the roadmap.

You’re also a fitness instructor at Solid Core. As an instructor, what have you enjoyed about Mariana Tek?

As an instructor, one thing that’s awesome is that we have instructor profiles giving clients the ability to find their favorite instructor, click into their profile, and then see the entire schedule for that instructor (not having to search through the entire schedule). It feels there is more connection for the students and the teachers with profile images for instructors, links to Spotify, Instagram, etc.

It’s important that studios and fitness brands invest in instructors—talent is everything—and we saw during COVID-19 that lots of talent were able to build brands; studios need to give instructors opportunities to promote themselves and your business.

What are you seeing in the industry where you are?

From what I’ve seen here (in Charlotte, NC) you can see that the spread of these NY/LA brands are venturing out—keep that in mind that they have the resources and budgets to do so. Regardless, it's important for smaller local fitness studios to focus on their brand and their customer journey. It is essential to be focused on the customer journey in fitness. There are so many options out there—think about retail—those that are successful and growing have invested in the customer journey—fitness studios can do the same. From the time they hear about your business maximize and utilize the tech available to you, personalizing your customer’s experience.

One thing we haven’t talked about is Vimeo. Vimeo OTT has an integration with Mariana Tek, including software that allows single sign-on with Vimeo OTT.

People are still doing virtual. Although I have seen some studios stop offering these classes it’s essential to give clients the ability to still connect virtually. An On Demand Library is a great option whether or not you have the bandwidth for offering virtual classes live; an On Demand Library gives studios the opportunity to build their brand outside their physical studio. 

We offer integrations with other streaming services as well—this is not something that is going away.

Should studios really compete against live and streaming? I would love to see the industry start to shift toward offering both—with more flexible packages—like a 4-class recurring membership, flexible pricing, etc.

We’ve definitely seen this shift since 2020. What if studios were to partner with other studios offering different types of workouts? We are wanting diversity and options; it could work in studios favor to partner with other studios.
A few companies offer ways to manage that. In Charlotte, Solid Core and Barry's work together—it helps get new clients in the door; I would love to see it more.

Yes, and then they can partner on offerings and ads. Ok, next question.  What are your favorite workouts and do you prefer in person or virtual?

I definitely need to be in person. Every once in a while I’ll do a virtual class. Solid Core and spin forever! I will never stop wanting to ride the bike; I’m consistently challenged on the bike— that’s what I find the most motivating.

Thank you so much to Lexy for joining us! We appreciate you.

To discuss whether Mariana Tek is right for your business needs, please e-mail Catalina at catalina@telomereconsulting.com.

Catalina's consultancy, Telomere Consulting, provides 1:1 coaching, strategy consulting and marketing services ('done-with-you' and 'done-for-you') to fitness businesses looking to serve their purpose and become even more profitable. Catalina also coaches her clients on strategies for sales, pricing, and the creation of new revenue streams.

Telomere Consulting provides business consulting and marketing services to studio owners in the boutique fitness and yoga space. The Telomere team helps you navigate business strategy from conception to implementation. We provide end-to-end marketing support and would love to hear from you. Click here to book your free intro call. We want you to treat your business the way you treat your body – making the right choices now to optimize its potential for a long and healthy life. Visit us here to learn more.