Tech Talk Tuesday with Laura Munkholm of Walla Software

We sat down with Laura Munkholm, co-founder and president of Walla Software to talk about Walla Software, about their jump into the industry at the beginning of the pandemic, and their unique personality assessment that may alter the way we market to clients.

Let’s chat about the overall state of the industry. During the pandemic, we saw a rise of at-home everything, whether it was virtual workouts or using different tools or machines to connect with instructors and fellow community members online. With that said, how are you feeling about boutique fitness in person? Why can we place our bets on the boutique fitness industry?

Obviously we’ve made a pretty big bet on it! We’ve seen time and time again, over the years, that people need community, accountability and motivation. And we’re all different. There is a very small percentage of the population that can actually stay motivated on their own, at home, to accomplish their fitness and wellness goals. 

At first, the general population was very excited about the Peloton and the “everything at home” craze—it was a necessity. That excitement was on the rise for quite a while. But as we’re seeing, those trends are shifting; reports have suggested that Peloton is considering laying off 40 percent of their staff and canceling store openings. The market is speaking pretty clearly that the demand for at-home only is just not there anymore. People are back in the studio. We’re seeing consistently with our clients that memberships are trending up; people are back indoors. State-to-state is a bit different-—even city-to-city—based on where masks are required or not, but in-person is trending up. COVID taught us that there is a place for all of it and the smart studios—the studios that ultimately are going to really succeed—are the ones that can embrace the hybrid model, that can streamline and make it easy for both their staff and their communities.

Absolutely. And from a more granular point of view, we were very intrigued by the fact that November was so strong for many studios. And then December was not very strong at all—Christmas, Omicron, and people disconnecting for the holiday season—impacted studio numbers significantly. Yet, now as we come to the end of January, we’re already seeing November numbers return. I think studios should expect 2022 to be stronger than ever, and they should look at their 2019 numbers as a way of identifying what kind of goals they should be aiming for in terms of both sales and memberships. With that said, can you tell us a bit about the features of Walla that help studio owners today manage their studios in a way that speaks to this ever-changing landscape?

One of the other features we included to help owners with the changing landscape is building both VOD and direct integration with Zoom into our platform so that when studios need to flip on a dime, it's literally a button. The VOD is built-in and lives on your website. This is important for your overall business. Not only are you able to do it all on one platform, but your clients will stay on your website, spending time building your SEO and your google analytics because they are living there for 45 minutes watching a class. We wanted to make those things really simple and easy for the customer and the client. Keep in mind, we are a B2B software company. We’re not trying to sell to a consumer. So the studio is our number one priority.

Do you also have an integrated email component for fitness marketing?

We have a partnership with ActiveCampaign—it’s built right into our software—yet, this is one of the features that is an additional cost. We also will be partnering with Referrizer—they offer not only email and two-way text message marketing, but also lead forms, landing pages, and they have the feature where clients can claim offers on social media as well as loyalty and referral programs. 

That speaks to the rest of the platform that it's fully integrated. You won’t need to create an additional bridge. That’s what we’re looking for—something that can include all of the elements of your boutique fitness software.

Yes, and when I was consulting I would see these studios that would have digital waivers, email marketing, separate text marketing.. the list would go on.. VOD, Zoom. There were so many different log-ins and pieces of the puzzle that were duct-taped together, especially during the pandemic, it was just chaos. So our goal was to really bring that level of tech-fatigue down, take a deep breath and say, “I have a platform that understands what we need to operate a modern studio and it's taken care of.” That said, we know there are going to be businesses with all different kinds of needs so the next integration we’re starting is a Zapier integration. They offer so many various integrations that really speak to the customization of the product—there is a world at your feet! 

For me the fact that Walla checks off nearly all the boxes makes it a one-stop shop. Having one platform helps with instructors, instructor management, and any kind of overwhelm that can happen when making changes in the boutique fitness software with pricing or memberships. I also love that it looks good. It helps studio owners feel that they have modern software that is going to help catapult their business into the future.

In development, the thing that we really looked at is the landscape of competitors out there. And most of them are really just doing the same thing. My business partner and Walla CEO, Doug Hecht is amazing. He said, “Stop thinking in terms of what the industry is used to and instead look at the market as a whole.” Outside of our industry-—who is doing it best? Who is doing promo codes best? Who is doing gift cards best? Who is offering all of these little pieces of the puzzle? We have a chance to learn from people who are really successful in these different fields and integrate that type of intelligence into our software. 

What type of studio will really match well with the Walla software?

Right now we are great for class-based businesses. We are working on our appointment functionality, which should be released in the spring. We are built for businesses that primarily run with multiple classes a day, multiple instructors—we’re able to support employees or contractors at the business. Our true avatar is a business that has some sort of virtual offering as well whether it be VOD or livestream. You certainly don’t have to, but that really is a big selling point for Walla. We have all of that under one roof and it really just streamlines the process so much for both the teachers that are starting the livestream to the people that are uploading video to the library, and trying to work that into memberships. We have VOD so easily baked into any membership that it’s really a nice selling point for studios that are running a virtual or hybrid model.

Just to clarify, your livestream has an integration with Zoom, and then the VOD is hosted through Walla but on the studios’ website?

Yes, exactly. All of the storage and hosting is on Walla but it is a widget that lives on your website. It's nice and clean. And if someone has a membership that allows them access, they can filter and watch that video when they want. If someone doesn’t, it still gives them a glimpse at what the library looks like and gives them the direct option to purchase a plan that includes VOD.

Amazing. In terms of the actual software itself, what are your favorite features?

Rather than say, “Hey, we have a deal to bring your clients back,” we looked at why people continue to come back to fitness or why they don’t. We worked with leading behavioral psychologists that study behavioral psychology around wellness practices, and they created a personality test for us that is focused on motivation. From there we came up with four different types of personalities that are assigned based on your results from a 2-3 minute quiz. So we not only feed you that information and give you training on how to use it, we also have it in the check-in screen— when you’re in the class roster you can see the different personalities of the room. For instance, it might say that you’re a giver and I’m a doer. How does that translate? It could be as simple as you don’t need the high-fives and the callouts in class and I totally need it. 

I love that feature. It's so powerful. It’s like a smart CRM (Customer Relationship Management) tool that immediately impacts your retention.

We saw that really the only leverage the industry had was discounts, and it quickly led to this race to the bottom, especially in yoga. We want you to understand that your services are incredibly valuable and people aren’t staying with you because they got $20 off. They are staying with you because something about the accountability, the motivation and how disarmed they feel when they walk in your studio is right. So if we can give you tools to help you understand that and customize it—even better. 

The other element I love about our system is the credit system. If any of your users are ClassPass business partners they understand the credit system, where you’re offering classes at a certain credit number. Maybe your peak hour classes are 7, your off-hour classes are 4, and livestream are something else. During the pandemic, studios were offering livestream, in-person, low capacity, high capacity—there were all of these variables that went into your classes—and ultimately they don’t all cost the same thing to execute, and your pricing margins are vastly different on some of them. We wanted to be able to give you a way to keep your existing memberships, but also offer a membership that's 40 or 60 credits a month that your clients can use as they like. 

Here in Toronto, I love to support local studios, but I can’t always use a lot of classes. I wonder if it's possible to make retail a part of the credit system, potentially boosting sales?

Yeah, how cool would it be if you only had 3 credits left on your plan and rather than waste them or roll them over (which we do allow), you could use that to buy a kombucha or something else at the studio? As of right now we don’t do that, but we’re trying to consider how to roll that in. 

Retail is something that can really boost membership; it can act as a form of marketing, walking around town. Hopefully, studios will start taking more of a risk with that because I do feel like people are wanting to go into the studio, get a smoothie, do some shopping, and visit with their friends. We need to bring that back. One more question, what are current clients loving so far?

Clients are really liking our entire onboarding process, which can sometimes be intimidating. 

Yeah, hearing about new software is great but it can be scary thinking about what migrating could look like. I know Walla places a lot of emphasis on the whole onboarding process and it is also a nice opportunity to cleanse the data and just bring over the things that make sense. 

Yes, our migration is a 3-step process: cleanse, build, and then move. The cleanse has been what a lot of people appreciate the most; it’s super cathartic to get rid of all of the old and start fresh. 

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

To discuss whether Walla Software 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.