Laura Munkholm:
Hello. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for our WALLA webinar series. And today, we are gonna be talking about the coach's blueprint on using AI and our reporting, our new reporting dashboards to hit your profitability goals. Um, for those of you that joined us last week for the walk through of our new AI dashboards and the goal setting functionality, this is step two. This is okay. Great. You know how it works. You know what it does. And today, we're gonna be talking about how to think about your goals, the framework, and then some industry benchmarks and ways to kind of set numbers for yourself and your team. Um, I'm very grateful to be joined by Joshua Poole, who is our business and marketing growth coach at WALLA. This is a new role that we have brought on board because we heard you guys. We know that trying to learn a new software platform, learn a software platform in general, especially as it's evolving, is tricky. And if you're an owner operator, you have a lot on your plate, and sometimes you just need a little bit of guidance. So that's what Josh was here for. He has an extensive background working behind the scenes in studios and also coaching studios just like you guys. Um, I'll turn it over to you in just a minute, Josh, but the quick, uh, housekeeping for today, if you wouldn't mind, I actually imagine there will be quite a bit of q and a. We encourage q and a in this session because we will be doing kind of a working session together. On the far right of your screen, you'll see a little q and a box, and you can click that. And please put your questions in there rather than just in the main chat because that helps me keep track of or us keep track of what's been answered and what we still have yet to, um, tackle. Other than that, feel free to jump into the chat, say hello, introduce yourselves, uh, let us know what studio you work at or own and where you're coming from. It helps us with context too so we know who we're speaking to right now and where the questions are coming from. Hello, Beth. Hi, guys. And, Joshua, without further ado, I'll turn it over to you.

Joshus Poole:
Oh, thank you, and thank you for the lovely introduction. It's it's great to be here hosting a first webinar, uh, which I assume will be many more first of many. So, um, so everyone, uh, really grateful to see you all here today. Uh, we're gonna have some great conversations. Um, I am a big believer that webinars are not just me espousing information at you. Uh, so we're so go ahead and make sure that you have your wallet dashboard already up, uh, because we are actually gonna take some time for some working session, um, so that you have time to go ahead and do some of the things we're talking about today. Um, and I also I see people popping in saying where they're from. I also love to ask, uh, Beth, I'm selling it from you, uh, because I learned it from you. Uh, what is everyone drinking right now? Uh, so, like, are you drinking water, tea, coffee? I mean, we're all coming all over the where I I have another Celsius. Uh, that's my bad addiction, uh, and everything. But, uh, yeah. So, uh, so pop into the chat what you're what you're having to drink right now. But, um, a little bit about me. So I've been with WALLA for a month now. Uh, hard to believe it's gone by like that, but, uh, I've been in the fitness industry for over ten years. Uh, I started off as a part time front desk associate at a gym in Washington, DC. I was a poor graduate student, and I wanted to save some money. So I was like, you know what? I'll just work eight hours a week, uh, get a free gym membership, and that's gonna be it. Um, and then it turned into a career, which is not what I was expecting for for my life. Um, I will say that that experience did cut my teeth, though. It's kind of what led me into where how I manage studios. So I ended up working my way up into management a month before the pandemic. So I'm 29 years old, uh, running a boutique studio in Washington, DC, and then the world shuts down. Um, and then although beset by all those challenges, I was able to increase revenue by an average of 15% month over month. Um, and then 2021, I moved over to Solid Core where I was the regional manager for the state of Maryland. I oversaw four studios, a team of 34. And in, uh, the year that I worked there, I led my team to increase regional revenue by 40% and memberships by 54%. And then before Walla, I was with a boutique consulting firm, uh, as a business coach and worked with countless studio owners. Some of you I may know because you utilize Walla, uh, and really helping them implement processes and systems streamline operations, uh, to increase revenue. And now I'm doing the same thing here at Walla, uh, just more so on how to utilize Walla so it adapts to, uh, helping you achieve these goals, which we'll be definitely be talking about today, especially with the release of the AI dashboards. Now today, you know, really, my goal is to help you reprioritize your studio strategy using Wallace brand new AI tools. Um, this way you never have to guess what to do, uh, with the data. Um, you know, I don't know if many of you saw the video, but I'm kinda like, okay. This is great, but what do I do with it? So we're gonna cover the three pillars of high performance growth. So how to set your goals, take action, and use your dashboard as your studio's ultimate growth compass. And so by the end of this webinar, you're gonna walk away with a clear understanding how to use Wallace AI's insights to achieve your goals, plus a coach to prove road map to help you thrive. So I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen, and we're gonna hop into the nitty gritty stuff of all of this. Alright. So first and foremost, I I kinda already talked about that. So the three pillars, understanding of the industry benchmarks, uh, and Wallace slash my recommendations, uh, clear understanding of how to use Wallace AI insights to achieve business goals, and then the coach approved road map to help your studio thrive. So I'm gonna throw it back to Laura for a quick second, uh, to explain the why behind all of it, and then we'll hop into some more information.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. So I alluded to this a little bit in the last webinar, um, but I wanted to underscore the why behind what we're doing here in the software and the direction that we're taking this. Um, you know, over countless conversations and data industry reports coming out about profitability in our industry and the explosive nature of boutique fitness right now. I understand that we're in competitive landscapes, and there are a lot of business owners who have been able to get by doing things the way they've always done them for a long time. But what's happening and what we're seeing across the board is that studios are still struggling with profitability. So there are a lot of kind of what we call vanity metrics out there, like revenue, um, maybe it's social media followers, things that may on the surface look like they are absolutely winning for the business. But there are underlying metrics that really do influence how much money you're taking home every day as an owner. And, frankly, I just it felt unacceptable to us to sit back and do nothing but keep building reports that you had to go search through all the time to try and figure out what the answers are. So what we came up with in the direction you'll see here is that we want to help you create goals for yourself and your business that are moving the needle towards profitability. And then rather than having to go in and, you know, run 20 reports and then put them into an Excel spreadsheet every month or every quarter, you'll be able to have that data presented to you and measuring you up against your goals every time you open the software. So the the hope here is that not only are you going to be able to see that information, but the AI coach will give you guidance on specifically what metrics need the most attention, where you're doing great, where you can kind of high five yourself and say, awesome. We've got a system that's working, and then where to dial in your attention and use folks like Josh and some of our partners in the industry to really make sure that you're you're taking action that's needed to move the needle. Awesome.

Joshus Poole:
Yeah. Alright. Well, let's hop into it. So, uh, we're gonna talk, uh, setting goals. So the coach approved way of smart business goals. Um, so, um, I'm sure many of you, you know, are already asking clients in your industry or in your business what are what are your goals. And I'm sure many times you've heard people say, I wanna be healthy. That's a goal. But we wanna get a little bit more specific so we really know how to, uh, help them achieve their goal. And it's the same thing with business goals. So when we go about setting our goals, I I'm I would love to know just pop in the chat if you've ever heard of a SMART goal. Um, this is an acronym, um, for really setting goals that, um, are you're able to achieve and accomplish. So, uh, SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. Um, so, really, you know, when you go to be thinking about the goals that you're gonna set, um, and the for the AI dash boards. This is stuff that I would keep in mind, um, as you go through this. Just like you would with any of your clients that come through your door, you know, if they say you wanna be healthy, okay. What does that look like to you? So getting really specific, really getting to understand all of those aspects. Now the other thing too, uh, a lot of times we're like, well, I want to increase revenue by 10%. That's great. But my suggestion is always work backwards from the desired result. So where do you want to take the business? And I know it may seem, uh, counterintuitive, but think about five to ten years from now. Um, where do you really wanna take this business? Do you want to franchise? Do you want to open up additional locations? Do you want to do all the what what is your long term goal? By understanding your long term goal, you're then able to set the benchmarks and the milestones along the way to achieve those goals. So always think about the desired result. And if you don't have a five to ten year plan, that's okay. Just think about what is it that I'm trying to accomplish. So one of my examples, um, I'm gonna give is, let's say your goal is that you would like to achieve 10 new members on autopay memberships every month. So in order to achieve this, you need to step the steps to achieve these goals would be based on conversion rates. So if I convert 50% of my intro offers, this means I need to sell 20 intro offers each month. And if you're converting 50% of your leads into intro offers, that means you need 40 leads per month. So you're going to the end result and working backwards to understand how you're going to achieve that goal. Um, so always keep that in mind as you're setting your goals. Good, better, and best. Um, this is a a way of thinking about what do you feel you can absolutely achieve. Like, what would you what would make you celebrate? So if if, you know, 10 new members every month is is your goal and that's what makes you celebrate, that's a good goal. And then maybe you go, okay. But it would be better if I could do 15. But the best case scenario would be 20. We're called these stretch goals. So this is, um, by having a good, better, best goal, it's a way of if you hit the goal that you won't, you have somewhere to keep pushing yourself, um, and really keep trying to move that needle forward. Um, and, you know, of course, if you get the good, better and best, that's just the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae here. Uh, so, uh, when so as we think about these, uh, goal settings, which we'll go over here in a second, think about the like, really setting good, better, and best goals. You don't have to just set one goal, set a stretch goal. Um, and goals can change. Right now, you know, um, we'll go over the industry benchmarks, but, you know, one of the things is, like, really striving for a 20 to 30% profit margin every month. That may seem unrealistic at this time, and that's okay. Maybe you aim for 10%. And you hit 10% for a few months, and you're like, okay. I'm ready to change my goal and try to strive for 15%. You know, we can we can sell we can change our goals at any point when we feel we're in a space where we can hit that next level. And one thing that I will say, though, when you do change your goals, take the time to celebrate. Don't move the goalpost and go because what happens then is and and I'm guilty of this. I will acknowledge that. Sometimes you set a goal and then you get to that goal, and then by the time you get there, you've already moved the goal further along, and you don't sit in that celebration and in that accomplishment. And what it is is it's that idea of, like, I'll be happy when x happens. I'll be happy when this happens. Set a goal, achieve the goal, celebrate, then change your goal, um, because celebration of goals is very important to mental health and, uh, making sure you don't lead into burnout, um, and all of that. And then the last little bit here, um, you see the tortoise and the hare there. Uh, I love stories. They they are they are what make us human and help us connect, but slow and steady wins their race. Um, I will we'll talk a little bit more, uh, in the, uh, a little bit, but, uh, about long term versus short term gains. Um, so so let's go on in. I'm gonna cover the industry benchmarks here. Um, so understand that these are, you know, things that I advise people on. Um, it's my recommendations, Wallace's recommendations, a little bit of, like, um, just kind of where you should be aiming to. So this is the ultimate best solution for your studio. So as you will see in the goal setting section of Walla, you're gonna have your financial goals, your lead goals, client goals, and class goals. So with financial goals, of course, as Laura said, you know, you wanna make sure that we're keeping track of your expenses in there because that's gonna help you understand your profit margins and then also will help you understand if maybe you need to cut back your expenses. But from a monthly recurring revenue standpoint, uh, I advise that you try to have at least 70% of your total revenue coming from monthly recurring revenue. And the reason being is because your monthly recurring revenue is your accounts receivable. So if you were to ever want if you ever needed a loan, if you were ever looking for someone to look by your studio, if you were looking to expand, this is the money that the investors, the banks, they're gonna want to see, um, because that is how they determine what is the worth of your studio because that is your accounts receivable. Um, in addition to that 70% of your total revenue, autopay is directly correlated to profitability. Um, you are able then to determine how many classes you can run on your schedule, how you pay your instructors, what your expenses can be. Um, you know, one of the things, um, there's a a business philosophy called Profit First, um, and there's a book out there. You can check it out. It's basically, you know, a a quick summary of it is a lot of people see business models as revenue minus expenses equals excuse me. Yes. Revenue minus expenses equals profit. What Profit First says is profit. So what you want to bring in all the time minus your expenses equals your revenue. So it puts the profit first. Um, and so when we think about your business as a pie chart, 30% payroll, 30% overhead, 30% profit, 10% that can move to any of the other pieces of the pie. Nine times out of 10, it's the overhead expenses. One thing, and I'll move on because I'm I'm keeping an eye on time, Laura. Uh, Your profit, uh, the payroll, that is your services rendered. So classes taught, front desk. Payroll that is administrative work goes into your overhead expenses. So, uh, 30% of the 70% of this revenue is what you should be allocating towards your classes is rendered. Now cash in, this is gonna be studio specific. So, um, aim for about five to 10% growth year over year and then divide by 12. That will help you understand how to, um, how much growth you need to have each month. Um, and then the net cash in, you're gonna subtract the percent you typically see in monthly refunds. Um, so, uh, yeah, that's right. Sorry. I had a brain fart there. Laura, can you help me out with that one? I have a brain fart.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Well, net cash in, you're really looking at how much has come in minus any refunds and, obviously, sales tax. So this is this is how much money actually makes it in T Mobile.

Joshus Poole:
Got it. That's right. Uh, and then free cash based on your profit margin goal, take the profit percentage of the net cash in. So this is where you're looking at trying to get your, uh, to understand what your profit margin is. And then the profit margin, uh, this fight you know, again, 15 to 30%. If you can get to 20 to 30, um, every month, you're you're having a sustainable business.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah.

Joshus Poole:
Um, but if that's too far off right now, start off with 10. Start off with 15. Um, you know, you're gonna know what's gonna feel right for you when you go in setting these goals. Um, and I'll I'll stop here. When we go into working on these goals, understand that you do not have to have a goal for all of these at this moment. This can be very overwhelming, um, if this is something that is new to you. So if you have questions on, like, which ones should you prioritize, I definitely can give you some advice on that. Um, so understand this these are things that just as you continue to use the goals and everything to continue to, you know, start off small, and then we can add more down the road. Uh, lead goals, leads created is gonna be based on how many members you need per month. Um, so, uh, typically, your, um, a good conversion rate of lead into, uh, or intro into membership is about 50%. That's that's what I would say really try to aim for. Um, Um, and that's really gonna come down to your automations, your journeys, your personal touch points, um, again, because that intro offer is your goal to get to know them and for them to get to know you. Um, now the in terms of lead into intro, uh, you're gonna try to aim between 30 to 50%. Um, if you're around 40, you're doing well. Your prepurchase path is working. Your outreach is working. It that is the hardest conversion rate you will ever face in your business because you have not met those individuals yet. You just have a name, an email address, and a phone number. Um, where the magic really starts to work is when you actually get them in person. That's where the magic works. That's where you have more control. Uh, lead to first visit, of course, um, this is, uh, 60 to 70%. So what this means is this is someone who buys an intro offer and is is coming in. So you you wanna make sure that anyone who buys an intro offer is really coming in and utilizing the intro offer. So try to aim, you know, at least 60 to 70% of that. And then average lead response time. This is how, um, this is how long it takes for you to physically contact a new lead. No less no more than twenty four hours. Ideally, you're doing it as soon you know, within two hours. Um, you know, obviously, you'll hopefully, you have automation set up so they're at least getting some type of text communication. But what this is referring to is your actual picking up the phone and calling them and and getting and getting in touch with them. Um, the the when they come in, they are the hottest they are ever gonna be, and you need to be able to capitalize on that. As we go through the the next couple of days, they they start to cool off, and you have two weeks, fourteen days, to get them into your studio. After fourteen days, it drastically decreases the chances of them coming in. So, um, so that's what that goal is for. Client goals, uh, active members, aim for your breakeven value. That's how many members you need in order to cover all of your expenses. So that way, any members you sell after that turns into profit. So that's how you justify what your expenses can be. Retention, uh, 90%. Um, so this is how many, uh, clients we were retaining. Um, there's so if we look at the opposite side of it, churn, attrition, there is no industry benchmark for us, uh, about what is a good churn, what is good attrition. My advice is it needs to be below 10%. If you're noticing every month that you're around 5% attrition, alarm bells shouldn't be going off, and it should be saying, hey. Something's not working or we don't have a system in place. Now if your if your churn is going a lot right now, like, again, set a realistic goal for you right now and just know that these goals are just kind of like what you need to be working towards. Average member value, take your highest plan versus your lowest plan, um, for to figure out what is the average, uh, a client or a member is paying every month. And then average visits per member, aim for between eight to 12 classes a month. So that would be two times a week or three times a week.

Laura Munkholm:
Just so you know, like, calling these out, these are, like, best case scenario. Right? So Yeah. Eight to 12 visits is insanely high. And and for those of you that have measured this in the past, like, I I would say the average yoga studio, for example, unlimited members, it's somewhere between five and six visits. So the reason we're giving some of these goals is we really want you to be thinking about again, we talked about good, better, best. We're giving you some best case scenario ones. So again, like, we you can play with these, you can look at what you've got once the dashboards are gonna be turning on for everybody, I believe, next week, so you'll have a really clear picture there. Um, but, anyway, I just wanted to make sure everybody knows. Don't worry. You're not a failure if you don't have these goals or these numbers right now. Yep.

Joshus Poole:
This is and thank you for stating that because this is this is the best case scenario. And, uh, I see the question from Hannah. So, Hannah, uh, attrition. That is how many members you're losing, uh, every every, uh, month. Um, and so when I say 5%, that would be if you were to take the number of members, um, that are on a membership plan, um, and figure out how many you're losing, that would give you a percentage of what is the attrition percentage. And so you wanna keep that at below 10%. Um, but if we but 5%, if it's happening if you see if it's it's lower than 5%, keep it up. Once it gets to 5%, I always kinda like, hey. Something's not working. Let's try to get that number. You wanna keep that number as low as you possibly can. Yeah. Um, but there's always gonna be attrition. That's that's just the nature of of a business, fortunately. Um, and then class goals. Average fill rate, again, this is best case scenario. This is all of your classes, uh, combined, a 75 to 80%. If you're going over 80%, that means you're leaving money on the table. Um, that means that there's opportunity to add classes, uh, add capacity. It could also mean that it might be time for you to consider moving to a new location or opening up additional location, um, because that that is showing you, you know, you don't want I know this sounds weird. You don't want a 100% utilization in your studio, uh, because then you have no room to grow. Um, so 75 to 80% is what you should be aiming for. And then the no show rate, um, I I would say you want about 10 to 15%. Um, you know, that like, again, there's not really a metric for us to track on on that. This but this comes back more to retention efforts. If if you have a high no show rate, then that means that people are not seeing the value in your business. Um, Although they're paying you ex hopefully, they're paying you extra money for not showing up. Uh, but try to keep it around ten to 15% so that you really are, you know, engaging with those clients and making sure that they stay connected with your community. So now is the work session. Uh, we're gonna take about five, ten minutes, uh, to kinda, um, for you to your opportunity to kinda go in, uh, and start setting these goals. I'm gonna let Laura share her screen now, um, and so you can see what the the dashboard will look like, what the goal setting thing will look like, um, and then just go ahead and start. And if you have questions, you can pop them into the q and a, and I'm happy to answer them.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Alright, guys. So what you'll be seeing within the performance section of the software is going to look a little bit like this. For those of you that were on the the meeting, uh, last week or the webinar last week, you've seen all of this already. But I'm encouraging you as you're working, it doesn't have to be in your software, obviously, because not this isn't all on for everyone, but, um, this is where you can start kind of jotting down the goals that you do want to set and maybe even looking at some of the reports you have now. So first things first, I think, um, as you're going into your financial dashboard, the first thing I'm going to encourage everybody to do is to add their expenses. Excuse me. Sorry. Um, so if you are a person who loves diving into your QuickBooks and looking at this anyway, maybe taking some time either now over the next week to jot down your expenses and look at it month by month because I know, you know, you may have months where your utilities are significantly higher because you're using a lot more heat or air conditioning or your payroll is significantly lower because you take some of your classes off the schedule in the summer. But, ultimately, what we're going to be shooting for here is getting, you know, all of these dialed into different categories and saying, okay. You know, marketing at if you're a multilocation business, you'll select your location, but marketing at, let's say, my Fire and Flow location at Yorktown, um, is you can do this month to month or you can do it, uh, all every month. So I know for sure I have a $1,500 marketing budget every week every month. That's what I spend. That's what I plan. That's how we work. Um, but, for example, my payroll, I'd like to do that monthly. So I know my January through June payroll is, you know, let's say, 10,000, and I'm gonna do that on all of these. And then when I get to June, that drops down to 8,500 for June, July, August because I canceled some of our classes during the summer. And then back to September, October, I'm 10,000 again through the end of the year. So when I add those expenses in, if you've got multiple locations, it's always going to total your expenses here, so it's gonna be for everything, um, together. And then when I go into my expense chart here, I'll have an expense breakdown of payroll, marketing, other, utilities, rent. So I know very clearly how much I'm spending on each thing. And then the financial dashboard will only work if you have your expenses added in because it everything from remaining free cash to profit margins is focused around whether or not your expenses are in here and in here for each goal. Um, okay. So some of the other goals that we were talking about, I know, you know, in wallet, traditionally, we haven't have a had a massive focus on lead related goals. This is something we've seen just industry wide as, you know, essentially, with businesses spending more money on paid social, unpaid, um, um, search, and really trying to understand how many people are coming in from a email, phone number perspective into their system, we need to be tracking this with laser focus. So now if you want to look at, like, new accounts created, you can go into your audiences and say, um, I I did this the other day with a client to just say, hey. Here's a great way to see, you know, last month how many leads you had come in or this month how many leads you had come in. You can always create an audience to check this out. And let's say new leads last month. We can say, um, test here. And I'm gonna create a condition saying, uh, record creation date was between an including, and then I can sit go in and say, I wanna look at October 1 through October 31. I don't need you anymore. And then this is very quickly gonna show me any date range that you want to, um, how many folks came in during that time. So that's a really easy audience to build. You can then edit it and go back and just see if there are any anomalies. But for me, it was 27 contacts that came in last month. So as Josh said, it's very it's going to become very apparent as you're building these goals if they're actually gonna get you to the big goal, which is your revenue or your profit. Um, so if you know you need to add 10 new members a month, and that means, you know, maybe you've got a 30% conversion from intro to membership and, you know, you're trying to get a 100 or 10 new a month, you've got a 100 now, You've got to bring in way more than 27 contacts every month in order to accomplish that goal. So working backwards from there. Um, I'll pause right now. Let me just pop back into your your slides to make sure there are no questions. Okay. Awesome. Just show of hands or, like, thumbs up or, uh, in the chat, how many of you are using audiences regularly right now in WALLA? Yeah. Thumbs up. Love them. Awesome. Great. Yeah. This is I think, for me, if I were getting started in setting some of these goals, I would not only lean on our reports, but to get incredibly specific on certain folks, I would leverage audiences just to give myself an idea of some of those those detailed numbers. Um, I will say some of these are gonna be very obvious in our current goals or I'm sorry, in our current report center. So, for example, if you want to look at your intro offer conversion rate, um, we can do this over as broad a period as you'd like. My one month is my most common here. But let's say, you know, this year I want to see how I've been doing in my conversion rate. I sold 98. I still have 15 active, so they haven't converted yet. But this year, so far, I'm at a 25% conversion rate. And if I really wanna look at, like, what the per like, how much is actually monthly recurring revenue, I'm gonna have to look at the the types that are recurring, actually. So my monthly unlimited, my eight class a month, um, and my four class pack. So I'm gonna have you know, it's it's actually significantly less than 25% are moving into actual membership. So these are these are reports that you can kind of look at the state of the state where you are right now and then be able to decide, okay, you know, where do I wanna move from here? What what's gonna help me get to that profit goal or that revenue goal? Same thing with classes, if you want to look at your class analysis, you've got a really nice summary over any period of time here. You can see how many uh, total class actually, I'm gonna take you into a different report for utilization. I'm sorry. Um, so you can look at over the last week in our utilization report. You can very quickly see your utilization week over week and get a really nice picture here of are you hitting those goals, or do you you know, how far off are you from maybe that sixty, seventy, 75, 80% goal. So we can see kinda quickly here if I do last six months, I've got a lot of work to do. So this is obviously demo data. Hopefully, you've got some greens in here if you're Maybe

Joshus Poole:
some yellows. Maybe some yellows. Yeah. I've is good too.

Laura Munkholm:
So we're we're really trying to look at not just, you know obviously, where you are now is a good starting point, but where you wanna go from there.

Joshus Poole:
Yeah.

Laura Munkholm:
And like Josh said, if you are above 80% or at 80%, there's an opportunity to raise prices, there's an opportunity to add classes, there's an opportunity to expand your space, whatever it might be, but it's a great sign that there is money being left on the table.

Joshus Poole:
Yeah. And I'll give I'll, uh, I'll give some coach tips. Um, what uh, if if you if and when you ever have the opportunity to work with me, uh, uh, I I like to look at three months of data. Mhmm. I I I like the more data you have, the better story it tells, uh, and you can kinda see the trends. Um, and, um, in terms of utilization, something I learned, um, if if a class is at a 100% capacity with a wait list for three or four weeks in a row, that is an indication that you need to add another class. Now it's probably gonna pull some of the people out of one class into the other, um, but at least now the people on the wait list can get into the class. People can get into another class, and so you're able to bring in, um, the price per session, uh, for each class, uh, which will go a long way. Uh, so so those are some things to think about. Um, you know, I mean, you know, when it comes to, like, finances, expenses, um, intro offers, sales, those types of things, definitely be looking at a longer data just to kinda see, like, what is the story telling me. Um, and then, you know, with other things, you can look at it on a much shorter thing to see, like, is there an opportunity to add another class? Can we add another class and those types of things? Yeah. So awesome. Well, I'm gonna

Laura Munkholm:
One thing I was gonna say, the majority a a lot of these data points you're going to be able to find in your KPI report. So this is, like, for example, what percentage of your total revenue is recurring revenue, like Josh was talking about before. You'll also be able to go in and see here, um, accounts created. This is gonna be your leads, and, also, you can see how many intro off so what percent moved to intro offer, and then, again, what percent of those moved to autopay. So this is kind of the summary view. I just like to give visuals and context. That's why I like going into our more detailed reports to see to see some of the details behind these numbers. But as you're setting the goals for yourself, this is gonna be probably the first place to start is your KPI report.

Joshus Poole:
Yep.

Laura Munkholm:
Alright. Go for it.

Joshus Poole:
Cool. Alright. Well, let's let's talk next about, uh, what do we do once, uh, once we have these goals and the dashboards are working, you know, taking action. So the coach approved way of knowing how to translate the data into action. So always ask the question, what is the data trying to tell me? Um, you know, I I am a big believer, I mean, on self reflection, just like your business just like in personal life, you have to reflect on your business. So what is the data? What is the story the data is trying to tell me? Are we are we converting so I'll I'll give an example. Um, if if your intro offer if your goal is to do 50% of a conversion rate, but your data is showing that the last two months, you've been converting at 30%, you should be asking, okay. Why are we not at that 50%? What is not working? Is it the automations? Is there is there a disconnect on that? Um, is is it the messaging? Is someone not doing their job? Uh, you know, really digging deep to find the root problem of why we're not hitting the goals that we need to hit. Um, so that that is asking, what is it trying to tell me? So just digging in deeper and trying to figure out the under the the the root of the issue so that you can address it, solve it, and start moving forward, and that is the taking of the action. Now if you are on track and or breaking your goals, keep going. Uh, that mean like, if if the AI dashboard is like, hey. You're doing really well here and all, you know, all of these things, you're on track, keep going. Uh, that might be an opportunity for you to push yourself to go for your better for your best goals. You know, that means that your whatever you're doing is working. Um, and then one of the things that I will always say, running a business is an experiment. Um, And, you know, uh, I'm I'm gonna get ahead of myself here. I got I've, you know, I've got if behind use the wall AI recommendations, but we're gonna jump down two bullets. Don't be afraid to fail. Uh, and I have capitalized fail, uh, because, uh, uh, it is actually a, uh, core value of Amazon, and it's an acronym. It's a first attempt in learning. Um, and that's what I want to empower you all when it comes to your business. Like, if you if if we fail, if something doesn't work, it's okay to grieve and be like, uh, like, have that letdown moment. But then look at it and go, what did we do wrong? What can we learn from this? Your mistakes or failures do not define you. They but what defines you is what you do after the fact. Um, so be willing to take risks. Uh, do something new. Think outside of the box. Um, I mean, one of the ways I'll I'll share an example. One of the ways that I was able to continue to increase revenue by an average of 15% at Sweptbox during the pandemic was because we suffered another shutdown in November right before Thanksgiving. And within twenty four hours, I moved an entire studio outside, and we were outside in Washington DC from November until March 2021. And people were coming out, working out in the snow, working out in the sleep. I mean, we had a covered awning and everything, but all bundled up, and people today still talk about that. So that is, like, don't be afraid to take risks. And that you know, going back, if if we're behind, use Wallace AI recommendations. So it's going to it's going to tell you, okay. You're doing well here. Keep it up. Keep going here. Here's where you need to focus a little bit work. Consider x y z. Take that into account. Um, so, you know, uh, some questions to help you determine, um, you know, what you can dig into deep. Always ask questions. Is it a process or a system that is not working, or are we missing a foundational process? Or have we missed a step? Is there is there a gap? Is someone not following through with their responsibilities? Should I invest more in marketing, focus on digital and or grassroots marketing, or should I plan a member engagement event? So these are like, ask these questions. Look at the data. Be specific. So if it's a lead thing, go why are we not getting enough leads? Are we doing pay are we doing paid advertising? Is our paid advertising working? Are we getting the return on investment? If not, scrap it. Restart. Try to do something new. Mhmm. Um, so this is when you take those AI recommendations, really, you know, take it into account. And the best part is there's a little sec little box up at the top that says let WALLA help. Uh, and if you have any questions, uh, pop it in there. It comes directly to me, and I'll be happy to hop on a quick call with you. I'll be happy to send you a Loom video of of what I would recommend you focusing Um, but understand that, like, this is here to really help you take this data and say, here's your next steps. And if you're like, I still don't know where to start, reach out to me. That's why I'm here. Uh, and I love talking and helping people out. Like, that is lights me up. Uh, and in term yeah.

Laura Munkholm:
Go ahead. Thing I wanted to throw in there, guys. I think it's easy when you have tons of data in front of you to get overwhelmed by it and to feel paralyzed. Like, how do I even ask myself the question of what is this data trying to tell me? It's too much. And so the the the advice I like to give and just the way I do it when it starts when I start getting overwhelmed by data is focus on three. You know? Like and like Josh said at the beginning, if you need guidance on which three are going to be the most critical for you, the AI tries to focus down into, like, three areas that you can get really laser, you know, dialed in on. And with that, just know you're not alone. Whether it's Josh, whether it's our Facebook community, whether it's another studio owner that's, you know, living through the same thing, it's really easy to get, um, you know, kind of we've seen our business through the same lens through for a long time, and an outside perspective can be tremendously helpful, even if it just makes you think a different way about one specific problem. So I encourage all of you to lean on community, lean on these support systems that we're offering. Even if it is just AI, AI can be pretty cool, um, But there are plenty of humans that are around you as well that want to be of assistance.

Joshus Poole:
Yeah. And, uh, one other thing I'll add too, and this is some free advice. One you know, in this industry, um, especially if you're an owner operator, this industry can be very reactive. You're so caught up in the day to day operations. You're caught up in the weeds. Um, you're con you know, you're putting out small fires, and that over time, that is not sustainable. That's that's gonna lead to burnout. That it's not gonna help the studio grow. So one thing that I, um, always advise, set time aside weekly that is uninterrupted time. Um, I recommend three hours a week. You can do it as three one hour blocks or two ninety minute blocks, whatever you wanna do, but where you work on your business strategically. So rather than dealing with the client emails or, you know, the check ins or teaching classes, you have uninterrupted time where you're thinking about the future of your business. And this is where you get to start being a little bit more proactive, um, with your business. And this helps you really set clear deadlines for yourself, for your team. Um, you know, I know we're it we're November 6, and we're in q four. But every you know, where you should be thinking about now is q one. We should be going ahead and thinking about what are we gonna do for marketing? What is our what is our social media content gonna be? What is, uh, uh, what member engagement activities are we gonna do? What workshops? Being ahead, and it doesn't have to be fully fleshed out, but having a plan. And this kinda goes back to working backwards. What are your goals? Having that plan is going to help you give yourself enough time to accomplish everything that you need to accomplish so that when you get to those quarters when you get to q one, all it is is you just hit a button, and it's done. And you're already thinking about q two. So, um, just some some tips on that. Um, and then also with taking action, uh, long term gains versus short term. Um, always think about the long game. I, um, I I'm a big believer. There's a book, Unreasonable Hospitality. It's about the food and beverage industry. Uh, but one of the things he talks about is, you know, some businesses focus solely on the bottom line. When we focus solely on the bottom line, the people suffer. Some businesses solely focus on people. When we solely focus on people, the bottom line suffers. His recommendation, you gotta find that balance. And when you go to make decisions, you need to think about the long term action rather than the short term because the long term action is going to play out for you much longer than the short term. So always keep in long term gains versus short term. And, um, I have a quote here. Uh, this kinda goes back to being don't be afraid to fail. Thomas Edison once said, I never once failed at making a light bulb. I just found out 99 ways not to make one. So learn learn from the mistakes. Learn from the failures. It's not a failure. You just learn that that doesn't work for your business, and that's okay. Uh, keep that open mind. Be creative. Think outside the box. And then growth compass. So the coach approved way of using the data for scaling. So how often should you be looking at these numbers and really checking and making sure that you're on track for your goals? So your lead conversion and client goals, I would recommend every week, preferably on Monday. Um, I the this is really these conversion rates, your client goals, that is that's that is the we gotta stay on top of that every week. We gotta know where our conversion rates is. We gotta make sure that our processes are working, all of that. The reason I say on Monday, I see businesses running from Monday through Sunday. And so however you see the cycle of your business, um, you know, uh, that's the first day you should be looking at the prior week's data to see how your business is performing in those areas. From financials, um, every week and at the end of each month, um, you know, making you know, financials, uh, I really recommend, um, that, you know, at the end of each month, uh, just to kinda make sure that you know, okay. Like, where can I cut back expenses? Um, where, you know, where did we overspend? Um, if you're off from your goals, ask why. You can also keep it on a weekly basis, um, because I know things come up. So this might also help you in knowing, like, should you be canceling your class? Should, like, should we pull? That way we can decrease some some of the payroll expenses. And then, uh, your class goals every month, uh, and reassess every quarter. Um, so we all know that there is a cycle of our business, uh, in the fitness industry. I recommend the coach tip, change your schedule every quarter based on your cycle. So if you know that, um, July, August, and September are gonna be very low months because it's summer and people are going to be traveling and there's not gonna be a lot of people. Don't have as many classes on the schedule. Uh, same thing with the holidays. Uh, you know, build up your schedule, but be willing you know, like, you can make the changes. And, again, like I said, keep an eye on it, uh, every month just to kinda see, like, what's working, what's not, and make decisions in real time. Um, and that's gonna help you move the needle forward. Um, the last thing that I I meant to say earlier, but when you go in to set these goals, you'll see that you're able to set goals per month. Um, and Laura showed that earlier with the the expenses. So with the goals, you'll be able to set it for per month as well. If this is your first time ever setting goals, really tracking these numbers, tracking KPIs, my recommendation, set your goals for the end of the year, play with the dashboard, get familiar with it, really learn how to use it. And then for 2026, I would recommend that you set goals the same for every month for next year. And understand there's gonna be some months where you're gonna hit your goals. There's gonna be some months where you go over your goals. There might be a few months where you're under your goals, and that's okay. The reason that I'm recommending this is because now you have a year's worth of data, and that's going to help you when you get to 2027 when you set goals for 2027. Because now you'll visually see the cycle of your business, and that will help you determine how to set goals beyond that. So if this is your first time doing something like this, that would be my recommendation. Um, again, the data tells you a story. So, uh, that would be, uh, something that you can consider as you go into the end of the year. Um, so now, uh, question and answer. Uh, we've we've got about nine minutes left, so I'm happy to answer some questions uh, for anything that we've talked about or really just anything that you and when it comes to, uh, running a business in general. I'm happy to even answer some of those. Uh-oh. You're muted.

Laura Munkholm:
Thanks. Feel free to pop those in. And while you guys are typing, I just want to underscore. I really love the idea of having a full year of the same goals set each month because it really will help you show for following years how you need to adjust, I I mean, from a predictability and cash flow perspective. That's where my mind goes. When are the months that you can invest more in the business? When are the months when you can take a vacation? When are the months that you're gonna have, you know, a little have to tighten your belt and save for? So to me, I'm kind of going full circle back to the why at the beginning, profitability, but also predictable profitability and cash flow. I, you know, I just really want to empower all of you to be in a place where you're confident going into each month that there even if there is a surprise expense or even if there is something you weren't counting on, you know exactly where you stand financially because all of this data has been prepared for you. Crystal, what do you recommend for a new studio starting with with no starting capital? In what respect? Like, in a goals? Oh, no capital for paid advertising.

Joshus Poole:
I can take this one. Uh, so, um, and I wanna get back to Deity as well because there's a a question there. So I I see that. We'll get to that. But, uh, the no capital paid advertising, grassroots marketing. Um, one, uh, one thing that I, um, so with you being a new studio, um, you are looking at brand awareness is gonna be your biggest, uh, obstacle, um, and so you gotta get out into the community. So what I would recommend is really think about, um, who is who is your client avatar. So are they women? What are their ages? Are they parents? Are they single? Um, where do they shop? Those types of things and figure out where you need to go so that you're coming in contact with the people you're looking to serve in your community. Um, I recommend tabling events. Um, so tabling events are where you basically have a table, a table cloth, hopefully, with your brand logo on it. If not, it's totally okay. Uh, I've seen it with yoga mats on it before. Uh, but you need to have something that draws them over. And here's the other thing too, pro tip, don't stand behind the table. Tabling event is not for you to stand there and for people to come. It's for you to go out and be in people's faces and get them to come over. Um, so but have something for them that entices them to come over. I've done things where it's like, um, food, wine and champagne, uh, coffee, uh, depending on what time of day you're doing it. Um, you know, and if you really want if you really wanna go the food route, um, find a find a local, uh, restaurant in your area, uh, and ask them if they would be willing, um, to provide some food for your tabling event. Nine times out of 10, they won't charge you anything because you're doing marketing for them. Mhmm. Um, so you can save some money. Uh, the Starbucks, you can go get two of their jugs. I mean, this was in Washington, DC, so, you know, everything in DC is more expensive. Um, but you can take two get two of their coffee jugs, uh, and it was $50. And, really, the other thing too to have is something that gets them to give you their name, email address, and perfect. That is a great place to go. Reach out to the dean of students and see if they have any type of, uh, festival or something like that. That would be a great where where I would recommend. But the have something that gives them their name, email address, and phone number. Yeah. Um, it's

Laura Munkholm:
one thing you can do in Wuala, our lead forms are amazing. So rather than having to get an email address, a name, a phone number outside of Wuala, build a lead form so you can just have an iPad with you at any of these events and anybody who gives you their information, I don't know, gets 50% off something or gets a free something, or you can get partners to donate goods for gifts. Yeah. So it's it's a really streamlined way to have them fill out a quick, literally, like, name, email, phone number, and then you can trigger an automation to those people in Walla to send out a text, to send out an email, or whatever the marketing flow is to encourage them to come to your business. So for all of you listening to this, Walla lead forms are such an easy way to do lead generation when you're out in the community. And they're easy to set up too. Yeah. They take two seconds. We I just had one of our one of our franchise partners was hosting a yoga class at the baseball stadium in their city, and they got hundreds of people to just fill out the Wallow lead forms on their iPad. They had two staff members with iPads standing at their table, and it was to come get, like, access to this free class or this free workshop at the studio. So really, really simple way to do it. Um, let's get to Danny's question before we go back to Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joshus Poole:
Perfect. Yep. Uh, so reports, you should be favoring. Um, I would definitely be looking at your sales report. I would be looking at your monthly recurring revenue. Um, I would also be looking at your intro offers because that intro offer report is phenomenal because it tells you exactly who's getting ready to expire and, you know, all of that. So and helps you with your conversion rates. Um, as Can you please show me

Laura Munkholm:
on screen really quickly? I'll pop into them.

Joshus Poole:
Yep. Yep.

Laura Munkholm:
K. This is I I mean, to start, your KPIs are gonna be great because this has got both the fine all of those a a lot of those reports kind of in one. So this is gonna show you your total sales, what percentage of that is your recurring revenue. Um, this is kind of like the summary version. And if you're a multilocation business, you can see location by location here. Um, but from the operations perspective, this is where you can see how many auto pays or if you count members as autopays depends on how you define a member in your business. You'll see that right here. Um, and then you'll also be able to see, like we said, accounts created, how many of them purchased intro offers, how many of them moved on to autopays in that month, and your conversion percentage. But as as he mentioned from a details perspective, that I would say that rep or, uh, intro offer report is going to be one of your best friends because not only do you see what I showed you before, which was the conversion rates at the bottom, but you can go into the action card and see everybody who's expired, how many times they came in. You can, you know, click in and see the details for Tim Tebow. You can take action and text or email him, but, you know, it gives you context into who they are. So let's say you're reaching out to him. Like, obviously, his two favorite teachers are Andrea and Cara. So how can we get him into Andrea or Cara's classes? So every report in wallet tends to drive you towards action.

Joshus Poole:
Mhmm.

Laura Munkholm:
Anything else? Sorry, David. Or I'm sorry, Josh. I got you.

Joshus Poole:
Um, I think the the only other one, um, to you know, when you, you know, if you wanna look at it would be, um, I I like the monthly recurring revenue. Um, because here you can see how you know, are you are you in that steady growth? You know, ideally, when you think about your business, you want the steady growth for revenue, and you want expenses to kinda stay the same. That's that's the kind of growth trajectory you wanna see. Um, and the I think the other one that I like to look at, uh, let's do the plans. Um, I like to look at the plan gain loss. Um, so this will show you, like, how many new plans. It'll show your retention, um, how many new plans were added, how many plans were lost. Uh, so it it and it shows you based on the positive up at the top, negative at the bottom, um, and then it tells you your net gain. Um, and so, like, that that really helps you understand when it comes to retention. If you're if you're getting 20 new members a month, but you're losing 25 members a month, that's a loss of five members a month. So something is not working. So this is a good way to kinda make sure that you're staying in that, like, net gain of, okay. You gained 10 new members. You gained five new members, um, and really making sure that you keep moving up rather than moving the opposite direction.

Laura Munkholm:
And just to underscore when these dashboards are turned on for you next week, I believe it's next week, um, you don't when you're just, like, thirty seconds, five minutes, whatever you have to look at your business, you're not going to have to go look for reports. The whole point of this is that we're bringing the important ones to you so you can see right away your monthly recurring revenue, how you're doing towards goal. If you wanna click in and go deeper into the data, this will take you into the report if you, you know, if you want to, But we can look very quickly. How is your, um, fill average fill rate right now, your no show rate, uh, what are your peak hours? So when we look at generally, the main metrics that we're gonna tell you, these are the important ones. All of them will be found on these dashboards, so you're not gonna have to go digging for reports all the time.

Joshus Poole:
Yeah. And and that's the great thing about this executive dashboards or, you know, uh, studio performance dashboards, whatever you wanna however you wanna rephrase them, is the AI is working on your behalf. Um, it's it's looking through all of your just like Wallet Predict, where Wallet Predict is looking at trends and things like that to kinda give you an, uh, like, hey. Here's some red flags that you might wanna look into with the AI on the back end of these. Once you set your goals and everything, it's gonna be looking at those reports for you and interpreting the data and saying, hey. Here's some things that you need to be thinking about. So um, so yeah. So, uh, you know, of course, if you need to dig deeper, like Laura said, you can always dig dig a little bit deeper into it. Um, but trust AI is gonna learn for you, and it's gonna give you some great recommendations. Um, And then, Crystal, uh, can you explain more about the capacity of a lead form? Yeah. So if you go into the sales and marketing suite, um, the lead form, it's very simple to set up. Um, and, uh, yeah. Thanks thanks, Bar. Um, it's, um, it really, you just, um, you can create it for Walla, so for your website, uh, for Meta or Google. Um, and then you get to pick, like, do you wanna have a photo attached with it or anything like that? Um, you could attach the photo there, and then down at the bottom is where you fill out, like, okay. What what do you want it what do you want it to be titled? What do you want the call to action be? Um, and then you can select what you want, uh, for them. I always recommend thank you, Laura, for doing that. Always require the phone number. Uh, get that get the phone number, uh, as best you can, uh, because, you know, I'm a big believer that we you gotta be calling people. Um, I know that might be scary at times, but we do work in the industry of people. And believe it or not, people actually like to just talk. Uh, you may not get them, and it may go to voice mail. Leave a voice mail, send a text message, say, hey. We'd love to find a time to chat. But also at the same time, you can, um, if someone if you call and they get upset, that says more about them than it does about you. So don't take it personally. But once you create the lead form, you have this lovely thing. Um, and then, you know, even even with those tabling events, you could create a QR code that leads them directly to your lead form. And, um, that way, you know, you don't necessarily have to have an iPad. They can take their phone, scan your QR code, and then it takes them to a landing page on your website where they can fill out all that information. Um, and so and the great thing too and and she's, uh, she's got it up here at the top. But inline is where you would embed it on your website. Auto pop up is for, um, where it will just automatically pop up. So if, let's say, I'm on your website and I go to your schedule, that will trigger the the system to pop up that lead form. Um, and then the, uh, other one is manual, which means once you take certain actions like, I would have to click on a certain sequence of things in order for it to pop up. Um, so those are those are things that, um, that you can do with the lead form. It's very straightforward and easy to create.

Laura Munkholm:
You just grab the code here, and you pop that onto your it's widget code. So, you know, if you're on Squarespace or whatever website builder, it's just adding in widget code into a block on your page, and then it'll embed.

Joshus Poole:
Awesome.

Laura Munkholm:
Cool. Well, we are a couple minutes over time. Yep. So we're good now.

Joshus Poole:
Yeah. I'm gonna share my screen one more time too. Um, so, uh, last thing is, uh, feel free to email me. Uh, joshua.pool@hellowalla.com. Um, that is you know, you can email me, ask me your questions. Um, you know, happy happy to also find time, uh, uh, when when my schedule permits. And and if I'm not able, uh, and you have a question, I'm I'm really good at sending looms. Um, I'm very I'm very much a video person. Uh, so, uh, feel free, uh, that's my email. Feel free to reach out to me, uh, as we, you know, go into the beginning of the new year and everything, and we'll start from there. But, uh, really thank y'all for your time today. Laura, thank you so much for your support as well, and, uh, we'll, uh, we'll do this again soon.

Laura Munkholm:
Yeah. Thank you, guys. Keep your eyes out for our next follow-upinar. We're gonna be spending quite a bit of time on sales funnels for your new year leads. So we'll have all the details out shortly. Talk to you soon. Bye. Bye bye.

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