We were lucky to catch up with Wendy Wallbridge recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Wendy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers
This entire fünketown adventure has been such a ride for me. Luckily, I haven’t experienced too many negatives being the Studio Director here (except for the recession we find ourselves in at the moment, which is always difficult to navigate when you own a business).
A little bit about me – I am an introvert and very shy by nature, so I have to really force myself to talk to people I don’t know or to take part in a group setting. I am also a pretty anxious person (for a super fun combination) and have been for as long as I can remember. If I had to pick only one positive thing related to our business, it’s experiencing breathwork for the first time. Catherine Cheong, our Wellness Director, is a breathwork facilitator and she holds space for people in the most beautiful way. Every time the class is finished, I have such a feeling of peace and connection to myself that I hardly ever feel. It can be really hard for some people (myself included) to give themselves permission to spend time doing an activity that brings them joy or that helps them relax. Peace and relaxation does not come easily to me, but it’s something I want to keep striving for. It has also been a privilege to witness our clients experiencing the same feeling. I feel so lucky to provide a space for people to come and reconnect with themselves and it is an incredible thing to witness.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My partner (in business and in life for 30 years) Sean and I had an IT company that he started in Victoria in 2003. Sean was working 7 days a week and was available 24/7 to his customers at a moment’s notice, while I was a stay-at-home mom with our two young kids. Needless to say, it was a very busy time in our lives and looking back, we both felt quite disconnected from ourselves and each other.
Sean slowly started to increase our staff and at the beginning of 2018, we had almost 20 employees. As the company expanded and the staff were outgrowing our rental office downtown, we purchased a space in Brentwood Bay for a second office. Through Sean’s hard work, we built a thriving business with two locations. However, in December 2018, everything took a turn when a close friend and colleague abruptly left. We later discovered that their actions over the preceding months had cost our business over six figures.
It was an incredibly difficult time for both of us after what felt like such a personal and professional betrayal, but we came together and tried to pick up the pieces as best we could. Just over a year later, Covid hit and our beautiful Brentwood Bay office was empty for months. Say what you will about Covid, but it sure forced people to take a look at their lives. We were both working for our company but neither of us felt fulfilled by it.
We had both been doing a lot of personal work on ourselves, and one day Sean came up to me and said he wanted to do something different with the empty office. He wanted to have a community space where people could come to get curious – whether that meant with Yoga classes or learning about Human Design (a passion he discovered during Covid)…whatever it was, he wanted to turn our space into something meaningful.
After the initial shock and some reflection on my own life, I realized the two things I was really craving in a career was anything to do with interior design and wanting to be of service to others. Being an introvert, I was more than happy to retreat to my home during Covid, but it had really affected my mental health and my ability to meet new people and not feel like a complete weirdo :) I really wanted a community space for other people like me to gather where we could come and feel cozy and socialize. As it turns out, this once beautiful office space made for an incredible studio!
We started off slowly by selling our desks and office furniture and clearing out the space and then we hired some yoga practitioners to run some classes. In November of 2023 we met Catherine Cheong, an amazing breathwork facilitator and now our Wellness Director. She was walking by our space one day and saw our Fünketown sign and reached out for a meeting. As it turns out, all three of us are Arrested Development nerds (if you’ve seen the show, you’ll know what I’m talking about) and she has been with us ever since.
In addition to movement based yoga classes, we also have somatic classes (they combine traditional yoga with somatic practices to enhance body awareness and deepen the mind-body connection) and breathwork classes. We love providing a place for the community to come together, but we’re also very excited about the events we’ve been hosting. We either host them ourselves or we rent out the space to other people with really cool offerings. As of November starting Monday and Wednesday, we are also hosting a fünke coworking space for people who work from home and crave a little company.
We can’t wait to see what else we come up with as we’re always meeting new people and getting new inspiration in this beautiful place.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
The past 6 years have been full of pivots for us. From changing our careers, to right sizing our house and completely changing how we communicate with each other after 30 years, life has been full of pivots.
I’ve been noticing since we’ve had the studio, there is a real ebb and flow of what people are looking for. Just when you think you have a class figured out that everyone likes, the next week the class will be quiet. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected and dare I say it, I’m even starting to embrace the unknown a little bit…progress!
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
In this day and age, word of mouth (and a strong social media presence) is so important for bringing new people to the business. It’s so exciting and helpful when our clients leave a 5 star reviews on Google! I am definitely a person who will look at reviews before I go somewhere new. I also try to keep our website as up to date as possible and answer any questions that come our way through Instagram or Facebook messenger. We are constantly trying to improve our communication to take away any guesswork on the client’s part. Once the clients are here, it’s important for them to have a good experience in the class or event they’re in and we do everything we can to make that happen.
We tend to post pretty equally between Facebook and Instagram, which seems to bring in the bulk of our how our clientele hears about us and Catherine has been doing Instagram reels, which also helps get our name out there. We also put up the occasional poster when the need arises. We want to appeal to all ages, so that means we have to think of ways to reach a variety of people with a variety of social media skills and interests.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://funkewellness.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/funketownstudios/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/funketownstudios
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Funketown
Image Credits
Catherine Cheong Sean Wallbridge