Meet a Member: John Mark Wallach, Engagement Mobile Strategies

John Mark Wallach, CEO emeritus of Engagement Mobile Strategies, is an expert and advisor in the association community on innovative mobile technology, strategic planning, and collaborative partnerships. Wallach, who goes by Mark, speaks at industry events and advocates on behalf of ALS organizations. He joined PAR in 2024. Here, Wallach shares how he constantly adapts his company, what he considers associations’ currency, and which revenue strategies help his team win.

Burning Questions

PAR: What’s a recent project or initiative you're especially proud of? 

Wallach: The project I'm most proud of is launching Engagement Mobile Strategies. After my ALS diagnosis in 2021, I continued working in corporate leadership for more than two years. Ironically, those became two of the most productive years of my career because ALS gave me an unexpected gift: focus. It forced me to become intentional about where I spent my time, energy, and attention. 

When I retired in 2023, I thought consulting and writing would be enough. Three months later, I realized I still wanted to build. I had one more entrepreneurial run in me. I recruited a development team I had worked with for more than a decade, providing EMS with subject-matter experts who had the technical depth and delivery capacity our clients would need. That combination allowed us to pair my decades of experience in association technology, leadership, and revenue strategy with the execution capacity to bring those strategies to life. 

What makes the company different is that it was born from constant adaptation. As ALS progressively changed what I could physically do, I found new ways to accomplish the same outcomes. AI became a force multiplier. Accessibility became more than compliance. Personalization became more than marketing. Each represented another way to reduce friction and expand opportunity. 

Today, those lessons shape how we work with associations. We help organizations align technology with strategy by creating personalized digital experiences, improving accessibility, strengthening mobile engagement, and developing new revenue opportunities. Technology is never the objective. Better outcomes are. EMS exists because I believed I still had one more company to build, and every client engagement reflects that same belief in possibility. 

PAR: What’s in your secret sauce for success?

Wallach: My secret sauce is pretty simple: Be useful before you try to sell anything. In the association space, trust is the currency. People want to work with partners who understand their world, respect their constraints, and can help them make better decisions, even if that decision does not immediately lead to a sale. 

I try to approach every conversation with the same mindset: Identify a mutual need, determine whether I can help fill it with excellence, and if I cannot, find someone who can. That philosophy has shaped how I build relationships, partnerships, and opportunities. It also keeps me honest. Not every lead is a fit. Not every project should be forced. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do is connect someone to the right person, the right idea, or the right next step. 

I also believe success comes from translating between strategy and execution. Association leaders often know what outcomes they want, including more revenue, better engagement, improved accessibility, better data, and stronger sponsor value, but they may not know how to connect those outcomes to specific technology choices. My role is often to help bridge that gap. The sauce is part curiosity, part honesty, part persistence, and just enough humor to keep the hard conversations human.

PAR: What is your association's revenue superpower?

Wallach: For many associations, the revenue superpower is already sitting in plain sight: trust. Associations have something most commercial companies spend fortunes trying to build. They have a defined community, a shared professional identity, subject-matter authority, and access to members who are actively trying to solve real problems. That combination is incredibly valuable. Leveraging trust is the differentiator an association can monetize versus competing against the freemium model of the internet. 

Instead of monetizing the trust associations already own, many still default to traditional buckets: dues, conference registration, exhibit booths, sponsorship packages, advertising, and maybe education. Those are important, but the bigger opportunity is to design revenue around member and vendor value. What problems are members trying to solve? Which companies can credibly help them solve those problems? How can the association create structured, trusted opportunities for those groups to connect? 

That is why I am especially interested in models like demo days, sponsored education, mobile engagement, targeted communications, and technology-enabled sponsor visibility. These are not just revenue tactics. Done right, they help members discover solutions, help vendors reach the right audience, and help associations create nondues revenue without compromising trust. 

The best revenue strategies do not feel like selling. They feel like alignment. The association understands its audience, curates the right opportunities, and creates value for everyone involved. That is the superpower.