Luminary Agent is an online marketing firm for realtors, helping them to stay in front of their database without having to worry about generating their own content.
Founder Cody Martens understands that his clients don’t want to have to worry about writing blog posts or creating email campaigns. They have their real jobs to do–like helping their clients buy and sell property. So, he’s developed a hands-off marketing content service to help his clients achieve that as quickly and easily as possible, and in turn, get more referrals.
“ProcessKit is a breeze. Everything’s lined up automatically,” – Cody Martens, LuminaryAgent
Likewise, Martens doesn’t want to have to worry about micromanaging tasks and workflows involved in running his own business…especially since Luminary follows repeat processes for clients.
A better use of his time? Working on big-picture ideas, improving processes (such as blog posting or new team member onboarding), and–let’s be honest–achieving a better work-life balance.
In the following case study, we’ll take a look at how Martens used ProcessKit to help him streamline and automate his productized service business–freeing up mental space, saving time, and making it easier to bring on valuable new team members.
The Big Challenge: Tackling Tedious Work & Streamlining Repeatable Processes
Bringing on a new client with Luminary takes a “lot of bandwidth,” according to Martens.
First, he must gather all necessary assets from the client–including graphics and photos, customer lists, domain names, and of course, login information for multiple accounts.
Martens’ team then sets up a new email marketing account, including creating a theme and email template. Then, of course repeat processes begin: Writing blog posts, creating social media graphics, and deploying email campaigns.
Before using ProcessKit, managing these processes required Martens to do a lot of tedious work. He had to copy and paste task lists from previous clients into new cards, taking up time and increasing the likelihood of error.
And, the process of acquiring new customers and hiring new staff members made it all the more difficult.
“I was having a hard time keeping track of everything,” says Martens. “And I was spending way too much time creating new tasks and processes.”
The result?
Lots of Martens’ valuable “mind share,” consumed by tedium and details instead of big-picture improvements.
To try and manage everything required for work flows, Luminary used to rely solely on Air Table–great for data management, but not ideal for project management. “We were using Air Table for everything. I sort of had to cobble it together to work the way I wanted it to as a task manager,” explains Martens. “It wasn’t super seamless.”
And though Martens tried out a series of project management systems, nothing worked quite the way he wanted it to–until he found ProcessKit, a project management system that streamlines repeatable processes and makes scaling a productized service fast and efficient.
The Solution: Automating Recurring Tasks & Integrating Systems… Without Sacrificing Customization
When Martens discovered ProcessKit, he was intrigued by the tool’s purported ability to not only automate repeatable tasks, but to set dynamic due dates and delegate work to team members. Everything is pre-assigned from a template; in theory, that would mean minimal management on Martens’ end.
But would ProcessKit’s promises pan out?
Automating Processes
When Martens took the plunge with ProcessKit, he gave the tool a try with one feature: automating the workflow he used for social media posts. Using ProcessKit, Martens was able to automate the entire process for every client, including creating a design brief, sending the brief to the designer, approving the post, making edits, and posting.
No longer did he have to copy and paste a new task list involved in the process, and manage each step to make sure the process was done correctly. Everything was done for him.
Integration with Existing Tools
Martens was so happy with his results from using ProcessKit with social media posts that he then began integrating ProcessKit into all ongoing work, including blog posting workflows and new employee onboarding.
The good news? ProcessKit easily integrates via Zapier with tools that Martens still uses for specific purposes, such as Air Table for data management.
“ProcessKit is a breeze. Everything’s lined up automatically,” explains Cody. “When we get a new customer and send them into Air Table, Zapier automatically creates the project in ProcessKit and loads the first process. Once that process is finished, it automatically loads the next.”
Creating Key Customization
ProcessKit not only simplifies and self-manages workflows; it also allows for key customization that Martens needs for specific clients.
By allowing Martens to create a new feature and then retroactively propagate existing task lists with that feature, ProcessKit gives him the ability to continue refining processes.
“ProcessKit’s propagation feature makes it easy to make things more efficient for my team,” says Martens.
Likewise, ProcessKit allows Martens to create tasks using “conditional logic,” creating further customization.
“You can change, edit, and add steps to tasks lists for customers with specific needs, or different subsets of customers,” explains Martens. “It gets very dynamic without becoming complicated.”
In the end, Martens found a tool in ProcessKit that served him in exactly the way he needed it to: creating a system for managing and creating tasks that was simple and automated, yet still highly customizable.
The Results: Freeing Up Time & Mental Space, Reducing Stress, & Easily Onboarding Team Members
Martens was looking for a system that would save him from the minutiae and tedium of manually repeating his own tasks and processes. But what he found in ProcessKit was so much more: a tool that ultimately helped free up his own valuable time and mental energy to devote to the bigger picture of his business.
“ProcessKit has generated more time and space for me to create new processes and to automate and systemize more of what we do,” says Martens. In other words, ProcessKit has given Martens the bandwidth to ideate new processes and workflows that help him to streamline his operation.
Not only has ProcessKit released Martens to pull back from the weeds and focus on growing his business (or getting some much-needed free time); it’s also helped make his life a little less stressful.
“ProcessKit has helped free up a lot of mental space that used to be devoted to making sure everything was working and no balls were getting dropped,” explains Martens. “That’s definitely made me feel less worried and less stressed–and given me more confidence in my team’s ability to get things done.”
That being said, ProcessKit has made life easier and more efficient for Martens and his team members–including incoming staff. ProcessKit has also made it far simpler to onboard new team members to Martens’ quickly growing business.
“We’ve added one new team member every month for the past few months,” says Martens. “ProcessKit has made that extremely easy. We can integrate them into an already existing process and ‘spin them up’ faster.”
The Future is Looking Bright
At the end of the day, ProcessKit has made it easier for Martens to scale Luminary Agent in multiple ways: adding new clients, creating new processes, and hiring new team members. As mentioned above, Martens is using his newfound time and mental real estate to keep improving his business and find new ways to automate and streamline processes.
The final verdict?
“Ultimately, I’ll get to focus more on the growth of the business…and have more of a life!” says Martens.
That being said, the future is looking bright for Luminary Agent and founder Cody Martens–running an efficient, scalable business that can continue to grow, evolve, and bring in more profits.
If you’d like to learn more about how ProcessKit can help you transform your business by freeing up time, space, and mental energy, click here.