How Grizzle Built the Engine of Their Business

Grizzle is a content and growth agency that needed a solid operational foundation. CEO Tom Whatley describes ZenPilot’s work as building “the engine of your business.” The implementation period took two to three months, but once it was complete, everything improved - workload visibility, team clarity, and the ability to scale without chaos.

The Challenge: Outgrowing a Patchwork System

Founded in 2016 as a digital PR agency, Grizzle evolved into an end-to-end B2B content and SEO service provider. With five in-house team members and approximately twelve freelancers, the agency had outgrown its patchwork of spreadsheets and Airtable.

Work was falling through the cracks. Managing team capacity and resource allocation was guesswork. There was no process documentation and no clear framework for onboarding new team members or freelancers. A hybrid Airtable + Asana approach proved insufficient.

DIY ClickUp - 60% of the Way There

Tom discovered ZenPilot’s content on ClickUp implementation and decided to migrate operations independently using publicly available materials. While this effort improved things significantly, Tom recognized limitations: “We could still be doing so much better. There’s something not quite right here.”

After several months with the DIY setup, Tom determined they were “only 60% of the way there” and needed expert help to reach 80-90% optimization. The structured implementation process outlined by ZenPilot felt like “filling in all of the gaps.”

Implementation: Rolling Up Sleeves

ZenPilot coaches Maggie and Nicole guided Grizzle through systematic implementation. Tom emphasized that clear upfront communication about required effort proved crucial: “This is going to be work. We’re going to have to roll up our sleeves.”

The most challenging aspect was ensuring team members - particularly freelancers - consistently used ClickUp and logged time. “Communicating why we’re doing certain things, why we need communication in ClickUp - that was a longer process than expected.”

Having a ClickUp Champion monitor data and identify gaps, without being “militantly” present, helped reinforce new habits across the team.

Results: Visibility, Predictability, and Balance

Macro-level visibility: Grizzle achieved unprecedented visibility into agency operations through time logging data and workload capacity views. “That high level macro view… that’s not something that we got in Asana or Airtable back in the day.”

Smoother client onboarding: Processes became significantly more efficient, and freelancers frequently complimented “how well structured our processes are.”

Workload management: The ClickUp workload view enabled daily capacity tracking. “You can see at what capacity they’re at… if she’s underutilized on a given week… we can reallocate some client tasks.”

Forecasting and predictability: With documented processes, Grizzle could determine staffing needs accurately and plan for growth in 2024 and beyond.

Balanced team culture: The system ensures equitable work distribution, creating “a culture of: we’re not burning our people out.”

“Book the call because it’s enlightening. This isn’t working with an agency or consultancy where they do it all for you. This is the baseline, it’s the foundation, it’s the engine of your business. You’ve got to be involved.”