How Wingspan Discovered a 300% Workload Increase They Didn't Know About

Wingspan Integrated Marketing thought they had a handle on their workload - until ZenPilot’s systems revealed the truth. One client’s scope had quietly expanded by 300% without anyone noticing. The visibility ZenPilot built into their ClickUp workspace surfaced this hidden workload, enabling Wingspan to have informed conversations about scope and scaling their new business intake with confidence.

The Challenge: Growing Faster Than Their Infrastructure

Wingspan, a marketing agency serving senior living, real estate, and restaurant sectors, scaled from managing a few clients to over 300 while maintaining their 20-person team. But operational infrastructure hadn’t kept pace.

Operations Specialist Emily Turi described three interconnected problems. First, lack of systematized processes: “We realized we did a lot of things the same way or similar ways… but putting it into tangible processes where we could say ‘this is exactly what we do’… that didn’t really exist for us.”

Second, inability to handle disruptions - changes in timelines, unexpected client requests, or team absences created cascading problems. Third, being stuck in the present: “We didn’t have the next step always in place. We only had what was in front of us. But when you are a marketing agency, you always have to be one step ahead.”

The Transformation: Templates, Dependencies, and Data

Despite initial hesitation about transitioning platforms, within weeks Emily recognized ClickUp’s potential: “When I started creating my first template, I thought, oh, this is game changing.”

Templates and scaling: Templates enabled Wingspan to onboard 50+ new communities simultaneously without operational strain. Emily compared the emotional difference: before, such an influx triggered panic; after, “my heart doesn’t race a bit. It’s so even keeled.”

Dependencies as workflow clarity: The dependency feature transformed how team members understood their work. Team members would ask: “Where’s my red light? Am I ready for it?” This eliminated constant pinging and interruptions.

Time tracking reveals the truth: Time tracking through ClickUp revealed the 300% workload increase no one had noticed. Importantly, the team framed this positively - recognizing the effort invested in client success, not as surveillance.

Custom dashboards: Team members received filtered views showing only tasks ready for immediate work, preventing overwhelm from seeing months of pending work.

The ZenPilot Coaching Difference

Dedicated coaching from ZenPilot Client Coaches Maggie and Nicole transformed the implementation. Emily noted: “I had a fear going into it that I was gonna be doing it on my own.”

Instead, ZenPilot provided weekly check-ins, personalized guidance, and rapid response. “ZenPilot made us feel like we were their only client… they had us soaring.”

Emily’s advice for others: “Be patient with yourself. You are going to have to live in the mess to see it clean up.”