CASE STUDY: CREATING SYSTEMS THAT SCALE AT HAPPY GIRL MARKETING
Happy Girl Marketing was thriving. The work was good, clients were coming in, and the team was growing.
But Jayci Trujillo, the founder, was holding it all together by sheer force of will.
"It was successful, but it was growing so rapidly it was more like, 'nobody die, everybody strap in please.'"
Client onboarding ate up huge chunks of time. The team had questions. Clients needed things. Every day felt like putting out fires.
"I want to be available when the contractors are working. If they have a question and they're trying to get their work done, I do not want to be the bottleneck there."
The business worked. It just required Jayci to be involved in everything.
She didn't need a rebuild. She needed systems that would let her hand off ownership—so the good things could scale without her being the single point of failure for every decision.
First 90 Days as Strategic Ops Partners
We started with a discovery process—not to fix what was broken, but to document what was already working and identify where Jayci could step back.
Step 1: Documenting the 30-Day Client Onboarding Process
Me: "Walk me through what happens when a client says yes. What's the first thing you do?"
Jayci: "I kick off the onboarding sequence, set up their workspace, check in with the team about capacity, make sure the strategy call is scheduled..."
Me: "And how much of that requires you specifically?"
Jayci: "All of it, right now."
That was the first major insight—her entire 30-day onboarding process was dependent on her, even though much of it didn't need to be.
We documented the entire process, step by step. What we found: an entire week of onboarding tasks that didn't need Jayci's involvement at all.
We built new SOPs and added them to her existing library in ClickUp. Now her Director of Accounts could own significant pieces of onboarding without Jayci being the bottleneck.
"It's been great. I feel safe with this team—a feeling I didn't know I was missing."
The result? Her team became self-sufficient.
"The questions have almost been eliminated. I've gotten zero questions. My life has been very good."
Step 2: Adding Structure for How the Team Works Together
Next, we looked at how Jayci's team was actually collaborating.
Me: "Where do monthly meetings happen? How do you track client strategy reports?"
Jayci: "Honestly, it's kind of scattered right now."
Jayci's ClickUp structure was already solid. We added what was missing: a centralized team hub for monthly meetings and a system for tracking client strategy reports.
Small additions, but they made the daily rhythm significantly smoother.
"The less clicks you have to do, the better. I can see where everybody is and when they're working—it's been really nice. Everything just feels more transparent and organized."
Those additions gave Jayci something bigger: time and trust in her team.
"It's one of those processes that might take two or three clients before it feels second nature, but the process isn't changing. It's solid."
The Results: After 90 Days
The mental load Jayci had been carrying finally lifted.
"The mental load is seriously something that you don't always recognize until it's gone. And I can breathe. Whoa."
The interruptions stopped. The team ran smoothly without needing her input on every decision. She could actually take weekends off.
"Friday, I left at noon. I didn't touch anything until I got back Monday. It has been wonderful."
Her systems finally matched the quality of work her team delivered. And with that structure in place, she could shift focus to what mattered most: bringing in more revenue and scaling the agency she'd been building.
"The team is running really well. There haven't been fires. My number one goal now is to bring in more revenue and increase support in my business."
What This Means for You
If your business has outgrown your systems—and you're the bottleneck holding everything together—there's a better way.
You don't need to burn it down and start over. You need systems that let you hand off ownership so your team can run without you being involved in every detail.
I help growing agencies like Happy Girl Marketing document what's in their founder's head and build the infrastructure that:
✔️ Lets teams own their work
✔️ Reduces interruptions
✔️ Creates space for strategic growth
Ready to stop being the bottleneck? Let's talk.
