CookIt Media was looking for a unicorn. Turns out it was July.

Before July, CookIt Media ran on Google Sheets, group texts, and pure will.

“As a small, up-and-coming agency, sometimes it felt like we were truly flying by the seat of our pants,” says Molly, Executive Vice President at CookIt Media.

They tried another platform first, the one that promised to be the shiny key to the kingdom. It wasn’t.

They found what they needed in July.

Media Kits that never go stale

Before July, keeping a media kit up to date meant manually updating followers, engagement rates, likes, comments, and content across every creator, every single week. And asking creators for screenshots was another nightmare in and of itself.

“If you have five creators on your roster, that’s five hours of their time and ours. Thirty creators? That’s thirty hours.”

Now those media kits update themselves on a daily basis.

“July auto-does that for us. It has saved us so much time, and time is money. Media kits have cut that out completely. Not even a question.”

Knowing where every deal stands

As EVP, Molly isn’t just tracking creators, she’s tracking the whole business.

“I need to know where everyone’s at, at all times. Both talent and team. How long does it take to move an offer to an actual contract? Is a creator’s pipeline strong, or are they too busy fulfilling work to build the next deal?”

That visibility used to be much harder to get. Now, it lives in July.

“It helps me as a team leader to see and forecast our business. Everything we can store in July and not have to track in a Google Drive somewhere — that’s huge.”

One shared view, across the whole team

CookIt’s managers cross-pitch talent across the whole roster, which means everyone needs to know what everyone else is doing: who’s available, what’s already committed, and what restrictions are in play before a deal moves forward.

“We cross-pitch across the whole team, so I need to understand: is this person available that day to post content? I’m not going to commit that to a brand without checking first.”

That same shared visibility extends to exclusivity — restrictions that can range from an entire product category down to one specific brand.

“Having that in there and being able to see it at all times and track it across teams is really important.”

Turning reports into honest conversations

CookIt doesn’t just send brands a report and move on. Molly digs into the numbers to figure out who should get re-booked, and who shouldn’t.

She shows brands the good and the bad, every time. A late product shipment, a creative brief too rigid for a creator to sound like themselves — she’ll walk a brand through exactly what went wrong and why.

“I want to be honest. Here’s why this campaign was a success, and point to the key metrics that aligned with the brand’s original goals. Or, was this piece of content a miss, here’s what we will change instead. That’s how you earn trust.”

One system, not five

July has become the single place CookIt runs its business. What started as a search for something better has become how CookIt runs their day-to-day operations. Spreadsheets, decks, texts, and outside tools have been replaced by one connected system. Less time spent on manual work means more time growing the roster and the business.

“July is our CRM. It’s our media kit tool. It’s our reporting tool, and now it’s our proposal tool too.”

Ask Molly what she’d tell another agency on the fence, and there’s no hesitation: “Sign up immediately. [It’s] not even a question.”