From Ministry to Market: Building Systems That Actually Serve People

I was recently invited to sit down with Steve Vanis on the Sharpen Podcast, brought to you by Acumen. Acumen is a multi-state business marketplace community built around connecting and growing business owners. It was a conversation I genuinely enjoyed because it gave me a chance to talk about what actually drives the work we do at Revflow Growth Partners and how I got here. You can watch the full episode below.

Who is Drew Lints and what is Revflow Growth Partners?

I am the founder of Revflow Growth Partners. We help business owners build the right systems and processes so they can get back to doing what they are actually great at. My background is not the typical path into this work. I spent close to 20 years in ministry. I grew up in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, studied at Penn State, went on to seminary in St. Louis, and spent years doing youth and family ministry in Miami and then Colorado Springs. That work shaped how I think about everything. The question I kept coming back to in ministry was simple: how do we help the greatest number of people possible with the time we have? That question did not go away when I stepped into the business world. If anything it got louder.

What is the biggest misconception business owners have about systems and process?

Most people hear "systems" and immediately jump to one of two reactions. Either they want an easy button, or they are afraid that building systems means stripping the human element out of their company. Both miss the point entirely. Systems done right do not replace relationships. They free you up to be better at them. Think about what McDonald's was at its best. The systems running behind the counter were what allowed the people at the counter to actually serve you well. A good process gets you in front of more people. It does not wall you off from them.

What does "working through people" actually mean?

I know that phrase can land the wrong way at first, like you are just using people to get somewhere. It is the opposite. If you are the best plumber in the world, you can only wrench on so many houses. But if you invest your skills and your way of caring for clients into thirty other plumbers, you multiply your impact dramatically. That is how we thought about ministry too. Instead of one person ministering to twenty kids, you train twenty adults who each go and minister to twenty more. Business works the same way. The question is never how do we get rid of that person. The question is always how do we better use that person.

What do you usually find when you first assess a company?

There are so many things being done manually that could easily be automated, and I find new examples almost every week. I have a current client with a staff member spending roughly half their workweek downloading and manually verifying PDF backups. A simple automated system handles that in seconds and frees up over twenty hours a week for that person to do higher value work. Another example: a company manually entering orders from a hundred customers by phone or sometimes even by fax, burning twenty to thirty hours a week of a highly capable person's time. These are not complicated fixes. But the cost savings and the impact on that employee's role are significant.

What is actually being misunderstood about AI right now?

A lot. Most of it is being driven by people selling courses and promising you can transform your business overnight if you just learn the right tools. That is simply not true. You do not have time to learn everything, and hiring someone internally to become your AI expert almost always backfires because they become too skilled and too valuable to keep. What actually matters is figuring out the right use cases for your specific business and building a focused playbook around two or three things that will genuinely move the needle. Most business owners I talk to are also worried their competitors are racing ahead of them in this space. The reality is almost everyone is in the same uncertain position. You need a guide, not a course.

How do you choose the right person to guide you?

The most important signal is whether they listen. Most consultants are scaling a single solution and applying it to everyone because that is how they grow. At Revflow we made a deliberate choice to go against that. We take on very few clients at a time. We do deep interviews. We get to know the ideal client profile, the sales process, the existing tools, and where the team is getting frustrated. Then we build a phased approach that is custom to that business. I genuinely do not think I have sold the same solution twice because everyone is different and every leader needs different things. Anyone who walks in and says "buy this product and it will solve everything" is not telling you the truth. You need something built for you.

Where can people find you?

You can find us at revflowpartners.io or connect with me on LinkedIn. We are based in Colorado Springs but work with business owners all over the country. If any of this resonated with you I would love to connect.

Drew is also a member of the Acumen Summit Team in Colorado. Acumen is a business marketplace community with locations in Phoenix, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Colorado's Front Range. Learn more at acumenimpact.com.