How much time do you spend on client work now versus at peak?
At peak, client work consumed the overwhelming majority of my probably 50-hour weeks - everything from front-end to fulfillment, backend, client relationships, management. Now I have a partner who takes on the vast majority of the work. I'm still figuring out my role; I think focusing on the front end makes most sense, and we've been doing sales calls to shape that. I don't need to transfer my time into the business because my main leverage is distribution and the established value I've built. Instead, I'm looking for the highest-leverage actions: recording a short Loom video that welcomes prospects, answers preliminary questions, and then spends time edifying my partner, who I position as the perfect person to handle delivery. These videos take about five minutes, are the first point of contact, and can eventually generate a high LTV (e.g., $500k) if executed well. This lets prospects get an advisory impression from me while the partner fulfills the work, solving buyer's remorse early.
This is a core part of my Upwork outreach advice. Start by creating a high‑quality asset—whether it's a detailed Google Doc proposal, a spreadsheet, a workflow chart, a Loom video, or any combination. When you're brand new, building a workflow that solves a client's problem will take time, but after you've built 10 or 20 of them you won't need to start from scratch each time. You can reuse the closest previous workflow as proof of your ability, which eliminates the workflow‑building overhead and leaves you only to record the video. Recording a video after you've done a few dozen takes exactly the length of the video—if it's three minutes, it takes three minutes to record. So the process drops from ~30 minutes per application to about five seconds to pick a workflow, plus two to three minutes to record and send, bringing you to five or six minutes per application. At that rate you can comfortably do ten applications in an hour.
Well, let me ask you: I show everything I do for my own businesses all the time, and you guys copy it. Does that really devalue my work? Only marginally, and I operate at a much larger scale than you. Showing 20 people a month the systems you build won’t meaningfully impact your ability to do business. So, drop the mindset of gatekeeping systems or knowledge—that won’t help you move forward, Kendra. The fact that it’s not scalable is actually good; I recommend you focus on the things that don’t scale. Many people hesitate to do non‑scalable work, thinking it’s low‑leverage, but until you’re making about $50 k a month, pretty much everything is high leverage for you to do yourself. So, do this yourself: send personalized Loom videos and show the full workflow. It’s not scalable, but you should repeatedly practice speaking about your product. If you want a concrete example, I’ve recorded a step‑by‑step video on how to set up Loom for agency sales—check it out; it’ll put things into perspective.
Sure, I can talk about it now and, if there’s enough demand, I’ll make a full video later. The reality is that with a bigger budget you can move everything about ten‑times faster, maybe even a hundred times faster. For example, most people are limited to about nine mailboxes sending 30 emails each per day – roughly 270 emails total, or 135 new leads per day in a two‑step sequence. If you scale up to 90 mailboxes at 30 emails each, you’re looking at 2,700 emails a day, or 1,350 new leads daily, for a very low monthly cost (around $270 if you use a mailbox reseller). At a 0.02% reply rate that’s 27 positive replies, which can translate to three calls a day. With a good campaign you can convert 10‑15 calls per day, and even if 30% drop off you still get seven to ten quality calls. Assuming 45‑minute calls, you can fill an entire day’s calendar and close a couple of deals daily. If each deal is $2K, that’s $4K a day, or about $80K a month running 20 days, not counting upsells or retainers. In short, if you’re well‑resourced you can realistically schedule $80K‑plus a month with a productized offer by going all‑in on cold email, as long as you have enough leads to fulfill the volume. This means broadening your top‑of‑funnel targeting across more general niches. For a $5K‑$15K budget, $270 is only about 2.7% of the spend, leaving roughly 4% of margin for growth.
I start with a kickoff call where I deliver quick wins to minimize buyer's remorse, and I always take payment upfront before any work begins - never considering a client 'onboard' until the money is in my account. After receiving payment, I create a detailed proposal that serves as both a sales document and a roadmap. Roughly 60% of the proposal outlines the client's problems, demonstrating my understanding from any prior small project; about 20% covers the proposed solution; the remaining 20% discusses logistics, principally compensation. I typically pitch a large monthly fee - recently moving from $6,900 to around $12,000-$12,300 - and often add a revenue-share component to align incentives, inspired by the idea that sharing upside makes both parties more comfortable and can lead to more money. I discuss performance-based versus flat pricing, noting that beginners should lean performance-based, intermediates may go flat, and experts often return to performance-based because they have confidence in delivering results. Once the client agrees and pays, I invite them to a kickoff call to set communication expectations: I'm highly reachable via Slack (within 15 minutes) and hold daily office hours from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. PT, plus a weekly strategy session. I ask clients to commit to the same recurring time each week for at least 50 out of 52 weeks, emphasizing consistency so they take the calls seriously and see ongoing value. During each meeting I review wins from the past week, outline what I'll do next, and address any questions or fires, ensuring I always show up with something tangible to justify the retainer. I then follow the roadmap, checking off the 45-plus tasks in order, and optionally sync with the client's project-management system (though I've moved away from using my own ClickUp board as the single source of truth). I also note that other agencies like DesignJoy use shared boards, but I prefer bringing a quick note of wins and next steps to each meeting.