DeKesha C. Williams, The Webinar Queen, on separating revenue producing work from revenue supporting work, and why outsourcing is really about duplicating yourself.
In brief
80/20
Spend about 80% of your time on revenue generating work and 20% checking in on the team.
1
Start with one person or one task. Hand off three hours a week and take them back.
1
Start with one person or one task. Hand off three hours a week and take them back.
SOP
Document how you want work done so the business can run, and grow, without you.
A full calendar can look a lot like progress. DeKesha C. Williams, The Webinar Queen and founder of Your Outsourcing Club, came to Bloom Connections to show us why it often is not.
During her Educational Moment, DeKesha drew a clear line between two kinds of work. Revenue producing work brings money into the business, while revenue supporting work keeps it running. When business owners confuse the two, DeKesha told us, they stay “broke and busy.”
With more than 15 years in business, DeKesha has watched the same pattern play out again and again. Her clients invest in coaches and consultants, leave with a strategy they believe in, and then get stuck on implementation.
Start with DeKesha’s two questions
1
How many hours did you spend last week doing work that someone else could have handled?
2
What business building activity did you postpone because of it?
The cost
Maybe it is the offer you planned to launch. The training you outlined months ago. The in-person workshop, or the webinar you know could bring in leads and revenue.
DeKesha pointed out that these are the activities that grow a business, and they are often the first ones to slide when the week fills up. Not because they don’t matter, but because the tasks in front of us feel more urgent.
That is where DeKesha sees the real cost of doing everything yourself. It is not only the hours you spend. It is what those hours were supposed to build.
Which raises a practical question: what exactly should you be handing off?
The split
DeKesha shared a split that shapes how she runs her week. Roughly 80% of a business owner’s time should go to revenue generating activities, and only about 20% to operational oversight and administration.
80%
20%
Revenue generating
90-minute blocks: pipeline, reactivating past clients, prospecting, networking, finding partners.
Oversight
Checking in on the team, not doing the work.
DeKesha’s weekly time split, as shared in her Educational Moment.
She has even challenged herself to 30 outreaches a day on Facebook and 30 on LinkedIn. The 20% looks different from what many of us picture. It is not doing the operational work. It is checking in with her team to see how the work is moving.
For most of us, though, that split is flipped, and DeKesha knew exactly why.
The audit
DeKesha walked through the tasks she sees business owners holding onto, and nearly everyone in the room recognized a few.
She was especially direct about that last one. Many business owners are trying to replace a team with AI, but as she reminded us, someone still has to guide it, check it and make sure it does what the business needs.
“AI still has to be managed.”
DeKesha C. Williams
So if the list is that clear, why do so many of us keep doing it ourselves?
The mindset
DeKesha named the stories we tell: I can do it myself. I can’t afford to outsource. I’ll get help once I can afford it. She answered with advice from one of her first coaches.
“Invest at the level in which I want to succeed.”
Advice from DeKesha’s early coach
Then she made it practical. If a discovery call can bring in $5,000, she is not going to spend that time cutting the grass. She outsources housekeeping and landscaping for the same reason she outsources in her business. Her time is worth more in the places only she can show up.
You invest in support
$400–$700
→
Time back helps generate
$5k–$10k
Is it worth the investment? DeKesha’s answer: absolutely.
What does that look like once the support is in place? DeKesha showed us.
The system
DeKesha shared how her team handles a webinar. She tells them the topic, and they follow a documented process, or SOP, to promote it across every platform. Her part is to show up, comment and follow up with people.
She pointed out that even business development and LinkedIn outreach can be outsourced. That is how her business generates leads consistently.
The freedom she described goes beyond saving time. When the work is handled, you get space to gain clarity on where the business is going, delegate the steps to get there and watch your calendar fill with appointments.
The conversation that followed her presentation took that idea even further.
The legacy
One business owner asked the question many solo business owners carry quietly. People keep telling her the business could grow a team or even be sold one day, but she cannot picture it. After 20 years in corporate America, this business is her career and how she serves her clients and family.
DeKesha’s answer reframed the whole idea. She built Your Outsourcing Club to be sold, which is why her image is not on the brand. It could be sold, or her children could take it over one day.
When she started
Her children were 5 and 11.
Today
They are 20 and 26, and the business helped her be present for them.
Her point was simple. If you built your business to impact people, you can want that impact to continue long after you step away.
From the host: the SOPs DeKesha described are something buyers look for, and they make the business stronger whether you ever sell or not. Even if you are not ready mentally, you can start getting ready through that checklist.
DeKesha also brought it back to everyday life. Buyers want a business that can function without the owner, and so do you, especially when you want a vacation without your phone on the beach.
But what about the work you are truly the best at?
The engine
One business owner in the room brought research context that made this part of the conversation even more important. Many women-owned businesses are run by one person, and investors and lenders often see that structure as less ready for investment.
Then she asked the question that made the room lean in. Business development is her engine, and she converts well, especially at live events. Should she really outsource that?
DeKesha’s answer was not to take your hands off it completely. Instead, a team can start the conversation, and the business owner can come in and finish it. The bigger opportunity, she explained, is scale. If you are excellent at business development, how could that skill be duplicated so your revenue is no longer limited to what you can do alone?
“That’s all outsourcing is. How can I duplicate myself?”
DeKesha C. Williams
Another business owner added that funders and private foundations look for this too. They want to see a clear plan for growth and a budget that shows how the work is shared.
Of course, duplication does not happen overnight.
The pace
For business owners earlier in the journey, that can feel far away. One woman in the room shared that she felt relieved hearing DeKesha took 15 years to build to this point, since she is about a year into running her business full time.
DeKesha encouraged everyone to start small. Bring on one person at a time. If a task takes three hours of your week, hand those three hours to an intern or an admin and take them back.
That does not mean giving away the heart of your work. DeKesha still reviews and critiques webinars herself because that is her expertise. She simply has an SOP that spells out what she looks for, so someone else can do it when needed.
She also cautioned against the opposite problem. When owners hand everything off, they can become disconnected from what is happening inside their own business. Another business owner shared an example from a class she is taking: the teacher has a VA who sends instructions, yet the teacher still steps in to make sure no one falls through the gaps. Even with strong systems, staying present matters.
The return
That balance is what I took from DeKesha’s Educational Moment. Outsourcing is not about stepping away from your business. It is about putting yourself where your business needs you most.
DeKesha’s two questions are a good place to start. Look at last week, notice the hours that went to work someone else could have handled, and name the business building activity that got pushed aside because of it. From there, her advice is to hand off one task at a time, document how you want it done and give those hours back to the work that grows the business.
The return is more than time. It is the launch that finally happens, the follow-up that turns into a client and the business that keeps creating impact, even when you are not the one doing every task.
About the speaker
The Webinar Queen · Founder, Your Outsourcing Club
With more than 15 years in business, DeKesha supports speakers, coaches and consultants by handling the back-end work that takes their time, so they can focus on the revenue generating activities that grow their businesses.
FAQ
Answers drawn from DeKesha’s Educational Moment.
Revenue producing work directly brings money into the business, such as prospecting, networking, reactivating past clients and holding sales conversations. Revenue supporting work keeps the business running, such as building pages, managing platforms, writing newsletters and handling calendars. DeKesha encourages spending most of your time on the first and outsourcing as much of the second as possible.
DeKesha suggests roughly 80% of your time on revenue generating activities and about 20% on operational oversight and administration. For her, that 20% means checking in with her team rather than doing the operational tasks herself.
Start with tasks that take up hours each week but do not require your expertise: webinar registration pages, funnels, newsletters, social posts, calendars, platform setup and automations. Even handing off three hours a week to one person can make a difference.
When hours spent on revenue supporting work keep pushing aside the work that grows your business, like launching an offer or following up with prospects. Don’t wait until you feel you can afford a full team. Start with one task or one person and grow from there.
Outsourcing gives business owners time back for revenue generating activities and helps them duplicate what already works. Instead of revenue being limited to what one person can do, a team carries the supporting work while the owner focuses on growth, relationships and strategy.
You do not have to take your hands off it completely. Let a team start conversations while you step in to close them. The goal is to duplicate what works so your revenue is not limited to what you can do alone.
Document how you want key tasks done with SOPs, keep the work that holds your expertise and check in regularly with the people supporting you. Handing everything off without staying connected can leave you out of touch with what is happening inside your own business.
Learn something. Share something. Grow together.
When you separate the work that supports your business from the work that grows it, you can make a clearer decision about where your time belongs.
1
Share your key takeaway on LinkedIn
2
Tag DeKesha C. Williams and Bloom Connections
3
Leave DeKesha a LinkedIn recommendation
Keep reading
Visibility
On the calendar
