Special Ops with Emma Rainville

Episode: Meta’s Andromeda Update Is Wrecking Your Facebook Ads. Here’s What to Do.

Date: October 21, 2025
Hosts: Richard & Tiago (from Shockwave’s team), with brief introduction and wrap-up by Emma Rainville

Overview

This episode explores the critical operational triad: what to automate, what to delegate, and what to kill within your business processes. Richard and Tiago, operational experts from the Shockwave team, discuss real-world criteria and frameworks to help entrepreneurs streamline team workflows, free up valuable time, and focus on high-impact work—using the example of a recent client’s business transformation. The episode is a hands-on tactical guide for founders or operations leads, offering actionable strategies and key questions to ask before deciding whether a task should be automated, delegated, or eliminated entirely.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Double-Edged Sword of Automation

• Automation Saves Time But Reduces Visibility

  • Automation can take important information away from you, which can be "a very good thing" or "a very bad thing."

    “Automation on some level takes information away from you. That can be a very good thing, that can also be a very bad thing.” — Richard [00:00]

  • Example: Manually tracking daily workshop sign-ups allows immediate insight and intervention, which could be lost if automated.

    “If I automated that, that would take away the ability to say, okay, are we doing well for this consultation?... The automation there would just completely kill.” — Richard [02:00]

• Criteria for Automating a Task

  • Must be necessary, standardized, time-critical, and frequently recurring.
  • One-off or infrequent tasks are poor candidates for automation.

    “It needs to be done right in a specific standardized way. It has to be done in a timely manner... and it has to be a task that has to be done frequently.” — Tiago [04:00]

2. Risks & Limitations of Automation

• Forgetting and Losing Track:
  • Full automation may lead to infrequent review, causing issues to slip by unnoticed.
  • This peril is similar in both automations and aggressive use of AI.

    “There are risks associated with automating… you’re going to forget about it.” — Tiago [03:17]

3. Delegation: Elevating Team Capacity

• Automation and Delegation Are Related but Not the Same

  • Automate what machines do best; delegate what needs human thought but does not require your unique expertise.
  • Initial automation often benefits “lower-level” (by org chart) team members most, relieving their repetitive workload.

    “Lower level team members… can get the most relief out of automations immediately.” — Tiago [05:03]

• Criteria for Delegating Tasks

  • Delegate tasks that don’t require the manager or founder’s unique skill set.
  • Build simple training and monitoring processes to ensure effective delegation.

    “What are the things that don’t demand your unique special experience… things that you could train someone on?” — Tiago [08:07]

  • Use an “accountability chart” to list all currently managed tasks, tally their frequency, and prioritize what to offload first.

    “Make the sort of accountability chart that a visionary founder… needs to do… list everything you have, look at your team and look at the empty spaces, who you could hire.” — Tiago [10:02]

• Delegation as a Force Multiplier

  • Real-world example: A founder freed from low-level tasks finds more bandwidth to lead and think strategically.

    “The owner now has a lot more thinking free time… If it’s nothing [special], then it’s almost certainly delegatable.” — Richard [08:41]

4. Task Elimination: The Power of Killing Traditions

• Continuously Reevaluate: Does This Still Serve Us?

  • Many routines persist due to inertia, not necessity.
  • Eliminating outdated practices often needs an outsider’s perspective or simply time freed by automation/delegation.

    “How easy it is to build up these traditions that don’t really need to be followed at all. Like, okay, why am I doing this? Well, I’ve always done it.” — Richard [11:35]

• Leverage Outside Perspectives

  • New employees, consultants, or more reflective internal reviews can help identify killable “zombie tasks.”

    “If you got that perspective change... you’ll also get the ability to change the perspective because you have time to think at a different pace...” — Tiago [12:17]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Choosing What to Automate

  “You have to pick what’s good to automate.” — Tiago [00:07]

• On the Value of Hands-On Management

  “If you don’t have those, that kind of hands-on view, stuff gets away from you.” — Richard [03:50]

• Automation vs. Delegation

  “Delegate to the machine. And after that… think about, okay, what can we now delegate from managers into production?” — Tiago [05:47]

• Delegation as a System

  “You allocate a bit of your time into building the training for that and then you add a bit of monitoring cadence to make sure that’s been delegated properly.” — Tiago [08:07]

• On Killing Old Processes

  “If there’s no time to answer that, there’s probably something to be automated, probably something allocated, and then you can figure out where the rest of the time goes.” — Richard [11:35]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Introduction & Overview: [00:00] – [00:29]
• Automation: When and Why: [02:00] – [04:44]
• Automation vs. Delegation, Org Impacts: [05:03] – [07:02]
• Delegation Frameworks for Founders: [08:07] – [10:02]
• Task Elimination & Traditions: [11:35] – [12:49]

Actionable Takeaways

• Ask These Before Automating:

  • Is the task necessary?
  • Can it be done in a standardized way?
  • Does it occur frequently?
  • Does automation disconnect you from crucial insights?

• To Delegate Effectively:

  • Map out all your tasks, their frequency and complexity.
  • Delegate what doesn’t require your unique skills.
  • Train and monitor; build systems for feedback.

• To Kill Tasks:

  • Periodically review everything you or your team do.
  • Ask “Why do we still do this?” If tradition is the only answer, question it.

Final Thoughts

Richard and Tiago offer a practical decision-making model: Automate the repeatable, delegate the improvable, kill the unnecessary.

By leveraging each pillar, business leaders can focus their time and team energy on work that truly moves the needle.

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