104. If Your Team Is Overwhelmed, You Probably Need Systems

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Ops Experts Club Podcast

Episode 104: If Your Team Is Overwhelmed, You Probably Need Systems
Hosts: The Collab Team (Aaron and Taryn)
Date: March 12, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Aaron and Taryn of The Collab Team dive into the essential topic of moving teams and businesses from a reactive, task-focused approach to a proactive, systems-driven mindset. With their firsthand experience supporting prominent entrepreneurs and scaling multimillion-dollar businesses, they share practical strategies, tools, and real-world stories for creating effective systems that reduce overwhelm and improve operational efficiency. The focus is on elevating individuals from the "assistant" mentality to empowered "operator" roles.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Shifting from Tasks to Systems (02:00–07:30)

• Tasks Are Reactive; Systems Are Proactive:
  Taryn explains that “tasks are reactive and usually the things that need to get done. If your team's on fire, they're probably only thinking in tasks.” (02:28)
• Overwhelm from Task Overload:
  Aaron describes how a constant stream of tasks can feel like a “landslide...like magma’’ and leads to exhaustion for both team members and visionaries. (03:04)
• Risk of Unintentional Culture:
  Visionaries can “train a culture where people are literally coming to us to know what they should be working on... instead of empowering a system.” (03:51)

Systematizing Workflows (04:39–09:50)

• Building Repeatable Processes:
  Taryn and Aaron walk through examples (e.g., lead magnet creation, podcast production) to show how to move an idea down a “conveyor belt,” with each person owning specific steps, resulting in consistent output without repeated involvement from visionaries. (05:29)
• Dividing and Automating Work:
  “A system can be followed. A system is made up of tasks, but somebody had to create the system, and that's what's driving the tasks.” (Taryn, 05:54)
• Tools & Automations:
  Practical use of tools like Asana, Monday.com, ClickUp, and AI tools (e.g., Grok) for automating and scaling processes:
  • “All I have to do is check back in on what are the overdue tasks. And then I’m just managing forward this system rather than trying to do all the doing.” (Aaron, 12:10)

Creating, Iterating, and Documenting Systems (11:27–12:52)

• Iterative System Building:
  It’s often not possible—or wise—to make a rigid system after just one project run. Instead, “document as you go” for a few iterations, then define and refine the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). (Taryn, 11:27)
• Centralizing SOPs:
  Once a process is dialed in, formalize it and drop it into your project management tool for repeatable, scalable use.

The Operator as Maestro, Not the Doer (10:02–13:57)

• From Assistant to Operator:
  The operator’s ultimate role is to orchestrate, not to perform each instrument. “Instead of being the maestro in front of the symphony, you're trying to pull all the levers, you're trying to pick up each one of the instruments...” (Aaron, 10:57)
• Empowering Teams:
  Well-defined systems allow team members to function autonomously, freeing operators to oversee the big picture.

Tools Highlight: Delegate and Elevate (13:57–15:39)

• The Delegate and Elevate Tool:
  A practical EOS tool for helping individuals and teams divide work into four quadrants: love/great at, like/good at, dislike/good at, dislike/not good at.
  • “You want to live in the top [quadrants]...the greatest level of brilliance that I can bring, the thing that makes me feel most alive, the thing I feel like is my greatest strength...everything else, we want to try and shuffle it down.” (Aaron, 15:39)
• How to Use It:
  List all your recurring tasks (daily/weekly/monthly); then, sort and delegate the non-essentials or those outside your strengths—clearing time for high-impact work.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Taryn on Task vs. Systems Thinking:
  “Tasks are reactive and usually the things that need to get done...systems is proactive, and a lot of times you do need to have a little sense of peace...to be able to think that way.” (02:28)
• Aaron on Overwhelm From Tasks:
  “If tasks are just like rolling down the hill at you, like, it's just so much. And if you're already feeling overwhelmed and somebody just adds another thing on your plate to do, you just like want to blow a gasket.” (03:04)
• Analogy Central – Maestro vs. Musician:
  “Instead of being the maestro in front of the symphony, you're trying to pull all the levers, you're trying to pick up each one of the instruments...” (Aaron, 10:57)
• Systematizing Visionary Ideas:
  “Let's get really clear on what does it look like for a visionary to drop an idea and what’s the system that manages that idea so that it doesn’t just turn into a task handed down to a person.” (Aaron, 03:51)
• On the Value of Documentation:
  “As you’re going through it for the first time...there’s going to be iterations that come from that first time doing it...but as long as you're documenting as you're going, then you can decide, what needs to be tweaked.” (Taryn, 11:27)
• Humorous Analogy:
  “All I have to do is check back in on what are the overdue tasks. And then I’m just managing forward this system rather than trying to go do all the doing... My analogies are kind of on fire today. I just pulled, like, pig in a blanket.” (Aaron, 12:10)

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Tool & Resource Highlights

• Delegate & Elevate Tool:
  Free worksheet & tutorial: delegate.opsexpertsacademy.com (16:52)
• SOP Template:
  Previously shared lead magnet for documenting processes: sop.opsexpertsacademy.com
• Gap Analyzer:
  Service and tool for optimizing team roles/workload: gapanalyzer.com, also included in the Ops Experts Academy (18:00–19:14)
• Ops Experts Academy:
  “35 modules from beginner to intermediate to advanced on how to elevate your operations...internally and eternally internally...a bunch of free tools...for some of the top brands that are out there.” (Aaron, 17:08)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:53–02:28 – Introducing the Main Topic:
  Moving from tasks to systems; shifting mindset from assistant to operator
• 02:28–05:54 – Reactive Tasks vs. Proactive Systems:
  Why tasks are overwhelming and the value of processes
• 05:54–07:50 – Example: Podcast Production & Lead Magnet Creation:
  Step-by-step system demonstration
• 07:50–08:22 – Automating Recurring Systems:
  Making systems start automatically, not requiring manual kickoff
• 08:22–09:50 – Creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOP):
  From need to repeatable process and documentation
• 10:02–12:10 – Operators as Orchestrators:
  The symphony analogy and the value of not doing everything yourself
• 13:57–15:39 – Delegate & Elevate Tool Explained:
  How to use it and how it transforms your role
• 16:52–19:14 – Offering Tools, Gap Analyzer, and Ops Experts Academy:
  Free resources and training opportunities

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Conclusion

This episode is a practical playbook for business owners, operators, and growing teams who find themselves “firefighting” endless to-dos. Aaron and Taryn demystify what it really means to “think in systems,” explaining how to empower your team, systematize even creative ideas, and use simple frameworks to free your best people for their highest-leverage work. Listeners are encouraged to leverage the free tools, try the Delegate & Elevate exercise, and begin the process of documenting and iterating their core workflows for scalable success.

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For access to the tools and further training, visit:

• delegate.opsexpertsacademy.com
• sop.opsexpertsacademy.com
• gapanalyzer.com
• foundationsthatscale.com/level-up

Connect on Social:

• Facebook
• Instagram

Transcript

[A]

OPS Experts Club. I love it. I just love it when like Taran, you make guest appearances on our show. Like when I wasn't sure if you there just now and then you just popped on the screen and I'm like Terence here, that's amazing.

[B]

Yeah. I am probably the number one guest of the show.

[A]

You are, you are. Even if it's reluctant. Sometimes I feel like you're a reluctant guest but you show up and what I found is I don't care. I just like that you're here. Reluctant, not. I'll take it.

[B]

Yeah. And I just love self promotion. So I just keep coming back.

[A]

Taryn, I think if our OPS experts saw half the cool stuff we did before the show started, they would think we were like a billion times cooler.

[B]

Probably should. We should, we should show them.

[A]

Well, I mean there were song, there are songs, there's dancing, there's a bunch of like cool stuff talking about farm equipment. There's like, I mean we do a lot of cool stuff around here. Speaking of farming, do you have any good farming stories for me today? Paul McTurner, how to Farm.

[B]

Any farming stories?

[A]

You do anything this week that was cool and fun Just to keep all of us who are just bound to a more, you know, like suburban life that don't get to enjoy riding tractors, putting in posts.

[B]

I mean I got, we finished our arena fence that was 500ft of fencing. Took two weekends. Got to use a new tool post pounder. It's a big post pounder, gas powered and you just hold it.

[A]

The only thing I usually use to pound posts, these two beauties and I mean it's like may not be like gas power but man, I can pound some post.

[B]

This is a 4 inch wood drive post. It's not a T post.

[A]

I know but see I stand on a ladder with a sledgehammer. Anyway, it's okay, we can talk about it different times, no big deal. Experts, great to have you join us today, man. Me and Taren, we're not going to just talk about farm equipment or pound and post. We are going to talk about something that I think could really help a lot of us and that is Taryn, the topic today, how to think in systems instead of just taking tasks. Right. Like this is the, this is the shift from an assistant to an operator. What are your thoughts?

[B]

The first thought here is tasks are reactive and usually the things that need to get done and if your team's on fire, they're probably only thinking in tasks. What do I have to accomplish? What do I need to get off my plate. What is somebody else waiting for me on? Whereas a systems is proactive, and a lot of times you do need to have a little sense of peace in your workplace, in your current role, to be able to think that way and to start being proactive.

[A]

Yeah, no, I think it. I think the other thing I would say about tasks is they're exhausting. Like, if you're always doing, like whether you're the one that's being just dumped on, right? It's a landslide of tasks. Like, it's just like just coming down the hill, like magma, you know, I'm saying just like lots because that magma does contribute to rocks and coagulation. But like in this scenario, in this story, like, if tasks are just like rolling down the hill at you, like, it's just so much. And if you're already feeling overwhelmed and somebody just adds another thing on your plate to do, you just like want to blow a gasket. But if you're a visionary, a lot of times it's exhausting to keep having to come up with the tasks, right? Because you're like, why is everybody asking me what they should be doing? Just go and do your stuff, man. You've got a job, right? Why are you coming to me? But if we're not careful, I think we as visionaries can train a culture where people are literally coming to us to know what they should be working on, right? Because we're continually asking them to do stuff on a daily, weekly basis. And in that, there's no system to that. That's just like bottled chaos. That's just you coming up with ideas and then having to give people things to do and then having to solve the pain points they get in the middle of as you are giving them out instead of. No, no, no. Let's get really clear on what does it look like for visionary to drop an idea and what's the system that manages that idea so that it doesn't just turn into a task handed down to a person. But as an operator, I can say, okay, what can I hand down? What do I need to keep and what do I need to put into place? Just like a conveyor belt just in, like a manufacturing plant that as they go along, each person can add a piece to it and it can be done by the end. So it can be a door to door experience.

[B]

Yes, well put. That makes a great system.

[A]

I know. An example would be Taryn. Like, you and I get on these shows and we come up with cool lead magnets that just Pop out of my head, like, just, like, amazing. It's just like, man, my ideas are on fire. I can't believe I have such good ideas. And then it becomes. Become something that we want to give away to our guests and our listeners. But we need a process for creating lead magnets. You know, that we need a process for, like, creating an opportunity for people to come and get these free tools. And if I just, like, throw it out there, and I'm like, hey, check out delegate ops, expertsacademy.com, which is the tool we're giving you today. If I just throw that out there. Well, hopefully there's a system where we can just take that thought, drop it on the conveyor belt, and then it just, like, chunks out the work and comes back to us ready to rock and roll by the time we drop an episode.

[B]

Yes, absolutely. And, you know, the system is. It's something that's repeatable, and you don't have to assign it out each individually every time. We now have a system. A system can be followed. A system is made up of tasks, but somebody had to create the system, and that's what's driving the tasks. So, yeah, yeah, once you get a system going, you know, you can manage it a lot easier.

[A]

I think that. Let's talk like, podcast is an easy one, right? Because sometimes you can get in some of these, and it's just big and it's chunky and it's hard to explain. But, like, we record a podcast like this, Taren takes the download and drops it into Vimeo, and then he taps Stephanie on the shoulder and he says, hey, Steph, there's a video on the vimeo for you for a video in the vimeo. A video in the vimeo. A video in the vimeo for you for the podcast. And from there, Stephanie's able to grab that, upload it into Libsyn, which is our database for the podcast, so that it populates out across all podcasts. She's able to also go back here into Riverside, carve it up for some reels that she can drop onto. Onto the socials. She's also from there able to grab the transcript, drop it into Grok, let Grok process out for some copy that she can use for those socials, she can use for the emails that are going to go out and announcing that podcast is going. So that's one system that Taran and I record this. Taren takes the first steps, and then he drops into a system where we have a couple of different people with different roles, but it comes out the end of the system done without me ever having to think about it again. But then also there's the system of, like, a lead magnet. I say something like delegate.opsexpertsacademy.com which is the tool I think you should grab here. In a minute, Taran will explain what it is, but we come up with something like that, and then we take that and say, hey, Brandon, we need you to create a lead magnet based upon this tool. Here's the tool, here's the show. Please go create the landing page that's going to need. Please create the copy around that landing page. Please create the creatives around that landing page. Please go and make sure that all the links work right, that we have emails coming out the back of that so that the tool gets delivered right. Make sure that they're then plugged into the right email channel so that they get the messaging that's supposed to come out after those different lead magnets are taken. And it. But we hand it off to people where there's already a system built that can bear the load so that every time we're not having to walk through this thing over and over again. What do you think?

[B]

I think that's beautiful. I think another good part about a system is you can even skip the kickoff. Your system can just start with, we record this every week on the same day. So the system is just set to automatically start the day after. Stephanie knows this is the day after recording happened. And now I just start. And so we don't have to actually kick it off verbally or the task. It's just set to recur every week. This is just our system. It's our process.

[A]

I think, too, it's cool. When. How do you create those processes? I think a lot of times it starts with a need. Right? So maybe it started with a visionary like me who wants to do a podcast, and we have to put some of these systems into place. But the hope would be, after we've done it a couple times, we. We can create an sop, which was another great lead magnet that we dropped last week. Another great tool we handed out for folks. Sop.opsexpertsacademy.com where let's SOP this thing out. And then each one of these parts of the sop, maybe it's one person that owns it or multiple people that own it based upon their skillset, but then we can just put it into motion, kick it off the right direction. Brandon needed to. I wanted to start giving out more and more tools, more and more lead magnets to bring people in, to introduce them to our stuff and show them what other things we do here at the Colab team. But Brandon and I created a couple of them and now Brandon has a template that's a funnel that's built already that all he has to do is go in and lipstick on a pig like right? Make the thing look a little bit different, a little bit better. It's a cute pig. It's one of those kind of pigs that you want to bring in your house to treat it like a pet. Anyway. He can just go in there and do a quick like touch up on, on the template. He can go in to drop this, this transcript. He can go in there and grab these different tools, drop it into Grok, like Grok, help him with the lift on the AI side of things for some copy that can be added to the landing page, that can be created for the emails and, and then I think the cool thing about that is like it's all, it's all just in motion like you said, one nudge, one task drop into asana and it's going to kick off this whole cadence of the system that's going to help with the lift.

[B]

Wow, you just like gave everybody all

[A]

of our secrets, all the trade secrets because that's what we do here on Ops Experts. I don't have a pet pig, but if I did like you would know about it here on Ops Experts.

[B]

Yeah. And it'd be in a 2, 2

[A]

pink one that would be legit, but only a female one because like boys and blue tutus like that, I just, it's not going to work the same. So here's the other thing is Taren, like I think when a visionary comes and says, hey, I want to do a launch, right? Hey, I've got this really great idea. I want a Q1 launch. We need to knock down some dollars that are going to come into the filter. You know, coming through the funnel. We need to make sure that we're creating new product launch coming up, quarter one. Well, it's great when you've already built out a system that can bear a product launch, right? Like not when everybody is scrambling and you're like, oh man, do you remember what we did last time? Shoot, what were the steps? And you're trying to pull it off top of your head. And Visionary is getting more frustrated, more angry because you don't have things built but you don't remember because you didn't document it well last time. And then you're trying as the operator to carry all the load instead of being the maestro in front of the symphony, you're trying to pull all the levers, you're trying to pick up each one of the instruments. Man, I'm not like Taran Turner. I can play one instrument and it's the guitar. Taran Turner can play a bunch of instruments, but like I can't. And so like it's good for you to come up with a system that you as the operator, instead of getting into the fray, can be like the maestro up in the front. And you can call on the trumpets, Taran, you can call on the cellos, and you can call on the, the violins, the strings, and allow everybody to play to their, to their symphony. And then at the end, product launch.

[B]

Mm. I think it's great. I think, couple of points. There is as you're going through it for the first time, you know, documentation what you're doing, like you said, because you might not be able to create a system after just doing it once. A lot of the times there's going to be iterations that come from that first time doing it. And so it could be a little bit of a waste of time to have a full system in place after a first one. But as long as you're documenting as you're going, then you can decide, okay, what needs to be tweaked. It makes it a lot easier to the next one because there could be two or three iterations before you actually get a proper process that you can systematize.

[A]

I totally agree that. I mean that was beautifully spoken. Like, that was amazing. And on top of that, I think it's really cool when you can drop all of that. Once you have got that down to a dialed in system, when you can drop it into a task management software, right? An asana, a Monday.com, a ClickUp, whatever it is. But the whole life cycle of that product launch, whatever it is, we're talking about all lives in a task based management system. So that Taryn, you can get in there and say, oh, we're doing a product launch. Awesome. As the operator, I'm going to go in and I'm going to set the dates that I have each one of those pieces that I want assigned by. I'm going to assign it to the right people and then all I have to do is check back in on what are the overdue tasks. And then I'm just managing forward this system rather than trying to go do all the doing, building the websites coming up with a copy, building out the creatives, making sure that we have the right size zoom to be able to do our next webinar, whatever it is. All different pieces. No, no, that's all that stuff has been. Has been tasked out in this ordered schedule of event. And then from there, I can just assign people and dates. And then Taryn Turner's job as the operator is, instead of just being an assistant trying to do tasks, he can then be the maestro at the front saying, hey, do we have things on? Is everybody playing to the tune in the right ways to the same sheet of music? My analogies are kind of on fire today. I'm not gonna lie like that. I just pulled, like, pig in a blanket. I just pulled, like playing the orchestra with Maestro. I talked about Magma again, which I know is one that I always tempts you to get into the whole way that rocks are formed. But Taryn, do you want to talk to him about Delegate and Elevate? Because I do think that is a good tool. If you're playing an assistant fiddle and you're trying to get more into an operator role. What do you think about Delegate and Elevate? We talk about it quite a bit on this show.

[B]

I think it's quite fun, to be honest. It's probably the best thing in the world.

[A]

I mean, that and probably like. Like a ballpark Frank.

[B]

Yes. With no bun. Perfect.

[A]

Lots of mustard.

[B]

Lots of mustard. Handheld Delegate and Elevate is just. It's a fun little process. It's a tool. It's a cool tool. It's an eos. Is it an EOS tool?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah. But it's real simple. Starts with, you need a list of stuff you do. You know, we've talked about this before. We put a list together for you if you want to run through the gap analyzer with us. But you need a list of things you do broken out. It can be broken out by daily, weekly, monthly, or just be. Here's what I do. And we're going to go through that list and classify it into four quadrants, and there's the upper two quadrants and the lower two quadrants. Also, because it's four, there's going to be left quadrants and right quadrants, but I think we look at them top to bottom, and you're going to be looking at what falls into your top two quadrants. That's going to be love and great at and like. And good at. Right. So it's going to be the top two quadrants. Bottom two is going to be the dislike and good at and then dislike and not good at. So that's going to be areas that's going to be your first pass at passing down.

[A]

It's tough to talk about a visual when you're just using words. Taryn. That was pretty masterfully done. You know, it's like somebody explained the pyramids to you. You're like, it's like a big triangle. It's a bunch of rocks. Like, imagine the biggest rocks you ever seen your entire life. Probably like the size of a. Like a train call. And then you're stacking them in a way that builds up to a triangle. I mean, it's like tough. It's tough to diagram some with words. You did an amazing job with that. But essentially four quadrants, and you want to live in the top, right? You want to live at what's the greatest level of brilliance that I can bring, the thing that makes me feel most alive, the thing I feel like is my greatest strength. That's where I want to live and everything else. We want to try and shuffle it down. How can we delegate that stuff down? But the way we need to do that is identifying what are the things that are being done on the daily, weekly, monthly in your life right now, and then the ones that aren't requiring your brilliance anymore or you don't really enjoy anymore. Like, how can I get those off my plate to create real estate in my time schedule? Because we all have a limited amount of time. So how can I get time back? It's by handing things down so I can elevate up. Hence the delegate elevate. And that leads to the tool drop delegate.opsexpertsacademy.com will give you that tool for free with a nice little tutorial video that tells you exactly how to use the tool.

[B]

Oh, that's pretty cool. That's so nice of you, Aaron.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, took Brandon a lot of work. Brandon, thank you. I just want to call out Brandon to say, Brandon, thanks for creating a cool tool for people to be able to download easily.

[B]

Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Savannah, for making it look good.

[A]

Savannah did make it look good, right? Billable. Like, it's a cool tool. Cool tools here at. And in case you weren't aware of this, we do have a thing called the Ops Experts Academy, which is 35 modules from beginner to intermediate to advanced on how to elevate your operations in your business internally and eternally internally for you to be able to hand those things off. So it's not just you if maybe you want an understanding of it, but you want to give something to somebody on your team and you hate and are like, hey, go and listen to this. Go and watch this. These guys give you great insights and a bunch of free tools. That's one of the free tools that we do give out Inside Ops Experts Academy. And there are a bunch of other really good ones in there that we've developed for some of the top brands that are out there that we've worked with that they paid a bunch of money for us to develop, and we're including them in our ops Experts Academy. For you, sounds like a pretty good deal.

[B]

Yes, it is. Yes, it is, Aaron.

[A]

So the way that you get out from being an assistant to an operator is by getting out of the firefight of daily tasks that are being handed down to you. You allow your visionary to come and drop his idea, some or her idea somewhere, and then put it on the conveyor belt of this manufacturing engine known as systems, I would say, regulated by some sort of task management software that you can assign out to people. And the way you determine who should be owning those. Let's get you some time back first. Let's take you through the delegate elevate exercise, and then you'll be able to assign that out. If you want any help with that, if you ever are like, Aaron, will you guys just come and do that? With our team, we do that all the time. You know, we have a tool called the gap analyzer. That's kind of the kickoff for that if you want to check that out. Gap analyzer.com where we come in and we assess your team, determine what people should be working on, and then build out the SOPs around those different roles, delegate things down that shouldn't be on certain people, elevate up the ones that you're probably paying too much for to be doing too low level of tasks. We love doing that kind of stuff. Gapanalyzer.com is a great place to check that kind of stuff out.

[B]

I love Gapanalyzer.com here.

[A]

Don't tell people, but in Office Experts Academy, I actually give away the gap analyzer. That's normally 1500 bucks.

[B]

Wow. I think if you're just trying to tell me it didn't come through correctly, I think everybody heard that.

[A]

Ah, dang it. I didn't even think about it. Anyway, Ops Experts, I hope that you enjoyed our show today. We're trying to get you out of the weed of just doing tasks. We're trying to elevate you as an operator. We're trying to free up your visionary so they don't get frustrated of having to be the one that comes up with all the ideas. No, no. All they have to do is drop the idea and then put it on the conveyor belt. Let us go and churn that out, and then let us show you a great product that they're able to bring to market. I hope this helped you, Taryn. It was excellence to talk to you about pound and posts and ballpark franks handheld. And then I hope you guys all have a great week and we'll see you back here on Ops Experts Academy, Ops Experts Club next week.