Stop Being the Bottleneck: How to Let Go and Lead

As entrepreneurs, we often believe that if we don’t do everything ourselves, it won’t get done right. But that belief is exactly what keeps us stuck, burned out, and bottlenecking our own growth.

In this episode, we share how to finally stop trying to do it all yourself and free up your time and energy for the work that actually matters. Using a simple framework, you’ll learn how to categorize every task and decide what to keep, what to delegate, what to automate, and what to delete.

We cover:

• The 4 categories every task falls into: keep, delegate, automate, or delete
• Why 80% of what you’re doing right now doesn’t really move the needle
• How the 80/20 principle, and even the 4/64 rule, apply to your work
• Why hiring and outsourcing are only effective if you pick the right people
• How automation works best when paired with clear processes
• The freedom and growth that come when you finally let go

Letting go is about stepping into leadership. And when you stop being the bottleneck, your business has the space it needs to grow.

Want to know what’s really keeping you from letting go? Take the Energy Leadership Index Assessment and book a personalized 90-minute debrief with Anna. You’ll discover how your mindset impacts your ability to delegate, automate, and lead, and what to do about it.

“Delegation is smart. Abdication is dangerous. Know the difference.” – Jores Minasvand

Transcript for “How to Stop Trying to Do Everything Yourself”

The transcript below was automatically generated. Please ignore any errors or inconsistencies in the text.

Anna Angelova   0:04
Good morning, good evening, good afternoon, good wherever you are, wherever you are. This is more than just Task Management, your favorite daily podcast where we help you build a thriving business. And I’m Anna Angelova, your favorite co-host and business coaching consultant.
And well, actually I guess second favorite co-host, because here with me is Joris Minas Vand, your favorite co-host and a business consultant. Hey, Joris, I think it’s Thursday.

Jores Minasvand   0:34
Hey, Anna.
Ayanna, well, I’m the one who’s supposed to be mixing up these days. I always rely on you. I ask you on a Tuesday if it’s Friday and you say no, it’s Monday. So you you shouldn’t be mixing these days. I’m the one who’s mixing these days. I’m the dinosaur. And hey, everyone. Ayanna.

Anna Angelova   0:52
Everyone.

Jores Minasvand   0:54
Happy Thursday, almost the end of the week. What an amazing week. We have talked a lot about technology, productivity and management styles. So it’s been a very, very good week and today we talk about.
How a leader, a business owner leader, regardless of the size of the business, should stop trying to do everything themselves and how to use the three levels of.
The three levels that that we will talk about to not overwhelm themselves, we talked about yesterday, don’t overwhelm your team with technology. Today we’ll ask to help you.
Take some of that over and off of your back and and instead of working 200 hours a week, you can work, you know, a few hours, grow and still have time for yourself, for your family, for your children, for your loved ones, for your whatever your habits, whatever it is that that your passion is.
So I will stop talking now and give it back to the to the main host. She’s the one that talks lost productivity and I’ll just chime in here and there. Just snippets of my, you know, dinosaur era consulting experiences that I will share with everyone.

Anna Angelova   2:14
Fantastic. And I would say that it’s probably contagious. So that’s why, that’s why I’m like, what day is it today? So yeah, today we’re talking about, OK, how to to stop trying to do everything yourself.
And The thing is that as the business owner, you probably started this business with a lot of passion, with a lot of love in your heart to for what you’re doing. And it’s not easy giving it to others, even when they’re more experienced, even when they know more about this than you, that a certain area than you. This is your business and it’s really hard to.
To let go and give someone else the chance to help you. And one of the other things is that we rarely ask for help, right? So how do you do this? I would say there are a couple of things that come to my mind right now.
So one thing is as you were starting, so as you were starting to, you know, get to a place where like you’re overwhelmed, like Joris, like you said, you’re working 200 hours a week. So I would say at least like least everything you’re doing.
And put these things into categories. What are the things that you should be doing? You’re the only one can do and you should keep on doing. What are the things that still need to be done for the business, but someone else can do this? Like if you already have a team, maybe someone else on your team can do this if you don’t have a-team yet.
Maybe these are opportunities for you to hire someone or outsource activities. Then what are things that can be automated, like some things you might be doing that can actually be automated? And what are the things that can actually be deleted?
And like, we love being busy, like we wear busyness as a badge of honor. And the truth is that a lot of the things that we do are not relevant, that they don’t really move the needle, that whether we do it or not, it doesn’t really matter.
And I know you don’t want to hear this, but chances are that 80% of what you’re doing doesn’t really matter for you and your business and you as the leader. So start with this, list everything you do and put it in these categories. What are the things that you should really keep on doing because you’re the only one that can do these things you can delegate things you can.
Can actually automate and things that can be deleted and then for the ones that are delegated and automated, write down what they are. If you don’t have this yet, like if you don’t have those SOPS, if you don’t have those.
Standards created yet? Write it down. Start with one like. Start with one of the the processes. Start with one of the activities that you do and write it down. What it is, why it matters, how it’s done, what are the important guidelines about this thing and hand it off.
That’s it. As easy as it can be. It’s really with anything when it comes to what we do, right? As business owners, it’s all about our mindset. It’s all about how we see things and.
When you elevate your mindset from that, oh, I need to hold in to hold on to this to letting things go. You stop being the bottleneck and amazing things can happen for you. So anyway, this is where I’m starting. And Joris, I want to hear your experience, especially curious to to see.
How did dinosaurs do this?

Jores Minasvand   5:56
Well, we didn’t have AI. We had the Flintstones that that we outsourced everything to them. They used to do it in the in the stone factory for us, hedge everything on the stones. But I think you covered it really good.
Automate, delegate and delete. Now when it comes to the deletion, well I think deletion is is really easy to understand, but from a for a lead from a leader’s perspective.
We talked about this. I think it was the first or second week we were starting our podcast about 1200 years ago. Feels like it. We talked about 2080 rule, only 20% of the tasks that you do.
Will have 80% effect on your business. Like you said, move will move the needle. Focus on that 20%.
It takes maybe 15 minutes on a Sunday afternoon or a Saturday or Friday, whatever your sort of half day off is and see take your list and say I’ve automated whatever I could. There’s a list of 15 things that I need to do and then.
Prioritize based on the 20% that has 80% effect on your business growth, on your sales, on your bottom line, on your revenue.
And that will just get rid of all the overwhelm and and and it will reduce not only the task that you’re doing, but it will give you the time for you to be able to grow and double your size. Like you said, you’re if you’re working 200 hours a week, you don’t have time to hire.
Who are you gonna hire? Gonna manage people? They’re gonna come in and say, well, this guy’s so disorganized he can’t even manage himself. Why is he hiring me?
They’ll either be useless or they’ll leave in a week. So I think if you focus on that 20% of tasks, you will be successful.

Anna Angelova   7:58
Such a great point, absolutely. And it goes Even so when you are starting, I definitely say the 20% tasks that produce 80% of the results and then as your business grows as you.
Bring more people in your team, whether it’s hiring, outsourcing doesn’t really matter. Then it actually, I I think we’ve mentioned it, it actually goes even further where?
4% of what you do actually impacts 64%, deliver 64% of the results and then .8% of what you do, I think it went to like 50% or 51%. So most of the things, most of the results come from .8% of of.
Of your input and and activities, and I know it’s easy to say, and there are quite a few things that play a role here. Of course, like one of the biggest thing is that you need to have someone to delegate this to.
And that’s why we’ve talked about outsourcings, we’ve talked about hiring. You need to have the right person to to take over, because if you give the work to someone who is not capable, who you don’t trust, it will actually create more stress for you than help you.
So of course like it’s like you need to have people who can take over with the automation as well. Like you need to spend some time, have the right to and have the right process to automate things so they can like test this so things can you know that things are running smoothly and the way that they’re.
Supposed to run. So there are of course things that come into play, like it’s not just listing things down and like OK and here it is. I delegated of course like if and again, even if you don’t have anyone, then it means that OK, the next step for you is to actually hire someone or or find someone to outsource.
And this is really important, like it’s really important for you to find people who can do things better than you do, who have the the required attitude, the required mindset, who really free you up. Like people where when you think in in the future, like when you when you think about, oh, I I need to give this to.
To this person, you actually feel empowered. You feel like, yeah, I I want to give it to this person. I know that when I give it to this person, it will be done. It will be done above my expectations and I can go and enjoy a nice afternoon on my Harley.

Jores Minasvand   10:35
100 percent, 100%. And and I think it was last week also we talked about focus. When you have only 20% of tasks to do, you can lock yourself in a room, you can focus so well and do those 20% of your tasks so well.
That you’ll even the results will astonish yourself. And then, like you said, the rest you can, the rest of the day you can get out and do whatever you want. I mean, cigar with your brother, ride a Harley. I mean, it’s, it’s, it’s your own freedom, right? It it’s.
I don’t think passion for life is just running a business or doing work. There’s more to do, and for us to have the time and the money to do the rest of the stuff that makes us passionate, we have to be efficient at work.
And to like automate, outsource, delete and focus. There’s no other way of putting it.

Anna Angelova   11:40
Yeah, there’s no other way of putting it, and this is actually your action item for today. List your tasks, everything you do throughout the week, and if you want, you can do this to keep track of everything you’re doing for a week or even like a month.
Just to see in case there are some cyclical things that don’t happen, some things that you do at the beginning of the month but don’t do right now. Well, it’s the beginning of the month I think anyway, so if you do something at the end of the month, but not right now. So ultimately your action item for for today is list everything you do and put it in the.
These four categories, what are the things that you should really keep on doing? What are the things that you can and should delegate? What are the things that can be automated and what are the things that can and should be deleted? Do you do this and after you list this then?
Pick one of the tasks and either delete it if it’s in the delete, automate it if it’s in automate, or delegate it if it’s in the delegate. Pick one and you go from there and once you do this, you’ll be like oh.
It feels so good. Let me pick the next one and let me pick the next one. And if you still struggle with this though, I highly recommend reaching out and exploring the Energy Leadership Index assessment that can actually help you to see what’s going on and.
And how you see this situation in particular and in general how you show up. So I’ll add the link in the description so we can help you figure this out and finally stop trying to do everything yourself.

Jores Minasvand   13:24
Amazing session Anna. Thank you. I think this was it was pretty insightful from my perspective, but again, if anyone likes to speak to us in more extent about this, contact us.
And come to our join our community. There’s a lot of useful stuff there that can help you. You’ll be surprised and yeah.

Anna Angelova   13:51
Yep, absolutely. Second date. So thank you Joris. And tomorrow we are wrapping up the week with talking about raising your prices. So if there is a topic, yeah, if there is a topic that that you you shouldn’t miss, this is the one. So join us to talk about money kaching.

Jores Minasvand   13:59
Money, money, money, money, money, money.