Episode 339: A $33 Salad ROI
In this solo podcast episode, Bradley Hamner explains why spending $33.11 on a DoorDash‑delivered salad was a worthwhile investment. He walks listeners through the "buyback principle" he learned from coach Dan Martell, which involves calculating one’s personal hourly rate and a derived "buyback rate" (hourly rate divided by four). By comparing the premium paid for the salad ($13‑$14) to the value of the time saved, Hamner shows how he reclaimed roughly an hour that he used for two high‑impact meetings, preparation for a Blueprint program session, sales outreach, and quick prep for two upcoming presentations. He argues that the true metric is not the raw cost of the meal but the revenue‑generating activities enabled by the saved time. Hamner also challenges listeners to consider other ways to buy back time, such as hiring assistants, and emphasizes the importance of knowing one’s hourly value. The episode includes a brief ad read for Club Capital and Coach P Consulting, which is framed as a separate sponsorship segment.
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Hey everyone, I know this is kind of a clickbaity title, but just hang with me here. I literally did just today pay $33 for a salad, and I'm going to share with you in this episode why it was worth it. All right, so I was in the gym, we had meetings. I'm recording this on a Monday. We had meetings all morning, back to back to back, and I put in the schedule for me to be able to go to the gym. So go to the gym, I'm getting a lift on. It's not— I'm just— I've been really working at being very consistent about getting a workout in, even if it's 10 to 15 minutes or so. So I'm trying to keep that commitment really to myself and being someone who, if I say I'm going to do this or I make a commitment to myself, I'm going to do it. So I'm in the gym, I'm having this workout in, around lunch and I start thinking about what I'm going to have because I didn't eat much of a breakfast. I don't eat much of a breakfast usually. So I start thinking about what I'm going to have to eat. And I said, you know what, to stick on this path of eating healthy, I'm going to get a salad. Well, there's a place called Chop and Fresh, or for some reason we call it Chop Chop, but it's just a salad place. And these salads by themselves are really expensive. As a matter of fact, I think the salad itself, as I pull it up on my phone from where I ordered it was, yeah, $18.50 plus tax. I mean, I know it's an expensive salad in and of itself. So then I was like, wait a minute, how far, how far of a drive is that to get to that place? So I didn't think it was far, but I was curious. So it was 12 minutes if I got in my truck immediately and went there. And so therefore it's 12 minutes back, so it's 24 minutes. Now it was going to be around, it was going to be between 12 and 12:30. As a fact, matter of fact, I think I ordered it right at 12. Yes, I did. As a matter of fact, now that I look at my picture on my phone, I did order it right at 12. So it was going to be right at the rush hour, the 12 to 1 o'clock time where everybody is going to be wanting to go into this place and get a salad. So I know it's going to take, I mean, 5 minutes at best, but let's just say that it was 6 minutes and that's no time for traffic lights or if there's an increased amount of traffic, if the line at this place is going to be long, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But we'll say that it was 30 minutes at best round trip. Well, if I ordered off DoorDash, how much do you think this was going to end up being? Well, of course, it ended up being a little over $33. Matter of fact, when you add it all up, it was $34.11. $34.11. Now, how does that break down? Well, it breaks down to $18.50 subtotal, $5 for the delivery fee, $3 for the service fee, $2.12 for estimated tax, and then the DoorDash Dasher tip was $5.50. So you add all that up, it's $34.11. Why do I think that that was a good return on investment? Well, it gets to this idea that I've mentioned before that I learned from one of my coaches, Dan Martell, and that is the buyback principle and your buyback rate. So the idea is, while I was working out, instead of me leaving, I could finish out and get another 35 or 40-minute workout in. Instead of going and driving and picking up the salad, I could actually have it delivered to me. And the real key is, is not just whether or not that was worth my time, so to speak. It is important to know what your rate is. And so there's a calculation where you go through and you look at what was your W-2, what was your profit distributions, and then what was your personal yaya, basically, you ran through the business. Divide that by $2,000, you get your hourly rate. When you divide that by 4, then you get what is called your buyback rate. I paid roughly, when you add this up, $13, $14 premium to buy this already expensive salad. So what's the point? Okay, Bradley, you had DoorDash deliver an expensive salad to you. We don't care. That doesn't help us.
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And I would agree with you except for this last part. The question is, is do you really philosophically believe in the idea of buying back your time or do you not? Because what you then fill that time back with is what really matters. Yes, I could have gone and picked up the salad myself and saved the premium $13, $14. I could have done that. But the question is, what did I do with the time? Well, there were 3 main things that I ended up doing with roughly what I believe was that hour of time. Number 1, I had 2 more meetings today that I prepared for, and those 2 meetings went incredibly well. Much better than they would have because I actually took the time to think about what the clear outcomes of those meetings are going to be. And I just talked about last week on the podcast, on the Friday episode, what I mean by clear outcome. So you can go back and listen to that episode and hear what I mean on that. So I wrote down in my journal, what do I want the clear outcome of these next two meetings to be? Number two is I prepared for the Blueprint program session for tomorrow. I needed another 15 to 20 minutes to carve out a few little things and you know, how much time are we going to spend here and what's the general rhythm and the pace are going to be on that session. And then number 3, I did some reachouts. I did some sales reachouts that ultimately could equate to thousands of dollars. And then even number 4, I spent about 5 minutes preparing for 2 presentations I'm giving this week. I'm giving a talk on Wednesday and I'm giving a presentation on Friday of this week. And so that time, in that hour of time, I was able to do some— I didn't spend a ton of time on those, but I was able to hit all 4 of those things. Those things are much more in line with what my own hourly rate is. You too have an hourly rate. I don't want to make this about me, but I want to do— do want to always share from the perspective of how I was thinking about it. This is what I was doing. This is how I was able to literally justify a $33 salad is because it actually bought back my time. And the key is, is what did I— did I know my hourly rate? How much is my buyback rate? And what did I do with the time? So here's the kind of the TL;DR, so to speak, for all of you. What is your hourly rate? Do you know what an hour of your time is worth, number 1. Number 2, if you know that, then you can figure out your buyback rate. Just take that number, divide it by 4. That's number 2. Then number 3, if you start to buy back your time, and that can look like— in this specific example, it can look like a salad delivered to you, and you pay the premium, you pay the $34 to have the salad delivered to you. Or it could also look like in the form of a growth assistant or an executive assistant. It could look like how the best use of money is to be able to buy back your time. And this is kind of an example of that. So I was able to do other things that ultimately will grow the business instead of me spending the at least 30, but more than likely it probably would have ex— uh, extended itself into an hour of time just to go and pick up lunch. So that thought process I think has been really helpful for me, and I hope that Uh, it's very specific example is helpful for all of you. I know I'm probably going to get some messages from some of you saying there's no way that I would spend $34 on, uh, one single salad. There's no way I would have somebody deliver that to me. And I understand, I used to be the exact same way. But once I understood this, this concept of the buyback principle and investing that, that time back into something that was actually going to grow the business, which forced me into think, well, what are the things that actually grow the business? That was incredibly insightful for me, and hopefully it was for you as well. All right, everyone, till next episode, lead well.
