You're doing $25/hour work with a $150/hour Brain
- David Corp.
- Mar 2
- 3 min read
Calculate Then Delegate...But First, Let's Talk Burnout
In 2025, work and communication piled up until it became unsustainable. I tried to push harder, and it only made things worse. I could feel myself grinding into the ground.
I was burning out.
One afternoon I shut my laptop and thought:
"This can't keep going. I'm going to continue burning out. How did I get here? I used to be excited when work came in. Now it stresses me out. I need to fix this. I need to share the load so I can grow the business and actually enjoy it again."
That moment led to one question: what is the value of one hour of my work?
The formula
I took my annual income goal and divided it by 2,000 hours. That one number rewired how I looked at my calendar.
I could suddenly see how often I was saying yes to work that paid far below my real rate.
Find your hourly value
Start with your annual income goal, the money you want to take home in a year.
Use income, not revenue.
Revenue funds the business. Income funds your life.
Now divide by 2,000 hours, a standard work year.
Annual income goal ÷ 2,000 = hourly value
Examples
100,000 ÷ 2,000 = $50/hr
200,000 ÷ 2,000 = $100/hr
350,000 ÷ 2,000 = $175/hr
Use it as a filter
Your hourly value becomes a simple rule:
If a task pays below it, delegate it or automate it.
Business tasks. Personal tasks. All of it.
Even paying someone to cut your grass counts. If it pulls you below your hourly value, it belongs on someone else’s plate.
Protect the rate. Protect the life.
The noise
Before you touch another task, ask:
Is this the highest-value thing I can do today?
Is this work only I can do, or work I’m refusing to train someone else to do?
Is this moving the business forward, or just keeping the wheels from wobbling?
If I delegated this, would it free me to sell, lead, or improve operations?
Is this task worth my rate, or is it stealing hours from the work that pays?
Why are you doing $25/hour work with a $150/hour brain?
The signal
Trust grows as you release the smaller tasks to the people who can handle them. As they carry the groundwork, high-leverage work becomes possible because your team supports the foundation beneath it.
For the busy business owners and managers who needs to hear this:
You do not have to do everything yourself.
You do not need to be the point person for every project.
You are the bottleneck.
Step aside and let your team move.
They cannot grow if you never release the workload. They cannot lead if you never give them the room to lead. Your direction sets the path, but your team carries the work.
Shameless plug
If marketing is the one thing you struggle to keep up with and you want to drop in 2026, it may be time to stop forcing it into your schedule and hand it to a team built to run it.
We are taking on clients who are ready for a full marketing team retainer model, including website, branding, marketing materials, SEO, social media, and ongoing website maintenance, so you get consistent growth without carrying the workload.
If you want details on availability and pricing, you can request the retainer overview by replying “TEAM” and I’ll send details.
The thirty-day plan
Write your annual income goal
Calculate your hourly value
List five tasks that sit below that value
Remove, automate, or hand off those tasks
Protect one quiet hour each week for planning
Create space for deeper work in 2026.
The success
You move through February with more intention. You feel lighter. And your team grows because they are trusted to carry meaningful tasks.
One closing thought
Growth comes from focusing on the hours that carry the most weight.
Talk soon,
David Gravois
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