How I work
What's free, what's paid, and where the line is.
I've spent years giving away the answer and then watching nothing happen with it. That helped nobody — not the person who got advice they hadn't asked for and didn't act on, and not me. So the line is written down here rather than renegotiated in every conversation.
The rule
Knowledge is free. Judgement is paid. Anything general — what a technology does, how a method works, which papers matter, what I've built and how — is published on this site and costs nothing. Read all of it.
What costs money is the specific bit: sitting with your numbers, your constraints and your team, and telling you what to do about them. That is the actual work, it takes real attention, and it's worth more to you when you've committed to it.
The practical consequence: I no longer offer opinions on businesses that haven't asked for one. If you want my read on yours, the door is an Operator's Call — not a coffee.
Published, and staying that way
About that free 15 minutes
It is a fit check. We work out whether your problem is one I can actually solve and whether you want it solved that way. I'll tell you straight if the answer is no, and I'll point you somewhere better if I know somewhere better.
What it isn't is a free diagnosis. If fifteen minutes in it's clear you want the thinking rather than the engagement, I'll say so and offer you the Operator's Call. Nobody has ever been offended by that, and it's a great deal fairer than pretending an hour of my attention is a rounding error.
The ladder
Five rungs, from a single hour to a standing engagement. All prices in Australian dollars. No hourly billing above the first rung, because hourly billing rewards me for being slow.
Operator's Call
You want my read on a specific decision — a tool, a hire, an automation, a system you're about to buy.
One hour, on your actual situation, with a written summary of what I'd do and in what order. Credited in full against any engagement booked within 30 days.
Quote pack
Trades and builders losing evenings to writing quotes.
Site photos and notes in, a drafted quote out, in your format. Live in about a week. 50% deposit by bank transfer.
Admin sprint
One repeating admin job that is still done by hand.
Map it, automate it on tools you already pay for, 14-day fix window after handover.
AI Operator Install
You already pay for Claude or ChatGPT and still only chat.
Memory, routing, three skills for the jobs that eat the week, written runbook. You keep your own subscription.
Things I don't do
- Free audits, free strategy sessions, or "just have a quick look at this".
- Speculative proposals. If scoping the work is the work, it's a Diagnostic.
- Putting your sensitive material into a third party's cloud model without telling you that's what's happening.
- Lock-in contracts. Retainers are month to month.
- Claiming results I can't evidence. There are no invented case studies on this site.
Book the rung that fits
If you're not sure which one, say what's going on in a couple of lines and I'll tell you — that part is free.