You’ve either clicked on this page as you were exploring my website, or you received an email in response to a question you had. Either way - welcome. If you are offended by people who express their boundaries we probably won’t work well together. You should save yourself some time and leave now.

Boundaries are the limits or expectations we have of how we will allow people to treat us. It’s kind of like the “rules of the game,” or expectations. For a more complete explanation go here.

Because I know people can’t read my mind, and it’s labor intensive and time consuming to type all this out every time someone asks me a question, I’m posting my most common boundaries here for easy reference. IF you are a client, or potential client, I have different boundaries because you’re paying for my time. Okay that said, here they are:

Unless you’re paying me for answers, I don’t answer questions to things you can find online. Yes my dear friends, this applies to you too. If I can Google it, so can you. I am happy to give you my opinion, talk about my experience, or answer things pertinent to me, or you, but I will not and do not do anyone’s Google searches for them.

Do not ask me about how to do anything unless you want to pay me for the time it will take me to teach you, explain it or show you. The internet is your free university. I learned all I know by trial and error, search and research and so can you. I provide (and update) pages on this website with free resources, videos, links and other information and sites that I have found to be good, legitimate and safe, or that have excellent information. I am in the process of creating more pages and sites, but it’s time consuming and unpaid work, so it takes longer. You might not think that asking me, “What do you know about _______?” would take much time, but chances are I get 4-20 similar requests a DAY asking the same thing. That’s why I have an FAQ and am building a resources page. In the meantime - Google is wonderful and you’ll learn more YOU centric stuff than I could ever relay.

Please check my resource page before searching Google and save some time, but do not email me for “more details.” If I list it, I like it. You’re on your own as far as doing any additional heavy lifting or determining if it is a good fit for you. Just because I had success on a writing site is no indication you will, so it does me no good to tell you if I think it’s a good fit for you. I can tell you if it worked for me. Only you know your financial, spiritual and emotional needs. I can do amazing things, but reading your mind and playing psychic aren’t among them.

Most of my links are affiliate links. They don’t cost you anything to click through, but the pittance they pay me when when you buy something through this site helps me justify taking time to provide the resources I do. Please appreciate that and show that appreciation by buying things through this site when possible. I think I made like $10 last month - an all time high.

Ebooks for sale on this site. The ebooks for sale on this site give more details and information about various topics. They’re for the person who wants more specifics. The $1 to $10 price is well worth the value you receive. I don’t post anyone else’s books here unless I’ve read it or own it myself, or unless I know their content to be consistently excellent - like Bob Bly’s books. I will be posting more and more of my books. By buying them you show your support and make more free or low-cost content possible. Thank you!

I don’t work weekends. Weekends are mine. I walk my dog, go to the gym, hang out with friends, watch movies I’ve been wanting to see and I catch up on sleep and correspondence. If you want me to work weekends my rate is double - $250 an hour. That kind of eases the pain of giving up some time off, you know?

I am a full-time freelancer. Notice that the “free” in freelancer doesn’t mean I work for free. It means I’m not attached to an employer other than myself. If I don’t work, I don’t eat. If I don’t work and don’t charge for my time I can’t pay my bills. I don’t go into a “job” and I don’t punch a time clock but that doesn’t mean I am not working. I promise you! It doesn’t! Therefore, no matter how much I might want to, I can’t drop everything to chat, to go shopping or text about nothing in particular. I have a select, but small group of friends and clients who I will drop everything for to help, but if I haven’t expressly told you to “call anytime,” then you probably aren’t on that list. If you respect my boundaries though - you could be!

Even for those friends if I’m on deadline I will not pick up the phone or respond to a text or IM. For everyone - you need to schedule a time to talk if your call will take more than 5-10 minutes.

People I enjoy talking to: Old friends, friends who I’ve known for some time, new friends I’ve extended an invitation to talk to, reporters, people who have seen my TED video and want to say hi, or ask a question, people I have a reciprocal relationship with. If I don’t know you and you simply just “want to talk,” that’s not going to happen unless there’s a really good reason. Email me and let me know what that is and I’ll get back with you. Just because we do talk once and have a great conversation doesn’t mean we are instant friends and that I will want to “check in” with you daily or weekly or monthly. Some of my best friends only get calls once a month!

What I talk about: Pretty much anything and everything depending on the type of relationship. One thing I don’t “just talk” about - with friends or anyone else on a casual or “free” basis - is business details. If you have questions about how to do something, questions that involve business specific answers, that is a business call and I charge for that. For instance, you might ask: “What can I do to drive readers to my blog or to make money online? Answer: Write an ebook.” That’s a general and free response. A specific question like: “What kind of ebook should I write, how long should it be, why, how would I promote it?” Those are business questions and those answers I charge for. My rate is $125 an hour. Book me fast. My rates may go up.

My schedule is packed. I may be able to talk to you about your project within 48-to-72 hours, but chances are if you have a project it will be at least a week (for small projects) and several months for large (ghosting a book etc) ones.

Book it or lose it. I get a lot of people who want to book me, promise to book me, plan on booking me and then get upset when they find out my schedule is already booked. He who hesitates is lost - or at least the slot for your project is.

My fees for ghosting a book (not an ebook) BEGIN at $5,000 and go up from there depending on the length of book, how much research is involved and a lot of factors too numerous to list here. If you want to know more schedule an appointment. The first 30 minutes is free. We’ll both know by then if we click and would work well together.

I know, I know - these sound pretty blunt. I tried being less blunt in my emails to people, but it didn’t work. Most people understand what it means to be a freelancer, or what my schedule involves, but many do not. I love my readers, those who follow me and my clients! I really do! But I am busier now than I have ever been - mostly discovering the things I’ve been missing out on up until now. So now I’m taking care of me - and that means putting some limits on my time. Thank you for reading this far and for understanding.