Private Coaching Terms

1. Scope and relationship to other terms

These Private Coaching Terms (“Coaching Terms”) apply to Message & Method Private Coaching engagements. They supplement the Terms of Enrollment & Use, Privacy Policy, applicable proposal, checkout or payment information, and any other written terms presented before the engagement begins.

If these Coaching Terms conflict with the general Terms of Enrollment & Use, these more specific Coaching Terms control for the Private Coaching engagement. A separately signed proposal, statement of work, organizational agreement, or other written agreement controls to the extent of a direct conflict.

“Client” means the person or organization that purchases or contracts for the engagement. “Participant” means the individual receiving coaching. When the client and participant are the same person, both terms refer to that person.

2. Individually scoped engagements

Each Private Coaching engagement is individually scoped. The accepted proposal or written agreement will identify the services included, number and length of sessions, engagement period, schedule, fees, payment terms, between-session support, deliverables, recording arrangements, travel requirements, and any special conditions.

Unless the proposal states otherwise, the standard starting framework for Private Coaching consists of eight 60-minute one-to-one coaching sessions, 12 months of access to the complete Self-Directed Program, individualized assignments and feedback, and the level of between-session support described in these Coaching Terms.

The starting price displayed on the Message & Method website reflects this general level of engagement. The actual scope and price may vary based on duration, frequency, goals, support level, deliverables, schedule, format, preparation, travel, urgency, and other engagement-specific requirements.

No particular session, deliverable, support service, review, writing service, production service, or other benefit is included unless identified in the accepted proposal or applicable offer.

3. Coaching methodology and Self-Directed Program access

Private Coaching ordinarily includes access to the complete Message & Method Self-Directed Program because the program contains the educational framework, concepts, exercises, assessments, and tools used throughout the coaching relationship.

The Self-Directed Program is intended to function as a course of study between live coaching sessions and is not merely an optional bonus or separate promotional inclusion.

Unless the proposal states otherwise, Self-Directed Program access begins after the coaching agreement is accepted and the required payment is received. Access continues for 12 months from activation.

The participant is responsible for completing assigned lessons, exercises, speaking tasks, preparation, and other work reasonably connected to the coaching process.

Expiration or termination of coaching sessions does not automatically extend the Self-Directed Program access period, and expiration of platform access does not automatically extend the coaching engagement period.

4. Acceptance, payment, and commencement

A Private Coaching engagement begins only after the applicable proposal or agreement is accepted and the required payment, deposit, or first installment is received.

The accepted proposal will identify the total price, payment schedule, due dates, included services, and any expenses or third-party charges payable by the client.

If an installment arrangement is offered, the installments divide a fixed purchase obligation and do not create a cancel-anytime subscription. The full disclosed balance remains due unless the proposal expressly provides otherwise, Message & Method approves a written change, or applicable law requires another result.

Message & Method may suspend coaching, support, deliverables, scheduling, or course access while an amount remains overdue.

5. Scheduling and engagement period

The proposal will identify the engagement period and the anticipated coaching schedule. All sessions, reviews, support, and other included services must be used within that engagement period unless the parties agree otherwise in writing.

The client and participant are responsible for reviewing the proposed schedule before acceptance and for promptly identifying known conflicts.

Private Coaching does not create an indefinite right to schedule unused sessions at any future time. Unused services expire at the end of the stated engagement period unless Message & Method agrees in writing to an extension.

Message & Method may make reasonable scheduling adjustments and will communicate material changes as soon as practical.

6. Rescheduling by the participant

A participant should request rescheduling at least 24 hours before the scheduled session start time.

A request made at least 24 hours in advance will be considered in good faith but remains subject to mutual availability and the remaining engagement period.

If another workable time cannot be identified, the session may be treated as used and will not automatically extend the engagement period.

A cancellation or rescheduling request made with less than 24 hours’ notice may result in the session being treated as used, unless Message & Method agrees otherwise.

Message & Method may waive or modify these consequences in its discretion based on emergencies, illness, prior history, schedule availability, or other circumstances, but accommodation is not guaranteed and does not establish a continuing exception.

7. Late arrival and missed sessions

Coaching sessions begin and end at the scheduled times.

If the participant arrives late, the session will ordinarily proceed for the remaining scheduled time and will still end at the original end time.

Message & Method may accommodate additional time or another arrangement when practical but is not required to extend the session, delay another commitment, or reschedule the lost time.

If the participant has not joined or made contact within 15 minutes after the scheduled start time, Message & Method may treat the session as missed and used.

A missed or shortened session caused by the participant does not create a right to a refund, credit, replacement session, access extension, or reduction of the remaining payment obligation.

8. Rescheduling by Message & Method

If Message & Method must cancel or reschedule a session, it will make a good-faith effort to provide reasonable notice and arrange a replacement time without reducing the participant’s purchased coaching time.

If a replacement cannot be reasonably scheduled within the engagement period, Message & Method may extend the engagement, provide a credit, substitute another qualified coach with the client’s agreement, or provide another proportionate remedy.

A temporary scheduling change does not automatically create a refund right.

9. Participant inactivity and released appointments

Participant inactivity does not automatically cancel the engagement or eliminate paid but unused services before the engagement period ends.

If the participant is inactive, unresponsive, or not meaningfully participating for 30 consecutive days, Message & Method may provide notice and release future calendar reservations held for that participant.

Releasing reserved appointments does not automatically terminate the engagement. If the participant later resumes communication, Message & Method will make a good-faith effort to schedule remaining services within the original engagement period.

Message & Method is not required to restore previously held times, displace other clients, provide priority scheduling, or extend the engagement period because of participant inactivity.

If the engagement period ends before remaining services can be scheduled, those services expire unless Message & Method agrees otherwise in writing.

10. Between-session support

Unless the proposal states otherwise, standard Private Coaching includes reasonable between-session support through the designated support channel.

Responses are ordinarily provided within two business days. This is a normal response target rather than a guarantee of immediate availability.

Between-session support does not include continuous access, emergency response, evening or weekend availability, unlimited messaging, unlimited document review, substantial unscheduled consulting, rush work, or creation of additional deliverables unless the proposal expressly includes those services.

Message & Method may use email, a private support form, a client portal, or another designated channel for support requests.

The proposal may limit the number, length, type, frequency, or total review time of scripts, slides, recordings, documents, or other materials submitted between sessions.

Unused support capacity does not accumulate beyond the engagement period and does not convert into cash, refunds, credits, additional sessions, or future services.

11. Preparation and participant responsibilities

The participant is responsible for completing agreed preparation, attending sessions ready to work, and providing requested scripts, recordings, slides, background information, or other materials by any stated deadline.

If materials are submitted late, advance review may not be possible. The session may proceed without advance review, or the review may be deferred or treated as additional work.

The participant is responsible for the truth, accuracy, originality, authorization, legal clearance, and final use of the participant’s speeches, presentations, claims, examples, data, quotations, visual aids, and other content.

The participant must obtain any permissions needed to share employer, client, confidential, copyrighted, personal, or third-party material.

Message & Method may rely on factual and background information provided by the client or participant and is not responsible for independently verifying every factual assertion unless verification is expressly included in the scope.

12. Scope of coaching and additional work

Services and deliverables are limited to the scope stated in the accepted proposal.

Coaching may include strategy, structure, editing, rehearsal, feedback, practice, planning, and other services expressly identified in the proposal.

Speechwriting, slide design, research, production, extensive editing, content development, event support, rush work, travel, or other specialized services are included only when expressly stated.

A request made after acceptance that expands the number of sessions, level of review, deliverables, research, writing, design, production, travel, turnaround, or other responsibilities is outside the original scope.

Message & Method is not required to perform expanded or additional work unless the parties agree in writing to the revised scope, fees, timing, and any other affected terms.

Email or another written electronic communication may constitute approval of additional work when it clearly identifies the added service and associated charge.

13. Session recordings

Message & Method may record coaching sessions and may make recordings available to the participant for review.

Recording and recording availability are intended conveniences and are not guaranteed.

A session may not be recorded, and a recording may be incomplete, corrupted, delayed, lost, removed, or unavailable because of technical failure, data loss, privacy concerns, storage limitations, service-provider failure, restoration from backup, or other circumstances.

Recording failure, loss, corruption, delay, or unavailability does not by itself create a right to a refund, replacement session, credit, access extension, or other remedy.

Whether a recording may be streamed, downloaded, retained, or accessed for a particular period depends on the technology and terms stated for the engagement.

The participant may not independently record, screen-record, audio-record, transcribe, photograph, or use an automated meeting assistant, artificial-intelligence note taker, browser extension, or other recording or transcription service during a coaching session without prior permission.

An accessibility-related recording or transcription request should be raised in advance so that Message & Method can consider an appropriate alternative.

14. Confidentiality

Message & Method will treat non-public coaching information as confidential and will use it only as reasonably necessary to provide, administer, secure, support, and document the engagement.

Confidential information may be disclosed to service providers acting on behalf of Message & Method, professional advisers, or others where reasonably necessary for the engagement, subject to appropriate confidentiality or privacy obligations.

Confidentiality does not prevent disclosure required by law, court order, legal process, professional obligation, safety concern, prevention of harm, enforcement of these terms, or protection of rights.

If the client requires a mutual nondisclosure agreement, special confidentiality provisions, regulated-data terms, restricted systems, or particular security requirements, those arrangements must be agreed in writing before the relevant information is shared.

The participant should not submit trade secrets, protected health information, payment-card information, government identifiers, export-controlled material, privileged information, or third-party confidential information unless the applicable agreement and systems expressly permit it.

15. Employer-sponsored or organization-sponsored coaching

An employer, organization, or other sponsor may purchase Private Coaching for a participant.

Before the engagement begins, the proposal or agreement should identify the client, participant, payment responsibility, scope, ownership of commissioned deliverables, and what attendance, scheduling, progress, completion, or other information may be shared with the sponsor.

Unless the written agreement states otherwise, substantive coaching discussions, personal reflections, draft materials, feedback, and session content remain confidential and will not be reported to the sponsor merely because the sponsor paid for the engagement.

Message & Method may provide administrative information reasonably necessary to manage the engagement, such as scheduling status, attendance, completion, payment, or use of purchased services, as permitted by the applicable agreement and Privacy Policy.

16. Virtual, local in-person, and travel-based services

Private Coaching may be delivered virtually, locally in person, through travel to another location, or through a hybrid arrangement, as stated in the proposal.

Where an engagement requires travel, the proposal will identify the categories of travel-related charges payable by the client.

Travel-related charges may include travel time, mileage, tolls, parking, airfare, rail travel, lodging, ground transportation, meals, venue charges, equipment, shipping, and other reasonable expenses associated with delivery.

Unless the proposal requires item-by-item approval, Message & Method may make reasonable arrangements within the agreed travel framework without obtaining separate approval for each individual expense.

The proposal may use a fixed travel fee, allowance, estimate, expense cap, actual-expense arrangement, travel-time charge, or another agreed method.

Local in-person services may be subject to mileage, tolls, parking, travel-time, venue, equipment, or similar charges as stated in the proposal.

If travel plans are cancelled or changed because of the client, the client remains responsible for nonrefundable or nonrecoverable travel commitments incurred under the agreed arrangement.

17. Client-created materials

The client and participant retain ownership of their original speeches, scripts, ideas, source materials, recordings, presentation content, and other materials they create or provide, subject to any rights belonging to third parties.

The client represents that it has the rights and permissions necessary for materials it supplies and is responsible for claims arising from unauthorized, infringing, unlawful, or improperly disclosed client-supplied material.

The client grants Message & Method the limited permission necessary to review, edit, reproduce, display, transmit, store, and process those materials for purposes of providing the engagement.

18. Commissioned deliverables and ownership

The proposal will identify any commissioned deliverables and the rights the client will receive in them.

Unless the proposal states otherwise, upon full payment the client receives a broad, perpetual license to use, reproduce, display, perform, modify, and distribute the final commissioned deliverables for the client’s own lawful business, professional, organizational, or personal purposes.

Any assignment of copyright or other ownership rights must be expressly stated in the proposal and becomes effective only after full payment.

Delivery of a final work product does not include editable source files, project files, working files, drafts, unused concepts, internal notes, production files, software, proprietary templates, course materials, methods, prompts, systems, or tools unless the proposal expressly includes them.

The proposal may specify the delivery format of a commissioned work, including PDF, presentation file, document file, video file, image file, editable source file, or another format.

19. Retained methods and pre-existing materials

Message & Method retains ownership of its pre-existing and independently developed curriculum, methods, frameworks, templates, tools, processes, prompts, assessments, systems, course materials, software, working methods, general know-how, and reusable components.

Use of retained Message & Method materials within a commissioned deliverable does not transfer ownership of those underlying materials.

The client may use the final deliverable under the rights granted in the proposal, but may not extract, resell, teach, license, distribute, or commercialize Message & Method’s underlying course materials, templates, tools, or methods as standalone products unless expressly authorized.

20. Third-party materials and licenses

A deliverable may incorporate third-party materials such as photographs, illustrations, fonts, music, video, quotations, data, software, templates, or other licensed content.

Third-party materials remain subject to their own licenses and are not transferred beyond the rights permitted by those licenses.

The client is responsible for complying with usage restrictions disclosed in the proposal, deliverable documentation, license information, or accompanying materials.

Message & Method will identify material usage restrictions known to apply to third-party assets it obtains for the engagement, but does not guarantee that a third-party license permits every possible future use, territory, medium, duration, audience, modification, or distribution method.

The client is responsible for obtaining any expanded rights needed for uses outside the permitted scope.

21. Post-delivery use and client responsibility

Once a final deliverable is delivered and placed under the client’s control, the client is responsible for its publication, distribution, performance, modification, updating, combination with other materials, regulatory use, factual accuracy, and use outside the purposes or rights stated in the proposal.

The client is responsible for claims arising from unauthorized modification, use, distribution, licensing, or publication after delivery, except to the extent caused by Message & Method’s own breach, infringement, negligence, or wrongdoing.

Message & Method is not responsible for changes made by the client or another party after delivery, or for reliance on information that later becomes outdated, inaccurate, unlawful, or inappropriate.

22. Revisions and approval

The proposal may identify the number, type, or period of included revisions for commissioned deliverables.

Revisions must remain within the agreed scope. A request that changes the objective, audience, format, content volume, creative direction, technical specifications, or approved concept may be treated as additional work.

The client is responsible for reviewing deliverables and providing timely, consolidated, and authorized feedback.

Approval of a final deliverable confirms acceptance of the work as presented, subject to any unresolved written correction or obligation.

23. Right to decline proposed work

Message & Method may decline a proposed engagement for any lawful reason, including lack of fit, availability, timing, scope, conflict of interest, safety concern, requests outside our competence, or unwillingness to participate in unlawful, deceptive, infringing, discriminatory, abusive, exploitative, or unethical work.

Message & Method is not required to provide a detailed explanation for declining a proposed engagement, except where required by law or necessary to address an existing payment or contractual obligation.

24. Termination for client breach or misconduct

Message & Method may suspend or terminate an active engagement for good cause, including nonpayment, material breach, harassment, threats, dishonesty, fraud, repeated noncooperation, unsafe conduct, unlawful or deceptive requested work, infringement concerns, conflict of interest, misuse of services, or circumstances that make continued performance impracticable or professionally inappropriate.

Where reasonable, Message & Method may provide notice and an opportunity to correct the issue before termination. Immediate suspension or termination may occur where the circumstances present a safety, legal, security, fraud, confidentiality, harassment, or substantial disruption risk.

If termination results from the client’s or participant’s material breach or misconduct, amounts attributable to completed sessions, preparation, reserved time, delivered services, work performed, nonrecoverable commitments, and third-party expenses remain nonrefundable to the extent permitted by law.

Any refund for undelivered services after termination for breach will be determined based on the remaining material value of the engagement, the cause of termination, costs already incurred, and applicable law.

Remaining installment obligations may continue unless Message & Method agrees otherwise in writing or applicable law requires another result.

25. Termination by Message & Method without client breach

Message & Method may end an engagement for reasons not caused by the client, including serious illness, incapacity, unexpected conflict, business interruption, or another circumstance that makes continued performance impracticable.

Where practical, Message & Method may offer rescheduling, an extension, a qualified substitute, a transition, a credit, or another reasonable alternative.

If Message & Method terminates the engagement for reasons not caused by the client and cannot provide a reasonable substitute or transition, the client will receive a prorated refund for material services not delivered.

The prorated amount may account for sessions completed, preparation performed, deliverables completed, work in progress, course access already activated, support already provided, nonrecoverable third-party expenses, and other material services already delivered.

A prorated refund will not include compensation for incidental costs, lost opportunities, lost income, travel arrangements made independently by the client, or consequential losses to the extent permitted by law.

26. Client cancellation and nonrefundable nature of coaching

Private Coaching purchases are nonrefundable except where the accepted proposal expressly states otherwise, Message & Method cannot deliver a material undelivered portion, these Coaching Terms provide a remedy, or applicable law requires a refund.

Change of mind, scheduling difficulty, workload, personal circumstances, failure to prepare, failure to attend, dissatisfaction with the participant’s own progress, voluntary withdrawal, inactivity, or failure to use included services does not create refund eligibility.

Time already delivered, preparation performed, work completed, calendar capacity reserved, course access activated, and nonrecoverable expenses remain nonrefundable to the extent permitted by law.

The 90-Day Completion-Based Refund Policy for eligible individual Self-Directed Program purchases does not apply to Private Coaching or to Self-Directed Program access included as part of a Private Coaching engagement.

27. No guaranteed results and participant responsibility

Private Coaching provides education, expertise, candid feedback, structured practice, strategic guidance, and individualized support.

Recommendations, feedback, strategies, exercises, and other guidance provided during coaching are offered for the participant’s consideration. The participant retains final authority and responsibility for decisions, content, delivery, publication, communication, and implementation, including whether and how any coaching guidance is used.

Because Message & Method does not control the participant’s circumstances or implementation, no particular speaking improvement, confidence level, audience response, keynote acceptance, funding decision, sale, promotion, media result, professional advancement, income, or other external outcome is guaranteed.

Results depend on preparation, participation, practice, judgment, implementation, prior experience, timing, audience conditions, organizational circumstances, and other factors outside Message & Method’s control.

28. Educational and professional boundaries

Private Coaching is an educational and consulting service. It is not medical care, psychotherapy, legal advice, tax advice, financial advice, employment representation, or another licensed professional service.

Message & Method may recommend that the client consult an attorney, accountant, healthcare provider, mental-health professional, employment adviser, licensing specialist, or another qualified professional where the circumstances reasonably call for specialized advice.

29. Technology and service availability

Virtual coaching requires compatible equipment, a reliable internet connection, working audio and video, and a suitable environment.

Message & Method may use third-party platforms for meetings, recordings, scheduling, support, file delivery, course access, communication, and payment processing.

Temporary technical failures, maintenance, platform outages, recording loss, or service-provider interruptions do not automatically create a refund or replacement-session right.

If a material technical failure prevents a substantial portion of a scheduled session from occurring, Message & Method may provide additional time, rescheduling, a credit, or another proportionate adjustment based on the circumstances.

30. Survival

Provisions concerning payment, confidentiality, intellectual property, commissioned deliverables, third-party materials, participant content, post-delivery responsibility, recordings, disclaimers, liability, indemnification, disputes, and other provisions that by their nature should continue will survive expiration, cancellation, or termination of the engagement.

31. Contact

Questions regarding scheduling, support, course access, or engagement administration may be sent to [email protected].

Legal notices may be sent to [email protected].