A thread on consulting:

Since 2013, I've done countless hours of consulting for various companies and organizations. I really couldn't tell you how many hours, but it's a lot. Sometimes I'm doing it alone, sometimes I'm doing it with @the_strix or a team in collaboration.

Sometimes I'm approached, and sometimes I approach the org with a request for a sit down to discuss some specific issues.

In every interaction, all parties are clear about the terms in advance.

Sometimes it's as informal as 'hey, this is bro bono' in email, and sometimes there is a contract. Full disclosure: all the work I do in terms of DEI consulting is pro bono or a request to donate to charity. I'm in it for the cause and to help improve the community and industry.

Doing it pro bon is a personal choice, and one I can afford. But I'm clear upfront on the terms.

What I don't do, what I'd never, ever do is do a bunch of free work and then switch to ask to be paid.

If, for some reason, the work became too much at a given point, I might say: Hey, it's been great working with you. If we were to continue, I think we'd need to renegotiate our terms.

More likely, I'd just point them to someone who I felt could do the work at a fair rate.

I'd always position it as a renegotiation of earlier terms. I'd never assume they'd want to continue with me, either. And if I got dropped--and I have been--I'd roll with it. Because that's normal in any business dealing. Sometimes you're even ghosted. Annoying, but not a biggie.

And that's my experience in consulting for the last 7 years in games (and also in nonprofit) and it's served me well. I've never, ever had a problem and I've worked with some of the largest orgs out there.

I also maintain confidentiality unless I ask if I can mention them.

As an aside, I've also had some challenging encounters since Daughters of Destiny came out.

99% of all interactions are AMAZING and I'm grateful to the people who write to Shanti Bhavan and interact with us.

However, I do get the rare person on occasion who writes to us and has a LOT of ideas on "how to improve Shanti Bhavan".

WOA--those emails are LONG. Like pages and pages LONG. And it's always an outsider's POV without knowing how we operate.

It's deeply challenging for us, because we understand that the person cares and thinks they are helping us, thinks they can make us better.

We try and engage as best we can. We write in appreciation for their ideas and usually they take this well, but sometimes it leads to more.

More emails, desires to get us on the phone, desires to come to the school and "see for themselves how they can help us improve", etc. I can also take a sudden, unexpected turn when they start asking for a job with us. It's really exhausting and a hard road to navigate.

This will always happen with something people care about passionately, and it will get more frequent and more challenging the larger an organization becomes. Obviously, this happens with media properties all the time.

That's why writers absolutely do NOT want to talk story ideas with fans, no matter how innocuous or innocent it may seem. It can easily backfire and blow up in their faces, with all sorts of accusations of ideas being stolen from the fan, lawsuits and more.

Hopefully this gives folks a deeper insight into the complexities of these situations!

By the way, I'm not interested in debating how consulting works here. Take it or leave it. Don't have the bandwidth for continued education on the topic. I'll hide replies of anyone trying to misdirect or derail the thread.