Effective Date: August 11, 2026
These Consulting Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern paid consultations booked with CJ Trowbridge (“Consultant,” “I,” “me,” or “my”).
By booking, paying for, or participating in a consultation after accepting these Terms through one of the methods in Section 34, you (“Client” or “you”) acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agreed to these Terms.
IMPORTANT DISPUTE NOTICE: THESE TERMS CONTAIN A BINDING ARBITRATION AGREEMENT. EXCEPT FOR CERTAIN CLAIMS DESCRIBED BELOW, YOU AND I AGREE TO RESOLVE DISPUTES THROUGH BINDING ARBITRATION RATHER THAN A LAWSUIT BEFORE A JUDGE OR JURY. YOU ARE WAIVING THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL FOR COVERED CLAIMS.
You are purchasing a defined period of my time for conversation, consultation, analysis, brainstorming, feedback, strategic discussion, or other advisory interaction.
Unless we separately agree otherwise in writing, your purchase does not include research before or after the meeting, written work products, implementation, project work, continuing support, follow-up correspondence, or any other services outside the scheduled consultation.
The consultation begins and ends at the scheduled times.
Booking one consultation does not create an ongoing consulting relationship or obligate either party to work together in the future.
You must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity and authority to enter into these Terms. If you book on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms.
Payment is due in full at the time of booking.
The publicly listed prices for appointments booked through the Consultant’s public Calendly page are introductory first-time prices. They apply only to the first consultation for a Client, organization, or project. A different person booking on behalf of, participating in, or working with the same Client, organization, or project is not eligible for another introductory first-time price.
Rates for future appointments, repeat consultations, and ongoing or expanded work may differ from the introductory first-time price, including being higher or lower. The Consultant may quote future work based on its scope, type, complexity, preparation required, timing, and the Client’s stated ability to pay. The Consultant will provide the applicable rate before an appointment or work is booked or begins, and no additional work is required unless the Client agrees to its scope and rate in advance.
Except where required by law or expressly provided in these Terms, all sales are final and all payments are non-refundable.
You are purchasing the reservation and provision of my time, not any particular answer, recommendation, deliverable, solution, outcome, or result.
Dissatisfaction with the consultation, disagreement with information or opinions discussed, or the fact that a problem was not resolved does not entitle you to a refund.
The Consultant reserves the right to cancel and refund any appointment at any time for any reason.
If the Consultant needs to reschedule an appointment for any reason, the Client may choose either a reasonably comparable rescheduled appointment or a refund of the amount paid for that appointment.
You may reschedule a consultation once by providing at least 24 hours’ notice before the scheduled start time.
Cancellations, rescheduling requests made less than 24 hours before the scheduled appointment, and missed appointments are non-refundable.
If you arrive late, the consultation will ordinarily still end at its originally scheduled time. Late arrival does not extend the appointment or entitle you to a partial refund.
If you have not joined or contacted me within 15 minutes after the scheduled start time, I may treat the appointment as a no-show.
I may make exceptions to these policies at my sole discretion. An exception on one occasion does not waive these Terms for any other appointment.
Consultations are exploratory and advisory in nature.
A consultation may help clarify a problem, identify opportunities, challenge assumptions, develop possible approaches, identify risks, or determine useful next steps.
It may instead reveal that a matter is more complicated than anticipated, that additional information is required, that another professional is better suited to address it, or that no useful solution can be identified during the time available.
I do not promise or guarantee that any particular problem will be solved, improved, or resolved during a consultation.
No statement made before, during, or after a consultation constitutes a promise or guarantee of any particular result.
Consultations necessarily occur within a limited period of time and are based substantially on the information available during the conversation.
I may make mistakes, misunderstand information, overlook relevant facts, rely on incomplete information, express preliminary or uncertain opinions, or provide information that later proves to be incomplete, inaccurate, outdated, inapplicable, or incorrect.
You expressly acknowledge that advice, analysis, forecasting, brainstorming, recommendations, and similar consultation necessarily involve uncertainty, judgment, assumptions, and the possibility of error or omission.
You should independently verify information before materially relying upon it, particularly where a decision may have significant financial, legal, health, safety, technical, professional, organizational, or other consequences.
Unless expressly agreed otherwise in a separate written agreement and unless I am appropriately licensed or otherwise legally authorized to provide the relevant service, consultations do not constitute legal, medical, tax, accounting, investment, securities, financial, engineering, architectural, psychological, therapeutic, or other regulated or licensed professional advice.
Discussing a subject does not mean that I am acting as a licensed professional in that field.
Where licensed or specialized professional advice is appropriate, you are responsible for obtaining advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
Consultations are not emergency services and must not be relied upon for situations requiring immediate medical, legal, safety, emergency, crisis, or other professional intervention.
You remain solely responsible for your decisions, actions, omissions, and use of information discussed during a consultation.
You determine whether any information, opinion, idea, strategy, recommendation, forecast, observation, or other material discussed is appropriate for your circumstances.
Nothing discussed during a consultation transfers responsibility for your decisions, business activities, projects, investments, purchases, relationships, professional obligations, regulatory compliance, or other activities to me.
You agree not to treat statements made during a consultation as a substitute for your own investigation, judgment, due diligence, testing, or professional advice where appropriate.
The usefulness and accuracy of a consultation may depend heavily upon the information you provide.
You are responsible for providing materially accurate information and identifying facts, circumstances, assumptions, risks, constraints, or other information that may materially affect the subject being discussed.
I have no obligation to independently investigate or verify information you provide unless we separately agree to such work in writing.
I am not responsible for conclusions, recommendations, opinions, or other information affected by facts that were inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, withheld, misunderstood, or unavailable during the consultation.
Consultations are private by default, but they do not create attorney-client privilege, doctor-patient privilege, therapist-client privilege, accountant-client privilege, or any other legally privileged professional relationship.
Unless we separately enter into a written confidentiality or nondisclosure agreement, no special fiduciary or professional duty of confidentiality exists beyond the obligations expressly stated in these Terms and those imposed by applicable law.
I will use reasonable care in handling nonpublic information shared during a consultation.
You should not provide passwords, authentication credentials, classified information, regulated personal information, trade secrets, highly sensitive information, or confidential information belonging to another person or organization unless you are authorized to disclose it and its disclosure is reasonably necessary.
I may disclose information when reasonably necessary to comply with law or valid legal process, protect my rights or safety or those of another person, investigate fraud or misuse, collect amounts lawfully owed, enforce these Terms, or defend against a claim.
Neither party may audio-record, video-record, screen-record, transcribe, or use an automated, AI-based, or third-party recording or transcription service during a consultation without the express advance consent of all participants.
Consent to recording or transcription must be obtained before recording or transcription begins.
Permission relating to one consultation does not constitute permission for another consultation.
Each party retains all ownership rights in intellectual property, materials, software, designs, documents, methods, frameworks, processes, inventions, trademarks, copyrighted works, know-how, and other materials owned or independently developed by that party.
A consultation does not constitute a work-made-for-hire arrangement and does not transfer intellectual-property ownership between the parties unless expressly agreed in writing.
Conversational ideas, suggestions, observations, concepts, strategies, or feedback do not constitute commissioned intellectual property or a commissioned deliverable merely because they are discussed during a paid consultation.
Any ownership, licensing, confidentiality, attribution, or usage rights for separately commissioned work will be governed by a separate written agreement.
Consultations must be used for lawful purposes.
I may refuse or immediately terminate a consultation if I reasonably believe that a participant is engaging in harassment, threats, intimidation, discriminatory abuse, sexual misconduct, deliberate deception, fraud, unlawful activity, attempts to obtain meaningful assistance for harmful or illegal activity, or other seriously inappropriate or unsafe conduct.
A consultation terminated because of the Client’s conduct is non-refundable.
Nothing in these Terms obligates me to provide advice, assistance, information, or services that I reasonably believe would be unlawful, unsafe, unethical, or outside the agreed scope of the consultation. If I decline or terminate a consultation for another reason, the refund provision in Section 2 applies.
Consultations may use third-party services including scheduling providers, payment processors, videoconferencing platforms, telecommunications systems, email providers, cloud services, or other technology.
I am not responsible for outages, security incidents, service failures, interruptions, data loss, or other failures attributable to third-party systems outside my reasonable control.
If a significant technical problem on my side prevents a meaningful consultation from occurring, I will make reasonable efforts to reschedule the affected portion.
If a comparable rescheduled appointment is not reasonably available, the Client may receive a refund for the affected consultation.
Technical problems on the Client’s side do not ordinarily entitle the Client to a refund, although I may permit rescheduling at my discretion.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, I WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO A CONSULTATION, INCLUDING LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST BUSINESS, LOST OPPORTUNITIES, LOSS OF GOODWILL, LOSS OF DATA, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR OTHER CONSEQUENTIAL OR ECONOMIC LOSS.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, MY TOTAL AGGREGATE LIABILITY ARISING FROM OR RELATING TO A PARTICULAR CONSULTATION, WHETHER ARISING IN CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, STATUTE, OR ANY OTHER THEORY OF LIABILITY, WILL NOT EXCEED THE AMOUNT ACTUALLY PAID TO ME FOR THAT CONSULTATION.
THESE LIMITATIONS APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW REGARDLESS OF WHETHER I WAS ADVISED THAT A PARTICULAR LOSS OR DAMAGE WAS POSSIBLE.
Nothing in these Terms excludes, waives, or limits liability for fraud, willful misconduct, willful injury, violation of law, or any other liability that applicable law does not permit the parties to exclude, waive, or limit.
You knowingly assume the risks inherent in making decisions based upon limited-duration consultation, including the possibility that information may be incomplete, uncertain, misunderstood, inaccurate, or unsuitable for your circumstances.
You agree that you remain responsible for determining the degree of verification, investigation, professional review, testing, or other due diligence appropriate before acting upon information discussed during a consultation.
Neither party will be considered in breach of these Terms because of delay or inability to perform caused by circumstances reasonably outside that party’s control, including serious illness, emergency, natural disaster, widespread communications outage, government action, war, civil disorder, or similar events.
Where reasonably practical, an affected consultation will be rescheduled.
If a comparable rescheduled appointment is not reasonably available, the Client may receive a refund for the affected consultation.
A consultation does not create an employment relationship, partnership, joint venture, agency relationship, fiduciary relationship, franchise, or other relationship giving either party authority to bind or act on behalf of the other.
Before initiating arbitration concerning a dispute arising out of or relating to a consultation, the party asserting the dispute must provide the other party with written notice describing:
The parties will then have 30 days from receipt of the notice to attempt in good faith to resolve the dispute informally.
Neither party may initiate arbitration until this 30-day informal resolution period has expired, except where immediate action is reasonably necessary to prevent expiration of a legal limitation period or obtain permissible emergency or provisional relief.
Any applicable limitation period will be treated as tolled during the mandatory 30-day informal resolution period to the extent permitted by law.
PLEASE READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY. IT AFFECTS YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS.
Except for disputes expressly excluded below, any dispute, claim, controversy, or cause of action arising out of or relating to:
shall be resolved exclusively through final and binding individual arbitration rather than in court.
The arbitration agreement is intended to be interpreted broadly.
The arbitration will be conducted before one neutral arbitrator selected by the Consultant. The arbitrator must have no material financial, professional, or personal relationship with either party and must make all disclosures required by applicable law. The selection remains subject to applicable disqualification or recusal standards.
Unless applicable law requires otherwise, the arbitration will take place in Sacramento County, California. At the arbitrator’s discretion, proceedings may take place remotely by video, telephone, written submissions, or another reasonably appropriate method.
The Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1 et seq., governs the interpretation and enforcement of this arbitration agreement to the maximum extent applicable.
The arbitrator may award any individual remedy or relief that would otherwise be available to the individual party under applicable law, subject to the valid limitations contained in these Terms. Nothing in these Terms waives the right to seek public injunctive relief where that right cannot lawfully be waived. A claim for such relief may proceed in court to the extent applicable law requires.
Judgment on the arbitration award may be entered in any court having jurisdiction.
The arbitration award will be final and binding except to the limited extent judicial review is expressly permitted by applicable law.
For a consumer arbitration, the Client will pay no more than the fees that applicable law permits a consumer to pay. I will pay the arbitration and arbitrator fees that applicable law requires a business to pay.
Any fee waiver, reduction, or other cost protection available under applicable law remains available to the Client. No Client will be required to pay a fee or cost that applicable law requires me to pay.
Unless otherwise required by applicable law, each party will bear its own attorneys’ fees, expert fees, witness fees, travel expenses, and other costs of presenting its case.
Nothing in these Terms requires a consumer to pay the opposing party’s fees or costs where such an agreement is prohibited by applicable law.
The arbitrator may award attorneys’ fees or other litigation expenses only where authorized by applicable law or another enforceable agreement between the parties.
Except to the extent applicable law expressly requires a court to decide the issue, the arbitrator—and not a court—shall have exclusive authority to resolve disputes concerning the interpretation, applicability, scope, enforceability, formation, validity, or alleged unconscionability of this arbitration agreement.
This delegation includes disputes concerning whether a particular claim must be arbitrated and whether all or part of this arbitration agreement is enforceable.
TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, CLIENT AND CONSULTANT KNOWINGLY AND VOLUNTARILY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO HAVE A DISPUTE COVERED BY THE ARBITRATION AGREEMENT DECIDED BY A JUDGE OR JURY IN COURT.
Arbitration uses a neutral arbitrator instead of a judge or jury and ordinarily provides more limited discovery and judicial review than court proceedings.
Either party may bring an individual claim in a court of competent small-claims jurisdiction if the claim qualifies for that court and remains solely on an individual basis.
If a small-claims proceeding is transferred, removed, appealed, consolidated with non-small-claims matters, or otherwise ceases to proceed solely within small-claims jurisdiction, either party may require that the dispute proceed in arbitration to the extent permitted by law.
Use of small-claims court does not waive the right to arbitrate other disputes.
Either party may seek temporary, emergency, or provisional relief from a court of competent jurisdiction when reasonably necessary to preserve the status quo, prevent immediate irreparable harm, protect confidential information or intellectual property, or preserve the meaningful availability of arbitration.
Seeking such relief does not waive the right to arbitration.
The merits of the underlying dispute will remain subject to arbitration except to the extent applicable law requires otherwise.
The parties intend the arbitration agreement to be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law.
If any provision of Sections 18 through 24 is found invalid or unenforceable, that provision shall be modified or severed to the minimum extent necessary and the remaining arbitration provisions shall remain in effect.
If a particular claim, remedy, or request for relief cannot lawfully be subjected to arbitration, that claim, remedy, or request shall be severed and may proceed in a court of competent jurisdiction while all arbitrable claims proceed in arbitration, to the extent permitted by law.
Sections 18 through 25 survive cancellation, completion, termination, refund, chargeback, expiration, or other conclusion of the consultation or the relationship between the parties.
Except as otherwise provided in the arbitration provisions and except where applicable law requires otherwise, these Terms and the relationship between the parties are governed by the laws of the State of California without regard to conflict-of-law principles.
The Federal Arbitration Act governs the arbitration agreement to the extent applicable.
For any dispute that is not subject to arbitration and is not properly brought in small-claims court, the parties consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in or serving Sacramento County, California, except where applicable law gives a party a non-waivable right to proceed elsewhere.
Except where the arbitration-specific severability provisions above apply, if any portion of these Terms is determined to be invalid, unlawful, or unenforceable, that provision will be modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it enforceable or, if modification is not possible, severed.
The remaining Terms will continue in full force and effect.
A party’s failure to enforce any provision of these Terms on one occasion does not waive that party’s right to enforce that provision or any other provision later.
No waiver is effective unless clearly made by the party against whom the waiver is asserted.
Section headings are provided for convenience only and do not limit or modify the meaning of these Terms.
I may update these Terms from time to time.
The version governing a consultation is the version presented to and accepted by the Client when that consultation is booked.
I will retain a reproducible copy of that version together with the date and record of the Client’s acceptance.
Changes made after a consultation is booked do not retroactively alter the agreement governing that consultation unless both parties expressly agree otherwise.
The effective date shown at the beginning of these Terms identifies the current version.
These Terms, together with any additional written terms expressly agreed to for a particular consultation, constitute the entire agreement concerning that consultation and supersede prior or contemporaneous statements, representations, discussions, or communications concerning the same subject.
If separately agreed written terms directly conflict with these Terms, the separately agreed terms control to the extent of the conflict.
You may accept these Terms in any of the following ways:
The version presented at the time of acceptance governs the consultation. I will retain a record of the method, date, and version accepted.
By accepting these Terms through any of these methods, you acknowledge that:
Questions concerning a booking and formal notices concerning a dispute or arbitration must be sent by email to:
CJ Trowbridge cj@cjtrowbridge.com
A notice is considered received when delivered to that email address, subject to any different notice requirement imposed by applicable law.
These terms apply to appointments and services booked through the consulting page or by reaching out directly.