Adam Kalsey

This is the blog of Adam Kalsey. Unusual depth and complexity. Rich, full body with a hint of nutty earthiness.

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Retainer offer

24 Jun 2003

A week ago I wrote that consultants who blog (including me) don’t get direct business from their weblog readers. It has occurred to me that I’ve never actually asked for business from my readers. One of the first things a salesmen learns is to ask for the sale, but I’ve never done that. So as something of an experiment, I’m going to make an offer that is exclusively open to you, my weblog readers.

The first 50 people who contact me will get can sign up for a retainer program that is normally only open to my past clients. For $100 a month, you’ll get two hours of consulting with a guaranteed minimum turnaround time of 2 business days. What sort of consulting? Just about anything Web related that you want.

  • Perl, ASP, or PHP development
  • Movable Type customization
  • Site design
  • Server management
  • Marketing
  • Product analysis
  • Lots of other things; just ask

Need more help than that? For $500 a month, you can get a full day of my undivided attention. I’ll spend a day every month on your site adding features, updating content, improving the design, standing on my head, or doing whatever else you want.

Think of me as a Web expert for hire. Retainers are billed monthly on six-month subscriptions.

Recently Written

Your OKR Cascade is Breaking Your Strategy
Aug 1: Most companies cascade OKRs down their org chart thinking it creates alignment. Instead, it fragments strategy and marginalizes supporting teams. Here's what works better than the waterfall approach.
Your Prioritization Problem Is a Strategy Problem
Jul 23: Most teams struggle with prioritization because they're trying to optimize for everything at once. The real problem isn't having too many options—it's not having a clear strategy to choose between them. Without strategy, every decision feels equally important. With strategy, most decisions become obvious.
Behind schedule
Jul 21: Your team is 6 weeks late and still missing features. The solution isn't working harder—it's accepting that your deadlines were fake all along. Ship what you have. Cut ruthlessly. Stop letting "one more day" turn into one more month.
VC’s Future Lies In Building Winners
Jun 21: AI and megafunds are about to kill the traditional venture model, forcing smaller VCs to stop hunting for hidden gems and start rolling up their sleeves to fix broken companies instead.
Should individual people have OKRs?
May 14: A good OKR describes and measures an outcome, but it can be challenging to create an outcome-focused OKR for an individual.
10 OKR traps and how to avoid them
May 8: I’ve helped lots of teams implement OKRs or fix a broken OKR process. Here are the 10 most common problems I see, and what to do instead.
AI is Smart, But Wisdom Requires Judgement
May 3: AI can process data at lightning speed, but wisdom comes from human judgment—picking the best imperfect option when facts alone don’t point the way.
Decoding Product Leadership Titles
Mar 18: Not all product leadership titles mean what they sound like. ‘Head of Product’ can mean anything from a senior PM to a true VP. Here’s how to tell the difference.

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