Fairfax Image Terms of Engagement
V1, 2026.08.01
The agreement for each engagement (the “Engagement Documents”) consists of the accepted electronic quote, the Practical Stuff attached to that quote, and the identified version of the Terms of Engagement.
Preamble — What Is This Relationship?
The work we do together is collaborative, reflective, and strategic.
Clients come to me during periods of transition, complexity, heightened visibility, significant decision-making, changing personal or professional circumstances — or simply because they want a trusted thought partner to help navigate an important chapter. Together, we explore situations from multiple perspectives, strengthen communication, examine assumptions, rehearse difficult conversations, identify patterns, and develop approaches to challenges.
Because this work often touches matters that are deeply personal, our conversations may include emotionally significant topics. My purpose, however, is to provide strategic advisory services that help you think more clearly, communicate more intentionally, and navigate complexity with greater awareness.
I won’t make decisions for you or tell you how to live your life. Our work together will help you better understand your options, challenge assumptions, illuminate blind spots, and prepare you to make the decisions that are ultimately yours to make.
These Terms of Engagement establish a shared understanding of our relationship, our expectations of each other, and the boundaries that support our work together. The headings and questions throughout are signposts to help you find your way; the text that follows each heading is what governs.
1. The Engagement — What Are We Agreeing To?
These Terms of Engagement govern the relationship between Fairfax Image and you.
“Fairfax Image” means Mila Fairfax, an individual doing business as Fairfax Image, located in Walnut Creek, California. When these Terms say “I,” “me,” or “my,” they refer to Mila Fairfax. When they say “you” or “your,” they refer to the individual client named in the accepted Engagement Documents.
The client is always a specific individual legal adult — even when that person owns a company, or when someone else is paying for the engagement. If a third party pays for your engagement, that party is your sponsor, not my client, and payment gives the sponsor no right to attend, obtain updates, receive work product, or learn anything about the engagement. You may forward the quote and/or the invoice to your sponsor: if a sponsor is forwarded or receives the quote or invoice, the sponsor will necessarily see the package name, fee, Practical Stuff, and Terms.
The agreement for each engagement (the “Engagement Documents”) consists of the accepted electronic quote, the Practical Stuff attached to that quote, and the identified version of the Terms of Engagement.
You may have more than one engagement in effect at the same time — packages can be simultaneous or overlapping. Proposals, website content, scheduling confirmations, marketing materials, and the How We Work Together guide are not part of the agreement.
I provide the consulting, coaching-style consulting, and strategic advisory services personally. Administrative services supporting the engagement may be performed by contracted service providers working under appropriate confidentiality safeguards.
Nothing in these Terms creates an employment relationship, partnership, joint venture, agency relationship, fiduciary relationship, or any other legal relationship beyond that of independent contracting parties.
I reserve the right to decline, postpone, or discontinue an engagement where I believe doing so is appropriate — including where the requested services fall outside my expertise, no longer align with the intended purpose of the engagement, or would be better served by another qualified professional.
2. The Work — What Will the Process Look Like?
The nature, duration, cadence, and format of our work together depend on the engagement described in your accepted Practical Stuff. Depending on the engagement, our work could include:
reflective analysis of complex situations;
examination of interpersonal, organizational, or reputational dynamics;
narrative exploration and development;
structured decision support and role rehearsal;
communication strategy and message development;
preparation for important conversations, negotiations, interviews, or presentations;
media preparation and media training;
workshops or other mutually agreed strategic advisory services.
Because this process is collaborative, its effectiveness depends substantially on your willingness to participate honestly and in good faith. Progress depends on many factors beyond my control, including your own engagement with the process, the circumstances surrounding the issues being explored, and the decisions and actions of you and others.
3. Your Role — What’s Your Part in the Process?
This engagement is designed as a collaborative process rather than a passive service. You are encouraged to ask questions, challenge assumptions (including mine), and raise concerns whenever something does not feel accurate, useful, or right for your circumstances.
You remain responsible for your own decisions, actions, communications, relationships, and wellbeing throughout the engagement. I may offer observations, perspectives, strategic recommendations, or alternative ways of viewing a situation — but you retain complete authority and responsibility for determining what actions, if any, to take. My role is that of a strategic guide. I do not direct, control, or assume responsibility for the choices you ultimately make.
4. The Nature and Limits of the Services — What This Is, and What It Isn’t
This engagement provides strategic guidance, reflection, communication support, and collaborative problem-solving.
It is not therapy, counseling, medical care, psychiatric care, legal advice, financial advice, or any other licensed professional service, and it does not create a physician-patient, therapist-client, attorney-client, fiduciary, or any comparable legally protected professional relationship. While our conversations may involve personal, emotional, organizational, or interpersonal issues, my role is to help you think more clearly about those issues — not to diagnose, treat, or provide licensed healthcare or other regulated professional services.
Fairfax Image does not provide crisis, emergency, or critically time-sensitive services, and I am not an emergency or on-call responder. If you are experiencing an emergency, please contact the appropriate emergency responders directly.
If, during our work together, I believe another professional would be better positioned to assist you with a particular issue, I may encourage you to consult that professional. That is not a sign our work has failed; it reflects my commitment to making sure you receive the support most appropriate to your circumstances.
I bring my best judgment to every engagement. At the same time, every person, relationship, organization, and circumstance is different. Observations and recommendations are offered to assist your own decision-making and are not predictions or directives. Nothing in this engagement is a promise of any particular outcome — and for skills-based work such as media preparation, practice and preparation improve readiness but do not assure any particular performance or result.
5. Communication — How Should We Stay Connected?
I encourage open, direct, and respectful dialogue throughout the engagement. If something feels unclear, uncomfortable, or inconsistent with your expectations, please speak up while there’s still an opportunity to fix it.
The practical details of communicating — channels, between-session communication, and the limits that come with your package — are described in your accepted Practical Stuff. I do not guarantee availability or response times, and communication outside sessions is limited as described in the Engagement Documents.
If, over time, the engagement changes significantly or expands beyond what was originally anticipated, we’ll talk about it and agree on any appropriate changes before moving forward with revised Engagement Documents.
6. Trust and Confidentiality — How Is Sensitive Information Handled?
Trust is fundamental to our work together. The information you share with me will be treated with care, discretion, and professional respect.
Confidentiality does not apply to information that Fairfax Image can establish:
is or becomes public without breach;
was already lawfully known;
is independently developed without using client information;
is lawfully received from another source;
is disclosed with the client’s permission; or
must be disclosed by law, subpoena, or court order.
Except as described in these Terms or as otherwise required by law, I will not intentionally disclose your information without your permission. If required by law, where legally permitted, Fairfax Image will give you reasonable advance notice of a compelled disclosure.
Immediate Safety Concerns. I may disclose information where I reasonably believe it is necessary to contact emergency responders or to address an imminent threat of serious harm. Fairfax Image is not a crisis or emergency service (see Section 4).
Please understand what this confidentiality is — and what it is not:
Our relationship is not legally privileged. Unlike communications with your attorney or therapist, our conversations are not protected from disclosure in legal proceedings by any professional privilege.
Administrative and technology service providers (for example, providers of scheduling, videoconferencing, file storage, bookkeeping, and payment services) may handle information as part of ordinary business operations, under appropriate safeguards.
No system of communication or information storage is entirely immune from risk. I take reasonable steps to protect information entrusted to me, but I cannot guarantee absolute security.
I ask that you likewise respect the confidential nature of our conversations, my materials, and my methods, so that our work together can remain candid and productive.
7. Working with Others — How Does This Fit with the Rest of Your Team?
Depending on your circumstances, you may already be working with attorneys, accountants, physicians, therapists, counselors, financial advisors, or other trusted advisors.
When appropriate — with your knowledge and consent, and with agreement on what information may be shared — I can coordinate with those professionals to support your broader interests. Any such coordination follows that professional’s own conditions and availability, and you are responsible for any fees that professional charges. Coordinating with your other advisors does not create or extend any legal privilege and does not expand the nature of our engagement.
Each professional remains responsible for the services they provide within their own area of expertise. My participation in collaborative conversations does not assume responsibility for work performed by others.
8. Fees, Scheduling, and Pauses — How Do the Practical Parts Work?
The fixed fee for your engagement, the package it purchases, and the scheduling, rescheduling, and expiration rules for that package are all stated in your accepted Practical Stuff.
A few principles apply across every engagement:
Payment comes first. The fixed fee is due in full before services commence, and work does not begin until payment has been received.
The fixed fee purchases the package of service as a whole and is not an hourly retainer.
No package renews automatically. At completion, I may offer a new proposal reflecting your current circumstances; either of us may decline to continue.
Pauses (“freezes”). If life intervenes, you may ask to pause an active engagement. I decide freeze requests case by case and expect to accommodate good-faith requests generously. An approved freeze begins with my written acceptance and may last up to four months. While an approved freeze is in place, the clock on your package’s maximum duration stops; when we resume, the package picks up exactly where it left off, with the time that remained when the freeze began. If a force majeure event or another significant life disruption changes the fundamental nature of the work or makes the package as configured unworkable, we will talk it through and renegotiate together — disruption is a normal part of this work, and the packages are short by design. Abandonment notices do not run during a freeze.
Suspension. If you fall out of communication for an extended period, repeatedly miss sessions without communicating, or don’t provide information reasonably necessary for us to continue, I may pause or suspend the engagement until those issues are resolved. Prolonged noncommunication may be treated as abandonment under the procedure stated in your accepted Engagement Documents. A payment reversal permits Fairfax Image to suspend services immediately and require restoration of payment before resuming.
Refunds are determined solely under Section 9; amounts reasonably earned are not refundable.
9. Ending the Engagement — What If This Isn’t Working?
Like any relationship, this engagement should continue only for so long as it serves both of us. Sometimes circumstances evolve, priorities shift, or another approach — or another professional — would better serve your needs. None of those outcomes necessarily means anyone has done anything wrong.
Either of us may choose to conclude the engagement at any time, subject to the scheduling, payment, expiration, and refund provisions in these Terms and your accepted Engagement Documents.
The engagement is offered and priced as one integrated package, not as separately priced sessions, communications, administrative tasks, or other component services. Ending the engagement early therefore does not create an automatic per-session allocation or proportional refund calculation. Fairfax Image retains the portion reasonably earned — e.g., through preparation, administration, completed sessions, between-session access already provided, reserved capacity that could not reasonably be rebooked, non-recoverable expenses, etc. — then we’ll negotiate what remains. Whenever practical, if either of us believes the engagement is no longer serving its intended purpose, let’s talk before we end our work together, so that we end with clarity and respect.
If we agree on a practical or financial resolution following an early ending, that resolution must be recorded in a written change accepted by both of us. If we do not agree on the consequences of an early ending, any dispute concerning fees, refunds, credits, remaining services, or other obligations will be addressed under the Resolving Differences provision. If an engagement is treated as abandoned under the Practical Stuff, Fairfax Image may close the engagement, cease further performance, and release any capacity associated with it. Any dispute concerning the financial or other consequences of abandonment will be addressed under the Resolving Differences provision.
If I materially fail to perform, or if I become unable to complete your engagement, we will work out a fair resolution, which may include rescheduling, completing the work later, or a refund of the unearned balance.
The sections of these Terms that by their nature should survive the end of an engagement — including confidentiality, service-boundary disclaimers, intellectual property, payment obligations, liability limits, records, and dispute resolution — survive it.
We are aiming toward completion, not permanence. My hope is not that you will always need me, but that, through our work together, you will ultimately need me less.
10. Outcomes, Expectations, and Liability — What If Things Don’t Go as Planned?
Every engagement is different. Some conversations lead to immediate clarity; others unfold over time. Sometimes the situation changes after we’ve talked. Sometimes other people make decisions that alter the landscape completely.
While I bring judgment, preparation, experience, and care to every engagement, there are no promises. The work may, or may not, ultimately produce the result either of us hopes for.
Except to the extent liability cannot legally be limited under applicable law:
My liability arising out of or relating to an engagement shall not exceed the total fees actually paid by you for the services giving rise to the claim.
Neither of us will be liable to the other for indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, or punitive damages — including lost profits, lost business opportunities, or reputational harm — even if such damages were foreseeable.
Nothing in these Terms limits liability for fraud, gross negligence, willful misconduct, or any other liability that cannot legally be limited under applicable law.
11. Materials and Intellectual Property — Who Owns What?
Throughout our work together, we may create, share, or use a variety of materials — worksheets, exercises, frameworks, templates, diagrams, presentation materials, and other resources (the “Materials”).
My Materials remain mine. Pre-existing and reusable frameworks; templates, exercises, methods, techniques, processes, and know-how; blank worksheets and underlying structure; internal working notes; generalized learning and feedback; and background materials used across the practice are my intellectual property. You are welcome to use the Materials for your own personal and internal purposes — your growth, decision-making, implementation, and ongoing reference. They may not be copied, sold, published, licensed, or adapted for other purposes without my prior written permission, and they may not be used as the basis for coaching, training, or consulting others.
Your content remains yours. Information and materials you supply are your property. When you complete one of my worksheets, the blank template remains mine and the substantive content you’ve added is yours.
Public-facing work. For a special project involving final public-facing messaging or a defined deliverable, you’ll own the final approved client-specific output upon full payment, with a continuing license to use any background material embedded in the final output as part of that output. I retain all background intellectual property, methods, and reusable components.
Licensed assets. Photographs, graphics, fonts, and other licensed assets remain governed by their separate license terms.
My working notes are internal and proprietary. They are not routinely shared with the client. I do not provide session notes; you are responsible for your own.
What you learn is yours to live. Nothing here limits your ability to apply what you learn through our work to your own life, work, relationships, and decisions. What it protects is the Materials themselves and the underlying methods that support my broader practice.
I welcome your observations, suggestions, and feedback. Generalized ideas and feedback may be used to improve the practice, provided doing so does not disclose your confidential information or identify you without your permission.
12. Technology and Artificial Intelligence — How Do I Use Technology?
Like many modern professional practices, I use technology to communicate, organize information, and support the quality of my services. Fairfax Image may disclose information as reasonably necessary to administrative and technology providers supporting scheduling, videoconferencing, file storage, bookkeeping, payment processing, and similar operations —which may include embedded AI features— subject to reasonable confidentiality and security safeguards.
Any use of technology or AI supports, and does not replace, my own professional judgment. I remain responsible for everything I provide, regardless of the tools used to assist me.
Technology evolves quickly, and I may adopt new tools over time, provided their use remains consistent with these principles. If you have questions or preferences about technology or AI in your engagement, please raise them — engagement-specific choices can be recorded in your accepted Practical Stuff.
13. Recording and Records — What About Recordings of Our Sessions?
The default is no recording. No session is recorded, and no recording-derived transcript, summary, or notes are produced, unless you affirmatively request it and we both agree. Consent is given session-by-session, and either of us may end an agreed recording at any time.
The same rule applies in both directions. Before you record a session or use a note-taking or AI-capture tool of your own, you must disclose it and obtain my agreement. California generally prohibits intentionally recording a confidential communication without all parties’ consent (Cal. Penal Code § 632). The same concern applies whether the recording is initiated by Fairfax Image or through a client’s recording service, phone, or other capture tool.
Recordings stay between us. Recordings, transcripts, and summaries are for your use and, where appropriate, the use of your own professional advisors. They are not for broader distribution.
Recordings don’t live forever. When a recording is shared with you, it is available for a limited time, stated when it is shared. You are responsible for downloading anything you want to keep.
Transcripts and summaries, when you request them, are generated using the videoconferencing platform’s embedded features.
Records. Accessible client files of our work together are retained as reasonably necessary for professional, legal, and tax purposes, and are handled consistently with the confidentiality commitments in these Terms.
14. Office Hours — A Quick Word
I offer complimentary Office Hours appointments from time to time. They are a free, first-come, first-served opportunity available on the same basis to prospective, current, and former clients. They are not part of any paid package, create no priority, entitlement, or guaranteed access, and cannot substitute for any package session or benefit.
15. General Matters — Is There Anything Else We Should Know?
Entire Agreement. The agreement for each engagement (the “Engagement Documents”) consists of the accepted electronic quote, the Practical Stuff attached to that quote, and the identified version of the Terms of Engagement. If more than one engagement is in effect at the same time, each accepted quote forms a separate agreement with the Terms version it identifies. If there is something you believe we have agreed on that is important to you, please make sure it is reflected in the Practical Stuff before accepting.
Document Priority. If the Engagement Documents conflict, the accepted quote controls the client name, package, and fee; the Practical Stuff controls package-specific procedures and benefits, and any expressly stated special arrangements; these Terms control standing legal and relationship provisions. How We Work Together remains orientation only and is not part of the Engagement Documents.
Versions and Changes. My practice evolves, and I may update these Terms for future engagements. The version you accept governs your engagement; later changes are not retroactive. Any modification to an active engagement must be set out in a written change accepted by both of us — through the same electronic acceptance process or a document signed by both of us. Emails, texts, and verbal conversations are not sufficient to modify the agreement.
Electronic Acceptance. You accept this agreement by taking the affirmative acceptance action presented with your quote, which confirms your receipt, review, and acceptance of the quote, with the Practical Stuff, and the identified, dated Terms. Electronic acceptance has the same force and effect as an original signature. Payment follows acceptance; payment by itself is not how the agreement is formed.
Independent Advice. Please read these Terms carefully and ask questions if anything is unclear. If you would like your own attorney or other trusted advisor to review them before you accept, I welcome that.
Fair Interpretation. These Terms should be interpreted according to their plain meaning and not construed against either of us merely because one of us prepared the draft.
Assignment. Because this engagement is built on personal trust and professional judgment, neither of us may assign this agreement without the other’s prior written consent, except that I may assign it in connection with the sale or reorganization of my practice.
Enforceability. If any provision is determined to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in effect to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Things Happen. Neither of us is responsible for delays or failures to perform caused by circumstances beyond our reasonable control — illness, natural disasters, public health emergencies, acts of government, failures of utilities, internet, or software, or other unforeseen events (including, where applicable, ominous wizard noises and dragons). If something like this occurs, we will communicate as promptly as reasonably possible and resume our work as soon as circumstances reasonably permit.
Resolving Differences. Most misunderstandings are best resolved through honest conversation, so if a disagreement arises, let’s first make a genuine effort to resolve it directly. If we can’t, we agree to attempt mediation before either of us initiates litigation. Nothing here prevents either of us from going directly to court when necessary to protect intellectual property rights, collect unpaid fees, address urgent injunctive relief, or preserve rights that could be lost by waiting. Small-claims proceedings for unpaid fees are expressly permitted without mediation. This agreement is governed by the laws of the State of California, and the state courts located in Contra Costa County and the federal courts for the Northern District of California have exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising out of or relating to it to the extent permitted by applicable law.
Notices. Formal notices under this agreement should be sent by email — to me at mila@fairfaximage.com, and to you at the email address you provide for the engagement.
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read these Terms of Engagement. They are intended to help us begin our work together with shared expectations, clear boundaries, and mutual understanding. The best professional relationships begin with open conversations, and these Terms reflect the spirit in which I approach the work.
I appreciate the trust you place in me and look forward to working with you.