What you pay us
The engagement fee is paid to Managers & Directors for the work of running the search. That work includes the pre-engagement calls, the written brief, sourcing and approaching mentors, vetting, and presenting a shortlist of three suitable mentors. It does not cover what happens after the introduction. The mentoring relationship and whatever the business achieves through it belong to you and the mentor.
The fee sits in one of two tiers depending on the brief.
Standard Match. $4,500 plus GST. The published starting price for briefs where the search draws from a category with a reasonable number of suitable mentors across South-East Queensland. Most engagements run as Standard Match. The fee is fixed at $4,500 unless the brief changes substantially during the search.
Specialist Match. Scoped at the first call. Used when the brief calls for a mentor with a specific background, a niche operating history, or board-grade experience where the number of suitable people in the region is genuinely small. Specialist briefs require more time and more of John's network to fill, and the fee reflects that. The figure is confirmed in the engagement letter after the brief is taken on the first call, before the search begins.
Whichever tier applies, the fee is set in writing in the engagement letter before any search work starts. It doesn't change during the engagement unless the brief itself changes materially, in which case John raises it and the two of you agree on how to proceed before anything moves.
What you pay the mentor
Session fees are set between you and the mentor. They don't pass through Managers & Directors and we take nothing from them. The mentor invoices you directly and you pay the mentor directly.
Senior mentors at this level price their time in different ways. Some charge per session, some per hour, some on a monthly arrangement that covers a set number of touchpoints. The variation is real and publishing a range on this page would mislead more than it would help. What you can do is set a ceiling. If you tell John during the brief that you're not prepared to pay above a certain rate, that constraint goes into the brief and into the search. We won't shortlist a mentor whose rate sits materially above what you've said you can work with.
Before you commit to the engagement, John will give you a realistic sense of what session fees look like for the kind of mentor your brief calls for. You can set your ceiling then or put it in writing in the brief. The shortlist pack carries an indicative session fee range for each of the three mentors presented. The final figure is what you and the chosen mentor agree when they send you their engagement letter.
Payment timing
The engagement fee is split into two payments tied to two deliverables.
50% on signing the engagement letter. This payment starts the search. We don't begin sourcing until both the signed letter and the deposit have arrived. One without the other is not enough to start.
50% on shortlist presentation. Invoiced when the shortlist pack is sent to you. Net 7 days. By the time you receive the pack, the search work is complete. The second payment covers that work.
The reason the second payment falls at shortlist presentation rather than at placement is straightforward. The work the fee covers, the brief, the sourcing, the vetting, the shortlist, is finished when the pack lands in your inbox. Whether you proceed to place one of the three mentors is your decision, and it's a separate one from whether the search was run properly.
Payment by bank transfer is the default. Card payment via Stripe is available if speed matters. If the deposit doesn't arrive within 14 days of signing, we treat the engagement as not yet started and wait until it does before beginning the search.
The built-in shortlist fallback
The standard shortlist is three vetted South-East Queensland mentors. For a specialist brief where the pool of suitable people in the region is narrow, the shortlist may be two. If the mentor you engage isn't a practical fit within the first three sessions of the engagement, you can move to another mentor from the same shortlist without paying an additional engagement fee. This is written into the engagement letter from the start.
In practical terms: John approaches the second mentor, makes the introduction, and steps back again. The original mentor is told plainly that the fit wasn't right for this engagement. The fee already paid covers the shortlist, and moving within it doesn't require a new search.
What the fallback doesn't cover is a fresh search outside the original three. If you and John conclude that none of the shortlisted mentors is the right fit, that's handled separately and the engagement letter sets out the terms. In practice this is uncommon. The vetting process is designed to catch most fit problems before a mentor reaches the shortlist.
The optional retainer
After a successful placement, an optional ongoing arrangement may be offered to clients who want priority access for future searches. It's a conversation John has at the right time, not something pitched upfront. If it's relevant to how you're likely to use the service, he'll raise it. If it isn't, he won't.
The engagement fee for a Standard or Specialist Match is a one-off payment for that search. There's no ongoing cost attached to a placement, no automatic renewal, and no recurring billing unless you and John have separately agreed to an arrangement after a successful placement.
What's not included
Business outcomes. The engagement fee covers the search and the shortlist. It does not cover what the mentoring relationship delivers for your business. The mentor, you, and the business are the variables that determine that, and none of them are within our control after the introduction is made. The engagement letter sets out the condition of due care and skill under the Australian Consumer Law that applies to the search itself, separately from any outcome of the mentoring.
The quality of mentor advice. Once the introduction is made, the conversations between you and the mentor are theirs to run. We don't sit in on sessions, review what's discussed, or supervise the advice given. A mentor whose recommendations you disagree with is a matter to raise with the mentor directly.
Other arrangements that develop from the relationship. If the mentor takes on a piece of work for you, joins your board, or the relationship develops into something commercial beyond the mentoring engagement, those arrangements are between you and the mentor on terms you agree directly. The exception is where you ask Managers & Directors to help structure a formal appointment, in which case we'd treat that as a separate engagement.