Right here I used to have a page about hourly consulting to help you with your grant writing/funding challenges. But I didn’t like the hourly consulting model because I found myself too busy, and not having the maximal impact that I could for my clients.
Why? Let’s say you hire me for an hour, and I give you some useful feedback, then you go on your merry way. Maybe it helps you on that grant. But even if it does, has it really helped you learn, fundamentally, how to write a much better proposal, or to do the kind of science that you need to do in order to wow your reviewers? Nope.
For example, one client came to me last year for a few hours of consulting. I spent some time (while I was on vacation) reviewing his proposal, and sent the feedback to him, and I told him in the email: “We should talk on the phone, and I’d like to see this again.” What did he do? He took my feedback, rewrote bits of the proposal, and then sent it in. No phone discussion, no chance to give him more feedback, nothing. I wasn’t at all surprised to hear from him later that his proposal wasn’t funded. It needed more than just one round of feedback. It was a waste of my vacation time, and a waste of his money.
In contrast, another person I worked with went through my Grant Dynamo class (no longer offered because I’ve moved on to bigger and better things), then she hired me to do some in-depth consulting to apply the principles of the course to her proposal. Her prior revision had scored in the bottom 52% of all grants before my help. After the class – and then several intensive rounds of back-and-forth revisions – her significantly revised proposal scored a perfect 1.0, i.e. in the top 1% of all R01 grants submitted.
I decided that if I am going to help people, I want to do it like I did for the latter client, not the former.
So here’s how it goes. If you want my help, both in making a better proposal, and in learning how to do it over and over again, then there is one and only one way to do that.
Step 1: Sign up for a complimentary strategy session with my group. We will get on the phone with you, and perform an in-depth diagnosis of your grant writing challenges, much like a doctor would do for you if you show up at her (or his) office with a pain in your side.
Step 2: We make a diagnosis, and we recommend next steps to get you unstuck. If we think your particular challenges are suitable for the kind of transformative work that I do with certain select people, we offer a chance for further work with me. Or, we may recommend someone else. (Again, it’s like a doctor visit – sometimes the doctor can offer to take care of the problem, sometimes they have to refer you to another kind of specialist). But regardless, there’s no pushy sales stuff. The call is all about helping you figure out how to move forward.
There is no other way to work with me at this point aside from going through this process. This way, I can make sure that you are a good fit, that you will be fun to work with, and that you are serious about really improving your funding situation. I want to work with only the most committed people, since my time is very limited. Your benefit is that you get a free strategy call with us that will help you, regardless of whether we end up working together more in the future.
If the above process sounds like more help than you need right now , I’m going to be a bit self-promoting here, and mention that you could check out my book, Four Steps To Funding. If you buy the electronic version, I’ll soon be producing several videos and audios to go with it so that you have the full multimedia experience. The book is also coming soon to print, we are (finally) putting the last touches on that.
Regardless of whether you choose to work with me or not, I hope you understand that the grant game is changing, and that you seek some kind of ongoing improvement/help/coaching. What used to work in the past days of 20% and above paylines no longer works in these days of sub-10% paylines. But the good news is that some people are still getting funding, and if you dedicate yourself to continual improvement, you have far better chances of being a part of that elite group who still makes the cut.