About Cogent Language Mentoring

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Cogent Language Mentoring™ is a package of ten 1:1 sessions on the theme of your career project know-how. No paper, no forms to complete, no syllabus, quizzes, or assignments. Just talk. Informal, a bit jazzy perhaps. Sessions are about an hour. Confidential, wide-ranging, friendly.

You don’t get “homework”, I do. Why? I aim to be the conscientious student and caring partner of every person I mentor. So, for every session of the ten, whatever you’d like me to read or watch ahead of time, just send it along, and I’ll do my best to do so. 

You are what each session is all about, and so they tend to start and end with you.  As much as you want it to be, each session agenda is yours. We often begin by talking about your current concerns and projects, and then go on to team talk and project know-how in general, and then, to your career, ideals, and action plans. On these and other topics that come up, I will offer feedback and advice, that is, some “cogent language” for you, going forward. 

What is the product of each session, and the package as a whole? The only output guaranteed is spoken discourse, that is, “talk” pertinent to you and to your career project know-how.  I have had such talks, long-term, with project teams and their members in 14 countries and counting.

As a mentor, the value that I aim to co-create shows up most importantly in outcomes, that is, in career benefits unique to each mentee. As suggested by careers on our “Props” page, such outcomes may be improvements in team or interpersonal talk, in project know-how, team performance, entrepreneurship, career strategies, and/or in personal relationships and well-being. No guarantees, of course, except that of 10 talks that are all all about you. 

USD $200.00

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Mentoring FAQ’s

  • The fee for the mentoring program is USD $200, payable in full at the time of registration. The package includes 10 Zoom sessions total, each up to 75’.

    No product of any session is included except for live talk - that is, spoken discourse on mentee’s career project know-how.

    No sessions will be scheduled until payment has been received. We have a Refund and Cancellation Policy. For it and for details on the mentoring offer, please see our Mentoring Service Agreement under the Policies rubric here.

  • Our mentoring is all about you, co-created with you in real time. No talking head videos, no animated slide decks, no pre-made lesson-plans, syllabi, trainings or quizzes. Also, no AI feedback to you unless you and I agree to design and develop it. 

    What makes us different is just talk. That is, intentional, spoken discourse that is all about your career project know-how. Informal, a bit jazzy perhaps, in sessions of about an hour. Confidential, wide-ranging, friendly.

    I aim to be the conscientious student and caring partner of every person I mentor. You don’t get “homework”, I do. So, for every session of the ten you get in the package, whatever you’d like me to read or watch ahead of time, just send it along, and I’ll do my best to do so. 

  • Probably no problem  Sure, the mentoring meetings may sound “regular”, but it doesn’t mean “inflexible”. The details are up to you. Using our scheduling tool, you can schedule meetings in any open slot that is convenient. This makes for a lot of flexibility day by day.

    Week by week, the program is also quite flexible, within the maximum service level that we promise to provide. Here are those flexibilities.

    • Duration of any session: up to 75 minutes.

    • Number of sessions per week: 0. 1, or 2. 

    • Duration of program:  up to 12 weeks after registration. 

    You see how flexible this is. As an example, suppose some big project made it impossible for you to start the mentoring until 6 weeks after you registered. You could still have all your mentoring sessions, scheduled by you. As another, suppose you know that in 6 weeks, you will need to start a big project. Before the project started, you could still have all the mentoring sessions you bought on different times and different days. 

  • Why is there a “pre-requisite” for this mentoring when there is no syllabus for it, and no guaranteed product or certification at the end? I do not assume that everyone in the world would benefit from my mentoring. I do not assume that I am able to mentor anyone that might sign up.  Since intentional conversation is the only guaranteed output of the program, it seems prudent for both parties to explore whether they can have an intentional conversation that is valuable early on. “Early on” here, means before any money changes hands. For this purpose, the Cogent Language Exchange™ exists. It is the trial run for a months-long program, a chance to test drive before paying. It exists in the form of talk in real time as a more valid means of exploring the potential for valuable conversation than, say communicating via an AI bot or filling out forms.  

  • Big picture, Cogent Language Mentoring™ is not primarily a product or service. It is more like a “relationship”:  it has to work for both of us, based on who we are and what we both do. The prerequisite Cogent Language Exchange™ help us both see whether and what sort of potential might be there. 

    • If AI is your jam, great! We can leverage (or design) some AI agents relevant to your purposes and then bring them to our conversations. They also make great support as sidekicks in your current projects and/or planners for any continued learning following the end of our series. 

    • If AI bots, agents, and all are not your jam, that is great too. They won’t be directly involved in our conversations, conversations which are protected by our Privacy Policy.

    • Finally, if you would like to explore the use of AI in developing your career project know-how, that would be just great as well. As a mentor, I have some useful experience in doing just this. 

  • You can reach me anytime via the contact page here. I aim to respond quickly—usually within two business days.

  • Here is the process. 

    • Participate in a Cogent Language Exchange™as a prerequisite

    • Receive my offer to serve as your mentor (based on the fit surfaced in our Exchange™), including payment processor

    • Pay the service fee (US $200) using the payment processor.

    • Receive access to the mentoring scheduler

    • Select the schedule for your first session from those available