Get the System — $79Get · $79

FOR FREELANCERS & SOLO STUDIOS — SIX VOLUMES IN ONE FILE

Say the
hard thing
once.

Not an ordinary PDF, and not another chat window. One interactive file — pick what happened, compare the ways to answer, copy the draft. 364 of them, already written.

Get the System — $79 → Read a sample →
  • Single HTML file
  • Opens in any browser
  • Works offline
  • No account
  • Yours forever

Knowing isn't
the hard part.

The reply box has been open for half an hour. You know exactly what they did. You're still deciding how firm is too firm.

So don't write it.
Copy it.

No prompt to write. No third attempt to talk it out of sounding too soft. 364 drafts, already calibrated — find the one you're in and send it.

Firm is the last resort.

364 drafts, sorted by how hard they push — only thirteen end the relationship.

SOURCE — CLEARBOUND SYSTEM v3 / 364 DRAFTS 0 / 364

SIX VOLUMES — 158 SITUATIONS

Buy the one
you're in.

Each volume is a single file. No account, no login, no expiry. Priced by what's actually in it — the thick ones cost more because they are thick.

Start with one. If you take the System later, that volume's price comes off it — starting small costs nothing extra.

VOL 01 / 06

Getting
Paid

22 SITUATIONS · 49 DRAFTS

Late, partial, and silent. The ladder runs from a polite nudge to work paused — you decide how far up it goes.

17 IN FLIGHT5 PREVENT

Inside, for example

  • The client responded to your invoice with "Accounting is processing it" — no date attached.
  • The client paid half the invoice and said the rest would come "later" — no date given.
  • You heard the same vague excuse a second time — still no date attached.
$18Open →
VOL 02 / 06

Scope
Creep

40 SITUATIONS · 98 DRAFTS

The "just one small thing" that became three weeks. The thickest volume, because this is where most projects go.

33 IN FLIGHT7 PREVENT

Inside, for example

  • After pushing back on a request, the client says they'll just find someone else who'll do it.
  • The scope has grown over the last few weeks, but the original deadline is still on the table, unchanged.
  • You already flagged one cost overrun on this project, and now a second one is becoming clear.
$25Open →
VOL 03 / 06

Ghosted

23 SITUATIONS · 46 DRAFTS

Silence, at every stage it can happen — after the quote, mid-project, after delivery. Written so you don't sound anxious.

19 IN FLIGHT4 PREVENT

Inside, for example

  • You sent one reminder after the original quote, and it's still silent — no response to either message.
  • You delivered the final files, and there's been no confirmation that everything landed or looks right.
  • You sent a quote or proposal, and it's been quiet since — no reply, no questions, nothing declining it either.
$18Open →
VOL 04 / 06

Difficult
Client

25 SITUATIONS · 50 DRAFTS

Late-night messages, moving opinions, blame that the record doesn't support. Includes the ones where the mistake was yours.

22 IN FLIGHT3 PREVENT

Inside, for example

  • In a meeting with the client's team or manager present, the client blames you for something without any basis in the record.
  • The requirements were misread, and the delivered work has an error because of it. This is a mistake on your side, not the client's.
  • This is the second time something has been blamed on you that the written record doesn't support. The pattern is starting to repeat.
$18Open →
VOL 05 / 06

Lowball

29 SITUATIONS · 83 DRAFTS

Budget-first asks, exposure offers, the discount that was supposed to be one time. Holding your number without lecturing.

25 IN FLIGHT4 PREVENT

Inside, for example

  • Before any scope has been discussed, the client leads with a fixed budget number and asks what can be done within it.
  • This client got a discount on the last project, and now a new project comes with the same request for a lower rate.
  • A quote with a real number was already sent, and the reply proposes trading that payment for something non-monetary instead.
$22Open →
VOL 06 / 06

Breakup

19 SITUATIONS · 38 DRAFTS

Ending it without burning the reference — whether you end it, they do, or it has to happen today.

15 IN FLIGHT4 PREVENT

Inside, for example

  • This client was already warned once about a recurring pattern, nothing improved, and it's time to end the engagement.
  • The termination came suddenly with no explanation, and the relationship had already soured before this point.
  • The wind-down is already in progress, but the client keeps proposing changes to the agreed notice period and terms.
$16Open →

THE SYSTEM — NOT A SEVENTH BOOK

All six, in one file
that remembers.

Answer six questions and it works out which volume you're in. Keeps one history per client across all six. Tells you when a pattern has become a trajectory. Plus the six things to settle before a project starts.

$79 Six volumes separately — $117 Save 32% Get the System →

SIX FREE TOOLS — NO SIGNUP

The tools diagnose.
The books respond.

Each tool answers one question — is this in scope, is this client a risk, is this rate sustainable. When the answer calls for a hard conversation, the matching volume has the exact words.

FT-001 — SCOPE CHECKER NO ACCOUNT · ANSWER IN SECONDS

Paste the request and what you agreed to. Find out whether it's in scope — before you say yes.

CLEARBOUND.APP — SUBSCRIPTION

When the file
isn't enough.

The playbooks cover the situations we could write down. The app handles the ones we couldn't — your client, your wording, your history. Playbook owners pay half, for as long as they subscribe.

client wrote
"Can we jump on a quick call this weekend to sort the extra pages?"
strategy: price
Happy to cover the extra pages — they're outside the current scope, so I'll send a quick change order first...
copy

MOCK-UP — NOT A LIVE SCREEN

S-001 — RESPOND

Paste it. Get the reply.

The volumes cover the situations we could write down. This one handles yours — your client, your wording.

  • Same nine strategies as the volumes
  • Drafts in your voice, not a chatbot's
  • Copies straight to your clipboard
$4.50$9 /moPlaybook owners
See Respond →
message analysis
Underlying toneImpatient
  • Scope expansion without new terms
  • Weekend / off-hours pressure
Suggested strategy → Anchor

MOCK-UP — NOT A LIVE SCREEN

S-002 — READ

What they actually meant.

Paste the message. See the tone underneath it, the patterns worth noticing, and which way to answer.

  • Flags the pattern before you reply
  • Names the mode to use next
  • Points you at the matching volume
$7$14 /moPlaybook owners
See Read →
client health
Meridian Co.
Good
Vale Studio
Drift
Orbit Labs
At risk
2 invoices overdue · 1 scope alert this week

MOCK-UP — NOT A LIVE SCREEN

S-003 — TRACK

Which one is drifting.

A health score per client, built from what you log — not from reading your inbox. No mailbox access, ever.

  • Updated as you record what happened
  • Weekly digest of what needs attention
  • Transparent — you can see why the score moved
$9.50$19 /moPlaybook owners
See Track →
Open the app → What the three do →

WHO WROTE THESE

Twenty years on the
other side of these emails.

Jay — first freelancing, now a one-person agency. What is in these volumes started as my own notes: the replies that worked, written down properly so the next person does not have to work them out the hard way.

The longer version →

BEFORE THE NEXT ONE STARTS

The words are
already there.

Six volumes. 158 situations. 364 drafts. One file that opens in any browser and stays yours.

Get the System — $79 → Start with one — from $16 →