A past client messaged me last week. Said he was in a bit of a pickle with a project and asked if I had time to jump on a call that day. I told him I had some availability and was happy to take a look. He then asked if I'd be open to working through the changes together live on the call for an hour or two. Before confirming I just said: "I usually handle sessions like this on an hourly basis, so just a heads up there." No long explanation. No awkward pricing conversation. Just a calm heads up before we got into it. He stayed positive and we moved forward. The right clients never push back on that line.