How Do You Sell Discovery for Money?

As an illustrator, how can I begin working with my clients so they get a sense of where this is going to go creatively while getting paid? Is that your question? That is absolutely my question. How do I communicate the value of potentially doing like an initial discovery phase for let's say like five grand and just getting paid for that work)? And then being like, you know, after this engagement is over, no strings attached, like you don't have to work with me. But if you want to, we can kind of continue. So it's not necessarily discovery in like a brand strategy world. It's more about setting up a project that's almost like starts with like a