Why I Created the Field Notes and the Field Guides

I was once told by a mentor, “Sometimes you have to become what you didn’t have.”
That sentence has stayed with me for more than twenty years.
It is the foundation of why the Field Notes exist — and why the Field Guides were born.

When I started my first blog nearly two decades ago, the world was a different place.
There was no Facebook.
No Instagram.
No social media wisdom or YouTube tutorials.
Blogging was so new that there were no examples to follow — no path to study, no playbook to copy, no mentors who had walked that particular road.

I built my first platform in the dark, using instinct as my guide.

Over the years, I wrote more than 700 articles, held over 500 interviews, and asked over 5,000 questions.
I learned by doing. I learned by failing.
I learned by asking.
I learned by observing.
And I learned by surviving wave after wave of technological evolution — from early email culture, to the rise of blogs, to the dawn of social media, to mobile-first marketing, and now into the era of AI.

What I wish I had during that journey was a guide — something that could have saved me years of wandering, trial, error, wasted money, missteps, and blind guesses.

But it didn’t exist.
So now, I’m building it for the next generation of creators.

The Field Notes are the reflections I gathered along the way — the lessons, philosophies, and insights earned through experience, not theory.

The Field Guides are the blueprints I never received — practical, honest, strategic, grounded in real work and real mistakes. They are designed to give creators what I did not have:

  • a roadmap
  • a compass
  • a blueprint
  • a mentor in written form
  • a practical guide to getting started
  • the questions to ask
  • the equipment that matters
  • the workarounds that save time
  • the costs no one ever talks about
  • the strategies behind the scenes
  • the reality behind the craft
  • and the insight of 20 years, delivered in moments

My goal is simple:
To give creators, dreamers, and entrepreneurs what I never had — 20 years of knowledge in the palm of your hand.

Because no one should have to walk this journey blind.
Because brilliance shouldn’t be slowed by lack of guidance.
Because the world is better when creators create — with clarity, confidence, and direction.

The Field Notes are my story.
The Field Guides are my offering.
Together, they are the mentor I once needed — now given to you.