If you're new here, start here.
A quick guide to what this is, who it's for, and where to go first.
You probably found me because of a tool.
Maybe it was the operations dashboard I built with Claude Code. Maybe a Notion template, or a video about a camera or some piece of tech. That’s how most people get here. It’s how I got here too — I spent years believing the next system, the next app, the next setup was finally going to make everything click.
It didn’t. Not because the tools were bad. Because a tool can’t fix a problem you haven’t fully understood, or aren’t ready to admit you have.
That realization is more or less what this whole thing is about.
I’m Jerad. I’ve been self-employed since I was 19 — nearly 30 years of building things on my own terms. Businesses, audiences, a life in Kalispell, Montana with my wife and four kids. By most measures it’s worked. But somewhere in the middle of building it, I lost the thread between what I was putting into the world and what I actually wanted to be putting into it. My faith has been the foundation the whole time. For a long stretch I just built on top of it without letting it set the direction.
Field Notes is me closing that gap, in public, without a clean resolution to hand you.
I write for the man trying to build something worth keeping, raise kids worth knowing, and figure out what actually matters before it’s too late. Not because I’ve solved it. Because I’m in the middle of the same questions.
I’m a business owner, a husband, a father, a pilot, a photographer, a guy who makes things and talks about tech. All of that shows up here. A camera or an app might get a mention — it’s never the point. The point is what I’m learning out in the field of an actual life.
If that’s you, you’re in the right place.
Where to start:
Want to keep reading?
I publish new essays regularly. No tips, no frameworks, no listicles. Just honest writing from someone in the middle of building a life he actually wants.
If something here hit close to home, I’d like to hear about it. Contact me — I read every message.