A woman with tattoos on her arms and shoulder, wearing a colorful tropical shirt and black shorts, sitting on a vintage black and wooden sofa, reading a beige Field Notes notebook, with a yellow retro rotary phone beside her, in a rustic room with peeling wall paint and yellow curtains.

Pull up a log, pass the snacks, and crack open the creative canteen! We’re trading stories by the campfire. Field Notes is where we share reflections on ethical marketing, creative ecosystems, and what it looks like to build work that cares for people and planet. These essays explore care-centered business, relational community building, and creative practices rooted in liberation and integrity. Think of this space as an evolving notebook, ideas gathered in the field and shared in community.

Field Notes

Archive

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Where the word 'brand' actually comes from and why performing your values is easier than practicing them. Read more…

Learn about what building a brand in Portland, Oregon actually requires, beyond the aesthetic. Read more…

Not all content is disposable! A platform-by-platform guide to what actually keeps working. Read more…

A sustainable approach to marketing solo, without burning out or hiring a team you don't need. Read more…

The Archives: Reflections on Ethical Business and Creative Practice

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Ecological Roles of Care: An Ethical Business Framework for Creatives & Values-Driven Brands

The Ecological Roles of Care is a framework for creatives, small business owners, and values-driven leaders who care deeply about the world they’re contributing to — but feel overwhelmed about how to show up ethically without burning out. This guide helps you identify your unique role in impact work, align your marketing and leadership with your values, and build a business that participates in change sustainably.

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What Creative Liberation Means (And Why It Matters for Creatives Today)

Creative liberation is the practice of reclaiming creativity from systems that reward conformity, performance, and productivity over truth. This flagship guide explores what creative liberation actually means, why it matters politically and personally, and how creatives and small business owners can begin unlearning the constraints that keep their work, and themselves, contained.

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How To Run Your Marketing Department As One Person

Running a marketing department as a one-person team can feel overwhelming—but with the right strategy, you can market your business efficiently without burnout. In this guide, we break down practical steps for solo marketers, including how to prioritize marketing channels, create a quarterly and monthly plan, batch content, and leverage automation tools. Plus, we’ll share essential strategies for maintaining consistency, optimizing time management, and deciding when to outsource. Whether you're a solopreneur, freelancer, or small business owner, this article will help you simplify your marketing workflow and grow your brand effectively.

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Our 2026 Anti-Trend Report: What We Refuse To Participate In And What We’re Growing Instead

This 2026 Anti-Trend Report outlines the harmful cultural and industry trends conscious creatives and small businesses must reject in the year ahead—from colorism in design and gendered branding to extractive economics, hustle culture, and unethical AI. Instead, we explore the values, practices, and liberatory business models worth cultivating: human-centered marketing, ethical technology, circular and local economies, creativity-first entrepreneurship, embodied business practices, and community-rooted ecosystems. This article serves as both a manifesto and a field guide for creative entrepreneurs committed to values-driven work, justice-oriented branding, and sustainable business growth in 2026 and beyond.

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A Guide to Creative Seasons

This article explores healing creative burnout through a seasonal, nature-based framework. It shares a personal story of unhooking from urgency culture, understanding inner creative seasons, rebuilding a creative ecosystem, and embracing sustainable, anti-capitalist approaches to creativity. Companion to the Creative Season Almanac workbook.

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Imagination as Infrastructure: Reimagining How We Live, Work, and Create Beyond Algorithms and Capitalism

Discover how imagination can guide us through a changing world. This essay explores how creatives, entrepreneurs, and small studios can move beyond social media algorithms, capitalism, and burnout to build sustainable ecosystems of work, art, and community rooted in care, collaboration, and creativity.

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Field Guide to Creative Survival

As familiar systems shift and old structures dissolve, our creativity becomes both refuge and resistance. The Field Guide to Creative Survival invites you to reimagine creativity as a living ecosystem — rooted in connection, sustained by community, and inspired by the natural world. Inside, you’ll find prompts, reflections, and maps to help you nurture your creative life force and thrive in uncertain times.

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Hyperreality & Social Media: How Conscious Brands Can Keep It Real

We live in an age where simulation often feels more real than reality. From curated feeds to staged “authenticity,” social media has blurred the line between truth and performance. French philosopher Jean Baudrillard called this hyperreality—a concept that feels more urgent than ever as billionaires and tech platforms profit from our disconnection.

In this article, I share how stepping back from constant posting led me to see the costs of hyperreality more clearly, why discernment is our most vital responsibility, and what conscious brands can do to resist simulation. You’ll learn practical ways to ground your marketing in truth, protect what’s sacred, and model presence for your community—because in a world where simulation sells, defending what’s real may be the most radical act of all.

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Reclaiming Your Attention: A Creative’s Guide to Navigating the Attention Economy

The internet was supposed to free us. Instead, it’s become a machine that extracts our time, energy, and creativity. In this guide, we unpack how the attention economy hijacks our focus—and share tools for reclaiming your digital presence. From creative boundaries to alternative platforms, this is for the makers, thinkers, and artists who refuse to be mined.

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You’ll notice many of these essays circling shared questions around ethical marketing, creative ecosystems, and what it means to build business at a more human pace. We hope you enjoy.