THE FIELD NOTES
DISPATCHES FROM THE CHAIR
What This Is
Most email lists are built to move you toward a sale.
They’re structured as nurture sequences: timed messages, persuasion arcs, calls to action designed to warm you up and push you forward.
This isn’t that.
The Field Notes are not a funnel.
They’re not a sequence.
And they’re not written to manufacture momentum.
They are direct observations drawn from two places:
- over 25 years working in the field
- the work happening right now with clients in live diagnostic sessions
Think of them as diagnostic dispatches.
Not written to persuade, but written to record what’s actually happening.
They arrive three times a week.
What To Expect
Each dispatch begins a pattern.
Something I keep seeing in the work. A friction point. A structural trap. A behaviour that looks strategic but operates as avoidance.
You’ll see reflections on:
- patterns that repeatedly stall action
- decisions people already know they’re avoiding
- the gap between strategies that look good and businesses that actually work
- why capable people stay stuck despite knowing what to do
These are not instructional pieces.
They don’t offer step-by-step advice or frameworks to apply.
They name what is usually left unsaid.
Each note names the pattern, reframes what's actually going on, and closes with a test: a question designed to cut through the rationalisation and show you whether this one is about you.
They're direct. They're short. And they don't offer a soft landing.
Field note samples can be read further down this page.
To receive the notes, click the button below:
Access The
Field Notes
Enter your first name and email to receive The Field Notes.
Sample Dispatches From The Chair
Field Note Title: The Professional Shield
Why Your Most "Serious" Positioning Is Costing You Clients. And What It's Actually Hiding.
You've built real expertise. Now you're trying to translate it into a business.
So you build walls. Professional language. Scientific credibility. Premium positioning. Educational content that demonstrates authority.
It's 9pm on a Tuesday. You're rewriting your homepage for the fourth time this month. You read it back and think: this sounds like everyone else. But at least it sounds professional.
You post it anyway.
What's actually going on
I call this the Professional Shield.
It's what happens when someone with genuine expertise builds layer after layer of credibility, and accidentally buries themselves in the process.
The walls don't make you look serious. They make you invisible.
Because eventually, you're going to sit across from another human being. On a call. In a meeting. On camera. And they're going to see past all of it.
They're not going to connect with your framework or your credentials. They're going to connect with you. Or they're not.
Every layer of professional distance creates a gap. Prospects feel it. Something doesn't land. Your positioning looks right. Your content is valuable. And still, they book with someone else.
Someone who seems less qualified on paper. But who they felt something with.
The test
Think about the best client relationship you've ever had. The one where the work was easy, the results were good, and you actually enjoyed the process.
How did that relationship start?
Was it because they were impressed by your positioning? Or was it because they connected with something about how you showed up?
If it was the connection, ask yourself what the walls are actually protecting.
What this means
The thing you're hiding behind isn't protecting you.
It's preventing the connection that would actually get you clients.
And eventually, you're going to have to show up anyway.
So you might as well take the walls down now.
The walls aren't making you look serious.
They're making you look like everyone else.
Access The
Field Notes
Enter your first name and email to receive The Field Notes.
Dispatch From The Chair
Field Note Title: The Readiness Threshold
Why Smart People Keep Preparing for a Moment That Never Comes. And What They're Actually Protecting.
"When I'm ready, I'll reach out."
"When the website's done, I'll start."
"When I've got my positioning sorted, I'll take that meeting."
It's Wednesday afternoon. You're staring at the same draft you were staring at last Wednesday. The cursor blinks. Tomorrow you'll find something else that needs fixing first.
And underneath it all, a quiet knowing: the preparation isn't actually the point. The preparation is the shelter.
What's actually going on
I call this the Readiness Threshold.
It's the invisible line you've convinced yourself exists between where you are now and where you'd need to be before you can act.
The problem is, the line keeps moving.
Every time you approach it, the threshold shifts. The website's done, but now the testimonials aren't right. The positioning's sorted, but now the pricing feels off.
The Readiness Threshold isn't a real destination. It's a moving target designed to keep you safe from the thing you're actually afraid of.
Not failure. Exposure.
The moment when preparation ends and you find out what happens when you're actually in the room.
The test
Name the specific thing that needs to happen before you can take the action you've been postponing.
Now ask yourself: if that thing happened tomorrow, would you actually act? Or would something else need to happen first?
If the answer is "well, that, and also..." then you're not preparing.
You're protecting.
And the protection is costing you more than the exposure ever would.
What this means
The opportunity you've been preparing for isn't waiting for you to be ready.
It's waiting for you to decide that "ready" is a fiction you've been using to stay safe.
The question isn't whether you're ready.
The question is how much longer you're going to pretend that readiness is what's missing.
Access The
Field Notes
Enter your first name and email to receive The Field Notes.
Dispatch From The Chair
Field Note Title: Filling The Hole
Why You Keep Building New Businesses To Solve The Same Problem. And Why None Of Them Will Work.
You're asking the wrong question.
Which niche. Which offer. Which pricing structure.
It's late on a Sunday. You're sketching out another new business model. This one feels different. More aligned.
You can see why the last ones didn't deliver what you wanted and why this one will.
You've had this feeling before.
But there's a nagging question at the back of you mind...What if the problem isn't the business model at all?
What's actually going on
I call this the Salvation Business.
A client this week kept asking about different business models. But he's built four businesses in three years. Coaching. SaaS. AI automation.
All different vehicles. All trying to solve the same problem.
The problem isn't the business model. It's the hole.
Everyone's got one. Call it the god-shaped hole if you want. Call it lack. But there's a hole.
And you're trying to fill it.
Some people use relationships. Some people use fitness. Some people use business.
Doesn't matter the vehicle. The destination is always the same: "Maybe THIS will complete me."
It won't. Not because the business is wrong. Because nothing fills the hole.
The hole isn't personal but it is permanent. It's part of the fabric of reality.
The test
Think about the last business you walked away from.
Why did you leave?
If the answer involves the business itself: wrong market, bad timing, didn't scale...
Ask yourself: Did you leave because those things were true? Or did you leave because the business stopped providing the hit?
There's a difference between a business that isn't working and a business that's stopped filling the hole.
The first one you fix or shut down.
The second one you abandon for the next thing, even if it was working fine.
Which one was it?
What this means
The freedom isn't in finally finding the right business.
It's in accepting the hole exists. And building anyway.
Not for salvation. For fun.
The hole doesn't close. Nothing fills it.
But you can stop expecting your business to do something it was never designed to do.
Build for the market. Build for the craft. Build for the game of it.
Just stop building for the hole.
Access The
Field Notes
Enter your first name and email to receive The Field Notes.
Go Deeper ↓
(select an option below)
Go Home →
