I know what you’re thinking.
A blog? In 2026? Is this guy serious?
Yeah. I’m serious.
Here’s the part the naysayers are getting wrong: the people who start writing now — while everyone else is busy saying blogging is dead — are going to own the next decade of search.
AI answers have to cite someone. That someone might as well be me.
But that’s not even the main reason I’m here.
A few years ago I was running a screen printing and embroidery business in the Pacific Northwest. But the cost of living in the States had gotten so unsustainable that keeping the business alive meant making a drastic call.
So I packed up and moved to the Philippines.
Not to escape. To adapt.
That decision changed everything — how I work, how I think about money, and what I believe is actually possible for regular people who are willing to make unconventional moves.
I’m building a personal brand in public — documenting the real numbers, the real mistakes, and the thinking behind every decision — as I try to turn a location-independent business into something bigger.
Some of it will work. Some of it won’t. You’ll see all of it.
Let’s go.
Hi, I'm Curtis!
My name is Curtis Townsend. I built a six-figure screen printing and embroidery business from scratch in the Pacific Northwest. Then I watched the cost of living make that increasingly pointless, made a decision most people thought was crazy, and moved to the Philippines.
That’s the arc. It sounds cleaner in one sentence than it felt living it.
I’m a solo operator. No team, no office, no org chart. I run everything — the strategy, the systems, the execution — with a small stack of AI tools that have replaced what used to require three people and twice the budget. I didn’t go lean because it’s trendy. I went lean because it’s the only way this works when you’re building something real without a safety net.
I also have ADHD. I’m not telling you that for sympathy or as a disclaimer. I’m telling you because it explains a lot about how I think — the hyperfocus, the pattern recognition, the allergy to bureaucracy, the fact that I’d rather rebuild something from scratch than maintain something that’s 80% broken. It’s not a liability. It’s the operating system. Once I stopped fighting it and started designing around it, everything got faster.
Here’s what I’m not: I’m not a coach. I’m not selling a course. I’m not a guru with a framework and a retreat in Bali. I don’t have ten steps to your best life and I’m not going to pretend I’ve figured everything out.
I’m a guy who made a hard call, landed somewhere unexpected, and is figuring it out in real time. This blog is the log.
Why This Blog Exists
Here’s the truth — most content about financial freedom, AI, and living abroad is garbage. Seriously.
It’s written by people who read about it, not people who are actually doing it.
That’s the problem I’m solving.
I’m not sitting in some office theorizing about location independence. I’m living it — right now, in the Philippines, running a lean AI-powered operation that most people said wouldn’t work.
And guess what? It’s working.
This blog isn’t a personal brand play. It’s not a funnel. It’s not me performing success for an audience.
It’s documentation. Real numbers, real mistakes, real decisions — written as they happen.
That’s why I called it Notes From The Field. Because that’s exactly what it is — dispatches from someone embedded in the work, not watching it from the sidelines.
If you’re tired of inspiration porn and want to see how this actually works, you’re in the right place.
If you want perfectly curated content and highlight reels, there are plenty of other blogs for that.
This isn’t one of them.
Why Now
I’ve been asked why I’m starting this blog in 2026. Fair question.
The honest answer is — I’ve procrastinated long enough and allowed fear to get in the way of accomplishing my dreams for way too long.
The window is closing.
You’ve probably heard about the K-shaped economy. Two lines moving in opposite directions — one group of people building assets, another group selling labor. The gap between them isn’t a prediction anymore. It’s already happening, and it’s accelerating.
The window for ordinary people to cross from one line to the other is real. But it’s not permanent.
I’m not saying this to scare you. I’m saying it because I spent years planning to make moves and almost missed my own window. The urgency is earned, not manufactured.
Written content isn’t dead. Most people just stopped paying attention to it.
Here’s something the AI conversation is getting wrong. Everyone is asking whether blogging is dead now that AI can answer any question instantly.
Wrong question.
AI answers have to come from somewhere. They get cited from somewhere. That somewhere is written content that ranks. If you’re not building that foundation now — while everyone else is distracted debating whether to bother — you’re going to be invisible to the next generation of search.
AEO, AI agent optimization, all of it — it’s downstream of the same thing it’s always been downstream of. Good content that people trust.
The people writing seriously right now are planting trees. The shade comes later.
I finally stopped planning and did the thing.
For years I had the plan. Move abroad. Build something location-independent. Stop trading time for dollars in a system that was getting more expensive and less rewarding by the month.
I schemed. I deferred. I waited for the right moment.
Then one day I sold everything, got on a plane, and landed in the Philippines.
The blog is the next version of that same move. Stop waiting. Start the record.
Some things just need to be said out loud.
There’s a version of this journey that isn’t getting documented. No sponsors. No perfectly timed breakthrough moments. No narrative arc that was polished in post-production.
Just what it actually looks like to build something unconventional, in an unconventional place, with unconventional tools — told by someone who is still in the middle of it.
That version deserves to exist. So I’m writing it.
Core Themes
I’m not going to dress this up as a content strategy. These are just the things I think about every day — the stuff that’s actually shaping how I live and work right now.
Financial Freedom
Not the version where someone retires at 35 and drinks coconut water on a beach. The real version — where you understand exactly what things cost, what trade-offs you’re actually making, and what “enough” looks like for your specific life. I’ll share real numbers. Real decisions. The math behind the moves.
AI and the future of work
I use AI tools every single day to run my operation. Not theoretically — practically. What’s actually useful, what’s overhyped, what’s changed the way I work in ways I didn’t expect. No product placements. No affiliate-driven recommendations. Just honest field reports on what’s working and what isn’t.
Entrepreneurship and solopreneurship
I run everything alone. No employees, no partners, no office. There’s a specific way of thinking that makes that possible — and a specific set of mistakes that will sink you if you’re not paying attention. I’ll cover both.
Location independence
This isn’t a travel blog. I’m not going to tell you the best cafes to work from in Chiang Mai. What I will tell you is what the infrastructure actually looks like — banking, taxes, legal structure, internet, health care — the unglamorous mechanics that determine whether this life is actually sustainable or just an extended vacation.
ADH-Done!
It makes some things harder. It makes other things surprisingly useful. I’ll be honest about both. If you have it, you’ll recognize a lot of what I write. If you don’t, it might help you understand how some people are wired differently — and why that’s not always a disadvantage.
Cultivating Equanimity
All the systems, the tools, the financial moves — they’re means to an end. The end is a quiet life that feels like mine. I’ll write about that too, probably more than you’d expect.
What To Expect
I write the way I think. Direct. No filler.
You’re not going to find motivational quotes here. Or vague advice that sounds good but doesn’t actually tell you anything.
What you will find is specifics. Real numbers. Real friction. The actual decisions — not the cleaned-up version I’d tell someone at a dinner party.
This isn’t inspiration. It’s field intelligence.
That means sometimes the update is “this didn’t work and here’s why.” Sometimes it’s “here’s exactly what I spent, what I made, and what I’d do differently.” Sometimes it’s just an honest observation from someone living an unconventional life in an unconventional place.
No sponsors shaping the narrative. No perfect arc. No pretending.
If you’re looking for a curated highlight reel, this isn’t it.
If you’re trying to build something real and you want to know what it actually looks like from the inside — keep reading.
Let's Get Into It
If anything you’ve read here felt familiar — the restlessness, the sense that the conventional path was never really yours, the belief that there’s a smarter way to build a life — then you’re probably in the right place.
Start with the financial freedom series if money and trade-offs are what brought you here. Start with the AI and work pieces if you’re trying to figure out what the next few years actually look like for people building things solo. Or just read whatever’s next in the queue. It’s all connected anyway.
This blog isn’t for everyone. If you’re looking for a step-by-step system, a coach, or a guaranteed outcome — I’m not that. I don’t have a course to sell you at the end of this.
But if you’re the kind of person who makes decisions by gathering real information from people actually in the field — then we’ll get along fine.
I’m Curtis Townsend. I live in the Philippines. I’m figuring this out as I go.
Glad you’re here.