Fieldwork isn’t part of the work. Fieldwork is the work.
Welcome to the Fieldhouse
I’m Eric Zimmett, founder of Braden Fieldwork & Advisory, a fieldwork practice based in Bellefonte, PA that believes good brands last when they’re built around the work.
Before we create anything, I enter a client’s world to understand it from the inside. I spend time on-site—walking the floor, sitting in the space, asking questions, and noticing the details most people overlook.
Over time, patterns emerge. Those patterns become insights. From that understanding, we build.
This is fieldwork.
And the first question is simple:
What are we trying to build?
Fieldwork isn’t the marketing. It’s how better marketing is built.
What comes next depends on what the Fieldwork reveals. But Fieldwork always comes first.
Ways to work together
Fieldwork engagements take one of three forms:
Fieldwork Social
Ongoing social media built from the field: I enter your world, spend time with the people and the work, collect photographs, conversations, and observations, and use what I learn to build social media that reflects what makes your organization distinct.
The content comes from the Fieldwork.
Fieldwork Advisory
Ongoing Fieldwork for organizations building toward something: I work alongside you, ask better questions, follow what we’re noticing, and identify patterns and opportunities.
The work might lead somewhere we expected—or somewhere we didn’t.
We don’t have the answer before we know the question.
Fieldwork Social & Advisory
Both sides of the practice working together: We use Fieldwork to help understand and shape what you’re building, while also making the work visible through ongoing social media, storytelling, photography, events, and other public-facing work.
We build the work and make the work visible.
But first, Fieldwork
How I Work
In my back pocket is a worn Field Notes notebook, with bent pages and coffee stains. It catches the artifacts—the small data—that most consultants ignore. Those details are often the first clues to what makes an organization distinct.
Back at the Fieldhouse, the notes get taped to the wall or stuck to the whiteboard. Then I look for patterns and talk through what I’ve been noticing into my recorder.
I enter a client’s world with extreme curiosity. I collect the small data others overlook and stay with it long enough to understand what it means.
I work the same way I did as a journalist: showing up, getting involved, and paying close attention.
Observe first. Discover patterns. Then build.
Fieldwork is the starting point
Why I Work This Way
Many clients first come to me for social media marketing.
Social media may be what we’re trying to build. Fieldwork begins by asking what it should be built around.
Other times, the proposed answer isn’t the answer at all.
Too often, organizations begin with the answer. Fieldwork begins with better questions.
The format changes. The process stays the same: careful observation, clear thinking, and attention to what makes your organization distinct.
“If you want to understand how animals live, you don’t go to the zoo, you go to the jungle.”
— Martin Lindstrom, consultant and author of Small Data, The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends
Fieldwork Portfolio
Long Construction Co.
Fieldwork Social
What were we trying to build? Social media marketing that reflected the company’s history and values.
What Fieldwork discovered: A 5th-generation contracting company with positioning “Built for the Next Generation™.”
That positioning now guides Long Construction’s website, social media, and storytelling, paired with photographs of both its past and future generations.
Zion Lutheran Church
Fieldwork Social & Advisory
What were we trying to build? Community awareness and attendance at Zion Lutheran Church.
What Fieldwork discovered: Zion’s identity is inseparable from Boalsburg itself.
That insight led to “Grounded in Boalsburg™” and community activations like Music on the Lawn.
Stable Mind
Fieldwork Advisory
What were we trying to build? A business model, identity, bio, and service offerings.
What Fieldwork discovered: Mind-body alignment was the unifying idea behind the practice. The logo, the Knight chess piece, was on Christian’s wrist the entire time, a tattoo he’s had for years.
What began as a series of conversations in a horse barn became a defined practice with a clear identity, service offerings, and roadmap for growth.
AscentOps
Fieldwork Advisory
What were we trying to build? A visual identity.
What Fieldwork discovered: The hiking tradition of adopting “trail names” created an opportunity for a dual identity connecting the founder and the business.
That insight led to the “Trevor” logo concept and original sketch, paired with the founder’s passion for hiking and adventure, with final design by Andy Heckathorne.
Some brands I’ve rolled up my sleeves with:
Penn’s Cave & Wildlife Park • Shaner Corp. • Zion Lutheran Church in Boalsburg • The Field Burger & Tap • Toftrees Golf Resort • Go Tell It IN the Mountains with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) • Centre County United Way • Domino’s Pizza • Long Construction Co. • Penn State University • Penn State Police & Public Safety • Stable Mind • AscentOps
“Your content is spot-on. It doesn’t feel like an ad, which is the best part. A lot of agencies try to do this but ultimately fall short.” — Gautam Kulkarni, Meta Marketing Pro
About Eric Braden Zimmett
For most of my life, I’ve been interested in the same thing: research, discovery, uncovering the story.
As a kid, I wanted to be an archaeologist.
In high school and throughout college, I worked as a journalist, which taught me to pay attention.
Today I’m still digging things up — through fieldwork.
When I started this practice, my first fieldwork project was myself.
Braden is my middle name, but I discovered it has a deeper origin: the Irish Gaelic Bradán, meaning “salmon.” In Irish folklore, Bradán Feasa—the Salmon of Knowledge—gave wisdom to whoever caught it. That discovery led to the Braden name, the early slogan, Swim Against the Stream, and the salmon that became the logo.
Braden Fieldwork reflects the process behind my work. Fieldwork comes first. From there, the work can take many forms—strategy, storytelling, social media, photography, press, digital channels, events, identity, and whatever else the Fieldwork reveals.
The Salmon of Knowledge (Bradán Feasa) is a creature in the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology
Training & Certifications
I’m Certified by Cannes Lions in Storytelling and Behavioral Science for Brands, and by Ogilvy in Applied Behavioral Science and Behavioral Economics. Penn State University, Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, 2008. Dale Carnegie & Associates Graduate, 2009; Dale Carnegie Graduate Assistant, 2010.
Fieldwork isn’t part of the work. Fieldwork is the work.
I like you
A fieldwork practice by Eric B. Zimmett
Braden Fieldwork LLC, estd. 2014
eric@bradenfieldwork.com
Website Built in the Field by Eric B. Zimmett