For years, I've been connecting with interesting people and documenting insights that might help my clients and myself. What was once private is now (mostly) public.

People often ask: "How do you know all these people?" and "How do you connect these (re: random) ideas?" The answer is simple: consistent relationship cultivation and thoughtful note taking. My north star is trusting my instincts, my maps are the constellations in these reflections.

This approach to multidisciplinary networking has helped dozens of clients, colleagues, and friends strengthen their networks and unlock new opportunities. Find my Personal Archive on CultishCreative.com, watch me build a better Personal Network on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel, and listen to Just Press Record on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, and follow me on social media (LinkedIn and X) - now distributed by Epsilon Theory.

You can also check out my work as Managing Director at Sunpointe, as a host on top investment YouTube channel Excess Returns, and as Senior Editor at Perscient.

Feel free to steal these ideas directly - that's what they're for! I can't promise you'll learn FROM me, but I guarantee you can learn something WITH me. Let's go. Count it off: 1-2-3-4!

Introducing... Eric Pachman!

Do you know Eric Pachman? He's the Chief Analytics Officer at Bancreek Capital Advisors and co-founder of 46brooklyn - a company that exposed hundreds of millions in healthcare fraud through data journalism. He's also working today with his elementary school friends (yes, really) to build something special at Bancreek.

If not, allow me to introduce you. Eric is a chemical engineer turned Wall Street analyst turned railroad capacity modeler turned pharmacy owner turned healthcare fraud investigator turned investment firm builder. I wanted to connect with him because he embodies something I value deeply: the courage to use data to tell uncomfortable truths, even when powerful interests would prefer silence.

Our conversation is LIVE now on the Just Press Record YouTube channel (and this Cultish Creative Playlist). Listen and you'll hear how Eric went from building molecular-level refinery models at Exxon to exposing pharmaceutical middlemen who were stealing from Medicaid - all while learning that happiness doesn't come from climbing corporate ladders.

THREE: That's The Magic Number of Lessons

In the meantime, I wanted to pull THREE KEY LESSONS from my time with Eric to share with you (and drop into my Personal Archive).

Read on and you'll find a quote with a lesson and a reflection you can Take to work with you, Bring home with you, and Leave behind with your legacy.

WORK: Data Without Story Is Just Numbers

Key Concept: Eric discovered that having access to data means nothing if you can't communicate its meaning effectively. His breakthrough came when he realized that data visualization isn't just about making pretty charts - it's about creating shared reality that allows people to have constructive debates based on facts rather than opinions. Whether he was showing refinery optimization models or exposing healthcare fraud, the power was never in the numbers themselves but in making complex truths accessible to others.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: Most data visualizations are designed for the takeaway. We’re busy people and if a picture is worth a whole 1,000 words that we don’t have to read because you put it into a fancy picture? We want that shortcut.

What Eric is doing, is asking you not to takeaway your takeaway. Eric’s asking you to keep it here. Take-away’s vs. keep-it-here’s is a very important and timely concept.

The “we simplified this so we can sit and discuss it” format is sorely lacking from modern discourse. Mostly because it requires discourse. It requires we keep-it-here, and not just up and leave after we have our take-away to go check some box.

Hard conversations require collaborative spaces, and not, ammunition depots (or whatever social attack/point scoring/one-ups-manship game we mostly see these days). Eric figuring out ways to create graphics to inspire deeper conversations is a noble pursuit.

And, whatever your version of this applied at work, it’s a key part of the difference between an unhealthy culture that doesn’t know how to have hard conversations with each other - versus a healthy culture who knows how to sit and work out mutual interpretations of the data.

Work question for you: How are you translating your expertise into stories that others can actually understand and act upon?

LIFE: Companies Will Take Everything You're Willing to Give

Key Concept: Eric learned this lesson the hard way across multiple jobs - from Exxon to Wall Street to CSX Railroad. The pattern was always the same: initial success led to more responsibility, which led to longer hours, which led to seeking validation through achievement rather than finding contentment in the work itself. He realized that without conscious boundaries, professional ambition becomes an addiction that never satisfies. The wake-up call came when his mother's death made him confront whether he was living his own life or just climbing ladders others had built.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: Everything is made up of boundaries. I can’t let my dogs sniff around one area too long or we will never finish our walk - that’s a boundary. I can’t let clients know I’m available on demand 24/7 or else I’ll never be able to walk my dogs - that’s a boundary too.

The layers of these boundaries, from companies to jobs to people to roles and who is wearing what hat and when, they can feel exhausting. But the boundaries are where the relationships find meaning. They’re a source of data, converted to useful information. Boundaries are the distinctions between the company, the job, the people, and the lives they lead.

It might seem dark to bring up Eric’s mother’s death, but I think we have to look at it as a form of a boundary. That’s what was so transformational to Eric. Life has death and that’s a boundary we can’t argue with. And, as Eric learned from it, just being aware that life has that limit certainly makes you look at being alive differently.

We have stuff we want to do. We have stuff we want others not to do (re: like dogs sniffing too long). Once we understand the balance of what we’re striving towards, of what makes it feel healthy, we have an operating system for everything from our identities to our career choices.

Life Question For You: What boundaries do you need to set so that work enhances rather than consumes your life?

LEGACY: Building Something Meaningful with the Right People

Key Concept: After decades of chasing individual achievement, Eric discovered that the most fulfilling work happens when you're building something meaningful alongside people who knew you before you had anything to prove. Working with his friends from elementary school at Bancreek means they can have the kind of honest friction that improves their work without destroying their relationships. There's no corporate politics when your business partner is someone who remembers you getting ant bites on college tubing trips.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: Despite all the fancy jobs and titles, despite losing his mother to an unbeatable cancer, Eric and a bunch of his elementary school friends are hanging out and building cool businesses together.

Eric made me think about how there is no meaningful work in complete isolation. You can do all sorts of things for yourself and by yourself, but you have to share some of what you make. You have to share some of the work load, at least once in a while too.

And, if you share some of the work and some of the outcomes, repeatedly, you’ll start to form meaningful relationships around the effort. It doesn’t mean everybody should start businesses with friends from 30+ years ago, but it does mean everybody should find and keep some 30+ year relationships in their life. Shared effort is a prerequisite to meaning-making.

They take work, but they keep meaning. It’s the data stuff all over again. Meaning isn’t something to take away, it’s something to keep right here. Eric’s a living example of this point.

Legacy question for you: Who are the people in your life with whom you could build something that would outlast your individual ambitions?

BEFORE YOU GO: Be sure to…

• Connect with Eric Pachman on LinkedIn and Twitter

• Check out his work at bancreek.com and learn about their ETFs at bancreeketfs.com

• Take a moment to reflect on what story your own data is telling!

You have a Personal Network and a Personal Archive just waiting for you to build them up stronger. Look at your work, look at your life, and look at your legacy - and then, start small in each category. Today it's one person and one reflection. Tomorrow? Who knows what connections you'll create.

Last thing: Don't forget to click reply/click here and tell me who you're adding to your network and why! Plus, if you already have your own Personal Archive too, let me know, I'm creating a database.