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. 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!

Do you know Ian Cassel? He's the founder of MicroCapClub, a private forum for microcap investors, host of the in-person Planet MicroCap events, Chief Investment Officer & Founder of Intelligent Fanatics Capital Management, and the author of Stock Picker.

If not, allow me to introduce you. Ian has invested in microcaps since 2001, spent a decade as a full-time private investor living off his own portfolio before launching his fund in 2019, and writes about his losses with, by his own count, twice as much bad as good.

I wanted to connect with Ian because he embodies something I value deeply: picking good things to put inside your box by going outside your box to find them.

Our conversation is LIVE now on the Epsilon Theory YouTube channel (and this Cultish Creative Playlist). Listen and you'll hear how a message board stranger became a 10 to 15 year mentor, why most of his biggest mistakes were averaging down, and what happens when a microcap investor and a currency trader compare notes. That trader is Brent Donnelly, and his Grow Your Network post went live yesterday.

In the meantime, I wanted to pull THREE KEY LESSONS from my time with Ian Cassel 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.

Key Concept: Ian says his biggest edge is his relationship with management, but it took repetitions to turn it into one. In his early meetings he was too impressed to evaluate anything, and a CEO could have told him almost anything. Somewhere between five and twenty meetings, he could look at the person and the idea neutrally instead of optimistically. Few people are willing to put in those early reps.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: The music metaphor that this reps comment immediately takes me to is the relationship between practicing and performing. You need reps in both, but they're different kinds of reps and they stack.

It's one thing to be locked away in the room running scales and getting stuff under your fingers (or whatever you're practicing, including doing spreadsheet calcs and building financial models), but then it's a whole other thing to go out in the world and execute what you've practiced in front of others (for Ian, the research is the practice and the boardroom is the performance).

And, most importantly, almost nobody is good straight out of the gate. We only get good, at anything, with both forms of reps in our regularly repeated repertoire.

Work question for you: What skill are you still in the "eyes as big as saucers" phase of, and how many more reps would it take before you could see it neutrally?

Key Concept: Ian reached out twice to a message-board poster he admired and got silence both times. So he did his own work on a company the man owned, found information that added to the thesis, and posted it. That gave the man a reason to answer, and it grew into a 10 or 15 year mentorship. The mechanism is giving something useful before asking for anything.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: After you get the reps in practicing, and after you get even more reps in performing, you start to break through to connecting with an audience. It might be a handful of people on a message board, but if you're doing good work, somebody you're a fan of will eventually become a fan of you and this is one of the greatest experiences we get to have.

On one hand it's like a teacher noticing you, or somebody at work choosing to mentor you in some unofficial but very beneficial way. But on the other hand, it's a communal signpost that somebody else who has done the work recognizes you are doing the work, and therefore there's value in you being connected to each other.

Ian's stories about mentors in his book are some of my favorite (in this one, he did his own work on a stock his would-be mentor owned and shared what he found). They're reminders that you don't need everyone to notice you, just the right people, and doing both, performing and practicing, is the method for getting those relationships. And, as a bonus aside, I'm extra amused that people like Ben Hunt play into this, as both Brent and I had looked up to him, gotten connected via the work we were doing, and now count him as a common relationship. This stuff is everywhere if you look for it.

Life Question For You: Who are you trying to reach right now, and what could you offer them before you ask for anything?

Key Concept: Ian separates two things a track record can do: impress people and connect with them. Impressing comes from the successes, and connecting comes from the struggles, which matters more as people get older and look for authenticity over polish. He puts that into practice in his writing, where he tells the good with probably twice as much bad, because the ups and downs are how readers learn the reality of the work.

Personal Archive Note-To-Self: Here's the last critical detail about getting your practice and performance reps in - reps include practicing successes and failures. That's the struggle part. Resistance training, kind of. And sharing these lessons makes a difference.

After you get the maybe mentor to notice you and become a definite relationship, then the others might follow. Some people get the attention of loads of people, others get a handful, but the common denominator in these added relationships is an awareness of imperfection.

Sure there are cults where the central figure can do no wrong, and I'm avoiding describing those since I figure if you're reading me you're over that kind of idol worship, but what I'm talking about is a relatability factor.

We owe it to others, just like we owe it to our past and future selves, to remember it starts with knowing who we are, and why we're practicing and performing and creating anything at all, and then being aware of how we fit into the world around us. Doing our best to convey the whole picture of who we are is one of my favorite things about Ian and Brent, which is also why I'm so happy they now know each other. The meaning of life is relationships with the rest of the living.

Legacy question for you: Where could you share more of the struggle behind your success, so the people coming up behind you see the full picture?

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.

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.

Want more? 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.

ps. AI helped me pull and organize quotes from the transcript, structure the three lessons, and sharpen the Key Concepts. If you're curious about how I use AI while keeping editorial control and my own voice intact, I wrote about my personal rules here: Did AI Do That: Personal Rules