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Grow Your Network: Mark Newfield Is A Doer-Of-Good
Here's how and why to connect with Mark
Matt Zeigler
April 11, 2025
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.
Find my Personal Archive on CultishCreative.com, watch me build a better Personal Network on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel, and follow me on social media (LinkedIn and X).
This approach has helped dozens of clients strengthen their networks and unlock new opportunities. You can:
Steal these ideas directly
Create your own combination that works for you
I can't promise you'll learn from me, but you'll definitely learn something with me. Let's go. Count it off: 1-2-3-4…
Do you know Mark Newfield? This financial advisor and thought leader started as an auto mechanic, pivoted to consulting, and now helps people navigate the complexities of wealth management with an authentic, human-centered approach. He's a voracious reader, a relentless learner, and someone who sees his neurodiversity as a superpower rather than a limitation.
If not, allow me to formally introduce you. Mark embodies something I value deeply - the commitment to do one good thing for one decent human being every single day. This isn't a strategy he adopted, it's who he is at his core, and it drives everything from his client relationships to his approach to life's challenges.
Our conversation is LIVE now on the Cultish Creative YouTube channel. Listen and you'll also get an extra revealing peek into how he thinks about everything from stoicism to neurodiversity to the power of boundaries.
In the meantime, I wanted to pull 3 key lessons from my time with Mark 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: Do One Good Thing Daily
"All I try and do, on any given day, is to do one good thing for one decent human being. That's it. Sometimes that's counsel that I'm giving to an employee. Sometimes it's working my son through something challenging. Sometimes it's, picking up some trash in the street."
Key Concept: Success doesn't have to be complicated. A simple, consistent commitment to adding value to others' lives can become the foundation for a meaningful career and life.
Personal Archive Note-To-Self: Remember that “The rent is too damn high” guy? Mark is my “Your bar is too damn high” guy. It’s not even about the levels, and we especially need to remember this at work. The bar is the line between right and wrong, or a net-positive (good) and net-bad (negative) contribution to the long-term survival of your company.
You will never get everything done in a single day. But. Can you make at least one net-positive contribution no matter how small? Yes, the checklists are eternally long, but take this reminder to your next leadership meeting.
Work question for you: If you reduced all your professional goals down to "do one good thing for one person today," how might that shift your priorities and reduce your anxiety about performance?
LIFE: Know Your Control Circle
"What is most helpful for me is not a boundary setting exercise. It's an understanding of your circle of influence and your circle of control, right? Because if it's outside my circle of control, I can't but worry about it so much and, and - (it’s) almost zero for that matter. 'Cause I can't affect it."
Key Concept: True peace comes not from trying to control everything, but from clearly understanding what you can control, what you can influence, and what you must simply accept.
Personal Archive Note-To-Self: You can’t control the outcome, only how you react. Extra emphasis on the YOU. You can’t even apply it to anyone else (shoutout to my buddy Jason Buck for his brave “Viktor Frankl was full of it” take that I’ll never shake because he’s right). Your emotions and your actions are all you’ve got. We can be as angry as we want at the wrongs of the world, but, that’s a choice too.
When Mark draws circles around this stuff, when he channels the famous (at least to personal finance folks) the Carl Richards “focus” image, he’s putting the short-term in line with the long-term and making sure I get back to being a decent man in the world. Love is attention. And you already know what love is.
Life Question For You: What are you currently spending mental and emotional energy on that lies completely outside your circle of control? What would happen if you redirected that energy toward something within your influence?
LEGACY: Your Greatest Strength Is Your Greatest Weakness
"Part of my other principle set, or operating system principle, is your greatest strength is at the same time your greatest weakness. And recognizing when it's working on one side or the other is important."
Key Concept: The very qualities that make you exceptional can also undermine you if applied indiscriminately or in the wrong contexts.
Personal Archive Note-To-Self: The very idea that I can see connections and patterns others can’t see (a strength), can easily work against me when I can’t figure out how to effectively communicate it with others (a weakness). Perspective and framing and communication all have to work together. You have to do you, which means others have to do - others (or whatever the languaging is here).
If you can’t rewire people’s operating system, you can help them with how they communicate it. If they want too. I see this as much in my professional work giving advice, as I do in my personal/private work of helping people figure out/get what they want, whether it’s teaching the nephews to key their elbow up when they throw a ball, or a business owner start to make content on YouTube. Put your strengths, and theirs, to work - intelligently.
Legacy question for you: What quality or trait has been your greatest asset in life? How might that same quality have sometimes worked against you? How can awareness of this duality help you better leverage your strengths?
BEFORE YOU GO: Be sure to…
Connect with Mark Newfield on X at @MJNewfield, on LinkedIn, find his writing on Substack at "The Uncertainty of It All," and check out his business at journeysw.com
Check out our full conversation on Cultish Creative YouTube, and
Take a moment to reflect on all these ideas!
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 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.