Billion Dollar Backstory

You want to post on LinkedIn.
Compliance wants to hit the taboo buzzer.

Cool. Now what?
In this Story Snack, Stacy Havener shares how to stop treating compliance like the department of "no" and start bringing them into the growth conversation.
Because yes, we live in a culture of compliance. And yes, we have business goals too.

Listen in to hear:
How to get compliance out of "department of no" mode
The question to ask so you know what topics are actually off-limits
How to use safer language without sanding off your entire point of view
Why LinkedIn is possible in a regulated industry, even if your team is nervous

This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

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Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

Most people assume a successful career in finance starts with the "right" degree.
Lindsey Stewart's started behind the counter at McDonald's.
At 18, he made the decision to skip university, avoid student debt, and learn by doing. Years later, that path led him to Morningstar, where he now helps some of the world's largest institutional investors turn complex data into better decisions.
In this episode, Lindsey and Stacy discuss: 
Lindsey’s backstory – from an investor relations firm to a Big Four acquisition to Morningstar
Why he put McDonald's back on his LinkedIn profile after years of leaving it off
What nearly broke him about the CFA exam, and what finally helped him pass
The bias he sees across the finance industry (and why it may be holding talented people back)
Why "sounding smart" and being understood are not the same thing

More About Lindsey Stewart:

Lindsey Stewart, CFA, is Director of Institutional Insights at Morningstar, where he leads content and outreach for institutional investors. His 25-year career spans investor engagement, financial regulation, and communications at firms including KPMG and the UK Financial Reporting Council. 
He is a Chartered Management Accountant and holds the CFA designation, and was a Senior Leader Finalist at the 2021 Black British Business Awards.

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Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

Your company's LinkedIn page is not the main character.

It matters. It has a job.
But if your LinkedIn strategy is built around the logo doing all the talking, Stacy Havener has thoughts.
In this Story Snack, Stacy breaks down the biggest LinkedIn mistake she sees asset managers make: treating the platform like something it was never built to be.

And there's a stat behind it that might make you rethink who's actually posting on your firm's behalf.
So yes, "our employees share the company posts" technically creates activity. Whether it creates trust is a different question.

Listen in to hear:
What LinkedIn actually is, and why most firms are using it backwards
The stat that should make you rethink who gets the microphone
Why employee advocacy falls flat when it turns into copy-paste content
What LinkedIn is cracking down on right now, and why it matters
How to show up more human without abandoning professionalism

This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

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Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

"Ditch the pitch" is easy to say.

But it's hard to do when you're staring at a calendar invite and realizing you've been leading with the deck for years. 

And you start thinking, “Okay, if I'm not presenting, what am I actually doing in there? Am I just… winging it?”

Nope. In this Story Snack, Stacy’s breaking down what your meetings will actually look like once you put the deck aside and why ditching the pitch is probably a lot easier to pull off than you think. 

Listen in to learn:
How the typical pitch backfires in meetings
Why the allocator should always be the hero of the meeting
The meeting structure that works from a behavioral science standpoint 
How that structure actually removes the pressure to perform 

This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus

Every fund manager wants the story that gets allocators to lean in and say yes every single time they tell it. 

So, this is often a hard pill to swallow…A story that actually works doesn't always get you a yes. 

A powerful story either gets you a heck yes or a heck no, but never a maybe. 

And even though hearing heck no is uncomfortable, getting closure in sales is everything (so you don’t waste your time on allocators who’ll never be the right fit). 

That’s why in this Story Snack, Stacy’s sharing the one kind of story that gets allocators off the fence without fail. 

She’s also breaking down how to own the sharp edges in that story that’ll help allocators finally decide: this is for me. Or it isn't.

Listen in to learn:
Why "maybe" is the outcome you should be trying to avoid
How to connect who you are, why you invest the way you do, and who your strategy is built for
Why your differentiators need to attract and repel
A question that’ll help you find your sharp edges fast

This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in under 20 minutes a week.

---
Running a fund is hard enough.
Ops shouldn’t be.
Meet the team that makes it easier. | billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus