Episode 64: Navigate Crowded Meetings Like a Pro | Story Snacks Series

Subscribe to Billion Dollar Backstory on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

1:1 meeting turned into a 10-person panel? Don’t freak out.

 This episode of Story Snacks is your go-to guide for managing meetings when the room (or Zoom) is packed.

Stacy covers how to maintain control, keep the conversation flowing naturally, and avoid dreaded awkward silences.

Listen in to learn more about:

·       Preparing like a pro

·       Identifying your meeting’s “Champion”

·       Managing complex dynamics to encourage collaboration

·       Setting the tone, addressing the elephant in the room, and lightening the mood

Learn to take control of the crowd without losing your personal touch. Sometimes, it’s all about preparation, communication, and sometimes even a bit of humor to navigate inevitable awkwardness.

This is Story Snacks! A bite-sized, jam-packed series for fund managers who are ready to master strategic storytelling in less than 20 minutes per week! 

TRANSCRIPT

Below is an AI-generated transcript and therefore it may contain errors.

[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: Craving more knowledge, but don't always have time to sit down for a five course meal? Take a quick snack break with Story Snacks, bite sized content to feed your funnel. Each short episode features Stacey digging into one question. This series has her talking stories, sales, and so much more. Oh yeah, it's time for Story Snacks.

[00:00:25] Do you have any thoughts on the dialogue in a two way conversation when you have ten people in the room? Let Or how you can avoid having 10 people in the room in the first place. Or 10 people who are on Zoom staring at you on mute. These are all very awkward scenarios, aren't they? So yeah, if you are in a meeting and you have multiple people in the meeting, all of the same preparation and rules apply, okay?

[00:00:58] And I know you're like, [00:01:00] WTF? How can I do that? Because now there's 10 of them. So am I supposed to ask for 10 backstories? Okay. Pump your brakes. We're not going to do that. But again, the success of the meeting is going to be in your preparation. So we're going to restate some things in this snack. It's a, uh, leftover snack.

[00:01:20] Then we're going to add in some little freshies. Okay. The restatement we need to do is to say that in an ideal scenario, you would send the presentation. at least a week ahead of the meeting so that this person or people can review it and develop any questions. Let's be real. Even if there's going to be 10 people in the meeting, there's one or two that are like your champion.

[00:01:48] So basically what you're doing is you're running this meeting with that person and there's an audience. Okay. So your [00:02:00] champion, that stakeholder is the person that you are going to kind of. Make the hero of this meeting. So when you call them and you join the meeting prep work and you're going to say like, Hey, what questions do we want to make sure that are answered?

[00:02:14] You're also going to say, who's going to be there? And you want, hopefully you've got this person is your friend. Now you can be like, what do I need to know about anyone in the meeting? Like, are certain people super into this asset class or strategy? Are there certain people who like. hate it or are skeptical.

[00:02:35] Like you want the real talk from your champion and hopefully you get it. So now you've got all this additional stuff to put in the meeting prep to prepare with your team and when you go into the meeting of course you're going to acknowledge the other nine, but I also want you to sort of try to have the [00:03:00] conversation and give yourself the grace of talking to one person and letting the conversation flow naturally.

[00:03:09] So you can ask that your champion, like, it would be great to have you Tell us a little bit about the firm, or is there someone else in the group that, you know, would like to tell that story so you're sort of opening it up, but you're always kind of going back to your champion, unless it very clearly dynamic changes and there's another person who's running the meeting, but by and large, the analyst or stakeholder who's been covering you.

[00:03:40] up to this point is going to be the one running the meeting. And if you do your prep work, you will be able to run the meeting if there were 20 people there the same way. I hope that helps. I think Zoom is more challenging. I mean, look, at the end of the day, the part of the [00:04:00] meeting that you really want to try to Mitigate or shake out is the awkwardness.

[00:04:09] It's like you gotta get the shake the scaries out of the meeting and that happens on zoom and that happens in person. And so your job in addition to running a really great meeting is to set the tone that like we are friends here. We are friends. Zoom can be difficult. Wish we were in person, but you can ask any questions like, you know, grab coffees, grab waters.

[00:04:36] Like we want this to be a candid, informal conversation. And you just sort of address the elephant in the room, which is like meetings suck and meetings are awkward. So let's try to have a good time. Are you an investment boutique looking to grow your business? and need a little help. If you feel like you're fighting for the spotlight and, well, still stuck in the shadows of the bigs, join us in the [00:05:00] Boutique Investment Collective, Havener's new membership community dedicated to the specialist in the investment industry.

[00:05:06] In the collective, we'll guide you through the billion dollar blueprint we've used to help boutiques add over 30 billion dollars in AUM. You'll refine your story, focus on your ideal target market, and practice your pitch. You'll rethink your marketing materials, rewrite your emails, and refresh your differentiators.

[00:05:24] We'll even help you step up your LinkedIn game and give your profile a makeover. You want to grow your biz, we've got your back. Learn more about The Collective, the curriculum, and the amazing coaches who will help you on your journey. Visit havenercapital. com slash collective. High five! Hope to see you in a coaching session soon.

[00:05:51] This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an offer, solicitation, [00:06:00] or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products or to adopt any investment strategy. Investment values may fluctuate and past performance is not a guide to future performance.

[00:06:10] All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm. Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Havener or Havener Capital Partners.

You May Also Like

Resources