Episode 89: The 5 Biggest Storytelling Mistakes Fund Managers Make (And How to Fix Them) | Story Snack Series

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You know storytelling is powerful. You’ve heard that facts don’t close deals—feelings do.

But when it comes time to talk about yourself, it suddenly feels...awkward.

When is the right time to tell a story? And how do you know if you’re sharing too much or sounding too braggy?

Listen in as Stacy tackles these questions and breaks down:

The #1 storytelling mistake fund managers make
Why telling your backstory can feel awkward (and how to share yours without sounding braggy)
How to ditch the boring resume speak and make your story stick
The secret to crafting a story that’s short, powerful, and memorable

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TRANSCRIPT

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

[00:00:00] Stacy Havener: Hey, my name is Stacy Havener. I'm obsessed with startups, stories and sales. Storytelling has fueled my success as a female founder in the toughest boys club, Wall Street. I've raised over 8 billion that has led to 30 billion in follow on assets for investment boutiques. You could say against the odds.

[00:00:21] Yeah. Understatement. I share stories of the people behind the portfolios while teaching you how to use story to shape outcomes. It's real talk here. Money, authenticity, growth, setbacks, sales, and marketing are all topics we discuss. Think of this as the capital raising class you wish you had in college, mixed with happy hour.

[00:00:46] Pull up a seat, grab your notebook, and get ready to be inspired and challenged while you learn. This is the Billion Dollar Backstory Podcast.

[00:00:59] [00:01:00] 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. What are the most common mistakes that boutiques make when they're telling their story? Um, can I be tongue in cheek for a second? The biggest mistake is they don't tell any stories at all, the biggest mistake that a founder, fund manager, or a sales team could be making is that they go into a conversation With a prospect or a client and they literally don't tell any stories and we might all sit here and be like, Oh my gosh, how boring but think about it.

[00:01:54] It's very rare that a Component of a [00:02:00] meeting is dedicated to stories and I want to like tell you how you can make sure you do that Okay, you can make a point about something We believe this about the market. We believe this about our portfolio. This is how we're positioned. Blah, blah, blah. Explain whatever your point of view is, and then bring it to life with a story.

[00:02:23] Super simple, super basic. We're not even getting into the story selling framework. It's really just more sharing examples, AKA stories, so that people aren't just hearing the information, they're sort of feeling it and they're experiencing it, not just sort of writing down the bullet point. So the biggest mistake is just skipping that part.

[00:02:46] You're just saying the, stat or the bullet point or the point of view, and you're not bringing it to life. specific to some other parts of the story that we teach, hi, this podcast is about backstory, so let's just touch on it for a [00:03:00] second. backstory is challenging for one reason, well, for many reasons, but one of the biggest reasons is that it's about us, like we're the main character in that one, and so it can feel braggy.

[00:03:12] It can feel a little braggy, it can feel a little awkward. And so I think what we default to is let me tell you all the bullet points about where I've worked in my career. I went to this school, then I got this job, then I got that job, then I got one more job, and now I'm at this job. we're leaving a little bit to be desired in that, and that's super common. So if you find yourself defaulting to sort of the bullet resume thing, it's just because you're nervous. It's just because this is vulnerable and hard work. It's an okay place to start, but we're not going to stop there. So I think we have to get out of the bullet points and the resume speak and sort of get to why should anyone care?

[00:03:59] Make me [00:04:00] care. Because even though we're the main character in that backstory, it has to mean something to the person receiving it. And so do we have to tell them every job we had? No. Do we want to maybe point to some jobs to? Sort of have some cred in the story sure, but we want to get away from that sort of Chronological timeline of where we've worked.

[00:04:24] So that's another big mistake a related mistake is it's boring It's boring because if we only tell the facts in our backstory or in any story we leave out the thing that makes a story magical which is The emotion. So stories do a great job of connecting because they operate at an emotional level, not at an intellectual level.

[00:04:52] And this goes back to something I like to say, which is where are you aiming your pitch or where are you aiming your story in this case? Are you aiming it [00:05:00] at someone's brain, which is typical, or are you aiming it at their heart? Are you working in, and Mary, we've done this in the collective. Are you working in?

[00:05:11] shared experiences. Universal emotions that people can relate to. Is there any emotion in there at all? How about that? Can we just like put a dash of emotion in there? So boring means facts, jazzing it up means you're putting some emotion and some shared experience in there that the person can relate to, that the person can connect to.

[00:05:36] Another mistake, fourth mistake in this list is it's too long. So what happens when we do the bullet points is then we're then we sort of like start, you know Feeling it a little bit and now we're like elaborating on that one rando job. That is totally not relevant to like Anything and we're kind of like and then I had to like go make the copies, you know, and everyone's like [00:06:00] Glad you did the TPS reports.

[00:06:05] Can we move on? Um, so Too long is not a good thing. In the collective, we teach our members, when you're telling your backstory, you can have different lengths of it, but, but the one you're probably going to tell the most should be under two minutes, right? And that seems short when I say it, but when you're talking, watch out.

[00:06:22] That's going to feel long, but that's the one that you're going to use like on a podcast. Uh, when someone says, tell me about yourself on a panel, in a meeting, you know, maybe not in an elevator unless you're going to a very high floor, but point being you want it to be short enough and pack a punch, which is related to my last mistake, the fifth mistake in this list, which is that the story is not memorable.

[00:06:46] Another key component of a powerful story is that it gets passed on. And so if you don't give somebody a story that. They can remember, they can't pass it on. There are two [00:07:00] things that people remember in a story, how you begin and how you end. And so if you're going to spend time on anything, spend time on the beginning and jump right into the mess, right into the hard thing, right into the shared experience, make them care in the first few sentences.

[00:07:19] And at the end. My recommendation is that you tie your backstory to their future story, where they want to go, and why you are the guide. That's what backstory is phenomenal at, helping them choose you. 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 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.

[00:07:53] All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm. [00:08:00] Manager's appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Havener or Havener Capital Partners.

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