Billion Dollar Backstory

Waiting for LinkedIn leads to fall from the sky, land in your DMs, and show up in your funnel? You might be waiting a while.

Posting matters. But there's a missing piece between the post and the people who engage with it, and that's where you go from random strangers to actual rapport (and maybe even grabbing coffee IRL). 

Stacy Havener has a weekly habit to help you fill the gap, and it's not a heavy lift.

In this Story Snack, she's sharing:

• The habit she calls "clearing the deck," and why responding days late still counts
• What she DMs people who engage, without asking for a single thing
• How she follows up when a commenter isn't in her network yet
• Why a lot of the power of LinkedIn is in the shadows, with the people who never comment
• The note she sends profile viewers, and the one question that gets them talking

If your LinkedIn strategy is basically post and pray, this one's for you. You’ll walk away with quick tips that’ll help you stop waiting around for leads and start going after them (without feeling spammy or weird). 

This is Story Snacks, a bite-sized series for fund managers who want to get better at 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

Different > better.

Especially in an industry that loves to rank, chart, compare, and benchmark errrthing. 

Because when everyone is trying to prove they're better, everyone starts sounding pretty much the same.

In this Encore episode, Stacy is bringing back one of her favorite conversations about what it actually takes to stand out.

She’s covering: 

• Why leaning into what makes you different means going to the edges and getting radical
• Why 80% of executives think their company is differentiated, while only 10% of customers agree
• How to create a category of one 
• What differentiation is, and what it absolutely is not
• Why you must be brave enough to attract and repel 

This is Billion Dollar Backstory: Encore, because some conversations are just too good not to bring back.

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

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.

---
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.

---
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.

---
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

The capital-raising memo says: pitch harder, send the long intro email, and voilà, meetings.

Stacy Havener never got that memo.

She came into this industry as an English lit major who wanted to be a college professor. Finance was a means to an end, not the whole plan. She had no idea there was a "right" way to do capital raising.

So she just led with what she knew best, which was storytelling and creating human connection. 

It wasn't until someone tapped her on the shoulder and said, "What are you doing? Because you keep raising money," that she realized what she was doing was different.

Different, and working.

She took her high school soccer coach's fund from $1M to $500M in two years. Then joined a firm at $17M and helped grow it to $5B in three.

In this Story Snack, she's breaking down exactly how and why the answer is never more volume, more cold emails, or more at-bats.

Listen in to learn: 

• Why "get more meetings" is the wrong goal if the meetings you’re getting aren't converting
• How to use small, genuine "gives" to build trust before you ever ask for a meeting
• Why give, give, give, ask beats pitch, pitch, pitch every time

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

When an allocator says "We only work with established managers," it can feel like a door closing in your face. 

And the natural instinct is to pry it back open by explaining yourself, defending your track record, and making a case for your fund. 

Stacy Havener's advice: don't go there.

Because handling objections to close deals is a thing. It's just not the right thing in this moment.

That’s why, in this episode, Stacy’s breaking down what to do instead when you keep hitting the same wall in meetings.

Listen in to learn:

• Why "too small" or "too new" is usually a timing mismatch, not a hard no 
• The three words that change the whole vibe: "Tell me more." 
• The questions that uncover real requirements around AUM, allocation size, and track record 
• How to capture their language so your follow-up actually lands when the timing is right

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

If you’ve ever thought, “Okay, I have to cover process… but I can literally see their eyes glazing over,” you’re not alone. 

Because when you walk through your process like everyone else, allocators don't hear "rigor." They hear "table stakes," and they're already half checked out by the time you get to the good part.

In this episode, Stacy Havener breaks down how to fix that without scrapping the slide entirely. 

Listen in to hear:

• How to cover process without just reading the boring slide out loud
• The fastest way to make your process feel different (even if the slide isn’t)
• The one line Stacy wants you to stop using when talking process (because it’s a big fat nothing sandwich) 

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