Episode 113: Why Mixing Up Job Stories and Brand Stories Hurts Your Pitch | Story Snacks Series

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You’ve got your pitch deck. Your talking points. Your “why us” slide.
But if you’re telling the wrong story in meetings, none of that matters.

In this episode, Stacy’s diving into the two MVPs of storytelling for fund managers: the job story and the brand story. Think of them like the hammer and wrench in your toolbox, you need both, but you’ve gotta know when to use each.

Inside this bite-sized episode, you’ll learn:
• What makes a job story different from a brand story (and why that mix-up matters)
• Why every fund or strategy deserves its own tailored story
• How constantly tweaking your brand story for the room can make your message… fuzzy

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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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. Stacy, 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] Stacy Havener: Can I have a different job story for every strategy? Can I have a different brand story for every niche of our market? Okay. Alright, so we're talking about, can I have different stories? And one topic is, can I have different job stories? And one is, can I have different brand stories? Okay, great. I have two different answers, so we'll just stay on the different vibe here.

[00:00:49] Stacy Havener: Let's start with job story. Let's start with what is a job story? So the job story. Is the backstory of the product or strategy, which [00:01:00] means you set up this strategy to solve a problem or harness an opportunity, two sides of the same coin. And so what was that again? By definition, each one of those.

[00:01:12] Stacy Havener: Products or strategies is gonna have a different job story if you're on the investment team. The hack I have for you is to think of role in the portfolio a little bit. Like what's the role in the portfolio? What is this designed to harness, what is it designed to solve, what risk isn't mitigating, kind of get into the portfolio a little bit to help unlock some of this.

[00:01:37] Stacy Havener: A couple examples of powerful job stories might be that you created the product or strategy for yourself, like you wanted this, you couldn't find it elsewhere, so you designed it for yourself. That's great. That resonates with clients. Again, what really matters with the job stories, not you, it's the client.

[00:01:56] Stacy Havener: So you are essentially your own client in that [00:02:00] scenario. Another one would be an actual client comes to you and says, Hey, I have this problem, or I see this opportunity and I need a guide and I need a way to access this or solve this, and we think you're the perfect guide for this. Would you be willing to run this strategy?

[00:02:17] Stacy Havener: That's a great one. Because when you tell that job story to other people, other investors, they're like, oh, so a client actually needed this? Okay. Wow. So then you kind of get almost an impact story from it too. An example of a job story that is not powerful would be one that is from the standpoint of you, the product manufacturer, using air quotes here.

[00:02:39] Stacy Havener: Because nobody likes the idea of some investment bigwigs and some exec committee people sitting around trying to come up with a hot product that's gonna get a whole bunch of assets. You saw this really profoundly with impact investing. You had some firms who [00:03:00] genuinely. Had impact strategies for the right reasons.

[00:03:03] Stacy Havener: A job story that was powerful and you saw a lot of other firms just sort of jump on that trend, hot dot, take a strategy, throw some ESG screens on it and call it green. That was the whole greenwashing phenomenon that. Hollow right? That story is not authentic at all. In which taps into that a four assets philosophy we talk about, which is you have to be an authority in the space.

[00:03:28] Stacy Havener: Yes. But it has to be authentic. So a job story that is about you, I thought we should launch this 'cause everybody else's vibe is not gonna work. So that's job story by definition should be different. Not the case for brand story. However, job story is about a product brand. Story is about you as a company and as a people.

[00:03:55] Stacy Havener: You don't really wanna have different brand stories floating around. [00:04:00] Why would you do that? Let's kind of get to the root of it. You might wanna do that because again, it's a little bit like niches you think. Okay, well, I'm meeting with Mary from this firm and this is what Mary cares about. So I'm gonna show up and give Mary what she wants to hear.

[00:04:18] Stacy Havener: And then I go and meet Joe from this firm over here, and Joe maybe has some, I think he wants something different. So I show up differently to Joe, and this goes back to the concept of attract and repel. So when you try to mean something to everybody, you end up not meaning anything to anybody at all. So the.

[00:04:38] Stacy Havener: Alternative to this is to just have one consistent brand story that is very authentic and aligned and you tell it, and it's kind of like what would happen with a niche. Somebody may hear it and say, well, that's not for me. In which case, that's fine. You had a nice cup of coffee and you move on. But somebody may hear it and say, well, I'm not [00:05:00] that exact target market, but I actually have that same problem.

[00:05:04] Stacy Havener: Or they may say, well, I am that target market and I don't have that exact problem, but I have a problem that's very similar to it, and I think you still could potentially be the guide to solve it. So I think the important part here to remember. About brand story is there should be one, and it should be very aligned and very authentic.

[00:05:21] Stacy Havener: And also when you tell it, like it's not a statement that has no additional conversation around it, you don't just say your brand story and the person goes, wow, that's not for me. And walks out, it's a conversation and there's an evolution to it. So you have to just sort of trust that when you. Tell your brand story and you say, this is who we are and this is who we serve, and this is how we help that.

[00:05:48] Stacy Havener: There's going to be additional dialogue around that. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. The information is not an [00:06:00] 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.

[00:06:11] Stacy Havener: 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 Haven or Haven or Capital Partners.

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