Episode 152 How to Talk Process Without Losing the Room | Story Snacks Series
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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)
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.
[00:00:20] It's time for Story Snacks
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[00:01:58] Got another great question here in the [00:02:00] mailbag. Let me take this out, read it to you, and then we'll talk about it. All right, here we go. "Every time I get to the investment process slide, I can feel the room checking out. I know I need it in my presentation, but is there a better way to deliver this information without putting everyone to sleep?"
[00:02:22] Uh, great question, and here's the deal. So first I'm gonna talk about the actual slide in the presentation, and then we're gonna talk about how we can communicate that slide in the meeting, 'cause I do think there are two different things here. So typically, in the investment process slide, what are we gonna see?
[00:02:43] Some sort of upside down triangle, a funnel. At the top it's gonna say something about the universe. My universe is X thousand blah, blah, blah, stocks, bonds, whatever it is. I have some criteria that I use to help me narrow that [00:03:00] universe down and then, you know, my proprietary research process kicks in and that's how I come up with my portfolio.
[00:03:05] And I think what this caller, writer, is describing is very common because there are only so many ways that you can visually show a research process and also, like, that's kinda standard. Like, you need a way to take a big universe of investments and cull it down to the actual names that are gonna make it into the portfolio.
[00:03:30] So l- I mean, the slide itself, let's not-- Let's try to come up with something that's not the funnel. Let's try to, you know, use some different type of visual perhaps that shows those stages, but maybe breaks the status quo. Because as soon as the funnel comes on this, on the, the screen or on the page, you're right, everyone is gonna be like, "Oh, here we go."
[00:03:52] Right? "Oh, we're gonna start screening the universe. Here we go." Okay. So the slide itself, just try to pattern interrupt, [00:04:00] if you will, to make it more interesting so somebody actually goes, "Oh, what's this? This is a different way of presenting the information." So that's actually the presentation slide itself.
[00:04:10] There is a difference between that slide and the presentation and the conversation you're gonna have in the meeting, and the reason is that you don't have to read the slide. This is not required. And that should be freeing because the slide might be on the page or up on the screen, but again, you don't have to read it, so you could simply say something like, "And here's the slide of how our process works, and you won't be surprised to know that we start with a universe of names and screen it down.
[00:04:42] And what I want to focus on is what makes our process different." Because everything about that funnel and that screening is same, same, right? We're all doing it. All the fund managers be doing that. So instead of talking about that, [00:05:00] tell them what's different. And again, my favorite hack to get at differentiators is this: What do my peers do or believe that I don't?
[00:05:12] So let's apply that question to process. If you're a value manager and your peers all screen on PE or something, and you have a different way of doing things, ding, ding, ding, different, right? So come up with one to three real differentiators. Okay, I'm gonna keep going and then I-- the caveat is what you can't say.
[00:05:35] So that's the exercise. Maybe pattern interrupt on the slide. You don't have to read the slide, so highlight the differentiators and what you can't do, you're banned. If I had the game Taboo, I would buzz the buzzer. You're not allowed to do this, which is to say one of our differentiators is your proprietary research process Do you see why that doesn't work?
[00:05:58] It doesn't tell me anything. [00:06:00] Everybody has proprietary processes, so that's actually not different. If you want to use something like that, you don't need to give the people in the room an NDA. What you need to do is unpack what in that proprietary research process is different, not the math, not the calculations, not the tech or whatever it is, but like what fundamentally at the root is different about how you think or how you build a portfolio, and speak to that in a accessible way.
[00:06:36] So I hope that's helpful. Let's be real. No one wakes up and says, "I can't wait to build some operational infrastructure today." You're here to manage money, to build something that lights you up, not chase down reports across five systems and 15 service providers. That's where Ultimus Fund Solutions comes in.
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[00:07:23] It's also a box. Know what you can't put in a box? A human who picks up the phone when you call and need help, real life people who know your name and your fund, and they care about getting it right. Ultimus was built on people doing business with people. You get institutional strength combined with boutique level service without getting stuck in a phone tree of doom.
[00:07:48] If you're ready to simplify, scale, and start working with a team that feels like an extension of yours, check out billiondollarbackstory.com/ultimus. [00:08:00] That's U-L-T-I-M-U-S. You've got the investment strategy, the vision, the track record. Now it's time to upgrade the engine behind it all with Ultimus. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.
[00:08:19] 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. All opinions expressed by guests on the show are solely their own opinion and do not necessarily reflect those at their firm.
[00:08:39] Managers' appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by Stacey Havener or Havener Capital Partners.
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