Episode 159: How to Work With Compliance Without Killing Your Content | Story Snacks Series

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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.

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

[00:00:26] Let's talk about compliance for a minute. So my recommendation in general, whether you have an internal compliance team or an external compliance team, is to have a call with them where we sort of establish some ground rules. And basically the call vibe is we wanna live in a culture of compliance, we also have business goals, and we wanna marry those two things, and we need your help.

[00:00:53] So we need to get them from being on the opposite side of the table as us, that's the Dr. No, to being on [00:01:00] the same side of the table with us. And so basically it's just in your language, like this is behavioral now. Like we wanna say a lot of we's, we wanna say a lot of like we're grateful to have you, you're gonna help us do this really well.

[00:01:14] And then also we have some goals and we want LinkedIn to be a part of them or the website's a big focus right now. And so that kind of vibe setting we wanna do. And the other thing we wanna say is, "Talk to me about third rail topics." We're gonna put this back on them, 'cause right now they're sitting in a seat with a taboo buzzer, and anytime something comes over that they don't like they go, "Beep."

[00:01:38] And you're like, "Okay, I don't even know what I said. What did I say? Like I don't know how I just got buzzed," right? And so we're not gonna play that. We're gonna play the game of I would love if you could tell me the three to five things I should not touch. Now here's what's gonna happen. They're not gonna have three to five.

[00:01:57] They're gonna have one. They might have two. They're gonna [00:02:00] say performance and holdings. And then they're gonna be like, "Um, don't make promises Uh, they're gonna be-- I'm telling you, because there's really not that many third rail topics. And so once you sort of say to them, "I would love to have this. That way when I'm writing content, I know, like, topics I should be careful or avoid, like language I should avoid."

[00:02:29] And you're basically saying to them, "I need you to help me because again, we have these growth goals and they're really important and I wanna make sure I do it in the culture of compliance, and so I really need your help." And what you're basically saying is, "No's not an option." Okay? No is not an option, and subtext, I will go find another person that's gonna let me grow my business if we can't figure this out.

[00:02:52] Okay? We're not going there yet, but this is the subtext. We're in this together because every compliance firm has a different comfort [00:03:00] level with risk, and some of them are like, "You cannot do LinkedIn," which is false, right? Because lots of firms, Bridgewater, uh, CB Cohen's Point72, all these firms are doing LinkedIn, so don't tell me.

[00:03:14] And mutual fund companies do LinkedIn. It is possible. But what they're really saying is, "We are not comfortable with it." Okay? So this is why we want this sort of vibe setting. Tell me the third rail topics. Tell me phrases I shouldn't avoid. And that way when they-- you send something and they say, "Eh," and they buzz you, you're like, "Okay, can you tell me what, what here is causing the buzzer to go off, and how can I say it differently?"

[00:03:43] You're gonna say, "Okay, show-- What part is the problem? How can I word that differently so that I can still post this and say what I'm trying to say?" So it's a little push, but we can't let the fear stop us from doing the things that are gonna grow the [00:04:00] business. So that's typically how I like to work with compliance, and over time they start to trust you.

[00:04:07] You know, you've, you start to know what things to say or not say. They start to trust you, and the buzzer doesn't go off as frequently. And so that's, that's just some best practices I have found in working with compliance teams. They also like words like typically. If you're gonna talk about, you know, we, um...

[00:04:29] Let me think of a way that you'd say it without-- My mind is so compliance-oriented that I just speak in adjusted terms. Um, we seek to generate long-term risk-adjusted returns. Seek, right? So there's like little words that you're over time gonna learn that help make things less convicted in a way that compliance will want, but that's kinda how I would approach it.

[00:04:54] Let's be real. No one wakes up and says, "I can't wait to build some operational [00:05:00] 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. They're your ops dream team, consolidating all your middle and back office chaos into one clean, scalable setup.

[00:05:21] Registered funds, private funds, SMAs, all integrated. One team, one tech platform, one rock solid source of data. But here's the real differentiator: service. I know that fund in a box sounds convenient. 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.

[00:05:47] 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 [00:06:00] boutique-level service without getting stuck in a phone tree of doom. 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.

[00:06:16] 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. The information is not an offer, solicitation, or recommendation of any of the funds, services, or products, or to adopt any investment strategy.

[00:06:45] 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. Managers' appearance on the show does not constitute an endorsement by [00:07:00] Stacy Havener or Havener Capital Partners

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