YouSaid · the spoken record

Jen Prosek

lines on the record: 79
first: 2024-07-15
most recent: 2024-07-15
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Oh, definitely, some of them I mentioned. The Salve Don't Dwell, the Don't Be a Black and White Thinker, just ask, behave with humanity, all of those things for sure. And I definitely drill it into my daughter.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To be honest with you, I think I got very lucky early in life. Like I said, it looked like a bad luck moment that I couldn't get the job of my dreams, that big firms weren't hiring in New York City, that I ended up working for this random guy in a crappy office, whatever. But like, look what a luck moment it actually ended up being. So I would say I had the privilege of learning a lot of things early that other people learn later because I didn't have a lot of rules around me. When you have a lot of rules around you, you actually start thinking those things are right. And I think that I learned early how to do things my way. But no, I know how lucky I've been.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So my parents spoke six languages each. When they didn't want us to understand what they're talking about, they just chose three or four languages to speak. So I think they taught me the importance of being open-minded, being worldly, respecting other cultures. And I think I look back on my parents. And the one thing I think about all the time is we live in a snarky world. I don't think my parents said one negative thing about anyone behind their back the entire time I was growing up. And I really look at that as like, oh, wow. I don't think I know anybody like that, including myself.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I guess I have two. Well, I have a lot, but a couple that one is like sort of positive and one is sort of depressing. But I think the Robert Frost Roadless Traveled, you know, and I feel like that's my business, right? I chose to go in the direction that no one else did and that afforded me a lot. So I use that frost poem a lot in my presentations. There's also this odd poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox called Solitude. It's very depressing, but it has some real truths. And it sort of starts, I won't be able to recite the whole thing, but I can recite the first few lines. It was laugh in the world, laughs with you, weep and you weep alone. And it's really a poem that reminds you that the world wants to hang with an optimist, a bright light, someone with passion, someone with energy. And that as much as, of course, we should all support each other on our problems, no one wants to really hang with somebody who is.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My parents actually ended up teaching me a lot without me realizing it. But upon later reflection, so my dad was a big naturalist, so he taught me to appreciate nature. He was also really into poetry. And I find that all the poems he drilled into my head have actually been oddly like these guiding lights.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My profession, you have to read voraciously. So I think my never misses list is The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Vanity Fair, and The Atlantic.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I don't like people who are late. I guess that's a pet peeve. I think another pet peeve is people who say that can't happen. I don't like that. I've always feel like maybe that can't happen that way, but what could we do instead? So I'm getting to yes gal. So that's a pet peeve, too. And I guess a third pet peeve, I'm first generation American. And I guess it was drilled into my head how much I should appreciate the opportunity that we have here even with all the US's problems. So I think another pet peeve is people who don't appreciate what they were naturally afforded by being born in this country.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My biggest pet peeve is, well, maybe two things. Even for myself and it happens, it happened today with you. I hate being late.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, there's a lot of those people, right? The nice thing is in my world, in the world of reputation and communication, there's almost never one answer. So I think it's getting your client to respect this world is different than your world because you're right. Math, there's one problem. There's one answer. And I think people who are in this industry, they grow up on math. I love this story. So when I went to Columbia Business School, the first semester was statistics, accounting, finance, and human behavior. Of course, I'm freaking out about the first three. All my colleagues were freaking out about the human behavior class. I was like, what is up? I'm like, all right, my brain is wired completely differently. And it's not like they thought it was a stupid class. They were literally like afraid of it. So I'm like, all right, wiring is different. So I think it's just getting your client to appreciate that they're in their business for a reason and I'm in mine for a reason.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Think of another one of another one. I have so many mantras. Don't be a black and white thinker. I don't think there's never one way to solve a problem. There's like 150. And I think people tend to be incredibly black and white and they don't play the gray enough.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And human, right? So bad luck moments into good luck moments is really, I think, very powerful. And that's that solve, don't dwell thing”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Another big one for me is solve don't dwell. Put all your energy into solving problems and don't dwell for a second when things go wrong. Because again, people put too much energy on the dwell and not enough on the solve. And I read this great book by Jim Collins once and he talks about something called luck moments and he says every human being has pretty much the same portfolio of luck moments, good ones and bad ones. And the people who shoot the moon are the people who recognize when it's luck moment, a good luck moment, and they focus and they max it out. They don't get distracted. They're like, this is the moment. And they're also the same people that take a bad luck moment and turn it into a good luck moment. And I would say the story about the hedge fund, bad luck moment into good luck moment. I mean, that story has been so important to me. I tell that story to everyone here because I'm like, this is what can happen when you just are genuine.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I'm sure I have a whole book from. I'm going to have to do book number three. But yeah, I think there's a lot of them. This sounds like a negative one, but another one I sort of say is like let your enemy be your energy. There's a lot of me Too going on and all this sort of stuff. And when I have felt left out or insulted,”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I always say the right way is with humanity, meaning I think the reason in the story about the $25 billion hedge fund, they gave me a second chance is it kind of reminded them of them there was humanity in it. I said, I really like you guys. I know we screwed it up and it would mean the world to me if you gave us another chance. You don't have to do it. I get it. I think there was humanity in the moment. I think they're like, you know what? We like this chick. She's got grit, you know? And I do think on the private side, especially, no matter how large the firms get, you're dealing with people who own the place. It is their money, their firm, their business. And it becomes very personal. Luckily, I didn't grow up in someone else's corporate environment where I believed you couldn't just be a human. That's one of my other goals in life. It's like, just do it the way you think you should do it as a human being. And that's always been my guidance.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you have to have a lot of emotional intelligence around everything you do in life. Well, the right time could be anything like you have to get the other person's vibe or they're having a bad day that day. Are they distracted? Are they wet from walking out in the rain? Like everything you do and just ask has to be orchestrated around right place, right time. Or like yesterday, one of my clients was having a crisis and in my brain he hasn't sound his contract yet and I really want it. Am I going to ask him for the contract when he's right in the middle of a do or die moment? No, I'm not. So I think it's like anything. It's common sense.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So we walk out, and you know, the guy who liked us the first time calls me like, Oh, Jen, I'm sorry, that wasn't so great. I'm like, I know, I know, I know, I know. I was so embarrassed. So we hang up the phone and then I called him back and I'm like, do you think you could get us another meeting with him? And the guy's like, I don't think so. And then he called me back. He's like, I got you another meeting with him. They always respected the fact that I was like gritty. Like I'm like, ask for another meeting. We had a great second meeting. We got the client 10 years later. So I just think the just ask thing is very powerful.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“One of my favorites with a really, really, really big $25 billion hedge fund been a client for 10 years. We gave the first pitch. They fell in love with us. They said, all right, you're going to get it. All you have to do is meet the founder. So we thought we're like shoeing. We should have done more homework. We met the founder, very intimidating man, and it wasn't a good meeting. It was terrible, in fact. And I'm like, oh crap.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Asking for something that you want. So one of my best examples, I went to the CEO roundtable discussion and I had this wonderful chat with this CEO of a major global engineering and architecture firm. And my brain, I was saying, wow, I'd love to work with this company. I'd love to get a piece of business from this company. But, you know, you don't do that. So we were leaving and trading cards and saying, you know, it was so nice to meet you. And we walk out. We're on the street corner. We're just about to leave each other. My just ask meter went off and I said to him, you know, I don't want to be grabby, but if you ever need a PR for my hope you'll call me. And he goes, oh my God, I'm so glad you said that. We're actually looking for a PR. He had chatted with me for 30 minutes. I figured what I was saying resonated with him. He knew what I was doing. But if I didn't ask on the street corner, he became a client for eight years. If I didn't ask on the street corner, I wouldn't have gotten. I have another corner.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Figure out your differentiated narrative. The thing that when you say it about your firm, people get excited or want to write something down. I think differentiation is the name of the game. I thought you were going to ask me overall in life and I was going to say the two most important words I ever learned were just ask. And my original partner in business taught me the just ask. And one of the really cool things about not growing up in another environment with a lot of rules is like that was the only rule I ever knew. So I've gone through my entire career saying what's the downside I'm just going to ask. And when you ask and you ask the right way at the right time, I find about 70% of the time you get something. And it's amazing how few people actually ask.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And they believe Yeah, yeah. I want to turn some closing questions before we do if you had just one nugget of wisdom that you wanted to share with someone who's coming into the office, has a fund, wants to grow, wants to stabilize their client base, what would it be?”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's interesting. So I saw a presentation on Gen Z and the thing that really resonated with me was like millennials grew up on Harry Potter. Gen Z grew up on the Hunger Games. And they believe not only does only one person win, you might die in the process. So I thought that was really a big shift from whimsical to dystopian almost.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, they're not that, but I give them a lot of credit. They have changed the game at work. And a lot of things that they wanted out of work and life are right. And I think that they generally are going to have more balance in their lives. I think they're going to not wake up as much as Jen X did miserable in their 40s and 50s because they didn't pursue what they wanted to pursue. What they have really right is just their focus on meaning and purpose and what matters and they're brave. They are so brave meaning if they don't like what you stand for and it doesn't align with their beliefs they just walk out. And they walk out with no safety net. They are brave. We were not that brave. So I give them credit for a lot of things, but they've definitely challenged us too because millennials, unlike Gen Xers, we would stay at a job for 10 years happily. That's just not the way they're wired. So they've changed a lot of the workforce, but they've changed a lot for the good.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, what's really interesting is, I'll talk about millennials, but so Gen Z is the newest, newest, newest workforce. They're like our literally our most junior people. And they were raised predominantly by Gen X. So apparently the Gen Zs are going to be very gritty and tough and stick in their jobs because they were told not everyone gets a prize. And you may not always win. And it's going to be a really interesting shift. The millennials actually, I gave them.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What's next? Well, I always say to people if I wrote down on a notepad This is the firm I'd want one day when I was sitting in my crappy office when we had like four employees and it was all looking very dark This is the firm I wanted so I'm like oh what's next? I think we're in such a magic moment as a firm and I say that with humility because it took a long, hard road to get here but I think outside of a economic event, you know, the next five to ten years should be very good for our firm. I think again the emerging market is raging. I think we have years before it becomes mature and I think we have a lot to offer our clients in so many ways as they mature themselves. So I think we're just going to keep on doing what we're doing and execute and try to scale the magical culture we've had, which is probably the biggest challenge because the larger you get, the harder it is to scale culture.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not really. I mean, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised that as you would suspect, if you concentrate on steering your children in a certain way, you can actually have influence. There wasn't too much negative news, which is good”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Really important. And I know we live in a scary world where we want to protect our children, but we're often sucking all of the opportunity to take risk out of it. So it's about a balance.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So optimism was definitely one. Resourcefulness was another. I mean, one thing on never, ever forget when my daughter went to preschool, when we had the first meeting with the preschool teachers, they said to the parents, you know, no offense parents, but we're going to tell you, stop carrying your kids up the stairs and let them walk. Stop zipping their jackets and let them try it themselves. You realize as parents, we want to do everything for our kids. We don't even let them have the joy of trying and failing to zip up their jacket or tie their shoes or whatever. We're just doing it all for them. And it was like a magic moment for me where I realized, oh my gosh, I'm not letting my kid experiment enough and try and fail enough. So like little things, if you actually start focusing on your parenting behavior that way, you start really changing it because you're like, oh my gosh, I'm not letting her do X, Y, Z. So taking risk, calculated risk is really, really”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm very careful not to claim victory because I have, I guess you just turned 11, an 11 year old, so I can't say I've raised an entrepreneur yet. But what we found was what you'd expect, that you were born on a certain spectrum of entrepreneurial behavior, but that environment can absolutely create more entrepreneurial behavior, right? So we focused a lot on the book on what are those environmental factors. And for instance, optimism, optimism is proven to be, that can be trained. Like you could be born on the spectrum of optimists versus pessimist, but your environment can create a more optimistic person. So there are certain traits that can be highly influenced.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The journey to figure out could you actually create a more entrepreneurial child and how do you do that? So I partnered with a professor at Brown who studies child psychology and brain science. So I've brought the entrepreneurial side and he brought the science and we wrote this book about how to create a more entrepreneurial child, which was really kind of a fun thing to do.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So Army entrepreneurs went first book. And what was so magical about that book is I believe, then again, I'm an optist, that any human being can be more entrepreneurial at work and that being more entrepreneurial at work creates a better experience for the company, but also individually. So I've seen adults, it's hard to teach adults new tricks, but we did. We taught adults new tricks and it worked. So when I had my daughter ten years ago now, I was fascinated by, you know, if you could teach adults to be more entrepreneurial, it's a child. Like children are so moldable. How do you teach a child to be more entrepreneurial? And how much of it is nature versus nurture? My parents were teachers. They were not in business. And I ended up being an entrepreneur. And my brother is an artist and author. So he's actually an entrepreneur too in his own way. So people would always ask my parents, what did you do to create these two entrepreneurial kids? And they wouldn't have an answer. So the second book was really.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Never too late. Well, I'm an optimist. I don't think it's too late. And I think that there will be always winners and losers. And I think the hedge fund space has had its challenges. But I think it will be a sustainable asset class. And I think they will learn these behaviors and they'll be very successful funds.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Your brand. I think it's just in early days. I also think, honestly, hedge funds have shorter term mentalities, right? They're a trader mentality for the most part. So I think it's not as natural to them this sort of space. But we see the hedge fund community as like talk about the emerging market. They are the tip of the iceberg with the emerging market and they're taking this incredibly seriously. I mean, we must get five calls a week from hedge funds saying I got to go from the back foot to the front foot. I got to learn this stuff and take it seriously. And what do I need to do? We don't spend very much time even in the hedge fund community educating them as to why they need this anymore. They know they need this. It's just getting it in place and the process that it takes to do it right.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Their long term investors, right? And they're long term operators. So the advantage they have is they take the long view of things anyway, and that's helpful. So I've seen a lot of the larger private equity firms actually do some very pioneering things that have helped them out now. Like if you look at KKR's track record on ESG and corporate social responsibility, it's like 12 years long. They've been looking at how to improve their companies, not just efficiencies, but climate footprints and all the stuff for years and years and years and years. So I think they have taken very seriously reputation, public policy, all this stuff. So I think that they've done some things really well. And I think the hedge funds will too. They're just earlier in that education process of what it means to really build those relationships and have those constituencies and”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's very competitive, especially on the mature side. If a large global financial institution is not And but think about it, though, on the large financial institutions side, no offense to them, but they're spending other people's money, and it's a different, there's a CEO and a CMO and a CCO, and they're all on the other side, it's a founder. And founders are to some degree going to go with relationship, gut, and who my friends use.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure, I think so, I think everyone's a participant in the industry, and some clients take that very seriously and others really want to stay away from it. But we also do a lot of off the record and backgrounding with reporters. A lot of our clients actually invest a great deal of time educating reporters about the industry so that they can get it right. And that is usually repaid in spades. So again, I think when something is extreme or extremely negative, when people are willing to contextualize for the reporters a lot of times, it creates a more realistic, positive outcome.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Context and sentiment is everything. So when negative sentiment is high, even if it's not among your target audience, you need to consider everything you do. So we do pay attention to it, of course, and I think we're very careful. It's sort of like you don't want to make an announcement when the news cycle is against you. A good PR firm is paying attention to everything, every data point, every policy move, every piece of press, whether it's in the popular press or it's in the institutional press. So context is everything”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, it does. So the hedge fund industry hasn't had the best PR for the last 10 years, 11 years. How much do you pay attention to the PR of the industry when you're working with your clients that are in the industry?”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, of course we try to mitigate disaster. And we also know if there is a really legitimate bad story or legitimate bad performance, there is sort of a myth out there that, you know, the firm's going to be able to kill a story. You don't kill a real story when it's bad and it's real. But what you can do is add context around it, neutralize it, negotiate with a reporter. Can I give you context around this? Because you're really too extreme on this. So we spend a lot of our time trying to neutralize or balance bad stories. Of course, we would like to think that we could always kill stories, but the reality is it's really the management around those stories. Negative performance almost always leaks to the press. So it's how do you deal with that and how do you contextualize that and how do you put forth the data about the performance over time, right? So that the reporter actually gets the story.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, we stopped them when I think about my proudest moments. It's when I stopped a client from doing something that would have been materially bad for their business and bad for their reputation.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It will be a big black eye. And if you don't think people are going to talk about this in the press, they're absolutely going to. So sometimes some things that seem common sense to me are not necessarily. So I think that there are mistakes that are made in business turn out to be reputational mistakes, right? So that's where I see firms going wrong mostly is making genuine business mistakes that could have been avoided and those become big reputational errors. And as you know, once you've led a perception or reputation calcify, very difficult to change that once it's happened.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The reality is what we do there's a lot of authenticity to it, meaning if a management team is going to make silly mistakes, no PR can get you out of that. And this kind of gets to the other side of our business, which is the crisis management and the issues management, right? So I always say sometimes that we are not just the communications council, but like the emotional intelligence council. So we had a client who called up on the weekend and said, we're going to make this announcement to all our partners that they're now going to be retitled to managing director. This is the communications we've written. And I mean, I looked at that and said, do you understand what this is? Like psychologically, like when everyone's LinkedIn page goes from partner to MD over it and they thought it was no big deal. And I thought this is not just a big deal to your whole world, it's your talent but reputation.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How about turning that on to your client base, where you've been doing this a long time. I imagine not every firm you've worked with has gone on to huge success. So what happened in the one example that sticks in your mind of, man, we should have been able to help and it just wasn't going to work.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is giving to receive. So those sorts of activities have been very powerful to brand building for us, but we only started to do these things in the last five years. So I even look at our own model and say, boy, we could have accelerated our own success if we marketed ourselves a little more aggressively early.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So for instance, here's a great example we realize in the alternatives world, marketing is new. And we realize in the alternatives world that for the first time large alternative firms are hiring chief communications officers or chief marketing officers. If you look at the landscape AQR being an example, they just made their head of marketing a partner, which shows you how seriously they're taking marketing, right? But these firms have only had marketers the last three or four years, if that most of them are just hiring them for the first time. So we made the assumption like, wow, I bet those people would love to get to know each other. Like, wouldn't this chief marketing officer for AQR want to know the chief marketing officer for Cerberus and Chief Marketing Officer at KKR, we throw gatherings for them to get to know each other because we know they want to trade information and become friends and have a peer network. So those sorts of things where you're gifting a peer network and you're gifting value to a community, that's how you get something in return, right? I always say sales.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh boy. I think my biggest mistakes in business have been that I would have done some things earlier. When you bootstrap a business, there is a lot of fear in taking big bets. I look back and I say, I know I could have accelerated our success by taking a few big bets earlier. I would also say shoemaker's house, I would have marketed my own house.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Private equity firms have been way earlier to the game of marketing than hedge funds. Hedge funds are still very new to brand building, reputation management, and being on the front foot with all of this. So the private equity world has been there early on. And why is that? They are long-term investors who had to build their portfolio companies' brands to have more value, right? So they've understood this for a very long time, and I think they were earlier to the game, to be honest. Hedge funds are newer. Do I think they'll be successful at building institutional brands that will survive into the future? Yes, I think there will be a handful that does. And there will be all kinds of other peril in the ones that don't.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the hedge fund world and the private equity world are clearly in two different places in the public eye right now or even investors eyes. What do you think happens from your lens of brand and communication with let's just start with hedge funds?”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No one would say that Blackstone would not move on as an institution. So I always say I think they pulled it off from a brand perspective. And you can argue some of the others have they really pulled it off yet, but I think they're on their way. I think the AQRs and the Bridgewaters, Bridgewater as a client have done a very good job showcasing the institution as well. And that's a journey for all of these institutions. I think they have to be very careful about how they build their brands.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Let me tell you you create as much of a problem as you solve by having a brand grow up around one person. And we are hired, especially in private equity and hedge funds many times because the brand has grown up around one person and they create a succession issue basically. So we do a lot of work with those kinds of firms, what I call building the bench strategy, making sure that there's a bench of talent that is showcased across the firm versus one person. So it is incredibly important if you have one strong founder or one strong spokesperson, which can be an amazing silver bullet to be also having what I call a corporate program. And I feel like the AQRs and the Bridgewaters and the Blackstones have all been relatively successful having strong founders. Yes, there's a Steve Schwartzmann brand, and he definitely built the Blackstone brand using that.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“waiting for thirty five forty years and Larry Fink's been a thought leader for what 25 years so I think people think they turned on the marketing spigot overnight but they were early right if you look at any of the early adopters in true marketing and thought leadership a lot of them are the successful firms of today the vanguards I mean look at what Bogle did for Vanguard he was a thought leader before people used the word thought leader so I think that there was also all of a sudden this recognition that the world's getting more competitive, more difficult, more volatile, and I need a message that is distinctive and resonates. And if I am looked at as one of the same, if there's no competitive differentiator for my business and my brand, I'm going to have to work a lot harder to be successful. And that just started to become, I think, something people started to believe in the space.”
2024-07-15 · Capital Allocators · [REPLAY] Jen Prosek – Branding an Asset Management Firm (Capital Allocators, EP.81) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source