Real quick: what’s the meaning of life?

Okay, It's not exactly a quick question. And you probably don’t have an answer ready to go.

But the good news? You don’t need to book a yoga retreat in Bali to figure it out.

Turns out, what makes life feel meaningful might be a whole lot less mysterious than we make it.

Dr. Daniel Crosby just turned in a manuscript exploring what makes our lives feel meaningful.

And after digging into the research, he found himself coming back to three things: believing, belonging, and becoming.

Which has more to do with building a brand and earning trust than you’d expect.

Today, Daniel is back with Stacy Havener to connect the dots between what makes a life meaningful and what makes people, brands, and relationships stand out.

Listen in to hear:

➤ The three Bs that give our lives meaning
➤ Why the best brands in this industry are already doing all three, whether they realize it or not
➤ Why sending someone your fact sheet doesn’t count as a meaningful give
➤ The Gallup question that can tell you a whole lot about whether someone’s going to stick around at work (and no, it’s not about raises or offering random incentives)
➤ What Daniel calls “emotional graying"
➤ Why playing it safe is the worst thing you can do if you’re looking to build a meaningful life and/or a successful business

The scientist and the storyteller are back for another conversation that’s fascinating and surprisingly practical.

And despite the very gray office Daniel’s calling in from, he makes a pretty good case for being anything but.

About Dr. Daniel Crosby:

Dr. Daniel Crosby is a psychologist, behavioral finance expert, and New York Times bestselling author who helps organizations understand the intersection of mind and markets.

He’s a father of three, fanatical St. Louis Cardinals fan, and amateur hot sauce chef.

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

“Keep me posted.”

Sounds promising. But also... what does that actually mean?

In this Story Snack, Stacy Havener breaks down one of the vaguest phrases in fundraising, and why “keep me posted” should be the start of the conversation instead of your cue to sit back and wait.

Because if an allocator wants you to keep them posted, your next job is figuring out what they actually want updates on.

Listen in to hear:

• The question to ask so “keep me posted” actually means something
• Why waiting until you hit the magic number could mean starting the relationship over from scratch
• How often to follow up (Stacy has a number)
• What to send when there isn’t a huge update to share
• How to stay top of mind without becoming the person they stop opening emails from

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

"The key to business is biting off more than you can chew, then figuring out how to chew it."

Manish Khatta has been running that play for a while now.

Last time he was on the pod, back in 2023, Potomac had just crossed $1B and he was pretty sure they were only getting started.

Three years later? They're past $5B.

And the lessons got a whole lot bigger with it.

Manish is back for a next-chapter conversation about what happens after the growth starts working. When the revenue finally catches up. When hiring gets harder than raising assets. And when the job starts asking you to stop being the operator and actually become the CEO.

In this episode, Manish and Stacy get into:

• Why hiring and stepping into the CEO mindset is infinitely harder than raising assets
• The question Manish asks advisors who say they “can’t grow”
• How firms can actually build relationships and land meetings on social media
• His new marketing strategy (and why he doesn’t believe in chasing concrete ROI)
• Why caring what other people think is the biggest roadblock to creating good content
• A pretty wild 2027 announcement Potomac gets to share for the first time

About Manish Khatta:
Manish Khatta is a quant who has spent his entire career creating and refining technical trading strategies. A lifelong Potomac employee since 2002, he programmed the initial work behind Potomac's mechanical trading systems and now runs the firm as CEO and CIO, where he's known for driving innovation across investments, technology, and brand growth.

He's also a father of four and spends his free time playing tennis and being on the water.

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