Michael Futterman on the Art of Story-Telling

Show Timeline: 

2:00 Overview of Michael’s varied background
4:40 The concept of having a Compelling Catalyst
9:08 The importance of having an emotional connection with clients
14:20 Finding a core principle in the work which with people can connect
18:10 Using discomfort to develop interesting and relatable stories
23:20 The art of story telling
30:40 Creating Wow moments and using story telling to stimulate referrals
37:15 Personalizing Wow moments to create deeper relationships with clients

Links:

Website:               https://en-us.janushenderson.com/
Facebook:            https://www.facebook.com/JanusHendersonUS
Twitter:                https://twitter.com/JHIAdvisorsUS
LinkedIn:             https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-futterman-2330621/

Want more?

Stephen Wershing: www.TheClientDrivenPractice.com/checklistblog
Julie Littlechild: www.absoluteengagement.com/blog

Episode Transcript:

Julie Littlechild:
Welcome to another episode of Becoming Referable. The podcast helps you be the kind of advisor people can’t stop talking about. I’m Julie Littlechild, and on this week’s show Steve and I are speaking with Michael Futterman. Michael is the head of the Knowledge Lab’s Professional Development at Janus Henderson Investors, where he works with the Professional Development Team both on research and curriculum development for their professional development programs.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Michael and his team on some research projects and I really wanted to have him on the show because he brings such a unique set of experiences to the work that he does with advisors. We talk all about a few key concepts and tactics that I think are critical for any successful financial advisor. We start with the idea that you really need to have a compelling catalyst, a meaningful why that helps clients and prospects understand who you are, what you do, and why you do it. But we also go much deeper on how to communicate that compelling catalyst, and Michael shares some of the work that they’ve done with the great storytellers in Hollywood to help you tell your story.

He gives some great examples of what a powerful story sounds like and the impact that will have on those who hear it. We get into a lively conversation on what it means to wow a client in a hyper-competitive industry. With that, let’s turn to the conversation with Michael.

Michael, welcome to Becoming Referable. So glad to have you here.

Steve Wershing:
Yeah. Welcome, Michael.

Michael Futterman:
Yeah. Thank you.

Julie Littlechild:
I was excited to talk to you, Michael, because you and I have had the opportunity to be on a couple of panels together. I just loved what you had to say, so just jumped at the chance to see if you would join us and give us a little more detail because it’s really interesting work that you do. But before we even jump into the specifics of any of that, can you just start by sharing a little bit of information on your background and the role that you play at Janus Henderson?

Michael Futterman:
Yeah, absolutely. I come from a weird little background.

Julie Littlechild:
I seem to recall that.

Steve Wershing:
We specialize in that, exactly.

Julie Littlechild:
You’ll fit right in. Thank you.

Michael Futterman:
I got involved in this business because I wanted to help change people. My background, I went to school. My undergraduate degree is actually in recreation. My diploma from Ithaca College says that right on it, which is always a-

Julie Littlechild:
So that’s a thing?

Michael Futterman:
It’s a thing. It’s a great conversation starter. And then recreation was really all about, it was about experiential education. That’s really what I focused on. After college, I went and I became an Outward Bound instructor. So I was running field trips for them out in New York City. Then I got involved in a consulting company running their phone system. I knew nothing about phone systems and I learned it on the job. It was a way for me to put a couple extra dollars in my pocket. After doing that for a number of years, I realized that really my passion was working with people and helping them to change and helping organizations to be as effective as possible.

So I went back to school and I got my master’s degree in organizational psychology. I started at my first job after graduate school was working as a learning and development professional for one of the big wire houses in New York City. And then followed that pathway and ended up here at Janus Henderson where I am the head of the Knowledge Lab’s Professional Development Team. It’s a mouthful. But really what we do is we seek to build relationships with our clients that extend well beyond product. What we know is that product is fungible. It can be replicated and duplicated. Performance, while we have great products and they do well, there’s always things that happen in the market that you can’t predict and things that cause performance to go up and down.

It’s this third piece that is around developing deeper, more meaningful relationships. We do that by creating cutting-edge content and then also support that content through coaching and training that is advisor-focused. My team, the group that I work with, brings a really diverse background that spans sales, training, and consulting. That’s really what I do on a day-to-day basis.

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