So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People

What if the biggest thing holding you back from business development isn’t your strategy, it’s how you think and feel about it?

In this episode of So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People, Minis with Megan, we explore why so many lawyers immediately answer "I'm bad at business development" when asked how they feel about it. By shifting the conversation from performance to emotion, Megan shares a more useful way to identify what’s really getting in the way, and how small, consistent actions can help you build confidence over time.

Who this episode is for:
  • Lawyers who feel overwhelmed, intimidated, or stuck when it comes to business development
  • Professionals who believe they're "bad" at networking or relationship building
  • Anyone looking for a more sustainable and realistic approach to growth
  • People who want to improve their business development skills authentically 

Episode takeaways:
  • "I'm bad at business development" is often a judgment about yourself
  • Understanding how you feel about business development helps identify the real challenges you’re facing with BD
  • Mindset isn't about blind positivity, it's about awareness and practice
  • There is no one-size-fits-all business development strategy
  • Small, consistent actions create momentum and confidence over time

Some BD tips you can try: 
  • Start with the right question: Ask yourself how you feel about business development, not whether you're good at it
  • Identify the real obstacle: Overwhelmed, nervous, time-constrained, uncertain? Name it first
  • Treat business development like a skill: Practice matters more than perfection
  • Take small steps consistently: A few minutes a day is better than waiting for the perfect plan and doing nothing
  • Experiment without judgment: Find approaches that fit your personality and season of life
  • Focus on progress, not performance: Confidence grows through action

Stay Connected:

At stage, we believe business development should feel human, sustainable, and aligned with who you are. We help lawyers build relationship-first strategies that work for their strengths, not a one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter approach.
Love So Much To Say? Let us know! Drop a review, give us 5 stars in your favorite podcast app, and tell us what made you laugh, think, or just go “yep, that’s me.” Every review helps us reach more awesome humans who want to make legal…well, human. 

Creators and Guests

Host
Jennifer Ramsey
Host
Megan Senese

What is So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People?

Welcome to So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People where we explore the behind-the-scenes of work, law, life, and everything in between. We’re your hosts, business development and legal marketing coaches Jennifer Ramsey and Megan Senese, and we’re here to showcase the human side of the legal world, from marketing and consulting to the very real challenges of balancing ambitious careers with being human. This isn’t your typical, dry legal show. Instead, So Much To Say is a human-centered leadership, marketing, and culture podcast through the lens of law. We bring you real stories, candid conversations, and thoughtful insights that remind you that outside of being a lawyer or legal marketer, what makes you human matters too. So whether you’re navigating billable hours, building meaningful relationships, redefining success, or simply trying to stay human in a high-performance profession, this podcast is for you.
Stay human. Stay inspired. Namaste (or whatever keeps you human).

[00:00:00] Megan Senese: So much of business development is mindset, and it sounds really lame and cliché, but it's also true
[00:00:13] Welcome to Minutes with Megan on So Much to Say, a legal podcast for people
[00:00:25] You walk into a room believing you're bad at networking. People feel that hesitation before you even introduce yourself. If you think you are bad at business development, then you will continuously be bad at business development. I usually start off all of my one-to-one business development marketing sessions with my lawyers asking people how they feel about business development, and for the most part, it's pretty even split.
[00:00:56] People respond saying, "I'm bad at business development." They didn't answer the question. I didn't say, "Are you good at it?" or, "Are you bad at it?" I asked how they felt about it, and it's been a really fun question to push back on lawyers to ask how you feel about something 'cause if you said, "I feel overwhelmed by it.
[00:01:18] I feel scared by it. I'm nervous by it," then you can start to think about what the actual issue is. "I feel time constrained by it." Then you can start to diagnose, "What is my business development problem? What is my business development challenge? How will it be more helpful for me if I knew my actual issue?"
[00:01:43] Mindset isn't always just positive thinking. There's no easy fix that you're going to magically wish yourself into being a better business developer. The thing that sucks is that it takes practice and falling down and resilience, and it's something we talk about all the time. It's easy to say. It's hard to do, I know.
[00:02:03] One of the ways that you can start to reframe your thinking, retrain how you're gonna show up, attack business development like you would any other skill of practice makes progress, that you're gonna keep showing up. You're going to use it as an experiment. There's no one size fits all. You have to find a way that works for you and whatever season of life that you're in right now and whatever your workload looks like.
[00:02:33] And if that's just five minutes a day of becoming something a little bit better, then do that. I love the small, incremental steps to pretty much anything. I love to do a few pushups a day and see how that grows. I love to do a couple of outreaches a day and see how that grows. I love to send our podcast to a few people at a time and see how that grows.
[00:02:57] And try out different approaches. Try different strategies so that you can feel comfortable in answering, how do you feel about business development? My hope for lawyers Is that when someone asks you that question, how do you feel about business development? You can get over the woo of being asked about your thoughts and feelings, but that you can say, "I feel excited about business development," instead of, "I feel fucking terrified."