So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People

**Note: Before you listen**

This episode contains discussions of domestic violence, childhood abuse, homelessness, and related trauma. Please take care while listening.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, you can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text BEGIN to 88788.

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In this episode, Megan Senese and Jennifer Ramsey are joined by Diana Lauritson, legal marketing leader, LMA board member, and a survivor with one hell of a story.

With raw honesty and unwavering courage, Diana opens up about her journey from a turbulent childhood and teenage homelessness to law school, leadership, and building a career in Big Law. She shares why she’s choosing to tell her story now, what it’s been like to post openly about trauma and healing on LinkedIn, and how she’s defining her brand on her own terms.

This episode is a powerful reminder that everyone brings a story to the table. Diana’s vulnerability is a gift, and her voice will stick with you long after the episode ends.

Learn more about our guest: 
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. 

If you’re navigating BigLaw pressure, struggling with business development or marketing decisions and want a confidential thinking partner, connect with us here. 

Learn more about stage

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 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 struggles of balancing work with being human. This isn’t your typical, dry legal show. We're bringing you real stories, candid conversations, and smart insights that remind you that outside of being a lawyer or legal marketer - what makes you human? So whether you’re navigating billable hours or breaking glass ceilings in a woman-owned legal practice, this legal podcast is for you. Stay human. Stay inspired. Namaste (or whatever keeps you human). 

Megan Senese: [00:00:00] When I was dreaming about this podcast, I really wanted to show the human side, and that includes the good and the bad, the fucking human side of people, and how you're showing up at work and how those people are treating each other and how your clients are treating you. It all culminates in the office, and we want to talk a lot about bringing your authentic self, but if you have no fucking idea what that person has gone through or is going through, you will not be able to adjust yourself accordingly.
This episode is really special to both me and Jen, and unlike what people say on LinkedIn where everyone said that they're humbled and honored. I truly believe it is my privilege and it is an honor when people like Diana share her story with our podcast, our audience, and you. [00:01:00] I'm including this intro because her story is fucking heavy.
It's not happy clappy. It's happy clappy. Now, she's still working through a lot of the struggles and the challenges and the obstacles of what her childhood was like, and I'm giving this disclaimer so that you know what you're going into and know that it is a gift that she is sharing with us. And now our audience.
We hope you enjoy.
Diana Lauritson: For the longest time, I would not open up about this because I worked in legal. I was afraid that law firms would hold it against me. That has changed for me. The older I get, the more I understand how sharing my story not only helps other people, but it's cathartic for me. But I also feel like I only have this one life to live, and this is what shaped me into who I am today.
Diana Lauritson: And. Other people get to tell their stories, so why can't I tell mine? [00:02:00]
Megan Senese: Welcome to So Much To Say: A Legal Podcast For People, where we dive into the beautiful chaos of work life and everything in between. Outside of being a lawyer or a legal marketer, we wanna know what makes you human. And with that, let's get started.
Jennifer Ramsey: We are so grateful. To have Diana Lauritson join us today for our podcast. Diana is a senior marketing and business development executive with over 20 years of experience, including 13 in the legal industry. She's currently senior manager at Hogan Levels, where she leads teams, shapes, business development strategies, and builds programs that drive growth.
Jennifer Ramsey: She has also held roles at. Foley and Lardner and Ballard Spar guiding Cross Practice Initiatives. Diana holds an MBA from Florida Institute of Technology and a Master's in negotiation and dispute resolution from Creighton University School of Law. She also serves as Secretary of the Legal Marketing Association's International Board of Directors.
Jennifer Ramsey: [00:03:00] Congratulations. That was the board was just announced and today we are talking with Diana about her personal journey of resilience. And how she has been sharing her story to inspire and connect with others, build trust, and create meaningful impact. So, Diana, welcome.
Diana Lauritson: Thanks for having me.
Megan Senese: I don't wanna be like LinkedIn where I'm like, I feel honored and humbled, but like I do feel honored that I know you and I had talked in previous times about.
Megan Senese: Your story and I feel like it's really powerful and shows depths of your resilience and, and the more that I keep, I mean, you just posted something over the weekend that was really powerful and. I think that there's a lot of stories that are out there and the more that we can share them, the better. So I feel really privileged that you're gonna share it with us and now and our audience.
Megan Senese: So thank you. I just wanted to tee, like tee it up in that way. We'll try and keep it light even though you have some heavy shit in your story.
Diana Lauritson: Yeah, I've never shared it [00:04:00] broadly. I've had one-on-one conversations with people. Um, a few years ago, Robin Addis had a follow Friday conference. Yep. Yeah. And I spoke at that conference and that was one of the, that was the first time that I ever broadly brought some of my story to a broad professional audience.
Diana Lauritson: Yeah. Uh, I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty scared shitless. Sure. I mean, it was just. And it's working in legal. For the longest time, I would not open up about this because I worked in legal. I was afraid that law firms would hold it against me, that future employers would hold it against me, and I just never felt like it was a safe space to be able to share my story.
Diana Lauritson: And lately that has changed for me because I, the older I get. The more I understand how sharing my story not only helps other people, but it's cathartic for me because [00:05:00] I'm in such a different place than I was 30 years ago, that sometimes I feel like it was a whole other lifetime and I can't even believe that I lived it.
Diana Lauritson: And so to be able to share that now I feel like I'm more comfortable. I also feel like I only have this one life to live, and I can't spend my life being ashamed about my origins that weren't my fault or where I came from. Mm-hmm. And this is what shaped me into who I am today. Right. And other people get to tell their stories, so why can't I tell mine Yes.
Megan Senese: Without sounding like. I don't wanna be like, oh my God, your story's ama so amazing. Right. But like it, it's truly inspirational, right. That you were able to come out on this other side and that you are now at this point where you are comfortable sharing. But I know then you and I've talked in the past like that, you have experienced that like [00:06:00] nobody else.
Megan Senese: Maybe there's others, right? But like no one else can can necessarily say, right? Like often in the room, like you have a completely different experience and people should, not that you have to go wandering around telling every single person, but that's something unique that you bring. And the more people that I keep talking to now having left big law, the more I'm like, there are so many stories out there.
Megan Senese: If they only knew. What was going on or what was in people's past, they wouldn't maybe act that way. They wouldn't say certain things. They'd also like approach the situation differently and, and so I just feel so again, like really thankful that we have this opportunity, that we have this like whatever platform for you to be able to share this right.
Megan Senese: And hopefully help somebody else who maybe is going through. That healing experience for them. Right. And now to be in a big law firm, stable, this upward career path, it's, that's always hard for when people are like, I hope you feel proud of yourself. Right. Like, I hope [00:07:00] you feel proud, but I do. I, I mean, I hope that, I hope that you're starting to like appreciate where, where you are now, and I'm so thankful that we have this opportunity to share and all of this, all the pieces of you.
Megan Senese: Right. All the pieces of what, what you're bringing. Yeah. So. When you have shared stuff in the past, 'cause you've been starting to open up a lot more on LinkedIn and mm-hmm. It makes me so excited for you. What has the feedback been for you?
Diana Lauritson: Yeah, it's been really mixed. Mm. Um, for the most part it's been overwhelmingly positive from my LinkedIn network and actually even, I mean.
Diana Lauritson: Just my recent posts lately, it's growing my network because I'm having people reach out to me from other countries that are like, thank you so much for sharing this, and I would've, I would've never been brave enough to share this, or, you know, I've never seen an example like that in leadership. Please keep [00:08:00] sharing your story.
Diana Lauritson: And then I think at my firm, sometimes it makes people uncomfortable. Mm-hmm. Because. Their opinion is that LinkedIn should be strictly professional and that everything on LinkedIn should be something like, oh, the top 10 tips for being a better legal marketer, or, you know, top five things you need to know about AI and that your post should consist of that, or that it should consist of reposting your firm's content.
Diana Lauritson: One thing, you know, I've been exploring a lot over the past few years what a personal brand means to me. Hmm. And trying to develop a personal brand, I realized that my brand is not my firm. I actually wrote a post about this on LinkedIn. It's not my firm. You can switch jobs every other day and every single time.
Diana Lauritson: In fact, I think you lose credibility with your audience when one minute you're pushing one firm and the next minute you're pushing another firm and then you know, [00:09:00] wherever you're at, your social media is inundated with all of these things with your current employer. And it shows kind of a, not necessarily lack of loyalty.
Diana Lauritson: A brand or to a company or an organization, but it kind of dilutes your brand a little bit. And my brand is not how many lawyers from my firm made chambers. It's just not. And to be honest, I don't care about those posts from people in my network. I follow people who I can relate to, who motivate or inspire me that I can learn from.
Diana Lauritson: Those are the people that I want to follow on LinkedIn that I'm developing professionally through their stories, those kinds of things. And so I made a decision, and I even remember talking to Megan about this, you know, six, eight months ago, however long ago it was, where I made a decision that I'm gonna start sharing little pieces.
Diana Lauritson: And I started out very cautiously. Uh, so I would. I post a little something about, you [00:10:00] know, maybe mental illness or, you know, I suffer from anxiety and depression, um, and PTSD. And you know, it's something that I work through. I take medication for, I see a therapist every two weeks. I love her. She's great.
Diana Lauritson: I'm a huge proponent of therapy and I started being more open about those things. I don't have to be ashamed that I'm taking medication to help with my anxiety and depression. I don't have to be ashamed about things that were outside of my control. So I shared little pieces of things in a larger post, and all of a sudden it seemed like it started to resonate with people.
Diana Lauritson: My followers went up, people started reaching out and sending me messages. Some people at work would say, oh, I read your post. Great. Uh, I think where it really scares people is when I post something that could be perceived to be critical. Legal marketing or of the role because, you know, no firm wants to be associated with, I'm not gonna say [00:11:00] something that could come back on us, or I think people being worried about how other people are going to perceive it.
Diana Lauritson: We're trying to recruit or we're trying to do this. Do you, you know, you're a visible person. Do you, do we want that message to come across? And you know, I just think, again, back to my point. Sounding like a five-year-old. It's not fair. Yeah. Why do other people share these great stories about their Christmases at their family's beach house in Delaware?
Diana Lauritson: And for me, especially when holidays come around, this is a time of year where it's really tough for me because everybody wants to go for a holiday lunch, and what are you grateful for and what do you, you know, everybody share what your holiday traditions are, and things like that make me really uncomfortable because I have to think in my head.
Diana Lauritson: What is safe to tell them? What's a good memory I can pull that says this is a great family tradition I have rather than, rather than, you know, saying like, sometimes I spend holidays alone because my family dynamic is very different. [00:12:00] I love my sisters and I love my mom and my aunt Diane is well, was my mom's sister and she raised me.
Diana Lauritson: For a lot of the times when I was taken away from my mother growing up, and so she was my mom to me, and she passed away in 2018, right before I started at a law firm. And so for me, home was kind of gone. That was my home. And so holidays are hard for me, and I do feel like it's not fair that other people get to share their story, but because my story is not glamorous and it's a little bit scary.
Diana Lauritson: Unconventional. I'm not allowed to share who I am because it doesn't, people don't like it on LinkedIn. And I got to a point where I said, you know what? If my LinkedIn is the make or break, if my work can't speak for itself, for what I do when I'm in the office, what am I doing here that's not being authentic?
Diana Lauritson: And I'm huge on authenticity. [00:13:00] And authenticity is being able to show up who you are as who you are and be. Your true, genuine self, bring yourself to the table, and I can't do that if I feel like I have this part of my life that is blacked out and I can't share with anyone.
Jennifer Ramsey: Powerful. I mean, I Amen to that.
Jennifer Ramsey: I a hundred percent fucking agree with you. And I so interesting that you talk, you talked about personal brand and what it means to you. I was just at, in Denver for the Tech West by Southwest, and I know Diana I, that you would made a comment on someone's post that you wish you could have been there.
Jennifer Ramsey: Mm-hmm. And I wish I could have met you in person. Uh, but I, I did a, a, a 30 minute. Workshop for the, the new, the next LMA next, and we talked about personal brand and I, you know, my, my, my definition, which I think is aligned with yours, is [00:14:00] bringing visibility and voice to my own core values. So, so to your own core, you know, you're bringing visibility and voice to your own core values.
Jennifer Ramsey: And there's this article, um, by a gentleman named Tom Peters called the, it's called the Brand, called You. And it's exactly what you were saying, Diana, like we are not bound by our firm, by our law firm for life. We are not defined by our title. We are not confined by our job description. We are the CEO of.
Jennifer Ramsey: Us and our job is to be the head marketer of it.
Diana Lauritson: Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Ramsey: And you are doing that with a plum and with grace and with authenticity on LinkedIn. I mean, you and I, I'm, I'm such a laggard when it comes to LinkedIn. So like you and I just connected because I knew you were gonna be on today, but then I started reading all of your posts and I just thought, wow, like amazing what you share and.[00:15:00]
Jennifer Ramsey: It can't be easy. I, that's my own, my own projection, right? Because like I know sometimes I get comfortable uncomfortable sharing things on LinkedIn. And what you are sharing is just, I think it needs to be said. And I just, I love everything that you post. And for everyone listening out here, please go connect with Diana Lurt and after the, you listen to this podcast.
Diana Lauritson: And that's not to say that I'm not scared because I posted a recent post about domestic violence and I woke up the next day and I wanted to throw up. I was like, I cannot believe that I posted that, because I felt really brave in the moment.
Megan Senese: Yeah. Typing away and then,
Diana Lauritson: and I was like, yeah, and I, I felt really brave.
Diana Lauritson: Then I went to bed and I woke up and I remembered that I posted and I'm like, oh my gosh, why? What were you thinking? Why would you share that? And I'm, I'm thinking lawyers at the firm who [00:16:00] I work with are gonna read this and they're gonna see this and is this going going to impact the way that they think about me?
Diana Lauritson: Am I, I was in a meeting this morning and a couple of the lawyers who had liked my posts were in that meeting and I almost was like, I don't know if I can make eye contact right now. And I just was like, power through it, like power through it. But I was terrified after I posted. I was shaking when I was writing it because.
Diana Lauritson: The domestic violence, it's easier for me to deal with the homelessness and the murder and all of that stuff than it was for me to share about being in an abusive relationship because I was in that relationship for almost six years of my life, almost a decade of my life, and. I have not healed from it yet.
Diana Lauritson: I still have a lot of PTSD from that relationship. And I think I was more primed to physical abuse because I grew up in a home where I [00:17:00] was abused. I was always taken out for bruises. I was, you know, there were times my mom would drop us off with people and would disappear for a couple months and then come back and get us and some people that.
Diana Lauritson: We were left with were not kind to us, especially because I'm multiracial. My mother is white and in Iowa and some of the places where we were left. People were not, I mean, one family made us stay in the attic and we could come down for meals. We were not allowed to talk at the dinner table. We were hidden.
Diana Lauritson: We were, you know, people would say, oh, these kids are war to the states. Don't talk to them. You know, it was very, I felt very kind of isolated when I was younger. I was used to abuse, and it was a long time before I understood that not everyone grows up like this. Uh, until I was in about sixth grade, I used to flinch when people would get too loud with me or come too close.
Diana Lauritson: I used to flinch. It was a really bad thing that I had to [00:18:00] learn how to not flinch. I had to learn how to, my Aunt Diane would say, you don't need to ask me permission. Get in the refrigerator because food was used as punishment for me when I was growing up. When thing, you know, for one, we didn't have a lot of money.
Diana Lauritson: We were on wic, we had food stamps, all of those things. And food was a punishment sometimes. Um, or the lack of food was a punishment. So I had to relearn a lot of behaviors. I watched my mom get abused and I said, I will never be with someone that abuses me. And it doesn't start out that way. So, you know, you don't meet someone and they slap you on the first date and you're like, I wanna go out with you again.
Diana Lauritson: Sure. Right. It's something that, it was someone that I knew that I, you know, had been with, and it started slowly and gradually and it was arm grabs and little things, and then it got to be. Choking and dragging me by my hair down the hallway and kicking me and throwing rocks at me and busting my lips and you know, [00:19:00] bruises all over.
Diana Lauritson: And I used to have to hide that. Coming to work, trying to be a professional. I went through this my whole four years in college, so the entire college career and a couple years of the workplace until my boss. Came to me, I was a few minutes late for work. I had a busted lip and it was like, you know, we've gotta talk about this.
Diana Lauritson: And this was a smaller organization that I worked for, so we were a very tight knit kind of group. And she, my boss was from Columbia and had, was very unconventional leader. Um, I still admire her to this day and she was like, this has gotta stop. Like, we, we need to figure this out. And she didn't come at me.
Diana Lauritson: You're in trouble because it's making you late to work, or this is embarrassing, you're client facing, or, you know, those kinds of things. And I'm glad I didn't live in legal or I didn't work in legal when it was found out about, but I, I definitely was terrified writing that [00:20:00] post because I still have flashbacks about that time in my life.
Diana Lauritson: And as I said, I'm not fully healed, but I, I'm healed enough. That I recognize and I've had conversations with women and some in the legal marketing industry who have come out of abusive relationships. You would be surprised the people,
Jennifer Ramsey: for people listening who. Might unfortunately be living in a situation like this right now.
Jennifer Ramsey: How did you get out, Diana?
Diana Lauritson: It was really hard. Part of it was done for me. Um, there was a particularly bad night. I mean, I had gotten to the point where I was so tired of it and I just felt so trapped. And I didn't know who to go to, and there was a particularly bad night. I was getting beat up and someone walked by our apartment, um, and heard, heard me getting beat up and called the police.
Diana Lauritson: And the police came and took him [00:21:00] away and he was let out or he, I don't even know that he went to jail. They, they made us separate for the night and I was really scared because in domestic situations, a lot of times you both get in trouble. And this particular one, I don't know why, or I think the cop probably saw my face and was like, okay, you know, this is clearly you're being abused.
Diana Lauritson: So he went away for about a day, came back again, and it kind of continued. But I started trying to do things, making sure all the money was mine. Um, the apartment was in my name and I was in unfortunate place where. I was not dependent on the man. He was dependent on me. And so I was fortunate, I think, in that way where I could continue to live without him.
Diana Lauritson: But what saved me, my saving grace was that he ended up going to prison and it was the best thing that could have [00:22:00] ever happened to me, having it taken away where I didn't have to worry about him coming back or. Controlling me or anything like that was the best thing. And I know that that is not the, maybe the conventional path for everyone, because it did take a lot of it outta my hands.
Diana Lauritson: Like I didn't have control over him being in jail and whatever. But for me, that's how it helped me. And I had a support network. I had friends who knew what was going on, friends who had seen it, because towards the end he didn't care anymore about hiding it. In the beginning, it was a lot more covert towards the end.
Diana Lauritson: I mean, we could be at a club in college, and the next thing you know, I'm being choked up against the wall and the bouncer is coming at him trying to. Take him away. So it was public, people saw it. It happened in my dorms at college. Uh, you know, I had a, one of the guidance counselors at the dorm called me in about it to talk to me, and I wasn't ready to get out of it at that [00:23:00] time.
Diana Lauritson: And when I finally was, like I said, he went to jail and. My whole life changed after that. That was probably the second biggest life changing thing for me after going to Boystown.
Megan Senese: I didn't know anything about Boystown. I hadn't heard about Boystown. And so for those that don't know and, and like pretend that I didn't know Diana, what, like what is Boystown?
Megan Senese: So
Diana Lauritson: Boystown was actually Father Flanagan's home for boys, um, a long time ago. And there was actually a Boystown movie that. I talked about Boystown and um, I think it was Mickey Rooney that starred in it. I used to be a tour guide for Boystown, so you would think that I should spit all these facts off. I actually, um, guided around Arnold Schwarzenegger and other celebrities around Boystown when I was younger.
Diana Lauritson: So my experience with Boystown is, it is, it's actually a real town. It's incorporated. And it has everything. A post office, a fire department, a police station, a high [00:24:00] school, um, a field house, all of these different things, farms. And basically what it is, is it's a place for, it used to be a place for wayward boys.
Diana Lauritson: And they eventually started letting women into Boystown, um, I think back in the late eighties or nineties, early nineties. No, it must have been the eighties because I was in Boystown. Um, and starting in 1998, and it's really just like a town, but it has houses and apartments and everything where the apartments have six.
Diana Lauritson: Children and the uh, houses have eight. And you live with a family unit called family teachers. And these are married couples that literally live in the home with you. It's their full-time job. They act as a parental structure for you, and they. Help, I guess, with correcting behaviors with healing and treatment, um, all kinds of things.
Diana Lauritson: And [00:25:00] people ask, how do you get sent to Boystown? Because it always has this kind of connotation that it's, you had to get in trouble or something. Sometimes parents leave their kids at Boystown, some kids run away and come to Boystown looking for help. Some kids are placed there by the court systems. Um, it could have been, you know, maybe they had behavior problems or got in trouble with the law or something like that.
Diana Lauritson: So the stories of each person at Boystown is very different, but the commonalities that we have or that we all in some ways kind of suffered or, um, had really rough or turbulent or tumultuous childhoods and were sent there to. Get exposure to what a real family unit looks like, especially for those of us that didn't have that example.
Diana Lauritson: And so I was actually sent there by the courts, um, from Iowa, which, you know, is a whole story in and of itself, which I can definitely get into. But it was, um, a really great [00:26:00] place for me to reset my life. Um, I had. A very turbulent upbringing. Uh, my dad was a pimp. My mom was very mentally ill. Uh, I was moved around, I was always taken from the home.
Diana Lauritson: Teachers would see bruises on us, so I was always taken out of the home multiple times while I was growing up. And my mom moved us around all the time. So we lived in homeless shelters. One day. I remember one summer we went to North Carolina. We stayed there during the summer, enrolled in school for one day, and then after one day of school she moved us to another state.
Diana Lauritson: Um, and so I went to 10 elementary schools, three junior highs and seven high schools. In fact, technically, I don't know if I should say this, but technically I never fully finished high school because I never finished 10th grade. But when I came to Boystown. I had always done really [00:27:00] well in school. So my, my whole, you know, education was the catalyst for me to kind of get through life because I was always advanced in classes.
Diana Lauritson: I was a couple years ahead. And so when I came to Boystown, they let me test out and I tested out of, uh, you know, I had been in honors classes and things like that, and I tested out. So when I went to Boystown, I actually spent half of my time at Boystown and half of my time at a public high school in Omaha because Boystown didn't have the level of, of classes at the time for me to take.
Diana Lauritson: So, um, it was a, it was a way for me to be able to reset, to finish my. High school. High school and to get a full ride to, to Creighton University, um, because I did really, really well. But I was sent to Boystown because, you know, I had a very turbulent upbringing. Um, a lot of physical abuse. It was a lot of.
Diana Lauritson: You know, substance abuse with different people in my [00:28:00] life. And, uh, I got kicked out of the house when I was 14, about to be 15. My mom married someone who didn't want her daughters in the house, and so my older sister, who was about 16 at the time and myself, who was just about to turn 15, he said that we couldn't live in our house anymore, but that my younger sister could stay.
Diana Lauritson: And so my sister left. And I left as well, but it was really hard because I was homeless for a while. So I stayed on people's couches. I stayed with different friends, got in with kind of a, a bad crowd that was accepting and let us stay at their house. But they sold drugs and at the end of the day they ended up murdering someone in our apartment.
Diana Lauritson: And you know, obviously that was the first time I had ever seen someone killed before. It was very scary. And you know, it was eye opening for me because [00:29:00] I knew at that moment that I was at a turning point in my life where, you know, being around these people is extremely dangerous and I had nowhere else to go.
Diana Lauritson: And so the courts stepped in. And at first I was put in a juvenile detention, so I spent about six months in juvenile detention centers, and then I was appointed a guardian ad litem, and she recommended Boystown as a place to go. She was like, Diana is way too smart. You know, if we lose her to the system, then there's no telling where she's going to end up.
Diana Lauritson: Let's try to get her into Boystown. And so they started the process. For me to get sent there and they, I was accepted into Boystown and it was the beginning of a completely new way of life for me. And I honestly have to say, I mean, I don't know where my life would be had I not been sent to Boystown. I don't know where I would've ended [00:30:00] up.
Diana Lauritson: I would not be in legal, but it was really interesting going from being in juvenile detention to six years later being in law school. So it was a huge kind of turnaround in my life.
Jennifer Ramsey: I, I just wanna pause because that is a lot for your 14-year-old self too. Witness and endure. I just wanna take a moment because like that is heavy.
Jennifer Ramsey: Yeah. For a child and then to be a teenager and for all of that to happen with within just 14 years of your young life. I mean, that is emotional and uh, thank, thank you for sharing that because. I am assuming that's not easy to share and, and, and, and we are grateful that you're here on this podcast, in this space to share that, because [00:31:00] that is, that is just a lot.
Megan Senese: It sounds like throughout your life. I think they've mostly been women, right? Where there women are pulling you to the side and saying, Hey. Mm-hmm. Like, let me help you. Or like, we are going to do this now. And I think in a lot of instances, you are probably going to serve as that for other women who are seeing your content and are saying, okay, this person has gone through similar things that I have gone through, and like, look how great and successful you are.
Megan Senese: And also, but sharing it, but it's not like I'm so successful and I have no issues. Right. You're being open about like, mm-hmm. Everyone has their shit and I'm dealing with it. And also. Like, here is how I got through it. I'm sharing it so that you can take what you need from it. Is that accurate for
Diana Lauritson: you? I like that people can look at me and get hope or inspiration from my stories.
Diana Lauritson: You know, the domestic violence one is hard for me because like I said, I grew up [00:32:00] abused and I've seen. All kinds of things from having a dad that was a pimp and watching people get beat up my whole life and all of those things being in bad neighborhoods and everything. For some reason, the domestic violence one is really tough for me, and that's why I wanted to, I felt like I wanted to throw up the next day after I posted it.
Diana Lauritson: I just thought, what possessed you to do that? And I thought, I, I thought I'm gonna delete it.
Megan Senese: Ah.
Diana Lauritson: And then people started writing. I actually, I've had general counsel reach out to me. Women General GCs reach out to me. Uh, someone sent me a message last night who said, I don't know if you know this, but when I met you, I was just coming out of an abusive relationship.
Diana Lauritson: You never knew that. I never shared it with you, but I. I, after you shared your story, I'm, I feel comfortable sharing, and she wrote me a message on LinkedIn last night, and part of it makes me wanna cry because I can't believe that we still [00:33:00] have to deal with women being abused. And it's not just women, men, men get abused too.
Diana Lauritson: You know, I, I want to be a source of inspiration, but like you said, I don't wanna be. A role model that's like, look how I got through all of this and now everything, everything is great. And I'm like climb to this ladder and doing all this stuff because I struggle, like the depression that that I go through.
Diana Lauritson: I have severe anxiety and PTSD and that manifests itself where. Sometimes I'm in situations where I get so sick that I will throw up. I have to take medication to help control it because I'll get heart palpitations. I've had to go to the emergency room for anxiety. I've literally had my whole face go numb.
Diana Lauritson: Anxiety has a lot of physical effects that people aren't aware of. They think, oh, I feel anxious today, but there's physical effects of anxiety and I struggle with that on the day to day. But I do feel. Some [00:34:00] after hearing from people, I felt a bit more validated by my posts and I was like, okay, I'm not gonna share these posts every day.
Diana Lauritson: 'cause the other thing that scares me about my life. Is that I don't want people to be like, oh, woe is me, her, you know, all of her posts are so depressing and it's like so attention seeking and gosh, doesn't anything good ever happen to her? You know, I don't want to be the face of woe and misery, you know?
Diana Lauritson: I want it to be somewhat inspirational, but I feel like with my LinkedIn posts, I'm going on this journey. I'm not there yet. I haven't arrived. I'm still progressing, and so. I look at it like people on LinkedIn or, you know, whatever I'm doing, that they're coming along with me on this journey by choice. Um, they're reading my posts or sharing them, and it's not even just about social media.
Diana Lauritson: This is like in my, my day-to-day life, whether I choose to share people, share my story with [00:35:00] some of my closest friends in LMA or. You know, whatever. I feel like I'm going on this journey and I'm inviting people to come along with me because I don't know how it's gonna turn out or where I'm gonna be in five years from now.
Diana Lauritson: But
Megan Senese: I think anybody who's saying that, they do, nobody knows. No one really knows.
Jennifer Ramsey: Nobody really knows anything. That's,
Megan Senese: I, I, I just, I Jen and I keep saying like, I don't know why leaving corporate, but I'm like, nobody knows shit actually. Nobody fucking knows anything. The more the farther away I get. Like we're all just trying to do our best.
Megan Senese: Right? We do our best. Yeah. Like I love to shit on big law because I can now, but I'm like, you know, big law and anxiety, they are not friends. Or actually maybe they are friends, right? Like big law loves anxiety. Anxiety loves big law. It's not a great place, right? If you are in fear of being in trouble all the time or think you're gonna be make a mistake or seeking validation all the time, like yeah, you can, anxiety lives a big goal life in, in big law.
Diana Lauritson: Mm-hmm.
Megan Senese: But [00:36:00] I, I think from, for one of the things, the further away I get from corporate life, the more I'm realizing that it's like everybody, like everyone has their struggles, but everybody is also. Hiding, right? People are just hiding and there's certain perceptions of how you're supposed to show up in the corporate life, and I think the more that that can be cracked.
Megan Senese: Open a little bit. The, that's where like the human side comes out, and that's part of where the purpose of our podcast is to show shed the human light. Sometimes it's really great stories. Sometimes they're really fucking shitty ones, right? And there's two sides to everything. It can't always be happy clappy.
Megan Senese: And I mean, you, you, you have some good ones too. So now you, I mean, this is only a few days ago that you shared this story, right? Like it's, it's was like Saturday or Sunday, right? Like it's today's Tuesday. It's not been that long. Yeah. Um, you're like still coming off the, like the high, the low, I'm not sure.
Megan Senese: Maybe it might happen for a little bit. Like there's a, there's a, uh, a vulnerability like kind of hangover that happens [00:37:00] after sharing something. Like that. Mm-hmm. Talk to us about from your perspective and as you're building your brand and we don't know what it looks like and you don't know what's gonna happen in five years, and I don't know what's gonna happen in five years for someone who wants to start to share.
Megan Senese: Maybe not necessarily on LinkedIn, but just wants to share or, or come to their, come to terms with their past or come to terms that their story is different than what they think. I think that's the other thing. The more people who are willing to share with us, the more I'm like, we're all the fucking seem actually, if we are allowing to share, like if we're allowing that side of us to come through.
Megan Senese: The more people are like, oh my God, like Megan, I feel the same way about certain things because I'm sharing it and you're hearing more people that your story on certain things is actually more common. Right on like unfortunately. So for someone who maybe is hesitant or like, what advice would you give to that person?
Megan Senese: Like on the legal, maybe just start on the legal marketing side. What [00:38:00] advice would you give to someone who wants to show up?
Diana Lauritson: I would say you need to be ready. Well, no, no, no. Actually, I'm gonna say no, you don't need to be ready because there's never a good time to be ready and you will overthink it all the time.
Diana Lauritson: But that's not to say that you shouldn't be thoughtful about it, and there can be repercussions, and so I don't wanna scare people away from it, but I know. Me sharing my stories could have a negative impact in how far I can advance in my career at a particular place. Given, you know how people take my LinkedIn posts.
Diana Lauritson: It's, I wrote a post the other day about executive presence and where, how it's a topic that fascinates me. I, I see people and I'm like, oh, I wanna be like them. I wanna show up like that. I want that gravitas. And then I feel like sometimes because of my background, I'm starting so many years [00:39:00] later than them, like I'm starting sometimes at a disadvantage because of the way that I grew up.
Diana Lauritson: I recognize that the things that I share are not legal friendly, and. That could have repercussions on my ability to get a promotion or what my career trajectory looks like. For a long time, that held me back from posting and now I'm like, come, what? May, because I am a survivor and I will find a way. You know, I have certain things that I've done, I've educated myself, um, I've, you know, I've got my degrees and I've, I've got experience in this industry and I am marketable and I will find something.
Diana Lauritson: I lived on the streets. Okay. Like, I've had no place, I've lived in homeless shelters. Like I, I'm not gonna let the culture of big law determine. Who I'm going to be, because that's small potatoes compared to what I've been through. So [00:40:00] be prepared. There could be repercussions, but if it's, you know, I, I'm, I'm a big person that likes to make lists and write things out and brainstorm and all of that.
Diana Lauritson: And if you have to think about the pros and the cons, you know, and, and what you're trying to share, and think about the why, why am I trying to share this with people? Me, I'm not trying to share it just for attention. I could share things about LMA every day. I could share things about, you know, little lessons that I've learned in legal, and I will share those things.
Diana Lauritson: Those will be inter, you know, those will be included in, in, in things that I share. But I feel like my lane in my niche is that I. Kind of an atypical story. And there are different facets of that that I wanna explore more, um, because it's healing for me and also because I've recognized that my words have power in a way that I never knew that they had power before.
Diana Lauritson: From [00:41:00] the people that have reached out, the people that I've helped, people that have cried and given me hugs about things. And the friends that I've made in this industry that I reach out to at right after I posted. Probably the next day I messaged one of my LMA friends and I was like, oh my gosh, what did I just do?
Diana Lauritson: And she's like, what's wrong? And I was like, I just posted something. And she's like, oh my gosh, I saw it. You know? And I do have sounding boards. There are people that I reach out to. For a gut check on things. And I think, you know, people just need to be prepared. I just say, if you're gonna share, going to it, knowing that it's not just as cut and dry as sharing.
Diana Lauritson: There's a lot that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to sharing your story and not everyone takes things positively. I'm sure there's a few people at work who read my post this weekend are probably giving me the side eye, you know, and that's okay.
Jennifer Ramsey: I'm gonna say that I think you are. Truly an inspiring human, and I feel very grateful that, that we gotta [00:42:00] speak with you today.
Jennifer Ramsey: I'm curious what inspires you and, and what are you, what are you most hopeful for sitting in this position that you're in right now?
Diana Lauritson: I think inspiration comes to me in a lot of different forms. I, I, I'm actually really excited by random things. Entrepreneurship inspires me. I, I get really impressed when I see.
Diana Lauritson: Friends or, or women who start their own businesses and who are, you know, and watching their growth trajectory. I've seen so many of my LMA folks that have started their businesses and I'm looking a few years in the future, and they're sponsoring all of these things and I'm like, I remember when you were a team of, you know, one or two people, and all of a sudden now, wow, you know, I'm inspired by.
Diana Lauritson: Uh, people making things of themselves. I'm, I'm inspired by resilience. I get really inspired by that because not only is it. Oh, it makes me feel not so alone, but I am curious about how people get through things [00:43:00] and how they cope. Partly 'cause I wanna know, I'm still trying to cope. I, I'm inspired by mentoring people.
Diana Lauritson: I love when people reach out and ask me to mentor them. That's inspirational for me. 'cause I'm always like, my first thing is like, really me? You want me to mentor you? And then, and then, um, I learned so much. Mentoring people and the problems. 'cause it forces you to, you know, they ask you questions and it forces you to think like, I, how would I handle that situation?
Diana Lauritson: I don't even know. So I'm going through exercises that haven't happened yet that help prepare me for things that maybe will happen later on. That's inspirational.
Jennifer Ramsey: What are you hopeful for as you look out over the upcoming year?
Diana Lauritson: I am hopeful, uh, that I will reach a point I. That, um, I feel truly happy. Um, happiness is something that I have, have been pursuing.
Diana Lauritson: Um, I don't think I've achieved it yet. Um, I want to be [00:44:00] satisfied. I think that I am always, you know, I had a, the same boss that helped me, you know, when I was being abused. Said to me one time, you know Diana, you're so destination focused. You never stop and enjoy the journey. And I thought about it because in my life when I was growing up, I used to say, if I can just make it to college and make my own decisions, like I can run my own life.
Diana Lauritson: I'm not at the whim of my mother taking me for to this state, to that state. I'm not, you know, I'm not at the whim of whoever's letting me stay at their house, but like, I'm gonna have control of my life. I'm gonna have my. Everything in my name and I'm gonna do all of these things. And ever since then I've been very goal-driven.
Diana Lauritson: I used to make five-year plans and I'd be done in two years. You know, I literally, I mean, right, right. When I was like, you know, I want a master's degree, and then I went to school and got two of them back to back. Literally just did finished one. Started the next one, a month later. Like I literally. I would [00:45:00] attack goals that way, and I never felt satisfied.
Diana Lauritson: I was never there after every degree. It was like I've had people say like, when is school done for you? Or. When are you gonna be happy? You've accomplished this. You bought a house, you did this? I don't know. I don't know when I'm ever gonna be happy. That's what I'm pursuing, and I'm hopeful that I will reach a point where I'm satisfied and content in my life and that I'm enjoying.
Diana Lauritson: The fruits of our labor.
Megan Senese: The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233. They're available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They speak English, Spanish, and 200 other interpretive languages. You can also text the word begin, B-E-G-I-N, to 8, 8, 7, 8, 8.