Just Ask
with Megan Richardson
Behavior Bites Podcast - Ep70September 10, 2025Does it feel like you are drowning in a sea of unorganized paperwork?
Would you have more time to devote to your “why” in the field if you had space to self-advocate?
During today’s meal— I speak with a behavior analyst and new mom about what it looks like to advocate for yourself starting right from the interview process, having more time for life outside the field, what her favorite thing is about her job, and planning the perfect new parents’ date.
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Amuse-Bouche
How did you find your passion?
What advice can you give others who are exploring their passion?
Appetizer
How did you get into Behavior Analysis?
Something you wish you could have told yourself when getting started
What are red flags when interviewing?
Palate Cleanser
Describe what the perfect new parents date looks like for you.
Entree
What’s a typical day in your life look like?
How do you practice self-care?
What advice do you have for advocating for yourself in the workplace?
Dessert
One thing people are surprised to find out about you?
Your favorite thing about what you do?
Excerpts from the Episode
(*Paraphrased highlights)-
When it comes to finding your own passion, I always try to tell people to think about what you really like doing in your job, or what really excited you when you were younger. If you could go back and redo a favorite day in your role, what is that?
When you can melt together the clinical side of what you like and who you are as a person, you'll start to find overlap. You can turn that into your speciality, or your niche, or what your business idea could be in the future.
It's not as complicated as people make it out to be because we're looking for the right answer and there's no right answer to what your passion is.
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They never ask you about your expertise. They don't ask you clinical questions. They don't ask you about how you would handle X, like those scenario based things. In my mind, if they're not asking if you're good at your job, they just need a body.
I feel like private equity is bigger now than it was when I started. If you only ever meet with HR and you never talk to a clinical person, that's always a huge red flag to me because they can't answer your questions on clinical things anyways.
Also, never giving you a direct example when you ask questions, it's always super PC and very broad. I teach all of the people I work with to ask for specifics. If they can’t tell you specifics, then they're BSing you and they've not implemented it. So like, how is mentorship here, instead of asking, do you provide mentorship? What was the last mentorship activity you did or how do you do this?
You want to know the why or the how, and it's pretty easy to tell if somebody's walking the walk or they're just talking the talk because they'll panic in that first couple of seconds of trying to come up with an answer, versus if they have a great mentorship program and they do all these weekly activities of like, oh yeah last week we did this. You'll know if it's real or not.
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Question everything. I think we're so quick to take everything at face value as BCBAs. I think we need to pause first and think about if it makes sense and ask for adjustments or different approaches to do things.
I talk to BCBAs all the time that are like, Oh my gosh, this, that, and the other crazy thing happened. They're riled up. They're stressed out about it. I’m like, okay, what did you say when they asked you to do that? They're like, well, nothing. I'm like, exactly.
These companies, your bosses, your coworkers, nobody's a mind reader. If you don't tell them you're having a problem or it's not going to work or whatever, and you throw everything on your own side out the window to meet everybody else's needs, they don't know that. Then you're reinforcing this cycle of, Oh, I got assigned an assessment tomorrow and I have a report I was going to write. I was going to do all these other things and you don't speak up and say, I have these other tasks that I'm working on. Can we do it next week?
If you don't start open dialogue. Then they're going to assume everything's fine because you're still hitting the deadline, but what your boss and what the company doesn't see is you crying about it, doing it at two o'clock in the morning, stressing yourself out, not eating dinner, having a panic attack, because you're trying to meet an expectation that you could have just asked to adjust.
We all want to appear like we've got our life together and things are going smoothly, so we don't say anything. We do it all behind the scenes. Everything on the surface looks great, but then we start to hold grudges or we get upset and jaded and pissed off. We pretend like everything is fine.
I coach a lot of people on just asking for the adjustment. The worst they can say is no, but if you never bring it up, then you're stuck 100% playing the very tight game that they have created for you.
ABOUT Megan
Megan Richardson, M.A., BCBA, LBA
Megan is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and the creator behind The Organized Analyst, where she helps BCBAs organize their work to cut down on stress, rebalance their days to make space for life outside the field, and build businesses that fit the life they’re dreaming of.
Through her signature program, Thrive Academy, Megan is known for her relatable “BCBA Bestie” style that blends systems, mindset, and strategy into practical steps that actually stick. Her mission? To help BCBAs stop running on burnout and start creating a career, and a life, they genuinely love.
When she’s not coaching, you’ll find Megan happily color-coding her calendar, quoting early 2000s rom-coms, or soaking up the joy (and chaos) of new mom life.
CONNECT with Megan
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