Career Transitions: Living Between Two Worlds and Why Building Your Professional Brand is Key to Your Next Success

Career transitions can be a time of excitement and curiosity and sometimes are filled with anxiety. Navigating transitions between roles requires self-awareness, clarity of values, and a career strategy to find opportunities and build resilience. In this episode, I discuss the strategies to maintain a steady mindset whether you're shifting from employment to entrepreneurship, hunting for a new job, or juggling multiple roles. I also share:

• Why you need to let go of past experiences and zero in on the present and future possibilities 
• The core elements of your career strategy
• Importance of self-awareness—knowing who you are, not just who you think others want you to be
• Focus on understanding your values, strengths, and professional brand

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, you're listening to the Career Refresh and I am your host, Jill Griffin. Today I want to talk to you about what it's like when you're living between worlds, and just pause for a second. It sounds a little like reality show-ish, maybe a little soap opera-y, but what does that mean to you? When you think about that, you're sort of got a foot in each world or you're living between two worlds. You, when you think about that, you're sort of got a foot in each world, or you're living between two worlds. When you sit between two ends of the spectrum or the opposite end of the sticks, let's say it's employed or unemployed, or in a job, searching for your next job, employee, entrepreneur you're living in that transition and I've often called that the hallway. If you're a longtime listener, you know I call that place the hallway. Lots of doors none have opened yet and that waiting place can be a place of anxiety or curiosity and sometimes we cannot see what's in front of us, behind us or all around us. It's a time that we can't see what's ahead, and I would offer you that it's a time to get clear on what's completed, what's finished, what's done, because this affords you to be with the space and the possibility of what's coming. If you are living with what was you're still trying to solve for the past, and while you can always work with a therapist or a certified coach to help you reframe the experience, I'd offer that looking forward is where the opportunity and possibilities lie and it also feels better. There's enormous freedom here. There's an adage that is about Thomas Edison that he lost everything in his workshop or his studio in a fire and his response is okay, now we can start fresh. I'm not saying this is comfortable. What I'm offering you is that when you're staying in the place of what was the place of discomfort that's not where I want you to live you can visit that discomfort again when you need to process those thoughts and feelings with a therapist or certified coach. But what's essential is the now and that you accept that you don't really know what's next, but you know you can spend time in how you want to feel regularly. What are the emotions and thoughts you want to possess naturally and regularly when you're in your next opportunity? What are the values or the rules of reciprocity that you hold dear and how do you want them to show up in your next opportunity? What are the types of people and organizations you want to be around. And notice I didn't mention proper nouns. I'm not talking about who you want to be around or what company you want to work for. I'm talking about what are the types right? So we think about the landscape, not the real estate.

Speaker 1: 3:15

You also can spend time in knowing your skills, your strengths, your talents and then also, what I think is the most important thing, is knowing what your professional brand stands for. Yeah, you still need to network, interview and apply. You still need to do the career strategy work. You need to know who you are and not who you think they think you are. I'm going to say that again you need to know who you are, not who you think they think you are. I promise you, when you spend time and really getting to know your own career strategy and your own professional brand, there is no faster way to hope, conviction and confidence. You can look for what's next and not do this work.

Speaker 1: 4:08

And there's going to come a time when you're in the new opportunity, when you hit your first speed bump, where you're going to become frazzled, anxious and tired because you don't have the grounding of the strategy of who you are. You may have done this when you first started in your career, but it is something that needs to be constantly looked at, because you are a growing, organic individual. You were not who you were a few years ago. You are who you are now. Alternatively, you can do this work and steady yourself now so that when the next thing comes, bumps and all, you will have strengthened your roots. And whether that's employment, whether you're going entrepreneurial, fractional, freelance, whether you think you're going full-time but you find a part-time thing in the meantime, it doesn't matter. You will be able to show up and handle the waves of this crazy thing that we call life and all that it throws at you.

Speaker 1: 5:04

Listen, I have been hired, promoted, laid off, fired. I've built teams of thousands, I have fortified tiny and mid-sized startups with successful exits and eventually I launched my own business. And none of this would have been possible if I didn't know who I was first. So, friends, I'm offering you to get super clear on your professional brand in the nooks and crannies of your day. Spend time here or reach out to me. Work with a coach, invest in this work. Spending time to get to know myself has always been a priceless investment. All right, friends, here's to possibility. Be curious this week and be kind. I'll see you next time.