How to Build Confidence and Your Professional Brand with Intentionality

We are back from break next week. Please enjoy this episode in the mean time. 

Greatest Hits: Build Confidence Through Intentionality
Confidence isn’t something you wait to feel—it’s something you build through intentional choices. In this episode, I dive into how mindset, clarity, and consistent action shape your professional brand and career direction.

You’ll learn:

• Why external validation can derail your growth
• How clarity, messaging, and relationships drive intentionality
• Three practical steps to define and own your professional brand
• Mindset shifts to help you lead with purpose and confidence

Support the show

Jill Griffin, host of The Career Refresh, delivers expert guidance on workplace challenges and career transitions. Jill leverages her experience working for the world's top brands like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, Hilton Hotels, and Martha Stewart to address leadership, burnout, team dynamics, and the 4Ps (perfectionism, people-pleasing, procrastination, and personalities).

Visit JillGriffinCoaching.com for more details on:

• Book a 1:1 Career Strategy and Executive Coaching HERE
• Build a Leadership Identity That Earns Trust and Delivers Results.
• Gallup CliftonStrengths Corporate Workshops to build a strengths-based culture
• Team Dynamics training to increase retention, communication, goal setting, and effective decision-making
• Keynote Speaking
• Grab a personal Resume Refresh with Jill Griffin HERE

Follow @JillGriffinOffical on Instagram for daily inspiration
Connect with and follow Jill on LinkedIn

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Jill Griffin .
Welcome back to the CareerRefresh podcast.
Today I'm talking aboutintentionality.
Intentionality is like a littlehidden gem and we often
overlook it until we realizethat it has enormous value in
shaping our careers.
When I was thinking aboutwriting this episode and I was

(00:21):
reflecting on my own journey andmy thoughts around
intentionality, I found itreally funny how I navigated
through the early stages of mylife education, career without
truly understanding concepts ofintentions.
I know it sounds so funny now,but that's how it went.
So, growing up in a verystructured environment for me,

(00:44):
like Catholic school had a lotof structure, rigor, focus, with
an emphasis on discipline and Idon't mean physical discipline,
I mean just sort of like thediscipline to get things done.
And you may have experiencedthis too if you grew up in a
similar environment that,whether it was your schooling or
your home environment thatcreated a lot of structure with

(01:06):
an emphasis on focus.
And you may realize that whenyou stop and think, that kind of
structure has a lot of benefits, especially when you're young,
but it's also, at a certainpoint, stops serving you because
it shields you from the need topause and consider your own

(01:26):
intentions and to think foryourself, because something else
is always doing it for you.
And this is really what Irealized that, as my life
unfolded and presented manyopportunities and challenges,
that external structure thatonce guided me was no longer
there.
So, all of a sudden, it waslike this vacuum of uncertainty
and choice.
And what should I do?
And as a young professional, Ididn't understand, like what

(01:50):
shifted here?
What's going?
What is it?
Why isn't this working Right?
So what I come to realize isthat when we solely rely on
external sources for motivationand direction, it's not
sustainable.
Motivations, values, opinions,confidence, all of those things.
When it comes from externalsources and not ourselves, we're

(02:13):
really going to struggle withthe level of uncertainty and,
friends, when our sense of selfdepends on others, we become
reliant and there's a constantneed for external validation.
Right, this is a lot when wehear about people wondering
around self-confidence orimposter syndrome.
Right, they're thinking abouthave I heard what I needed to

(02:35):
hear?
Has someone given me input thatI need to get?
Because they're so used togetting it outside of ourselves
and we don't really teach peoplehow to do it for themselves
until, frankly, you enter into acareer or an experience where,
all of a sudden you're like, ah,I need help, right?
We don't often teach childrenthis and this idea to have

(02:57):
someone constantly helping us,you know what to think, how to
act, how to respond.
It really shields us fromdifficulties and inhibits our
ability to develop self-trustand confidence and inhibits our
ability to develop self-trustand confidence.
This is the concept you mayhave heard of preparing the
child for the path and not thepath for the child.
You want to prepare the childfor the path, not curate

(03:21):
everything that everything'sperfect for the child, and
unfortunately, many caretakersdo this today.
And when you remove adversityfrom a child, then the child
doesn't learn how to trustthemselves or build confidence.
Now, when you combine this withreal world experiences and the
velocity of change and as you'regrowing up, you can understand

(03:42):
why this would be so hardwithout having a clear sense of
self.
And listen, this is just whatwe did.
The gift today is that we get todo it differently and we get to
teach the young people aroundus how to think about things, to
manage their mind and to how todo it differently.
So we're now thinkingindependently.
Individuals become reallypassive and dependent on others

(04:02):
for direction, and you probablyhave seen this at times in your
workplace or within certainteams or departments, you're
like what's going on over thereor where a senior executive.
At one point I heard them sayabout a particular department
that they're a sea of producersand that wasn't a compliment,
right that they could producesomething, but they weren't able
to think.
And sometimes we need both.

(04:23):
Sometimes we need people justto chop wood and carry water and
get it done, and other times weneed people to pause and really
think through a strategicsolution to the particular
problem in front of us.
And this is where the idea ofconfidence and intentionality
comes in.
It's obvious that we need tobuild confidence.
So how do you do it effectively?
And one way, like I said, isintentionality.

(04:47):
So first you want to thinkabout clarity of purpose.
This is where you define yourgoals and values.
You're not your title, you'renot your job, but that's another
episode.
You can navigate yourprofessional journey with
purpose and intentionality whenyou are clear about your
strengths and values.
This clarity builds confidence.

(05:07):
The next thing I want to tellyou is that consistent messaging
is key, whether it's internally, meaning your mind, you're
telling yourself, or externally,you're telling others.
Consistency of communication isessential when we spend a
significant amount of timethinking about what others
should do and how others shouldrespond.
We need to put that directionand spotlight on ourselves.

(05:30):
We should invest equal effortin determining our own
intentional responses, and thatconsistent messaging is going to
build a strong professionalbrand that others can rely upon.
And guess what?
That helps your confidence.
The next is cultivatingrelationships.
Strong relationships can helpsupport your goals and you can

(05:51):
be in reciprocity and helpothers support their goals.
The pandemic taught us theimportance of connections,
underscoring that theintentional networking and
strengthening of ourrelationships with others really
helps support our professionalbrand.
I've spoken to many collegegraduates who graduated during
that time, in the immediateaftermath of the pandemic, and

(06:12):
they didn't have the community.
They had the universitycommunity, but then they left
that community and went into theworkplace.
They didn't have that and thatreally impacted their ways of
growing, learning the system,learning how to work within an
organization and being able todeliver confidently on their
work.
So I'm going to give you somehomework.
Grab that Notes app.
First, spend time in positivevisualization, right, you spend

(06:38):
a lot of time in negativevisualization, because that's
what we do.
You're human.
It's a negative bias.
Your brain is doing what it'ssupposed to do.
It's supposed to protect you,but I want you to think what do
you want your professional brandto represent?
Pick one strength, one skilland one mantra.
Right, we need those reps, weneed those thoughts.

(07:01):
That's what I mean by mantra.
We need the thought.
That's like you know what I'mreally good at doing this.
We want that kind of thought,that mantra.
The next thing I want you to dois I want you to take that
skill, that strength, and I wantyou to do what I call an MSA on
your professional brand.
That's monk, scientist andartist.

(07:22):
So I want you to ask yourselfwhat would your inner monk do?
What would the version ofyourself who is at peace and
attuned to your preferences anddesires say about who you are as
a professional brand and whatyou want to do with
intentionality, professionalbrand and what you want to do
with intentionality?
Next, what would the scientistinside of you do?

(07:43):
What data or information mightthat scientist need in order for
you to build yourintentionality and your
confidence?
And lastly, what would theartist inside you do?
What creative exercises mightthey do to free up your thinking
?
How might they find a creativeway to intentionally express
themselves.
What would happen this week ifyou got really quiet, tapped

(08:08):
into your internal guidance andasked your internal scientist,
artist and monk what's best foryou, instead of consulting the
usual suspects?
If there's a gap between whereyou are and where you want to go
, think about what you need todo differently in order to close
that gap.
And as we navigate the evolvingwork landscape and shift away

(08:32):
from traditional office settings, it's crucial to recognize the
impact that physical structureand external motivation may have
had on your success.
If, in order to continue to besuccessful, you need to develop
relationships, think about whereyou need to bring in those
close relationships and beingintentional so that you can

(08:53):
thrive in any environment andfriends.
Who is helping you with yourcareer strategy?
Who is helping you navigate thecomplexities of the workplace?
I'd be honored to help you, andyou can read more about how
that's possible in the shownotes.
Friends, I'd love to hear fromyou.
Comment on any of my socials,dm me or email me at hello at

(09:17):
jillgriffincoachingcom.
And if you liked this episode,friends, please give a rate and
review.
It really does help.
It really does help get theword out to other people who may
also benefit from this content.
So until next time, embracepossibility, stay intentional,
inspired and kind.
I'm Jill Griffin, your host ofthe Career Refresh podcast.

(09:38):
My mission is to makeworkplaces more successful for
everyone, so if you have ideasfor topics or future guests,
please email us at hello atjillgriffincoachingcom.
Until next time, embracepossibility, be generous,
intentional and kind.