Greatest Hits: What really happens after you’ve been fired?

In this candid and powerful conversation, Jill Griffin—Career Strategist and Executive Coach—sits down with Vicki Bradley, CEO and Founder of Women in Leadership, to talk about the messy middle of career setbacks and how to come out stronger.

They dive into the emotional toll of getting fired, how to reframe workplace trauma, and what it really takes to rebuild career joy and confidence.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Recover from being fired and reclaim your narrative
• Shift from feeling like a victim to showing up as an empowered professional
• Use clarity and compassion as a launchpad for career growth
• Stop hiding, start healing, and own your story
• Apply mindset shifts that move you from “impossible” to “possible”
• Explore how coaching can support your reinvention

Plus, Jill shares why she believes her brain injury was the greatest gift she never asked for.

This interview has been lightly edited for time.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Career Refresh Podcast
• 1:30 Interview with Jill Griffin Begins
• 3:10 Brain Injury and Career Challenges
• 6:30 Workplace Trauma and Getting Fired
• 12:00 Developing Mindset Practices
• 18:00 Creating Work-Life Balance with Injury
• 22:20 The Three C's Framework
• 30:00 Career Coaching Program Announcement

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey there, I'm Jill Griffin and this is the Career Refresh podcast. I'm a former media and marketing executive turned career strategist and strengths coach. I spent my career working my way up and through the ranks of global organizations and startups, and today I show others how to do the same. Join me each week as we discuss the strategies to leverage your strengths, increase your confidence and visibility and reset your career with actionable steps towards a finer future. Ready, let's do it. Hey, my friends, welcome back to this week's podcast. Okay, this week I am sharing an interview between Vicki Bradley and myself. Vicki is the founder and CEO of Women in Leadership, which is a leadership training program for women everywhere we talk about everything. A leadership training program for women everywhere. We talk about everything. We talk about workplace trauma and how to get through being fired. In that case, that's me how I worked through being fired and how I found career joy again.

Speaker 1: 1:14

So give a listen and let us know what you think. Either email me I'll include that in the show notes at hello at jillgriffincoachingcom, or reach out on Instagram and we can chat there too. All right, give a listen and I'll see you on the other side.

Speaker 2: 1:30

Jill Griffin has joined us today. She is an executive coach, she's a speaker, and I love this part. She is a BS buster and you know we can all put our thought into what BS might be, but it's actually your belief systems. We're excited to learn about busting those belief systems. She is recognized by Advertising Age as one of the top 25 women to watch. She was also named one of the 50 most influential people in content marketing by News Cred. She's also the two-time winner of Media Week's Media Planner of the Year and she has spent about 20 years coaching and building company cultures.

Speaker 2: 2:15

Jill also had a traumatic time in her life, with a brain injury, and so today we're going to be talking about you know, how do you rethink, how do you reset, reboot your life and career? Well, let's jump in, because I know everybody's excited and our time is always precious and we have lots to cover off. So let's just share a little bit about your background so that people have an understanding of you know the marketing background you came from, the brain trauma and then how you became this awesome coach.

Speaker 1: 2:46

Great yeah. So I actually started my career at Atlantic Records and started working in marketing, being in strategy, eventually moving into advertising and then working on some of the world's most well-known brands things like Coca-Cola, samsung, microsoft. But what was happening is, just as my career trajectory was taking off, I had a head injury Traumatic brain injury is what it would be classified as I was hiking in Australia. I took a solo trip to Australia to go hiking and I fell and it resulted in me taking a tumble down a small waterfall, but still a waterfall. So some other hikers helped me and the interesting thing about brain injury is they're insidious and it took about a good six months for the full impact of what had happened to really set in. So it was the discovery that continued to unveil itself over the months post the concussion and then the brain injury. And really, at that point, what was also happening is my career. I'm, you know I'm doing better. I'm, you know, getting into more and more opportunities and more leadership positions.

Speaker 1: 3:53

But because of the cognitive impairment, I wasn't able to tell what was my own ego and my own nonsense, what was potentially a toxic situation or a tough work environment. There's the velocity of business that's natural in any environment and what's just sort of natural you know it's work, not a hobby what's just sort of natural that happens in work and I couldn't really discern what was what and I just got to a point that I was like I'm out Meaning. I have to figure this out. It is a non-negotiable. So what I ended up doing was I started to put connections together that food and environment were making my system, my symptoms, better or worse. So I started to study the brain, brain health. I became a functional nutrition educator. I became a health coach. I started doing that work and doing it through the lens of food and environment, which is what helped me learn about the brain, and then, learning educator, I became a health coach.

Speaker 1: 4:44

I started doing that work and doing it through the lens of food and environment, which is what helped me learn about the brain, and then learning cognitive behavioral therapy, positive psychology, and starting to then implement it and see that I was making changes and starting to be able to perform better. And then I just brought it back into my day job because I was doing all that while I still maintained the day job and in a very short period of time, my performance and the rewards and the promotions started coming. My team was doing better. Everyone was like what is going on? And you know many leadership or supervisors would be like two for the price of one. You're a marketing strategist and a coach like, go on, keep doing it Right. So that's really what got me into doing this. And then about five years ago so I've been a coach for 18 years, but about five years ago I left corporate with grace and excellence and went out on my own and I've been doing career strategy and executive coaching for the last five years full-time.

Speaker 2: 5:40

Nice, nice. Well, I mean, first of all, let's just go backwards a little bit there. I mean, okay, first of all, solo trip to Australia. Thank the Lord, someone saw you, found you when you had me. Like that's just, that is incredible, that that happened. And you know that tenacity that you have to, you know, go out and conquer the world, like you're demonstrating that in multiple ways, which is beautiful to see. Like you're demonstrating that in multiple ways, which is beautiful to see. So I mean I'm glad to see that you're thriving and you know you've got this great practice and you're still implementing what you were doing. You're just helping others learn how to do that, which is amazing. So just to tap in for a few minutes, if you don't mind, when you talk about the brain health and understanding the brain more, what were maybe one or two of the things that were most pivotal for you to just to help you start to, you know, you know recognize, like, where you were and where you wanted to get to.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Yeah, no, it's a great question. I mean, I would say the first thing that I had to figure out was what was in my control and what was out of my control. So what was in my control is what I put in my body and understanding that there are foods and things that might be totally healthy and fine for you, but for me they would put me into brain fog. They would put my motor skills really sloppy. I would often represent as if I was drunk Meanwhile. I don't drink right. I lighting stairwells. Anything in my peripheral vision, if I'm in a workstation, happens to be facing a pathway with lots of movement. I would stand up and tip over right.

Speaker 1: 7:18

So there was a constant. You know how invisible disability is not really talked about. And invisible disability is anything that's going to impair your everyday ability to take on regular actions, and it's anything from brain injuries and dizziness to asthma, ms, you know, ulcerative colitis. I mean anything that's going to impair. And things are very different today and we're getting more and more awareness. But when this first happened to me 18 years ago, there was no invisible disability section of the employee workbook. Right, you're just figuring out on your own.

Speaker 1: 7:53

So the part that I could control was what I could put in my environment, and then also there was parts I couldn't control. There's many things about the environment that I couldn't control. So does it mean that, which you know, if we get into a little bit about the firing that I had? I mean a lot of that had to do with how I couldn't perform in an environment. That was being interpreted as me not being a team player because I couldn't. So and just really getting understanding of what I can and can't do. So that, and knowing your non-negotiables, like it is a non-negotiable for me to go to a place that has blinking lights and alcohol. It's just not going to work.

Speaker 2: 8:30

Yeah, wow. So so many things you shared there and I do want to jump into. You know the trauma of getting fired in just a second. But even you know, like, think back 18 years ago as an employer. I'm sure that some of your colleagues were even looking at you going. What is wrong with her? Like, is she on drugs?

Speaker 1: 8:47

I can only imagine a hundred percent. They must've been like she's so weird. Because what? Because I didn't tell anybody right. I didn't want it to impact my opportunity and I just hit it. I mean, my friends and family knew, but I wasn't talking about it. So I got to this level of constantly compartmentalizing my life, which is really living a lie which is exhausting.

Speaker 1: 9:11

I was just because I thought if you knew, then you would be like you know you'd, you'd want to take care and be like, oh well, maybe Jill should do that. Meanwhile, I'd be like, no, let me decide. And again doesn't mean I mean, this was true. This is my thought process based on, you know, direct and indirect signaling that I would receive within our culture.

Speaker 2: 9:30

Yeah, wow, wow, and that is such a I mean, that is such a critical comment that you made, like, because we do create those stories ourselves, right? And we think that other people are thinking these things Meanwhile. You know, most of the time they don't have a clue as to what's going on, but we're fueling ourselves with that which which can manifest physical ailments and and you know, the good thing is, you didn't allow that to define you. So, yeah, so let's jump into and talk about, like, what happened, you know, when you got fired, and then how did you, how did you find that joy again with a career?

Speaker 1: 10:05

Yeah, so the trauma was legit. You know I mean getting fired, at least you know I live in the U? S and most of us our healthcare is employer sponsored. So I have a brain injury. I have a traumatic brain injury. If I don't have healthcare I don't get better. So losing my job meant you're actually taking away my ability to get help and get the healthcare that I need. So that trauma first was the initial blow of like what am I going to do, right? So that was part one. And then part two is I needed support. Like, as I said, I got my face coached off and it's really what helped me come into.

Speaker 1: 10:42

One of the reasons why I do what I do today is helping people work within the environment in situations that sometimes are absolutely untenable. But we still get to choose how we want to work within an environment and other times our brains being a total jerk and we have to question and like is this true? You know, a friend of mine always says it's like you're a toddler with a knife right, like your brain is sort of doing it to yourself. Like is this really true? And is this how I want to think about things, so that you know, just to sort of set the stage there. And then the other thing that I did in order to deal with the trauma being fired is I had to decide how were they right? Right, because I needed to free myself and not be the victim, because if I make them right now, I can acknowledge that okay. That's you know, we're in agreement and I now take my power back, because victims don't recover. If you stay in that victim mentality, you're not going to move on. So I had to find the way to free myself and this meant that when I was told that I didn't participate in after work activities with clients that would often be like drinking and shots and things like that, they're right I didn't participate, but I didn't tell them. Well, that's totally not true. Some people knew, some people didn't right.

Speaker 1: 12:02

When one of the leaders insisted on constantly having client meetings on her yacht and I couldn't go on her yacht and told her why, she was like I think you can. I think you're making this up Right. I haven't been on a boat in 18 years. That's not a car based ferry, cause I can't be on a boat. That type of rocking just doesn't like the impact is at the moment. It can be days or weeks after that. I'm still lost my motor skills because of the vestibular issue.

Speaker 1: 12:29

So I could make her the villain, or I can just say from what her unconscious understanding was and yes, she heard the words that I had a brain injury and a vestibular impairment, but she didn't really know. So I wasn't participating, I wasn't able to. And you know, I think it's funny because I remember she said to me that I was strategic, successful and fabulous, but today is going to be my last day and I was like you don't want people who are strategic and successful and fabulous on your team and she was like we're done. And then she left and I was like okay, right. So that was like really like wow, and like again, again. Do I want to be in a position in which I'm a victim or do I want to say okay, how am I going to approach this? How am I going to think about this differently?

Speaker 2: 13:17

wow, good for you. I mean that's, that's huge. Because I mean, okay, I get what you're saying and that was incredible awareness that you had about being the victim or a villain, or you know, do you want to let somebody else take your power from you or do you want to stand in that power? But even from her perspective, like she can't see it, because looking at you, you look great, right, nobody would ever know that there was anything wrong with you. So that's that's a. That's in itself is difficult, right, because they can't see it. Only you are experiencing it. Yeah, wow, wow, that was that's a, and good for you for overcoming that and recognizing, like, how do you? What's the go forward?

Speaker 1: 14:00

Because the go forward was there's no more shame, there's no more hiding. Like I was probably a heat seeking missile of resentment because I kept wanting to be back pre-injury and that is not a possibility because I literally broke stuff within my ear canals right. Like I can't fix that and constantly saying to myself okay, I'm going to believe in myself and I know what I'm really good at and, knowing my own strengths and how am I going to lean into that? And that's really where I started to get my joy back. Like it can be true that I can't go on a yacht and I can't therefore enjoy the camaraderie and the bonding and the collaboration between the company and clients, and that's true. But it doesn't mean that everything then, like we go to all or nothing, thinking and really teaching myself that like this is one moment in time and in a couple of years from now, it's not going to matter.

Speaker 2: 14:54

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:54

Maybe in a week from now, it's not going to matter?

Speaker 2: 14:57

Yeah, no, exactly, Exactly. That's wonderful, and and so, to your point though, the mind is very powerful, right? So? So how did you develop those mindset practices that you know help you to deal with your disability, and how people started to see you, but your career and just your overall life?

Speaker 1: 15:16

Yeah, yeah, great question. So I devoured everything that I could like that came into my vision, meaning so my insatiable curiosity, reading about other successful people and then also other people who had challenges, whether visible or invisible, and starting to put together the threads of what you know. The circumstances are all different, but starting to put through some of the threads in which I was taking away and a lot maybe it came down to that your thought, your thought, becomes your reality, and a lot maybe it came down to that your thought, your thought, becomes your reality. So I joke with my clients all the time and say be ridiculous, be outrageous, because it becomes your reality. Right, I can live in my reality and so, just to take that from like sort of the esoteric into the real, I can open social media first thing in the morning, and now that becomes my reality. So, whatever tension or whatever is going on in everybody else's mindset, now I've decided to borrow and now I'm in that, or I can choose to not do that, right, and therefore I have another reality. I mean, it's something as simple as that is being really clear in what I'm putting in my body, whether it's mental or physical, and that went to like the content that I consume, and you know I made my career as a content creator, so I was a ferocious consumer of content. So what's the content I'm putting in my body? How am I thinking about this Really, starting every day with a prayer and meditation practice, this really starting every day with a prayer and meditation practice?

Speaker 1: 16:51

I then also do possibility work. I really think about what's possible for today and then I go to the experience of if the possibility is realized, it is the day after the possibility what like? Like, as I say, you know, like New Year's Eve is coming. There's nothing you need to do to make New Year's Eve come. You just get to decide Are you celebrating, are you dressing, are you going out, are you coming in?

Speaker 1: 17:12

That's the way I think about possibility. This thing is possible. I will get past this. So how do I want to do it? In the meantime, and I let that feeling, I use feelings as fuel, I let that rev up in my body and then, since my thoughts become things if I'm taking action from joy and inspiration and determination and focus, guess what I'm going to create Versus if I'm taking action from fear and graspy and urgency and like I have to get out of this position. Guess what I'm going to create and that's really what this journey has been is understanding that like this is a billion dollar machine, and I'm going to protect it as much as possible.

Speaker 2: 17:55

Wow, you said so many things there. Wow, I first of all. We're cut from the same cord, okay.

Speaker 1: 18:02

I'll just tell you that I'm the same.

Speaker 2: 18:04

It's like if you believe it, you'll achieve it Right. I'm the same. It's like if you believe it, you'll achieve it Right, and it's that knowing it fully in your soul that the possibility is there. So I love that what I both coach on this. So often people struggle to see that possibility. What are, what are maybe two things that you do for yourself to really help that, help someone move from that place of impossible to possible?

Speaker 1: 18:45

Yeah, that is a really great question and very needed. I try to find the neutralized thought. Like I always say, I can't take you from first to fifth gear, I'll blow the clutch. I have to pass you through neutral. So if you're in a place where oh my God, this is what's happened, at a place that's like, oh my God, this is never going to happen, what's the thought in between? Or maybe there's a few thoughts in between, this idea of like, all right, it's possible, it could happen. I'm willing to believe it's possible. I'm open to seeing that it's possible. Right, and you just start like wiggling off the two thoughts a little bit and finding something in the center is one of the things that I use regularly. And then also, if anyone's familiar with Byron Katie's work I love her questions, is it true?

Speaker 2: 19:37

Yeah, I do too Can.

Speaker 1: 19:38

I prove it true and usually by the time I say, can I prove it? It's done because you it feels true, you can't prove it yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:49

Yeah, awesome, that's great. Yeah, I love her work. It's beautiful. The other one you made me think about when you were speaking there, and I don't know if you've read this yet, but Dr Joe Dispenza's Supernatural, have you? Yes?

Speaker 1: 20:02

Yeah, it's been a while but it's come up a few times, so it means I need to refresh that reading that book again.

Speaker 2: 20:08

Yeah, it's like so powerful because it's really what you know. It sounds like what you're embodying it's what I'm embodying as well about you know the possibility and shifting that energy from a place of can't to can and really believing what's possible. But great book, I love that one Awesome. What's possible, but great book I love that one Awesome. So what do you feel like have been maybe the most important lessons in your life? You know, you bet you were this you know amazing career person, had this awesome you know work that you were doing, and then now you have this invisible disability. What have you learned?

Speaker 1: 20:48

through that? Yeah, that is a great question. I think the first thing I would say that I've learned is like there are no geographical solutions. So I think it's gonna be better when I get there, or if we think, if I, you know what, maybe I should just move to a different city, or what I hear a lot. Um, you know, talking with a client yesterday who was saying like I just feel if I could get the new job, if I get the new job, I'll get like my motivation back and I'll feel better. And it's like you know, it doesn't work that way. I mean, jon Kabat-Zinn wrote the book wherever you are there, you are right, like it's you're bringing yourself with you.

Speaker 1: 21:28

So the biggest thing for me has always been like I got to clean this up first. And again, if you are in a situation where it's threatening or abusive, we're not talking about that, but we're talking about thinking within the general malaise of work and life and career, when we want so urgently to do something, there are no geographical solutions and really find a way to clean that up. And the second thing that I've learned is that if I'm coming from urgency and I'm not running from a burning building, then it's fear, talking, so really checking myself and being like, is this really urgent? Do I have to really send this email right now? Do I have to get this done right now, or is there some fear behind that? And then just again becoming the examiner of my thinking and like what is really going on here, and then I think some level of acceptance, like self is going to happen and like why not me Right?

Speaker 1: 22:33

Like you know, I would say the first two or so years post the injury, there was a lot of why me? Because I'm a young woman living in New York city who now can't go out to bars and not be impacted Like I would go out, but then I'd be the weird girl in the corner literally holding the bar because of the lighting, the music, the noise. I'm in like a vestibular nightmare and I'm trying to hold on. I'm like, oh sure, I look dateable, like, oh, let me get her number Right.

Speaker 1: 23:00

So so just having like a level of compassion for myself, like I, I did the best I could at that time and then I was just like I can't. If you know, if it's in me, it's for me, it's going to happen. It just may not be right now. So, understanding that level of compassion and like it, there has to be a level of acceptance like this. There's going to be a new normal and you know I've said this before but my brain injury was the greatest gift I could have ever. Like I didn't ask for it, but it was the greatest gift I ever got because of so many gifts that have come from it and a level of awareness that would not have been there had I not had it.

Speaker 2: 23:39

Yeah, Beautiful, beautiful. I think that's that's such an important aspect, right, because it opened your mind up to so many other things and because you're tenacious, you've got to find, like, how do I not survive, but how do I thrive? I mean, this has happened, like I'm living with this now, so what do I do with it? Because that becomes the choice, right, you can become-.

Speaker 1: 24:06

And if today is a day where you're only surviving, that's okay, because it's not permanent. Nothing is permanent, so it will shift at some point.

Speaker 2: 24:16

Nice, nice, I love it. So how do you feel, or what have you done really to create that balance between the work and life and being able to live with your injury so that you can thrive and survive?

Speaker 1: 24:33

Yeah Well, I call it my three C's right, which is clarity, certainty and confidence.

Speaker 1: 24:41

So the first is like I have to get real clarity on what are my non-negotiables, what are the yeses, the nos and the maybes. Like you need a criteria for your maybe and that's everything. From you know, for so many years I would give what I viewed as my best to what I did from Monday through Friday at work, and then by Friday I would basically spend half the weekend in bed because I'd be so exhausted or, you know, cognitively and vestibularly messed up so that the people that I care about and the people I love aren't getting me. So I had to be really clear of like it's a bit of tough mentality of time management, but also like, okay, I choose to do this work for a living and there is going to need to be some level of like going out and socializing, but it's one night this week, that's it. So what am I? How am I doing? How am I looking at things? How am I carving out that you know I'm no longer doing the call at 5 am with Dubai in the office?

Speaker 2: 25:50

Yeah, no kidding.

Speaker 1: 25:52

Right. So sure, that's a requirement of the job and that's OK because I get to work with other other people across the world and learn great things about their culture and their way of doing business. But you know, maybe I can do it with the screen off in my you know, my jams and, like you know, do it later. So I think what's so funny is we at least speaking for myself. We tell ourselves stories that I have to be in the office dressed and ready to do that kind of thing where you really don't like you're showing up and you're doing the job. So again, it's like it's getting that level of clarity. I could do that call and then I can do yoga, and then I can get in the shower and if I come in an hour or two later, I've already been working like it's, you know, but there's never been a time in my life where someone's been like Griffin, where were you? But we tell ourselves these stories that we have to do things a certain way. So that type of clarity has been really helpful. And then the second thing is like the thoughts it really comes back to how do I want to train my brain to create the results that I want. So getting really certain in the thoughts that I want to be practicing regularly, the thoughts that I believe already and affirming them. And when I don't have something like we just said, like how do I find like a neutralization or how do I wiggle off that? Or how do I go get coached? I mean, I have plenty of friends who have coached. I have my own coach, like you know. For some people it might be therapy, depending on what they're working through. Some people it might be therapy, depending on what they're working through. Some people it might be coaching. But it's so much better to not do this alone. So go get the help right. Like the, the impact of having a coach now, probably for 20 years in some capacity different coaches, different groups, different times.

Speaker 1: 27:39

Like that level of getting certain that you're able to shape your own thoughts and you're not outsourcing your thinking to everybody else and being like well, what do you think? What do you think, what do you think? And then all of a sudden it's like your thought goes to the highest bidder. It's like sure, check with a few people that are trusted confidants. But then what do I think? How do I want to go about this?

Speaker 1: 27:59

And then the last thing is like within confidence is that so often we're so afraid to experience a crummy emotion and emotion sometimes really are just like it's just a neurochemical, it's just pulsating through my body. I can get through this. It sucks, I don't want to feel this way right now, but if I allow myself to feel it, I'm going to get through the other side, which means I can create confidence because I know that I can experience anything and even if it's uncomfortable or like I don't want this experience, I know I can get through it. Because if I don't, what I've seen, both in some of my own behaviors over the years and then what I see in clients it leads to this like overconsumption. So we're either we don't want to feel it, so we overwork, we over social media, we're binging on Netflix, food, alcohol, recreational drugs because we just don't want to feel that thing and it's like you just keep letting yourself process it Eventually.

Speaker 1: 28:57

The way the brain works, it goes. Yeah, this sucks and I don't want this, but I know how to get through it, going back to where it creates confidence. So those are the things that I've done and again I sort of bucketed them for myself into that sort of 3C. So I remember when I'm in the moment where my brain is being the toddler with the knife and like the jerk okay, what's happening right now? Oh well, jill, you haven't eaten well, you didn't exercise and you haven't done thought work in two days because it's the weekend, no wonder you're off. Maybe you should do investigating what's floating around up there and start there before you decide any major decisions or what you're trying to do.

Speaker 2: 29:36

Yeah, that's awesome, and that's again goes back to such great awareness that you know you've been able to harness, to have such good impact on you, and it is okay to feel those emotions and that's what they are right, but they can also be the signals that we need to wake us up, right. So I want to thank you all again for being here. Happy New Year, love to hear what your intentions are and, jill, please stay in touch with us and we'll see you again very soon.

Speaker 1: 30:07

Hey everyone, thanks for listening. Look, before I wrap, I wanted to tell you about a new program that I'm launching in February of 2022. It is a group career coaching program, and I'm telling you this because it's going to help you get clarity on your next career moves. It's going to help you tell your unique career story or know how to fill in some of those gaps and blanks in your resume. It'll help you like leverage your strengths and your natural talent and thinking about how to achieve goals and perform at a higher level to up-level your executive presence and your overall productivity.

Speaker 1: 30:42

And if you're looking for support in this area, I'm going to put that link to get on the list for more information in the show notes, and I'd love to have you join the program. All right, friends, have a great week and I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Career Refresh podcast. If you're enjoying this podcast and you want more career and mindset tips, get on my email list by going to jillgriffincoachingcom. I'll also put that link in the show notes, but before you go, please rate and review this podcast, as it helps me get the word out to people everywhere so they can also thrive in the workplace. I'll see you next time.