Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside her collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because, honestly, girl, you were never meant

Jill: to do this alone. Not only is it possible to live within something that you don't wanna live within, but it's also possible to work your mindset in a way that it's like, yeah. There are days where this sucks. There are days where I'm, like, so excited for something, and I wake up, and it ain't it ain't going my way. And I'm like, dang it.

Jill: I really wanted to do this thing today. I really wanted to participate. So I'm not saying that there isn't times where I'm like, this sucks. Or I can go, okay. It's just not for today, but there's tomorrow.

Jill: And that's basically the mindset work that I do all the time.

Erica: Hey, y'all. Today's guest, executive coach Jill Griffin, is a fellow podcasting friend. She hosts the most amazing podcast called the Career Refresh.

Erica: She's an executive coach, a career strategist, and an invisible disabilities advocate. And today, she's coming to us with her own inspiring sticky floor story. So, Jill, welcome. It's so good to see you again.

Jill: It is so good to be here, Erica. I love that we're doing this again.

Erica: Oh, I just love having, like, repeat conversations with people because we just get to dive in deep and learn so much more. But for my listeners that have not tuned into your podcast yet, I would love for you to tell us a little bit about who is Jill, how did you, you know, come to be, and anything you wanna share about yourself.

Jill: Awesome. Thank you. So as you said, today, I'm an executive coach. I'm an invisible disability strategist. But I started my career, in the media and marketing world of New York City, working in some of the top agencies, top media companies, top brands of the world.

Jill: And, pretty early on in my career, I went on a trip to Australia by myself, and I had a head injury. Mhmm. So the way that ended up playing out is if anyone's ever had a traumatic brain injury or a concussion is that a lot of times that they're insidious so that, you know, the impact takes a little while to totally set in. So for me, it took some time, and it was also really hard to actually diagnose because we're going back, you know, twenty years now. So really watching where I had this enormous career trajectory, but then all of a sudden starting to notice that, like, I was having problems where I couldn't really cognitively function or I was forgetting things or I was having a lot of balance issues, really hard to, like, read computer screens and do a lot of things.

Jill: And then, by the way, working in media, you know, there's, like, nonstop video playing near you. There's nonstop lights and flashing and, you know, experiences, and all of that was really affecting me. So lot of my journey has been, how to really work through that but still excel. And we can get into some of the nuances of my own experience. But what I do today based on that is my mission is to improve life in the workplace.

Jill: So whether I'm working with individuals, whether I'm working with teams, whether I'm working with large organizations, is, like, going in and helping people increase their performance for whatever the performance is that they wanna do individually or as

Erica: a team

Jill: while maintaining their well-being. Because if we don't have our health, we have nothing. Right? Doesn't it doesn't matter how much money we have if we don't have our health.

Erica: I love that. My very first boss always used to say your health is your wealth, and that's wasted on the young. Right? The young and healthy because they don't appreciate it. And the older you get and just small things like aches and pains, you're like, god.

Erica: Okay. So this is what that is.

Jill: This is new.

Erica: Well, kinda brain injuries are so scary because, like you said, you don't always see the impact right away, but we hear these horrific stories. So that is a piece of your sticky floor story.

Jill: Do you wanna launch in and tell us about that? Yeah. So, basically, what happened was after I fell, I was making my way back to The States a couple of days later. So I just went back to the hotel room. Knew I was concussed from, like, sort of the medic on the hiking team, but I didn't have any actual professional treatment or medical treatment.

Jill: A lot of that, is also because I wasn't thinking clearly, and I was by myself. So I didn't have an advocate. I had to be my own advocate, and I wasn't thinking clearly. Would if I had gotten treatment there in Australia, would things have been different? What I know today is no because of the nature of my injury.

Jill: I did not have, a hematoma. I didn't have a blood clot. If that was not my reality, we know from, recent celebrities, we've heard from recent, you know, stories in which people have had head injuries and then, tragically, you know, pass away within twenty four or forty eight hours. That was not my situation. Mine was just what ultimately ended up being a vestibular mess.

Jill: So I've shattered what it what took me eleven years to figure out was that I shattered my superior canals, which puts me in a chronic state of imbalance and a, a vestibular issue all the time. But we didn't know what that was because in the when when it first happened back in 2002, we didn't there wasn't testing. There wasn't knowledge. There wasn't any it was my tenacity to keep searching and looking because a lot of what I was told was that, like, it was in my head when it wasn't. And we also know today that brain injuries, again, whether they're on the severity side or even a concussion, cause things like depression, anger, outburst, in instability of mood.

Jill: But, again, I was being told that it was in my head, which was just actually making me angry and angrier. And what I mean by that is motivational anger where I knew it wasn't in my head. I knew something was wrong, so I just kept searching. I also you know, I don't blame those early doctors. They were doing the best they could with the information they had in a system that you know, where both in The United States, our health system in some ways is amazing, and but the structure of our health system also needs a lot of work.

Jill: So they were also doing what they could within the resources that they had. So part of my journey was also to really do a lot of forgiveness work. And the first person I had to forgive was myself because I had to forgive myself for falling, and then I had to forgive myself for not figuring it out right away. Right? And then forgive the various people that I, in the early days, thought that maybe should have been able to help me, but they couldn't.

Jill: Right? I mean, you can't you can't look into my head and see what I did without killing me. Right? Fair. It's just isn't the reality of it.

Jill: Right? And, you know, again, for anyone that's listening, you're talking twenty years of mindset work. Right? I didn't have this attitude on year one. I was definitely more victim y, like, help.

Jill: Someone's gotta fix me. We gotta figure this out. You know, it's definitely different. And as part of my story goes, I also do not believe that this would happen today in 2003. But as the story goes, my first first the job that I was working in at the time, when I disclosed to the leadership that I had some challenges and I couldn't do certain things, and by certain things, I mean, you know, entertain clients on the company boat.

Jill: It was not a company yacht, president's yacht. Right? I couldn't do certain things because of a vestibular issue. They thought I was kinda making it up and just not wanting to be a team player, and I was subsequently fired because I was told that, they believe that I could go on the boat. It was one individual who said, I believe you can, and I think you're making this up and you're exaggerating this.

Jill: And I should lighten up, have a drink Okay. And be with the team. Thanks.

Erica: If only that solved all my problems. Right?

Jill: It it was just that easy. Right? Oh, thank goodness for you. I wish I had thought that about myself. So I just decided in that moment that it wasn't safe to tell anyone because I needed my job to keep my health insurance to get well, and I was no longer gonna tell anyone.

Erica: Mhmm.

Jill: So that lasted seven years, and that sounds very long and equally very short. And when you're working in an environment in which you're having like, I have to imagine a lot of my colleagues probably thought I was weird because they didn't know what was wrong with me, and I wouldn't tell them. And then at times when I did tell them you know, one of the things when you have an invisible disability and there is about a 100 or so invisible disabilities recognized by the Americans with Disabilities Act, and that's anything from a migraine to cancer to any, digestive or irritable bowel issues. Right? All things that you cannot say.

Jill: And what it also taught me is that if I walk into a room, my disability doesn't walk in with me. You don't see it. Right? So if I'm walking into a company and I don't see anybody visually disabled, My god. For me to come out and tell you I have a problem.

Jill: So you're in situations where you're like, oh, gosh. And what I had to work through and today, I wholly embrace this. One of the things I talk about regularly is I have a disability. I am only disabled when you don't meet my accommodations. And here's the rub.

Jill: You don't have to. Legally, an organization, depending on the size, yes, has to. So a lot of my work is understanding also that within the lens of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, let us remember that inclusion is the part around disability, disabled developmentally, physically, invisible, all all aspects of disability. And it's often forgotten. And I've come to my work today through the lens of everybody's got something.

Jill: Everybody has got something they're gonna need to work through, whether it's mental, whether it's physical. And that type of challenge is the kind of challenge that I get really excited about because this work I look upon as a ministry and really helping people through those various mental challenges. Even if it's a physical challenge, there most likely is a mental challenge around it because it's like, how do I work through this physical challenge, and really helping people elevate within their career. Some of those challenges may also be addiction and recovery. I have a lot of clientele who've come to me, in that they are now in recovery, but the tool of whatever the substance that they were using, they no longer are using, and now they need to figure out how to still succeed within their careers without using that.

Jill: Right? And, again, really helping people create the lives that they want, creating well-being in the well workplace, and really making sure that, you know, whether it's one person or one organization at the time that we create healthier workplaces for people to work and survive and thrive. Yeah. So how

Erica: did you move past this fear? You know? Because you said you decided not to disclose this to anybody for seven years. And I can understand so many people, and I've worked with people too, who have the fear of disclosure. Right?

Erica: If I say that I have this, if I talk about my disability, I will be judged. Right? I will be looked at differently. I'll be treated differently. I won't get the job.

Erica: So how did you overcome this fear?

Jill: The fear of telling people?

Erica: Yeah. And talking about it. And

Jill: So I wish I had a beautiful story to tell you that I found a way to overcome it. The way I overcame it was my success. So I got to a point where I was making so many brands, clients, companies, and individuals so many millions of dollars that you would be a complete idiot to fire me and that I have I mean, you know, you're looking at me. There's an array of trophies over my shoulder. Right?

Jill: That I have enough personal success with my name on it and enough internal credibility that people know, oh, Jill's the one who ran that program for x y z Fortune 100 client that y'all be an idiot, and I'm a tax break.

Erica: Look at that added benefit.

Jill: Yeah. So, again, I wish I could tell you. I think, again, the person I am today as, I was an adult then, but I was a very young adult. Right? The person I am today, there's no way that I would show up in the same way.

Jill: I would be clear that these are the nonnegotiables, and I'd love to be part of this team and do this work, but this is what I'm gonna need. And when we're talking about, just so we're clear, in my particular case, the things that I needed, I needed a laptop screen or a computer monitor that didn't have a moire effect, which is when a lot of times more monitors age, they tend to vibrate, and they have that, like, wavy line. What does a monitor cost? 50 or a $100? You go down if if it's even that much today.

Jill: Right? So have a couple of extra monitors, you know, in the in the data closet so that when things like that happen, we're able to get that. When there's a flickering fluorescent light over my workstation, when I say, hey. Can we get that fixed? I'm not joking.

Jill: I'm going to have a seizure. Right? When I ask to have my workstation moved away from movement because from my cube, I can see the elevator bank or I can see the stairwell and having people constantly move past me all day long. When I stand up, I represent as drunk. Now I have a reputational risk because people think I'm drinking on the job.

Jill: Mhmm. So, again, my accommodations were so minor. But each time I ask, I have experiences in which people were like, oh, alright. Yeah. We'll get someone on it.

Jill: Or, you know, we don't really have the budget for a new laptop screen or, you know, new laptop, so you're just gonna have to wait. So when you have microaggression after microaggression after microaggression, you're just like, okay. This is not a supportive atmosphere. This is also, by the way, just so we're clear, not at one company. This is not like this was one company where I'd be an anomaly if I kept saying, no.

Jill: No. No. This is this was just called life in New York City if you were working in a high pressure, high risk, high reward type environment. And, you know, again, the idea of an invisible disability, you know, when it's not visual, I you you tend to neither anticipate nor receive public compassion. And as a result of that, you're constantly just figuring out how to navigate your own needs and survive.

Jill: So like I said, I got to a level of success where I kind of just could like, I had no BS anymore. Like, I have no bandwidth for continuing this. And I remember the first time I spoke up was a colleague was, expressing himself by pounding the conference room table. Now I hear through bone. So each pound literally is like you've just blasted, you know, a a bullhorn in my ear because it's so loud for me.

Jill: And I just had to say, I'm gonna ask you to stop pounding on the table. Meaning, I didn't say, hey. Would you mind? I just said, I'm gonna ask you to stop pounding on the table. And I said it clearly at that moment in a way in which it got his attention.

Jill: And he said, oh, oh, sorry. Right? No big deal. Carried on with the meeting. Now I'm like, oh, I spoke up.

Jill: Nobody died. Nobody freaked out. I'm not in the penalty box. So suddenly, my energy has shifted where this is a nonnegotiable. If you wanna talk to me, you're gonna have to stop.

Jill: You could choose not to stop, and I can choose to walk away. But now I've made it clear what my accommodations are. And this just started little by little. And what I did find in this experience is that once you start opening up and telling people, for the most part, you got a couple of people who kind of like, so what do you want me to do with this information? But for the most part, people are like, oh gosh.

Jill: I'm sorry. What can I do to help? So asking people like, hey. When we go into that multimedia event later, would you mind when the lights get killed that I just kinda grab your bicep? Is that okay?

Jill: Are you okay if I touch you in that? Because when the lights go down, I'm gonna lose my balance. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Jill: What can I do? What can I do? I just have to prepare. I just have to find an ally. And once you start finding allies is really where, I was able to change my reality.

Jill: We know from the US Social Security Administration that if you are age 20, you have a one in four chance of being temporarily or permanently disabled by the time you retire. So if that's the case, where are you disclosing on the job? If it's obvious because you have a broken leg and you're coming into the office, we're gonna know that there's an issue and that you need accommodations. But what I know to be true is that so often, we don't fund our internal growth in HR departments so that they are not trained. They don't have the language.

Jill: They don't know how to like, they don't they don't even prepare to treat it or to help someone with it if I wanted to disclose. So disclosure, which is where I'll round this out, is disclosure is a personal choice. I am not here to tell you that you must disclose. I am here for you to find a mentor, a coach, a therapist, a rabbi, whatever works for you to figure out if disclosure is the right path for you because there are absolutely benefits for me not to disclose. By me not disclosing, I didn't have opportunity to take away from me.

Jill: Oh, because I could be a liability. Right? That's my choice. So decide if if you want to disclose.

Erica: Hey there, listeners. If you have ever felt like you're stuck in a place, held back by self doubt, perfectionism, or that pesky inner critic, you're not alone. We all face those sticky floors that keep us from reaching the heights we dream of. But guess what? It's time to shatter those limiting beliefs and toxic behaviors to uncover infinite possibilities.

Erica: My book, Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors, is your ultimate guide to smashing through barriers, overcoming limiting beliefs, and stepping into your full potential. This book has been endorsed by none other than the great Mel Robbins, best selling author and motivational powerhouse. It's also been featured in Success Magazine, so you know it's packed with insights that work. Inside, you'll find real life sticky floor stories, practical strategies to help you navigate your own sticky floor moments, and a whole lot of inspiration to keep you climbing. This isn't just a book.

Erica: It's your roadmap to success, confidence, and freedom. Grab your copy of Glass Ceilings and Sticky Floors today at www.ericaandersonrooney.com. Whether you're in the boardroom, the classroom, or just starting out, this book is for you because no one, and I mean no one, deserves to stay stuck, no one deserves to feel small, and you have glass ceilings to shatter. Let's do this.

Erica: And what I think is important about your story is, you know, you said there there is no, like, beautiful unicorn. It's about your success. But I think that it's so important because it's our responsibility as successful people in these roles to then do exactly what you're doing, which is magnify it, make it visible, talk about it because so many people have a fear too, not just of the disclosure. But let's say everybody feels great about disclosing. It's also then that on the other side, people, they wanna do the right thing, but they don't know what to do.

Erica: They don't know what to say. They don't know how to respond. So as a reaction, they just don't say anything at all, which doesn't help the situation.

Jill: And I think it's, I'm gonna make the parallel to the much needed racism discussions that we needed to have and ageism. We need allies, and we need grace. We're going to mess up. We're not gonna get it right. We're gonna say things wrong.

Jill: You're gonna use, disability first versus people first language. Someone inevitably is going to be maybe off or put off or insulted by that. I just think we all have to understand that we it's long overdue, understood, but at least it's starting to be addressed, and we have to give each other grace. It's just it's really, really simple.

Erica: Yeah. I think the fear for people who are living with invisible disabilities is absolutely real and valid because so many people have judgment, have bias they don't realize. Right?

Jill: Oh, yeah.

Erica: Like, you touched on it earlier, addiction and alcoholism is a disability. Yeah. Especially when COVID hit and alcohol consumption went through the roof, so many people and there were, you know, TikToks and memes about people drinking vodka out of their coffee cups at 08:00 in the morning and All day. Yep. All day long.

Erica: But the truth of the matter is that was truly happening. Yeah. Like, that was really happening, but so many people don't even know that could be considered a disability. Right. And then even if they do know that it is a disability, the stigma behind it Sure.

Erica: Is just paralyzing for people.

Jill: Completely paraly it's completely paralyzing. And, again, it doesn't necessarily matter, as you said, what the disability is, but have to understand that So if I tell you what I have, I now have to listen to your unsolicited advice as to how to handle it as if you would want.

Erica: Ugh. I know. Like, that's the worst. No. You should

Jill: just really do this, and you're just like, oh, okay. Smile. Be graceful. It's just, again, having grace and compassion for all involved that, like, you know, whoever has to be a

Erica: part of. Like, a just a people

Jill: thing. You know? Right. Right.

Erica: People thing. Not an employer thing, not an employee thing, but just a people thing. Right.

Jill: And like I said, I also I know I personally feared that you would make decisions for me, which is often what is done. Decisions are often made. I mean, I was just speaking with a client recently, who is in recovery for cancer, and there she was also a top performing employee. And there was an employee, like, reward trip based on her performance. And she found out after that her name was taken off the list because they just assumed she wouldn't wanna travel.

Erica: Yeah. It wasn't their decision to make.

Jill: Their decision to not tell her. So finding out after the trip had happened that she would have been included, she's pretty devastated by that. Well, and I've seen that play out in other realms.

Erica: She's Pregnancy? She's probably not gonna wanna be away from her kids.

Jill: I was gonna say pregnancy and parenting.

Erica: Yep. And I started a new job when I was about eight months pregnant one time. Wow. I was terrified. I had interviewed probably when I was,

Jill: gosh, probably right when I

Erica: had was pregnant, but I didn't know yet. It was a very long process. It went on hold, and then they finally, like, called me in for another interview. And I was small enough that I could hide it. But by the time I started, I was not small enough to hide it.

Erica: And I yeah. I had to wrestle with, like, how do I do this? How do I navigate this? Because I am going to show up at work visibly very frightening. And I at the end of the day, I decided after everything was signed and dotted on and I passed all my backgrounds in drug tests, I sent my employer an email and I said, super excited about starting, but, you know, just wanted to let you know if I walk in with a bump leading, like Yeah.

Jill: Yeah.

Erica: Surprise. I'm almost I'm also eight months pregnant. Right. Right. But that fear that I wasn't going to get the job, that they were gonna pass on me or put it off because I was pregnant, even though I'm an HR professional, I know they can't legally do it.

Erica: Mhmm. But it's also very hard to prove that you didn't hire me because I was pregnant.

Jill: If forty two million Americans are diagnosed with a severe disability, ninety six percent of those are invisible. Let me lay you a little bit little little additional on that. There's a workplace advisory group called Coqual, and they found that out of the thirty percent of what they determine white collar employees of the thirty percent of white collar employees that are disabled, sixty two percent of those are considered invisible with things like PTSD, cancer, lupus, Crohn's, vestibular disorders. So here's what I would say for anyone listening. You know someone with an invisible disability.

Jill: Like, it's a pretty good chance that you know someone with an invisible disability that's trying to figure out how to show up and do it on a regular basis and has challenges.

Erica: Oh, I love it. Well, I think you're doing amazing work just bringing so much attention and really laying out the facts. Like, I had zero idea that of the forty two million with a disability, the ninety six percent are invisible. I had absolutely no amazing. Pretty amazing.

Erica: Right? Yeah. It is extremely amazing. It just goes to show you that it can happen anywhere all the time and in so many forms that you're not even aware about. You know?

Erica: Like, some of these disabilities that we're talking about today, I guarantee you some of my listeners are like, that's a disability? Like, that qualifies? Yeah. So that educational piece is so important.

Jill: I didn't consider mine a disability until I ended up seeing a series of doctors because, you know, I'm tenacious. And when I was at Johns Hopkins down in Baltimore, it was the first time it was referred to as an I was like, wait. What? And the doctor looked at me and he kinda laughed, and he's like, you didn't realize what you have is a disability? And I was like, no.

Jill: I just kind of go suck it up and figure it out. And he's like,

Erica: oh my god. So earlier in the recording, you mentioned that you have to work through the process of forgiveness and forgiving yourself. Talk to me about that.

Jill: Yeah. That was a lot. The the process of forgiveness of, like, like I said, first was I can't put it back together. Right? Humpty Dumpty broke something.

Jill: I cannot put this back together. Second was, like, realizing that I nothing would have changed if I had gotten medical treatment in the rainforest. Right? So I had to do that forgiveness mark. Then I had to forgive all the doctors, experts, allied health professionals that didn't believe me, that judged me, and ghosted me.

Jill: I can't even tell you how many times I'd be ghosted because they didn't know how to help. And they were like, I don't know what to do. Cancel her appointment. Right? So that would happen a lot.

Jill: So, really, just like I said, like, understanding that people were doing the best they can, and I had to just believe that they were, like, in fear or didn't know what to do. And I don't know is not a lesson taught in medical school. Like, they're taught to know. So when something is, like, mysterious or invisible, right, how could they possibly know every ailment that is going to show up in life. Right?

Jill: So I had to find the grace for them. And then I just when I had a particular doctor whose, we'll just say bedside manner was not that great and said that, I was eventually gonna get worse and that I need to avoid planes and trains and automobiles. I live on the Island Of Manhattan, so I need a boat or a train to get off the Island Of Manhattan. And he was like, no. You really need to stay bedridden.

Jill: And I just, I was just done. I was like, I'm done. And my mom had come with me to that particular appointment, and she was very much like, Jill, the doctor is still talking. And I was like, well, then I'll meet you we'll meet you in the lobby because I'm done. And I look at the doctor, and I remember saying to him, you are not my god, and you are not gonna tell me how my life is gonna pay out play out.

Jill: And I was so mad. And then I just was like, you know what? Like, looking back, he also inspired me. Like, I was like, I'm gonna prove you wrong. You are not gonna tell me how my life is gonna go.

Jill: So really understanding that no one can fix this but me. So being, like, the little overachiever that I am, spent nights and weekends going to school, becoming a functional, medicine nutritionist, understanding the brain, learning everything I could about brain health. I started isolating and tracking my symptoms. I started to notice where there are certain things that I ate that created symptoms that were worse. I tracked everything that went into my mouth.

Jill: I graded every single day in a notebook on a on my own scale of one to 10 and really understanding the impact of anatomy, physiology, and food. And by food, I mean everything from, like, the food I put in my mouth to the lighting to the toxic mold on the right everything. And it was just because I had to keep on turning over on turning stones until I figured out what my particular thing was. And it was during that time where I really learned about positive psychology and cognitive behavioral therapy because, again, I was studying the brain from a brain medical standpoint, but I learned the psychological standpoint. And it's just that idea that, like, the impact of our thoughts on our brain and understanding that we can look at, like what I personally did was look at images of healthy skulls, brains, and ear canals every single day.

Jill: This gets me very emotional. Every single day, I mentally traced them and just breathed. I was like, okay. I just gave it some light. I was like, we're gonna heal you up and, like, pretended that I was, like, sealing up cracks in the walls, and I would just look because I knew from my own images exactly where the cracks were.

Jill: And I just kept focusing on healthy ear canals, healthy vestibular system, and all of that. And, you know, it's also funny because continuing with the secret is like I, of course, I didn't tell anybody that I was doing this. So I would, like, work in media during the day and then would spend nights and weekends in school. So, you know, how to me that ties into forgiveness is, yes, I had to do the actual mental work, but then I had to get to a place of action and empowerment. And then I could free myself.

Jill: Right? Because victims don't recover. If I'm in a victim mindset, like, no. I can help me. No.

Jill: You know? I'm not gonna move forward versus acceptance of, like, this is where I am. Like I said, I can't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. There are things like, I still live on an island, and I used to be on boats all the time. That's not in my future.

Jill: Like, that's not for me anymore. Right? So there are certain things that I have to I used to sing professionally. I can't be in an environment with the intensity of music that close with the, you know, the sound piece in your ear. Like, it's too intense for me.

Jill: So there are things that I had to mourn. Right? But we grieve because we love. Again, you're meeting me today years later after doing the work, and I think I just look at it as, like, it's a testament to anything's possible. Not only is it possible to live within something that you don't wanna live within, but it's also possible to work your mindset in a way that it's like, yeah.

Jill: There are days where this sucks. There are days where I'm, like, so excited for something, and I wake up, and it ain't going my way. And I'm like, dang it. I really wanted to do this thing today. I really wanted to participate.

Jill: So I'm not saying that there isn't times where I'm like, this sucks. I'm just saying that I could then sit in the place of my dirty diaper like that neurologist told me that it's all over. Lay down. That's it. Read a book.

Jill: You're done. Or I can go, okay. It's just not for today, but there's tomorrow. And that's basically the mindset work that I do all the time.

Erica: Oh, I love it. That's so powerful. Thank you for sharing. Of course. So, Jill, one of my favorite questions to ask everyone is knowing everything that you know now, the mindset work that you do.

Erica: Right? Your your entire story, what advice would you give 2002, Jill?

Jill: Bring a friend if you're going to go all the way across the world and hike a mountain. Don't do it by yourself. That's tough.

Erica: That's fun.

Jill: Number two is, like, I don't have any regrets. I think not disclosing and having that experience, I don't think I would be an advocate today to help other people had I not had that really crummy experience. So I don't have any regrets that way. I think what I would what I would have done is get into action sooner. And I don't say that from a place of hustle.

Jill: I'm saying, like, everybody needs to mourn. Everybody needs to grieve at their own pace. No one can tell you what that pace is. Again, get a therapist, get a coach, get a rabbi, get a priest, get somebody who is going to help you through that process that's not related to you. Somebody who can truly be an independent third party and help you through the process that you need to go through based on whatever it is.

Jill: And, again, we're talking about medical conditions. Getting fired could be extremely traumatic too. Right? It doesn't matter what the obstacle is. It's finding someone to get you into action, and that action might be, you know, doing some thought work, doing some discovery work.

Jill: I also find for myself to go back, which I did develop this probably about midway, couple of years into my experience. But going back and saying finding a mantra or an empowerment statement. Right? Whatever the words that feel right for you, that is something that you can keep repeating. Maybe you tape it on your bathroom mirror or whatever it is.

Jill: And for me, it was, let me take the necessary actions today to be one step closer to healing. Because it made me know that I have to keep taking actions and also help me understand that I can't just snap my finger and fix this. But if he putting it out there mentally and being open to possibility, staying in belief, If if it's in you, it's for you. So whatever that thing is within your ability, staying in belief and staying tenacious. Right?

Jill: Again, for me, that was let me take the necessary actions today to be one step closer to healing. For someone listening, it might be, let me take the necessary actions today to be one step closer to my dream job. To the other person, it right. It doesn't matter what it is. But knowing that you're staying open to possibility and who's in front of you and not staying close minded, that person next to you could be someone who can introduce you.

Erica: Amazing. Well, Jill, where can people find you if they wanna work with you, if they want to know more about what you're doing? Where's the best place?

Jill: You can go to jillgriffincoaching.com. You can also check out the career refresh on all streaming platforms. Love it. Jill, thank you so much. Thank you.

Erica: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast. You will truly help it land in the hands of

Erica: a woman who needs to hear it most.

Erica: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time.