By: Matt Emma

The first years of a career often feel like a collision between ambition and uncertainty. You leave school convinced your potential will be enough, then discover that potential doesn’t always open doors. For Krystal Clark, founder of Moving with Meaning, that reality became the foundation of her life’s work: helping professionals navigate emotional and career challenges with clarity and resilience.

Clark’s practice focuses on aligning identity with impact. “I remember coming out of college thinking, ‘they’re going to want me, ’” she says, laughing. “Then I realized – no, they don’t. I didn’t have the internships or the experience. I just had Wendy’s, Best Buy, and a country club on my résumé. I had to learn how to make those experiences matter.”

That lesson —turning what seems ordinary into something valuable —became central to how she coaches early-career professionals. “People underestimate what they’ve already done,” she says. “Customer service, volunteer work, school projects – they teach patience, communication, and problem-solving. You just have to frame them as assets, not fillers.”

Turning Inexperience Into Strength

Clark teaches her clients to translate their experiences into proof of impact. “It’s rarely about not having enough to say,” she explains. “It’s about not knowing how to say it. Every story can become a strength when you understand its value.”

Storytelling is the first step. Clark helps clients connect the dots between curiosity, initiative, and outcomes. “Once you understand your story, you stop waiting for validation,” she says. “Your brand becomes your compass, and it tells you how to show up, how to respond, and how to move forward.”

To Clark, personal branding isn’t marketing, it’s anchoring. “Without self-awareness, you drift,” she says. “But when you know who you are, your choices start to align naturally with your purpose.”

Creating Opportunities Instead of Waiting for Them

Clark’s own story shows how that awareness turns into action. In one early job, her main task was pulling reports—a routine role with little growth potential. “I realized I could either stay bored or do something,” she recalls. “So I built a database tool that made our reporting faster. Nobody asked me to do it, but it changed my entire trajectory.”

That initiative gave her new experience and credibility. “Companies won’t always make room for you,” she says. “You have to create your own space.”

Clark now helps others do the same: volunteering for cross-functional projects, learning new systems, and solving overlooked problems. “Your brand is what you do when no one’s watching,” she says. “That’s how visibility starts.”

Learning to Say No

But ambition, she cautions, can easily become overextension. “Early in your career, you say yes to everything to prove yourself,” she says. “That was me. I said yes to every project, every favor, every request. People started to expect it.”

Over time, she realized that always saying yes diluted her focus and energy. “Your worth becomes tied to how much you can carry, not what you actually contribute,” she says.

Now she teaches clients to define their “capacity” and set boundaries early. “When you know your brand, saying no isn’t rejection; it’s alignment,” Clark says. “Every time you say no, your yeses become more meaningful.”

She also recommends what she calls “emotional audits.” “Just like you schedule meetings, schedule time to reflect,” she says. “Ask: What am I doing that energizes me? What drains me? Why? Those answers reveal who you are, and help you protect that person.”

Rethinking “Fake It Till You Make It”

Clark’s take on the infamous phrase is nuanced. “I faked it till I made it, but in a particular, intentional way,” she admits. “I applied for jobs I wasn’t fully qualified for, got in, and learned fast.”

But she warns against using that mindset to mask exhaustion or insecurity. “There’s a difference between stretching yourself and pretending you’re okay,” she says. “Faking confidence is fine. Faking fulfillment isn’t.”

She tells clients that honesty builds trust faster than perfection. “If someone asks something you don’t know, say, ‘I don’t know—but I’ll find out,’” she says. “That’s how real credibility starts.”

Clark reminds young professionals that even the most confident people begin uncertain. “We’ve all worked beside someone and wondered, How did they get this job?” she says. “Most of the time, it’s because they believed they could grow into it.”

Building a Brand Before You’re “Somebody”

For Clark, personal branding is a form of career mental health. “Your brand isn’t a logo or headline,” she says. “It’s your identity when everything else feels uncertain. It’s what steadies you.”

For early-career professionals, that means defining what you stand for before you’re known for anything. Her guidance for young professionals is simple but powerful: act with intention, learn constantly, and guard your energy.

“You don’t need permission to grow,” she says. “Don’t wait to be chosen. Instead, choose yourself. Self-trust creates confidence, and confidence attracts opportunity.”

In a culture obsessed with visibility, Clark’s message is refreshingly grounded. The goal of personal branding, she reminds us, isn’t to craft an image for others; it’s to create an anchor for yourself.

For those just starting, that story isn’t about pretending to have it all figured out. It’s about believing that even in the uncertainty, you already have something valuable to build from. And that belief, Krystal Clark insists, is where every trailblazer begins.

To learn more about Moving with Meaning, or to work with Krystal, visit https://movingwithmeaning.com/