Molly Turner 
Thanks for tuning in to the very first Longitude Sound Bytes Extra, where we’ll be sharing our observations and highlights of the seventh series of the Longitude Sound Bytes podcast covering pressure with you.

Jaena
Molly, I can’t believe this episode marks Longitude’s 60th episode!

Molly
It’s pretty crazy because one year ago, kind of my like Corona-versary, like March 15, Ipek was wondering if I would just write a couple of tunes for this podcast idea. And I’d already worked with her on interviewing some professionals and kind of got the gist of what she was looking for. And throughout this entire time, I’ve been able to present some really interesting guests and even interview an Olympic coach, and even you were on the podcast just a few weeks ago.

Jaena
Yeah. So Ipek also reached out when I had actually just joined the LinkedIn game, which I highly recommend, for those considering it, especially people with musical backgrounds, because I studied classical flute performance in university with a side of music entrepreneurship. And now I’ll be starting law school in the fall. And I know Molly, you also come from a music background.

Molly
Yes, I studied music composition in Houston at Rice University. And now I’m learning professional stick waving, also known as orchestral conducting at Juilliard. So we have this music background, and we’ve been connected through Longitude. So this is all been a really great thing.

Jaena
And I think something that both of us have experienced quite frequently in our lives, coming from a performance background, is pressure.

Molly
Oh, totally. Yes. Classical music is a big pressure cooker. As much as I love it, it can definitely be coming from all four walls and more.

Jaena
Also, Molly is joking around about waving a stick and making it sound kind of easy. But conducting is really not. And we should give a quick shout out to Molly for our pursuing conducting because we need more women conductors out on the podium, and better women representation at the forefront of classical music. So I am so grateful and happy for Longitude to have brought us together to present the first ever Longitude Sound Bytes Extra.

Jaena
From listening to our guests’ and Longitude fellows’ thoughts on pressure, I observed that no one’s exempt from feeling pressure, both negatively and positively. But also that no one’s exempt from learning great takeaways for dealing with pressure as well.

Molly
Yeah, you make a great point, no matter what career or thing or passion that you pursue, you’re going to be feeling pressure. And that actually reminds me a lot of Episode 51 with Ed Knowles and Rachel Carlton.

Ed Knowles
Now is more than ever, there are pressures on young people. Money and financial things, and just comparing yourself online. So I think one of the things that is the most important thing is to just enjoy it kind of embrace the pressure.

Molly
As Ed and Rachel both felt when meeting great people, such as the president of the International Olympic Committee, although I don’t know how he doesn’t feel pressure hosting and producing each Olympic channel podcast episode, and former Vice President Al Gore in the case of Rachel, though she did sprain her ankle, both of them embraced pressure and tried to recall their hard work and preparation that brought them to these amazing opportunities.

Jaena
Yeah, preparation seems like another common theme when hearing success and pressure and the same sentence.

Molly
Yeah, I mean, we’re always going to face pressure so we might as well start finding ways to prepare and recreate the situations, and on Episode 53, we had an Olympic athlete speak to us about putting ourselves in these situations over and over so that we have a feeling of what it’s like. Ogonna says:

Ogonna Nnamani Silva
Game-like situations and test-like situations are invaluable experiences. And those help you to learn to retain the information; putting yourself in those very similar high pressure situations are actually very important.

Jaena
This really resonates with me, Molly, because I mentioned in my own episode with Quint, Episode 54, that I was told by the former principal flutist of the New York Philharmonic to seek out people who were “better than you,” and then go ask to collaborate with them. I mean, what better way to put yourself in a high-pressure situation than to engage directly, right?

Molly
I think you bring up a super valid point. I am still continuing my musical development, and will for my entire life, but I’ve been told a very similar thing, and that’s to watch really high quality music making, of course, and to talk about their kind of process. But I have even been told to just watch excellent performance. If that is someone running the 100 meters, you know, with hours and hours of practice behind them, or even a politician delivering a speech beautifully or something, just people at the top of their game, and we can really learn from that. And that’s what I love about Longitude, is because it really draws these connections between high performance in different careers and industries. And IBM president, Jim Whitehurst, also talks about this kind of secret formula for creating effective teams and exemplifying great leadership in his episode with Grayson, and that it’s really okay not being the smartest person in the room, which we’re really talking about, in this case:

Jim Whitehurst
Your job is to kind of orchestrate a group of extraordinary people who together can do things you know, that you can’t do.

Jaena
That’s a fantastic point you brought up there, Molly, because not only do I admire that we share a similar perspective on acknowledging that every person has their greatest strengths that might differ from the strength of our own, but we really utilizing each strength to build the most effective team. Like what fantastic memories you’ve built with those teammates!

Molly
And you also shared that, the more good memories you associate with what you do, the more likely it’ll engage you and motivate you to do it.

Justin Gross
What I’ve learned is there are many ways to go about a career and many folks rescale, retool, pivot, and take on new and exciting opportunities, and later stages of a career and all throughout, finding things that you like that fit your style and allow for your goals.

Jaena
[In Episode 55] Seems like not only Justin, Debi, and I are the sole people that want to like the things that may pressure us. But that is so much easier said than done, Molly, like, I think we can both relate, you know, even if you don’t end up with the thing that you first set out to do. So, for in my case, I studied music my entire life. And now I’m starting law school in the fall, and even for you, you studied composition and now you’re on the path to becoming a great woman conductor. I think we can both relate to finding that distinction between where to draw the line when you’re an artist and you’re working professionally. And when you need to step away and take time off and take care of yourself and focus on your own life.

Molly
Yeah, I totally agree.  I was actually premed my freshman year as well, which was a crazy thing. And then I was learning how to write music, and then I was realizing music composition might not pay the bills. And my sophomore year was kind of a pivotal year. And I actually spent a lot of time on the Frisbee team, which was kind of that like, time away from like work because like you mentioned, being an artist, you step out of the practice room or you’re done, you know, intensely listening to a piece and it kind of sticks with you. And so it’s kind of hard, just like in any career, to draw that like work-life balance. And actually, Daniel and Sarah’s episode, [59] really speaks to this.

Daniel Cohen
So I do see a pressure there of too much focus on remote work. And that puts a lot of stress on people’s time because it’s much harder to unplug. And I think it looks a lot of dependency on technology.

Molly
But thankfully, Daniel seems to have shared way out by unplugging. What do you think about that, Jaena?

Jaena
I completely agree with you and Daniel there, Molly. I think, oftentimes, we forget to take care of ourselves when times are extremely busy. And we try to fine tune that work-life balance. But I actually once had a great manager remind me that I was saying that wrong. She said, Jaena, it’s not work-life balance. It’s life-work balance.

Molly
Oh my gosh, I love it! And what a coincidence that in Episode 57 with Dr. Jeff Frey and Jesse, he teaches us the importance of emotional intelligence.

Jeff Frey
If you as a leader in your home, school, group or business, feel that you don’t trust yourself in certain situations to make a call that will benefit both your followers and yourself, try boosting your emotional intelligence. I personally think it has become in recent months, the biggest factor differentiating leaders success or failure in these ever changing times.

Jaena
This takes us to the conclusion of the first Longitude Sound Bytes Extra. We hope through these short highlights we’ve not only displayed that pressure doesn’t discriminate, nor is any human immune to feeling pressure but you can actually use pressure to fuel goals and careers as exemplified by both our guest speakers and Longitude fellows.

Molly
Dr. Jeff has also shared with us that for those of us who aren’t as great as dealing with pressure have hope by boosting our emotional intelligence.

Jaena
Thank you for joining us today and we can’t wait for you to tune into the next series of the Longitude Sound Bytes about “presence.”