Under Pressure: The Human Behind the Performance

Season One Under Pressure Finale

Dr. Alyse Munoz & Dr. Matt Hood Season 1 Episode 11

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0:00 | 37:07

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The pressure isn’t always the dramatic kind. Sometimes it’s the quiet pressure of showing up, shipping work, learning in public, and realizing that hosting a podcast takes more effort than being a guest. We wrap Season 1 of Under Pressure with a candid look at what surprised us, what we’re proud of, and how the behind-the-scenes grind shaped the way we think about performance, mental health, and growth.

Listener questions take us straight back into the work. We clarify what “tactical mindfulness” really means and why it isn’t limited to military, law enforcement, or other tactical populations. If tactics are simply strategies to reach an outcome, then parenting, coaching, leadership, and business are tactical too. We break down how the CORE framework helps with composure, clear objectives, and fast decisions when the gap between stimulus and response feels tiny, plus how an AIM-style reset helps you assess what happened and move forward without losing the lesson.

We also get practical on shift work sleep and circadian rhythm challenges: why consistency matters, how to build a sleep environment with blackout tools, temperature, and noise control, how to use light intentionally to stay alert, and how to manage the thought loop that keeps you awake. We end with what’s next for Season 2, including a sleep expert, more guests across performance domains, a conversation with a physician about pressure in medicine, and the possibility of adding full video.

If you found value in Season 1, subscribe, share this with someone living under pressure, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What question do you want us to answer next?

Final Episode Kickoff And Reflection

SPEAKER_02

Welcome back everybody to Under Pressure and our official final episode. Episode 11.

SPEAKER_00

Yay!

SPEAKER_01

Yay!

SPEAKER_02

So exciting. Yeah. So I don't know. I think we're just gonna spend today wrapping the season, maybe doing a little reflection. Take a we have a couple of questions that we can address for you guys. Right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

How was it, Matt? What do you think?

SPEAKER_00

I have fun. This it I think I think reflecting back not so much on the material that was presented, but like I've never done, I've never hosted a podcast episode. I've been on podcasts. This was this was fun. Like this was a good time, you know. This was, you know, from our guests to the text messages of editing and the the FaceTimes of editing. It's just it's it was a good experience. I had fun.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Yeah, no, it's been it's been good. It's it's funny you mentioned, right? Like it's a it's a lot more work to run one than to be a go a guest on one.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's it's it's so nice to just pop on and be like, let's talk for however long you want to talk. And all right, all right, let me know when the video is available.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there's a little more pressure when you're doing all of it. But yeah, it's been it's been a really great growth curve. I feel like just in the season, we've gotten better, you know, in some of our delivery. I'm so grateful for the guests we had on this season. We've seen growth, we've had good conversations come from you know, people who've listened to the podcast. So it's been I'm excited. I'm excited to take a break, go back and you know, learn a little bit more, set up some guests and opportunities for you know, season two. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I think the next question is well, do we just record everyone and then make it record all of season two?

SPEAKER_02

And then no, we can't because we can't we can't record them ahead of time because one of us will definitely acknowledge we're in the wrong time of year.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yeah, yeah. Summer, it's summer here and then next year. Summer here is fall.

SPEAKER_02

And we're posting an episode in November.

SPEAKER_00

It's kind of like how I talked about the the Super Bowl.

SPEAKER_02

I know. You gave me really fantastic editing opportunities.

SPEAKER_00

I you gotta learn something.

Favorite Moments And Bold Topics

SPEAKER_02

Thank you for that. But you know, I mean, we're we're here to we're here to be under pressure right along everybody else. So really live in live in the title. But let's see. What was what was your favorite episode?

SPEAKER_00

Ah I can't. I loved all of our guests. The the guests this season were they're really close to to me, you know, from Hunter to Darren, even Diana. She was awesome. You know, we've had had her at the conference, you know, she's all over social media.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, we enjoy yeah, love definitely all of them.

SPEAKER_00

Loved the guests. If I had to say which ones were my favorite episode, it's it's the hot topics that nobody wants to talk about. It's the the CMPC, the non-clinical CMPC talk, and mental health clinical talk still needs to be discussed. The tactical mindfulness one we just did, you know, um we're moving full steam ahead on that project. Yeah, but yeah, those are probably my two favorite ones.

Is Tactical Mindfulness For Everyone

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, those were we did have some pretty bold episodes, which I thought was good. But speaking of, one of the questions that we had was off of our last episode, tactical mindfulness, and we had a listener ask if tactical mindfulness is for everybody or just the tactical population. And so I thought that would be let's just jump right in, and maybe Matt, you can explain the title a little bit more and the application.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, no, absolutely. The it gained its wings in tactical. So I it's not, it's not just for tactical. So let me just come out and say it's not, it was born out of tactical because that's the space I worked in primarily, but when you look at tactics or tactical and the framework itself, there's tactics in sport, right? There's tactics in a boardroom, there's tactics everywhere. True. While the name is tactical mindfulness, it's not just for tactical. I I've used it with athletes, I've used it with business leaders, I've used it with law enforcement and firefighters and military, I've used it across all domains or all professions. It's not just tactical.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. I was gonna say, I'll add to that. I've I've worked with parents, you know, I've worked with parents, I've worked with teachers, like you said, executives. So to expand on that, I think, you know, well, I'll very quickly give you know the definition of tactic, right? An action or strategy that is planned to achieve a specific end. To that point, I think, you know, my understanding of it, although I get the immediate perception, but my understanding of it is is really about you know operational mindfulness, like mindfulness in the moment, to the point, you know, to your point, like to be tact tactically, tactically mindful, moment to moment, right? So when the decision comes down to it, like comes down to moments, and we only have so much room between stimulus and response, this is where that framework really shines. So yeah, no, I agree. And I I hope we can continue to probably highlight, you know, some of the other, like I said, I use it as a as a parent. I've taught it to client parents where again the the the moment feels very rushed, the stimulation, you know, is really rising for me a lot of times. It's a lot of times in the afternoon when everybody's done with the day, you know, you're making dinner and fighting people about whatever. And it gives me the ability to, so for example, I might use, I will actually use, and I've kind of taught core as a way for myself to figure out how I'm transitioning home, right? So that's my mission. I'm going home. So let me transition home, let me go through and and check myself, let me check, you know, my composure, my objectives. You know, let me let me just kind of run through those things, make sure that I'm ready for the transition. And then when I'm in the battle of the evening, it helps me, it helps me in that for section, right? Where I can orient to what I'm doing or what's coming at me, definitely regulating lots of regulation going on in that orientation, not only for me, but for my kids, you know, and then execute, right? Sometimes it's all right, we're all just gonna take a breath. Sometimes we're gonna go to our rooms to take a breath. Sometimes I'm going to my room to take a breath, screaming to a fellow, you know, whatever. Yeah, to be able to get back to that execute. And then there's an element of aim that I'll use, especially with my kids, where if we have a blow up, whether it's between them and a sibling or between, you know, me and a kid, where we go, we'll sit back down and kind of take inventory. Hey, what happened? Why did it happen? Let me honor how you felt. I'm gonna share how I felt so that we can integrate like the lesson and what we learned. Their belief system is constantly evolving. And I try to be, you know, a facilitator, a host to that development. And then, you know, and then we move and we move into the rest of our routine, we move into hugs or space, whatever is needed to finish kind of the regulation. So, yeah, I you know, to expand on just maybe one of the easiest ways to consider how you might use it in an everyday space, maybe at a slower pace.

SPEAKER_00

I used it Wednesday night. Yeah, I love my I love my children, but my ding-dong seven-year-old drops a box cutter on his leg and cut himself.

SPEAKER_02

Ignore all the questions that get to that point and just accept that when you have boys, these are your experiences.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I we were in the meeting with the TPPG, and my wife sends a text. Hey, Jason's bleeding, bleeding profusely out of his leg. Um okay, okay, we gotta we gotta wrap, we gotta speed this up, guys.

SPEAKER_02

I gotta go.

SPEAKER_00

But on the way home, I have I can't go into that situation at a heightened emotionally hot, yeah. No, I can't. And core, get home. He's uh he's they got the bleeding to stop. Butterfly it. Got it. I still he needs to go see the neighbor because the neighbor's a doctor. Hey, bud, we need to go see, we need to go see Mr. A. A Mr. A looks at it and is like, hey man, we're gonna have to cut your leg off.

SPEAKER_02

Done. That's it.

SPEAKER_00

Done. Game over, game over, son. No more supports. Yeah. It was it was if it if I would have gone in at a heightened elevation or heightened state, it would have just made things worse. He already feels like shit because he was using the box cutter without permission, hurt himself. The aim piece was the most crucial piece of that whole thing. Aside from my regulation. The aim piece was crucial. Hey, bud, let's talk about what let's talk about what happened. Just no different than what you your your story.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna have to we're gonna have to talk about this. And it was literally assess, initiate, and move. With a plan moving forward. So no, it does not have to be military. It can be used anywhere, yeah. Even as close to your home, with your children, with your spouse, your significant other. It can be used at any moment. Yeah, you just have to have the you just have to have the awareness and the ability and the you're using it when you know you need to use it. That way, when things do happen, your body already kicks in because it knows what it needs to do.

SPEAKER_02

Well, and I think I think it's a really great, you know, again, kind of a little tiny takeaway, right? But try it at home. Try it where, you know, in the moment the pace feels fast, but compared to some of the other, you know, situations, like you said, that it was built out of the pace is a little bit slower. And I I think that one of the easiest places for us to start practicing regulation or you know, practicing that psychological flexibility is alongside our family, you know, where I don't know, kids are beautifully resilient creatures, you know, and everything that kind of happens there, like it expands outward, you know, how you your energy is contagious, right? So going back to your point, like I have to make sure I'm coming in in the same way that if I'm taking a boardroom, a stage, a mission, you know, like my energy will dictate some of how this is gonna go, right? It's a bit of a first impression, it's a bit of, you know, kind of setting the standard, and it's hard to it could be very hard to change that. You think about the energy when somebody gets on stage, you know, like you're a comedian, a singer, you know, that they can there's a lot about that first so many seconds that will set the tone. And so to your point, you know, really being able to use something like core to make sure that I'm right because how the rest of this goes can be greatly based off of how it starts.

SPEAKER_00

No, absolutely. That that's the essence of tactical mindfulness. Are you present? Are you regulated in that presence?

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Presence, baby. That's well, that's good.

SPEAKER_00

So great question.

SPEAKER_02

No, seriously. I'm I'm glad you asked. Hopefully, hopefully the episode resonates a little bit more with you. And you know, I also think that it's something that we're both, you know, so excited about that you won't, you're not done hearing about it.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, I'm uh I'm probably gonna change the name either.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

At least right now, right now.

CORE And AIM At Home

SPEAKER_02

So yeah. So yeah, no, that was a really good, like you said, I I look forward to keep talking about it because I know we've both been talking about it in our practice and you know, we've talked about it to other practitioners and you know, different entities. I I used it, I used it to teach a workshop about a month or so ago to a group of, you know, to a business, and you know, use the framework to help kind of scale the ability to take care of yourself while living amongst chaos, right? It was lovingly titled Steady in the Noise, and it was received really well, you know, to kind of again consider these three parts and where they fit in your life and and how something gets me ready, how something keeps me in the process, and then how something helps me reflect.

SPEAKER_00

It's not coming in and teaching traditional mindfulness, right? And again, I'm not shitting on the MBSRs, the M MCAT, or what like I'm not like whatever freaking acronym you want to create for another mindfulness based program, I'm not I'm not shitting on it. I've been to most of those courses. Yeah, but those courses has have helped me shape this because in the environment that it was created in, the chaos of an operational environment, they needed something that was gonna keep them present, composed, and that's that's where we that's the creation. But yeah, it it's because it's different, and it's not and I can teach them the formal mindfulness, the protocols, the bot. I'll do that. I'll do that. If that's what they want, hell yeah, let's go do it. Cause that's just another level that your attention is gonna get trained at, your awareness is gonna get trained at.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And maybe that affects you in the moment of pressure, but I got something that I know for a fact will, and it is still mindfulness. So let's talk about it. So yeah, it's different.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's different. No, it's good stuff. We appreciate the feedback.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a great question.

Season Two Guests And Big Ideas

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. What else? What else we got going on? I think I don't know. What do we want to what do we want to do next season? I know we we owe a sleep expert. We have one in like the on deck.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Yeah. Little schedule mix up. Sorry, Australia.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Um lessons learned. But we do have, you know, I know we have that. I know that we've been looking at trying to get, you know, a few more practitioners in here, practitioners from different performance domains. So we've got a couple of people that we're reaching out to or you know, having conversations with. And yeah, and just really sharing.

SPEAKER_00

I want a doctor.

SPEAKER_02

You want a doctor?

SPEAKER_00

I want a doctor. I want a doctor. Medical doctor. Yes. I want a medical doctor. You want to know why I want a medical doctor?

SPEAKER_02

Do share.

SPEAKER_00

Because the field, the business of medicine puts so much pressure on doctors, physicians. Well, let me call them physicians, whether you're an orthopedic surgeon, a radiologist, a neuro, you know, a primary care physician, the business of medicine causes so much pressure. The doctor I have in mind will happily go two hours behind. And there his patients will be sitting in the lobby perfectly fine because they know when they get in that room, his full attention is gonna be on their needs. Every single question that they answer or ask will be answered, and he will wait until you are done with all of your questions, and that is class.

SPEAKER_02

I think it would be you know, but I think it would be great to have a physician and talk about how they also manage like what you said, like how they balance patient care in an industry built on dollars.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I want to get a doc that sees patients and like has to abide by schedule and like what what is that what does that do to you? How does that make you feel that you're scheduled every 10 minutes?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I have that conversation with people in, you know, the mental health field in my field, you know, where like if you're you know, if you work in a clinic, your the expectation is to be booked out and seeing people majority of your eight hours. And if you're trying to be on your own and do it a little bit differently, you only make you know, you only make money when you see somebody, right? So you go and insurance won't pay me to see somebody longer than actually. 53 minutes to be exact. Anything after that is apparently just, you know, of my own free will.

SPEAKER_00

You know, you gotta go.

SPEAKER_02

And that is how a lot of therapy happens when majority of the people I work with take 40 minutes. There's like, there's a it's a funny, like, you know, it takes it takes 30, 40 minutes sometimes for somebody to be able to dive into what they really need to get into. I'm terrible. I am I'm terrible at keeping a 53-minute clock, and my clients know that. And all of them are very respectful of it. But I also think it's, I don't know, I feel like I owe it to the practice of healing mental health. Because I believe in working myself out of a job. I believe in, you know, being able to give them the ability to not need mental health any more than I don't see my primary care doctor weekly, right? Like if I'm dealing with, if I'm trying to deal with, you know, like making sure something's on track, you'll see a doctor several times over the course of treatment. But then the point is that the treatment ends or the treatment reduces. And I really love the idea of creating, you know, of emulating that same model in the mental health field.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. No, so I that that is that's a guest who I would love to have on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, next year. That's a great, yeah. No, I think that's great.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we've got the season, not next year.

Shift Work Sleep That Actually Works

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, next season won't be next year. What else? We had we had one other we had one other question that came in actually, and it's on sleep again. So we had another individual, you know, because we did touch on it a little bit, but we were trying to wait for the sleep expert. But they said that what are your best recommendations if I don't work a traditional nine to five, I'm a shift worker.

SPEAKER_00

Well, hopefully you're not in the military and they change your schedule every other day. So let's hope for that, right? So shift work is about consistency and about 14 days of consistent consistency matters when it comes to shift work. You don't want to keep shifting your schedule. So hopefully you can maintain your shift for you know a period of at least two weeks. And to be honest, it if you're treating your day like a normal day. And you come like you, you come home and it's daytime, or you come home and it's you know, not it you come home when it's time when people are waking up and you have to go to sleep or start priming your system down. Again, there's the environmental things, you know. Keep your keep your room as black as you can get. You know, make sure you take your shower when you need to take your shower, make sure you do the environmental things appropriately, but it uh your day is just different, but it's consistency. Get to bed the same time every day. And for example, my my doctor friend, neighbor is an ICU doc and he works nights, seven on, seven off. Not ideal. Yes, very common, right? So he knows Saturday, Friday night to Saturday after spending a week back on his normal schedule. It's time for him to start priming the system to get back to his night shift work.

unknown

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So he starts re he changes his schedule that way he can work back into that nighttime schedule. So he s tries to sleep during the day, wake up, he does his stuff at night. No different, right? So but it's about it's about consistency, regularity, you know, ensuring you get the quality sleep. You're you're doing you're staying hydrated, you're blacking out your room, your your room temperature is, you know, uh science says 61 to 68 degrees.

SPEAKER_02

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

Like you turn in Mississippi, you turn your your AC below 65 and your unit's gonna freeze. So I always say like 65 to 68 degrees. Yeah, is I can put a fan on, you know, a fan you you're doing your deep breathing exercises before bed. No different. Because your body's tired, and if it's in a if it's in a system that is going to be used to going to bed at this time, your body will shift. Our bodies are adaptable if you train it appropriately, you teach it appropriately.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But what's tough is when you have the sh schedules like the D fac workers in the military, where they're 12 on, and then they the next day they gotta come in noon, and they really only got like four hours of sleep. Like that's the sh that's the shit that messes with people's mental health. And fun fact, the majority, I'm gonna say it, the majority of the de facto workers struggle with mental health, and some of them are on behavioral health profiles.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You wanna know why?

SPEAKER_02

They don't sleep.

SPEAKER_00

I just answered it for you.

SPEAKER_02

Right, they don't sleep, and if they do sleep, they run the cost of getting, you know, in trouble, which could cost them their job, which could have far greater ramifications. Yeah, that's a huge, that's huge pressure. I was gonna say for those of you who also might be like myself, I'm very light sensitive. And so as somebody who used to work overnights, I really like working overnights. I'm a night owl. But what happens though is in the morning when I need to go to bed and my body sees the sun, it also is like, we probably don't need to sleep anymore. So I think you made a really good point about consistency, but I would say also tools, right? So at night, if you struggle, if you struggle at night to get up because you your body sees night and wants to sleep, I encourage using happy lights because you're probably fine once you get into whatever artificial light you're you know working in. But I also had my husband used to work overnights as a security guard, and that was a lot of nighttime. And so a happy light or putting himself around light would also help, you know, him in his brain be like, we need to stay awake. Same thing in the mornings. If I, you know, blackout curtains still wouldn't necessarily work, but like a really good blackout mask would work. And then, like you said, like a fan to help kind of tune out, you know, the birds, the kids, like the outdoor activities that tend to happen during the day that don't happen at night. So I'll just throw that out there. Like, I think the environmental tools are so important because you need to be able to kind of create the facade of the perfect environment, the perfect nighttime environment during the day, or the perfect daytime environment during the night.

SPEAKER_00

And then again, you can't forget the thoughts. Because the thoughts is what's gonna really keep you up. The light is too, but thoughts like, oh man, I'm having a hard time going to sleep. Am I gonna get enough sleep? The going down that worry cycle.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

You know, then that that that's when the mental tools come in. Cognitive, you know, the mindfulness, the making sure you create a plan. What if I don't wake up in time? I have like six alarms set every five minutes, you know.

SPEAKER_02

Write down brain dump. Yeah, take a brain dump, right? You know, close out the tabs in your brain by writing it down.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Love, love talking sleep. Can't wait to get a sleep guy. I know.

Listener Growth And What’s Next

SPEAKER_02

Or got I know. I know. I was I was excited when I saw that question come in. I was like, Matt's gonna love this because he is so excited to talk more sleep.

SPEAKER_00

So can't wait. Let's go.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, again, I think we, I don't know, I'm really proud of us. I'm really grateful to our listeners. We, you know, we're gonna be clocking in at like 11 episodes for a first season. We had, I think we had almost 400 downloads last time I checked, which is really, really great. It means that our, you know, we have listeners, they're listening, they're engaging. I hope to see it grow. Yeah, who knows? I mean, I you know, definitely we'll see my editing skills continue to grow.

Video Podcast Plans And Closing

SPEAKER_00

I will I will say we did have it, we did have another question.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00

When are we going to show video outside of our clips?

SPEAKER_02

Listen, listen, full transparency. My face does whatever it wants when we're talking. And you know, I guess we probably should introduce it if it's what the listeners want. I'm just gonna tell you, my face could be very distracting from the message. I'll practice, everybody. I'll practice.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, sometimes I haven't been in my pajamas in any of these.

SPEAKER_02

No, we've we've looked really great. It's just like I said, my face literally shows the processing of the message in real time.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. That's hey, maybe that maybe that's more engagement. I don't know. I don't know. You know, you never you never know. I mean, there people get paid for their podcasts all the time.

SPEAKER_02

So yeah, you know, I like I commit to that. Let's let's definitely we'll stamp approval on that suggestion and we'll we'll start offering the video. You can watch us here live or like kind of live. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna stop fidgeting with my my paper clips and I'm gonna just have to stop fidgeting. Eat eat eating eating a snack. Maybe you know, I ain't gonna change anything.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, no, you guys are just gonna you just gonna see.

SPEAKER_00

You get what you get. If you know, if you if you know me, you know what you're gonna get.

unknown

That's fair.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I will I love that idea. I think I mean I think it's really cool. I was always really excited when I when I listened to podcasts, I felt more engaged with podcasts that had video. So I absolutely love that idea. So I think that's a great idea. I think that's a great idea, and I look forward to putting that into motion for season two.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we just gotta learn how.

SPEAKER_02

That's fair. Taking notes now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, asking you you you know who asked that question. And then we're gonna you're gonna need to help us. Yeah, you're gonna have to.

SPEAKER_02

We'll be following up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. You want to um now we gotta now we gotta do it and we'll put it into motion. We're coming for you then.

SPEAKER_02

Again, like I said, I'm I love being here. I love learning alongside everybody. I love, you know, I mean, you ask anybody who knows me, and I've always I've always loved a good stage. So yeah, we'll continue to continue to grow and engage with you guys. We're still here, you should know how to reach us. We still will try and be active on our platforms. So if something comes up, bring it to our attention, you know, so we can we can really pack a punch into season two.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, the countdown continues. 29 more, Brian. 29 more.

SPEAKER_02

There you go. Yeah, so okay, well, you know, so here's to season one. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00

Um Yeah, thanks everyone.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, thank you for being here with us. And you know, I guess on that note, we'll we'll see you guys in season two, right here under pressure.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02

Yep, bye.

SPEAKER_00

Bye.