April 10, 2024 • 11 mins
Julia Landauer spent 21 years chasing the single ambition of becoming a top-level professional racecar driver. So when she decided to pivot to her next chapter, Julia realized she would have to redefine what her new ambitions were. In this episode of If I’m Honest, Julia explores how to repurpose ambition. Julia discusses what she loved about the process of developing a racing career, how to channel those steps to other disciplines, and how that translates into her life now. Julia also gives a call to action for her listeners for how to repurpose their own ambitions, in order to live satisfying and full lives.
You can read the full Clade Apparel interview that Julia references in this episode here: https://cladeapparel.com/blogs/stories/julia-landauer-racecar-driver
Learn more about Julia Landauer at https://julialandauer.com/.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of If
I'm Honest With Julia Landauer. I've been friends with someone
for over a decade and they they helped me out
with some kind of brand stuff with my racing brand
and identity back when I was in college. So I've
known them for a while. And this person founded a
pair of company called Clay Apparel, and they have really
(00:26):
well and sustainably made leather jackets. That's where they're starting
and all made in the US. And as part of
their product launch, they also wanted to send some folks
some of their jackets and explain the backstory and then
give these people the opportunity to tell their story. So
I got this really incredible leather bomber and I was
(00:48):
able to take some photos at Golden Hour in Charlotte
back late last winter or late last fall in twenty
twenty three, and then a few weeks later we did
an interview, and the whole point of this interview was
to get a little more philosophical and discuss some deeper concepts,
and it's condensed into a readable format. But one of
(01:11):
the questions that they asked me was what is your
greatest ambition And this was kind of an interesting question
to get at the time because I had just started
working at NASCAR, had just kind of very publicly transitioned
away from racing to the business side, and so I
want to read you what my answer was. I said,
(01:34):
my greatest ambition was to be a professional race car
driver succeeding at the highest level. And that's a pretty
big one. And it's interesting because it really didn't occur
to me that I wouldn't make it as high professionally
as I was hoping for until about two years ago,
even though when I look back on my career, it
definitely slowed at times and it ebbed and flowed, But
(01:54):
I had full faith that I was going to be
able to make it as a top level professional racer
until about two years ago. So now I'm redefining what
my big ambitions are. I realized that you could live
a whole life just focusing on your career. You could
live a whole life just focusing on having a family,
and you could live a whole life learning about the world.
I think to try to live fully and to accomplish
(02:16):
all of the little and major things that you want
to while also being a present person. And developing relationships
and enjoying what life has to offer. Is pretty ambitious,
and I'm realizing it's really really hard to do all
of it. That's the end of my answer to the question.
I'm really proud of myself in that moment of being
able to articulate this kind of redefining what ambitions are
(02:39):
because it was tough. It was still in the thick
of making the transition and having mixed feelings about it.
But I think this does a good job. However, as
I've thought about this more, I don't think of it
so much as redefining ambition. I think of it more
as repurposing my ambition for life. That's what I want
(03:00):
to talk about today. I want to talk about how
we can repurpose our ambition to find purpose, to find
enthusiasm for what we're doing, and to build especially if
we're starting a new chapter. Building a racing career was
so so exciting, and there's the on track side of it,
which is all of the driving and going fast and
(03:24):
racing against other people. You know, the competition element is
so much fun. The speed is so much fun. The
thrill of taking corners at high speeds and feeling the
g forces, the euphoria of winning, the incredible satisfaction of
successfully getting a team to work together. I mean, there's
so much of the on track stuff that's so so exciting,
(03:47):
but I've always known that I've really liked a lot
of the other elements that go into building a racing
career as well. And I think about it as putting
together a very complex three D puzzle, or multiple ways
that the puzzle pieces can all fit together. And even
if you get the puzzle pieces together, it's not necessarily
going to end up the way you want, but it's
(04:07):
okay because you're identifying the different components that need to
come together. You're being creative and figuring out how it
has to go together, and that's a really exciting process.
So you have the on track stuff, as I mentioned right,
all of the racing at track. You also have all
of the training and preparation and sim work and visualization
and making yourself mentally tough to be able to attack
(04:31):
a racetrack and to get on with the competitors. Then
you have the team building aspect as I mentioned. You know,
you have to join a new team and then inspire
everyone to want to work really hard to help you
and to have that good chemistry with the team members
and to build that trust with people, especially your spotters
and your crew chief, and to learn the communication with
(04:51):
the team. And then there's a business side of racing.
There's everything from having a literally identifiable brand and with
things that you stand for, and social media development and
fan engagement and fundraising and sponsorship and leveraging what your
strengths and differentiating assets are to be able to articulate
(05:11):
your value and get people to write checks for you
and your racing career. And then there's earning a living
so that you can continue to pursue the dream. So
there's just so many elements and when I thought back
on it, you know, the entire process a three hundred
and sixty degree view of building a career in racing
requires being creative in thinking about how those pieces can
(05:34):
fit together. It requires persistence and proactiveness in asking for
what you want and pitching yourself and asking for help
and asking for feedback and figuring out what your next
steps need to be. It requires articulating your value and
clearly describing your vision and how you can help others
achieve their goals by supporting you requires thinking about best
(05:57):
case scenarios and thinking about worst case scenario. Building a
racing career requires collaboration. It requires having really challenging conversations
with people. It requires letting your emotions out enough to
drive you forward, but also being responsible about the fact
that you are in front of a large audience and
are usually a role model for other people, and how
(06:18):
do you balance that. It requires being able to be
a great coach to yourself and to pump yourself up,
and to be able to be your own harshest critics
so that you know how to improve. There are so
many elements that go into perfecting and building and creating
a racing career, just like many other careers. And what
(06:39):
I've realized as I've been transitioning away from driving and
figuring out what really gets me as excited as that,
I'm learning that it's really important for me to repurpose
that ambition and that element, the problem solving, the puzzle,
creation and putting together to apply all of those same
(07:01):
process oriented things that I loved about building my racing
career and applying it to now my more professional facing career.
I expected going into a corporate career that a lot
of the system oriented things that I liked would be
applied to the corporate world. Right. You know, you're still
(07:23):
building relationships, you're still creatively problem solving, you're still providing value,
You're still needed to articulate your visions. It doesn't apply
to my own personal endeavors, but now it's related to
the sport as a whole, right, the greater sport of NASCAR.
And so I knew that I would be able to
apply these things, but I really didn't have a clear
(07:43):
idea of what that would look like in practice, in
the day to day emotionally, even how invested I would
get in what I was doing. And I'm really excited
because now, at a little over five months into this role,
I feel like I'm situated enough and getting well versed
enough in the business and in the people and in
(08:06):
all of the various ecosystems that are involved in the
company where I'm able to start putting together some puzzles.
It's really exciting because I see the potential of now
being able to really use my brain, use my expertise,
use my experiences, and really get excited about the prospect
(08:26):
of building. And just last week I talked to my
boss about starting a project that would help the business,
and he agreed that it would be helpful, and I
got the green light to go do it. And there's
something really really satisfying and empowering about identifying an area
for improvement, thinking about an idea, and then being able
(08:49):
to go out and try to execute it. I'm really excited.
It's a little overwhelming thinking about all the things I
have to do, people I have to talk with, people
I have to get on board, But I'm really excited
and it's cool to actively work towards building something to
achieve a specific goal. And it makes me more confident
that there's still a ton of stuff to learn, and
(09:10):
there's still a ton of ways to feel ambitious and
to realize the ambition and to channel that ambition, to
be able to still be competitive, to still be diligent
and thorough and hard working and have to prepare really hard,
and to hopefully get a similar satisfaction when something gets
over the finish line. So I'm optimistic and I'm really
(09:33):
happy to be in this position now. The onboarding period
is a little tough for someone who likes to move
fast and get things done. My call to action for
you is that if you find yourself feeling stuck, or
if you find yourself feeling in a bit of a lull,
I want you to think back to a time when
you were doing something that you were really committed to,
(09:54):
passionate about, working hard for, determined to make work, and
think about the pro and think about what you had
to do, what you had to focus on, what elements
of going after that goal we're really exciting. And then
experiment and try to find other areas where you can
apply those same processes and those same mindsets to try
(10:15):
to go after that goal. If you can fall in
love with the process, if you can fall in love
with figuring out what steps need to be taken to
be able to get to your goal, it makes a
journey of getting they're so much more exciting, and then
you're more likely to be enthusiastic, you're more likely to
feel motivated, and then you're more likely to feel exceptionally
(10:35):
proud of yourself when you get to your destination. And
I think that is really really cool. It's putting ourselves
on a pedestal, is giving ourselves that high of feeling
like we have accomplished something. And I hope that everyone
gets to experience that. So those are my thoughts on
repurposing ambition to take what is so exciting in life
(10:57):
and to channel that energy and that mindset to other
areas to make our lives as full and as satisfying
as possible. That's our show. Thank you so much for
letting me be honest with you. If you liked this episode,
please share it with a friend. Please rate the podcast,
Please leave a review, subscribe, follow, You can check out
my YouTube where I post shorts Julia Landauer all over
(11:19):
social media. If you want to get in touch and
have any questions or ideas, and I'd be cool to
seeing you next week
Hello everybody, and welcome back to another episode of If
I'm Honest With Julia Landauer. I've been friends with someone
for over a decade and they they helped me out
with some kind of brand stuff with my racing brand
and identity back when I was in college. So I've
known them for a while. And this person founded a
pair of company called Clay Apparel, and they have really
(00:26):
well and sustainably made leather jackets. That's where they're starting
and all made in the US. And as part of
their product launch, they also wanted to send some folks
some of their jackets and explain the backstory and then
give these people the opportunity to tell their story. So
I got this really incredible leather bomber and I was
(00:48):
able to take some photos at Golden Hour in Charlotte
back late last winter or late last fall in twenty
twenty three, and then a few weeks later we did
an interview, and the whole point of this interview was
to get a little more philosophical and discuss some deeper concepts,
and it's condensed into a readable format. But one of
(01:11):
the questions that they asked me was what is your
greatest ambition And this was kind of an interesting question
to get at the time because I had just started
working at NASCAR, had just kind of very publicly transitioned
away from racing to the business side, and so I
want to read you what my answer was. I said,
(01:34):
my greatest ambition was to be a professional race car
driver succeeding at the highest level. And that's a pretty
big one. And it's interesting because it really didn't occur
to me that I wouldn't make it as high professionally
as I was hoping for until about two years ago,
even though when I look back on my career, it
definitely slowed at times and it ebbed and flowed, But
(01:54):
I had full faith that I was going to be
able to make it as a top level professional racer
until about two years ago. So now I'm redefining what
my big ambitions are. I realized that you could live
a whole life just focusing on your career. You could
live a whole life just focusing on having a family,
and you could live a whole life learning about the world.
I think to try to live fully and to accomplish
(02:16):
all of the little and major things that you want
to while also being a present person. And developing relationships
and enjoying what life has to offer. Is pretty ambitious,
and I'm realizing it's really really hard to do all
of it. That's the end of my answer to the question.
I'm really proud of myself in that moment of being
able to articulate this kind of redefining what ambitions are
(02:39):
because it was tough. It was still in the thick
of making the transition and having mixed feelings about it.
But I think this does a good job. However, as
I've thought about this more, I don't think of it
so much as redefining ambition. I think of it more
as repurposing my ambition for life. That's what I want
(03:00):
to talk about today. I want to talk about how
we can repurpose our ambition to find purpose, to find
enthusiasm for what we're doing, and to build especially if
we're starting a new chapter. Building a racing career was
so so exciting, and there's the on track side of it,
which is all of the driving and going fast and
(03:24):
racing against other people. You know, the competition element is
so much fun. The speed is so much fun. The
thrill of taking corners at high speeds and feeling the
g forces, the euphoria of winning, the incredible satisfaction of
successfully getting a team to work together. I mean, there's
so much of the on track stuff that's so so exciting,
(03:47):
but I've always known that I've really liked a lot
of the other elements that go into building a racing
career as well. And I think about it as putting
together a very complex three D puzzle, or multiple ways
that the puzzle pieces can all fit together. And even
if you get the puzzle pieces together, it's not necessarily
going to end up the way you want, but it's
(04:07):
okay because you're identifying the different components that need to
come together. You're being creative and figuring out how it
has to go together, and that's a really exciting process.
So you have the on track stuff, as I mentioned right,
all of the racing at track. You also have all
of the training and preparation and sim work and visualization
and making yourself mentally tough to be able to attack
(04:31):
a racetrack and to get on with the competitors. Then
you have the team building aspect as I mentioned. You know,
you have to join a new team and then inspire
everyone to want to work really hard to help you
and to have that good chemistry with the team members
and to build that trust with people, especially your spotters
and your crew chief, and to learn the communication with
(04:51):
the team. And then there's a business side of racing.
There's everything from having a literally identifiable brand and with
things that you stand for, and social media development and
fan engagement and fundraising and sponsorship and leveraging what your
strengths and differentiating assets are to be able to articulate
(05:11):
your value and get people to write checks for you
and your racing career. And then there's earning a living
so that you can continue to pursue the dream. So
there's just so many elements and when I thought back
on it, you know, the entire process a three hundred
and sixty degree view of building a career in racing
requires being creative in thinking about how those pieces can
(05:34):
fit together. It requires persistence and proactiveness in asking for
what you want and pitching yourself and asking for help
and asking for feedback and figuring out what your next
steps need to be. It requires articulating your value and
clearly describing your vision and how you can help others
achieve their goals by supporting you requires thinking about best
(05:57):
case scenarios and thinking about worst case scenario. Building a
racing career requires collaboration. It requires having really challenging conversations
with people. It requires letting your emotions out enough to
drive you forward, but also being responsible about the fact
that you are in front of a large audience and
are usually a role model for other people, and how
(06:18):
do you balance that. It requires being able to be
a great coach to yourself and to pump yourself up,
and to be able to be your own harshest critics
so that you know how to improve. There are so
many elements that go into perfecting and building and creating
a racing career, just like many other careers. And what
(06:39):
I've realized as I've been transitioning away from driving and
figuring out what really gets me as excited as that,
I'm learning that it's really important for me to repurpose
that ambition and that element, the problem solving, the puzzle,
creation and putting together to apply all of those same
(07:01):
process oriented things that I loved about building my racing
career and applying it to now my more professional facing career.
I expected going into a corporate career that a lot
of the system oriented things that I liked would be
applied to the corporate world. Right. You know, you're still
(07:23):
building relationships, you're still creatively problem solving, you're still providing value,
You're still needed to articulate your visions. It doesn't apply
to my own personal endeavors, but now it's related to
the sport as a whole, right, the greater sport of NASCAR.
And so I knew that I would be able to
apply these things, but I really didn't have a clear
(07:43):
idea of what that would look like in practice, in
the day to day emotionally, even how invested I would
get in what I was doing. And I'm really excited
because now, at a little over five months into this role,
I feel like I'm situated enough and getting well versed
enough in the business and in the people and in
(08:06):
all of the various ecosystems that are involved in the
company where I'm able to start putting together some puzzles.
It's really exciting because I see the potential of now
being able to really use my brain, use my expertise,
use my experiences, and really get excited about the prospect
(08:26):
of building. And just last week I talked to my
boss about starting a project that would help the business,
and he agreed that it would be helpful, and I
got the green light to go do it. And there's
something really really satisfying and empowering about identifying an area
for improvement, thinking about an idea, and then being able
(08:49):
to go out and try to execute it. I'm really excited.
It's a little overwhelming thinking about all the things I
have to do, people I have to talk with, people
I have to get on board, But I'm really excited
and it's cool to actively work towards building something to
achieve a specific goal. And it makes me more confident
that there's still a ton of stuff to learn, and
(09:10):
there's still a ton of ways to feel ambitious and
to realize the ambition and to channel that ambition, to
be able to still be competitive, to still be diligent
and thorough and hard working and have to prepare really hard,
and to hopefully get a similar satisfaction when something gets
over the finish line. So I'm optimistic and I'm really
(09:33):
happy to be in this position now. The onboarding period
is a little tough for someone who likes to move
fast and get things done. My call to action for
you is that if you find yourself feeling stuck, or
if you find yourself feeling in a bit of a lull,
I want you to think back to a time when
you were doing something that you were really committed to,
(09:54):
passionate about, working hard for, determined to make work, and
think about the pro and think about what you had
to do, what you had to focus on, what elements
of going after that goal we're really exciting. And then
experiment and try to find other areas where you can
apply those same processes and those same mindsets to try
(10:15):
to go after that goal. If you can fall in
love with the process, if you can fall in love
with figuring out what steps need to be taken to
be able to get to your goal, it makes a
journey of getting they're so much more exciting, and then
you're more likely to be enthusiastic, you're more likely to
feel motivated, and then you're more likely to feel exceptionally
(10:35):
proud of yourself when you get to your destination. And
I think that is really really cool. It's putting ourselves
on a pedestal, is giving ourselves that high of feeling
like we have accomplished something. And I hope that everyone
gets to experience that. So those are my thoughts on
repurposing ambition to take what is so exciting in life
(10:57):
and to channel that energy and that mindset to other
areas to make our lives as full and as satisfying
as possible. That's our show. Thank you so much for
letting me be honest with you. If you liked this episode,
please share it with a friend. Please rate the podcast,
Please leave a review, subscribe, follow, You can check out
my YouTube where I post shorts Julia Landauer all over
(11:19):
social media. If you want to get in touch and
have any questions or ideas, and I'd be cool to
seeing you next week
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