November 26, 2025 • 15 mins
In this episode, we explore the idea of a Misogi—a single, year-defining challenge with a real chance of failure that breaks routine and reshapes identity. Cameo shares her own Misogis, from endurance hiking to recording an album, releasing a book, and shares a possible 2026 Misogi!
You’ll hear:
• what a Misogi is and where the idea comes from
• why the 50% chance of failure matters
• how big goals interrupt autopilot and build identity
• examples from hiking 29029 to recording at London Bridge Studio
• creative and lifestyle Misogi ideas listeners can try
• choosing challenges that require preparation and scare you
• identity change vs. résumé lines
• community invitations and sharing your Misogi
If you’re not following me @cameoelysebraun or @thecameoshowpodcast on Instagram, those are the best places to catch clips and keep up with new episodes. You can also email or text the show anytime.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:59):
Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show.
I'm your host Cameo.
We are in the final countdown ofthe year.
That weird stretch when you'retrying to like finish strong,
but also pretend that Decembercalories and commitments don't
count.
Just me?
I don't know.
Anyway, welcome to the show.
Today we're going to talk aboutsomething that cuts through that
(01:20):
noise, and it's something calleda misogee.
A what ghee?
You ask?
A misogee.
And if you've never heard thatword before, don't worry.
I didn't either until like maybefive or six years ago.
And it just will stick with youforever now.
You're welcome.
I was thinking about it theother day when I was detangling
(01:42):
the garland that goes on my mainroom Christmas tree.
And it took me an embarrassinglylong amount of time to detangle
this garland.
I didn't have music on, I wasn'tlistening to a podcast.
I wasn't watching a show.
I was just detangling thisbeaded garland and letting
myself kind of meditate throughthat process.
(02:05):
Sounds crazy.
I know.
It's not.
It really happened that way.
And as I was doing that, Istarted kind of thinking about
what I'm looking forward to in2026.
What do I want some of my goalsto be?
What direction do I want to gowith some things?
(02:26):
I have to pause this right nowfor my own reference and say
this is timely because what I'mabout to share as one of my
goals for 2026, I just got atext message about wee, it's the
universe.
Anyway.
So I was thinking about what Iwant to look forward to in 2026.
And one of the things that I tryto do every year, in addition to
(02:47):
setting goals, is choose aMasogee.
Let me tell you what it is,finally.
This word originated from aJapanese concept of ritual
purification.
And I heard it from my friendand mentor Jesse Itzler.
And I also, on my way to aMasogi in 2022, it's getting
(03:11):
weird, I know.
I'm sorry.
Follow along.
I was reading, actually, myhusband Greg was reading the
book Comfort Crisis by MichaelEaster, and he was talking about
a Masogee and what it is and whyit's important while we were on
our way to my Masogi.
So modern day Jesse Itzler andMichael Easter, if you don't
know who they are, please checkthem out.
(03:32):
Read their books.
Amazing information, especiallywhen it comes to like physical
endurance and health andwellness.
The modern version of thisJapanese ritual is that you pick
a big, uncomfortable challengeand do it once a year.
Now here's the thing (03:49):
it's not like, oh, I want to do a 10-day
ab challenge, or, and that'sfine if you do, do that.
Or like, for me, I want to, youknow, run three, 5Ks.
I don't know.
That's not one of mine, but itjust popped into my head.
And it may or may not come witha cute sweatshirt.
But what makes this Masogee,this big uncomfortable challenge
(04:13):
that you do for the yearspecial, is that there's a 50%
chance you're gonna fail.
It's that big, it's thatlife-altering.
And Jesse also goes a little bitstep, a little bit of a step
further and says that it's ayear-defining event.
Whether you complete it andsucceed or not, it's something
(04:36):
that you can look back on andsay, in 2022, I did this.
In 2023, I did this.
Because these years, as y'allknow, are rolling by real fast.
And there's so much going on inall of our lives with our kids
and our spouses and ourrelationships and our jobs and
our own personal goals that thisis kind of an anchor, this big
(05:01):
missogee.
And here's why it matters, inaddition to those things, it
interrupts your autopilot.
We get so busy in the hustle andbustle of busyness.
And a lot of it's because wehave to and because we want to.
I mean, I'm not saying there'sanything wrong with that.
I'm just saying that we get onautopilot and we do the same
things, and this is a way tointerrupt that and focus on
(05:22):
something really big andmeaningful, really scary,
interrupts, you know, whatyou're used to and how you're
used to responding and reactingto things.
And here's a big one, kind of inthat same vein.
It shows you what you're capableof when you're uncomfortable.
Intentionally, like on purpose,uncomfortable.
(05:44):
So here's a few examples ofthings that I've done over the
last few years that have been myMasogis.
In 2022, the Masogi I wastalking about that we were on
our way to while Greg wasreading about it, was called
29029.
You essentially hike theequivalent of Mount Everest
elevation, not on Mount Everest,but like I went to Utah and you
(06:05):
hike up a ski mountain and youride the gondola down and you do
that for 36 hours as the cutoff,and you train for it for months,
and you're hiking to 29,000, 29feet in elevation, and it was
like 30 miles.
I had never done anything likethat.
And there was a highprobability, 50% chance or more,
(06:27):
that I would fail.
And I did actually.
I did not complete the 29,000feet in elevation climb.
I bonked, that's a story foranother time, or maybe I've even
already shared it before.
But it was a year-definingevent.
And it was so much more thanfinishing the elevation hiking
and getting the medal.
(06:47):
And I did get a cute sweatshirtfor that one, a few of them.
But it was the people that Imet.
It was who I met in myself inworking toward that goal.
It was doing something thatinterrupted my autopilot.
I live in Florida.
There's no elevation here.
So it was totally different,different style of training,
different mentality.
(07:09):
Endurance events are their ownthing, for sure.
That was 2022.
In 2023, my husband Greg and Irecorded and released an album
as a band together.
We flew to Seattle twice andrecorded in an iconic studio,
London Bridge Studio, wherePearl Jam 10 and Temple of the
Dog, Chris Cornell, recorded andwe did big songs by both of
(07:33):
those bands.
There was a 50% chance I mightfail and or have a panic attack.
But that trip was very rich forme because it pushed me outside
of my comfort zone as itpertains to what I want to do
with music and my music goalsand kind of brought me back home
(07:53):
to myself and showed me what I'mcapable of.
2024, gosh.
This was kind of an impromptuone, but we hiked a 14er.
There's an episode about that.
A 14er is a 14,000-foot mountainin Colorado or anywhere, but
this one was in Colorado.
There's a lot of Colorado 14ers,and um that was challenging.
(08:17):
Kind of same, kind of the sameas the Mount Everest idea,
except this one we did within 24hours of landing from Florida to
Denver and without any training.
So that was definitely taking usout of autopilot.
And this year in 2025, Ireleased my book, The Reset
Button, that I've been workingon for years, and that was
(08:40):
definitely a disruptoremotionally.
A 50% chance of failure, meaninglike that I may not even
emotionally be able to releaseit, but I did.
And it's definitely been ayear-defining moment for me, a
life-defining moment for me.
And in addition, this year Ialso had the opportunity to sing
(09:01):
in a stadium the national anthemfor a large sporting event,
Supercross.
And I'm grateful for everyone inmy journey that has helped me
either achieve or work towardachieving those goals.
Now, I don't tell you all thatso that you know my life story.
I am just illustrating thatthose are some of the things
(09:23):
that I've done to get me out ofmy comfort zone.
We don't know our limits.
We just know where we like to bewithout too much pain.
This is like putting yourself ina painful situation, whether
that be physical, emotionally,not like in danger, but you know
what I mean.
On purpose, on purpose, pain ordiscomfort to see how far you
(09:45):
can stretch yourself becausestretching equals growth.
So I want you to think aboutMasogis for yourself.
I have a couple for next year.
I'm gonna share those with youat the end of the episode.
I think they're a little bitwild, so stay tuned.
But back to you.
That's what this is reallyabout.
(10:05):
Adopting a Masogi.
It needs to scare you a littlebit.
Do something that like you mightnot be able to actually do.
Do something that scares you alittle bit.
Here's another example.
Maybe you decide to stopdrinking for 30 days.
There's a 50% chance or morethat you might fail that.
So thought-provoking.
(10:26):
Maybe you decide that all yearnext year, you are going to put
your phone down beginning at 8o'clock at night.
Turn it off.
That's scary, right?
That's scary for all of I don'tknow if I can do that as a
Masogi every single day.
My goodness.
Your defining event is that in2026 I shut my phone off at 8
(10:48):
p.m.
Whatever.
Just ideas.
You need to not be able to knowfor sure that you can do it.
Has to scare you.
You're not sure you can do it.
You need to be able to preparefor it mentally and physically a
little bit.
Not impulsive.
So maybe the 14er wasn't a greatexample, but it was one of my
(11:08):
year-defining moments in 2024.
But something you can preparefor, something you work toward,
building character, gettingoutside of your comfort zone,
and developing strength,stretching yourself so that you
learn more about yourself.
The other thing is that it'ssomething that will change your
identity, not your resume.
So maybe the 14er is more oflike a resume thing.
Oh, we did that.
(11:29):
Because the other things that Ireferenced as Masogis, true
Misogis, weren't really aboutthe metal, like when I didn't do
the Everest challengecompletely.
It was about who I became alongthe way, who I had to become to
get there in the first place.
It's the perfect time of year todo this because it's the end of
(11:51):
the year and we're doing a lotof reflection.
There's a lot of chaos duringthe holidays and emotional
overload, whether we want toadmit it or not.
Even if we manage it well, it'sstill there.
It's pretty common to get lostin everyone else's needs because
we're thinking about otherpeople and that's not a negative
thing, but just more so maybethan the norm because we're
(12:14):
going here and doing this andbuying these things.
This is your chance, the end ofthe year, to kind of look
forward into the next year andthink: what's one thing I can do
just for me but will make mebetter for everyone that I love?
What's the thing gonna be that'sgonna be scary and
uncomfortable, but make mebetter, help me grow, push my
(12:35):
limits and learn what they are,and how am I gonna get there?
So I want to know, after yougive it some thought, I want to
know what are your ideas foryour Masogis.
Maybe I'll even do something onsocial media.
So if you're not following me atCameo Elise Braun on Instagram
or at the Cameo Show Podcast onInstagram, best places to catch
clips and catch me.
(12:55):
Uh, you can also email or textthe show.
We have new episodes everyWednesday, which may or may not
be something that is part of oneof my plans for next year, but
that's to be determined if wemake that change.
Um, but for now, make sure youtune back in.
Now, here's the thing I wasgonna share that I wasn't sure I
was gonna share from thebeginning and about my Masogis
(13:17):
for next year.
I don't know yet, but one of myMasogis for next year that
definitely scares me, thatdefinitely disrupts me, that
definitely takes preparation, istotally outside of my comfort
zone, that I have a 50% more ormore chance of failing is
signing up for a fight.
Now I am going to be 43 yearsold in 2026, and I've been
(13:43):
training martial arts for a fewyears.
I like to think my skill set ispretty high.
So we'll see.
But I want to know about yours.
I want to know what you thinkabout this concept of Masogi
versus just goals, like how thatresonates for you, and uh what
you're dreaming about, whatyou're scared of.
(14:07):
Because it, you know, becausethey're scary.
Be vulnerable with yourself.
Really go for it, really thinkabout it.
The biggest thing about a Masogiis that it's scary and
uncomfortable for a reasonbecause a lot of times it proves
to you that you've always hadwhat you needed inside.
You just haven't ever gottenyourself to the limit of
understanding that.
And so, with that, I wish youthe best for this holiday
(14:28):
season.
Maybe your Masogi is justshowing up for family dinner,
just kidding.
We all love our family, we alllove the holiday season and the
challenges it can bring.
And on that note, please join usagain.
Until next time.
Hello and welcome to the Cameo Show.
I'm your host Cameo.
We are in the final countdown ofthe year.
That weird stretch when you'retrying to like finish strong,
but also pretend that Decembercalories and commitments don't
count.
Just me?
I don't know.
Anyway, welcome to the show.
Today we're going to talk aboutsomething that cuts through that
(01:20):
noise, and it's something calleda misogee.
A what ghee?
You ask?
A misogee.
And if you've never heard thatword before, don't worry.
I didn't either until like maybefive or six years ago.
And it just will stick with youforever now.
You're welcome.
I was thinking about it theother day when I was detangling
(01:42):
the garland that goes on my mainroom Christmas tree.
And it took me an embarrassinglylong amount of time to detangle
this garland.
I didn't have music on, I wasn'tlistening to a podcast.
I wasn't watching a show.
I was just detangling thisbeaded garland and letting
myself kind of meditate throughthat process.
(02:05):
Sounds crazy.
I know.
It's not.
It really happened that way.
And as I was doing that, Istarted kind of thinking about
what I'm looking forward to in2026.
What do I want some of my goalsto be?
What direction do I want to gowith some things?
(02:26):
I have to pause this right nowfor my own reference and say
this is timely because what I'mabout to share as one of my
goals for 2026, I just got atext message about wee, it's the
universe.
Anyway.
So I was thinking about what Iwant to look forward to in 2026.
And one of the things that I tryto do every year, in addition to
(02:47):
setting goals, is choose aMasogee.
Let me tell you what it is,finally.
This word originated from aJapanese concept of ritual
purification.
And I heard it from my friendand mentor Jesse Itzler.
And I also, on my way to aMasogi in 2022, it's getting
(03:11):
weird, I know.
I'm sorry.
Follow along.
I was reading, actually, myhusband Greg was reading the
book Comfort Crisis by MichaelEaster, and he was talking about
a Masogee and what it is and whyit's important while we were on
our way to my Masogi.
So modern day Jesse Itzler andMichael Easter, if you don't
know who they are, please checkthem out.
(03:32):
Read their books.
Amazing information, especiallywhen it comes to like physical
endurance and health andwellness.
The modern version of thisJapanese ritual is that you pick
a big, uncomfortable challengeand do it once a year.
Now here's the thing (03:49):
it's not like, oh, I want to do a 10-day
ab challenge, or, and that'sfine if you do, do that.
Or like, for me, I want to, youknow, run three, 5Ks.
I don't know.
That's not one of mine, but itjust popped into my head.
And it may or may not come witha cute sweatshirt.
But what makes this Masogee,this big uncomfortable challenge
(04:13):
that you do for the yearspecial, is that there's a 50%
chance you're gonna fail.
It's that big, it's thatlife-altering.
And Jesse also goes a little bitstep, a little bit of a step
further and says that it's ayear-defining event.
Whether you complete it andsucceed or not, it's something
(04:36):
that you can look back on andsay, in 2022, I did this.
In 2023, I did this.
Because these years, as y'allknow, are rolling by real fast.
And there's so much going on inall of our lives with our kids
and our spouses and ourrelationships and our jobs and
our own personal goals that thisis kind of an anchor, this big
(05:01):
missogee.
And here's why it matters, inaddition to those things, it
interrupts your autopilot.
We get so busy in the hustle andbustle of busyness.
And a lot of it's because wehave to and because we want to.
I mean, I'm not saying there'sanything wrong with that.
I'm just saying that we get onautopilot and we do the same
things, and this is a way tointerrupt that and focus on
(05:22):
something really big andmeaningful, really scary,
interrupts, you know, whatyou're used to and how you're
used to responding and reactingto things.
And here's a big one, kind of inthat same vein.
It shows you what you're capableof when you're uncomfortable.
Intentionally, like on purpose,uncomfortable.
(05:44):
So here's a few examples ofthings that I've done over the
last few years that have been myMasogis.
In 2022, the Masogi I wastalking about that we were on
our way to while Greg wasreading about it, was called
29029.
You essentially hike theequivalent of Mount Everest
elevation, not on Mount Everest,but like I went to Utah and you
(06:05):
hike up a ski mountain and youride the gondola down and you do
that for 36 hours as the cutoff,and you train for it for months,
and you're hiking to 29,000, 29feet in elevation, and it was
like 30 miles.
I had never done anything likethat.
And there was a highprobability, 50% chance or more,
(06:27):
that I would fail.
And I did actually.
I did not complete the 29,000feet in elevation climb.
I bonked, that's a story foranother time, or maybe I've even
already shared it before.
But it was a year-definingevent.
And it was so much more thanfinishing the elevation hiking
and getting the medal.
(06:47):
And I did get a cute sweatshirtfor that one, a few of them.
But it was the people that Imet.
It was who I met in myself inworking toward that goal.
It was doing something thatinterrupted my autopilot.
I live in Florida.
There's no elevation here.
So it was totally different,different style of training,
different mentality.
(07:09):
Endurance events are their ownthing, for sure.
That was 2022.
In 2023, my husband Greg and Irecorded and released an album
as a band together.
We flew to Seattle twice andrecorded in an iconic studio,
London Bridge Studio, wherePearl Jam 10 and Temple of the
Dog, Chris Cornell, recorded andwe did big songs by both of
(07:33):
those bands.
There was a 50% chance I mightfail and or have a panic attack.
But that trip was very rich forme because it pushed me outside
of my comfort zone as itpertains to what I want to do
with music and my music goalsand kind of brought me back home
(07:53):
to myself and showed me what I'mcapable of.
2024, gosh.
This was kind of an impromptuone, but we hiked a 14er.
There's an episode about that.
A 14er is a 14,000-foot mountainin Colorado or anywhere, but
this one was in Colorado.
There's a lot of Colorado 14ers,and um that was challenging.
(08:17):
Kind of same, kind of the sameas the Mount Everest idea,
except this one we did within 24hours of landing from Florida to
Denver and without any training.
So that was definitely taking usout of autopilot.
And this year in 2025, Ireleased my book, The Reset
Button, that I've been workingon for years, and that was
(08:40):
definitely a disruptoremotionally.
A 50% chance of failure, meaninglike that I may not even
emotionally be able to releaseit, but I did.
And it's definitely been ayear-defining moment for me, a
life-defining moment for me.
And in addition, this year Ialso had the opportunity to sing
(09:01):
in a stadium the national anthemfor a large sporting event,
Supercross.
And I'm grateful for everyone inmy journey that has helped me
either achieve or work towardachieving those goals.
Now, I don't tell you all thatso that you know my life story.
I am just illustrating thatthose are some of the things
(09:23):
that I've done to get me out ofmy comfort zone.
We don't know our limits.
We just know where we like to bewithout too much pain.
This is like putting yourself ina painful situation, whether
that be physical, emotionally,not like in danger, but you know
what I mean.
On purpose, on purpose, pain ordiscomfort to see how far you
(09:45):
can stretch yourself becausestretching equals growth.
So I want you to think aboutMasogis for yourself.
I have a couple for next year.
I'm gonna share those with youat the end of the episode.
I think they're a little bitwild, so stay tuned.
But back to you.
That's what this is reallyabout.
(10:05):
Adopting a Masogi.
It needs to scare you a littlebit.
Do something that like you mightnot be able to actually do.
Do something that scares you alittle bit.
Here's another example.
Maybe you decide to stopdrinking for 30 days.
There's a 50% chance or morethat you might fail that.
So thought-provoking.
(10:26):
Maybe you decide that all yearnext year, you are going to put
your phone down beginning at 8o'clock at night.
Turn it off.
That's scary, right?
That's scary for all of I don'tknow if I can do that as a
Masogi every single day.
My goodness.
Your defining event is that in2026 I shut my phone off at 8
(10:48):
p.m.
Whatever.
Just ideas.
You need to not be able to knowfor sure that you can do it.
Has to scare you.
You're not sure you can do it.
You need to be able to preparefor it mentally and physically a
little bit.
Not impulsive.
So maybe the 14er wasn't a greatexample, but it was one of my
(11:08):
year-defining moments in 2024.
But something you can preparefor, something you work toward,
building character, gettingoutside of your comfort zone,
and developing strength,stretching yourself so that you
learn more about yourself.
The other thing is that it'ssomething that will change your
identity, not your resume.
So maybe the 14er is more oflike a resume thing.
Oh, we did that.
(11:29):
Because the other things that Ireferenced as Masogis, true
Misogis, weren't really aboutthe metal, like when I didn't do
the Everest challengecompletely.
It was about who I became alongthe way, who I had to become to
get there in the first place.
It's the perfect time of year todo this because it's the end of
(11:51):
the year and we're doing a lotof reflection.
There's a lot of chaos duringthe holidays and emotional
overload, whether we want toadmit it or not.
Even if we manage it well, it'sstill there.
It's pretty common to get lostin everyone else's needs because
we're thinking about otherpeople and that's not a negative
thing, but just more so maybethan the norm because we're
(12:14):
going here and doing this andbuying these things.
This is your chance, the end ofthe year, to kind of look
forward into the next year andthink: what's one thing I can do
just for me but will make mebetter for everyone that I love?
What's the thing gonna be that'sgonna be scary and
uncomfortable, but make mebetter, help me grow, push my
(12:35):
limits and learn what they are,and how am I gonna get there?
So I want to know, after yougive it some thought, I want to
know what are your ideas foryour Masogis.
Maybe I'll even do something onsocial media.
So if you're not following me atCameo Elise Braun on Instagram
or at the Cameo Show Podcast onInstagram, best places to catch
clips and catch me.
(12:55):
Uh, you can also email or textthe show.
We have new episodes everyWednesday, which may or may not
be something that is part of oneof my plans for next year, but
that's to be determined if wemake that change.
Um, but for now, make sure youtune back in.
Now, here's the thing I wasgonna share that I wasn't sure I
was gonna share from thebeginning and about my Masogis
(13:17):
for next year.
I don't know yet, but one of myMasogis for next year that
definitely scares me, thatdefinitely disrupts me, that
definitely takes preparation, istotally outside of my comfort
zone, that I have a 50% more ormore chance of failing is
signing up for a fight.
Now I am going to be 43 yearsold in 2026, and I've been
(13:43):
training martial arts for a fewyears.
I like to think my skill set ispretty high.
So we'll see.
But I want to know about yours.
I want to know what you thinkabout this concept of Masogi
versus just goals, like how thatresonates for you, and uh what
you're dreaming about, whatyou're scared of.
(14:07):
Because it, you know, becausethey're scary.
Be vulnerable with yourself.
Really go for it, really thinkabout it.
The biggest thing about a Masogiis that it's scary and
uncomfortable for a reasonbecause a lot of times it proves
to you that you've always hadwhat you needed inside.
You just haven't ever gottenyourself to the limit of
understanding that.
And so, with that, I wish youthe best for this holiday
(14:28):
season.
Maybe your Masogi is justshowing up for family dinner,
just kidding.
We all love our family, we alllove the holiday season and the
challenges it can bring.
And on that note, please join usagain.
Until next time.
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