January can feel like a trick of light—too slow, too long, and just honest enough to make you face what you’ve been dodging. We wade into that stretch with a messy mix of car trouble, online yoga teacher training, and a brand-new job in solar that drops me onto a dialer with a script, a headset, and a whole lot of resistance. What starts as a hustle for stability turns into a study in patience, discipline, and the weirdly tender art of staying with yourself when the room is silent and the stakes feel loud.

I share what it’s like to trade studio energy for at-home modules, and why self-paced learning is both a gift and a trap. We unpack the solar landscape—good programs, bad actors, and how to keep ethics front and center—then zoom in on cold calling as a crash course in shadow work. People-pleasing, fear of no, the urge to abandon your point just to be liked: it all shows up. The script, surprisingly, becomes a life raft. Memorize your foundation, and you get to improvise without losing yourself. That lesson echoes in performance, sales, and any creative pursuit that asks you to hold steady while you learn in public.

There’s a softer thread too: crying as a reset, resilience as repetition, and the eighth house of astrology as a map for transformation you can’t rush. Think year of the snake—shedding skin that clings in places, moving slower than your ego wants, trusting that relief arrives when it’s ready. If you’re navigating a season of becoming, this conversation offers practical footing and emotional company: show up, choose again tomorrow, and let gravity do its quiet work.

If this resonated, tap follow, share it with a friend who’s in the awkward middle, and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.

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Instagram: @tiam.podcast & @joyscout.mo

For Guest Inquiries, collaborations, and questions:

Email Mo: mo@joyscoutstudio.com

“Don’t get Deterred, get Inspired”

Mo shares how a week long fever made her burn through identity, ego, and preferences. She shares how a brutal flu made her renegotiate food, comfort, and control: jello for texture, watermelon for water, spaghetti for sanity, and the realization that “good” choices look different when the only goal is to feel better.

This week she digs into the spirituality behind sickness. When your fever peaks at 105 degrees, you start having a different kind of conversation. She spent the week clearing and recalibrating. The takeaway isn’t “suffer more to grow.” It’s this: when life strips away your usual story, the body’s wisdom gets louder, and the smallest wins—breathing easier, tasting something gentle, sitting in the light—can reassemble who you are with more care than any resume or ritual. Listen, share with a friend who needs a reset, and if this moved you, follow the show, rate it, and leave a review with your own mantra for noisy nights.

Do you want to be on This is a Metaphor? Send Us a Text!

Instagram: @tiam.podcast & @joyscout.mo

For Guest Inquiries, collaborations, and questions:

Email Mo: mo@joyscoutstudio.com

“Don’t get Deterred, get Inspired”

We enter 2026 by trading performance for meaning, letting “yearn” guide how we make, love, and choose what matters. From a cold Tampa night that turned radiant to a creative rejection that became craft, we map how to turn longing into honest work—something more aligned than desire.

• pressure and pitfalls of year-end recaps
• choosing meaning over performance and applause
• the power of dropping expectations at a concert
• yearning versus desire as a creative compass
• finishing a bold 4x4 artwork and starting a book
• mobile studio delays and surrendering timelines
• a storyboard pitch loss and the skill it grew
• storyboards as living maps, not scriptures
• bike metaphor for process and flow
• texting an ex, meeting the ache with craft
• turning longing into stories instead of spirals
• making space so the right story can arrive

Let us know in the comments what you’re yearning for, and if you know the visceral feeling that comes with it.

Do you want to be on This is a Metaphor? Send Us a Text!

Instagram: @tiam.podcast & @joyscout.mo

For Guest Inquiries, collaborations, and questions:

Email Mo: mo@joyscoutstudio.com

“Don’t get Deterred, get Inspired”