Going freelance can be a very scary leap, but if you do it the possibility of doing work you enjoy and getting paid well for that work can go up drastically.

For this podcast I sat down with Jennifer Piatkowski to talk about her recent move into freelance design after working as a graphic designer for years. She has some fantastic advice for taking the leap out of a stifling job that isn't paying you what your worth nor giving you the time to pursue other things and into something that allows you to live life on your own terms.

Building a startup as a foreigner in Japan challenges you to be maximally effective and always look for the 10x return.

Japan is a paradoxical place, where technology is very advanced in some areas, but completely behind the times in others. This is why there is so much room for startups to massively disrupt billion dollar (trillion yen) markets here. Jordan Fisher is one such entrepreneur, looking to disrupt the local services industry in Japan with his startup Zehitomo:

In this podcast, we’ll talk about:

• Challenging assumptions about Japan from foreign perspectives
• Getting the right team behind you so you can be maximally effective
• Company culture and not having “language allergies” when working in mutli-cultural teams
• Early on focusing on the most valuable “10x opportunities” and shelving trendy online marketing tools that don’t bring in as strong a return
• Founder advice and Japanese as a requirement for building a company here.

You can find out more about Zehitomo on their website, and get in touch with Jordan on LinkedIn or by meeting him at the many events he speaks at in Tokyo.

If you've ever struggled with your image of yourself, or not enjoying your life in Japan, this episode is for you.

So many of our issues come from our own self-talk and how we view ourselves. This week I sat down with Rin Ishikawa, a coach who started her own coaching practice called "Jiaiii" (self-love in Japanese) to help people to take care of themselves mentally as well as physically. We talk about:

• Why Rin started coaching and her difficult past as a returnee in Japan.
• The mindset shifts Rin helps her "tribe" go through so that they can see themselves positively, sometimes after years of self-loathing and self-sabotage.
• Where some of our really painful and destructive thoughts come from and how to change your inner dialogue to enjoy and find success in life.

You can find Rin on Facebook, on Instagram @jiaiii_lifecoach and you can find her website here.

If you're not happy with your English teaching, there are a lot more things you can do about it than you might think.

However, it needs to be you taking action. No magic high-paying teaching job is going to drop in your lap, and nobody owes you a good job.

On this podcast I'll talk about:

• Making more money as an English teacher and what options that opens up.
• Making "finding a job" your job. Treat it like it's work you are doing and you'll suddenly have so many opportunities you won't know what to do with them.
• Adjusting your resume for every job you apply for.
• Getting a thick skin and realising that if you didn't get the job, it's probably because you could have done better at the interview or represented yourself better on your resume.

¥250,000 is the standard salary for an English teacher in Japan.

It’s not a lot of money, even less than even trainee teachers make in the UK, but in Japan this hasn’t changed in decades and recently has even started to trend down. Why is this still the standard? It’s because we allow it to be by accepting these jobs.

On this podcast I'll talk about:

• One of the most powerful mindset changes I have done: always take responsibility for my choices and the consequences of those choices
• You don’t need to get stuck at ¥250k, because that too is a choice
• We often don't think about the long term consequences of short term impact decisions.
• How to be happy and make choices that benefit your career in Japan
• Write down what qualifications, experience and skills top paying jobs are looking for, and then start obtaining those proficiencies
• Complaining gets you nowhere in Japan

Make a new choice and take control of your career in Japan. You are not the standard, so believe in yourself enough to demand more.

Lynn Sun is a consultant in Tokyo and can give you inside knowledge into this dynamic and fast moving work here.

In this podcast we sat down and talked about:

• Passing the N1 after coming to Japan.
• Working as a CIR in local government near Tokyo.
• Getting into consulting jobs in Japan; what should you look for, and what are some red flags?
• What is consulting work in Japan really like and what kind of person would enjoy this kind of job?
• How to get ahead in consulting jobs even if you're getting bad projects.

Vorkers - a great resource for reviews on companies from employees

Glassdoor - another review site to find out about a company's reputation.

I've got Hee Gun Eom on the podcast to talk about building a coworking space in Tokyo!

In this podcast (among other things) we talked about:

• Growing up a "third culture" kid in Japan and attending Tokyo American School
• Coming back from studying in the US to help the family business
• Helping young people in Japan by teaching entrepreneurial programs to give them alternatives to 就活 (shukatsu - the Japanese job hunting system)
• Getting funding from the Japanese government to help start the coworking space
• Staying open to collaboration and creating a community of makers and creatives.

Find out more about Nishiogi Place here.

I met Thomas when we were both taking Seth Godin’s altMBA. He's a videogame and fashion designer based in Osaka, and he has a lot to share about business, marketing and design.