Meet Miho Hatanaka

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Miho Hatanaka. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Miho below.

Hi Miho, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.

My optimism come from knowing my purpose and goals. In 2019, I wrote my bucket list of 100 things I want. Things I want to have, things I want to do, things I want to do for other people. From then, I’ve developed a habit of writing down and journaling to fulfill my dreams. I’ve been a dreamer but I didn’t know where to start, so writing down my dreams and goals really helped me organize my thoughts. Reflecting back on what I’ve journaled helped me to identify there are little things I can start working on. Now I see my big audacious goal as like summiting a mountain, one step at a time. So my optimism comes from knowing where I am going and looking forward to the view from the summit! I keep revisiting my purpose time to time, my purpose has grown over time too, so now I have a really really big mountain that I’m climbing. I want to build a healthy, supportive, prosperous community and businesses that supports all healers & healthcare workers.

Also, this year I decided to stop worrying. There’s enough negativity in the world so I don’t need to contribute to that. Then that propelled me to be better and inspire me to create a more positive and peaceful community.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

House Nine wellness & tea is located in Portland, Oregon. We exist to expand connection through embodied wisdom.
We offer a space for self care and holistic wellness services including massage therapy and nutrition. We love helping clients who are invested in their wellbeing and proactive about their health.

We advocate for regular self care and get routine massage therapy. Our talented practitioners have amazing knowledge on health and wellbeing, so they educate our clients on how to take care of their body at home through some tools that you may have at home or they can pick up one we carry at our store. When you come in for a service with us, we offer herbal teas that are designed to complement your self-care service. They are blended in house with locally sourced herbs.

Starting 2025, we’re offering holistic nutrition coaching program to help busy professional gain confidence in their diet and body through mindful approach. Many people are fighting, frightened, confused, and uneasy about what they eat. We want to help people become more comfortable in their skin while enjoying the foods they like. Our goal is to help those struggling to get out of the rut and become the best version of themselves without sacrificing their health or nutrition. We believe food is here to nourish and sustain us so that we can enjoy the time with our loved ones.

The upbringing of House Nine is rather unconventional so I’d like to share: October 2019, I had an epiphany that I wanted to build a holistic wellness center. So I googled wellness centers in Portland, Oregon, I found a business sale listing of a massage therapy clinic. At first, I had no intention of purchasing the business nor had the funds to, the owner and I really connected and she negotiated with me a seller financing for me to take over the business. Along the journey, she introduced me to Sarah Shah, a licensed massage therapist and now my business partner to take over the business together.
We acquired the business on January 29th, 2020. Little did we know about what would unfold in a mere month of taking over the business. The pandemic really tested our ability to be resourceful, resilient, and optimistic despite the crisis. During that time, we renovated the physical space and overhauled the business operations. We’re going into 5th year of operation and we have a team of talented practitioners with big vision. We’re excited to see more great things unfold in the next coming years!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Breaking the glass ceiling of our childhood – Growing up, I knew I had something in me to be bigger and do more to contribute in the world. My family immigrated from Japan to the United State when I was 11 years old. We didn’t have money much money and my dad was a sole proprietor as a commercial HVAC mechanic. My mom was a stay at home mom and she always hunted for bargains. Without knowing, my parents taught me to stay small, play it safe, marry good guy, etc, etc. During my 20s, I struggled a lot internally. I just didn’t know what I didn’t know then and nobody taught me to think outside of the box. Since then I’ve invested thousands of dollars in personal development and working within myself to break free from that box my parents lovingly put me in. I’ve gained tremendous amount of self confidence and ability to solve challenging problems that would have knocked me over in my 20s.

Curiosity – questioning the status quo. One thing my parents taught that I kept after breaking my childhood glass ceiling is the curiosity mindset and the ability to answer my questions through my own actions. Like many kids, I had a lot of questions for my parents. But my parents, intentionally or unintentionally, didn’t answer my questions. Instead they would tell me to pull the dictionary (it was before internet) to answer your own questions. That has taught me the ability to seek answers for my questions on my own. I got so much gratification by the answers I can find in the daily questions that popped in my head by pulling dictionaries and going to the library to find books about it.

Money Mindset as healthcare practitioners – As healthcare professionals, we’re such givers. It’s been hard to accept the capitalistic system and people exploiting the system to maximize shareholder profit. But as a business owner and having to learn more about the economics of running a small business, it has expanded my mind. Now I see money and finance in a whole different way. I feel more abundant without the need to chase after money, not because I have more, but having abundant mindset made me feel more secure and confident in everyday monetary transactions.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

I would love to collaborate more with other wellness and health practitioners who support preventative medicine and routine self care. If you are a yoga teacher, mental health therapists, massage therapist, nutritionist, or life coach, I’d love to collaborate with you on hosting online events, in person events if you’re in Portland Oregon.
I believe in order to support wellbeing of our clients comes through supportive communities and to achieve success as health and wellness practitioner is through collaboration. Please DM me @mindfulmiho on Instagram!

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