Meet Miki

We were lucky to catch up with Miki recently and have shared our conversation below.

Miki, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

So many people may say I am confident and have high self-esteem because I have succeeded or I can do stuff better. In fact, I would say, I am confident because I have tried a lot and also failed a lot as well, and I know failing is not the end of the world.
My internship in Africa was about to be canceled a day before departure, but it was not at the end of the world. I started online English tutor business and didn’t run the business well, but it was not at the end of the world. I was grinding to take my real estate business off but had long struggle, but it was not at the end of the world.

I always welcome challenges. whenever I face challenges, I tell myself “I am facing this because I am moving forward” and “it is hard because I am climbing up” so in that way, I enjoy difficulties. Also, even if it doesn’t work out, it is usually really small that you will lose. Most of the time, pride is the biggest part people lose, but I don’t really have any pride to lose in a good way.

Right now, I am working on creating my own stationary brand and create my journal as my passion project. I had already had some hiccups, like having hard time finding printers, struggled with working with wrong designers, tariff issue… but whenever I face to my struggles, the only two choices I have is either 1)keep it going, or 2)quit. Even I quit, I wouldn’t call it a failure.

I think not caring the concept of “failing” in general is what makes me look confident.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I have two main forces right now; real estate and building my own journal brand.

When I moved to the United States from Japan in 2020, I had couple choices in terms of my career; 1)going back to my corporate job in Apple (I used to work for Apple Japan Inc in Tokyo before I moved here), 2)just be a house wife and full time mom, or 3)start something I always wanted to do. I thought about “okay, if I don’t have to have money motivation or don’t need to work right away to make money, what would I really wanna do?” and that was real estate. My husband is huge into crypto currency and I was huge into stock trading, but we were missing real estate in our portfolio. I was always interested in real estate investment, so I decided to take this new start of my life with this new challenge. However, I know literally nothing about real estate even in Japan, so how in the world I know real estate here in the US? and I thought, “well working in the industry is the fastest way to learn about the industry”, so I decided to get the real estate license. It was a hard journey too since English is still my second language, and also I was pregnant at that time. I remember I went to a library a lot to study, and after my son was born, I was studying in the middle of the night while I was feeding him. After I got my license, I started working under Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, but first year was brutally hard year for me.
Adjusting my life from old self to new self as a mom, raising a child being so so far away from my family and friends back in Japan, and literal grinding everyday for real estate without knowing if I would ever take off or not with pouring money for license fee, brokerage fee, marketing fee, and what not. How many times I wanted to quit? SO MANY TIMES. How many times I was feeling ashamed of myself? EVERYDAY. but I stuck with it. I was telling myself “I am not doing this for quick and easy money, I am doing this to learn and also push me out of my comfort zone”. Also, my husband who is also a business owner supported me mentally A LOT and taught me to stay grinding and keep moving forward. There is a favorite quote from my high school teacher “If what you are doing is hard for you, that means you are climbing UP. Stay climbing up and one day you will see how far you have come”. I was telling myself this quote a lot during the first year in motherhood, and first year in real estate.
Now, I work with a lot of amazing clients who sell, buy, and invest in properties, and also I have many Japanese clients as well. My recent biggest project is working with Japanese private equity company for investment in Denver metro area. I love all of my clients, but when I get to help them understand the process and concept of real estate in Japanese, this makes me feel the journey was so worth it. Right now, my husband and I are working on learning more about real estate investment. we are currently working on one flip and rental property and hope to expand real estate in our portfolio in next coming 5 years.

One more thing I am working on right now is creating my own journal brand. One of my new year resolutions in 2025 was to “start something I always wanted to start”, which is my own stationary brand or lifestyle brand.

When I moved to the United States, I started keeping 5 year diary just for fun, but it did more than “fun” for me. 5 year journal taught me my thought pattern (good and bad ones), taught a lot about myself, and also helped me pat my back and tell my self “I am doing good”. As perfectionist and with my imposter syndrome, I have been always my hardest critics. I never give myself a break and keep go go go go go. And I always see “what I can do better and more”, not “What I have done and accomplished”, but keeping the 5 year diary really changed how I see myself. Keeping that diary now help me see how hard I was working last year or 2 years ago, how much I was struggled and how much I wanted to quit but didn’t quit, and how I am doing this year now. When I realized that, I was finally able to tell my self “I am proud of you, past you! Thank you for not giving up on me”. It is not just about business and entrepreneur side of me. As new mom, as new immigrant to this country, I have so many things I want to thank my past self but I was able to realize that because of the 5 year journal. As I was filling the final box of the journal this year, I decided to create my own 5 year journal. Of course this journey already comes with ups and downs, some sprinkle of anxiety too, but I am enjoying 4 wheeling over all the challenges. when I face challenges or when things are not going in the way I was hoping, I even thing “Hooray! I am moving forward and hence why I am facing this wall!”. I am so excited to start selling my very first journal at the end of this year, and cannot wait to create the other journals I am hoping to make next year already.

Sometimes my life looks so scattered around, but looking back, all the dots are connected somehow and leading me to where I am, so I want to keep following where my heart leads and enjoy the ride.

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?

1. finances and investment
It is always good to know how to make your money, manage your money, and live below your means. For me, money is not what will give me luxury stuff or rewards. Money is the tool for me to try something new, build something you are passionate about, and/or make me more money. I think one of the first wall all entrepreneur will face is financial wall. I don’t think you don’t have to fund it all the time by yourself, but I am so glad I knew how to handle money and not being a slave of money and using it as a tool.

2. awareness to your own vulnerability
I used to think “I want to do it all by myself without any help”. That’s why I learned a lot about web design, tools, technologies, and all to make my goal come true. Looking back, of course it helped me a lot in a way, but I could see I was losing focus because I didn’t let me be vulnerable and let me ask for help to somebody already know that field or have the skill. It will be great if you can do it all, of course, and it will surely save money for you, but it usually doesn’t save your time. There are reasons why there are professionals in the field, so I should have just admit that that is not my speciality and seek help. Focusing on what you really want to do is more important than doing all yourself. I learned that lesson in hard way and now I work with multiple contractors, designers, and what not.

3. web design knowledge
Even though I said “I should have hired somebody instead of doing it all myself”, I am glad I learned the basic of web design in my 20s. When you have idea, product or service to sell, and fund to start the business, next wall you will hit is “putting a life into the idea” and “advertising”. I think speed is really important to keep the momentum going and I am glad I can just build the website with my idea dan inspiration. I created a website for Japanese moms and dads who are raising children around Denver metro area and share what kind of public program all parents should know or talk about cool spots to go to with kids around Denver. Now I ran Japanese family community in Denver metro area to host some playdate or event. and it bring good traffic to my website, which helped my website to have multiple access, helped have more visibility, and I have had multiple real estate clients from the website too.

Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?

My husband and family including my in laws. My family has family business, my brother has his own business, my uncle has his own business, my husband is also a business owner of 10+ year, and my father in law is now retired, but had his own business. I think knowing someone who knows good and bad of owing business is always good and you will constantly learn so many thing from each one of them.
Especially my husband has been the biggest cheerleader and believer in me. He also has his own IT support business for more than 10+ years and he started from nothing and he knows how hard it is to go through the grinding phase but also he knows it is worth it. He taught me that having challenges are part of the package, and he is happy when I am struggling (in a good way!!).

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