Entrepreneur Episodes

The phrase "Do what you love and you never have to work another day in your life" fits Mac Salman perfectly. Mac left the finance industry and pursued his passions - Travel, Japan, and tasty spirits. We discuss his customized tour business Maction Planet where he has never conducted the same itinerary twice. Then his pivot to Kanpai Planet when the pandemic halted Japan tourism. We discuss these two businesses and life in Tokyo while we sample three "Japan Related" tequilas. Mac is an inimitable...

It's a real feel-good conversation with uber positive and incredibly humble entrepreneur Anthony Griffin. He is the founder of Saga Consulting where he "helps organizations and individuals tell their story to the world". It's global communications through excellent copy-writing, digital marketing, and cross-cultural coaching. Anthony often writes insightful and though-provoking articles for Kokoro Media on LinkedIn. He is especially passionate about Japanese language learning and frequently offe...

Have you ever dreamed of an ultimate luxury vacation in Japan? If so, then Alex Debs is your man. He is the founder of Hitotoki, the Luxury Travel Designer. This episode you will hear all the intimate details of luxury travel planning in Japan including the most demanding request his team was tasked with. We find out how he has been coping despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, the struggles as a small & specialized agency and dealing with the large Japan travel associations, exclusiv...

Jeff Crawford is the president of Zo Digital, a bi-lingual digital marketing agency he founded over seven years ago. He describes many of the mistakes foreign companies make when setting up their web presence in Japan and explains how to remedy these issues. What hidden gems can be discovered in your site analytics to improve eCom sales. Why Japanese sites are often so busy and loud. Simple and practical advise on how to increase traffic and improve conversion rates through "Authoritativeness" a...

Neil Butler is a 40-year Tokyo veteran and CEO / Publisher of Metropolis Magazine. Neil is well-known in Japan from his successful 13 year stint with Australian Meat & Livestock where he coined the catch-phrase "Aussie Beef" and you will hear this great marketing success story during this episode. However for the past 13 years, he has been the driving force behind the free Tokyo magazine Metropolis and its on-line version. Neil talks about his numerous challenges he has faced in the publishing b...

Deanna Elstrom is a veteran brand marketer, brand strategist, and consumer insights specialist. She has recently launched her own company called Somi Insights, where she combines her love of branding with a fascination of how culture influences human behavior. Japanese consumers is a key area of Deanna's expertise as she led two major agencies during the past seven years in Japan. We discuss the the Japanese name "Somi" which she coined, we learn the big difference between "insights" and "findin...

Award-winning broadcaster and radio host Guy Perryman. Guy's soothing and melodic voice has been heard throughout Japan for the past 30 years starting with the launch of Virgin Megastores in 1990 and then Tokyo's InterFM since 1997. In addition, he's a voice actor, event producer, and writer. He has DJ'd for British Royalty and interviewed 100's of world famous artists and businessmen from Paul McCartney and Sting to Richard Branson and designer Paul Smith. We discuss some of these interactions ...

Jared Campion is the co-founder of Dream Drive, a customized Camper Van rental company. Only a little over one-year old, Dream Drive is seeing its business expand exponentially despite the current situation. How did the original idea for Dream Drive come about and what were the many hurdles in Japan for a foreigner to start a customized rental van company in Japan. Despite extremely high capital investment for a niche Japanese market, Jared's dream for Dream Drive is coming true. Other topics we...

Get ready for 32-year Japan entrepreneur Ruth Jarman. She is the founder of Jarman International, a company assisting Japanese destinations and organizations connect with foreign visitors through customized marketing, curated business strategies, and training programs to help them grow and globalize. Or as Ruth likes to say "helping Japan ease into the international age". She is full of infectious energy and passion, and has a lot of great stories. Together we share many laughs, unique insights,...

This episode I share IPA's with Dr. David Sweet. David is 20-year Japan resident, a sales superstar, best selling author, serial entrepreneur, certified business coach, and one of the best recruiters I know in Japan. We are at the Oak Door, located in the Grand Hyatt in Roppongi. In this part one of two episodes, we share entertaining stories about business life in Japan. Some highlights include: Pearls of wisdom from his book "Sweet Sales" (over 20k copies sold) Examples of emotional sel...