I’m a Tokyo-based writer and mindfulness meditation teacher. I’ve published hundreds of articles around the topics of psychology, wellness, and careers. I’ve been featured on HuffPost, Forbes, and Inc. and write a weekly Substack newsletter with thousands of readers. I speak from my personal experience as an entrepreneur who’s built a venture-funded startup, been through severe burnout and recovered to tell the tale.
Writer, Various
May 2014 - PRESENT
I write about health, wellness, meditation, psychology, careers, and spiritual growth. I have over 12k subs and 11.7 million views on my content on Quora, Substack and personal blog
Author of four books self-published on Amazon related to careers, meaning and work with 10,000 + downloads.
Selected Articles: 5 Strategies I Used for Burnout Recovery, What Freediving Taught me About Paying Attention, The Paradox of Intention, My 2-Year Experiment With Morning Routines, Why Japanese Food is Just Better, The Benefits of Long-Term Water Fasting, 5 Common Misconceptions about Meditation
Tokyo Mindfulness, Tokyo - Founder & Teacher
May 2022 - PRESENT
Founded TokyoMindfulness.com, Eye-Gazing and Fasting meets up with over 500 active members and weekly Thursday sessions covering mindfulness basics, breath-focused, vipassana and loving kindness meditation
Organized and led several in person well-being experiences in Tokyo, from breath-work, water-fasting, to eye-gazing meditation, gathering dozens of participants
Planned and hosted a 3-day wellness retreat in Nagano, Japan. Activities included vipassana meditation, holotropic breath-work, active meditation, mindful eating and cold immersion training
Led group coaching sessions around mindfulness in a circle for non-judgmental communication & active listening with 10-15 participants at a time; discussion topics include spirituality, enlightenment, and dealing with tough emotions
Carrus.io, Tokyo and Amsterdam - Founder & CEO / Coach
Carrus is a global 1-1 career coaching platform that connects people to the top experts in tech.
May 2019 - December 2022
Founded, built and successfully exited an online 1-1 coaching platform from scratch, recruiting over 150 qualified coaches from Amazon, Google, Meta, etc. to coach on interview and offer negotiation preparation
Personally coached hundreds of job seekers on CV review, interview prep and offer negotiation across the globe via video calls and in-person sessions
Raised $300k+ money from angel investors worldwide, including VNV, a micro-VC, targeting USA, Europe and Japan as core markets
Launched paid, organic marketing campaigns and webinars growing to 50,000 MAUs and $600k in yearly revenues with a scrappy team of 3 FTEs and 5 freelancers
Peaked at over 150 coaching sessions per month and successfully helped thousands of job seekers secure interviews and hundreds receive job offers from leading GAFA companies
Wahl & Case K.K. - Manager
Wahl & Case is a Japanese recruitment firm that supports global technology clients.
June 2013 - July 2017
Hired and recruited over 100+ Japanese and foreign employees to work in the tech industry, creating over 1 billion yen in value in the Japanese job market.
Coached thousands of candidates on their job search, career path, and finding the right role in Japan, Asia and the U.S.
Directly managed over 20+ global technology and agency clients including Amazon, Rakuten, Facebook, Netflix, Airbnb, Uber, Expedia, Education First, Spotify, Mercari and Dentsu.
Developed international startup clients from scratch through extensive travel to Silicon Valley, Jakarta, Hong Kong and Singapore to support their market entry to Japan.
Built, hired and trained a high-performing sales team. We over-achieved 140% of the target (over $1m USD) and set a new company sales record in 2016.
EDUCATION
University of Texas, Austin - International Relations and Minor in East Asian Studies
May 2009 - May 2013
Sophia University - FLA 1-year Study Abroad Program
MONTH 2011-2012
CERTIFICATIONS
Completed Mindfulness Based Stress-Reduction Program (MBSR)
Completed Breathwork Training Course “Control Your Breath” by Tim Van Der Vliet
2-year Mindfulness Teacher Training program with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach (completion date 2024).
EXTRACURRICULAR, ACTIVITIES AND VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE
Volunteer in Tohoku to clean and transport debris in 2015 and 2016
Half Marathon, 30k and Marathon Runner. Amateur freediver.
Traveled to over 25 countries. 10+ years of daily meditation, experience in multiple long-term silent retreats, breathwork retreats, attended various psychedelic retreats
Native English speaker, Japanese Conversational/Business, Russian conversational, French conversational