'Designing Emotional Experiences': The Loving and Strict Coach's Approach to Talent Development

My title is 'Loving Demon Coach', and I am involved in human resource development and youth support. Broadly speaking, there are two main areas: one is teaching at universities. I have had the opportunity to speak at Japanese universities and also at China Culture University in Taiwan, where I give lectures on hospitality management and, in the case of Taiwan, about finding employment in Japan. The other area is as a human resource development consultant, primarily focusing on youth development. Additionally, with the increase in foreign employees, I am now teaching Japanese business manners to help foreign employees acclimate to Japan.

It was a series of coincidences. I had been away from Japan for 20 years. After the bubble burst, I wanted to join an airline in Japan, but there were no openings. Fortunately, I joined Thai Airways, which has a base in Bangkok, Thailand, and I flew for six years. Then I met a Taiwanese person and moved to Taiwan. When I returned to Japan and looked for work, it was difficult to find a job in 2013 and 2014. So, I started with a part-time job at a corrective underwear shop, and through that, I was offered a chance to teach at a university where the husband of an administrative staff member at the school my daughter attends was the dean. From there, through a serendipitous connection, I discovered the enjoyable world of being a lecturer.

When people think of hospitality, they often associate it with words like 'omotenashi' (Japanese hospitality). However, to me, hospitality is about designing and providing an emotional experience. An emotional experience, for example, when you receive a service that unexpectedly brings you joy or happiness, it leaves a lasting impression. That kind of setup, where you also enjoy seeing the recipient's happy face, is what hospitality is. My training aims to systematize the design and provision of emotional experiences so that staff can replicate them.

If you push too hard on today's young people, they will become exhausted and quit, affecting retention rates. It's about how to make it enjoyable. If the employees are not enjoying themselves, it won't be conveyed to the customers. So, I mainly focus on encouraging staff by highlighting how to enjoy themselves and how they can find enjoyment. However, the title 'Loving Demon Coach' was just a catchy title I wanted; I approach everyone with a lot of love. Since I have daughters who are now 25 and 22 years old, I see all employees as my daughters' friends and treat them with a mother's heart.

I discovered my passion for lecturing when I was invited to teach at a university in 2015. While teaching there, from around 2018 and 2019, companies started asking me to help with human resource development and youth guidance. Mistakenly thinking I could do this job, I registered as a sole proprietor. With the Olympics approaching, I had a lot of work coming in, but then the unexpected COVID-19 came, and everything was wiped out. It all became a blank slate. At that point, I thought about not considering being a sole proprietor and just teaching at the university and getting by. However, through a certain trigger, I saw an advertisement on SNS for 'How an Unsuccessful Seminar Instructor Can Make Money,' which I thought was about me, and I joined the course. After learning how to get work, I started getting jobs and, at 53, I incorporated my business.

I often go to places for customer service training, and it varies. For example, I probably have the most experience in Japan with beauty clinics, which are opening rapidly, almost in a construction rush. Sometimes, I go to the entrance of a clinic that is still under construction. With a staff of about 10 people, I open my laptop and show them my screen, demonstrating that I can do it anywhere. My strength is that I don't act superior because I'm a teacher, I don't demand a screen or anything prepared; I just bring my computer and can do it in any conference room, operating room, or anywhere else.

Recently, there was a time when I received an anti-comment on SNS. 'You should stop talking in such a weird way,' 'You should stop adding voice.' When I happily responded with 'Wow,' a former student from six years ago, who had taken my class, replied positively about me. Such reunions make me think I can't quit this job. I teach hospitality at a university, and many students want to become cabin attendants. Coincidentally, I met one on a plane, which was moving. At that time, I was still a relatively new lecturer with many shortcomings, but a postcard from a Japanese airline, which often sends messages to customers, was filled with words of praise for me. They wrote that I was still a novice lecturer, but they admired me and got a similar job because of me. Such words from former students years later are truly heartwarming and make me cry.

Having the opportunity to influence young people and being able to have a chance to make a positive impact is something I'm very proud of.

There are various industries and styles in coaching. However, coaching is often described as accompanying someone to achieve their future goals. If there are various unresolved issues in the past, one cannot leap into the future. So, to clear those past issues, there is counseling and hearing, which helps to clear them, turning a negative into a zero, and from there, going from zero to 100. This zero to 100 leap is the domain of coaching. The negative part, though not coaching, is counseling and hearing.

Well, since I'm not raising children now, my work is my life. I love work as life; work is my hobby, my joy, and my fuel. In my generation, working wasn't encouraged, and I was a full-time housewife until my younger daughter turned 10, so even when I started working, I did so in a way that didn't interfere with my children's activities. I used to work around my children's schedules, but now it's different. I love being busy. When people at work say, 'It must have been tough with all the work piling up,' I think there's nothing worse than being idle; idleness damages your mental state. In the end, if your hobby becomes your work, it's the best, and I feel that trying to separate them doesn't create something good. After all, things that are useful in life can become business value, so there's no need to create a boundary, and frankly, I question the idea of trying to separate or create boundaries itself.

I attend study sessions, and now I'm taking university classes online. Since my job requires constantly updating with new information, I'm currently taking a course on well-being at Yale University. You often hear the term well-being, right? It's about being happy in every aspect of life, work, and everything else. Although the definition of well-being varies depending on who you ask, I believe it's about being able to feel happy and grateful in every aspect of life.

At first, for example, teaching at a university, the hourly rate was less than 1000 yen. The harder I worked, the less it seemed to translate into money, especially when I spent nights writing detailed feedback for students. However, I didn't feel like I was losing out because I was doing it because I wanted to. Regarding my current job, if I charge too low, my branding would diminish, so I try to raise my fees. Just raising them would make me feel guilty, so I make sure to provide high-quality content that justifies the higher price, ensuring it reaches only those who can afford it. Initially, offering low-priced services to everyone was very challenging, so now I invest money in various study sessions to create unique content that only I have, and I price it higher to reach those who can afford it. However, there are times when I can't charge as much, and I do lower my fees.

Money, if not from work, can bring happiness or misfortune. Without it, things can get really tough, and having too much can lead to a collapsed life for many people, attracting the wrong kind of people or leading to robbery. It's something that needs to be handled with care. A little bit of prosperity is ideal. Having a little more than just enough is better. This applies to work too. Having a little extra allows me to take the next step, like renewing my website or investing in YouTube, so having a little more is necessary.

Right now, I have homes in Japan, Thailand, and I frequently travel overseas, but even if I were to receive a billion yen, I would definitely continue working. It's my ultimate beauty treatment. If I stopped working, aged, and became unattractive, my heart would dry up. Also, I would lose my drive for self-improvement. There are times when I realize I'm not satisfied yet and push myself to do better, which is a great form of mental and aesthetic rejuvenation. It's like a beauty accumulation for my mind.

When I divide my aspirations into CAN (what I can do), WILL (what I want to do), and DREAM (dreams), at this stage, for WILL, if I were to say what I want to do, it would be to spread the words of customer service and hospitality even more. The ability to provide hospitality is something unique to Japan, but it's being gradually discarded. I want to bring back some of the things that were valued in the Showa era. In terms of DREAM, I was saved by Thailand, which is why I have my current job. So, I want to support and care for foreign workers coming to Japan. In five years, I want to be known as the go-to person for such support in Japan.

The life you've lived so far is unique and irreplaceable; make an inventory of it and create your original story to tell the next generation. What might seem ordinary to you could be a valuable and unique story to others. The challenges you've faced become your assets. In my experience, the things I found difficult and disliked in my job have turned into money, strangely enough. The enjoyable things haven't. For example, not being able to join a Japanese airline because there were no openings was a setback for me. What I considered a setback turned into a separate job opportunity abroad. It also allowed me to send my daughter abroad and travel frequently overseas. I want to tell my 20-year-old self, who cried over setbacks in university, that all the things I disliked and found difficult have become the best material for my business. Enjoy the unpleasant things; they are gifts from God.