when I first started it went from you
know maybe some salmon for dinner and
and you know something nice for lunch to
not do is on rice you know and that's
what if ur for a few months hey guys
it's Cathy cat and today the dark and I
we ran into Tia who was just killing
some time in town and I we saw her with
a massive camera now it turns out you
have your own business in Japan yes it
is all is that guys how cool is that now
obviously the first thing I want to ask
is how come your photographer you
already have offices Ginza doing
photography that's pretty cool so what's
the story
well the story was is I came in studying
Japanese history and I was hoping to you
know turn that into something in
graduate school and I stayed after after
college and I thought oh man this is a
really neat place I wanna live here but
you know I was here as an English
teacher and it started for many as
teaching English form it was fine but
you know it's not as many people who are
English teachers here already know it's
not a very you can't really you can't
really it's not very mobile a career you
can't really go up you can't really go
to the left you can't go to the right
you're stuck as such-and-such sensei you
are the teacher and you're in that role
for you know in as long as you you know
you teach at the school or institution
that you're at
and once I kind of realized this it was
just kind of alright I don't want to
teach but I don't want to go home so I
need to figure out something that I ate
you know that's lucrative that I can
make money and enjoy what I do
Japan is notorious for its lack of
community work-life balance so I don't
want to fall into that trap you were
teaching several years English yeah so I
was teaching for about I would say five
years full-time and then when I started
my business I actually started teaching
part-time so that kind of helps kind of
carry me over at peace and bills but
still have enough time to kind of do
business development and even
photography development for myself and
my business so first time part-time
part-time working on your skills get in
there yeah yeah pretty much and it's the
story of a lot of English teachers who
become translators who become IT
specialists entrepreneurs usually they
start off as I was an English teacher
and I noticed that there was a need in
this place or in this category or you
know if you're jet and you you know took
on the the generous Japanese courses
that jet offers you came out as an
interpreter or you came out as a
translator which a lot of former
teachers who are you know in that field
that typically say but Gentile first a
couple of courses to develop you see
they do um from what I gathered I didn't
go through jet but from what my friends
who were jet members or jet teachers did
is they they offered classes they
offered subsidized housing and they
offer a pretty pretty decent salary
enough resources to where you can put
that money into courses or even take the
the resources that they give you know
with Japanese less skills
to use you know in their own kind of
neighborhood or environment so they they
do give you tools to to Excel into
another industry or even to just
communicating with your coworkers
so how did you go from part-time doing
what you love to full-time doing what
you love in Japan you know what that's
one of the most amazing things is
because I knew when I got the first year
under my belt I wanted to do more with
photography I wanted to see what the
industry was like I wanted to understand
from a Japanese standpoint so I joined a
Japanese company and I worked with them
to kind of learn how to properly address
you know Japanese clients what are the
expectations on what you know she is a
big expectation so learning the nuances
around that and of course again gaining
more photography skill in terms of how
they photograph people on the Japanese
side versus the western style so it was
like a Japanese photography studios it
wasn't a study it was it was a proper it
was a proper job it's a proper job they
have me kind of do things to where I
reach out to the expat community and
then in return I help them with things
like like if they have a big job to do
that's in you know with a Japanese
client they need like maybe three or
four or five people on board then I'll
be one of those people who she's also
Joey so something like that yeah
you joined the Japanese company and you
worked with them for a while and from
there the transition so I still partner
with them and I also still have my my
business and so basically what's going
is is that they're in two different
directions so the Japanese side again
kind of sees more videography and more
photography and then my business focuses
more on mostly expat families who want
to build their own companies you want to
start their own branding who want to
build their own kind of brands and so I
help them visually in that way so my
clients tend to skew more
entrepreneurial and to be more maybe
expat moms in that regard so so I think
the audiences are different with with
the Japanese company and with my company
yes how's it how's it been going so far
Oh crazy very crazy but a lot of fun I
mean thing opportunities like
photographing events with embassies
Chambers of Commerce I mean there was
one crazy shoot where we saw a guy in
the Danish Embassy get knighted so
getting nicer so it's a pretty awesome
job I mean you that the best thing you
can do is really network and connect
with other entities and other people
surrounding what you want to do in the
beginning maybe they're not maybe their
unpaid maybe they're strictly
collaborations but over time when people
recognize you and see your skills and or
see that you've grown in skill you
slowly become one of the one of the the
members or they bring you into the fold
for whatever industry you're in and I've
seen that play out in in cooking I've
seen that play out in and day care and
caring for children so if there's
something that you really want to do it
might seem impossible if you don't have
the linguistic skills but if you can
find if you can find a group of people
that have a similar goal whether they're
10 years into the game you know fresh
out of the gate or or even somebody
who's Japanese go for it
yeah now here are the three questions
that came up in my head first of all how
good are your language skills to bake
your own business let's go for that one
first okay so depending on what business
you have you actually don't really need
to have Japanese whoa Joe that's shocker
right so the if you if you look into the
expat community the expat community
makes is made up of thousands of
individuals from all over the world in
different industries from aerodynamics
to the military to I T and so on
finances also another big one if you're
market or if you're if you're if you're
industry that you're in is catering to
people who need English speaking this
English speaking that people who want to
eat only American food and they need a
place to get American food the example
that comes to my mind is as I'm African
American and I've been in Japan for
seven years and I miss chicken and
waffles and I kid you not there is a
black couple from Missouri
excuse me Mississippi who has a soul
food restaurant and as Albie juban that
serves chicken and waffles this is those
kinds of things that that people who've
been here long term really really miss
and really
need where you can make a market for
yourself there's people who have cooking
schools for people who want to cook go
to cooking classes buy all the cooking
classes around here or in Japanese they
need something in English there's always
a need you just have to know where it is
and you have to be smart about building
that business up to attend to that need
not necessarily language skills and
Japanese how are you Japanese skills
after seven years so after seven years
my Japanese is between a three and a two
on the jlpt scale so that's in three and
two I primarily use photography Japanese
and I use a lot of K go so if you're if
you don't really know much about
Japanese at least get the K go honorific
Japanese down that that'll really take
you a long way yes
Oh Norfolk Japanese is pretty important
another thing I was worrying about so
since you have your own company now how
does that work with the visa is it that
really difficult to get because I heard
terrible rumors so there are terrible
rumors terrible rumors are true and
they're also not it's not as bad as you
think it is so one of the reasons why I
continue teaching part-time is because
not just for financial reasons but also
for my visa I got a permissions to do my
business on top of my instructors visa
which is what I had when I left a
teaching industry full-time to part-time
then I moved on well with the the
collaboration of the Japanese company
and they sponsored my visa so that I
could stay here now once I propel my
business further I can then sponsor
myself which is also a possibility in
the next few years I've been here seven
years so I'm about to hit the nine year
mark which means I can get PR permanent
residency so really have any worries
about visas until after that point but
of course when you apply for PR it's a
nightmare and it takes months and you
can wait eight months and get a
rejection and stamp on your application
so it's an agonizing process that's
where the nasty rumors come in but if
you're somebody who is a
or if you have an awesome Kickstarter
where people have supported you you can
get you can apply 50,000 US dollars to a
business that's gonna get this right
business investors visa I think I said
that wrong but essentially it's a visa
where you've invested in a business idea
and you have plans that show the
Japanese government okay this guy is
serious he has the cash to back it up
and he's got these awesome plans we'll
give them the visa so he can get started
so so that's that's another
consideration as well kickstart a visa I
mean you don't want to think you want to
tell your supporters you know that
you're trying to get 50 grand so you can
start the business I'm sure they want to
see the 50 grand to go into the business
and into the product but it's except
yeah I know a couple people who have
done the the business investors visa and
and they've been quite successful with
it so far so you don't need to bring
that money you need to tell Japan you're
gonna make that money no you need to
actually have the money on hand in some
form of asset and so that needs to be
documented in a business plan that says
okay I've got 50 grand in a piece of
property or in these this equipment
maybe it's a hazard land camera for
those of you who know there's no plan
that that's where it can it can go it
can be in a piece of equipment or it can
be cash on here and for whatever you're
trying to do so for a simple starter is
work together with a Japanese company to
get a visa but later on if you get more
into it there's other possibilities like
that out there well if you don't have 50
grand in your bank account like I don't
and you're trying to bootstrap your way
into building your business you can do
the way that I did which was make the
decision build your your business plan
wean yourself off your full-time job
until you get to a point where you can
leave it and if that still isn't
something that you kind of yet you want
to do if you're just ready to ban
teaching altogether try to find a
business where you can kind of work
where they can sponsor their visa
that's associated with what you want to
do living wise compared to the time you
were teaching English do you have to
cook down and like make some cuts and
say actually it's actually harder than
being a teacher or how is the senator
living now you know what that's a really
interesting question because the
standard of living is teaching English
was pretty good money I'm some people
beg to differ but I had a really really
good set up with the school that I was
with and I love the school so you do
have to cut back you do have to be
cognizant because once you're an
entrepreneur you don't know when it's
not a it's not a you don't get that that
monthly cheque it's just it comes when
it comes
so you really have to be cognizant of
your spending you maybe have to scale
back when I first started I went from
you know maybe some salmon for dinner
and and you know something nice for
lunch to not doze on rice you know and
that's what it for for a few months so
and Odin in the summer in the winter so
so you know EEE changer you change your
diet you change you know certain things
you probably will be able to go out with
your friends as much and but that's the
key part is friends Brian having a
support system where what people
understand what you're trying to do and
they cheer you on they say you know what
you haven't a rough week you know here
take a beer on me go do your stuff
keep dreading you know living and
chasing a dream so that that's something
that really did keep me going is just
having those friends that supported me
you know emotionally and really cheered
me on so yeah any final advice for
people who want to live in Japan and
maybe make their own business happen the
first thing I would say it really
depends on the person there are a lot of
people who come from different
backgrounds who they see Japan they see
how amazing it is from the YouTube
videos and they say I want to go I want
to go I've met so many people who come
they do the three-month visa and then
they're like okay I thought I was going
to get a job in three months I don't
have anything so now what do I do
please don't do that
really really sit really really plan if
you want to be here if you want to do
something just just have a think talk to
somebody who's been in Japan for a while
have a really meaningful conversation a
number one pet peeve that I have is
there are people who go out who dude
make that first step they do ask they
say hey you know you're in Japan what's
it like that's fine but but please don't
ask us to set you up with a job and give
you the you know we're not gonna baby
you nobody babied us so you know you got
that used to find a young way but but we
will offer advice we will offer you no
words of encouragement and things like
that so if you're serious be serious I'm
not saying that if you're into anime
don't come here just for anime I mean I
know quite but I know a couple of guys
who came here they love anime and they
have businesses importing you know anime
objects and anime figurines and things
like that so if if it's gonna be about
anime make it be about anime and make it
be lucrative and it's gonna be about
cooking you know cooking and so on and
sports and so on whatever it is make
sure you're serious about it and then do
it but make a plan make a plan
now it's time to plug your business so
what what do you actually offer people
if people like want to have pictures
photography what is like the thing it
looks it's like come over to me in Ginza
alright okay so for those of you who are
you thinking about coming to Japan or if
you're already in Japan I do have a
business it's called top T of
photography and my studio space is in
Ginza yes and I love it because it's
just an epicenter of just like parks and
city life and fish life because we're
right next to ski G so it's really
really great I can really just set the
scene differently to it to people's
needs if you have an event I'm more than
happy to take event photos as well as
product product photography because
again like I said earlier a lot of my my
clients are people who are also trying
to make their own businesses build the
visuals for their own websites and get
their branding off
so that's that's pretty much my niche
pretty much my kind of audience so come
down to Ginza for a coffee I've got a
wonderful business mentor who makes the
most amazing bulletproof coffees look
that up and we can chat about photos put
the links to everything that Tia does
down below you can check it out when you
have the time I love chatting with you I
learned a lot actually I learned a lot I
spotted you here I don't know if you
guys realize this but we're in how did
you goo and I mean it's pretty it's like
the back end of how did you do it is
pretty nice just like walking around and
started chatting and stuff what happens
in Tokyo thank you so much thank you and
thank you guys don't forget to leave a
comment and check out the links
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