K: So, lately I’ve been thinking about the hustle.

C: Are you going to do it?

K: (laughs)

C: Are you going to do the hustle?

K: I actually did the hustle when we went to see Tony and Tina’s wedding. Like, years and years ago.

C: I remember that.

K: It must be like 18 years ago, now?

C: That sounds about right, yeah.

K: Yeah. That was super fun. So… no. I won’t be hustling right now. I have a broken toe. I can’t do the hustle.

C: Yeah. It is tough. Yeah.

K: Yeah. So, don’t ask me to dance. Don’t ask. I don’t want to. (laughs)

C: Okay. I won’t ask you to dance. No hustle. No flash dance. None of that.

K: You’re a sexy dancer.

C: Thank you.

K: I like when you dance. Mostly because you’re naked when you do it, so

C: But I can’t dance right now because your toe is broken, so…

K: That has nothing to do with you – I think you can’t dance right now because you have on clothes.

C: Ahh. Maybe.

K: The blasphemy that is known as a clothed Chad. (laughs)

C: Yeah. You don’t like it when I’m clothed minded.

K: I don’t like it when you are wearing clo-thes.

C: Yeah.

K: Clo-thes. So, the terminal “s” is really hard for a lot of Japanese nationals to say, and all our Musick notes know that, like, if – from back in the day when I was teaching English – if a client said something interesting, I like to take it on. My favorite saying was when I was teaching kids, and one of the kids said, “I no like you because.” And I just thought that was the best. The kid had the habit of using because at the end of the sentence.

C: Yeah. Which is grammatically correct in Japanese.

K: Yeah. But they just looked over at one kid, and they said, “I no like you because” with such ferociousness, and I thought, “yeah. I don’t like you because. That’s why.”

C: (laughs) It’s a good enough reason. (laughs) You should figure out what the reason is.

K: (laughs) Yes. And fix yourself.

C: Because, in Japanese, that’s what it is. You just

K: (laughs)

C: “Nn Dayo.” Just means “because.”

(laughter)

C: “And you figure out what I mean.”

K: Yup. Go work on yourself. Go sit in the corner and think about it. But that kind of brings me – that cultural difference kind of brings me back to… the hustle. In Japan and in the United States, the hustle is completely different.

C: Yeah.

K: And I’m a hustler. I’ve always been a hustler. And, for those of you that may not know how I’m using the term, I’m not using it as scammer.

C: Yeah, you’re not using it like Paul Newman in

K: Easy Money.

C: Yeah. That. Yeah.

K: Yeah. No. But… Paul Newman. Man.

C: I thought you would like the Paul Newman reference.

K: Yeah. He was a sexy man. That was a good-looking man.

C: (laughs)

K: He was a good-looking man. Uh… anywho. You’re a better-looking man. In my opinion. In my humble opinion. So….

C: Thank you.

K: And you’re alive, so there’s another

C: Yeah, there’s that. Yeah.

(laughter)

C: Much better conversationalist at this point.

K: Yeah. I think beforehand you would’ve been, too. Because I really didn’t enjoy Paul Newman’s politics, and he was pretty rigid. He wasn’t as rigid as Charlton Heston.

C: Mhm.

K: But he’s pretty rigid. Wasn’t racist but very rigid.

C: Yeah.

K: So, anywho, back to the hustle. So, I think of it as the bump and grind, but I’m not bumping or grinding anything but my mind.

C: Yeah. So, moonlighting, side-gigs… extra ways to make money.

K: Yeah. So, doing something more than the main gig.

C: Right.

K: To make money. So, this podcast is part of our hustle. It’s the way that we’re making money in addition to our main gigs.

C: Yes, in theory. Yes.

K: (laughs) I know, poor little us, we’re trudging along. But we are not breaking even yet. (laughs)

C: Not yet, but we get closer.

K: Yes. And we appreciate everyone who’s a member of our Patreon. Thank you guys so much. It really helps. And… ugh… the mics are coming.

C: Yeah.

K: As you know, a mic was damaged, and… just… a topical digression because

C: It’s a saga, yeah.

K: It happened today. We just got like… harassed by UPS and saying they’re going to send a package back, so we don’t always get our mail.

C: No, we don’t.

K: So, we can order something and

C: Unrelated to the post office here. The post office is pretty good. It’s private companies that we have issues with delivering things.

K: Yes. And, too, like immigrations right now – immigrations and customs right now – they’re a little bit squirrely, I think, from things coming overseas and everything.

C: Yeah. They’re like, “your packages have COVID.”

K: Yeah. So… yeah. There’s that. But back to… the hustle. Like, for me, I think part of my hustle is my PHD because, for me, hustle is also – you hustle to try and get a come up.

C: Mhm.

K: And I think getting my PHD is a come up. What do you think?

C: I think so.

K: How do you define hustle?

C: So, I think of a hustle as the things that you do to… not be… trapped in a rut. Not in an emotional sense because that’s a different thing but in a career and financial sense.

K: Mm.

C: And in an opportunity sense. So, you and I have talked about finances for a long time because we talked about… very bluntly and honestly about our own finances because we became a couple and all of that.

K: Yeah.

C: So, you know that, for me, I’m less worried about how much money I have in my bank account at any moment than I am about the direction and about the opportunities.

K: Yeah.

C: So, if I have, you know, six months of bills in the bank, I’m like “okay, that provides me with breathing room” but if I’m unemployed, I know that breathing room is going to vanish pretty quickly.

K: Yeah.

C: So, I need to be finding some money.

K: Yeah.

C: Things like going back to school in my 30s and all of that has been – well, in my 20s for undergraduate but in my 30s for graduate – all of that has been part of my hustle, I would say, to keep opportunities for myself open.

K: Yeah. So, I define it the same way. I use the language of “looking for my next”

C: Mhm.

K: Even if – like, looking for my next even when I have my steady.

C: Yeah.

K: So, I feel like Adjustment Guidance, which is the name of my therapy practice, is my steady. And I’m so grateful to all my clients who have just been so awesome and riding out my sheltering in place because I’m still sheltering in place. And doing distance. And I’m just really humbled and honored by my clients who have stood with me and stood by me, but… I run my business responsibly. And, so, I’m able – in case something like this happens – I have a disaster’s fund

C: Right. Right.

K: Which is not… pertinent to the hustle. But I guess that’s part of the hustle because it was part of how I set up my steady.

C: Well, and that’s

K: And my steady here in Japan – we were here for 311, which as the Japan tsunami.

C: Yeah, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami or the Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, or – there’s other names depending on – 311 is a popular one.

K: Yeah. And, so, for me, I feel like that is a huge disaster that… impacted us.

C: Yeah.

K: And… I think a lot of people – we may have talked about this before eon the podcast – but post that earthquake, a lot of countries were mandating that heir citizens come home. Like, the United States called a bunch of people home. Australia called people home. And there was a mass-exodus of short-timers.

C: Yes.

K: So, short-term residents left. And short-term residents are the bread and butter – actually, they’re the gravy of my business. Because like the bread – the bread of my business is Japanese nationals. The butter is long-term foreign nationals. And then… the gravy on all of that.

C: You’re making an interesting meal of your business there.

K: That’s what I was thinking. I’m like… but shouldn’t it be more like… I don’t know. If I’m going to do gravy, I want to do like a hot, open… hot, open-faced turkey sandwich. And that would make Japanese nationals – because they’re my mainstay, they’re going to be here the longest, so Japanese nationals are the turkey. And the bread for a hot, open turkey sandwich would be long-term foreign nationals from all around the world. And then the gravy would be the short timers.

C: Okay.

K: But I also like mashed potatoes underneath the gravy.

C: See, and I feel like you

K: So, maybe the mashed potatoes are kids?

C: Maybe. I feel like you

K: Because I don’t do a lot of kids anymore.

C: Yeah. You charge everybody the same rate. Your rate’s on your website.

K: Yeah.

C: I don’t know.

K: I’m looking at just like my population. Like, with distance, that’s the one thing that’s completely fallen off.

C: Mmm. Yeah. Yeah.

K: Are my kids. Because you’ve got to see them in person.

C: Yeah, you do.

K: And I don’t consider teens to be kids. I treat them as adults, and I interact with them as adults. So… I think, at like 15 I start treating them like adults.

C: I think, before that, you respect people’s personhood.

K: Yeah.

C: And their right to their own feelings.

K: Everyone has personhood, agency, and autonomy.

C: Yeah.

K: But I think 15 is where they’re cool with doing it on online versus

C: Ah, yeah.

K: Where they want it to be in person. The 13-year olds really want it to be in person, so 13 or younger. So, 13 and younger would be the mashed potatoes. Because you can enjoy a hot, open-faced turkey sandwich…

C: Without mashed potatoes.

K: Without mashed potatoes. It’s kind of sad, and it’s not as fun, but you can still enjoy it.

C: Okay. So, now

K: So, something I’m interested in is how do y’all make your hot, open-faced turkey sandwiches? Because mine is bread, mashed potatoes, turkey, and gravy.

C: See, and I’m more interested in the fact that, first we had the hustle.

K: Yeah.

C: And now we’ve got the mashed potato.

K: Yeah.

C: Like, how many other dances are you going to be incorporating?

K: Ohh. You set it up. And I have to say it.

C: (laughs)

K: Ahhh. The jerk. Aahhh.

C: (laughs)

K: Which makes me the jerk for saying it. But you totally made me say it. And I wish you guys could see how pleased he is.

C: (soft chuckling)

K: He totally knows he set me up for that. His face is red, he’s so happy.

C: And you didn’t see it coming.

K: You can see all his teeth. I didn’t.

C: It was a twist.

K: Oh my god. Oh my god. If y’all are laughing at home, stop laughing right this minute. Do not encourage Chad. Do not send supportive tweets.

C: Feel free to rewind and laugh again.

K: (laughs) Do not send – I should be laughing. We’re only encouraging him.

C: Yes.

K: (laughs) This madness needs to stop. So, now I’m curious. How do you make an open-faced turkey sandwich? Because, yes, I’m hungry. Okay.

C: I don’t think in terms of food.

K: Why don’t I eat before we record? Like, I’m the one who decides when we record.

C: You are. And you’re the one who decides when you eat, so I don’t know.

K: Yes. Oh my gosh. I’m so hungry. I so want a hot, open-faced turkey sandwich now.

C: So, I don’t think in terms of food when I’m thinking about the hustling and such. What I think in terms of is risks and… the downside that I can afford. And the potential upside, and all kinds of like boring, financial stuff.

K: Mhm.

C: And I know you think about those, too, but you just like to use more flavorful language.

K: So, for me, my steady has to get all my bills. Like, for it to be considered my steady, it has to pay all my bills.

C: Mm. Yeah. Yeah.

K: So, the bills of the business plus the bills at home.

C: Well, you might have – you might have a few different things that combine to be your steady because before you were able to set up your business here, you were teaching English at a number of different companies simultaneously.

K: Yeah. Here in Japan.

C: Yeah, here in Japan. Yeah.

K: So, here in Japan, I feel like almost everybody’s hustled that’s a long time – that’s a long-termer. Started with English teaching. Which we’ve talked about before.

C: Yeah, I think, among English-speaking immigrants – um, we’re outnumbered in terms of… Chinese-speaking immigrants and Korean-speaking immigrants, and Portuguese-speaking. But among English-speaking immigrants, yeah, English teaching is

K: Yeah, and we’re just talking about Nagoya. We’re not talking about all of Japan.

C: Yeah.

K: Because we live in Nagoya. Which is in Aichi.

C: It is.

K: So…

C: Yeah, so the largest – I was looking at a map the other day. Actually, somebody else was and showed it to me. And the highest percentage of… country-of-origin outside Japan for Aichi is Brazil. So.

K: Yeah. And it’s been that way for some time.

C: It has been, yeah.

K: I think it was that way even when we moved here.

C: It was, yeah.

K: And, so, there’s a lot of – and they work across the spectrum. So,

C: Yeah. There’s historical.

K: Like, factory workers all the way to like top-secret clearance. So, very diverse population.

C: Historical reasons for it related to the Japanese population moving to Brazil after World War 2 and descendants coming back.

K: Yeah.

C: It’s a whole thing. But, yeah, I agree with you that, for English speakers, English teaching is the hustle that most people do first. Or the steady gig because, to get a visa, you have to have a job. So, when we came here, I had an English teaching job, and that got us the visa to come here.

K: Yeah. So, I find like… the biggest difference in hustling in Japan versus hustling in the U.S. is that even at our level – it seems like here in Japan, when people get to a middle class or upper middle class level, they just stop and keep doing whatever that is and end up – a lot of people end up going bankrupt because a lot of the businesses that they create depend on people having disposable income.

C: Mhm.

K: And, so, when something like 311 happens, or something like COVID happens, those businesses go bust. Because they take out – so, in Japan, the government just will give you money at like 2% interest. And, if you’re making money, that’s solid and sound. And you can steadily pay that back or what-have-you. But I find a lot of foreigners, they get this loan of 2% for a business, and then that business goes bust, and the government bailouts don’t catch the shortfall because they’re niche, you know, kinds of business.

C: Right.

K: So, I’ve never taken out a loan because I don’t want the stress of having that loan over my business.

C: Mhm.

K: And I don’t want to have a group practice, which I could do even without taking a loan. I just… prefer having a solo practice because I’m only responsible for the things I do.

C: Right.

K: In the U.S., I had a group practice, and I was responsible for the behavior of others, and I did not enjoy it at all. Because it’s so… like, doing a push-in on somebody’s therapeutic session.

C: Right.

K: Or having someone be like, “you have to record it” – it immediately changes the dynamic. It changes the behaviors. There’s no way to know. You just have to say, “this was the client’s experience, and you need to change your behavior.” And I don’t like that. So, I don’t like being a boss. We have a team, now, but you manage them. And Rasta manages them, so I don’t do any personnel management.

C: Yeah. We have a family LLC because we’re fancy.

K: (laughs) Well, so – because we’re gonna get to your side hustle. We’ve got something super exciting going on with Chad’s side hustle, but I have this rant that I want to do. So – and no I totally forgot (laughs) what I was saying.

C: You were saying that you don’t like being a boss. That we have people who work for us.

K: Yeah, I hate – I’m a really bad boss.

C: But they’re independent contractors in the true sense. Not in the “we don’t want to pay their taxes, so we treat them like employees” but in the true sense of like… for example, the artist that we use for our podcast.

K: Yeah.

C: We don’t dictate anything about how he works.

K: Toure’s awesome.

C: Yeah.

K: Go check out his stuff on Instagram on Sun King designs – and if you need any art done, he’s just solid. Good dude. Great work. On time. No hassle. No fuss no muss. Gorgeous little contract. It’s not a little contract (chuckles) we have a long contract with him, but gorgeous contract. Gorgeous work. Really easy, simple process, and just solid art.

C: Yeah, and that’s what I mean by independent contracts. So

K: He is so professional.

C: He just does his thing. And as far as getting transcriptions, they just do their thing. We don’t control when people work. So…

K: And we also have a book cover artist for your book – because Chad’s side hustle is writing books.

C: Yeah.

K: And he has a book coming out. We are so excited. At the beginning of next year. And, so, we have employees that’s dealing with – that are dealing with typesetting. I don’t know if the person who’s helping us would want a shout-out or not, so… because we haven’t asked their permission to mention them.

C: Yeah. I think it’s… I think it’s a different

K: I think we should hold

C: I think it’s a different medium.

K: Yeah, I think we should – because we have a whole team working on that, but we don’t have the team’s approval to call them out.

C: Yeah. I think, when it comes out, we’ll be sure that everybody gets credit.

K: Yeah.

C: But we don’t have any employees

K: And how they want to be talked about.

C: Yeah. We don’t have any employees because it’s just “hey can you do this thing by this time” and they say “yes” or they say, “give me more time.” And then they do their thing.

K: And, in Japan, you always need to have a scrivener.

C: Yes. A judicial scrivener.

K: Yeah.

C: And also, a tax scrivener. Well, you can use an accountant, so… but you need a judicial scrivener… who is like an attorney, but they only handle paperwork.

K: Mhm.

C: And it’s not just a choice on their part. That’s their legal function is to handle paperwork.

K: Yeah.

C: They can’t go to trial.

K: We have an amazing scrivener, but they don’t speak English.

C: Right. And an accountant – between those two, you can get pretty much all of your business done in Japan as long as you don’t get sued, which is rare here in Japan.

K: Yeah. So… I find that people get stuck. The foreigners get stuck that do break out of English teaching. A lot of them go into the restaurant industry, which I think is… weird.

C: It’s a difficult industry. I think one of the reasons is the… view of hustling in Japan. Just culturally.

K: Yeah.

C: It’s really looked down upon, and this is something that we had to work out with our scrivener.

K: Yeah.

C: Until she understood it. Because I have a full-time job.

K: Yeah.

C: But it’s not for a Japanese company.

K: (laughs) Yup.

C: I work for an Australian company.

K: And it’s not – you do your job in Japan, but your work product goes to Australia.

C: My work product actually goes to the United States because that’s where the servers are hosted for the Australian company.

K: (laughs) Okay. All of our techies out there are like “we know what you’re saying.”

C: Yup.

K: So, basically, Chad works remote. Which our Musick Notes know

C: Yeah.

K: But we’re just having a little bit of fun with like – we had to get really technical and show pay stubs and… then to make it more complicated because it’s an Australian company, but Chad’s in Japan, he’s a contract employee because of Japanese law. And so… yeah. That’s a whole thing. So, having the contract, though, like something that the scrivener was used to – and we had to get that translated into Japanese.

C: And they were like, “well, why isn’t it the Japanese pay stub?” Well, because it’s not a Japanese company.

K: Yeah, but they were like “but it goes into your Japanese bank account?”

C and K: Yes

K: (laughs)

C: But there is really a stigma against not having an employer.

K: Yeah.

C: If you don’t

K: And employer and a specific – one of the… publicly listed job titles.

C: Yeah. So, if you have an employer, and work only one job… then you don’t have to actually do anything for taxes.

K: Yeah.

C: Which is really nice. You know, the U.S. could do it but chooses not to. But… your company files your taxes and your health insurance and basically… you just

K: Your pension. Your social security and all of that.

C: Basically, you either have to pay a little bit of money at the end of the year, which is taken out of your bonus check typically, or… you get back a little bit more money at the end of the year.

K: Yeah.

C: But you just don’t worry about taxes.

K: At all. So, like, most people don’t know that they pay city tax and federal tax. And it jacks foreigners up.

C: And prefectural tax, which is like state tax. So, yeah. But now, if you have your own company, you’ve got to take care of that all yourself.

K: Yeah.

C: So, there’s kind of a stigma around… not having a company that you work for.

K: Because you’re viewed as a cheater.

C: Yeah. I think a lot of people… establish a company just so that they can say they have an employer.

K: Yeah.

C: Rather than remaining… unaffiliated.

K: I feel like they get really complacent, though. Like… there are a lot of businesses that just take for granted that they’ll always be good.

C: I think so. I mean, if you have – in Japanese business, if your annual growth rate is 0.6%, people are like “yup, you’re growing.”

K: Mhm.

C: In the U.S., if your annual growth rate was 0.6%, they would be saying “your business is on the brink of failure. Why are you not growing?”

K: Yeah.

C: So, there are companies here that have, you know, an average of like 0% growth year after year.

K: Yeah.

C: And there are some for whom that’s an acknowledged reality. They talk about co-creating, and the market is saturated, and so they’re not trying to grow because they can’t just grow infinitely. They already have their whole market.

K: Yeah.

C: But even for small companies, 0% growth is seen as perfectly acceptable.

K: Yeah.

C: But… it was what I was saying earlier about options. It doesn’t provide you any room for downside.

K: Yup. And I think, too, that… the hustle here in Japan – more so than, this happens a little bit in the United States, but not as much. At least, not with the people we were associated with way back then. It’s really trendy. Like, the Airbnb trend was huge here in Japan.

C: Mmm. Yeah. Yeah.

K: And then… Japan changed its regulations. So, because Japan is a socialist country, it does whatever is best for the country. And Airbnb, they decided Airbnb and short-term rentals are not what’s best for the country. So, they did sweeping changes.

C: Right.

K: So that people wouldn’t be doing Airbnb, or if they did… they were functioning as a hotel. And, so, that le – that started up a whole new business of Airbnb management companies.

C: Right.

K: And a lot of ex-pats because they don’t have access to Japanese, or because their Japanese counterpart works for a traditional Japanese company and works 50-60 hours a week doesn’t have time to help them. A lot of these cottage industries just collapse and crumple. They’re really fragile with the slightest little change. And the difference between… Japan and the U.S., for me, is I feel like, in the U.S., there’s always that knowledge that at any moment things could just fall apart.

C: Yeah.

K: Like, your – the best laid plans of mice and men kind of thing. I don’t know if that’s a California thing or if that’s just our group of friends that we were around, but my entire life… everyone I’ve known had their – taught me, “have your steady and your side.” Have your steady and your side, so that way you’re – all of your money doesn’t come from one source.

C: Right.

K: And, so, like, I have… me and you earning money, and you’re doing hustles on the side, and we’re doing the podcast, and other ventures to keep

C: And I think, too, entrepreneurship is different in Japan. When somebody says in Japan that they’re an entrepreneur and they’re Japanese, what they typically mean is that they are trying to build a company that they can work at until they retire and then sell the company.

K: Or pass it on to their children.

C: Or pass it on to their children. Yeah.

K: There’s a lot of really old, old industry.

C: Yeah.

K: And old, old businesses that have just been passed down generationally.

C: Yeah. And there’s a… there’s a society for businesses that are at least 300 years old that have been family owned the whole time. And a lot of those businesses are here in Japan.

K: Yeah.

C: But, yeah, it’s not looking for “I’m going to build this up to something that somebody else will buy.”

K: Yeah.

C: Such sales do happen, but they’re not the typical thing. So, I feel like the mentality is very different. The mentality is “I’m going to build something stable and respectable for myself.” And I feel like I’m a lot more shameless.

K: Me, too. Me, too.

C: I want to build something lucrative for myself.

K: Yup.

C: Where I can take that and, you know, I can buy respectability later.

K: Yeah. (laughs)

C: Like all the bootleggers in the U.S.

(laughter)

C: The Kennedys and them.

K: Yeah. (laughs)

C: “Oh, okay? Alcohol’s legal now? Let’s buy some respectability for the fortune that we made.”

K: Yes. So – because, like, Adjustment Guidance was born out of my English teaching hustle.

C: Mhm.

K: and… my – because I wanted to get back into doing therapy, and I parleyed that into doing therapy.

C: Right.

K: And, so… I switched main and side hustles. I don’t teach English at all anymore because I just don’t have time. And… I think it’s a respectable side hustle, but I’m famously just… ill-suited temperamentally for teaching English. So, I kind of feel like within Adjustment Guidance that kids are kind of a side hustle for me because… working with kids is really easy to increase business on – kids and couples.

C: Mhm.

K: It’s really easy to increase business on. I have, like, a bunch of testimonials right now. Because I just – recently, I’ve been getting a rash of emails about – from people, couples, I’ve worked with whose marriages are still intact.

C: Mmm.

K: So… I’m like, “ahh. Maybe, post-COVID, I’ll do couples again.” Because I’m not really – I’m doing mostly singles right now. So… to increase couples, I can release those testimonials, and then most of my testimonials will be couples. The algorithm – google search algorithm – will like me for couples. And then I’ll increase couples. Or, with kids, I can do, like, a free screening.

C: Mhm.

K: And then I can increase my business for kids that way. And… I used to do free screenings, like, twice a year just as part of my giving away free time. As part of my volunteering.

C: Yeah, I think that changed when you started your PHD.

K: Yeah because I don’t have time.

C: Yeah. So, you still do pro bono work, but it’s not… the screenings was an all-day thing.

K: Yeah.

C: You’d have to take off an entire day from all your clients and go – typically traveled to do them.

K: Yeah.

C: And you just don’t have time for that, anymore. Even if travel were advisable, which right now… it’s not really.

K: And I guess, right now, because I always – I always had the opportunity also to do online seminars. I’m always getting hit up to do seminars and such.

C: Yeah, nobody wants to pay what those are worth. Is my feeling.

K: I feel like I could get paid what they were worth if I had – if I already had one that was developed.

C: Yeah, see, and I think that’s the thing. Is if somebody wants me to develop a new one – because I used to do that for editing – it was like a thousand dollars an hour. Not an hour of work but an hour of presentation to develop a new one.

K: Yeah.

C: Because it takes a long time. Like, it did not work out to a high hourly salary.

K: Mmn.

C: It was, like, a lot of work to work up an hour-long workshop.

K: Yeah. So, that’s something I think is really different. In the United States, each one of my jobs had a way that I could increase my income while still doing that job.

C: Mhm.

K: So, my steady always had a hustle built into it.

C: Mm.

K: And I feel like the… the people here in Japan that I see – like, something that I think is just wild is people will get married to a Japanese national and then won’t get a spousal visa. Which is like… way less restrictive and way less prohibitive than a regular visa. And then there’s also people that qualify for long-term resident and qualify for permanent residency that don’t go for it.

C: Yeah.

K: And, if they’re my client, I always push them to do it. I’m like “this will free you up to do anything that you want to do because then your visa isn’t tied to what you do for a living.”

C: Yeah.

K: So, for me, the mentality of having growth – I find that people are getting stuck in a lot of ruts. And even ex-pats that build up a business and then sell it, they’re stuck like, “what do I do next?” I know a couple of people that sold a business and then turned around and started the same business over again.

C: Yeah, starting a new business I get, but starting the same business like “this time I’ll do it right.” Well, you did it well enough last time to sell it.

K: Right? So, what is that about? And, like, starting an English school where the overhead is just wild and… you know, stressful. Like, everyone who owns their own school – the teacher turnover is just brutal. Brutal.

C: Yeah.

K: I wouldn’t wanna open a school.

C: Yeah, just the number of times that I hear people who own schools talking about “how can I punish my teachers. How can I punish them for leaving the contract?” You can’t. It’s not legal.

K: Yeah. So, I feel your hustler – your main is also – has that expansion hustle built into it.

C: Yeah, so under my current contract, I’m allowed to moonlight.

K: Mhm.

C: And there’s demand. But I find that… I don’t want to spend more time doing on the side what I do on the main.

K: Yeah.

C: Even though… I would probably make more money than trying to publish books. Which is what I want to do – it’s my side thing.

K: Because right now you have two completed novels, and then you’re finishing up two more.

C: Yeah, I have two completed I intend to publish.

K: With a fifth already in mind.

C: Yeah.

K: So, I think the author thing is really going to happen for you.

C: I think so, too.

K: So, I find it interesting that you tried to do the author thing in the United States, and you just couldn’t do it there. What was the difference for you?

C: I think there I was… like 24 or 25.

K: Yeah.

C: And there are great authors who are 24 and 25. I know Mary Shelley was 19 when she wrote Frankenstein and all of that. I am not capping on young authors. I’m saying that me, at 24 – I was not ready to tell… stories that were not short.

K: Mm.

C: To develop a plot and all of that was just more work. I just wanted to write something great. I wanted to write that Great American Novel. And I’d get like twenty pages in, and I’d be like “aww, man. This is hard.”

K: Mmm.

C: And then I’d stop. Rather than, you know, investigating how do I get better at it, how do I outline, how do I improve my craft. I think that… I didn’t have as much self-discipline when I was younger.

K: Mhm.

C: And going back to school, for me, and getting an autism diagnosis – learning more about that. Learning how to… not just work around that but work with that so that it benefits me. All of that made me more able to… sit down and write books.

K: So, in the United States, I felt like your hustle was always about making more money at the next job than you did at the last job.

C: Yes, it definitely was.

K: And I feel like you were doing 18 months?

C: More like 15 months.

K: And then your longest was like 2 years?

C: Was 16 months.

(laughter)

C: No lie. (laughs)

K: Yeah, and so, here in Japan you did the long stretch of 5 years at one company.

C: Yeah.

K: But that was part of the visa hustle. Go check out our visa hustle episode if you want to know about that. But the gig that you’re at now feels like it could be a long-term thing because, like

C: Yeah, I’ve been there about a year. I could see it being a long-term thing that I just continue on indefinitely as long as they need my services.

K: Yeah.

C: And… I think they will continue to.

K: Yeah. So, what do you think are the biggest differences? Do you feel like you’re the biggest difference? Age is the biggest difference? Or do you feel like there’s a different hustle culture in the United States than there is in Japan?

C: I think there’s definitely a different hustle culture in the U.S. than in Japan, and I think it comes through in things like… multi-level marketing.

K: Mhm.

C: I think in the U.S., that’s much more prevalent. And although I have encountered it here

K: Yeah, like Amway’s here, and

C: Right.

K: Essential oils are here.

C: Right. It’s… done very differently. It’s about relationship building, and it’s not any more successful for the average distributor, but…

K: Yeah.

C: It has more of a veneer of respectability. I think that that’s the cultural difference is that… here in Japan, people expect that even your side gigs will… be respectable.

K: Yeah. And work towards the social good.

C: Right. Right.

K: And make you a contributing member tax-wise. (laughs)

C: Right. And I think that’s the other thing, too, is the taxes. In the U.S., your taxes are going to be complicated no matter what.

K: Yeah.

C: Unless you make so little that you can file the 10-40 easy, which I did for a lot of years.

K: Me, too.

C: But, you know, no shame in that. But once you start making over, you know, 35,000 dollars or so… you have to file complicated taxes.

K: And the IRS will help you do your taxes.

C: Right.

K: You – you never were about it. You were never about that life.

C: I was never about it.

K: But you hung out with me when I was like “hey I’m going to the IRS.” And you were like, “what? Voluntarily?” And I’m like, “yeah. I have an appointment to get my taxes done.”

C: Yeah.

K: And I always got a fat tax return because of it. But then I always claimed zero on my taxes, so I always paid the maximum taxes throughout the year to get the biggest tax return. And that was because I had a bunch of thieving people in my life who did not want what was good for me when I was younger, and so the less cash I had on hand – I couldn’t – I was afraid of keeping money in the bank.

C: Yeah.

K: Because… I was afraid that they would take it. Like, people would find out about the fact I had money in the bank and want me to take it because I would tell you at school when I’d go take 20 bucks “don’t tell nobody about this.”

C: Yeah. (laughs) You would.

K: “Don’t tell nobody.”

C: You would. You’d tell everybody, “I found 20 bucks on the ground.”

(laughter)

C: Really?

K: No, the first thing I would do after I get 20 out is, I’d go buy coffee

C: Ah, yeah, to break it.

K: To break the 20, and then only show people singles.

C: Yeah. Girl is

K: The biggest bill I’d ever show anyone was a 5.

C: “Girl is that a 10?” “No, no. It’s a 5. Look.”

K: Yeah. “It’s a 5. It’s a 5, and I haven’t bought cigarettes yet today, so.”

C: Okay, so there’ll be like ten cents left over.

K: Yup. All I have is enough for coffee and cigarettes, that’s it. So, to me, I feel like life was pretty good when I was in college because I could afford to buy cigarettes. I could afford to drink coffee. I could afford… to do all of the rest things, but that was because I had a main hustle, a side hustle, and school. I’ve always been that way. Main hustle. Side hustle. And school.

C: Right.

K: For most of my life. Except for like… I took ten years off, you know, to have cancer and bowel surgery and all of that. (laughs)

C: Yeah, yeah.

K: It wasn’t ten years of surgery. It was three years of surgery.

C: But I think here the difference is that if you want o have a side hustle, and you want to be more than just teaching English on the side, which a lot of people do. They make some money at that, and that’s all they want.

K: Yeah, and they do like wedding officiance.

C: Yeah. But if you want to turn it into something regular, then it’s going to cost you several thousand dollars to do that.

K: Yeah.

C: Because as soon as you start making money that you declare… it’s going to cost you at least 500 dollars to get an accountant for your taxes. Which you don’t have to file taxes if you just have one job. Your taxes are filed for you.

K: Yeah.

C: So, I think a lot of Japanese people in particular… it seems like a really big leap. Like, “okay so I could put a lot of effort into making… potentially 50 dollars a month at first.”

K: Mhm.

C: Because that’s about where most of my side things have started. It’s about 50 bucks a month.

K: Yeah.

C: And I’m going to immediately spend all of that on an accountant. So… I’m probably going to start off losing money, and this is supposed to help me how?

K: Well, we know people that have done it without an accountant because the city tax will figure it out for you. How much of a spin city tax – once you tell them how much you’ve made. And the prefectural tax will do that for you, and so will the federal tax. And your health insurance.

C: They will, yeah

K: And your pension. All of that, they’re more than happy to figure it out for you and send you a bill monthly, quarterly, or annually.

C: But they will only figure it out for you if you’re doing it as an individual.

K: Yeah.

C: They won’t figure it out for you if you have any kind of company structure.

K: They’ll figure it out for you if you’re doing sole proprietorship.

C: Yeah, which is still legally an individual.

K: Yeah.

C: So… I filed sole proprietorship and then we converted to the LLC, but… like in the U.S. – sole proprietorship – there’s no legal difference between that and being an individual except that you can do business under that name.

K: So, I feel like it’s easier to hustle in Japan because it’s easier to keep the hustle private even though we’re just shouting to the universe what our hustles are than in the United States – I felt like everybody was up in my business and wanting to know my side hustle and wanting to get in on that. And I find that, in Japan, a lot of people want to get in on my main hustle.

C: Yeah.

K: And when I tell them the threshold to get in on my main hustle, they’re like “ohh. I don’t have that.”

C: Yeah. The threshold, the cushion you need, how much the overhead is for the month. Yeah.

K: Yeah. And, like, if you want to have employees, and why I don’t see clients at home.

C: Right.

K: And all of those kinds of things. So… I like the privacy. What do you like most? So, I like the Japan – the Nagoya hustle – more than I liked the California hustle.

C: Yeah.

K: The Northern California hustle.

C: I think that’s interesting because I’m thinking about what I’ve – the conversations that I’ve had with Japanese people.

K: Mhm.

C: And it’s really rare that somebody will ask me what I do. They’ll ask me what company I work for.

K: Yes.

C: They’ll ask me how much money I make.

K: Yes. (laughs)

C: But they won’t ask me what I do.

K: Which that’s a shock as an American. That always surprised me, like “what? What did you just say? None of your business.”

C: And, so, I think in Japan, when you’re working something on the side, you just tell people “I’m busy working.”

K: Yeah.

C: And they don’t ask what you’re doing.

K: No.

C: In the U.S., people will be like – even when I was working at McDonald’s, I typically worked from 5 am to 1 pm.

K: Mhm.

C: So, if I told somebody I was working at 2 pm, they’d be like “but your shift ended at 1. What are you doing?”

K: Yeah.

(laughter)

K: So, I guess in the United States, people clock your time hard.

C: Yeah.

K: Yeah. And, in Japan, people aren’t clocking each other’s times because it’s a work culture.

C: Right.

K: Like, they clock it on holidays. They ask you “what are you doing for the holiday?” And what holidays do you have off.

C: Well, and your extra is seen as built in. So, there are a lot of jobs here that the base salary will be low, but there’s built-in overtime. So, I think there are some jobs in the United States that are like that like firefighter and police offer and things where overtime is a significant part of your income.

K: Like pensions and such. 

C: Yeah. Or stock traders where your bonus is a significant part of your income. But here in Japan, bonus is a significant part of most people’s income who work full-time.

K: Yeah.

C: And overtime is a significant part of a lot of people’s income. They count on having… 30 or 40 hours of overtime every month just added into their pay. Now, they might be working 60 hours and 20 of those are given to the company.

K: Yeah.

C: But… any extra you get is seen as just part of what you’re already doing.

K: So, what do you like more? Which hustle do you like more?

C: I think I like Japan more, but I’m not sure that it’s not just because I like who I am more.

K: Mm. Yeah. Because you’re really coming into your own as an author. I’m so excited – I can’t wait to like tell everybody everything about the book, but that’s coming in 2021. So, we’re just going to be teasing it. We’re just going to be teasing it.

C: Yes.

K: For months and months to come, we’ll be teasing it.

C: Yes. Follow carefully on Twitter. I’ll mention it about once a week.

(laughter)

K: Yeah. And, so, thank you for listening. This has been our episode eon the Japanese hustle versus the American hustle. And [Price Is Right theme acapella] come on over to Patreon to hear some more about it.

C: See, no we’ve got to license our music.

(laughter)

K: Thank goodness we’re not on YouTube because we will get – no, I will. I will… um, what was it?

C: Copyright strike?

K: No, I’m not going to get copyright strike. I’ll Vanilla Ice it and say, “no. There’s this doot doot dootdoot doot doot. And mine was doot doot doot dodoot doot doot doo.”

C: Oh, okay.

K: (laughs)

C: You and The Verve and Vanilla Ice can all hang out.

K: Yes, we can. (laughs) Come on over to Patreon and join the party. Talk to you next week if you’re not a patron. If you’re not, why not? (laughs)

C: Bye.

K: Bye.