How To Fail Forward With Dr. Minako Abe

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Hi. Thank you so much, Doctor. I'm so excited to be here. Basically, yes, I am a emergency medicine doctor. Initially, I worked in New York and New Jersey for about 15 years. Then seven years ago, I up and moved my family to Tokyo, Japan. The reason why we came here was because my father, who's aging, he runs a cancer immunotherapy clinic here and he's been asking me to come and help him out. We decided that was the right move for us and we moved here. Here. I AM and it's been very interesting. Seven years, to say the least. Lots of changes and lots of shifts, and I'm doing something complet from what I expected to be doing. And I had the blessing to meet you and join the Entre MD Business School to help me out on my journey.

I love it. I love it. So Japan, New York, Japan. Your dad must be really proud and happy and the whole nine yards, right?

I think so. I hope so.

Like, I hope so. All right, so we're going to come to some of the things that you've done, but before we do that, how did we cross paths, you and I?

So about six months ago, I started listening to the podcast, the Entre MV podcast, and I was hooked. I started listening and just your voice, all the stories, all the inspiration, it just really resonated with me and what I was trying to accomplish with my business. And so I just started binge listening. And then I think in April, you offered a Q and A on the ebs. And so I attended and I hopped on and I got a chance to talk with you and I said, this is it. I'm joining. And I joined right then and there and have never looked back.

Oh, I love it. I love it. Okay, now, so let's talk because I've seen some of the stuff you've posted in the group, right, since you started. So you talked. The very first vulnerable post you did was about something that you said you, let's say, quote, unquote, failed at. Right. That's the way we look at it in the world. Can you share that story with the audience?

Yes. So I think it was the very first week we started in the business school, and it hasn't been that long. It's only been about 30 days. I was scheduled to do a talk. So in your podcast and everything, some. One of the things that you always promote is the way you get out there is by speaking. And for me, it's a very, very uncomfortable thing. I am an introverted introvert, as you say. So much so that I used to. If I would be shopping at a Target or something and I would see somebody that I knew, I would duck into the next aisle. Seriously, so I wouldn't have to talk to that person. I don't know what I am scared of or what I was scared of, but I would literally turn and run. So public speaking is not something that is natural for me, but I realize it is so important to do so. I was scheduled to do a talk in Japanese, Right. I was born here. And I spent about 18 years of my life here, but the rest of the 30 years of my life was all in America.

So.

And even when I was here, my education was at an American school, so Japanese is not natural for me. And seven years ago, I had already been away for 26 years, so I had to relearn Japanese from scratch. And even when I speak now, I think I speak with an American accent in Japanese. So I was scheduled to give this to talk in Japanese for my business, and I did not.

Rock.

Was hard, and I got some pretty negative feedback, which made me feel horrible. And in past days, I probably would have just run and hiding, hid in the corner. But thanks to the business school and the support that I got through everyone, including yourself, they said, no, you fail. You fail forward. You learn from that experience. You pick yourself up again. You figure out what you did wrong. So I took that and I listened to the feedback that I got, and two weeks later, I had another opportunity to speak.

Wow. Okay, so let me stop you here so you can help somebody by painting the picture of the kind of feedback, because I think you posted that as well. Right. So what kind of. When you said some feedback that's not really good, what kind of feedback did they give you? Do you want to share?

Yeah. They said, you know, is she trying to read her teleprompter? Or as you know, does she even read Japanese or speak Japanese? You know, I mean, some really negative stuff. And you know what I would have thought, as was very hurtful in the past, and I think that's just because of my own insecurities that I feel insecure, especially when I'm speaking in Japanese. So in the past, that would have just devastated me. And this time I said, no, you know what? I can practice. So I reformulated my talk a little bit, tried to connect with the audience more and, you know, incorporate stories, because you always say it's great to incorporate stories. It's the best way to engage people, and reformulated the talk and did it over again.

All right, so you did. So now when you went to do the talk the second time, and this will help somebody, and you got on stage, what was going on in your mind? Because I'll tell you what would go on in my mind, right? Like, oh, you. You bombed the last one. I mean, look at how they're looking at you. You're about to bomb this. But, you know, and stuff like that. Like, you know, because sometimes people feel if you did well, it's because you didn't have those Thoughts. Right. You know what I mean? So. But that's for me. So for you, when you went up, this is like. This was less than two weeks later, right? Yeah. Or.

Yeah.

So two weeks later, here you are on stage after you did that other talk, and you got the negative feedback you got. What were you thinking about before you started your talk?

Well, this time I said, okay, I'm not going to let that happen again. So I practiced and practiced and practiced, and this time the format was a little bit different. You know, it was a much bigger audience, but it was on zoom. And I knew I was talking to mostly women in their 40s, 50s, 60s. And the last time it was more elderly men. So I think there was more of a natural vibe. But I started to think, okay, what do they want to hear? Not what do I have to share and what do I have to talk about.

Yes. Yes. Okay. Now, you know you made me all kinds of happy. I don't mean to interrupt you, but I just want to make sure nobody missed what you said. Right. What's it in for them? What do they want? What do they need? Not what do I have to share? So in the business school, we always say, everybody's tuned into a radio station, wiifm. What's in it for me? They don't care about your talk. They don't care about what you want to say. The only way they care about it, if it gets them what they want, if it interrupts the conversation they're already having in their heads. That is so good. Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but that was so good.

So. Yeah, so I. Concentrating on. I mean, it's just. It was the same message, Right. And it's just the way in which you approach it. And I sort of talked more about my experiences, so they know where I'm coming from. So give a little forgiveness for not being a perfect Japanese speaker. And I think that resonated because it made me also more human. I'm not just up there talking as an expert. I'm talking sort of from their point of view, someone who's relatable and, you know, really giving them the message information that they want to hear, because what you have to say is important.

That is so good. I love it. I love it. Because you really thought that through that. So you did a lot of. You took the feedback. You didn't see it as a personal attack. You're like, oh, okay, well, I can work on that. Right?

I might have done that for a tiny bit.

A tiny Bit you didn't let it be the overwhelming thing.

So that's great, right?

And then after that you're like, okay, I'm going to practice. And I noticed you said, practice, practice, practice, practice. So clearly it's not just a one off thing. And then you change your focus. So the message was the same, but you change your focus to what do they need as opposed to what do I want to present? And you used a lot of stories and you use your story as well. So that the whole thing of maybe you're not being fluent in Japanese and all that stuff, they can see it from your point of view where they're probably, you know, they're probably excited now as opposed to offended that you can't speak Japanese. And that's really, that's really huge, you know, because what you did to make the second one better, that's really great. Actually, I heard somebody speak who's from Australia, a very thick accent, and he started his talk saying this when you. I can't mimic for some reason. I can mimic many accents, but Australia is not one of them. So. But in his thick Australian accent, he said, when you listen to me, you may think something is wrong with your hearing. Nothing is wrong with your hearing. It's my accent, right? I was like, what a way to get that out of the way so we can get into this talk. You know what I mean? I thought it was brilliant, but that's what he did. So did you get feedback from the second talk?

Yes. So the feedback was there was somebody who attended both my talks. So that person said, wow, you really practiced. So I was like, yes, actually I did. Other feedback was just that it was really helpful that I gave them some tips that they were able to implement right away and that they wanted to have me back again, which was great.

Oh, my goodness. Okay. All right, people, I'm doing all the unpacking just so you can hear what I'm hearing. All right. So you mentioned three things. So one was somebody who saw you just two weeks prior was like, wow, right? So your growth was obvious, right? You didn't say, did I do better? This is like, it's obvious that this person worked hard at this. And you know what? For our businesses, when you put in the extra work, people see that when you make your service better, your progress, your, your product better, when you show up differently on stage because you work so hard, people can tell. People can tell. So that's number one. Number two, you, you said that people, you gave them tips that they can use, right? So this is a talk that, you know, is a win, win situation. Right. It was a win for them because they took away something they can use. It's not all theory. It's not, you know, like, oh, it was warm and fuzzy and there's a standing ovation. But you would have people years from now who say, well, this aspect of my life is different because I heard you speak. Right. And that's what makes a talk amazing, where people's lives are changed even when they haven't worked with you one on one, just from stage. That's the power of speaking. And guess what that person will be saying everywhere. You should meet Dr. Abe. She's amazing. She's this, she's that, even though you're not aware of it. And third is that they said, we want to bring you back. So now you've done a speaking gig that leads to more speaking gigs, more exposure for your brand and all of that. I mean, that is phenomenal. Congratulations.

You.

I didn't know all of that. That is. That is. That is so amazing. So how did you feel after your second talk?

Oh, I felt good. There was a clear difference, I think. So. Lots of lessons to be learned, and I will follow that formula again.

Yeah. I mean, like, imagine each time you speak, someone who's heard you before says, wow. Like, can you imagine that? That is. That is really powerful, and that is a growth mindset. Like, I've done it one way, but there's so much more to be learned. And truthfully, I. You know, I think I told you guys this in one of our live sessions when we did Entre MD Live. One of my things, a personal challenge I created for myself is like, you know what? I have people in the business school who've been there for a year, and they've listened to me every week for a year. Right. So I gave myself a challenge. I was like, I am going to work on my delivery and my content and my stories and all of that in such a way that the people who've been in the business school for a year will come for On Trendy life and be blown away. That was. And that's a growth thing because I could say I'm already a good speaker. I already have a podcast, blah, blah, blah. Like, I don't even really need to, you know, do the work for this. But I was like, no, I'm gonna do the work. So someone who's heard me every week still goes like, wow, Dr. Una. Wow. Like, like, with you, the growth is obvious. You know what I Mean. And so when I got back, and everybody's like, oh, my gosh, it was amazing. Students in the business school, I was like, yay, I did it. All right, so. So that's. That's one win we're talking about this whole time, right? So what other. What other wins have you had in the business school in the last 30 days?

Well, actually, since I signed up with you in April, I think I launched my own website. I started a blog, and I got maybe three great testimonials from some coaching clients that I. That I had, and I got three new clients.

You got three new clients?

I did. I saw one.

What?

I got three new clients in the last two weeks, maybe. Yes.

Man. Okay. You are on fire. Like, you know, like fire. All uppercase with exclamation marks. That is so good.

Thank you.

So what. What mindset shifts have you had in this time as well? Because these are. These are some pretty. I mean, pretty significant wins.

So I think the biggest mindset. I mean, I love what I do, and I love coaching. I primarily coach patients with cancer. I'm also boarded in lifestyle medicine. I help them basically thrive, not just survive, using lifestyle medicine and mindset shift. I think that's been great, and it's my passion project, but I feel like I was all over the place. One thing that you helped me do, Dr. Una, was saying that, okay, well, where do you want to focus? Because I do love the coaching part of it, but I realize in order to serve more people, I need to promote the actual clinic. So I think you sort of helped me refocus that. And even though this was a great win, and it's definitely something that I want to focus on, I realize this is my passion project, and in order to help that passion project, I need to really refocus on my business and my primary business, which is a cancer immunotherapy clinic. It's harder to sell because it's harder to explain what cancer immunotherapy is. That's why I came to you and why it's been such an inspiration to work with you, because 2019, I think before being introduced to you, we had a great year. And then Covid hit, our patient population decreased by about 80%. Part of the reason for this is what we do is so specialized, it's not really available in any other country. We actually take people's immune cells and we grow them out in the lab, and we make cancer vaccines. We also do cellular therapies with natural killer cells, and the cancer vaccines are with Something called a dendritic cell. I'm going off into this never never land is what we do. But basically, we take your own blood, we create cellular therapies, and reinfuse them back into the body. So most of our patients, 80% of our patients, were actually flying into Tokyo from other countries, from China, from South Korea. And since COVID hit, we've had travel restrictions. And to this day, for a year and a half now, we have not had any foreign patients. So all of a sudden, we're doing great, and then all of a sudden we know where the patients. So we've had to pivot and pivot, and we tried telehealth, we tried home visits, and that's all been great. But, you know, we're still struggling. So we're. I'm just trying to get out there as much as I can. And you always say your biggest problem is obscurity. So trying to just get out there, let people who are in Japan know that we're here, that we can help them. And it's not something to replace standard therapy like surgery and chemotherapy. We always advocate for the best care for our patients. This is something that if you want extra treatment, obviously, if you have cancer, you want every single chance, best chance that you have. And, you know, all of us, we all have cancer in our bodies, right? Because our cells are constantly changing and mutating, being injured, being inflamed. We have these precancerous cells that are floating around in our body. The reason why we don't all get cancer is because our immune system is taking care of it. Of course you would want to leverage your immune system to try and heal your body. We've had great success stories, and I just want. It's such a great therapy that nobody knows about. So I want everybody to know about it. One thing that you have helped me do, Dr. Una, is to try and rework our message and to be able to promote our clinic and to try and explain to people what we do, because it's difficult. It's hard to understand.

And I remember us talking about that when you talked about people not being able to fly in anymore. And we started looking for, okay, so where is our next opportunity to wait for those restrictions till those restrictions are lifted. And that's when you're like, well, there are people right here in our backyard and stuff like that. And so I'm glad that we've embraced that project. And, you know, the business school is all about messaging and in obscurity and all that. And you're already already on your way. So I'm excited to work on this project with you and then we'll see, you know, who knows, three months from now, six months from now, we'll come back and do a follow up episode and say, look what happened in the last six months. Wouldn't that be amazing?

That would be amazing.

Right? Okay, so what do you say to that? You know, Dr. Who's either struggling in business or they want to start and they haven't started or the thought of scaling is so scary that we're like, I'm just going to stay in the status quo. Like, forget that. What would you say to them?

I would say to them that that's where I was because a year ago we were. A year and a half ago we were doing well, we were doing fine. You sort of say it's easy to just coast along, but now you realize there's so much more and you don't even aware of it. So first thing is just to be aware of where you are, where you can go. And life is unpredictable. You don't know what's going to happen. So you have to be prepared and you have to be prepared to pivot and pivot like crazy. And I think for those people I was worried about joining, honestly, because I was like, well, I'm in Japan, how's this going to work? The laws are different here. The, the community, the connections. I felt like, well, maybe this isn't the right fit, but it will work because business and people and human brains are universal. It doesn't matter what culture you are, where you are, and you can definitely make it work. If you want something bad enough, you can make it work.

If you want something bad enough, you can make it work. And we're in such. So when we do our calls at 7pm Eastern, what time is it for you in Japan?

It actually works pretty well for me. It's about 8 o' clock in the morning. 7 or 8 o' clock in the morning.

So you start your day with us.

I just start my day, you guys, and it's a great way to start the day.

I think it's a great way to start the day. Well, thank you so much. I mean, this is packed with so many nuggets. And this is why I love behind the scenes, right? Because someone could have just said, oh, she's a natural speaker. You're like, no, I'm not a natural. No, you know what I mean? And you know there's somebody out there who's an introvert who's you know, totally encouraged by this. There's someone who's bummed to talk that is totally inspired by your story. Right. There's somebody whose business has been, been affected by the pandemic and they're like, wait a minute, I can still fight for this, right? So there's just so much gold in this. So thank you so much for coming on to share your story. I think it's like 6:00am Your time or something.

Yes, it is.

Yeah. 6:00am look at that. Like, it's 6:00am okay. She's been here talking to us since before 6:00'. Clock. All right. Thank you for sharing this. And I can't wait to see what we create over the next three months, next six months, what you'll be celebrating. And you're a real powerhouse. I know you know this, but I want to make sure I tell you this. You're. You're a powerhouse. For you to stare, quote, unquote, failure in the face and say, no, I'm going to fix this. I'm going to make it better. Like, for you to do that, it talks about a certain level of tenacity, that you have a certain level of inner strength. And it's like, I don't quit. That's not like you notice, like, there's no option there. Like, that didn't come up. You're like, yeah, we're just going to practice and do this better. That's what we're going to do. And you're a real powerhouse. And this is good. Thank you so much for coming on and for sharing your story.

Thank you so much for having me, Dr. Una.

And now if someone is like, I don't think what she does is that complicated. Where do I find her? Where do people find you?

Our clinic is called Tokyo Cancer Clinic. So you can visit me@tokyo cancerclinic.jp that's instead.com and you can also find me and what I do with coaching at Dr. Minako D R M I N A K O dot com.

Awesome. And these links are going to be in the show notes as well. So go check out what she does and go follow her on social media and do all the things. And I will see you, my friends, on the very next episode of the EntreMD podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the Entre MD podcast, I want to invite you to join Entre MD on demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entreand.com forward/on demand, and I love to have you join us. See you on the inside.