315: Empowering Women in Business: Overcoming Challenges and Finding Success | Miyoko Schinner

Maya Acosta
I have Miyoko Schinner. With me what a pleasure to have you on the show. Miyoko. Thank you for being here. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. So, first of all, I saw you speak earlier today. And you were asked a couple of questions about women in business. And I had chills as I was listening as a woman who, you know, has been very independent for many years. Please tell us in general, that general message that you gave today about women starting in business, there are some vulnerabilities that we tend to have, can you tell my listeners that message that you spoke about female empowerment and the mistakes that we might make along the way, as entrepreneurs, as CEOs, as developer as a product? Well, you know, I think as women, we tend to underestimate ourselves, we don't go out into life thinking that we're experts. I mean, I didn't mention this. But I think we often have what's called impostor syndrome, we don't fully believe in ourselves, whereas men show up in the world with this bravado, and even if they don't, they will, they believe fake it till you make it, and women can't fake it till we make it. And so we're always we show up trying to please and impress and, and because of that we don't listen to our true selves. And we forget that we actually probably know a lot more than we're letting on.

Miyoko Schinner 

So we compromise ourselves in the get go. And we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of, for that very reason, and exploited. And this can lead to our own downfall. So it's really, really critical that we listen more to ourselves really find that inner truth, and stand for that truth. Because we're trying to please everybody, you know, in as women, we're trying to please our husbands, our fan, our fathers, everybody else. There's usually a male figurehead that we've tried to please. And when we go into business, we end up trying to please, our investors, or our sponsors, or our boss, and we stopped speaking our truth. And at the end of the day, you go, Well, who was I anyway? What

Maya Acosta 

was I trying to do? And so it's the way we really have to succeed, the only way we can succeed. Yeah, so a business that you had early on, when you live in Japan, you were younger, and you were approached by an individual who seemed interested, but you kind of got the sense that you probably shouldn't trust this individual. Tell us, okay, that was the beginning of you sort of becoming aware that people can try to take advantage of you, especially if you're a woman.

Miyoko Schinner 

Yeah. So I mean, just to sort of add some color from my own story, when I was, in my 20s, in Japan had gone vegan. I wanted to start a vegan restaurant, and I met somebody I thought was gonna be an amazing business partner, a restaurant tour, a man who was going to help me. And that whole situation turned into something that was there very, very ugly. And he wanted to take advantage of everything I did. He wanted to own part of me and turned out he was connected to the Yakuza, which is the Japanese mafia. And I literally had, you know, people knocking on my door threatening my life. And middle the night, I even went to the police. And the police said, well, we can't do anything, you haven't been hurt yet physically. I'm like, well, that's why I'm here. So you can help me. But anyway, so the bottom line is that when there's somebody who has talent, there's usually somebody who wants to take advantage of that talent and exploit it. And so help isn't always help. Which means we need to rely on each other and rely on ourselves so much more. How significant

Maya Acosta 

is what we're doing this weekend for you? And just for women in general, who are going into business?

Miyoko Schinner
Yeah, I mean, I think we need more gatherings like this. And not just once a year. But you know, I'm hoping to create some sort of forum for women entrepreneurs, where we can mentor each other where we can provide, you know, I want to help younger women, or not even younger women, but just women that are new to business, navigate the waters so they don't fall through the cracks. They don't make the same mistakes. They're alerted to all the sharks that are out there, you know, so that they can swim in the open waters. And you know, make it from Cuba to Florida.

Maya Acosta 

I love it. So are you talking about almost like a course like a one on one mentoring classes? I don't know. I see a lot based on what you just said,

Miyoko Schinner 

ya know, I've been mentoring people individually, but I'm thinking of, I don't know, some sort of, whether it's an accelerator or a program, I don't know, series of webinars. I haven't quite figured out the model. But I really do believe that there needs to be some sort of support for for women entrepreneurs,

Maya Acosta 

I would be interested just myself. I don't have a vegan product, but I have a service that helps people as well. So I do think that we need experience from people Are we would love to learn from people who have gone down that path? Because it's a scary path in general. This is wonderful. Is there anything else you'd like to share with my listeners, I mainly have women over the age of 40 that listen to my podcast.

Miyoko Schinner 

Well, if they're over 40, remember, the last business I started, I was 57. I'm 65. Now I'm starting something new again. And so you can reinvent yourself at any, any phase of your life. And you just got to keep doing it.

Maya Acosta 

Yeah, thank you. You have a new YouTube channel. So you're doing some fun things on there. And you also have a cookbook, so please tell us about those.

Miyoko Schinner 

So I have a new YouTube channel called the vegan good life with Miyoko. So check it out and subscribe. And I have six cookbooks I signed one of them today, but you can find my books on Amazon Yoko Shinar

Maya Acosta  

thank you so much. It's been a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you