Hi, I'm Rick. I try to be the Rick-est Rick possible so you can be your You-est You
My name is Rick Kitagawa (he/him/bog witch*), and I’m an Inner Monster Wrangler. I coach leaders and creatives (which I believe includes everyone) to wrangle their Inner Monsters, understand the systems they live in, and meaningfully navigate the world in order to live their lives in the most authentic, creative way possible.
I built Kaiju Coaching so I could help others who are struggling with the same fears, doubts, systems, and Inner Monsters that I’ve wrestled with all of my life.
My grandparents were all interned in the Japanese American concentration camps of WWII. My aunt was murdered by her husband when I was eight years old. I took on a ridiculous amount of debt to put myself through college and lived with food insecurity. I am pretty sure I have undiagnosed ADHD. I’m a visual artist and writer living in an age of generative AI.
I also have the privileges associated with being a straight, cis-male who’s has two college degrees. My brain works in a way that traditional education systems reward and I’m a native English-speaker. My Japanese heritage gains me status due to its affiliation with whiteness. I’m tall, am comfortable with public speaking and social situations, and have a supportive family.
All of this is to say – I am acutely aware of what its like to be privileged in some areas of life and underprivileged in others.
This is why I focus on the intersection of personal agency and the systems we live in (eg. capitalism, the US, racism, patriarchy, etc. etc.) Personal agency is important as building trust and confidence in oneself is the key to building the life you’ve dreamed of. But it also doesn’t make sense to look at it without understanding and acknowledging the way that the systems we live in seem hellbent on keeping us down.
Becoming your You-est You
We all want to be seen, heard, and valued for who we are. Every human craves connection and belonging. But showing up as our authentic self can be terrifying, so many of us hide behind a mask of what we think normal looks like.
It’s seems easiest to mask up and fit in – to water yourself down, to pretend to be like everyone else, and to hide from the spotlight. But this comes at the cost of your creative spirit, and it’s not only inauthentic, but it also actually distances you from other people even more.
Fitting in makes our art mediocre, our relationships flimsy, and creates mistrust in all aspects of our lives.
But what other option do we have? Being our authentic selves risks putting our true selves out there for judgement and ridicule, or in hostile environments, a lot worse. This is why I’ve built up tools and systems to help people do this safely, and to focus on changing one’s environment in order to better grease the wheels for greater impact.
It’s in taking these brave steps towards being our most authentic selves that the greatest rewards lie. When we’re more ourselves, we start to create the work that we’re meant to create.
We begin to build and foster deeper connections with friends and loved ones.
We learn to trust ourselves and build trust with others.
We learn to live comfortably as ourselves.
Is Kaiju Coaching for you?
If you’re looking for a quick fix, magic bullet, or to hack your way through this, I’m not the right coach for you. As with any coach-coachee relationship, the coachee still has to do the work.
If you are looking for someone to help get you unstuck, to support you with a firm but empathetic posture, and to provide you with the tools to bring your You-est You to the surface, let’s talk.
I offer a free, 20-minute intro session that I call a Inner Monster safari where you can experience my coaching style firsthand and we can figure out if working together makes sense. There’s absolutely no commitment or strings attached. You just need to take the first two steps: sign up and then show up.
PS – If you’re wondering about what the name means:
Kaiju Coaching gets it’s name from the Japanese word for “strange beast,” which has come to represent the genre of film that incorporates giant monsters wreaking havoc (think Godzilla). As these giant monsters were really just people in rubber suits, I felt it was a fitting metaphor for the work I do helping people deal with their inner fears.
Our Inner Monsters often seem terrifying, but at their core, they’re really just illusions – defense mechanisms putting on rubber suits and artificial fangs to seem like they’re bigger than they really are. They’re also usually rampaging because they’re being confined to a system that doesn’t appreciate them.
Join me on my journey to befriend these monsters and reimagine what your life could be like.
Let’s do it together, shall we?
Here is the third-person bio:
Rick Kitagawa (he/him/bog witch) is a multi-hyphenate visual artist, coach, consultant, game designer, and author.
As a top-rated university lecturer, he has helped thousands of creatives turn their passions into thriving careers in hyper-competitive industries. As a head coach and the first Director of Student Experience at altMBA/Akimbo, he’s worked with hundreds of executives, founders, creatives, and leaders from around the globe and Fortune 50 companies.
Rick also spends his time leading the community at the Brave Artist Community, producing the Inner Monster Podcast (on hiatus), co-hosting the Origins: A Creative Journey podcast, and writing periodic newsletters about leadership, organizational design and culture, and creativity.
Rick is an award-winning visual artist and writer and is one of the best Skee-Ball rollers in the world (seriously). He really likes monsters and is based in Pasadena, CA, USA on the ancestral land of the Kizh/Tongva/Gabrieleño people.
*What’s up with the bog witch pronoun? Here’s an article exploring my framework around bog witches and how we should all strive to be one.