Are you going to play small, or go big?
When we play small we get to hide from the spotlight, content knowing that our fear of being found out as an impostor won’t come true if we avoid being seen. By playing small, we can silence the fear, uncertainty, and the nagging Inner Monsters who tell you that you’re not going to make it.
Playing big is hard. You have to show up, make assertions (which could be wrong), and you have to do the work. You get judged, fairly and unfairly. You have to reckon with your Inner Monsters and fight the resistance over and over again.
But it’s in this challenge of showing up, doing the work, and risking your ego that the biggest rewards lie. It’s in being vulnerable and laying down the armor that we create a path forward.
Kaiju Coaching is Rick Kitagawa
My name is Rick Kitagawa, and I’m an Inner Monster Wrangler. I coach leaders and creatives (which I believe includes everyone) to wrangle their Inner Monsters and transform them from fierce enemies to trusted confidants.
As a visual artist, actor and model, competitive Skee-ball roller, entrepreneur, and professor, I’ve had my fair share of dealing with Impostor Syndrome. Whether it’s competing in the Brewskee-Ball National Championships, being overtly judged on my looks at an audition, or asking people to pay me for my art, pretty much everything I do requires dealing with fear, uncertainty, and the judgement of others.
I built Kaiju Coaching so I could help others who are struggling with the same fears, doubts, and Inner Monsters that I’ve wrestled with all of my life.
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 kind posture, and to hold you accountable, let’s talk.
I offer a free, 20-minute coaching session that I call a Inner Monster safari where you can experience my coaching style firsthand. We’ll actually get some coaching in, and there’s absolutely no commitment or strings attached. You just need to take the first step, 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.
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. Join me on my journey to befriend these monsters and reimagine what your life could be like.
Let’s do it together, shall we?
Rick Kitagawa (he/him) is a consultant, executive leadership coach, and facilitator that has worked with executives, founders, creatives, and leaders from around the globe and Fortune 50 companies. As a top-rated university lecturer, he has helped thousands of creatives turn their passions into thriving careers in hyper-competitive industries.
Rick also spends his time as a Head Coach for the altMBA and Akimbo workshops, creating spaces of belonging at Codebreakers, producing the Inner Monster Podcast, co-hosting the In Trust 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/Gabrieleño people.