167 – Break Free from Suppressive Cultural Traditions with Irene Nakamura

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 167.

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl. Stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:24
Hello, I’m your host Karen Yankovich. And this is episode number 167 of the good girls get rich podcast. And this podcast is brought to you by she’s linked up where we teach simple relationship and heart base LinkedIn marketing to women that gets you on the phone consistently with perfect people relationship marketing, building relationships with people who can change your business, your life and your bank account for ever. We teach digital marketing with the human touch over she is linked up. And we love our she’s linked up family and Today on our show, you’re going to get to meet one of the amazing women in our she’s linked up family. But before we get to Irene just know that if you listened before or if you love what you hear today, we love to hear from you. So make sure that you subscribe to this so you don’t miss an episode. And also take a quick screenshot of this episode. And share it on your social media maybe put it in your story and let the world know that they should listen to this as well use the hashtag good girls get rich tag me at Karen Yankovich tag Irene her social media her LinkedIn is in the show notes and let us know and then what we can do is share it with our audience. And that’s how we all get more visibility and that rising tide that lifts up all ships right. So you can go to KarenYankovich.com/167 to see the blog in the show notes for this page, you will see all the links that we talked about in this episode. And I am really excited for you to meet my friend and client Irene Nakamura. I am here today with Irene Nakamura and Irene refers to herself as the guardian of the record. She is the founder of AI Depo reporters and helps attorneys and individuals capture stories verbatim so they can certify and document events that make history in order to change the future. She helps minority business women break free from this oppressive culture tradition so they can thrive personally and professionally and understands firsthand what it takes to grow a business in a male dominated industry. You know growing up many women have been told that they can be seen but not hurt. In some cultures. females have been told they cannot even be seen. Cultural suppression impedes female success and opportunity. And we see less women in college successful and professional women. I’m going to let Irene dive in on this instead of reading the rest of this but she holds certifications in California, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, Washington. She’s a registered professional reporter, and a certified live note reporter and she is the founder of the only Japanese American female own Litigation Support firm that prides itself in being 100% culturally diverse. She dedicates her life to empowering minority business women, her fellow steno sisters and her own employees. And Irene is a student in our she’s linked up program. So I have had the pleasure of getting to know her over the past few months and really watch her step into some amazing, amazing roles. Irene, thank you so much for being here today.

Irene Nakamura 3:16
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so grateful to be here and have the opportunity to speak with you today.

Karen Yankovich 3:22
Yeah, so I really wanted Irene to be on here. Because I think you know, first of all, we live in a lot of the work that I do around LinkedIn really does focus on shining a light on women. Right? And and when we’re shining a light on women, not just on their genius, but on women that are minorities, just from being women. But on top of it, maybe having you know, having being a minority culturally as well. I think that it’s important that we shine a light on that. And I read Are you okay with telling the story about what you told me when we first met about how you were? So tell everybody, let’s take a step back. Tell everybody a little bit about your business, the business that you started and that you currently run?

Irene Nakamura 4:00
Well, first, I am a certified shorthand reporter. But many people ask me, How did I get into that? And first off, you know, I didn’t even know what a court reporter was. I always thought that a poor reporter was a news reporter that reported on court cases. And you know, what, for the poor with holding a microphone, asking the attorneys in third. What did you think of the burden? You know, I did not realize that we are guardians of the record and we take down testimony of witnesses and people basically, but to give you a little glimpse at where I came from, you know, as a girl of Japanese descent growing up in the United States being raised by a mother, who came directly from Japan. You know, it was instilled in me that my role as a female is secondary to my brother’s role, because he is a male and it was understood That sensor more important than daughters. My mother made sure I understood that my brother was to graduate from college before I was even allowed to enroll. So my mother, but my mother was also subjected to this, as well. And she had to postpone her her college education until all her brothers graduated from college. So it is just something that’s been culturally passed down. And when she didn’t attend, she ended up being a valedictorian of a prestigious university in Tokyo. But you know, growing up, my mother always used to say a word gamon. In Japanese, which basically means, endure or tolerate, you know, don’t make waves. Basically, suck it up.

Karen Yankovich 5:56
I like I can feel that in my bones Irene.

Irene Nakamura 6:00
Yeah, so everything was, you know, no, this is not for you. This is for your brother, you know, and so and suck it up, you know, got mine, you know, and don’t burden. Anyone don’t don’t say anything, you know, what will the neighbors think? What will people say? You know, don’t make waves don’t talk about things. You know? Well, my brother, he eventually earned a double master’s degree from Yale University. By the time he graduated, he was about 32 years old. I am five years older than him. So had I taken this path that was created for me by my mother, I would have been 3637 by the time I even enrolled into college. Wow. Wow. So instead, you know, I wanted to be a professional. Even though my mother wanted me to be a housewife and a mother, which is fine, but it’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in, you know, do something. Have a career, I really wanted to have my own career. So I decided to break free from the condition that was imposed upon me and I enrolled in trade school, college, of course reporting, and that’s how I became a court reporter. And it also didn’t hurt that it didn’t require math class. Math class sign me up.

Karen Yankovich 7:36
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I get it. I get that. Okay. Cool. So, okay, so then you were then yeah. So now you’re a court reporter. Were you independent? Or did you work for like a company that, that, you know, like your company now?

Irene Nakamura 7:50
Yeah, I was independent for a little bit. But, um, you know, then the recession came. And I ended up getting a job at the federal court, a US District Court, Central District of California. I was living in California at that time. And I had worked there for eight years. And then I had left the court to freelance again. And, actually, I ended up having cancer. So I’m a court reporter that survived cancer. And at the time that I was diagnosed, I had some some, you know, incidences that actually inspired me to start my own.

Karen Yankovich 8:36
My own company, incidences, that sounds like there’s a story behind that

Irene Nakamura 8:42
There is actually, um, so when I was diagnosed with cancer, you know, I had cancer surgery scheduled like the Friday before the Christmas holiday. However, the agency that I was working for at the time, they had a very demanding client, and this attorney had scheduled like a five to six day deposition, right before the holiday, which just coincides with my surgery. And so I, you know, inform the agency that, you know, remember I have my surgery, I don’t think I should take this, you know, this case, you know, please assign it to another reporter. And they said, Oh, well, but this, this attorney is very demanding and, you know, difficult to work with, we really need you to be on this case. And I said, Well, I can if you understand and agree that I will not be able to turn in the final transcripts until the after the new year. And then they agreed, and then I contacted the client to say hey is out okay with you. I won’t be able to get it in and he’s like, there’s no news on the bench during The holidays, don’t even worry about it. Yeah, beginning of January is fine. Then I took the first day, talk to all the defense counsel, they were all fine with it. You know, okay, fine. So I ended up taking it. The day of my surgery, you know, the first transcripts were boom. And they were calling and emailing. And over and over repeatedly, unrelentingly demanding final transcripts, you know, without without any regard with how my surgery went, you know, and, you know, the fact of the matter is, I do not return phone calls during surgery. You don’t know, just not something I do.

Karen Yankovich 10:44
Yeah, that a seizure thing impacts that, right. Yeah. Oh, my gosh,

Irene Nakamura 10:49
yeah. Yes. You know, and then when I returned home, coming into all these voicemails and emails, you know, with, you’re so unprofessional, and I’m grateful for the work and this type of thing. I was just very taken aback and ended up working on these transcripts. I had worked through Christmas dinner, I didn’t see my family. I just ended up working even though I’m supposed to be recovering. And through that process, though, you know, I realize, you know, what, I need to start my own company. Yeah. You know, and so that’s what I

Karen Yankovich 11:34
okay, so So tell us about your company. Now. Now you have a company, you have multiple locations. You’ve location, so yeah. And so now you are, you know, a Japanese American woman first generation where you’re working in the US. And so not only have you bucked tradition a little bit to go to trade school, you’re now running a massive company. Right? Well, I don’t know about Mattia a little bit, tell us a little bit about your company.

Irene Nakamura 12:06
Well, I, you know, decided to formulate this company, so that I can embrace court reporters, and understand and respect them. But I not only want to, you know, I not only wanted to create that environment for the reporters, I wanted to create it for my own team, you know, my employees, and, and to also be able to provide a really great experience working with my company, what are the attorneys, paralegals, you know, the legal secretary, you know, all of our clients. That was my goal. And because of that, and, you know, without advertising or marketing, I was able to grow the business. And now I have three locations. And so now I’m, you know, now I’m starting to realize that especially very mechanic that I need to be able to utilize social media. And that’s how I met you.

Karen Yankovich 13:05
Yeah. So we met, I feel like end of 2020. And, you know, in a time where Diversity, Equity and Inclusion has become a really important hot topic, right. I mean, it’s, I think it’s always been important. But it’s been, you know, there was, I mean, I’ll give you an example, a couple of years ago, I was, you know, I’ve always, I’ve been an entrepreneur for many years. And it was a few years ago, I was kind of looking for a company that could help me I mean, I Mo, you know, a white woman from New Jersey, right. So I don’t have a lot of experience in, you know, in diversity, equity and inclusion I wanted to learn. So I kind of went out of my way and said, He’s gonna teach me who can teach me how can I get better at this? How can I, and there just wasn’t anybody. So and that was, I might not have been more than two years ago, right. But then in the past year, with just so many things, just the things that have happened culturally, with just I don’t want to get into the politics of all of this, but it’s just become it’s become something where there’s lots of ways for me to learn about this. And I have been learning about it. I’ve been taking courses in trying to get better at it. I don’t know if you will link to it here. I did a podcast, I have a couple of women of color that are on my team. And we did. We did a podcast a couple of months ago, where just was just like, help me here. Like, tell me what you think. Because you know, we even when we’re writing LinkedIn profiles, it didn’t really even occur to me to like for for just recently, LinkedIn has come out with the ability to add your preferred pronouns. It never even occurred to me to ask that question. You know, it never even occurred to me to ask that question. And, and then it but prior to this, those were things we were starting to learn. Like maybe I should be asking these questions. Maybe we, you know, how can we make the work that we do more supportive of people that are more more diverse culture, right? So you step into this, you and I meet at the end of the year, and you were telling me the story about something? You did that didn’t work out very well. Do you remember what that is?

Irene Nakamura 15:02
No, remind me

Karen Yankovich 15:04
Oh, you told me that you were working with a lot of law firms who and you felt that they were not open to some of the people you were placing at their firms? Because you felt that they were you know, they were a little bit they weren’t comfortable with some of the people, you place a different. So you wanted to hire some old white men? Did I get this wrong?

Irene Nakamura 15:22
Oh, no, no. So, you know, breaking into the old boys club. Right? Right. And as a woman, number one, it’s really tough to break in there. And yeah, get that business. Well, number two, it’s even tougher when you’re a minority. So I’m, you know, I basically, you know, I had grown the business from, you know, word of mouth to the point where I could, you know, and then now it was the next frontier, where now I had to go out and, you know, knock on doors and be like, Hey, we’re here, you know, and attempt to get business that way, I was finding that I could not get through those doors. And they wouldn’t even, you know, they would just look through the people. And they wouldn’t even open a door to have a conversation with regards to our services. And so that was a really tough thing. And since my staff is diverse, you know, we decided to me, Director of Operations is also a woman, as she’s a woman of color. And so we decided we needed to hire a white male salesperson to be able to get those doors open. Okay. However, so we had done that, however, we had hired a few. And some of them just could not take instruction from a female boss. And the director, you know, who is African American, I think he just had, they struggled with taking direction and instruction from her. And so we needed to part ways because that was not going to happen, you know, that was not going to be a positive experience in our company. And so we kept hiring, and each time, almost every time there was some sort of disrespect for most of them. So that’s when I decided I needed to just do this on our own. And she and I, you know, she is also working on on that instead, you know, we’re going to depend on ourselves as women. And yeah,

Karen Yankovich 17:46
leaning into leaning into your diverse staff and your commitment to diversity, as opposed to try and I please don’t take this that I’m criticizing cuz i’m not i think it’s an amazing story, as opposed to trying to be somebody that you’re not. Right. Like, that is not who you were, right. Like, and, and when you show when you try to show up as somebody that you’re not, it’s just, it’s just never gonna work. I don’t think you know, I mean, and that’s, but yeah, we we do that so much like I my background is in it. So I get the good old boys, you know, the good old boys club, I, you know, I remember being in a server room one time, and I had on gorgeous pink pants and great heels. And I like everybody was really talking around me. And then I was just like, I need to open my mouth, because these men don’t think I know what I’m doing. You know what I mean? And I just because I looked girly, you know what I mean? And I opened I like I had to force myself into the conversation. Because if I didn’t, I would, I would have been irrelevant, I would have been irrelevant, right? So but that’s just like one example I can think of, there’s so many other examples. I remember being in another room one time where with a bunch of men that we’re all business partners of mine, and I don’t remember how I I don’t remember what we were doing. But I started to take notes. And I don’t I made a point of never taking notes because I didn’t want to be the because I was the only woman in the room that I had to take notes. And I started typing and they all were looking at me I’m like, just because I can type fast doesn’t mean I’m ever gonna do this again. You know, but I had to like put a line in the sand, you know, be so I get I get that. So now that you have kind of embraced your diverse team and the your your own. Just confidence around you being a strong businesswoman. Let me ask you first, how does this How does your family See this?

Irene Nakamura 19:32
You know, my my mother was disappointed with me that I went to this college. She didn’t even want to go to my graduation. You know, she was finally accepting of it when I did get a job at the federal court. I am the first Japanese American court reporter in the central district to be an official court reporter there. That’s when I started gaining A little bit of respect. However, it was never really, you know, compared to what my brother was receiving. And it’s just based on, you know, the, the tradition, you know, that I that men are more important. And so I’ve always struggled with that. Even, you know, even to this year, it’s it’s a challenge, but I did it anyway, you know, at some point, you really need to take into consideration your own life, and how you do it. And I’ve, I’ve always struggled, being a minority, I’ve struggled with that judgment of getting validation from my parents or family members, or, you know, certain peers, perhaps, and it’s a really scary thing, you know, but I’ve decided to, to overcome that, you know, and not let it hold me back. And I’ve been doing my best to empower my, my team, you know, I’ve been finding that they, you know, also struggle with all these issues. So it’s, it’s been really a challenge to help them with their self esteem, you know, just as women or minorities, you know,

Karen Yankovich 21:25
well, let’s talk about that for a second. Because you, you have four ways that you help the women in your team of culturally suppressive upbringings, break free and live authentically, right, in their workplace and in their lives. So can you tell us a little bit about those four ways?

Irene Nakamura 21:40
Sure. I mean, the first thing I would talk about is, you know, identify your discomfort zone, you know, we often live in our comfort zone, what is it that makes you uncomfortable, what is that, you know, you really need to figure out what it is that that is holding you back, there may be different things, it may be family, and maybe culture, it just may be, you know, validation, it just may be whatever it is, you know, that is holding you back, you need to identify it, and so that you can release that, you know, whatever that fear is, it’s different for different people.

Karen Yankovich 22:19
And that are to find that fear, though, right? And those we don’t know what the fear is, we just know, we’re uncomfortable. Or we’re in it, we’re in this discomfort, and, you know, how do you even get to the place where you start to understand what it is that, that you’re fearing?

Irene Nakamura 22:35
Yeah, you need to ask yourself, you know, what is it? You know, for me, it was judgment, you know, of my family. And growing up, I’m always trying to get, you know, a, will they approve of me doing this? Will they approve of me doing that? You know, basically, what will they think, you know, what will these people think, who are, I thought were important in my life, that I care about their opinions about me, you know, and I think that’s prevalent and actually with, you know, people that are facing, you know, in social media and, you know, the the cyberbullying and those kinds of things, do I have likes or not, or you know, those types of things I from a very young age. And so, for me, that was my discomfort zone. And I you know, admittedly, I still struggle with that today. But I am, you know, stepping into my discomfort.

Karen Yankovich 23:37
Ah, you I love watching that. Alright, what are the what are the other four? What are the other three? I guess that’s the first one is identifying your discomfort zone, right?

Irene Nakamura 23:45
Yeah. And you know, when you figure that out, you don’t need to wait to be 100% ready to tackle something or to go do something, you know, what you really want to do? Figure out what do you want to do? And then, you know, we’re, you know, we’re never ready. The fact is, no one is 100%. Ready? Most times, you know, confidence is what is lacking. Right? Yeah. So just commit to it first. You can figure out the rest later, because you will figure it out. You know, many times people, especially women, like they don’t even ask for a promotion, because they’re waiting to be 100% ready in the role. And then you see this guy come in, and he goes and gets a promotion when he’s only he only knows, like, 40% of the job. But he

Karen Yankovich 24:40
was just thinking that there was a study that recently came out about that, right, where like men will apply for a job if they’ve got like 30 to 40% of the qualifications and women need 100% of them. And, you know, if we want to take a bite out of the gender wage gap, we need to start being sort of understanding that we’re never going to be 100% ready

Irene Nakamura 25:00
Right, right, and you know, that’s another part of your discomfort zone, right? Just go for it, just do it. Right. Otherwise, it will never happen. And yeah, and so the third thing I would always talk about is to break free from toxic influence. And that basically means I know people talk about, you know, make sure you hang out with people that are positive, and this and that, you know, what we, we, as women sometimes do, and I’m guilty of it, you know, I would go and speak knowingly to somebody that I know is toxic. I have a great idea, I really want to do this thing. You know, what do you think? And my mother would be like, Don’t be ridiculous. A dream killer. Right? I knowingly that chef, killer bow and speak to her. Right. So that the toxic influence that we need to remove ourselves from, you know, those people and yet you go to them why, you know

Karen Yankovich 26:14
I know, and you can still love your mother and have a relationship with your mother. But just, you know, I mean, I don’t know your mom, right. But I have, but I can take, I can say that, you know, she’s she’s got another generation closer to even more cultural suppression than even you do. Right. So. So knowing that like putting her in a little, you know, bubble of love, you know, and saying, we just, it’s just what they, you know, there’s just things that we’re not going to be able to achieve. We’re here, but you can, you know, but at the same time, you’re right, why even have a conversation over something that you know, is going to, yeah, I operate on that level with my family drives him crazy, in some ways, you know, when other people they’re like, Karen did what? You know, like, yeah,

Irene Nakamura 26:56
yeah. So if you just, if you if you speak with those who are going to uplift you, and encourage you, and give you maybe a very pointed advice in terms of how to reach your goals. That’s one thing, you know, don’t go to that person. Or it could be a friend to you know,

Karen Yankovich 27:18
I was thinking that it could be even an entrepreneurial friend, not all entrepreneurial friends have the same thing as big as you think. Right. So you might have something and they’d be like, Oh, that’s never gonna happen. Right? Well, it’s never gonna happen in their world, because they don’t think big enough, right? So not so it’s not even, I think within all different areas of your of my relationships, and maybe of yours. There’s people that come to the top that support no matter what, and there’s people that, you know, are definitely a toxic influence no matter what.

Irene Nakamura 27:47
Right? And so that’s where, you know, don’t go talk to them, get them still have your relationship with them. Just don’t talk to them about your dream and you know, maybe talk to them about theirs or talk to them about you know, what’s on Netflix.

Karen Yankovich 28:04
Exactly. That’s what I love about our she’s linked up group, by the way, our little family of people, everybody’s just so supportive and celebrating, just before we got on this call, one of our students posted in the Facebook group that she got this great media hit. And it’s awesome. It’s awesome, you know, and before this, people weren’t seeing her that way, right? You’re seeing your when you just start to do things, despite the toxic toxic influence, they’ll start to see you instead of trying to explain it to them. Just start to be that person. And then that will I feel like it, it shifts there. It shifts people’s views of you anyway.

Irene Nakamura 28:38
It does. It does. Yeah, and in a positive way, you know, so yeah, you know, it was so scary. It’s so scary. Like, I remember posting my first LinkedIn post, and I was terrified, you know, what will people think? and judge? You know, but I did it anyway. Was I 100%. Ready? No, but I did it anyway. You know, and I will continue to do it. And, you know, appreciate what you what you’ve taught me. And it’s given me some tools, and now I’m used utilizing these tools. And why not, you know, men are doing it.

Karen Yankovich 29:22
I know. Right? Exactly. Exactly. I don’t know what we worry about. Right? All right. And then the fourth thing that you have on your list of ways that we can start to break free and live authentically as what

Irene Nakamura 29:35
is to find your tribe. Find those people that will not kill your dreams, you know, that will not judge you that will embrace you for who you are, you know, and what you do and what you stand for, as opposed to, you know, judging you for anything negative. Whatever you’re trying to do, you know You need that you need that person, that’s those people. And usually, it’s the people who have succeeded. You know, if you surround yourself with people who have already succeeded, people who do a lot of things, they’re the ones that are gonna support you, the ones who aren’t doing a thing, they’re the ones who are going to be very negative and bring you down. You know, so find those people, you know, whether they’re mentors, coaches, you know, just some other successful people, surround yourself with those people, when it comes to, you know, your dreams and what you want to do. You know, I just sort of piggybacking on one of my experiences with why I had to just find my tribe is, I had this at a law firm, and they had given us quite substantial work. And, but they had an issue with my director of operations know, who is a woman of color. And they basically, you know, said, you need to replace her or we will pull our business, you know, and wow, yeah. And would I replace her if she was doing a poor job? Definitely, I would replace her, but not because she’s black woman, you know. And so then I had to, to think about, you know, the income that I would be losing, right? Because, well, they’re not my tribe. They’re not the type of clients that I want. Financially good at her. Yeah. You know, but that’s another reason why I need to find a tribe, I even want to find, you know, work with people of like minds, you know, even in business, not every customer is your customer. Not every client is your client, you know, so you could even think of that in business terms.

Karen Yankovich 32:10
I do I realize how brave you really are, I’m going to help you recognize that just to make a decision to cut loose a big client, knowing that you have knowing the income and impact that’s going to have an eye, we all know that it’s going to come back to you when you when you you know, make that those decisions. But at that moment in time, it’s got to be scary as hell to say, Okay, then, you know, we’re not cutting her loose. We’re cutting you loose.

Irene Nakamura 32:37
Yeah, and, you know, financially, it was super scary. But I needed to do it, there’s no way I couldn’t live with myself, I would feel terrible. You know, and, and then the next lot, another law firm, and it happened to me, you know, they found out the owner of ipevo was not white. And I lost that business. You know, yeah, I had found out from the paralegal, who had, you know, called my direct or my director, I talked to her and said, Please, and she said, Please don’t tell Irene. I don’t want to hurt her feelings. But they found out that she’s agent and she’s not white. So that business was gone. You know

Karen Yankovich 33:20
that’s crazy. I mean, I know that it happens, but it’s crazy that it happens. Yeah, it’s really these are like law firms, big law firms. These are not, you know, some an educated guy around the corner that started a you know, I don’t know, whatever kind of business on educated guys start, right. Like, this is these are educated people. That’s great.

Irene Nakamura 33:42
Yes. Yeah. It’s it’s just I was in total shock, you know, because I was calling them emailing them stopping by, you know, was it? Was it our services that our court reporters, you know, do they show up late, where the transcripts lay, you know, was there something inaccurate like what happened? You know, because I will fix it, you know, I will find a solution to whatever problem it is, you know, except for I cannot find a solution to this problem. You know, I cannot, you know, taint a race, or write

Karen Yankovich 34:15
like, nor should you even try to write I mean, I spray Holy crap, that’s just crazy. That’s just crazy.

Irene Nakamura 34:22
So, that goes to finding your tribe, whether it’s a friend, a mentor, you know, whatever your employees, it’s finding your tribe.

Karen Yankovich 34:31
So what’s next for you?

Irene Nakamura 34:32
Well, I’m, I’ve been expanding in two different types of services, or the termite company. So we don’t just do court reporting. We do litigation support. And so we’ve been doing, you know, trial presentation services and other things like that. But I am expanding here as well being on your podcast. And I tried to give out hope, you know, help one person Every day, try to help a person all the time I’ve been

Karen Yankovich 35:06
I’ve never heard of that before. H O P E help one person every day. Yeah, I never heard I have more.

Irene Nakamura 35:13
Yeah, I’ve taken on, you know, a student and to help her pass the certification to become a court reporter, she had been struggling, you know, for a couple years before she came to me. And she just passed, it’s a three leg tip test, she passed her first two legs, a third one is 225 words per minute, at 97.5% accuracy. So that’s her third one that she needs to pass. And she’ll be picking that in a couple weeks. And she was just thrilled that she passed the first two cuz she had been failing those. So, you know, I’m, I’m now trying to help people, you know, get empowered. And, you know, actually to with some of my court reporters, I have found that, you know, the industry is primarily females. And, you know, the attorneys, they’ll be like, Okay, well, let’s take a five minute break. Well, you know, five minutes is really short. Okay. It’s really not enough time for a woman to

Karen Yankovich 36:22
right wait on line, right? Wait on line, maybe with the other women? And yeah, yeah, I got it. No, no, no, everybody, that’s a woman that’s listening just knows exactly what you’re talking about.

Irene Nakamura 36:32
And, you know, they are scared to ask for 10 minutes, it’s just 10 minutes. You know, it’s okay to ask, like, it’s amazing how much we, we, we don’t fight for ourselves,

Karen Yankovich 36:50
we probably don’t even think of it. Like, I wouldn’t even know if I would have thought of that, you know, like that. That is just, it is just something that, because it’s always been designed for men, is just the way it is. And we just do it, because that’s how it’s always been done. Right. And oh, my gosh, I love that. Well, I love watching you soar I, you know, I, I, we have, we have team meetings that she’s linked up with our coaches and everybody. And, you know, I was saying at one point, I was like, I don’t know why I’ve always wanted my podcast, I don’t even know I should be having the people that that impress me and that I am so impressed with and you are definitely one of those people. So I’m so grateful that you agreed to come on here and tell your story. Because I know that you’re helping a lot of women, a lot of women of color, a lot of women that you know, that are not white, really come into their own. And I know, I also want to give you a shout out for really coming into your own confidence as an Asian American woman, at this moment in time in this country. That is it’s important that Asian American women are standing up for themselves. I know, it’s really easy for me to say that. But just so you know, I honor you for for doing that. So thank you for, for doing everything that you do.

Irene Nakamura 38:01
Thank you. Yes. You know, the judge that I first worked for federal court, you know, the Honorable Robert M. takasugi. He was appointed by President Ford, he has passed away. But when I was working for him, you know, he really helped you. He helped to show me, you know, to stand up for myself, he was very instrumental in that. And he helped, you know, start my journey down that path. And, you know, he, he also taught me to fight in that I have a voice as well, you know that I have a voice. And that you must be heard. Although I take down the record. You know, I must make my own record,

Karen Yankovich 38:49
Oooh, that’s amazing. You’re absolutely right. And that’s why I love you know, part of the things we teach in the program is to get more publicity. We help people use LinkedIn to get more publicity. And I know that you have been embracing that. So I can’t wait to hear your voice all over the place, Irene. So how can people find you if they want to know more about you? Obviously, anybody knows any law firms that need an amazing diverse team to support them? You need to reach out to Irene but how can people find you? You know, how can people connect with you further?

Irene Nakamura 39:19
Well, they can connect with me on of course, LinkedIn, you know, slash i n slash Irene Nakamura.

Karen Yankovich 39:28
Yeah, we’re by the links with the links to all of this in, in the show notes.

Irene Nakamura 39:33
Yes. Or through my websites at iDeporeporters.com. Awesome. And, and, you know, and for those of you looking for a career change and are maybe perhaps interested in becoming a court reporter, you know, please reach out as well. You know, yeah, I can help direct you. It’s a really great profession. And it’s, it’s a great you can what’s great about it too, is you can work anywhere. You know, one of our core reporters lives in Spain. And another one lives in the UK and, and then one of them moved from Texas to Italy, you know, it’s just, you have this skill, you can use it anywhere. And it’s really versatile. The time of that is very versatile as well. So you can be a freelance, and you know, take three months off, if you wish. And wow, be there. So it’s, and the income is very, very good. If you really wanted to your first year, you could make six figures, you know, if you really, really wow, your mind to it. So it’s a very good career to get into if anybody is looking for something. A different career path. Feel free to reach out to me as well.

Karen Yankovich 40:51
Very cool. Very cool. Irene, thank you so much for doing this today. We will put all this in the show notes. definitely connect with her on LinkedIn. She’s that if I do say so myself an amazing LinkedIn profile. We did help her with that. But it really shines a light on her genius. And I’m just grateful that you were here today I read and that you were willing to share your story with my audience. And yeah, thank you again for doing this.

Irene Nakamura 41:12
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me.

Karen Yankovich 41:15
Is Irene not amazing? Do you see why I wanted to have her on the show. I’m just so in awe of her brilliance, her bravery, her confidence and her guts. It took her a lot of guts to even do this interview. Right But she she did it because she is committed to being a resource to you. So I just adore her and you know, if you want to get to hang out with Irene and other people and she’s linked up program, then you totally just need to reach out to us just go to Karen Yankovich comm slash call and you can schedule a call with someone on our team and we can see if it’s a fit for you. Because honestly what she talked about just being you know, one of the steps that Irene talked about was being you know, knowing who you’re hanging out with be intentional about who you spend your time with. That is you know, such a big part of our program. So I’m honored that she’s is even in our program and that people like Irene are in my life and I look forward to getting a chance to chat with you about you doing this work as well. So Karen Yankovich comm slash call gets you there. I hope this was valuable to you. I please follow up with me and connect with her on LinkedIn and just let her know how amazing you think she is. And I will see you all again next week. On another episode of the good girls get rich podcast