The Cycle of (Business) Life
Suddenly unemployed, Alice Inoue finds passion and a new career in Feng Shui and astrology
Alice was at the apex of her television career. It was the late ’90s and she worked for Japan TV News. She did a daily newscast for Hawaii visitors that broadcast in all the hotels, a weekly show highlighting Hawaii tourism for the same audience, and periodic shows for millions of viewers back in Japan.
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“I was basically known as the ambassador to the visitors,” says Inoue. She was well paid for it, too. “I had seven sources of income, from the TV shows and sponsorships,” she says. “I was at the height of my career.
“Then, one day, her friend suggested, “Why don’t you get your chart done?” An astrologer told Inoue a major chapter in her life was ending and a new one was soon to begin. She didn’t make much of it at the time. But then, the TV sponsorships started dropping. Companies wanted to concentrate on other countries. Next the Japan shows ended, having virtually run out of material after some 400 shows.
“All I had left was my newscast, which was fine. It paid my bills, it paid my health insurance,” Inoue says. Then, in 2001 the company she worked for was sold. That day she found out her newscast was cancelled. Inoue thought of the astrologer. His predictions were exact, she says. “I thought how could this guy look at some planets and tell me my life was going to shift?”
A career was born
Inoue had to know how he did it. She devoured book after book about astrology. “I was consumed with passion for the first time in my life,” says Inoue. She studied with people both in Hawaii and on the Mainland, and started giving some of her close friends readings.
In 2002, people started asking her about Feng Shui. That, in laymen’s terms, is the Chinese art of building and interior design that is said to increase the positive energy emanating from a place. Inoue says it was a natural progression from discussing the forces that affect people’s live at the planetary level to managing the forces that impact us on an everyday basis, like a cluttered, stodgy office.
Like astrology, she immersed herself in Feng Shui to learn more, and she studied with experts. By late 2002, Inoue was a bona fide astrologer and Feng Shui consultant, and she also became an ordained minister so she could officiate weddings.
Without a savvy market study or a pressure-cooked business plan, Inoue had suddenly started a new career. And her client list began steadily growing.
“The key was uncovering my passion,” Inoue says. “Passion keeps my business running.”
A practical hit
Perhaps talk of astrologers conjures images of robed fortune tellers, holding wrinkled hands over swirling glass orbs as their eyes flutter. Perhaps talk of Feng Shui conjures images of taciturn, gray-haired practitioners mumbling arcane things about bad luck and energy leaks, and the need to knock down walls to fix them.
That’s not Inoue.
As far as astrology is concerned, she is more like a cosmic researcher. Says Inoue, “I am not going to look into your future and say you are going to meet a man who is tall, dark and handsome. I am not a psychic.” She just formulates your star chart and explains what it means.
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| GOOD VIBES: Alice Inoue helped Colliers Monroe Friedlander remodel their King Street offices Feng Shui style. Inoue used welcoming colors, foliage and curving lines to improve the ambience. |
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Regarding Feng Shui, Inoue doesn’t call for any sledgehammers. She just helps people enhance the places in which they work and live, making them more positive. For example, she talks about removing workplace clutter and taking away architectural elements that can be unwelcoming to clients or staff.
“It’s a common-sense approach. You don’t ask people to knock down walls,” she says. “I want to come in and work with what you’ve got. I think that is why I get referrals, because I am not putting you in a state of fear.”
Inoue declined to provide revenue numbers. Her astrology readings cost $150. Her Feng Shui consultations run from $135 for a studio apartment to $360 for a three-bedroom home and into the thousands for a large office remodeling. In 2002, she did one to five readings a week. In 2003, five to seven readings a week. In 2004, 10 readings, and, in 2005, she maxed out at 15 clients a week. Her Feng Shui consultations have seen similar growth, now reaching 10 to 15 a month, she says. Last year, she opened an office on Ward Avenue and hired a virtual assistant to help with the administrative duties.
In 2005, she was a contributing author alongside such nationally known authors such as Dr. Wayne Dyer and Dr. Deepak Chopra in “Wake Up ... Live the Life You Love, Finding Your Life’s Passion.”
She also has gone from giving free talks to getting prominent speaking engagements, at events such as last year’s Hawaii Executive Conference annual meeting in Kona. More recently, she was hired by the Hawaii arm of the Financial Education Center and First American Title to give educational talks.
“I don’t advertise. Everything is word of mouth,” Inoue says.
Case study
James Piane, chief executive officer, Colliers Monroe Friedlander, had one goal when the company remodeled its floor in Central Pacific Plaza on South King Street. “We wanted to make our office a comfortable, professional and efficient place to conduct business,” Piane says.
Piane says Feng Shui was a venerated tradition and Inoue came highly recommended, so they hired her. Piane adds, “We had a budget and we wanted to know what would make the most pleasant environment possible. It was not from a spiritual standpoint at all. Colliers incorporated Inoue’s ideas on colors, floor design and furniture placement to create a more welcoming office.
“Alice really displayed a talent for design and really helped us along,” Piane says.
Inoue says, “Almost all of my clients are not spiritual.”
Though, in recent years, people are becoming more and more accepting of non-traditional ideas, Inoue says. Perhaps partly due to increasingly uncertain times, she says, people are looking to get more information, from more varied sources, like Feng Shui and astrology. Inoue’s clients range from janitors to bank CEOs. “I no longer get, ‘You do what?!’”
But, she adds, with a smile, she is sure some of her executive astrology clients are not drawing a lot of attention to their visits to her. “I know I have people who know each other, but don’t know that they both come to me,” she says.
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FENG SHUI FOR YOUR WORKPLACE • Minimize clutter. Clear small clutter on desktop and shelves. Source: Alice Inoue |
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