#231 From Hitchhiker to Head-Hunter: Gary Bremermann’s Wild Career Ride — Part One

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USA! Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer.
I'm Vince Chan, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world.
Today, we are diving into career transformation with Gary Berman. Gary is a recruiter, career coach, and Japan talent market expert who has spent 25 years helping professionals navigate change.
But his own journey wasn't a straight line. Gary hitchhiked across North America, dropped out of college two times, built a global business, and burned out before finally finding his true calling.
In this two-part series, we'll explore how he discovered his passion for coaching,

the seven rules of career clarity, and the harsh realities of Japan's talent market,

including ageism and the fear of change.

Whether you're rethinking your career, hiring talent, or just wondering what's next,

Thank you. Welcome to the show.
Welcome to Chief Change Officer.

Thanks for having me, Vince. It's a pleasure to be here.

Gary and I have a mutual friend, also happens to be a podcast guest.

And now it's like a snowball effect. More and more people reaching out to be on the show.
But I'm still very mindful about finding the right fit. And anyone listening to this episode will see that Gary is exactly that.
I'll let him share his story, his ideas, his high sights, insights, and foresights. But first, Gary, tell us a bit about yourself.
What's your journey been like? Give us all the juice, and then we'll dive into different elements and unpack some of your wisdom and intelligence. All right.
Thank you. I guess we'll start with where I'm at now.
So I'm currently residing in Tokyo. I've been here for 25 years and I'm a recruiter and a career coach.
And I've been recruiting for 23 years and I've been career coaching for a decade. And I didn't find my calling in life until my mid-30s.
So I've been, this is my calling. I'm very fortunate to have found my dream job and my dream life, but it took me a long time to get there.
So I wanted to share with you part of my story today. And so I recruit advertising and marketing professionals.
I career coach for bilingual professionals in Japan from all different industries, all ages, different people with different stories. And I find a lot of similarities and a lot of commonalities.
And one thing I did is I've written an ebook called Seven Steps to Career Cleared. And it's a seven-step process that helps people think about who they are, what they're good at, and what they want to do with their life.
So I've written that ebook and I'm here to help people find work they love and I help companies build teams of talented individuals. And in my coaching practice, it's helping people accelerate their career growth and find more joy in the work they do.

You are in Tokyo now, one of the dream destinations for so many people, whether for travel, work, or even living.

What brought you there?

It might seem like a simple question, but I feel like there's a bigger story behind it.

Thank you. living.
What brought you there? It might seem like a simple question, but I feel like there's a bigger story behind it. Let's trace it back.
Where are you originally from and how did your journey lead you from one place to another, eventually landing you in Tokyo? So it goes way back. And I was born and raised in San Diego.
And I was very fortunate to grow up in a house that had a copy of every single National Geographic magazine ever published. And it started in 1888.
So in my house, we had a wall that had every National Geographic. And I would, on a rainy day,

as a young boy, I would pull issues off the shelf and read through them and get super excited about what's out there, what's out there in the world. And that's really what started to lead me to Tokyo, was wanting to explore the world.

So that was the start of my wanting to go places and see things and do things. I first came to Tokyo in 1985, but I've lived here now a total of about 30 years.
So I've been back and forth between California and Tokyo. Before social media, before Instagram made picture-perfect moments so accessible, you were already living with the whole world in front of you.
And as a kid, you were constantly on the move. So can I say you were a world traveler from the start? In my mind, for sure.
Yeah. And it was definitely very analog.
I grew up with black and white TV, no internet. And now all those National Geographics are on the internet.
Or for a time there, it was on a CD-ROM. But back then, it was analog.
And it was fantastic. Before moving to Asia, you had quite a journey, especially in North America.
Tell us about that. What was your experience like? So, yeah, I was talking about how it took me a long time to find my calling in life in my mid-30s.
And as I started working on my career coaching practice and working with other people to help them find their own callings, I realized that you can find clues from your early life that inform or give you ideas about what you can do to find your calling. And so when I started doing the work on myself, I looked back and I realized there were some life experiences in my early days that really informed what I'm doing now and why I enjoy what I'm doing now so much.
So the first one was that National Geographic story. But another one was when I was

18 years old, I was in university for my first year in university. And I struggled a lot to get

to the point where I found my calling. And I was in my first year in college and I was struggling

and I quit. I dropped out.
And I had that wonderlust or that wanting to visit new places

because National Geographic also covered places within the U.S. or within North America.
So I dropped out of university at I was 18 years old at the time. And I hitchhiked from Santa Barbara, California to Newfoundland.
And it wasn't in a straight line. So I hitchhiked all over the United States and at Newfoundland's an island.
And I was, I caught a ride with someone who put their car on a ferry. So I technically hitchhiked to an island.
And then I took the train across Canada, the Canadian rail train, and then hitchhiked back from Vancouver back to Santa Barbara. And one thing I learned along the way, everyone along the way said, Gary, don't be stupid.
Go back to school. Get an education and then you can do whatever you want.
Because I had really determined to quit school. But the other thing, looking back in terms of how it informed my career choices, or the thing that I got from it was, I learned how to talk to people from all walks of life.
Young, old, men, women, all over the country, people would pick me up. Very kind people, had some few rough experiences.
But at a very early age, I learned how to communicate with people who were very different from me.

So that was one of my life-forming experiences.

Even within North America, you've experienced life across different states, different time zones, and completely different cultures.

East goes, West goes, Midwest. You've seen it all.
And then there's Canada. A mutual friend once mentioned that some of his friends wanted to move from the U.S.
to Canada, thinking it would be the same. And he said, No, Canada is not just an other version of the U.S.
There are a lot of differences, a lot of nuances. You've learned that firsthand, didn't you? And not just from books, but from real life experience.
You mentioned struggling in school at one point, but you did go back, right? Yes, I eventually did. And that was a good decision.
And you know, what's funny, Vince, is that a lot of people in my world don't know about my hitchhiking experience. It's not something that I share with everyone.
So if anyone's listening to this that's known me for quite a while, they might not know that I had that grand hitchhiking adventure, but it was a really life-forming experience. How did you support yourself financially along the way? What kind of work did you do to keep things moving while navigating your journey? yeah in in terms of making the trip happen, I had very little money.
I did have some cash on me, but I carried a tent and a backpack, and I would sleep wherever I could. But also a lot of kind people took me in, and they invited me to stay at their house.
Some of them had me do part-time jobs, cleaning the yard or something to make some extra cash before I moved to the next town or went down the road. And one of the great experiences I had is I was picked up by a gentleman north of Washington, D.C., and his family lived in the Amish country in southern Pennsylvania, southwest Pennsylvania.
And he had left the Amish community, but he still lived within the Amish community. And I ended up staying with that family for three weeks.
And it was, talk about another world. You've seen the movie Witness, perhaps, or seen a documentary on the Amish country.
I went to an island in the Chesapeake Bay where they speak a very unusual dialect of English. So you're right, North America or the U.S.
is so diverse. There's so many diverse cultures and so many diverse places.
And as you mentioned, I was learning about myself, but I was learning so much from other people. They were sharing their stories with me and I could see how people were living.

A very nice couple picked me up in Tennessee, and they invited me to stay with them, and they worked in a pig slaughterhouse.

They would share with me about the work that they did.

I had a couple who were clearly very financially challenged and they picked me up and they offered me cash so that i could buy food for myself so people that didn't have a lot of money who were very generous so at 18 i was exposed to a lot of different type of people and a different type of experience, experiences. But now as a recruiter and career coach, I'm also talking to different people all the time, every day.
And I think having had that experience at an early stage of my life helped me to become the person that I am now. You really put yourself out there, fully immersed, no safety net.
Would it be fair to say you were baptized by fire? Yeah, yeah. And I feel grateful that I didn't have any terrible experiences.
I ended up in some rough spots, but I was able to get myself out of them.

I actually dropped out of university twice.

Oh.

And this is another thing not a lot of people know about me.

But I went back to school and I lasted a couple years.

And I dropped out again.

You went back to school? Finished lasted a couple years and I dropped out again. You went back to school, finished, and in your 20s, you were still young, figuring things out.
But as you mentioned, you didn't find your calling until your 30s, maybe even mid-30s. So what happened in those 10 years? Were you still searching for your real self? Were you trying different things proactively or just going with the flow? Looking back, what was that phase of your life really about? Thinking I would never go back.
Frustrated with the system and going through my own personal challenges. And I dropped out in that time.
I was 20 and I traveled around the world. So I traveled around the world and that's when I first visited Japan.
And again, that was similar to my hitchhiking stories. And not only was it different types of people within North America, it was different types of people all over the place.
So I just wanted to throw that in there because I dropped out twice, but I did graduate. And then I came and lived in Japan for a while.
And I was a young man living in Japan. And at the time the the Japanese economy was really booming and growing fast.
And it was the bubble years. And it was very dynamic time to be here.
And then I went back to the United States and got a graduate degree. So after dropping out twice from university, I ended up going to grad school and getting a graduate degree.

And then the biggest thing that happened to me in that decade before I found my calling was I graduated from university, from the grad school and started my own business. And that was 10 years of heaven and hell.
Great things happened. It was a great challenge, but it was also the business was crushing me.
I had gotten into business because of a very strong desire to be financially successful, make a lot of money. Richard Branson was one of my childhood heroes.
I read books about him and I thought he was so cool. And I thought, I want to be Richard Branson.
I want to be, at the time it was multimillionaire, now he's a billionaire, and do diverse fund businesses. So I started a company in the United States.
And I operated that company for nine and a half, 10 years. And in my last year, I realized that the business was crushing me.
I had expanded the business.

We had an office in London.

I was based in California, moved the office from San Diego to Los Angeles and an office in Tokyo.

And I worked around the clock.

I never took vacations and I experienced burnout.

And that was a huge turning point in my life. You had a business back then, didn't you? I had a business where I was exporting consumer goods, American style, American culture goods.
It started out in exporting it to Japan because we had connections and an interest in Japan, expanded into Korea, and then expanded into Europe. And it was things like apparel, sporting goods, health and beauty products.
And so I was an intermediary between manufacturers and customers in Asia and Europe. And it was exciting, but it was so hard in some ways.
And the reality was, I wasn't that interested in consumer goods. I wasn't that interested in fashion.
I love sports, but it was just, I was doing it for the money, also for the freedom. Yeah, I've been an entrepreneur all my life.
Also the freedom aspect of of it but when you're a slave to your business you're not free and so i was very fortunate my my company was acquired right before it crushed me was it burnout stage and at that time i engaged a coach so I had a coach and I tell my coach at that time that he saved my life and I mean it. He really helped me to get clarity on what I was doing, why I was doing it, showed me that there were alternatives and then helped guide me through the sale of my business so it was a real talk about change it was a real turning point for me right so i sold my business and decided to move back to japan so this is it you wanted change you wanted a different lifestyle.
So you took a step back. You ex change.
You wanted a different lifestyle.

So you took a step back.

You exited financially from that business.

Also bought in someone to help you figure out your next chapter.

Before we get into your life in Japan and your calling now,

I want to go back to something you mentioned, financial success.

You had it before and you still have a strong drive for it.

And let's be honest, no one would say they don't like money.

We all need it. If you ask me, would you want your podcast show to be financially

successful? Of course, I would say yes, but not because I want to buy a Ferrari or a big house. For me, financial success means I can expand my impact, do more, provide stability for myself and for my partner.
Money itself isn't a problem. It's not something to feel guilty about.
But at the same time, when chasing money becomes the sole focus, only focus, even in our own businesses, can be harmful. Now, looking back, your perspective on financial success has clearly evolved.
You're still running a sustainable business. You're still making good money.
But how has your relationship with money changed? Before, it was about chasing the number. Now, you're still mindful of revenue and profit, but with a different mindset.
What?

Shit. Now, you're still mindful of revenue and profit, but with a different mindset.
What shifted for you? And how did that change actually happen? Yeah, that's a great question. I had that experience, and I said, I'm never going to chase money for money's own sake I want to do something that's aligned with my innate skills I want to do something that I can add skills or learn and do and be challenged and try but I part of why I feel like I found my calling is that I'm helping others and that's a story that I didn't throw in the early life stories but I had an experience where the best job I ever had when I was a young man was after I'd returned from my world travels I worked in a retail store and I worked in a retail store in Santa Barbara that was called Pacific Traveler Supply.
And it was one of the very first stores that was a retail store that was specifically for people who travel. And as I mentioned, I traveled all over and I knew a lot about traveling.
And we sold travel goods, travel books, and maps. And people would come into the store and I would help them choose the right map, the right travel book, and the right travel gear for the kind of travel that they like to do.
And I realized that how much joy I got from helping other people on their own journeys. And it sounds like I'm making this story up to align with what I'm doing now.
But looking back, I love that job so much. And I would have done it for free.
I was very young and I needed the money to finish my college education. And I would wake up in the morning super excited about going to that job.
It was pure joy. And so I had that memory of what it's like to have a job, get paid for it, but be doing something that's helping other people.
And that's aligned with something I'm passionate about. And so when I had that experience with my business, almost crushing me's my next phase in life.
I'm going to be doing something where I get paid decently, make good money, have the opportunity as an entrepreneur, but also do something that's really helping others and aligned with my strengths. And so that kind of ties back to with the ability to talk to different people.
And so money was more of a side effect. Of course, I'm very, as a business person, I'm very financially minded and keep an eye on cash flow and revenues and profits.
But it's really being able to do something where I feel like it's aligned with my true self. And I feel blessed to be able to be doing that.
Not sure if you saw this, but there was a survey. Some organization published results about financial success across different generations.
They asked,

Baby Boomers,

Gen X, results about financial success across different generations.

They asked baby boomers, Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z what they think it takes to be financially successful. And this went viral because of Gen Z's response.
their expectation on annual salary is at least $600,000 a year.

Ah, that, yes.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

I am a Gen X.

So when I saw that,

I had to take a step back.

And that's why so many people started debating it.

Now, my question isn't about disputing the number itself.

It's just a data point.

And honestly, I'm not sure how they even conducted the survey.

I tend to question the analytics and assumptions behind these things. Just assuming the number is reasonably representative does reflect something interesting.
It seems like younger workers, especially those just starting out, have a huge appetite for financial success. Meanwhile, those who are more established, who've been through it, so to speak, tend to have a different perspective.
Of course, when we are young, we all want to prove ourselves. We want to make money, be successful, and you were no different.
You once changed financial success. But now, you not only have that experience, you also help people figure out their own career paths, whether they stay in a corporation or transition into entrepreneurship, both of which come with financial shifts.
So after everything you've learned, what does financial success actually mean to you now? And if you were advising younger people, knowing what you know now, what would you tell them about what really matters when it comes to money and success? Yeah, that's a tough question because these drivers for when you're a young person setting out on your early stages of your career. And if you're young and hungry and motivated and you want to go out and make an impact and do something big.
And I had that bug and it may have been because I read about Richard Branson that I was just bound and determined. Now maybe it's Elon Musk.
Young people who are ambitious may want to be like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos or whoever. But then you go and not everybody's cut out to do that.
And not everyone can achieve that kind of success. And then it's as you mature, you start to, and maybe it's realized what it takes to make a living.
And a living is the basic fundamental things for life. And then having some extra money to enjoy your life and then having money to put away for your retirement or whatever.
But I find with people when I'm working as a career coach, that maybe their parents or their generation has put expectations on them

and they go to the best schools and they work for the best companies or they go get their nba at a top 20 b school and they spend their time and energy chasing fortune or fame or status because they think that's the right thing to do.

And that's the measure of your value.

And I recall when I had my business in the 90s and the business was my identity.

That was it.

And if the business did well, I was doing well.

And if the business wasn't doing well, then I wasn't doing well as a person. And I think being able to step away with that comes with maturity.
But also, I really give a lot of value to my coach, because I had someone to, it's lonely being an entrepreneur, but I had someone to talk to about it. And so I had this coach, and he, as I mentioned, he saved my life.
And as I, I don't think I could ever do what he does as a coach. I had so much respect and admiration from him.
And then it took me another 15 years to get to the point where I put my coaching shingle out, where I felt confident enough to be a coach, to help people see things from a

different angle, to help people understand that it's okay to not be super successful,

or it's okay to not be a millionaire, or help people find work and a lifestyle that's in

alignment with their interests and their needs

and their passions. So it's been a long journey.
It's been rough at times. And it's still not always smooth sailing, even at this stage in my life.
But I really feel like I found a place. That's the end for today.

We've explored gary's unconventional journey from hitchhiking across north america to building a global business burning out and finally discovering his real and true calling as the career coach.

But the real question is, And finally, discovering his real and true calling as a career coach.

But the real question is, how do you find your own career clarity?

In part two, Gary breaks down his seven rules of career clarity and tackles the biggest hiring challenges in Japan from ageism to the fear of change. Don't miss it! Thank you so much for joining us today.
If you like what you heard, don't forget to subscribe to our show, leave us top-rated reviews, check out our website, and follow me on social media.

I'm Vince Chen, your ambitious human host.

Until next time, take care.