TODD KATAYAMA | “BE WHO YOU ARE WHILE HELPING PEOPLE BE THEMSELVES”

This week’s guest is Todd Katayama, data science extraordinaire. When he’s not crunching numbers, he’s helping people with their crunches as a personal trainer. In our chat, Todd shows why passion and mindfulness have helped him succeed as a leader in his professional and personal lives.

Thanks for making time to chat with us today, Todd. Mind telling us what you do at Wells Fargo?

Yeah, no problem. I’m an analytics consultant at Wells, focusing on international compensation. I use a lot of data analytics in my day-to-day and have the opportunity to drive and influence business decisions across the organization.

Tell us more.

Data and analytics is powerful in business. Working in a global environment, I leverage various business intelligence tools to compile data sets in order to effectively tell the story. Thinking outside of the box being creative is surprisingly tough without data.

Tools like Tableau are great. It’s easy to create visually entertaining charts with them. I like to show data in a different but insightful way.

And does it mean anything to you being an Asian American in data science?

That’s a good question. We all know the stereotype of Asians being good at math and numbers. I work with a diverse analytics team and I don’t really think much about race in my line of work. Maybe I should, I don’t know. Am I fulfilling a stereotype? Maybe.

What would you say are your strengths? Or in other words, what do you excel at?

I love influencing and motivating people. Having trust and influence among others is key to getting the job done.

There’s also a time to be assertive in order to make decisions quickly and other times where you can take your foot off the gas pedal for a bit. It’s all about finding that balance.

It’s important that you be who you are while helping people be themselves, too.

What’s one bit of advice you would love to give to our readers?

You have to be strategic and know what you have to do to get the job done. If you want something bad enough, you will do whatever it takes to get it.

Let’s dive a little deeper into your personal training and fitness work as well.

Yeah, fitness is a true passion of mine. I got certified as a Personal Trainer two and a half years ago. I didn’t touch weights until college. Basketball is what first got me into weight training — to get bigger and stronger. But then I started to realize all the other benefits of exercise, training and healthy eating. It took over my life in a good way.

I want to pay it forward and introduce people to fitness. I want them to experience this new lifestyle. I love motivating and inspiring people to grow and enable themselves — that’s amazing. It is truly a pleasure for me to play a part in someone’s fitness journey.

Mind sharing one success story with us?

Sure thing. I had a client who made a $20K bet with his friend. His friend challenged him to lose 60 pounds from about 260 to 200. Well, I’m proud of this guy because he hit 199 lbs and exceeded his goal.

He’s very self-motivated. Yes, I trained him in really intense weight training, but he also accomplished a lot on his own in terms of diet and cardio. He went really above and beyond and I’m so proud of him.

He knew that he had to change his health and he did. I’d love to help more people like him.