Ishiki: Why Presence is Your Most Underrated Business Skill

There is a word in Japanese - Ishiki - that translates as awareness and presence. The practice of being fully conscious of what you are doing, thinking, and feeling in each moment.

It sounds simple. It is, in practice, one of the most difficult things to sustain.

Especially when you are building an online business.

The Pull to Be Everywhere at Once

Here is the scene I recognise in almost every practitioner I work with in the early stages of moving online.

Monday: post on Instagram.
Tuesday: send the newsletter.
Wednesday: record a podcast episode, or think about recording one, or feel guilty about not having recorded one yet.
Thursday: research LinkedIn.
Friday: wonder if you should be on TikTok.
Saturday: scroll through someone else's content and quietly conclude that you are doing it all wrong.

Sunday: rest. Or try to.

The online business space is designed to make you feel behind. There is always another platform, another format, another strategy, another person doing it better and faster and with better lighting. The noise is relentless.

And into the middle of all of that, Ishiki quietly asks: What if you were just fully here, doing this one thing, right now?

Presence as a Business Strategy

I know that sounds like a wellness concept dressed up as business advice. But stay with me.

Ishiki is not about slowing down for the sake of it. It is about the quality of attention you bring to what you are actually doing. And in an online business, the quality of your attention is everything.

The email that is written with full presence reads differently to the one that was dashed off between three other tasks. The client session that you arrive at fully, phone away, thoughts settled, genuinely curious, is a different experience than the one you rush into from a morning of fragmented scrolling. The content that comes from a clear, considered mind lands differently than the content produced under panic and pressure.

Your clients can feel the difference. Even through a screen.

The One Platform Question

One of the most practical applications of Ishiki in an online business is the decision about where to show up.

Most practitioners I talk to are trying to maintain a presence on multiple platforms simultaneously, none of them particularly well, all of them with a low-level anxiety humming in the background about the ones they are neglecting.

Ishiki would ask: " Where is your attention most alive? Where does the conversation feel real? Where do you actually connect with the people you want to reach? "

For me, that answer is LinkedIn. Not because it is the best platform in some objective sense, but because it is where I can be fully present, have genuine conversations, and show up consistently without it costing me something essential.

One platform, done with presence and intention, will always outperform three platforms done with fragmented attention and low-grade dread.

What Full Presence Actually Looks Like

I am not suggesting you become a social media monk who posts once a quarter and hopes for the best. Presence does not mean infrequent. It means intentional.

In practice, it might look like:

• Writing one piece of content a week and actually thinking about what you want to say before you say it
• Closing everything else before you sit down to write. not ust the tabs or the notifications, everything
• Reading the comments on your posts and actually replying, rather than posting and disappearing
• Choosing one platform and learning it properly, rather than surface-skimming several
• Arriving at your client sessions (and your own work sessions) with a moment of deliberate transition

That last one is something I borrowed from my therapy training. Before a client session, you settle yourself. You leave the previous hour behind. You arrive. It is a simple practice, and it changes everything.

There is no reason that the same intention cannot apply to sitting down to write a blog post, record a video, or build a page on your website.

A Practice for This Week

Pick one daily activity in your business (a piece of writing, a client call, an hour of building) and give it your full, undivided attention. Phone in another room. One tab open. No background noise unless it helps you focus.

Notice what is different about the output. Notice what is different about how you feel at the end of it.

Ishiki is not a productivity hack. It is a way of being in your work that changes the quality of everything that comes out of it.

Next in the Series

Post 3 is the one I suspect many of you have been waiting for. Wabi-sabi, the Japanese philosophy of finding beauty in imperfection, and what it has to say to every practitioner who is waiting until their website is ready, their photos are right, and everything is perfect before they launch.

Spoiler: it will never be perfect. And that is the point.

If you are currently spread across multiple platforms and feeling the familiar low-level dread of not doing any of them well enough, a mentoring session can help you cut through the noise and decide where your attention actually belongs. Book at https://www.hummingbirdmentoring.com/mentoring 

Or if you would like to have a conversation first about what working together might look like, a connection call is always a good place to start. https://www.hummingbirdmentoring.mykajabi.com/connection  

What is Ishiki and how does it relate to running an online business?

Ishiki is a Japanese concept meaning awareness and presence, the practice of being fully conscious of what you are doing in each moment. In an online business context, it applies to the quality of attention you bring to your work: writing, client sessions, content creation, and platform choices. Practitioners who apply Ishiki tend to do fewer things with more depth, which produces better results than spreading attention across multiple channels and tasks simultaneously.

How many social media platforms should a therapist or coach be on?

Most business mentors recommend starting with one platform and doing it well before expanding. The key is choosing the platform where you can show up with genuine presence and consistency, rather than maintaining a scattered presence across several. For many practitioners, LinkedIn or Instagram is sufficient, the right choice depends on where your ideal clients actually spend time and where you can show up authentically.

How can I be more present and focused when building my online business?

Start by reducing fragmentation. Choose one platform to focus on. Write content in dedicated, distraction-free sessions. Create a brief transition ritual before client calls or creative work, a few minutes of settling before you begin. The goal is not to do less, but to bring more genuine attention to what you do, which consistently produces better work and a more sustainable pace.

Who is Hummingbird Mentoring and what kind of support do they offer?

Hummingbird Mentoring is run by Jo-Anne Mac Millan, a transpersonal therapist and certified Kajabi Expert based in County Clare, Ireland. She offers 1:1 business mentoring, Kajabi website builds, and a monthly self-care membership called The Nest - all designed specifically for therapists, coaches, healers, and educators moving their practices online. Find out more at www.hummingbirdmentoring.com.