CHANGING LIVES One Salon at a Time!

By Louise May

Julie Piantadosi is the founder and CEO of Total Coaching Academy, her mission is to help people and organisations be the very best they can be, especially during challenging times.

Together with her team, their commitment to their clients is to provide them with the highest standard of service and care.

At The Total Coaching Academy, their mentoring services aim to sustain the things you are good at while developing new ideas. They share their own experiences to help your business uncover new opportunities. TCA services include business performance reviews, strategic planning and leadership coaching, mindset training and life coaching which they provide in a diligent manner on a timely basis and at a reasonable cost.

Our qualified and highly trained coaches will push you to become the very best you can be while breaking down barriers and obstacles that get in your way.

Hair Biz Editor Louise May chats with Julie about Total Coaching Academy and her team of master coaches.

Can you share the journey that led you from being a salon owner to establishing Total Coaching Academy? What motivated you to transition into the field of coaching?

I think I originally stumbled into coaching. As I was building up my retail Empire of salons in spas, I had many product companies asking me what I was doing, and if I could teach classes in workshops. training, I began public speaking, and then people started asking me if I could mentor them, and that’s when my coaching business began.

This was about 20 years ago when coaching wasn’t even really a thing the only person who was coaching at the time that I knew of, was Tony Robbins. I had bought all of his tapes and box sets, and I invested in as much education as possible. Remembering there was no social media or Google, so you actually had to buy hard products and take them home and do the work yourself. I’ve been part of Tony’s Academy for a long time. I studied NLP a long time ago and recently went on to get my master coaching certification. My coaching now consists of mindset, tools, lifecoaching, and business strategies.

What makes Total Coaching Academy unique?

We are one of the only coaching companies, in the Hair and Beauty space, that offer life and business certification - that I know of here in Australia. Not only do we offer one-on-one coaching, but we also host two international events a year.

Your coaching philosophy emphasises breaking down barriers and obstacles. what are some common challenges you’ve encountered, and how does your coaching method help them overcome these obstacles?

Salon owners often buy themself a job. They think they buy themself a business, but what they actually do is the complete opposite of what an entrepreneur does, and they become technicians rather than an entrepreneur- who see the vision and hire people who are better than themselves to get the job done. Our team of coaches help Salon owners make the shift from salon owner to entrepreneur.

We use many different coaching modalities depending on the needs of our clients. I personally do not think there is a set way of doing things in business. We like to make sure that our clients are aligned with their goals. That they are doing what they desire the most, and then we show them how to move towards those goals, and let go of any limited thinking that gets in their way… so they become fearless and limitless.

As the founder of Total Coaching Academy, you’ve built a team of Master Coaches. Could you share your philosophy on coaching coaches and how it contributes to the overall mission of your academy? It’s actually the legacy of the academy is to coach other coaches and to give coaches their own tool kit, so they can use the right tool at the right time, depending on our client’s needs.

We are also very careful to never blur the lines with what coaching actually is. We are very fortunate to have sister companies in the accounting and financial planning sector so that we can give a complete experience to our clients from one-on-one coaching and team trainings, mentoring and scholarships, to qualified business advice, bookkeeping and complete accounting and financial planning. Coaching on its own is not business planning or business advise. I think it’s very important that the Hair and beauty industry understand this.

In coaching coaches, how do you strike a balance between providing guidance and fostering their individual coaching styles?

We have helped hundreds and hundreds of master coaches to find their unique calling both inside of the industry and outside of the industry. We teach the framework for life and business coaching while providing many different coaching modalities with that framework and business model.

Our master coaches are able to build the business that they desire. The biggest sabotage we see in the coaching industry is coaches, feeling like imposters, we give them the confidence in the tools to be able to truly serve others around them. And actually, through our coaching and mentoring programs, they change their own life along the way, that’s actually the very best part.

Through all the corporate work we do across Australia and overseas, many of our coaches who train with us, go on to have amazing opportunities and coach and train in many corporate leading companies and organisations, it’s truly rewarding to see, once again, this is my legacy.

How do you and your team of Master Coaches approach the process of breaking down barriers and obstacles that hinder the growth of salon owners and their businesses?

Understanding the way people think, and the trauma they carry allows us to realise the humans that they become and how they live their business life. Most business owners work more than the rest of the staff and live a life that is unsustainable. They are sometimes broken and tired and lose focus very quickly, we bring back life and joy and remind them of all the things that matter, so they can truly step up and be the entrepreneur they know they can be. We find most business owners and leaders need framework.

I do know that we all carry around our own trauma. Some of us have more than others, but that trauma often untreated, stays with us and we leave our business and life out of alignment, with who we truly can be.

Having transitioned from salon ownership to coaching, you’ve had a unique vantage point on both sides of the industry. What advice would you give to salon owners today who are looking to navigate the ever-evolving landscape of beauty and hair while also focusing on personal and professional growth?

Continuous education is king. And education that we knew 20 or 30 years ago is definitely different to the education that exists now. Schools and university are great, but there are many different ways to become educated and savvy both with your goals and your financial freedom. Don’t bother trying to reinvent the wheel. That’s too hard to do.

Go and find people who are already doing what it is, that you want to do, and find a mentor. There’s a big difference between a coach and a mentor. A coach is someone who inspires you to be better, works With you helping you smash your goals while providing a whole bunch of choices as far as making decisions goes. A good coach will never tell you what to do, they will just give you options and choices and guide you to make the best choice possible for yourself aligned with your goals.

But a mentor is someone who has already done what it is you want to do. Someone who’s living proof that it’s been done. And ideally, I always suggest to any entrepreneur/ salon owner who truly wants to live their best life is to find both find a coach to guide you to be better, A coach who will support you and guide you to be the best you can but also find a mentor who has already done what it is you want to do and will support you to get there also.

How do you foster a sense of community and collaboration among your Master Coaches, who may be spread across different regions, and how does this collective expertise benefit your clients and the industry as a whole?

We have coaching clients throughout Australia, New Zealand, America, Canada, and in the UK. We also have many of our coaching clients hosting masterclasses and helping others, sometimes in a different country flourish and grow.

In business, it’s a good idea to use KPI’s and benchmarks as a guide, but seeing beyond those KPI’s and benchmarks is essential to entrepreneurship, so that business owners can set their own standards and get focused on smashing their own goals, and being better, both financially and mentally, and they were the year before and the year before that! So that’s anything and everything IS possible and achievable.

A Few Words From The Total Academy Master Coaches

Daniela Boerma - Business Expert & Analysis

Knowledge should be acquired and passed on for others to grow. After 40 years of experience in the beauty industry, I’m honoured to be a master coach with TCA. Sharing my failures and teaching others “what not to do” in business, along with educating clients in finance, budgeting, and life skills. These key areas combined enables salon owners to thrive. Small business can be lonely at times but with the support of a business coach wonderful things can be achieved. Will and Peta’s Skin Clinic in Bondi Junction Sydney, has been one of many salons I’ve coached, Peta Friend is a sole operator and giving her support has provided motivation and drive to become one of the top salons in Sydney.

Daphne Savage - Mindset and self-worth expert.

With over four decades of experience in the hair and beauty industry, I am now a master business and life coach for TCA with an unwavering focus on the transformative power of mindset and self-worth. My expertise lies in empowering individuals to thrive within their businesses by becoming the best versions of themselves.

Central to my approach is the art of shifting mindsets, enabling you to find comfort in your own skin and embrace your authentic self. My true passion lies in instilling belief in oneself, unlocking the boundless potential within. Throughout my journey in life, I’ve encountered both remarkable successes and humbling failures, and I am here to guide you through the intricacies of these experiences, helping you navigate challenges while embracing the positives to achieve lasting success.

We are the director, producer and main character in this thing called life, it’s up to us to write the narrative.

Kerrie Di Mattia - Team Culture Queen

Working alongside Julie & the coaches at TCA is not only a privilege but an opportunity to give back to an industry that has given me so much!

When I started my journey with Julie, I was a great hairdresser but a lousy business owner, I had spent years feeling like a hamster on a wheel, repeating the same mistakes but continuously expecting better results... At some point I reached my F**K IT moment, and I knew that if I wanted things to change, I had to get help! I bit the bullet and faced my biggest fear, humiliation! I had owned salons for half my life and here I was about to admit to someone I had no idea what I was doing! I could write endless examples of what Julie has done for me as my coach, because there are many, she encouraged, guided, and mentored me to become the best version of a salon owner and employer I could be, and then she offered me the opportunity to do the same for others.

Fast forward nearly 5 years and here I am taking everything I’ve learned from one of the best coaches in the business and I’m now working with Salon owners and Teams specialising in Team Culture and Intergenerational Leadership and I absolutely love it!

Carly Knowles - Sales and Marketing Catalyst

With over 20 years of hands-on experience and scaling 3 businesses of my own, I am a seasoned business coach with a laser focus on sales and marketing strategies to drive results and profits fast. I have honed my expertise in helping businesses not only survive but thrive in competitive landscapes. My passion lies in transforming challenges into opportunities, equipping owners, and teams with the tools they need to achieve unparalleled success.

I love giving back and mentoring. By sharing knowledge, experiences, and best practices, collectively we can contribute to the growth and success of our clients and the industry as a whole. I will show you how to step into your power by taking 100% accountability with ZERO excuses. I will show you how to run your business fearlessly.

You need to find the right people to have in your corner. Those who vibrate on a frequency of growth, self-reflection, and abundance. Here at TCA, we want to be the community that motivates other business owners, supports them, and pushes them higher.

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