Style Coaching Institute® graduate, Tania Mazzoleni, helps women to harmonise their body and soul because, sometimes, it is the inner part that needs a restyling. Her mission is to help others to overcome limiting beliefs and no longer feel inadequate. Tania believes that failure can generate new opportunities, that crisis is synonymous with choice, and that a pair of heels can help you to step outside your comfort zones. Let’s find out more…
Hi Tania! Can you tell us about your love of style, and what inspired you to begin a career in Style Coaching™?
I believe I was born with my love of style! At the age of 8, I went to the local shops by myself and chose my clothes. I always knew what I liked and felt clear about my choices and what inspired me. I devoured fashion magazines but without being overwhelmed by fashions and trends. This love of style later inspired me to work as a model, but my passion was for writing and I graduated as a journalist. Having worked in television for many years, and having moved from Rome to Milan to set up a new concept store, I arrived at Style Coaching™ after a path of both failures and successes. I was looking for something that could make me feel fulfilled. I understood my life’s mission and overturned all plausible plans by deciding to help others feel good. Style Coaching™ has allowed me to combine all the experiences I have gained over time – with periods of light, shadow and a professional background that is only apparently unrelated.
How did you first discover the Style Coach™ Diploma Course and what makes you most proud in your career?
I discovered the Style Coach™ Diploma Course while looking for something that could combine my problem-solving nature with my love for style, with the aim of transmitting my support to others so they could achieve changes in their lives. When I found the Style Coaching™ program, the idea of becoming a Style Coach™ made me feel enthusiastic and I realized that it was the right choice for me. What makes me most proud in my career is the ability to help people to discover their inner and outer confidence. I believe that each of us is a masterpiece, sometimes hidden, and people can turn their “not bad” into “could not be better”! Holistic Style Coaching™ appeals to me more than Personal Styling alone, because I like to create lasting changes and support my clients in their complete journey. I believe it is important to deepen our attitudes towards a person’s appearance; while I enjoy the analysis of colours and performing wardrobe makeovers, topics like body confidence and overcoming limiting beliefs are particularly meaningful to me.
How would you describe your own personal style?
Surely, I have a completely Creative personal style! I do not follow fashion rules; I like to mix colours and prints and dare to try new combinations. I love to amaze myself (not to amaze others), and playing with clothes and accessories allows me to express my personality in complete freedom.
What’s something that’s surprised you about your career as a Style Coach™ and what are some memorable experiences you’ve had?
What surprises me most is the possibility of meeting so many people and being able to offer them a helping hand towards the achievement of their goals. Coping with a change can be difficult for people, but if someone supports you then motivation increases and everything seems less daunting. Above all, I love to instil lightness and joy in my clients so they can live the coaching experience with a smile! I have a showroom in Rome that I share with my friend, Federica, called ‘Fashion Suite’. In the showroom, in addition to selling clothes and accessories, I do image consultancy. However, without proper coaching I always hear the same phrases: “I’m fat, nothing fits me” or “Where do I go with such a dress?” or “I won’t try the dress on because I know it will look bad on me, and I don’t like the colour”. If the client perceives herself to have a defect in the mirror, this can often trigger a bad mood, and the mirror can sometimes reveal a client’s neglect of her body which can be devastating to her self-image and confidence. During one of my Style Coaching™ sessions, a client made a memorable impression on me. She arrived for her session feeling depressed, almost with tears in her eyes and she did not want to try anything. I listened to her, I helped her relax and, without her noticing, we started playing with clothes, colours and accessories. I showed her how a colour could make her feel happy if chosen properly and if her colouring is understood. I also showed her how a dress can enhance her appearance and help to minimise and disguise any areas she might perceive as a ‘defect’. She left the session smiling, with the outfit she had been wearing when she entered in a shopper, and instead of wearing a printed blouse and a peacock-coloured jacket, necklaces and bracelets that changed her mood and perspective! It was a transformation, inside and out.
Where would you like to see your Style Coaching™ business in the next few years and, how has your business adapt to the Covid-19 crisis?
I hope to continue developing and deepening my ideas. I have two ambitious dreams right now: writing a book and returning to TV with this new Style Coaching™ experience! In this historical period, people have felt more insecure but have also had more time to face themselves. Many women in particular have had to reinvent their role, adapt their work and create a different family organisation. In all this, however, they also felt the need to shake off this sense of dissatisfaction, closure, opacity and monotony that Covid elicited during the months of lockdown. They needed to look at each other with different eyes. For this, I have made available online support for virtual coaching and virtual styling, plus the possibility of short makeover packages for an emergency SOS!
You recently coined the word ‘Stylefulness®’ – can you tell our readers more about this?
When I created the term Stylefulness®, my intention was to create a path to make women happy to be exactly as they are in everyday life. Happy but, above all, aware. Talking about style is never easy because you always run the risk of falling into clichés and arguments that are too banal as well as some chocolate aphorism or too technical. Often the word ‘style’ refers to the clothes we wear and, consequently, to the image of what allows us to wear them: our body. In several moments in my life, I have felt inadequate falling into that vicious circle of not being up to par. Only when I realised that failure teaches us to have new perspectives and that crisis is synonymous with choice, did I stop wandering in search of what I already had inside of me. I stood in front of the mirror and realised that the problem was not my body but the idea I had of it and the discrepancy between the inside and the outside. At that moment, I discovered that my inner part needed a makeover first, not my body. So why Stylefulness®? The ‘fullness of style’ represents a status, a way of living and seeing the world while remaining true to oneself and aware of one’s value. In this path, you will be able to discover how to ‘deal with’ yourself and be happy without continuously self-sabotaging yourself trying to be something else. You will think that happiness has nothing to do with style but is not true! If you live in the fullness of yourself, you will feel in perfect harmony and joy with the rest of the world. In fact, when we feel comfortable in our own shoes and our outer appearance is in balance with our inner self, we are happy because another important factor comes into play: self-esteem. Psychologist Nathaniel Branden, stated that “The essence of self-esteem is trusting your mind and knowing that you deserve happiness”. From this reflection, my claim “to be happy from head to toe … including wardrobe” was born!
In your opinion, what makes a ‘happy wardrobe’?
One of the Stylefulness® paths is the “Happy Wardrobe”. To me, a happy wardrobe respects your style personality, your daily routine and your values by solving the eternal dilemma of “what do I wear?”. I consider the wardrobe as a projection of who we are, of our character, an extension of ourselves. Opening the wardrobe means looking inside ourselves, in the depths. It is not enough to have the wardrobe in order. I am not one who philosophically cleans up and organises the wardrobe. A tidy closet that does not represent you is useless and it is an unhappy closet that makes you insecure and confused. I spotted 5 types of unhappy closets: bipolar, shopaholic, nostalgic, hit and run, and creative. These insights help me offer a unique service to my Style Coaching™ clients.
Your work focuses on how people see themselves – what is one piece of advice you can offer our readers who would like to begin a journey towards having better body confidence?
“Learn to like yourself. What you think of yourself is much more important than what others think of you”, said Seneca. The only sure thing about our future is that we will have to be with ourselves for life. So, get to know yourself, love yourself and listen to yourself. Here are just 5 steps to begin the journey:
- Start looking at you lightly without sarcasm that only serves to humiliate you by creating what I call “mirror masochism”. Look at you with a smile. The brain does not distinguish between a real or fake smile but the effects are the same on your mood!
- Work on posture: the mind affects the body and vice versa. We need to become aware of our attitude and transform it into an attitude of openness. Even a single gesture can change your mood: when you feel negative and sad, try to raise your arms in an attitude of victory above your head. In this way, you break the moment and your brain gets a positive message.
- Make an appointment: working on yourself, on your self-esteem and creating a success identity requires commitment. Organise a weekly agenda and make a daily appointment with yourself, even just half an hour to dedicate time to your mind and body.
- Choose to be in the present and build a bubble of personal concentration. Do not bask in the memory of your past image or linger in a hypothetical unrealistic future image. Stop in the now and here and focus on the uniqueness of being yourself.
- Look for a body joy enhancer: happiness is a choice, break the routine that you have imposed on your body. For example, try new colours! A different and happy colour to wear, a lipstick to change your look or an unusual accessory.
Ciao, sono Tania.
Sono una Style Coach ed aiuto le donne a riconciliare anima e corpo perché, a volte, è la parte interiore ad avere bisogno di un restyling. La forza che ho generato mettendo in campo tutto quello che ho vissuto, approfondito e imparato mi ha dato la possibilità di concentrarmi sui talenti delle persone e di realizzare la mia missione: aiutare gli altri a vivere in sintonia ritrovando l’equilibrio tra l’idea che ognuno ha di sé e la propria immagine esteriore. Il percorso di coaching che ho creato permette di superare credenze limitanti e di vivere al meglio con l’energia necessaria per non avere più paura di sentirsi inadeguate. Credo fermamente che il fallimento possa generare nuove opportunità, che la crisi sia sinonimo di scelta e che per essere all’altezza non siano necessari un paio di tacchi!
You can find out more about Tania and her Style Coaching™ work on her website and follow Tania on Instagram and Facebook. You can also contact Tania by email to: tania@taniamazzoleni.it
