The Academies is pleased to introduce you to an alumnus of our neuroscience-based coaching courses, Kari Johnson of the Tai Johnson Group. She started her coach education journey with our Level 1 ACC Leadership Pathway program, where she completed the Certified Executive and Leadership Development Coach (CELDC) and the Certified Leadership Engagement and Impact Coach (CLEIC) courses to earn her ICF ACC Credential. Read on to learn more about her coaching journey and her experience with The Academies!
Tell Us About Your Experience With The Academies Leadership Coaching Program
I started my journey with The Academies purely to pursue coaching as a skill to advance my leadership impact at my 13+ year corporate senior leadership career in Financial Services. I very quickly came to realize that coaching was my “zone of genius,” where I did not feel time passing, where I could not wait to keep learning more, growing more, and coaching more. From here I further pursued and achieved my ACC designation through the Academies Level 1 pathway and launched my own coaching practice, Tai Johnson Group, in January of 2026.
How Does Neuroscience Influence Your Coaching Style?
It is everything. At the end of the day, we are all humans with a brain wired for connection. Today’s societal norms push a fast-paced, no-time-to-think, rushed, high-pressure environment. All conditions primed for Red
Zone thinking. A constant state of fight-or-flight won’t do anyone any good. When people and leaders can dedicate space to slow down their thinking and shift into the Blue Zone, real magic happens. My whole coaching practice and identity is built on creating a safe space where my clients feel they can escape from those demands of their day-to-day – creating space to realize just how capable they truly are deep within – how empowering is that?!
Would You Recommend Our Programs To Others?
Without a doubt. I’ve recommended this program to those within my corporate role and life, because I’ve seen just how powerful coaching can be for corporate leaders. Many companies say they have a coaching culture, but what I came to realize was that most were not properly trained on what coaching truly is. Most corporate coaching cultures were instead actually focusing on mentoring, advice-giving, telling, etc. versus helping employees discover paths for themselves (where appropriate).
What’s A Memorable Win You’d Like To share?
At my corporate role in Financial Services, leaders have “skip level” conversations with employees who report to their direct reports, which supports employees with greater development opportunities via access to more senior leadership. On the form employees must fill out and submit, there is a field for naming the person most instrumental to their development during that year. From the moment I began applying my Academies training in my corporate leadership role, my name began showing up consistently across the organization (we are a 20k+ employee company). This end result was never the “goal,” but it does go to show how an intentional approach to coaching can impact people.
How has coaching certification changed your credibility?
In an unregulated industry that continues to rapidly grow, I believe it to be imperative for coaches to obtain credentials to ensure they are doing right by their clients. Coaching is not cheap and clients place their trust and precious assets in our services. If someone is going to trust me in this way, I will do everything in my power to help them achieve their goals.
What Have Clients Said About Your Coaching?
My target market for my coaching is working parents. Typically the clientele are working moms. This client was extra special because he was a working dad experiencing working dad guilt.
“Working with Kari over the past few months has been entirely transformative. Before finding her, I had spent two years dealing with constant stress and had tried various coaching methods with zero results. Kari changed everything.
Her neuroscience-backed, values-based coaching technique was highly impactful, allowing me to understand my subconscious thought patterns in relation to my core values.
Her approach provided me with a practical framework to check myself, reframe my thinking, and meet even the most stressful situations with presence and calm. Tangibly, she helped me break habits like constantly looking at my phone and failing to enjoy the present moment.
Kari has an incredible, intuitive ability to ask the right questions and position the right tools at the perfect moment. That is truly what unlocked entirely new ways of thinking for me in just a few weeks. Thanks to her guidance, I’m now consistently showing up as my best self, both professionally and personally.”
Anything else you’d like to share?
While I can and still coach anyone, my sweet spot belongs in the working parent niche. Those at the crossroads feeling the pulls between the career they want and the parent they want to be. Many believe it has to be an either/or. I help my clients have both – having the best years of their careers after having kids. I leverage my background as a working parent in corporate America, paired with my economics degree background and neuroscience-backed coaching training to help my clients achieve their goals.
Thank You For Sharing Your Coaching Journey, Kari!
You can find Kari via these channels:
Website: www.taijohnsongroup.com
Newsletter: https://www.taijohnsongroup.com/newsletter
Free email series: practical thinking for high-achieving working parents – concepts they can actually use, drawn from neuroscience, behavioral economics, and the real pulls between career growth and parenthood
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