What Our Clients Have To Say
Testimonials from clients who have coached
with Toni one-on-one and with our trusted coaches in the LULA academy
Toni’s Coaching Program changed my career trajectory and improved my personal life.
Together we identified my triggers and specific steps that improved my working relationships, upheld the boundaries in my work environment, and in the process improved my personal life as I was happier, more confident, and driving toward a positive outcome. I have now moved to my dream job with a plan for the next 5 years!
If you are feeling frustrated, stuck, and just don’t know what the next step is, I highly recommend Lit Up Leadership Academy. It changed my life. And I am still actively participating - this growth has been so rewarding I want to continue to get stronger.
Kim McMahon, VP of Marketing
"I have only been participating in Lit Up Leadership Academy for 10 days and I can already see improvements in my executive presence."
"Coaching with Toni has been such a great experience. I have only been participating in Lit Up Leadership Academy for 10 days and I can already see improvements in my executive presence. I’ve immediately improved my communication with my boss. I’m now able to immediately get into the zone with my active listening skills/emotional awareness - wow it's like a whole new dimension of being opens up when you tune into that stuff!
Making small changes, like improving my self-awareness, have helped me navigate tricky situations with grace. Toni takes these big concepts that you read about and helps you turn them into concrete actions that give you tangible results. I feel more confident, focused, and excited about my career. Overall I’m feeling excited and optimistic because I’ve had such great initial momentum with the coaching and new habits.
There is so much potential for future growth. I would highly recommend coaching with Toni. I honestly wish I had started this years ago."
VP, Data Science
“Toni is an amazing coach and a wonderful human being.”
Toni has a passion for helping people, especially women to become effective leaders. She helped me harness my voice to advocate for my ideas and self-worth. Throughout our sessions she would listen to me talk (sometimes this was more of a therapy session) and then she would turn those questions back on me, pushing me out of my comfort zone to devise solutions. She challenged my old way of thinking and helped me retrain my brain to be a better problem solver.
Jen Paxton
“Toni brought a whole new perspective and allowed me to think completely differently about the way I was approaching my business.
Her advice is really practical and I was able to implement the strategies immediately, making me feel more in control and positive about my direction.”
Sarah Osler
"In the short time I’ve been working with Toni I’ve already seen progress in how I organize my thinking. She compassionately challenges my base assumptions which are rooted in imposter syndrome and helps me to reframe my thinking in a way that boosts my confidence.
One of the things that is really special about Toni is her consistent and unwavering belief in my abilities.
I love to be helpful to the colleagues around me but this can result in a lot of my day being reactive. Toni has been immensely helpful in guiding me toward a place where much more of my time is being spent proactively. Toni’s ability to identify the real issues behind the information I’m presenting have helped me to increase my self-awareness and become more planful about my days and my goals.
For a long time I didn’t pursue executive coaching because I doubted the value of the investment of time and money. I can already see really positive results in a number of ways and I’m so glad I chose to work with Toni. If you are like me and on the fence I would highly recommend you make the investment in yourself.”
Nadine Robinson
"The Academy does an exceptional job of unlocking those barriers we don’t realize we’ve put in front of ourselves. "
Shortly after I joined the academy, I began heavily interviewing for my next role. The support inside the program on advancing in my career, alongside the time-management skills that helped to provide work-life balance while I was interviewing but working full time were foundational to landing a new job at a new company with a 42% pay bump in less than 8 weeks of joining the program! The structure of the materials in the program that focus on landing a new job accelerated my progress, both in searching for and landing a new job, as well as succeeding in transition to a new role. The tools for your first 90 days in a new role allowed me to be the most strategic in my onboarding, resulting in lasting success in my new role.
I most love that the content in the Academy is primarily “self serve” — I can train at my own pace. The community and group coaching are also an incredibly uplifting resource. Being surrounded in a remote-first world with people who inspire me as well as providing a sense of validation in challenging times has empowered me as I evaluate different situations and opportunities.
In the past I’ve found myself seeking a new role due to dissatisfaction or overperformance with my current one, without truly evaluating why I was dissatisfied. As a result of the Academy I have been able to anchor onto what uniqueness I bring in addition to clarity of what needs to be done. Working through the materials and reflections I deeply realized that I am only ever going to be the best version of me and learned to stop trying to "be like so and so" and lean into my uniqueness which has unlocked more success in my career than ever before. I also leaned into really understanding where the dissatisfaction and overperformance came from to better navigate my journey moving forward. Learning that what made me successful to get to where I am today, isn’t necessarily what is going to make me successful moving forward has been incredibly valuable.
I’ve also found that I’m significantly less prone to ‘burning out’ and feeling overwhelmed. I’ve learned how to have the boundaries, time management and focus time to help me identify short-term priorities to help my long-term goals, both personally and professionally. I feel more empowered as a result of the Academy than I have with any other type of mentorship or coaching. Applying the information along with the network of incredible women has equipped me with the tools, knowledge, and perspective I needed to pursue my biggest dreams despite the fears that inevitably bubble up.
If you are considering joining the program, I want to share this with you. It’s hard to take time for yourself. As women in the industry it feels ‘selfish’ at times to make time alongside my day job for coaching, group coaching, and training, let alone pay for it. It was something I always did outside of work hours and tried to do the “cheapest” way. I got the most out of the Academy once I really committed to myself that my professional development is part of my day job and engaged more with the group through coaching sessions and the community on slack. The network and opportunities for interaction are really what sets this apart from either pursuing training alone, or coaching alone. Plus, there is literally nothing like having one person, let alone a community, in your corner rooting for you.
As a woman who is often the only ‘woman in the room’ at higher and higher levels, it becomes even more important that we get fiercely clear on what we want and what we give to the world. Often confidence, self-doubt and a drive to ‘perfection’ held me back from being the best version of myself. The Academy does an exceptional job of unlocking those barriers we don’t realize we’ve put in front of ourselves.
Megan, Head of Associate Experiences and Measurement, Enterprise
"Toni has a unique talent for advancing one's state of thinking with her guidance and suggestions. Her personal experience and coaching expertise help her to understand the context of the wide variety of questions being posed, and she always nails the suggestions with the right amount of empathy, challenging one's thinking and providing actionable guidance."
I have had the pleasure of working with LULA and Toni Collis as my executive coach for the past 6 months. I must say that it has been an incredible experience working with her and being a part of the LULA community.
Toni has a unique talent for advancing one's state of thinking with her guidance and suggestions. Her personal experience and coaching expertise help her to understand the context of the wide variety of questions being posed, and she always nails the suggestions with the right amount of empathy, challenging one's thinking and providing actionable guidance. Toni's clarity of thought and coaching style make her a role model for good leadership. She sets personal boundaries, facilitates collaboration, and invites input from participants, all while creating a supportive environment for all members.
The LULA community is also a great resource, especially for group coaching. It provides me with an opportunity to learn from what others are going through as we have similar experiences. I also get to think through what coaching advice I might give and see what expert advice Toni has to offer - a way of passive learning - as a great leader is also a great coach.
LULA was a key ingredient in the success of my recent job search and interviewing experience. Interviewing is an exercise in presenting your relevant strengths and experiences in a time window of 30-45 minutes. Creating a good impression not only requires knowing what to talk about, but also knowing how to deliver it and to be able to adapt the answers to what specifically the interviewer is trying to assess. LULA has been a key partner in my interview preparation efforts, providing me with a question bank, async coaching via slack, reviewing my answers, and helping me improve my delivery. Toni encourages mock interviews with other job seekers, which is an excellent way to prepare for the real thing. In the environment of an economic downturn, I found that I needed to nail every aspect of every interview to land offers, and LULA helped me uplevel myself and be in a position to consider a handful of offers.
With the career planning aspect of my job search, LULA has been an invaluable resource. The workshops and exercises helped me to think through my short-term and long-term career goals, what I care about, and what motivates me. Toni also helped me navigate conversations with potential employers regarding my personal circumstances. Most critically, Toni helped me analyze different opportunities and provided a balanced perspective on failed interviews, whether it was something I could have done better at or it was that the company wasn't a good fit for me.
Job searching can be an emotional rollercoaster, but Toni and the LULA community were very supportive during the process, cheering me on as I went through failed moments and making sure to celebrate the wins. Overall, I went through the job search with a lot more confidence and landed a great role with LULA's help.
Working with Toni and LULA has helped me to operate as a more deliberate and opinionated leader with a clearer sense of purpose and increased awareness of my strengths. I know that I'm going to be much more effective at my new role and accelerate my career growth with LULA's help.
I highly recommend LULA to anyone looking for a supportive and knowledgeable executive coaching service. Thank you, Toni, and the LULA community, for all your help and support.
Director of Engineering
"As soon as I started working with Toni we plowed straight into some major sticking points in my career, and I’m delighted that within weeks of starting work with Toni I finally got a seat at the exec table to be able to drive DEI initiatives holistically across Tile."
Tackling self doubt and dealing with emotions have dramatically improved my executive presence, which has resulted taking my career to the next level. I’ve become empowered to have those difficult conversations and know that the outcome will be successful.
During my time working with Toni I’ve turned around the Web Team at Tile - something that has benefitted not just me but the entire business.
But the work with Toni goes beyond just tangible results I have more self confidence, my relationship with my husband is going better (not something I expected from Leadership Coaching!), I forgive myself more, and I celebrate the little things more.
Toni challenges me and pushes me, but lovingly and in a way that feels safe and I’m actually able to address and dig into deeper issues.
I’ve worked with other coaches before, but Toni has been able to really empower me to think about the things I need to focus on and think about how it’s all intertwined.”
Jossie Haines, VP of Engineering, Tile
"She sees straight through me and gives me exactly the advice, and sometimes the tough love, I need to get over my blockers and make progress"
Toni astounded me from the first with her wisdom, empathy, and intellect. She sees straight through me and gives me exactly the advice, and sometimes the tough love, I need to get over my blockers and make progress...
Signing on to coaching with Toni has been a life-changing experience, and a real step up for my organisation. She's extraordinary. Plus the coaching sessions are fun, she's such a delight to work with.
Linda McIver
“Toni will give you the best tools to build your dreams
Toni is so amazing to work with! She is gentle and kind towards the situation you are in, but it doesn’t stop her from giving you the best tools to build your dream! She is always friendly and overall a lovely person.
Lauren Smit