Leading Women in Tech Podcast

Hosted by Toni Collis

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100

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Aug 2026

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About the show

For ambitious women ready to rise, lead, and thrive — without burning out. Are you delivering results… but still waiting to be seen as a true leader? Tired of performance reviews with praise — but no promotion? Hosted by Dr. Toni Collis, executive coach for women in tech, this podcast is your go-to leadership toolkit. Whether you're a rising Director, lone female VP, or overextended operator tired of being overlooked — you're in the right place. Each week, Toni shares real-world leadership strategies, career advancement frameworks, and executive presence tools to help you: ✅ Build strategic visibility ✅ Communicate like a trusted exec ✅ Navigate politics with integrity ✅ Advocate for yourself (without overworking) ✅ Lead with confidence, clarity, and influence You'll also hear powerful interviews with women who've paved the way — and candid conversations on the unspoken challenges women face in male-dominated industries. ✨ If you're ready to go from "she's great" to "she's the obvious next Exec" — hit follow.

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September 1, 2026Episode 31628 min

316: Coaching as Your Encore Career: Building a Practice Inside or Outside Your Company

There's a question a surprising number of senior women in tech carry quietly for years: could I actually be a coach? Sometimes it surfaces after the promotion that didn't feel like you thought it would. Sometimes it's the realization that the mentoring conversations are the part of the week you actually love. Sometimes it's simpler: twenty years of hard-won experience, and a growing desire for work that's more yours. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis takes that question seriously. What a coaching second act really looks like, inside your company, alongside your career, or as the next chapter entirely, what it pays, what it demands, and how to know if it's for you. What's covered: ➡️ The quiet question — why so many senior women in tech wonder about coaching, and why the instinct deserves more respect than "maybe someday" ➡️ The three shapes of a coaching practice — the internal coach-leader, the portfolio builder coaching alongside her career, and the full second act, and why you don't have to choose today ➡️ What you already have — why decades in tech are an asset most career coaches would kill for, and the credibility math nobody tells you about ➡️ What you don't have yet — the honest gap: mentoring instinct is not coaching skill, and why the leap from "good with people" to professional coaching needs structure, practice, and feedback ➡️ The "can I really do this?" objection — answered properly: no prior coaching experience needed, practice hours built in, mentoring from Master Coaches ➡️ The business reality — what building a paying practice actually involves, and the brand-new How to Build Your Coaching Business / Side-Hustle bonus announced today for the September Ignite Coach Academy cohort ➡️ The timeline — enrollment closes Friday 11 September, cohort starts Monday 14 September, certified and practicing by year end If the question has been sitting quietly in the back of your mind, this is the episode that takes it out and looks at it properly. Useful links Ignite Coach Academy — final enrollment for the September cohort closes Friday 11 September: tonicollis.com/ignite-coach-academy Book a complimentary chat with Toni about whether Ignite is right for you: tonicollis.com/lets-chat

August 25, 2026Episode 31535 min

315: Executive Decision Making and Why Every Leader Needs to Care About Customer Retention with Alisha Esmail

When a client goes quiet, most leaders assume everything is fine. Alisha Esmail would tell you silence is the clients exit ramp — because it's far easier to disappear quietly than to tell someone you're leaving. Alisha is the founder of Latch AI, an AI-native client retention engine, and her path to tech was anything but conventional: seven years in international development across Haiti, South Africa, Nepal, Jordan and Panama, followed by building an award-winning coffee company with direct supply chains across three countries and a micro-loan program supporting female-owned farms. In this episode, Alisha and Toni make the case that retention is not customer success's problem — it's a leadership problem that belongs to everyone. They get into what AI is genuinely doing to the retention landscape, why cutting CS teams has backfired badly for some companies, and the practical diagnostics any leader can run this week regardless of function. What we cover: Why every leader — engineering, product, sales, commercial — should care about retention How AI is reshaping the retention landscape, and "the war on clients" Bells and whistles vs boredom: when do customers actually leave a working product? No news is bad news — why silence is an exit ramp, not a sign of satisfaction The four-part retention framework: detect drift, score clients, run the safe play, capture the win Why "expansion ready" is the most missed category in most businesses Usage metrics: the data engineering leaders aren't capturing but should be and how it helps executive decision making Useful Links Connect with today's guest, Alisha Esmail, on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisha-esmail/ and find out more about Latch AI at https://www.yourlatch.com . This episode was sponsored by our guest, Alisha Esmail. Thank you Alisha and Latch AI for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!

August 18, 2026Episode 31423 min

314: Leader as Coach: How Coaching Skills Transform Your Leadership

You have "coaching conversations" with your team. Career chats, problem-solving sessions, one-to-ones where you share your experience and point people in the right direction. Here's the uncomfortable truth: most of those conversations aren't coaching. They're mentoring. Powerful, well-intentioned, and the wrong tool for what you're trying to build. Because advice creates dependence, and coaching creates capability. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis breaks down the difference, why it matters more than almost any other leadership skill gap, and how genuine coaching skill transforms your team, your calendar and your career. What's covered: ➡️ The mentoring trap — why the conversations you call coaching are almost certainly advice-giving, why that's made you the bottleneck, and the test that tells you which one you're doing ➡️ Advice creates dependence, coaching creates capability — the mechanism behind why your team brings you the same problems over and over ➡️ The Ignite Framework: Reverse, Neutral, Forward — the diagnostic at the heart of real coaching: "Reverse is 'this is happening to me'. Neutral is 'this is what's happening'. Forward is 'here's what I can do about it'. Same facts, three completely different relationships to them." ➡️ The two counterfeit states — False Neutral (calm that's really collapse) and False Forward (a plan laid over an unaddressed feeling), and why missing them is where most well-meaning leadership conversations go wrong ➡️ The 5-minute coaching conversation — you don't need an hour; you need the diagnosis and three good questions ➡️ What changes when you lead this way — the team that solves its own problems, the calendar that comes back to you, and the leadership reputation that follows ➡️ Where Ignite Coach Academy fits — the September cohort, the certification path, and the Self-Coaching + Coaching in Your 1:1s bonus module built for exactly this If you're tired of being the answer machine, this is the episode that shows you the way out. Useful links: Ignite Coach Academy — enrolling now for the September cohort (starts Monday 14 September, enrollment closes Friday 11 September): tonicollis.com/ignite-coach-academy Book a complimentary chat with Toni about whether Ignite is right for you: tonicollis.com/lets-chat

August 11, 2026Episode 31342 min

313: Taking radical responsibility for our own wellbeing to prevent ambition burnout with Yana Carstens

Burnout is not caused by too much work. That's the argument at the heart of this episode — and Yana Carstens has earned the right to make it. After 12 years in the design and tech space, and her own burnout behind her, Yana shifted into executive coaching, where she now focuses on burnout prevention and authentic leadership for women in tech. In this conversation, Yana and Toni get into what taking radical responsibility for your own wellbeing actually means — and why most of what we call "wellness" is polishing the car while nobody looks under the hood. They dig into hyper-responsibility, the reflex that makes everything your fault; why rest is a prerequisite for success rather than a reward for it; and how leaders who model genuine wellbeing quietly reset the culture of everyone around them. If you're stepping into a new role, carrying everyone around you, or wondering why the vacation didn't fix it — this one is for you. What we cover: ◾ Why tech-native executive coaches are so rare — and why coaching skills spread naturally through teams ◾ The three reasons wellbeing is a leadership issue: modeling, leading from your center, and preventing burnout ◾ Burnout is not caused by too much work — the root causes nobody talks about ◾ The Ferrari analogy: you're built for speed, but without the pit stops you break down ◾ Why unlimited PTO and spa days are polish, not maintenance — and what "under the hood" work looks like ◾ Rest is a prerequisite for success, not a reward for it — and how that belief shapes team culture ◾ Hyper-responsibility: the high-achiever trait that makes everything your fault ◾ Observe, don't absorb — and Toni's version, hold, don't carry ◾ The client story: the boss's bad mood that had nothing to do with her ◾ Moving from hyper-responsible to "response-able": pause, clarify, build the internal boundary system ◾ The honest truth: this pattern comes back under stress — and that's okay ◾ Worst advice Yana ever received (from another coach): "you need to put on an act" ◾ Best advice: if you believe things will work out, you see opportunities — if not, you see obstacles Useful Links Connect with today's guest, Yana Carstens, on LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/yanacarstens/ ) and sign up for her monthly newsletter at https://realignandthrive.com/newsletter . Ready to learn to coach — for your self-coaching, your leadership toolkit, or a business of your own? Ignite Coach Academy is open for enrollment. Doors close September 11: https://tonicollis.com/ignite-coach-academy This episode was sponsored by our guest, Yana Carstens. Thank you Yana for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!

August 4, 2026Episode 31227 min

312: Bravery, Grit, and Confidence: The Leadership Energy Model for High Performance Leadership

Ever looked at an opportunity, a stretch role, a speaking slot, a bold idea, and thought "I could do that"… and then let it pass? And then been quietly furious with yourself weeks later? It probably wasn't a courage problem. It was an energy problem. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis introduces the Leadership Energy Model: the relationship between bravery, grit, and confidence, and why understanding it changes how you take on hard things, how you recover from them, and how you lead a team through them. What's covered: ➡️ The three-stage model — bravery gets you started, grit gets you through, confidence is what you earn on the other side, and each one changes what the next hard thing costs you ➡️ Naive bravery — why not knowing how hard something will be is sometimes the greatest gift, and why the more naive you are, the more grit you'll need later ➡️ Why bravery and grit are finite — one shared pool across your entire life, which is why a house renovation, a health challenge or a hard season at home leaves you with nothing for the bold move at work (and vice versa) ➡️ The celebrity illusion — why some people seem infinitely brave, and what resources actually do to the price of courage ➡️ Confidence as the exchange rate — every hard thing you complete makes the next one cheaper, and how to build confidence deliberately through structured small wins instead of deep-end plunges ➡️ Self-coaching with the model — how to audit your own bravery and grit spend before you commit to the next hard thing ➡️ Coaching your team through it — especially in AI transformations, where you're asking everyone to be brave and gritty at once with no confidence to draw on, and what great leaders do about that energetic cost If you've been wondering why the version of you who used to leap at challenges has gone quiet, this episode will give you the answer, and the way back. Useful links Ignite Coach Academy — Toni's coach training program, enrolling now for the September cohort: tonicollis.com/ignite-coach-academy Book a complimentary chat with Toni about whether Ignite is right for you: tonicollis.com/lets-chat

July 28, 2026Episode 31133 min

311: How to be an effective, outcome focused leader with Jessi Szurek

What outcome are you actually after? It's one of the most important questions a leader can ask — and one most organizations get wrong. Jessi Szurek, Associate Partner at Synthesis, joins Toni for a conversation about outcome-focused leadership, AI adoption done right, and the career-defining skill of speaking up when you're being overlooked. Jessi's path took her from an architecture degree at Cornell to an MBA at NYU, through 17 years at Ernst & Young working across process automation and AI with global financial institutions, to a smaller consulting firm reinventing what client value really means. This episode is full of practical wisdom for anyone leading change, adopting AI, or trying to get clear on what actually matters — plus one of the best examples of calling out being ignored that we've had on the show. What we covered: The non-linear journey: architecture, an MBA in economics, and 17 years at a global consulting firm Why Jessi left a role she was good at when her objectives and her employer's diverged Outcome-focused thinking: the difference between the actions and the actual outcome Why most companies think they know their outcomes but don't — and how to find real clarity Why sometimes the right move is to stop and reprioritize instead of just doing what you're told Transparency as a leadership tool — and why short-term discomfort creates long-term value AI adoption is change management, not magic: why AI is just the next tool in the toolbox The AI skepticism problem: what to do when people are being forced to adopt tools they resist Why user buy-in matters more than the perfect solution — the paper Rolodex principle The golf story: how Jessi challenged being overlooked and what it taught everyone in the room What's the worst that can happen? Reframing the fear of speaking up Setting boundaries and choosing your environment over putting your head down Why the most important decision you'll ever make is who you choose as your partner Finding success in discomfort — and being your own biggest cheerleader Useful Links Connect with today's guest, Jessi, on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessi-petrosino/ and find out more about Synthesis at https://synthesis.inc . This episode was sponsored by our guest,Jessi Szurek. Thank you Jessi & Synthesis for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!

July 21, 2026Episode 31027 min

310: Why You're Not Being Seen as the Leader You Want To Be

You're delivering. You're the one your team relies on, the one who steps up, the one whose reviews are consistently strong. People call you invaluable, dependable, a safe pair of hands. And yet when the conversations that matter happen, the succession discussions, the stretch assignments, the rooms where the next senior appointment gets decided, you're not in them. Someone else is being talked about as a future leader while you're being talked about as a great performer. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis breaks down the gap between the leadership you're delivering and the leadership you're being credited with, and gives you the practical system for closing it. Not by working harder, and not by becoming someone you're not, but by changing the signals that build how you're seen. What's covered: ➡️ Perception is a system, not a verdict — why the two stories you tell yourself ("the system is broken" or "something is wrong with me") both keep you stuck, and the third story that actually gives you something to do ➡️ The four perception gaps — the language gap, the visibility gap, the signal gap, and the narrative gap, and how to diagnose which one is costing you most ➡️ Why your best work has no name on it — drama is visible by default, prevention is invisible by default, and what to do about it if your leadership style is prevention ➡️ Helper signals versus leader signals — the behaviors that made you indispensable may be teaching people you're a support function, and the three-signal swap one client used to change how her VP described her within a quarter ➡️ The one-line leadership narrative — could your boss's boss finish the sentence "she's the person you go to when…"? Why choosing your story matters and how to write it ➡️ Is your mindset holding you back? — the three beliefs that stop capable women doing this work, including an honest conversation about the double standard and why contribution signals don't trigger it the way dominance signals do ➡️ Where to start this week — the diagnosis, the one signal change, and the one conversation that accelerates everything Being seen as a leader isn't a personality transplant. It's a set of consistent, honest signals about the leader you already are. You've been doing the hard part for years. This is letting it be seen. Useful links Book a complimentary strategy call with Toni: tonicollis.com/lets-chat Related episodes ⏹️ Episode 264 — Why You're Not Getting Promoted (Even When You're Overperforming): https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/264-why-youre-not-getting-promoted ⏹️ Episode 228 — Mastering Your Value: Strategies to Stop Underselling Yourself: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/228-not-getting-promoted-heres-the-one-thing-you-need-to-stop-doing ⏹️ Episode 112 — The Problem With Not Blowing Your Own Trumpet: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/112-if-you-dont-openly-celebrate-your-achievements-who-will ⏹️ Episode 276 — Busy ≠ Valuable: How to Prioritize Work That Gets You Promoted: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/276-busy-not-valuable-how-to-prioritize-work-that-gets-you-promoted ⏹️ Episode 286 — Executive Presence for Women in Tech: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/286-executive-presence-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 290 — The Promotion Gap in Tech: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/290-women-in-tech-promotion-gap

July 14, 2026Episode 30940 min

309: Diversity of Thought in Product Leadership: Consumer-First AI, Financial Inclusion and the EVP Journey with Debbie Hsu

What does it mean to build products that truly work for everyone — including the people most systems were never designed to include? Debbie Hsu, EVP of Product at Experian Consumer Services, joins Toni for a conversation that spans the full arc of her career — from software engineer at Oracle to leading product at one of the world's most significant consumer financial data companies — and gets into some of the most important questions facing product leaders today. Debbie leads the evolution of EVA, Experian's AI-powered virtual assistant, and brings a consumer-first lens to everything she builds. In this episode she shares how AI is changing team structures and role boundaries in product, why over-reliance on AI risks making every product look and sound the same, and what the socioeconomic stakes of AI access mean for product leaders who care about inclusion. She also shares three pieces of advice that I see as foundational to leading: Being humble is not the same as being invisible. Self-advocacy is not the same as bragging. And never let an official meeting be the first time people hear about your idea. What we cover: ⏹ The unplanned path from software engineer to EVP of Product — and what learning by doing really looks like ⏹ Why Debbie went back to business school to pivot into product management — and what actually landed her the job ⏹ How product leadership has evolved over 20 years: from Flash-based seat maps to AI-powered financial assistants ⏹ T-shaped builders and the blurring of roles in the AI era — what this means for product teams right now ⏹ The AI homogeneity risk: why over-reliance on AI makes products look and sound the same — and what differentiates the ones that don't ⏹ EVA: how Experian's AI assistant uses trusted credit data, expert compliance, and lender eligibility to go beyond generic AI responses ⏹ AI access as a socioeconomic equity issue — and why product leaders need to be part of this conversation ⏹ Financial inclusion and credit invisibility: what it means to build products for people the system overlooked ⏹ Being humble is not the same as being invisible ⏹ Self-advocacy is not bragging — and why visibility for meaningful work is a leadership skill ⏹ Never let an official meeting be the first time people hear your idea ⏹ Diverse voices in product: why every product leader has a responsibility to build inclusively Useful Links Connect with today's guest and sponsor, Debbie on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/debbie-hsu/ and find out more about Experian at https://www.experian.com . This episode was sponsored by our guest, Debbie Hsu. Thank you Debbie & Experian for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!

July 7, 2026Episode 30832 min

308: Becoming a Trusted Advisor to the Board: How to Build Thought Leadership and Credibility at the Next Level

There's a room you're not yet in. Maybe it's a literal room — the board meeting, the investor briefing, the conversation at the level above yours where decisions get made that shape your organization and your career. Maybe it's more of a concept — the level of credibility where people seek out your perspective rather than just your report. Where you're consulted, not just informed. Becoming a trusted advisor to a board is one of those topics that sounds like it belongs to a specific career stage. But the behaviors, habits, and communication patterns that make someone genuinely valuable at board level are not developed the week before you need them. They're built over years — and the leader who starts now will be genuinely ready when the moment comes. In this episode of Leading Women in Tech, Toni Collis breaks down exactly what board-level credibility looks like, how it's built, and what you can start doing right now — wherever you are in your career. This is for you if: ➡️ You're the leader actively working toward the C-suite who knows the board relationship is her frontier ➡️ You're the woman considering fractional work, NED roles, or an encore career — and who needs to understand how to position herself for board-level advisory work ➡️ You're the Director or VP who's not thinking about boards yet — and who is going to leave this episode with the most immediately actionable content, because the seeds of board credibility are planted years before the harvest What's covered: ➡️ What being a trusted advisor actually means — and why the conventional picture is wrong. Boards don't want information providers. They want people who help them think. ➡️ What boards actually want from an advisor — the real version, not the official one. Five specific capabilities that make someone genuinely valuable in a board context, including pattern recognition, intellectual honesty under pressure, and executive listening ➡️ The communication shift that changes everything — stop leading with the what and start leading with the so what. The four-part trusted advisor structure that works in any high-stakes senior room ➡️ How to build the relationships that create board-level credibility — including why most people start too late, how to be useful before you make an ask, and why making your thinking visible is one of the most effective career investments available to you ➡️ What you can start doing right now — five specific behaviors for the earlier-career listener that compound into board-level credibility over time. Including reading the rooms above yours, practicing strategic language in every meeting you're already in, and volunteering for board-visible work ➡️ The fractional and encore career dimension — how to translate your experience into board language, how to be findable for the right roles, and how to build the portfolio of evidence that boards and fractional hiring organizations are actually looking for Whether you want the C-suite, a non-executive director role, a fractional career, or you just want to be the kind of leader who gets consulted rather than just informed — this episode gives you the framework. Further listening (related episodes) ⏹️ Episode 286 — Executive Presence for Women in Tech: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/286-executive-presence-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 292 — From Tactical to Strategic: The Unspoken Rules for Women Stepping Into Executive Leadership: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/291-c-level-leadership-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 238 — Thinking Like an Executive: From Firefighter to Strategist: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/238-thinking-like-an-executive-from-firefighter-to-strategist ⏹️ Episode 241 — Thinking Like an Executive: Setting Priorities as an Executive: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/241-thinking-like-an-executive-setting-priorities ⏹️ Episode 236 — Thinking Like an Executive: Cultivating Your Executive Presence: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/236-thinking-like-an-executive-cultivating-executive-presence ⏹️ Episode 291 — C-Level Leadership for Women in Tech: What It Really Takes to Thrive: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/291-c-level-leadership-for-women-in-tech ⏹️ Episode 256 — No More Crickets: The Networking Strategy That Lands Jobs in 2025: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/256-networking-strategy-lands-jobs ⏹️ Episode 284 — Am I Ready to Be a Fractional Leader?: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/am-i-ready-for-fractional/ ⏹️ Episode 288 — How to Position Yourself as a Fractional Leader: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/288-fractional-leadership-positioning/ ⏹️ Episode 289 — How Fractional Leaders Actually Get Hired: https://tonicollis.com/leading-women-tech/289-how-fractional-leaders-get-hired/ Book a complimentary strategy call: tonicollis.com/lets-chat

June 30, 2026Episode 30744 min

307: Leadership Decision Making and the Non-Linear Path to the C-Suite with Michelle Darcy-Clarke

Michelle Darcy-Clarke didn't have a five-year plan. She took a job by accident, made deliberate lateral moves when everyone expected upward ones, stepped back to be an individual contributor, and eventually became a Chief Experience Officer — without really aiming for it. In this episode, Michelle joins Toni for one of the most honest and energizing conversations about non-linear leadership careers, the VP comfort zone, ambition redefined, and the single mindset shift that separates people who keep growing from the ones who plateau. She also gets into the AI transformation her team is driving right now — and why women leaders need to be the ones at the front of that conversation. What we cover: ⏹ The accidental start to a 27-year career in market research — and what kept it interesting ⏹ Lateral moves as a deliberate growth strategy: why sideways sometimes beats upward ⏹ The VP comfort zone: what safety at that level really means and why it can become a trap ⏹ Doing the C-suite job before getting the title — and knowing when to have that conversation ⏹ Ambition redefined: how wanting to do good rather than be better than your peer actually gets you further ⏹ The red personality: challenge first, commit fully — and why this style gets mistaken for resistance ⏹ Best and worst case scenario decision-making at the executive level ⏹ The team-to-company mindset shift: the single biggest blocker to executive progression ⏹ Women driving AI transformation — and why female leaders need to be at the front of this ⏹ Impostor syndrome, confidence, and learning to own your outcomes rather than calling them luck ⏹ The role of executive coaching across every level of a career ⏹ What Michelle would tell her younger self: trust your decisions and let the negativity go Connect with today's guest & sponsor Michelle Darcy-Clarke of Cint ⏹ LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michelledarcyclarke ⏹ Cint: cint.com This episode was sponsored by our guest, Michelle Darcy-Clarke of Cint. Thank you Michelle & Cint for helping to bring Leading Women in Tech to this community!