Cat has a tonne of experience at high growth businesses so when I heard that she was coaching I couldn’t wait to sign up.  As a CMO it was really useful that Cat has so much knowledge around marketing and brand. After Covid had a devastating impact on my travel business I was keen to use this precious time to improve as a leader. Cat’s coaching went way beyond anything I could have hoped for. As the co-founder of a fast growing business, you have to keep adapting and growing to keep up with the pace. The person I am now is completely different to the one that started the business seven years ago and no doubt I will be someone entirely different this time next year. I have not had coaching before and I will admit to feeling nervous before starting these sessions. These nerves quickly disappeared and I went all in with each session.

Speaking to Cat about the challenges I am faced with and spending time working on my weaknesses have helped shape me as a leader. It’s exactly what I needed as my company prepares to scale up once again. Many of the sessions felt slightly uncomfortable but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. After all, I did ask to be challenged at the start. Cat’s approachable coaching style meant that I was able to find most of the answers myself so it certainly wasn’t her telling me what to do.  It got me thinking about things in a different way and helped build my confidence to take my business to the next level. I strongly recommend coaching with Cat to all business leaders, especially those who are going from start-up to scale-up. 

The tangible impact of founder coaching on my business is a funded startup.

I used to struggle A LOT with VC conversations. Once I had a mindset shift, post one of the earlier sessions with Cat, it became much easier to maintain my composure and treat each conversation as an important and vital part of doing business (as opposed to being annoyed with them each time). It made me a bit more likeable I suppose, which is an integral part of the funding process (something I learnt the hard way).

The best part about getting coached by Cat was the clarity of thought with which I could go back to work every time. I loved the reflection questions after each session because it really helped reinforce the solutions to the challenges we tackled during the session. As an introvert, I find it extremely difficult to open up and talk about the challenges that I face as a startup founder but Cat has a very comfortable and non-judgemental presence, which made conversations easy and effective. Thanks Cat!

I have found the experience of being coached by Cat absolutely transformative. In just a few sessions we were able to shine a light on mental and practical challenges I had been struggling with alone for many years. Developing leadership skills is difficult and takes time and practice but the pressure to keep up with your business as it scales and develop into the CEO the company needs is intense and lonely. Coaching with Cat has reduced the distance for me much quicker than I could have myself through reading books on leadership.

Cat’s approach is the right balance of support and challenge which meant we were able to get to the core of the issues holding me back - pivotal in regaining my confidence after a horrendous few years through the pandemic. I really can’t overestimate the amount of stress and pressure these sessions have released for me.

I have also enjoyed learning the many new tools, techniques and frameworks to help me navigate the numerous challenges that surface while scaling the business again.

My sessions with Cat came at a pivotal time in my life. As I struggled with my life direction, her questioning style and the unconventional exercises we did both challenged and supported me in my journey. I’m still processing some of the reflections that surfaced months later and I’m grateful for the time she invested in me.

The tangible impact of coaching on my life is being in tune with my instinctive gut and syncronising it with my rationale mind.

I started working with Cat during a particularly stressful time both professionally and personally. I was feeling overwhelmed and needing a steady friendly hand to help me navigate choppy waters. From the very beginning Cat established my trust as she took me through each session calmly, listening and making (amazing) notes as I talked through challenges and relationships. Each session built on the last and a summary was always promptly shared, meaning I could feel progress as we went along.

I feel in a materially different mindset and like a much better leader now in no small part thanks to Cat. Also make sure you do the 5 minute mindfulness sessions at the start!

I understand my biases and strengths, feel more confident in my decisions and ultimately am a better leader

We are at a stage where we have to take life threatening decisions on an everyday basis.

The tangible impact of coaching on my business is more confident taking difficult decisions and manoeuvering demanding situations

For an entrepreneur, the line between work and life is extremely blurred. Cat was able to span the personal & professional spectrums so seamlessly, it’s like having two coaches. She’s great at understanding the whole person. She helped me not only with challenging career objectives, but also helped me achieve greater balance in both personal and professional relationships. Her extremely personalized techniques allowed me to see my strengths clearly, reminded me of my purpose, and made me appreciate my journey with all the glitches and hurdles.

Cat helped me identify new mental frameworks and gave me a toolkit that I can use for the rest of my life to manoeuvre difficult and demanding situations. Her unique insight and her attention to tiny aspects make her an excellent coach. In just a few short months of working with Cat, I have experienced exponential internal growth.

I worked with Cat during a period of transition in my coaching business. I wanted to bring more clarity and focus to who I work with and how I work. Cat has a unique approach to coaching that allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and think about problems in new ways. She uses imagery and the outdoors to bring more visual thinking. I can still remember some of the key images that we created together. It helped me to get out of my head and join some dots, and unjoin others.

Cat is supportive, kind and challenging in her approach. I feel more aware of myself and more clear on my path forward.

I’d recommend Cat to someone that needs a fresh perspective on something they’re feeling stuck on.

Our sessions provided a valuable opportunity for us as a team to take a step back and reflect on our motivations, learn about each other and explore both our common ground and our differences. The structure that Cat provided, and her skills as a facilitator, created a space for us to think expansively, to be honest with each other and also kind. And although it felt like a luxury to start from the point of view of our personal feelings and ideas, doing so provided us with a firm foundation to build on when it came to later stages in the process where we were exploring more commercial and strategic questions about how we could best grow our business. We could do this because we were secure in the knowledge that we had spoken and been heard, and that we could collectively hold ourselves and each other accountable for alignment between our individual aspirations and our ideas for the business.

The way I measure or know the impact of this coaching is that I feel closer and better aligned with my fellow directors in my day to day work with the company, and confident of the actions we need to take in order to get ourselves closer to our shared vision for the future of the business.

Cat’s wide range of personal and professional experiences was why I explored collaboration with her. Before our program of engagement, I sensed Cat could curate a non-agenda conversation with appropriate challenges to make the effort and time worthwhile.

This has emphatically been the case.

My conversations with Cat were practical, actionable, and always grounded in real-world scenarios.

Cat was skilful in drawing me to recognise multiple perspectives within our examined situations. Cat’s framework helped me expand my peripheral range to observe factors driving interpersonal dynamics more fully.

The tangible impact of coaching on my workplace is an improved framework which allows me to take and reflect on multiple perspectives. This helps me better serve our supporters, understand the needs of researchers and contribute toward our high-performing team.

If you seek a coach who can guide you in conversation and perspective toward a better understanding of yourself within situations and strategy, I wholeheartedly recommend Cat Totty.

I can’t express enough how much Cat’s coaching sessions have helped my decision making confidence. As someone who has only had a brief involvement with coaching in the past, I went into the sessions with a small amount of trepidation but after the first 30 mins I was well into the “flow”.

In terms of the sessions themselves, they have been (for me at least) uniquely paradoxical - uncomfortably zen is probably the best way I could describe them. The focused environment of the sessions is something I’d struggle to replicate elsewhere, and the challenge and steer that Cat provided meant that the time was always used to its fullest.

After just four sessions I’ve come away being more productive, more confident in my decision-making and more assured about the future.

Thank you Cat!

Cat is a very bright and intelligent coach, I felt she quickly got to the core of the issues and challenges I brought to the table, and kept me on my toes throughout our programme together with provocative but thoughtful questioning

With her varied consulting background, she has a strong holistic grasp of business and all of the different organisational contexts leaders encounter, so we there was little or no wasted time on getting her up to speed

She had a natural read on the dynamics at play, which meant we got into the fundamentals of a topic or theme - with the right area of focus identified

Cat is great at challenging you as a coach, and helping you do the reflection and cognitive thinking to get to the answers you need

She would often hold the space for me to come to my own conclusions, but also notice when I was stuck and subsequently prompt me along the way to get to the unlock I needed or was looking for

I felt Cat brought a lot of humanity to her coaching, she was not only fun to spend time with but also caring and thoughtful

She made some telling contributions in our coaching journey which helped me when I needed it most

I know Cat has a strong brand and creative background, I felt this came to life well in both her comfort with more alternative approaches to coaching whereby all our sessions were conducted outdoors which made for a different dynamic, energy and perspective within the session

I think she also has a great skill in simplifying conclusions in a way they feels memorable and actionable

Through the coaching sessions with Cat I challenged the internal beliefs I hold of myself; the strength of my abilities and personally perceived weaknesses.

Each session let me confront parts of my personality and (bad!) habits in a collaborative and constructive way, which in turn, helped me get to the root causes of each one. Thanks to Cat, I gained a better understanding of myself and the unconscious process I went through when making decisions and taking action.

Following the series of five 90 minute sessions, I’ve been able to keep in mind what we worked through, which has helped me to more actively address these behaviours. I feel better about my work, and believe this makes for better work too.

Cat’s approach was comforting yet challenging. In the session we always moved at a pace which was led by me and my needs. Her naturally warm and disarming demeanor meant I was instantly at ease, even when tackling topics which were more difficult for me to discuss. Whilst Cat is most certainly caring, she is by no means ‘soft’; unafraid to question a response to dig deeper in a quest to help. I’m able to more confidently navigate situations.

I found my partnership with Cat to be a hugely helpful and insightful experience. Cat has the ability to absorb conversations and ask effective questions that prompt deep reflection, in a truly personable way. The coaching sessions are not invasive, but allow for quick and effective identification of areas for improvement. I found the value in Cat’s work around the redirection of focus on improvement areas but also in the gap identification too (practically seeing and finding things I couldn’t). Cat's approach quickly challenges assumptions and helps to identify neglected development areas. I have broken my internal spiral of questions and replaced them with a plan and tools to move forwards. This is Cat's superpower, my brain thanks you for the structure and space you’ve created!

Coaching has helped me identify areas of growth and potential, that I might avoid if left to my own devices. While I'm introspective, with my personal and professional life, a professional coach like Cat can reveal things I can't (or won’t) see myself. I leverage coaching to improve my leadership and ability to navigate complex workplaces with more calm, consideration, and grace. The benefits of coaching are only realisable and powerful though, if met with your own accountability for change and acceptance that change is necessary. If you don’t want to face into the hard things to be better, this might not be for you.

The primary benefit of these sessions was CLARITY. The sessions took place during a crossroads in my career where I needed to be courageous about pursuing the right path, and stepping away from a flawed approach to some of my career choices. Cat helped me to get back in the driving seat, which both meant BETTER CHOICES (not easier though) and GREATER CONFIDENCE to pursue them.

For me, the tangible impact of coaching is stripping out any distractions, especially self criticism, and creating focus.

I worked with Cat to give myself a space for reflection and review during my first six months in a senior leadership role, which has also been remote working due to Covid-19. This was particularly to ensure my 121s with my manager could be more task and strategy oriented. Cat and I quickly built a warm rapport and I felt comfortable to explore problems without judgement.

By employing a range of different techniques, Cat gave me space to re-see the root causes of unhelpful behaviours. This has genuinely revolutionised how I prioritise and focus and I am already benefiting from that transformational impact. What made working with Cat different from other coaches is the deep listening space she offers and how she used creative, imaginative approaches that unlocked new solutions to long-standing problems.

I recently had the absolute privilege of being coached by Cat. This started when I was looking for my next career move, and the process she took me through led me from a place of disorientation and questioning to a place of real clarity about what I wanted next, built around my own core values and principles. It’s difficult to put into words how powerful the coaching sessions were. Each one felt like it came at just the right time; focussing on an area that would help me on the next step of the journey. I especially appreciated Cat’s openness and flexibility - she was always happy to suggest things we might focus on, but really encouraged me to set the direction of our coaching sessions so that I’d get the most value from them.

A pivotal moment for me was recognising what gives me energy, and what drains my energy. With Cat’s help, what I identified in that session turned out to be crucial in guiding my next steps and helping me discern what I’m truly looking for in my career. My final two coaching sessions came during my first few weeks at Rightmove. Realising that I needed to adjust my expectations in terms of pace of delivery, Cat coached me on transitioning to a more strategic mindset in the context of my new role within a larger organisation. This has helped me think about the bigger picture rather than getting caught up in the details.

Cat challenged me during each session as much as I was up for and was sensitive to how I was feeling each time we met. I came away from each session feeling like I’d made progress in understanding myself and what I need, as well as what I have to offer; the process really helped me understand my worth as a design leader and gave me greater self-belief and confidence that I can really make an impact. I would genuinely say that the coaching sessions with Cat have been one of the most impactful things I’ve done in my career to date, and I have no doubt that the conversations we had, and the resulting clarity and confidence they gave me, will continue to shape my career in future.

Cat is an excellent coach, in the proper sense of coaching. I came to coaching at a time when I needed to make some far reaching decisions and wanted to be sure that I would make those decisions with confidence and reassurance. Over a number of sessions Cat was able to help me find clarity and purpose where I had previously been struggling. Utilising a number of different approaches Cat focused on areas that needed some probing and reflection. I have found the sessions enormously beneficial and I am extremely grateful that Cat was recommended to me. Thank you Cat!

Having worked with Cat I can thoroughly recommend her approach to coaching which is tailored to your needs, so you get the best from yourself.

Cat was highly effective in helping me to approach a variety of impactful issues I faced during our time together, as well as to uncover new topics to examine that hadn’t occurred to me.

She used a diverse range of techniques to dig deep into the thoughts, beliefs and emotions surrounding my professional world, to help me make better sense of it. While supporting specific issues, I will be able to take forward some of these tools for future use.

Cat taught me practical techniques to help me revisit my approach to prioritisation both within and outside of work, helping me to more effectively manage my professional workload as well as maintain work/life balance.

Cat helped me to build confidence in understanding where my strengths lie so as to build robust action plans to leverage strengths and minimise impact of challenge areas.

The tangible impact of coaching for me is improving the confidence and robustness with which I approach opportunities and issues I face in my professional life.

She used a diverse range of techniques to dig deep into the thoughts, beliefs and emotions surrounding my professional world, to help me make better sense of it. While supporting specific issues, I will be able to take forward some of these tools for future use.

Cat taught me practical techniques to help me revisit my approach to prioritisation both within and outside of work, helping me to more effectively manage my professional workload as well as maintain work/life balance.

Cat helped me to build confidence in understanding where my strengths lie so as to build robust action plans to leverage strengths and minimise impact of challenge areas.

The tangible impact of coaching for me is improving the confidence and robustness with which I approach opportunities and issues I face in my professional life.

I found it really helpful to have an impartial person to speak to about some of the barriers and challenges I face at work. Cat really helped me to tap into my inner coach and come up with solutions for myself rather than dictating them to me. I definitely feel more confident in my own abilities and experience since working with Cat. Cat is always calm, reassuring, and inventive and creative with her suggestions for exercises and prompts.

As someone who was very skeptical of coaching after having a few experiences where coaches mostly referred me back to different personality tests and vision boards, Cat was a breath of fresh air. While Cat certainly is helpful in defining larger career visions, her value is in guiding people from the theoretical and broad strokes “career visions” to definitive next steps and making action plans. It’s one thing to believe you know where you want to go to making a plan to get there.

I came out of coaching with a career roadmap that included defined steps. This was VERY helpful for me as it took me from having a general and somewhat vague idea of what I thought I wanted to do to having a much clearer sense and truly defined steps of how to get there. I also came out of coaching with a set of parameters of how to evaluate my next career options - again, this is very helpful as I can refer back to my list of 8 specific elements of what makes a workplace or job right for me. And of course, I also got true accountability out of the coaching. Cat didn’t let me off the hook and made me truly figure out my next steps. No fluff!

I think Cat is especially helpful to those who are already established in their careers and are trying to determine the next steps when there are a number of options on the table. She cuts through the BS and gets you to answers.

Cat is an excellent Coach: once you’ve set a goal together, she brings a laser focus to help you get there. Her approach is attentive and thoughtful - her reflections incisive, which for me, helped to generate and maintain momentum in our work together over six months. Her industry expertise in brand positioning sets her apart - we did not simply navigate the changes I am looking to make, we worked together to write their story.