You're going to ADORE her. 💖
Toni is a journalist-turned-bibliotherapist and the founder of the world’s first dedicated self-help book club. She is also someone who discovered, somewhat unexpectedly, that self-help works far better when explored in the company of others. 👯
In 2017, Toni experienced a profound burnout. After more than 15 years of working intensely and living just as intensely across some of the UK’s biggest newspapers and magazines, she reached a mental, emotional, and physical breaking point. She stepped away from her hard-earned role as an Editor without a clear plan for what would come next.
What followed was not immediate work, but something far more valuable: time. Time she had never previously allowed herself. Time to reflect.
In her late thirties, Toni gave herself permission perhaps for the first timeto pause. She began to look back at where she had come from and what had shaped her. She examined how she was living, and how she was (or wasn’t) caring for herself. She started asking deeper questions about what truly made her happy, who she wanted to become, and what she wanted her life to look and feel like.
The first self-help book she truly connected with was How to Change Your Life in Seven Days by Paul McKenna.
It opened with a question that stopped her in her tracks:
“If you woke up tomorrow in your dream life, what would it look like?”
She didn’t have an answer. She realised she had never given herself the space to even consider it.
It took her a year to read a book that promised transformation in seven days but that question, and that book, changed everything.
Self-help became Toni’s tool for self-discovery. Through it, she began to understand what had shaped her, reset how she showed up in her life, and redirect her energy toward a future that felt genuinely exciting.
She became deeply committed to the power of personal development and intentional life design and remains so.
Toni runs the popular Shelf Help Club House over on Substack and her first book is coming out with Pound Project this May.
Hi, I'm Claire. I'm an Engagement Consultant and Mentor and I started my journey with Substack in 2022. I've built my audience to 15k readers across two publications, work with over 500 members and I'm so excited to share more with you. Come join us.