This Is My Story.
No Masks. No Filters. Just The Truth.
I’m Katrina Holden, founder of Vital Leaders and creator of Thriving After Cancer, two lifelines for women ready to take their power back.
But before any of this, I was the woman who played the game, even as the pressure quietly unraveled her from the inside out.
I spent over two decades in corporate life, pushing, proving, and performing. I worked hard for brilliant people. But no matter how high I climbed, it never felt like enough. So, I did what so many women do; I dimmed, hardened, and shaped myself into what I thought success wanted me to be.
I became the woman who left herself at the door every morning. Suit up. Smile on. Chin up. Mask in place.
On paper, I was thriving. Inside, I was exhausted, lost, and constantly afraid someone might find out I wasn’t as capable as I looked.
And then I broke. Not metaphorically. Fully. Publicly. Brutally.
Burnout cracked me wide open and illness took over.
Graves’ disease. Vasculitis. And then cancer.
One diagnosis after another, like the universe screaming:
“If you won’t sit down, we’ll put you down.”
I lost everything I thought defined me. The career. The house. The marriage.
And in the ruins, I found something infinitely more powerful - myself.
With the help of neuroscience, coaching, psychotherapy, and an unrelenting hunger to heal, I rebuilt. Not the old life. Not the version I’d hustled to maintain.
I rebuilt as me. I found my voice. Not the corporate one I’d perfected, but the fierce, wise, take-no-prisoners one that had been buried for decades. And from there, I started again.
Today, I coach women around the world who are ready to lead without losing themselves.
Women like you, who’ve ticked all the boxes and still feel stuck. Women who are brave enough to say, “I want more, and I won’t apologise for it.”
And through Thriving After Cancer, I support survivors as they take those first beautiful, shaky steps back into life, learning to trust their bodies, honour their pace, and embrace their future without fear.
Is my life perfect? Of course not. But it’s real. It’s powerful. It’s mine.
And that’s the point.
If you’re still hiding, shrinking, or burning out trying to belong, let me be the voice that tells you: you don’t need to become someone else to succeed. You just need to come home to yourself - for real this time.
Let’s walk that path together.
