About Catherine

You probably found this page at the end of a hard week.

You're leading the team, holding the number, and keeping it all together. Usually all at once, usually in silence.

I built The Leaders Sanctuary because I spent twenty-seven years doing exactly that, and I know how lonely it gets.

So before this is about me, let me tell you what I already know about you.

Catherine Unali, founder of The Leaders Sanctuary — Catherine Unali · Founder

I know the job from the inside.

Most of the leaders I work with aren't failing. They're carrying too much, with nowhere to put it down. If any of this is you, you're in the right place.

You know what it feels like at the top of the league ladder, and what it feels like when the numbers shift and there's nothing underneath you to hold.
You've told the team everything's fine, and told nobody you're running on empty.
You've watched good people get used while the ones carrying the most quietly run out of road.
You don't need another framework. You need someone who's actually been where you are.

The truth most leaders learn too late

The organisation doesn't have a soul. It was never your family.

And the sooner you understand that, the better leader you become. I learned it the hard way, so the work we do together is built to make sure you don't have to.

How I got here

Twenty-seven years. One turning point.

It started at Telstra, where I learned the art and science of sales from the ground up, and grew into some of the world's most competitive commercial environments. Here's the part that changed everything.

I learned the hard truth the hard way.

I did what good leaders do. I showed up for my team, I delivered for the business, I trusted the people around me. And I watched what happens when the people who are supposed to have your back don't. Good people get used. The incompetent sometimes get promoted. Others stay safe and stay silent. And the ones carrying the most, the ones actually holding everything together, quietly run out of road. I was one of them.

Two days after leaving a role that had taken everything I had, I made a decision: never again would I rely on a system that wasn't built for the people inside it. So I built my own.

The Leaders Sanctuary started as something I needed for myself — a place where the pressure was real, the conversations were honest, and the support was actually there. Then I realised I wasn't the only one who needed it.

How the business runs

Built in seasons.

The Leaders Sanctuary doesn't run at full noise all year, and it's not meant to. I run it the way I coach — in seasons, not all at once.

I founded TLS in March 2025. Three months later I took a role leading commercial sales for a global vendor and paused the business — not because anyone asked me to, but because I wasn't willing to blur a line I'd spent twenty-seven years learning how to hold. Coaching sales leaders while selling to sales leaders isn't a conflict I was prepared to carry.

When that season closed, TLS reopened. Same principles. Sharper for having been inside a global commercial engine for the last twelve months.

The business is built in five pillars — Consulting, Coaching, Training & Facilitation, Retreats, Speaking — and each one runs when its season is on, not before.

Available for select engagements across all five pillars.

“

Pressure without structure creates survival mode. And survival mode is not a leadership strategy.

What that means for you.

When you're on top of the league ladder, you can disguise a lot of flaws. When the numbers change, you need the structure to get you back.

That's exactly what we build together: the systems, the conversations and the space to lead sustainably — not just perform under pressure until you can't anymore.

In their words

The leaders I've worked with.

I'd rather you heard it from them than from me. These are the people who've sat across from me at their hardest moments, and come out the other side.

Client references and outcomes available on request. Real ones. I'll introduce you to people, not paste anonymous quotes.

A little about me

Melbourne-based. Working with leaders everywhere.

I work with leaders across Australia and internationally.

I have a cavoodle named Harper who has taught me more about recovery and boundaries than most leadership programmes ever did.

I believe in the art and science of sales.
I believe good leadership is learnable.
I believe earned experience is the most undervalued asset in any organisation.

The track record

Telstra
Cisco — Top 1%, Manager Excellence FY23
Accenture
Zoom
27 years technology sales · 12 leading teams
Cert IV Coaching · NLP · MEDDPICC
Melbourne, Australia

What happens if we talk

No pitch.

Just a real conversation.

Reaching out doesn't commit you to anything. Here's exactly how it goes.

You tell me what's going on

The team, the number, the 3am stuff. A couple of lines is plenty to start.

We have an honest conversation

Peer to peer, not a lecture. I'll tell you straight whether and how I can help.

You decide, with no pressure

If I'm the right fit, we find the way in. If I'm not, I'll point you somewhere that is.

If any of this resonates, let's talk.

A conversation between two people who understand what it actually takes to lead in a commercial environment.

Work with me Get in touch

Every message here is read and answered by me. Not a team, not an inbox. Catherine. 🪷