Hard Seasons have a Way of Introducing You to Yourself.
I'm Heather Corallo. I'm an executive coach, a cancer survivor, and a person who has rebuilt herself more than once. Not because I'm particularly resilient. Because I didn't have a choice, and then I did, and I chose to keep going.
I work with people navigating the hard parts of work and life that don't have easy answers. Leaders carrying more than their title suggests. People rebuilding their identity after health disruption. Anyone who needs a thinking partner who's actually been in the arena.
I bring candor and a deep intolerance for corporate theater. I'll tell you what I see. I'll hold you accountable to what you said mattered. And I'll meet you as a full human, not a problem to be solved.
How I Got Here
I've held roles at every level from administrative assistant to VP to CEO. I've built companies from Chicago to Singapore, working across finance, hospitality, and technology. I've navigated M&A and sat in rooms where the stakes were high and the answers weren't obvious.
Before starting my own practice in 2020, I was the Vice President of Strategy at 8th Light and the Global Director of Engineering Culture at Groupon. I led technical culture strategy and diversity and inclusion initiatives that impacted thousands of employees.
I began working independently because I wanted to be a resource to people doing hard things. People who need honest thinking, not noise.
What Changed In October 2023
In October 2023, lung cancer rewrote my life mid-sentence. I was a recovering perfectionist who built tech companies and coached executives. Then my body said no, and everything I thought I knew about control shattered.
The scanziety was real. The insurance battles were maddening. But the hardest parts were quieter than that. Learning to accept help. Discovering that the Western medicine playbook was written by people who've never lived in a body that hurts. Realizing that breath work and acupuncture were the keys to feeling like myself again, things I would have rolled my eyes at two years before.
Nobody prepares you for how strange it feels to be medically stable but not remotely whole. So I built something that didn't exist when I needed it. Trauma-informed coaching for people rebuilding life and work after health disruption. This work exists because none of us should have to figure it out alone.
How I Work
I offer insight with candor and humor. No corporate jargon. No toxic positivity. Just practical wisdom grounded in real experience.
I believe insight without action is just expensive self-awareness. So we don't stay in analysis mode for long. We figure out what needs to shift and we move. And when the work is trauma-informed, we move at the pace your nervous system can tolerate. No rushing. No forced insight. Just steady support from someone who's lived it.
What I Believe
The human experience is the most critical element in building a successful business and a meaningful life. Leadership is hard, not because you're doing it wrong, but because the work itself is legitimately difficult. You deserve support that honors that reality.
You're not broken. You're changed. And you get to decide what comes next.
I grew up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, where I learned to read rivers and trust my instincts. I live with my husband Dave, who is also my business partner and the person who held me through the hardest season of my life. He taught me that accepting help isn't weakness. It's trust.
I'm a recovering perfectionist learning slowly that wholeness matters more than productivity. I have no patience for performance. And I think the best work happens when people feel safe enough to be real.
CREDENTIALS
20 plus years of executive coaching and leadership development.
International HR and organizational development experience.
International Coaching Federation trained. PESI Somatic Energy.
Lived experience as a cancer survivor and health trauma navigator.