Hello! By the way, if you'd prefer to skim through a more formal CV/resume-like version, please click here... although I have to say that the version on this page is far more fun.

Anyway, I'm VERONICA LIM, coach (read more on this in Coaching You), jewellery designer (see Veronica's Gems), writer, learner, fun lover, laughter maker, mine of information, a good home cook and baker, mess-maker and more. I left my role as Head of Regulatory & Statutory Accounting within the investment banking sector, where I had been for some thirteen years, when I realised that I didn't want my boss's job.

This came as a shock to me because I had always assumed that I would climb the traditional career ladder. It didn't make sense to simply change jobs, and so my quest began. I knew I was "good at my job" but what to do? I had no idea. So I asked, and people told me that they would tell me things that they wouldn't even tell their best friends and that I helped them solve their problems.

This didn't register at the time; don't we often dismiss the very things that are our natural strengths. Besides, that sounded like an agony aunt! Definitely not for me! However, having successfully built and led highly performing teams of up to fifty people through periods of continuing change, I figured that leadership, and bringing out the best in and developing people had something to do with it. So I consulted as an Interim Manager until I discovered the executive coaching profession.

Around about the same time, I also decided to end a long-term relationship that wasn't working. That was one of the toughest things I've ever done, but we're both infinitely happier now and still friends, and in any case, this is a whole different story!

So... I founded my company in 1999, and thought that it would be easy. But I didn't realise that I had attached my sense of self and self-worth to my job and my level of income. Not only that, I had somehow learned over the years to take life...well, quite seriously at times. Plus, it surfaced up all the limiting beliefs and insecurities that I had around the subject of money (hence my Millionaire Thinking® for Women seminars), and a fair dollop of self-doubt in many ways too. What an amount of unlearning and re-learning I had to do...to really understand that we have an inner voice that constantly guides us, that we are creators of our own reality, to learn about abundance and prosperity, the Laws of the Universe, the game of life and that life can be so much freer, easier and richer.

It was then that I began to understand that if people properly knew their own self-worth and how to unleash that, then, not only would their quality of life increase, but so would the results of their organisation's.

I have a vision for all individuals to have the freedom to be who they are as they realise their worth... and for us all to live our lives to the full - beyond our wildest expectations! I also have a vision for organisations to be thriving alive workplaces where people love to come to work and where work feels like play. Instead of people saying, "I have to do this," they'll be saying, "I get to do this."

So I've been working with people - usually, but not exclusively, Chief Executives, Managers, and Business-Owners, as individuals, and sometimes also with their teams. Always, they've learned to change their perspectives, and in so doing, they reduce their levels of stress, build their confidence, make better decisions and enjoy their lives more.

Now, I'm onto a new chapter. Since late 2005, I've been living life more fully and learning to trust myself and my inner sense more. It felt right to leave London and the United Kingdom to find a new location. As my partner, Jeff, is from New Zealand, logic told us go there, and synchronicity told us to visit Australia. We did, and we've now found just the place. We moved here in early 2007, and have now begun a chapter. I'll still be doing Executive Coaching, and will focus more specifically on helping management bring Consciousness Into Business. Alongside that, we'll be creating "a place for people to come home to" - more on this in due course.

In the meantime, I've carried on with coaching and jewellery, cooking and baking, and all those other things, while all the time I've also been loving our travelling and jet-setting in between.

I didn't always embrace adventure like this before - knowing the direction of where I'm headed but not knowing all the steps of the plan beforehand. It's almost as if the plan uncovers itself in its own time, which has been amazing because things turn out so much better than I ever could have planned myself!

Well, I have always loved reading, learning and discovery, so I think that I always did do the adventure piece, except that then, it was only through my mind.

So it comes as no surprise that when I left the corporate world, I retrained, and didn’t stop at just one coaching qualification. I graduated with both Corporate Coach University International and Coach University, am an Associate Certified Meta-Coach (ACMC) and a Certified Master Spirit Coach, and hold a Diploma in Business Performance Coaching. I also qualified as a Master Practitioner in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), and am a Kolbe® Certified Consultant. That's not to mention the hundreds and hundreds of books and websites either. To think that I had "boasted" after my MBA that my next course of study would be something like knitting or cookery! Well, now, I am also able to see that part of the reason for so many qualifications was that I didn't know how to stop; it was always "the next course" or "the next degree" before I would be good enough.

Since then, I've learned to accept myself for my own strengths and differences too. I've learned more and more, how to relax and be simply me, and to know that my own opinions are valid too. I discovered that I enjoy speaking and writing, and so have spoken at a number of high profile events over the years - the European Women in Leadership Forums, Women in Enterprise, The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), the Junior Chamber of Commerce London, the National Black Women's Network, Personal Development Expo and the CIPD Coaching at Work Conference, to mention a few. I've also contributed to many publications, been featured in journals such as CEO Journal, Executive Woman, Organisations & People, Recruiter Magazine and Business Now, and been quoted in national newspapers and magazines such as The Guardian and Training Journal. I'd also been coaching through my (then) local Business Enterprise Centre on the Surviving Into the Mainstream project for entrepreneurs, and have been an active member of Women in Banking and Finance.

But, really, why might anyone care? I used to think that qualifications were so important, but I've come to realise that what I've done is not all that important at the end of the day. What's been important are the experiences, the people I've met, and the sheer wonder that this game of life is far more than I had ever imagined in the past... and that I've been choosing it.

It has been quite a journey.

What else? Well, designing the jewellery! Hours fly by when I'm making the pieces and through them, I share the essence of the philosophy - that "You Are Perfect As You Are". If you'd like to read a little more on my philosophy, please visit the Philosophy page.

I've also learned to be more child-like (check out my book ABC's For Grown-Ups!), doing what I enjoy simply because I enjoy it. On the physical side, I love skiing, which has become so much easier, freer and richer since giving up the notion of having to be good at everything I do. I've recently started dance lessons, something I've wanted to do since I was a child. And all that said, more than anything else, I love to laugh, play and have fun... even... no, especially at work!