The iOli Communications CEO, media trainer and mother of four shares the work habits that she's had to unlearn in her 17-year career and her hopes for future female leaders in the PR industry
From a young age, Yan Lim was fiercely independent and hardworking, having grown up in a Thai settlement in Besut, Terengganu under the care of her grandmother, a rubber estate worker who also sold kuih-muih to help put Lim and her siblings through school.
Lim's good grades eventually earned her admission into the International Islamic University of Malaysia to study law. Although financial problems compelled her to drop out, Lim enrolled herself in a smaller university and paid her way through the courses, landing a job as a Fuji Xerox customer service representative at the time.
She was 20 years old when her first business venture came to life. Juggling the newfound responsibilities of motherhood and running a small tuition centre teaching English and Maths classes, Lim used the earnings from her tuition centre to pay for college.
"To be able to say I funded my tertiary studies on my own is something I am really proud of till today, I probably overshare it just a little," she laughs. "But honestly, who I am today came from the values and lessons I learned from that very difficult time in my life."
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Today, she is the CEO of boutique public relations firm iOli Communications, which she founded in 2015 with a vision to help pave the way for more female PR practitioners to enjoy a successful career without having to sacrifice their personal goals as women, especially for working mums. At present, iOli Communications is a majority female company with a flexible, remote workplace model.
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Named the Outstanding ASEAN Woman Entrepreneur at the ASEAN Women Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in 2019, Lim is also an advisory board member for Girls In Tech Malaysia and honorary secretary of the Women Entrepreneur Network Association of Malaysia. On Instagram, she describes herself as 'overachiever' and 'beach bum' in the same breath, which prompts the question: How does this high-energy lady boss squeeze in a spare second in her busy schedule for some R&R every once in a while?
Below, Lim shares what shapes her work ethic and the mindsets she's had to 'unlearn' about taking breaks as a business leader.