Tima Elhajj is known for having one of the most elegant personal brands on LinkedIn. But her path there began somewhere very different. She started her career at one of Victoria’s most prestigious boutique financial planning firms, where the average client was an ultra-high-net-worth individual. Over 16 years in financial planning, she moved on to two of Australia’s leading financial institutions, then into business succession, drawn by estate planning and the idea of legacy. She became one of ANZ’s top 20 advisors.
After the birth of her daughter, Tima expected to return to the bank within three months. A succession plan was waiting for her. It never happened. Six weeks into maternity leave, she started a fashion label in an industry she knew nothing about. She wanted clothing she couldn’t find: feminine, elegant, chic, and right for an office without looking masculine. The label was stocked in high-end Melbourne boutiques, walked runways, won awards, and was runner-up at Fashions on the Field at the Melbourne Cup. Tima was also featured on TV.
At the same time, she was running her financial planning business and networking events for women in business across Victoria. Eventually she saw that she couldn’t do it all well. She closed the label and went back to financial planning, and found that her love for the work was gone. Her love for people was not.
In 2018, Tima sold her financial planning business with no clear next step. For years she had been searching for her purpose. Then she realised she hadn’t lost it. She needed to create it. She thought about her natural gifts, and four words kept coming back: Inspire. Impact. Educate. Communicate.
She started a podcast to sit down with some of the most successful people in the world and learn how they built their wealth. Guests have included Grant Cardone, Dr. John Demartini, James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, and Marc Randolph, co-founder of Netflix. Tima had never been comfortable in front of a camera. But she felt compelled to share her new mission, so she opened LinkedIn and began posting video.
Without meaning to, she built a profile that people connected with emotionally. It felt human. Some of Australia’s most reputable listed organisations reached out. They loved her work and wanted to see how she could help them. She had no product and no service, but she understood the corporate world, because she had come from it. In those meetings she saw a gap between social media, personal branding and the corporate world. So she built an agency to fill it.
Today, the agency is global, with most of its work across the Arab region and the US. Tima and her team help CEOs, executives and key people of influence build personal brands that are respected, sophisticated and elegant, and that stay true to who they are.
©Copyright Tima Elhajj.
