Domonique Bertolucci is the author of the international best-seller, The Happiness Code as well as six other books about happiness: what it is, how to get it and most importantly how to keep it.

As a coach, she is the secret behind the success of some of the country’s most successful people.
Domonique began her career in Finance and Banking and in her final role in that world, she was the most senior woman in a billion-dollar company.

She is married with two children, and her proudest achievement is the laughter that is the soundtrack of her family’s life.

Domonique, you’ve had an exciting career to date with the chance to live and work around the world, tell us about a couple of the highlights that really stand out?

The things that really stand out for me are:

I starred TV commercial for Lotto while working as a model in Singapore.  It paid well, but more excitingly, I got to spend the day dressed in clothes from Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, something I’d previously only dreamed about.

I worked for a Fund Manager in Luxembourg which is an incredibly beautiful medieval city in Europe. I’d take the bus into work each morning and feel like I was arriving on a Disney set.  I couldn’t believe I was actually being paid to live somewhere so magical.

After a challenging job at the investment bank Credit Suisse I took a sabbatical and studied film and television at Summer School at New York University.  I’d always daydreamed about having a career as an actor and my Summer in New York helped me to realise it was a fantasy, not a genuine dream, and I was able to go back to my corporate life knowing I’d never have to ask myself ‘what if’.

Discovering the world of coaching and being able to build a career where I’ve been able to blend my love of personal development with my background in strategic problem solving is a constant highlight.  I absolutely love what I do and after 17 years I still feel like I have the best job in the world.

A bit part of why I’ve had such a great career both as a coach, author and speaker, as well as in my previous life in the corporate world, is because I’m constantly asking myself,  ‘Is this making me happy, am I in alignment with my values and do I feel fulfilled?

Whenever the answer is anything less than ‘absolutely’, I work out what I need to do, learn or change, and then make a plan to get things back on track.  Sometimes all that is needed is a tweak or adjustment to the path I am on, and at other times it means taking a whole new road altogether.

I’ve been an avid fan for years and have read all of your books and love reading your posts. What drew you into the arena of wanting to assist people to work on creating their best selves?

It’s funny, when I look back over my career I can see that I was always moving in this direction, although at the time the discovery of coaching and the journey to my current career felt like it happened by chance.

Back at 20 years old, when I was a small-time model in Perth, my agency sent me out to run Saturday classes teaching young girls grooming and deportment. Even back then I was much more interested in talking to teens about confidence and self believe that I was in making sure they could execute a perfect three-quarter turn.

A few years later I found myself working in the high powered, high pressured world of finance and banking.  I loved the pace of this world (and the money!) but after about 10 years I grew tired of the pressure cooker environment and knew it was time to start thinking about what next.

I engaged a coach to help me work out where I wanted to take my career, but I quickly discovered that her job had all the good parts of my job without the rubbish parts. She got to focus on goals, create plans and help to bring about change… but she got to do with people who were ready and willing, not those who needed to be pushed.

I trained as a coach, started my business and the rest, as they say, is history.

How important and what impact does the practice of focusing on happiness, kindness and ‘living your best life’ have on people?

A lot of people are passengers in their lives when they should be up front in the driver’s seat.

I believe that choosing to be happy is one of the most important decisions you will ever make… but you can’t just make it once; it’s not a decision you can ‘set and forget’

I believe we all need to live every day with intention. That means continually focussing on and being proactive about the level of happiness you are experiencing, the kindness you are demonstrating (to yourself as well as others) and choosing the life you want to be living, rather than just letting it happen to you.

To me this is what it really means to ‘live your best life’ and I can’t imagine living any other way.

What career or personal achievement are you most proud of?

Professionally, I’m incredibly proud of the books that I’ve written, and it means so much to me when someone writes and tells me that my words were exactly what they needed to hear.

The absolute highlight of my writing career was seeing The Kindness Pact sitting right next to one of Oprah’s books in a bookstore in New York.  I figure, if you are known by the company you keep, I was in very good company!

Can you share three top tips with us that will help people to live and love their best life?

• Be present.
  The truth is, the moment you are having right now is the only one that is guaranteed so make sure you actively engage in it. Pay attention, smell the roses and whether you are alone or with others be there when you’re there.

• Be optimistic.
  Having an optimistic outlook means you expect things to work out for the best. They won’t always. But when they do, you’ll be ready and on those other occasions you can use the energy you have saved by not worrying, to get them back on track.

• Express Gratitude.
  You will enjoy your life much more if you appreciate all that you have rather that focussing on the things that might be missing. Even when things aren’t going your way be grateful that they are not as bad as they could have been.

And what’s next on the agenda for Domonique Bertolucci?

Right now my biggest focus is my growing the Brilliant Coach Training and Certification Program, which is a six-month in-depth program for people who know they’re living their best life, when they are helping other people to live theirs: people who are thinking about building a new career as a coach  or those who are climbing the ladder and being expected to coach as part of their leadership role.

The feedback I’ve had from the people who have gone through the program so far has been fantastic and I’m looking forward to teaching a lot more people everything I’ve learned over the last 17 years.

In the coming year I also plan to be speaking at a lot more conferences and events, and to start working on my first children’s book.

Favourite place you have travelled to and why?

I arrived in Sydney for the first time two weeks after my 20^th birthday.I fell in love with it then and there, and after more than twenty-five years of travels it’s still my favourite city in the world.

What’s one thing that you do for yourself every day?

Each day I plan out the following day using my Brilliant Day Planner (you can get yours at domoniquebertolucci.com) and I map out, not just what I want to get done. but how I want to feel while I’m doing it.

What mantra do you live by?

You only have one life – make sure you really love it.

To find out more about Domonique head to 
https://www.domoniquebertolucci.com/about/

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@DomoniqueBertolucci