Building Resilient, Passionate Teams in a Changing World — with Patricia Kaziro | BlissTalk Podcast

In a fast-changing world of work, how do we lead with purpose and passion — while building teams that truly thrive?

In this energising and practical episode of BlissTalk, we sit down with Patricia Kaziro, impact business coach and founder of The Impact Business School, to explore how to future-proof your mindset and your workplace by cultivating strength, resilience, and joy from the inside out.

Patricia is a powerful enabler of transformational change — known for helping leaders and teams evolve into high-performing, inclusive, and values-driven cultures. Her approach blends deep self-awareness, modern leadership strategies, and a passion for authentic impact.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, manager, or team member navigating uncertainty, this conversation is your guide to building a workplace that feels alive with purpose and filled with possibility.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How to reconnect with purpose and passion in your professional life
• The keys to building inner resilience in the face of change
• Practical strategies to lead high-performance teams with clarity and care
• Why inclusive, emotionally intelligent leadership is essential for the future of work
• The mindset shifts needed to adapt to today's ever-evolving work landscape
• Tools to inspire your team — without burnout or pressure
• Why joy and wellbeing are not just "nice to have," but business essentials

Patricia’s warm, grounded energy and expert insights will leave you feeling empowered to lead with intention, uplift your team, and unlock your full potential at work — no matter what challenges arise.

When leaders tap into their purpose, their teams thrive. Impact becomes natural, and workplaces become powerful spaces for growth and transformation. ~ Patricia Kaziro

✅ Links & Resources:

Book a one-on-one coaching session with Patricia Kaziro here
Website: https://blisspot.com

Transcript

0:00: Welcome to the Bliss Spot podcast series where we interview global well-being leaders to share ideas, to invite more joy and happiness into your life.

0:12: Hi, I'm delighted to be here today for our Blue Spot Wellbeing Leader series, and today I'm absolutely delighted to be talking to Patricia Kaziro.

0:24: Patricia is the founder and CEO of Impact Business School.

0:28: Patricia guides business leaders to create more impact by building high performing teams and inclusive workplaces.

0:35: Impact Business School is a change consultancy firm that specializes in building inclusive workplaces.

0:43: And what an incredible, I just think goal that is, or it's not even a goal, she's actually doing it.

0:51: So what an incredible contribution to the world, is what I'm trying to say.

0:55: Her learning solutions create sustainable organizational change using diversity, equity, and inclusion best practices.

1:05: Patricia is inspired by the greatest change-makers and social leaders of our time.

1:11: Her intention is to support more leaders to activate their values by helping them answer the question, how can I respond and adapt to the future of work?

1:21: How do I create resilient teams?

1:24: How can I hire and retain the best talent and harness diversity to be an asset to our organization?

1:31: Patricia leads educational programs, coaches executives and leadership teams, and moderates the Impact League summit and community.

1:40: Patricia is the host of the Meet the Leaders podcast and lead instructor for Google within Australia.

1:48: What an incredible accomplishment.

1:51: Patricia has a holistic and humanistic approach to transformation that factors in what makes each individual and organization unique and considers how we can bridge the gap between what we know and what we can do to create more resilient people and companies.

2:11: And I think that's just perfect timing for right now—resilience, taking people to the next level, and getting them through turbulent times is so needed right now.

2:22: And I've had the pleasure of knowing Bertruccia for 5 years or so now, and she's so authentic, really walks her talk and is a true inspiration and leader of our times.

2:35: And we’re absolutely delighted to announce that Patricia is also an executive coach on Blue Spot's telehealth system for our one-on-one sessions.

2:46: So, it's totally possible to book a one-on-one session with Patricia to get some very tailor-made support on your journey that's just right for you.

3:00: So, Patricia, I'd love you to share your incredible story, a little bit about your background and how you got into this work.

3:11: Well, thank you so much, Deborah, for the warm welcome. It's such a pleasure to be here with you today in your home studio.

3:18: I count you as a friend, and I always love our catch-ups. I'm excited to share some of my story with the Blisspot community today. I really got started as a coach through my work earlier in my career when I was originally a caseworker.

3:36: So, one of my first jobs when I came out of university, having studied a Bachelor of Arts in sociology, was to work with people who were seeking employment in Redfern. For those of you who don’t know, it’s an inner-city suburb with a high level of need.

3:54: And people often have experiences in their lives where they’re trying to regroup and recover and find work after having, for example, health issues, or coming out of a correctional center.

4:10: It’s just a low socioeconomic group of people.

4:14: And really, it was my passion to get started in my career through casework, which was very conversational. It was very much about getting to know somebody’s life story, understanding their goals, and where they wanted to be next.

4:30: And I loved being that conduit to help people achieve their dreams.

4:37: And often, people don’t see for themselves where they can be. We get so ingrained in our daily lives and also the backstory of what’s happened in the past.

4:47: So, in becoming an executive coach, my starting point was actually as a caseworker.

4:54: And I always think of that role early on in my career as being quite formative because it was such a privilege to understand people’s life stories.

5:03: It’s quite intimate being a coach, a consultant, a caseworker.

5:09: People really have to trust you to tell you their story, to tell you what’s not working for them, and what their challenges are.

5:16: And I guess that’s the common thread as I’ve gone along in my career.

5:20: I love to listen to people’s stories and understand where they’re at and where they want to be, and to really walk beside them as they create change, which can be quite hard.

5:35: Beautiful.

5:35: That’s really inspirational.

5:38: And I think you’re so right.

5:39: I’ve been a counselor myself and a kinesiologist, and to share, you know, to listen to people’s stories and to just create a safe space for them is really, really important work.

5:50: And I know too you’ve had challenges along the way, but we were actually having a little chat before we started the podcast today, and we were saying how challenges can really mold you and take you to the next level and teach you what you don’t like in life.

6:05: So, if you’ve got anything you’d like to add to that?

6:09: Yeah, I think it’s an important point.

6:12: I think everybody has challenges to different extents.

6:17: But it’s really about how you embrace what has happened to you, adversity, and having that ability to accept what hasn’t worked or gone to plan or what’s been challenging.

6:35: And I think it often helps to talk to somebody else and be in conversation.

6:41: I remember when I was doing my undergraduate degree in sociology, there was a philosopher— I think it was Foucault— who said that we don’t see ourselves until we’re talking to the other.

6:53: So, these kinds of challenges we often embed in our lives, but when we start to talk to someone else, we see that, you know, it’s not all that we are.

7:08: It can actually be a great opportunity for growth if you can accept and embrace your personal adversity.

7:17: Oh, I love that. I think that’s just so, so important during these times. And I too agree with the philosophy that when you sort of speak it out loud, you can get a better perspective on it yourself.

7:30: And yet, so often, and we can all do it, we just struggle. We think support’s not near, or it’ll get better or things will change, and that might happen, and that’s a good thing too. But really, I would totally encourage people that if they’re struggling, to know that they’re not alone and to reach out and get some support because things are a lot easier to fix when they’re small.

7:54: They can be fixed when they’re larger too, so reach out at any point.

7:58: But yeah, just knowing that if you talk about something, it can really be life-changing.

8:04: You can put your life on a totally different course for the better.

8:08: I agree.

8:08: Thank you for sharing, Deb. And I think to add to that in terms of perspective, I think seeking an objective perspective is also really helpful.

8:17: So people are often in their own head and aren't making use of talking to someone, or they're talking to someone who's perhaps too familiar with their story.

8:28: Whether that's a partner or a friend, and, in fact, it can be really good to engage with somebody outside of your social circle to get really objective feedback and talk through any issues that you're having.

8:43: I could not agree more because sometimes too, we expect our partner to be everything—our counselor, our best friend—and, you know, it’s good to reach out and connect to your partner in lots of different ways, but sometimes you do.

8:58: Be a professional objective or somebody trained and knows how to hold that space for you and reflect back to allow you to go deeper on your journey.

9:08: Yeah.

9:10: So that leads me to my next point, perfectly.

9:13: So we’ve lived through 2.5 years of the pandemic, and I really would not have met a single person who said that hasn’t brought many of its own inherent challenges.

9:24: So what have you learned about yourself, your business, and others through this time?

9:30: It’s a great question, and I think for myself, what comes to mind is really kindness, empathy, and self-compassion as a starting point for myself.

9:42: So I think if we come back to the topic of challenges, and for myself, what I’ve faced, I’m naturally quite a driven person.

9:53: I like the external world and engaging with it for stimulation.

9:58: I found it very challenging to be holed up at home for, you know, 2+ years.

10:04: Not always in lockdown, but certainly feeling very confined, in my mental space.

10:11: When I like to travel, I like to move around to stimulate my creativity.

10:17: At some points, I felt quite trapped.

10:20: So I think on a personal level, learning to be compassionate and actually allow some of that feeling to come up and acknowledge it, and also know that this situation was always going to come to an end.

10:36: So it’s having that vision to say, well, my circumstances now are not ideal.

10:43: But having an acceptance to say that at some point, they will change, and sure enough, they have.

10:50: Things have opened up here.

10:52: I’m now traveling again.

10:55: But having that compassion for the feelings I had, and being in a state that’s not my ideal state to thrive in.

11:03: And I think looking for alternate ways to find happiness and contentment, and, you know, looking on the positive side of being quite confined.

11:13: I just love that.

11:15: I love the way you view the world.

11:17: I think it’s so life-enhancing, and I think one word that’s been mentioned a few times in the podcast so far is the word acceptance, which is also one of my favorite philosophies.

11:30: And even now when I’m suffering, something difficult is happening to me, I can find myself falling into that mental loop about, “Why is this happening to me?”

11:40: I wish this was what it could have been, what could I have done differently to have changed it, which is often self-defeating, like you can’t change it.

11:47: It’s happened, and I know that acceptance is key—“It is what it is.”

11:50: That’s quite a good phrase.

11:52: But also, when we’re suffering, we often try to get away from it.

11:57: Like we want to get away from the suffering because it, you know, feels hard. It doesn’t feel nice, obviously, when you're having those difficult emotions, and people want to drink it away, shop it away, you know, watch lots of TV, lots of things to avoid those difficult feelings. Yet, when you actually accept, which is such a beautiful concept…

12:19: And then you just lean into it, you just lean into the suffering. You’ll find that it starts to flow because the emotions are energy in motion—that’s the definition of the word emotion.

12:29: So, if we allow emotions to flow, and I think that’s what you’ve been saying.

12:35: Yeah, absolutely, and I like that you use the word motion because, as I said, I’m someone who loves to move around, and I gain energy from that.

12:49: But being almost in a state of, like that COVID bubble, this sort of homeostasis being embedded at home, you have to find other ways to move your emotional state.

13:09: And, of course, there are many other ways to do that that are non-destructive.

13:15: So, you know, it was a really interesting period to connect with people in a different way, to learn to celebrate birthdays on Zoom, to connect into talks, and all sorts of learning online that was stimulating and could move that mental state.

13:36: And then I think another thing that was useful during this period of challenge was the motion of pivoting in business. Understanding that it might be wise to move forward and adapt to the current situation.

13:55: And I certainly think a lot of people did that.

13:57: They pivoted their businesses during COVID, and that was a really effective strategy to be able to maintain their passion and their energy for their business, but being adaptive and resilient to the current situation.

14:10: And I’ve certainly done that myself with the evolution of Impact Business School and making a shift to online learning and moving away from what I had been doing, which was originally 1-on-1 coaching in person.

14:26: Well, that leads me perfectly to the next question.

14:30: What excites you about being an executive coach within the context of the future of work, looking quite different from how it did pre-COVID?

14:41: That’s a really good question. Thank you, Deborah.

14:44: And what excites me is that the whole world has changed, and I don’t think it’s going back.

14:52: So, you know, if we think of what workplaces were pre-COVID, they’re now largely hybrid.

14:59: Research from the US is showing that people want to work from home three days a week at the moment.

15:05: Whether or not that changes in the next few years, we’ll need to wait and see.

15:08: But it also, you know, coincides with the new generation coming into the workforce, which is, millennials—now millennials my age are leaders, younger millennials are coming into the workforce, and Gen Z.

15:23: So there’s all this sort of intersection of change happening at the same point.

15:27: And I think the other thing that was quite striking through COVID was this idea of the “great resignation” and people wanting to really search for their purpose.

15:39: So, through this period of change, people are actually really reconsidering where they work, how they work, what they’re doing.

15:49: And for a coach, this is exciting because we get to play front and center of that transition, assisting people through what can be really big life changes, as well as organizational change in terms of managing hybrid workplaces.

16:04: And a new generation coming into the workforce.

16:07: So, there’s a lot going on, and the interesting thing is people are being very purpose-driven. That’s the big shift in consciousness.

16:15: So it’s exciting to play a part in that process of personal and organizational change.

16:22: Yeah, and I think it’s absolutely essential because people inherently do not like change happening to them.

16:29: They like to be part of the process.

16:32: Yet so much change has happened to us in the last few years that has been beyond our control.

16:35: So having the support, the professional support, to guide people through these times in life-enhancing ways, I just think it’s essential.

16:50: So, what benefits do executives receive from your coaching?

16:55: Thank you for asking.

16:57: So, I really specialize in helping people to reach what I think of as their higher purpose.

17:04: And I have quite a spiritual lens.

17:07: So when I look at leadership, it’s not simply seeking an executive role or shape-shifting into a role that earns you more money.

17:17: It’s really about tapping into what you are here for.

17:22: And it sounds, you know, quite esoteric and big picture, but I do believe that everyone has a special gift and a set of skills that they can utilize to really find joy at work and to be of service to others.

17:37: So, through working with me, it’s about helping people to find clarity about what it is they could be doing and the impact they could be creating for others.

17:49: And really, moving into that dream role.

17:55: I just love that because I think you’re right. When you’re living your life on purpose, you’re more naturally joyful, aren’t you?

18:03: And health issues can fall away, and your relationships can improve.

18:07: Like, it impacts all other areas of your life.

18:09: If you come home or you’ve conducted a day’s work in your home office, either way, and you step out, and you’re going to talk to your partner or the rest of the family, and you found that to be a really good, purposeful day, you’re going to be much better in those other areas of your life too, aren’t you?

18:26: I agree.

18:26: And the thing that, you know, I’m really passionate about is that when we are living on purpose, we have this collective consciousness that’s lit up and happy and excited and loving towards others.

18:40: So, you know, I think of organizational change in corporates as that, in a way where if we have more happy employees who actually love coming to work, as you say, it’s about being a better partner, better parent, being a better citizen in the community, and having a greater awareness of the wider community, and that flows on to even the environment and our connection to nature.

19:07: So, you know, you can start at this point of, “What do I love doing in my job?”

19:12: But it really has a flow-on effect to how the collective consciousness is affected, and, you know, an impact on the wider society.

19:25: Absolutely, because I just love this work.

19:28: This is something I’m totally passionate about as well.

19:31: Because when you’re happy within yourself, you’re not living from unresolved hurts from the past or things that haven’t gone well for you. When you’re clear about what you’re bringing to the world and doing that in joyful ways, it’s kind of impossible to hurt other people as well.

19:52: The energy you’re putting out is joyous, and so it’s not even… I mean, this is now going to a bird’s eye view, looking down at everything as a whole.

20:03: And the only person you can truly have control over is yourself, but then you can have a positive influence on others, and that radiates out.

20:14: So, you’re creating joy within yourself, and then in your relationships, and that spills out into your community, your nation, and then can have a very big global impact as well when we’re all moving in that same direction as finding a purpose, living our purpose, and expressing our purpose.

20:33: So, yeah, it’s beautiful work all over.

20:37: It does have the impact to really be part of this massive paradigm shift that we’re having at the moment, as you say. I mean, a lot of negativity was brought on by COVID, absolutely, for sure, but I guess if we can look at ways to turn, you know, transform the world in positive ways, I guess that’s a good thing going forward, you know, indeed.

21:03: So, Patricia, you’ve shared a lot of golden nuggets of wisdom here today, but I know this is just the total tip of the iceberg, having known you for many years.

21:15: And I know your work is truly transformative.

21:20: So how can people book in a session with you?

21:23: Yeah, so look, I think the starting point would be if you are a leader or see yourself moving into a leadership role, I am available via the Blissspot community to book in a session for executive coaching, and that is a 1-on-1 session where we work together to unlock and uncover one of your current problems.

21:48: And I think another way to connect with me is via the Impact Business School, and with our suite of different offerings and programs, which include meditation and mindfulness classes, as well as specific training in diversity, equity, and inclusion to help you build an inclusive workplace.

22:11: So there’s a couple of different ways, but probably the starting point would be to engage with some of my content on Blissspot and to connect with me via a 1-on-1 coaching session.

22:24: Fantastic, that's good.

22:25: I mean, I think in this day and age we’re so lucky because Libo has a global audience. You can actually have the opportunity to work with people even in different countries thanks to telehealth.

22:37: So, you’re no longer limited by geographic location as to who you can choose. You can pick the person who you think would be a really good fit for you, and then work with them one-on-one.

22:50: Absolutely.

22:51: And I love working with Australians as well as people from overseas.

22:55: I’ve worked with many people overseas and have a very global mindset. I love working with people who have a different cultural background or a different way of thinking.

23:07: I stand for diversity and inclusion, so I’m very open to working with anybody in a different geography.

23:14: And I love to be able to share my perspective as an Australian, but also someone with a very global mindset in business and with a growth mindset.

23:23: That is a very, very special offering, and we are so grateful to have Patricia as part of our Libo community.

23:32: So, all right, well, thank you so much, Patricia, for joining us here today at home.

23:38: It’s been so lovely to have a live podcast session with you actually.

23:42: In the studio here today.

23:44: So it’s been absolutely delightful, and wishing you all the best with the Impact Business School, which I know is an incredible offering, just all that it brings. It’s truly got an incredible outlook, and it’s creating great transformation.

24:05: So amazing.

24:06: Thank you so much, Patricia.

24:07: Thank you, Deborah.

24:08: It’s been a pleasure to chat with you today.

24:12: Thank you for joining us for the Bliss Spot Expert podcast series.

24:17: We hope you enjoyed the life-enhancing tips to support your well-being.

24:21: To discover more podcasts, courses, and meditations, please go to learn.blissspot.com.