Developing LEADERS who
Inspire Change,
Improve Lives,
& Uplift Humanity.
Motivational & Leadership Keynote Speaker
Booking for 2022 & 2023 Virtual, Live & Hybrid Events
Fatima Zaidi is a Leadership Strategist & Expert, International Motivational, Keynote, & TEDxSpeaker, & the Founder of Project Instigate - Leadership Learning & Growth Strategies.
The Empowered Leader
An empowered leader is an ACTION TAKER and A PROBLEM SOLVER, who believes in a VISION that is greater than themselves. An empowered leader is ADAPTABLE to change and is RESILIENT in the face of adversity.
- Fatima Zaidi
SPEAKER BIO
Most comfortable and “in her element” on stage, as a storyteller Fatima discovered her passion for public speaking at age 7. From inspiration (keynotes) to entertainment (magic shows), she discovered the power of influence through her stage presence. Having lived in three continents and four countries (Iran, Pakistan, Germany, and Canada), and having experienced different barriers within each culture and lifestyle, she used public speaking as an avenue to shatter glass ceilings and to push the envelope on what is considered “possible” quickly gaining the reputation of being “unstoppable”.As a speaker, Fatima knows how to engage audience of any size and demographic leaving them with an unforgettable experience and inspired to take action right away in their respective disciplines.
Fatima’s mission to create leaders who inspire change, improve lives and uplift humanity, took shape as a result of experiencing bullying in high school. Fatima transformed this adversity into an opportunity for growth and spearheaded a national anti-bullying campaign. She stood up to bullying herself and educated children and parents from across Canada on how to address bullying. Over the next decade, she spent over 20,000 hours engaging in leadership development and service provision for groups ranging from new immigrants and refugees, to women and youth, to individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness and more. Her expertise ranged from working in the front lines to broader oversight and policy and program development as a board director of various organizations. Fatima is past president of a Rotary Club and member of Mayor’s Taskforce on Inclusion, Diversity, and Accessibility.
With her expertise in speaking and facilitation, leadership development, and visioning and strategic planning, she founded Project Instigate to deliver talks, trainings and programs focused on leadership, learning & growth strategies. Fatima uses a proven, proprietary, and powerful system called The Biotope Model, designed to transform work cultures inside and out by giving them a clear sense of direction and a shared purpose. In supporting business leaders and team members explore their untapped potential, they reach their goals exponentially faster saving time, money and resources while building meaningful lasting relationships.
Give Your Audience An Unforgettable Experience
What People Are Saying
“I love this individual! I love that she's shedding light here on such an important topic. It's absolutely necessary to talk about and take action on something like this. She's absolutely terrific.”
— Ally G.
“Such an excellent opening - she forewarns us that the talk is going to be serious, that the viewer will probably be uncomfortable, but before we can simply turn away and dismiss her, she blows us away by stating stats that show almost 50% of us are only one paycheque away from being homeless - suddenly we're connected, engaged and sensing the serious nature, of what is a very serious problem…”
— Kevin O.
“Fatima Zaidi is a powerhouse of a woman!… I watched her articulate the issues, through her lenses, and I gained insight from her moving speech. … Thank you Fatima for bringing the meat of the issues to the table. You gave your audience space for dialoge, otherwise not had.”
— Kristen H.
“Amazing, Passionate & Informative”
— Connie M.
“You have such a strong stage presence. I could feel your energy so strongly, I thought you were going to levitate off the stage.”
— Willow R.
“I recently watched Fatima’s [TEDx] Talk. …She reminds us all of our vulnerability… [but] more importantly, she offers real solutions to the issue. Please take the time to watch Fatima's [talk. It] is real, compassionate and of the upmost importance in today's society.”
— Linda S.
Compassionate Leadership
As a Leadership Keynote Speaker, Fatima uses compassionate leadership as the cornerstone to her approach for training future leaders who want to make a positive impact in their communities and the world, ranging from those with social causes such as eradicating poverty and homelessness, to those who want to create massive transformation in their businesses or organizations. Having transitioned from non-profit to for-profit sector, Fatima inspires audience with her unique perspective on sales, leadership, and growth strategies. She works with leaders who want to Maximize Impact, Deliver Results, and Instigate Massive Change, by helping them strategize their next steps, so they feel more empowered and less overwhelmed.
TEDx Talk - Biotope Leadership is the KEY to Thriving Team Environments
TEDx Talk - Ending Homelessness Starts with Inclusion
Small Talk - Fatima’s Leadership Journey
Leighnibor Academy - Leveraging Compassionate Leadership for Transformative Change
Speaking Engagement & Project Highlights
Upcoming Events
-
Launch date will be released on May 1st, 2024
Keynotes and Highlights
-
Keynote Address on Team Work for National Public Service Week
-
Item Fraser Valley Women’s Expo 2023 (Largest Expo in Fraser Valley)
Chilliwack Heritage Park
44140 Luckakuck Way, Chilliwack, BC V2R 4A7
Title: Build Confidence by Embracing Difficult Conversation
Abstract: Fatima Zaidi is a TEDx speaker, leadership strategist, and expert in transformation with over a decade of experience in leadership development and strategic planning. Fatima served as a board director of various organizations, founded her leadership and consulting business Project instigate, and is an educator of compassionate leadership. In this talk, Fatima will be speaking on leading with confidence, how our inability to have difficult conversations is most detrimental to our self-confidence, and what we can do to change this.description
-
Program: 10 Week Biotope Leadership Program
Objective: Support students at a local indigenous school in developing strong leadership and team skills.
Program details: Facilitated activities oriented towards building leadership skills, self awareness and self confidence. Covered topics including how to prevent or stop bullying, as well as creating a space where we show respect and hold space for each other. Students learned about the concept of Biotope Leadership and applying it to creating an environment where they thrive and allow others around them to do the same.
Outcome: All students graduated with a certificate of completion and volunteer hours towards leadership development and a stronger awareness of their individual identity and purpose.
-
Program: Building Confidence in Workplace (2.5 Hours Workshop)
Objective: Support post secondary students with developmental disabilities (different abilities) in their professional development in a fun and engaging manner.
Program details: The workshop led TASK Program students through a series of confidence building exercises and activities which were then related to workplace situations. Students had the opportunity to practice workplace communication, building rapport with coworkers, workplace boundaries, and being safe while on the job.
Outcome: Students fully grasped the concepts introduced in the workshop and were able to relay them back to the facilitator with clarity. Students were already implementing communication strategies amongst their classmates and expressed feeling a lot more confident going to work or looking for a job. They also had A LOT of fun!
-
TEDxSurrey 2022 - Premiere TEDx Event of Western Canada (>1000 capacity venue + virtual audience via live broadcast)
Title: Biotope Leadership is the KEY to Thriving Team Environments
Empowering leaders are those who can create an environment that contributes to living a fulfilled life. In this talk, Fatima Zaidi speaks on creating clarity around our individual and organizational identity being the foundation of a sustainable work environment. Biotope is an environment that is created with the needs of those connected within the environment in mind. Biotope Leadership approach allows leaders to look at the environment they create as an ecosystem of interconnected relationships. One that is built on teams coming together with a common purpose, shared vision and core values.
-
Fraser Valley Wellness & Lifestyle Expo 2022
Title: Live Your Best Life TODAY!
Abstract: A talk about how you can make your dreams more attainable and within reach. This talk will help you get clarity on your identity, and reimagine your relationships as an ecosystem. One that requires delicate balance and maintenance to transform toxic environments into healthy ones and allows us to thrive and live our best life TODAY, instead of ONE DAY!
-
ACE-WIL (Association for Cooperative Education and Work Integrated Learning) Semi Annual Symposium. 500+ Audience from across BC & Yukon, Canada
Keynote Title: Mistakes are essential to innovation
Abstract: A time-sensitive question that every industry ought to be asking right now is, how do we create leaders who lead innovation and inspire change? We are living through the most fascinating times where information and exchange of ideas are accessible more readily than ever, yet the space for curiosity and learning is becoming scarce. Fatima Zaidi, leadership strategist, discusses the role of compassionate leadership for creating innovation in Work Integrated Learning. By creating and holding space for students to be able to make mistakes and by showing them how to grow from them, we can nurture future leaders who can drive innovation.
-
Rotary Club of Petersburg, Alaska, USA
Title: Compassionate Leadership - How to Create a Fulfilling Environment For Your Team.
Abstract: This talk introduces the concept of Biotope Leadership to transform toxic environments into healthy ones, focusing on four key pillars of successful team management and how compassionate leadership builds long-term relationship, in return, long term success, and loyal superfan team members.
-
American Language Centre, Classroom Speaker, Karachi, Pakistan
Title: How To Be A Leader Who Inspires
Abstract: A talk on leadership. From understanding leadership to what it takes to be a successful leader in any capacity and with or without a title.
-
Virtual Leadership Seminar Series, Project Instigate 2020 (global attendance)
Title: Power Forward to Success 2020
Description: Two seminars a month facilitated by Fatima. One would be Fatima speaking on a leadership related topic, and the other would be Fatima interviewing another leader in an industry. Topics varied from self care to overcoming anxiety, to inclusion and diversity, to the role ethics and morality in leadership and more.
-
Program: Women’s Empowerment Workshop (1.5 Hours)
Objective: Facilitate a fun and engaging workshop that helps build women’s self confidence and self esteem.
Program details: The workshop involved activities that enhanced participants’ confidence and developed their leadership and team work skills. The workshop also covered the importance of women empowering women as well as productivity and professional development skills.
Outcome:
When booked to facilitate this workshop, I was told to expect 7-10 women. I was asked if it would be alright if a woman or two brought their child due to lack of childcare (I said yes, I want to help reduce barriers leadership development).
Upon arrival, I found out there were 53 participants in attendance. About 13 children and youth combined (including two boys), about 10 women in the 50-60+ age group, and about 30 women in between (ages 20 and 50 approx.).
Not only was I able to, on the spot, modify and adapt the workshop on to a larger audience number, I was also able to successfully facilitate the workshop while keeping children, teenagers, adults (parents and not-parents), and seniors, all engaged and having fun alike during the workshop. Every participant took away meaningful things from this workshop and it was very well received. The two little boys asked there could also be a workshop like this exclusively for boys as well.
Additionally, this workshop was originally intended to be 2 hours long. Midway through the workshop, the organizers asked if I could possibly make the workshop 1.5hrs instead of 2 as a previous speaker had gone well overtime. I was able to accommodate this request despite having 43 more workshop participants than I was initially informed.
This workshop really tested my skills as a speaker and leadership programs facilitator and I not only enjoyed the challenge, but I surpassed any and all expectations.
-
TEDxChilliwack 2019 (300+ Audience Capacity Venue + Virtual Audience through Live Broadcast)
Title: Ending Homelessness Starts With Inclusion
The rising cost of housing and the rising number of people experiencing extreme levels of poverty, including homelessness, has put us in a state of crisis. Fatima Zaidi explores the impact of short-sighted policies and brings to light how the current system is designed to eliminate the “homeless” instead of “homelessness”. Zaidi demonstrates how eliminating homelessness requires creating a shift in our mindset and our understanding of poverty. Drawing upon her honours thesis on homelessness and public policy, experience in policy and program development and passion for working with marginalized members of our community, Zaidi talks about what it really takes to end homelessness.
