Hi, I'm Liz Bapasola, Ed.D., Partner at Champion Investment Properties.
Where I started
For more than a decade, I worked in higher education. I built teams, led complex operations, and earned my doctorate in Higher Education Leadership. My nature is to make things better, and I strove to do that every day. In all three universities where I worked, I was the inaugural person in that role, asking, "what would it take to make these programs and this team go from good to great?" Then I did the work to get there.
Alongside that, I taught leadership, strengths psychology, and emotional intelligence, both in and out of the classroom.
The pivot
In 2019, everything changed at once. My division was restructured, and Sam, my husband, was facing potential downsizing at BlackRock.
The following year, we sat down as a couple and set a five-year vision for our family. Champion Investment Properties was born.
Named after Sam's grandfather's manufacturing business in India, Champion is a symbol of grit and perseverance we try to live up to every day. Sam leads acquisitions and analysis. I lead operations, systems, and relationships.
Finding my edge
The transition wasn't easy. I had no background in finance or real estate, and imposter syndrome hit hard, especially in a male dominated industry. But I found my edge by leaning into what had always made me successful: seeing what's already working and making it better, thinking in systems, and believing that small habits and real relationships compound over time.
What actually makes the difference
The same question I used to ask in higher ed — how can we make this better? — is exactly what I ask now about a property, a partnership, or a company system. I lean on the same emotional intelligence, psychology, and leadership skills I once taught in and outside the college classroom, now every day at Champion: reading a room during a hard negotiation, coaching a property manager through a turnaround, staying steady when a deal gets hairy.
How you build a team, how you communicate under pressure, how you stay grounded when deals get hard — that matters as much as the numbers. It's what makes us different, and it's what I love most about this work, alongside working with Sam every day.
Underneath all of it is something simpler: a belief that we're all here to find our why, and that work can be one of the truest places to live it out.
Why I write
As Champion has grown, I've realized that what I missed from my years in higher education — the helping, teaching, and inspiring side — still lives inside this work. So I started writing about it.
In 2011, I gave a TEDx Talk at Temple University on leading with integrity and meaning, a belief that still anchors everything I build today. Watch it here →
This site is my reflection space. I write about the mindset, habits, leadership, and psychology behind building Champion, and behind finding your inner voice and living that every day. Not the highlight reel. The real and authentic stuff.
If you're navigating a big transition, building something of your own, or just seeking to live out your greatest gifts and purpose at work and at home, I hope something here resonates.
Never give up. Always be better.