Ep 272 Finding Your Self Worth After the Title, Mission & Money Are Gone w/Dr. Esther Zeledon

What happens when everything you've built — your contracts, your identity, your network — disappears in a single week?Dr. Esther Zeledon, founder of Be Act Change and author of Creating Your Limitless Life, knows that answer firsthand.In this conversation, Esther takes us back to the wound that started everything: a 10-year-old girl watching her father lose his PhD funding, her family's world unraveling mid-school year, and the obsession with advocacy that grew from that moment.That obsession eventually carried her into humanitarian aid, where she grew a $700K project into a $100M initiative and invented the $40 billion question along the way.Then January 2026 hit. USAID cuts. Half a million dollars in signed contracts gone in a week. Two months in bed. And then — the pivot that only someone who'd already left once could make.In this episode, Tyler and Esther explore:The $40 billion question: why asking people to dream impossibly big is actually the most practical leadership tool there isWhat it looks like to help hundreds of humanitarian aid workers grieve the loss of their entire professional identity — and step into their power anywayWhy the organizations we serve can quietly convince us we're nothing without them (and Tyler's four monkeys story that perfectly captures why)The difference between saving people and serving themThe universal fear underneath every high achiever: Do I have value? Am I enough?Why the hardest work Esther has ever done isn't coaching others — it's her own boundariesThis is a conversation about what hides beneath titles, credentials, and missions. And what emerges when all of it gets stripped away.Connect with Dr. Esther ZeledonInstagram: @be.act.changeLinkedIn: Esther ZeledonMentioned in this episode:Creating Your Limitless Life by Dr. Esther ZeledonThe $40 Billion Question FrameworkBe Act Change