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 is
What it looks like to help hundreds of humanitarian aid workers grieve the loss of their entire professional identity — and step into their power anyway
Why 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 them
The 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 boundaries
This is a conversation about what hides beneath titles, credentials, and missions. And what emerges when all of it gets stripped away.
Meet Dr. Zeledon
Dr. Esther Zeledon is the Founder of BeActChange, an initiative focused on helping individuals, organizations, and communities align vision with impact. Her work spans 38 countries and bridges leadership, social impact, and systems thinking through workshops, advisory work, and community-centered initiatives that help people uncover, position, and activate their unique strengths to create meaningful change.
Esther is a former humanitarian diplomat who has worked across government institutions, nonprofits, refugee communities, entrepreneurship ecosystems, and the private sector.
She is the award-winning author of Creating Your Limitless Life and holds a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management from UC Berkeley and a BA from Swarthmore College.
“As a visionary leader I strive to help people uncover and position their unique value to create aligned, collective impact across communities and generations.”
Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
Connect with Dr. Esther Zeledon
Instagram: @be.act.change
LinkedIn: Esther Zeledon
Mentioned in this episode:
The $40 Billion Question Framework
Be Act Change
The Tyler Dickerhoof Show
https://www.youtube.com/@impactdrivenleader
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About the Tyler Dickerhoof Show Podcast
The Impact Driven Leader Podcast, hosted by Tyler Dickerhoof, is for Xillennial leaders who have felt alone and ill-equipped to lead in today's world. Through inspiring interviews with authors from around the world, Tyler uncovers how unique leadership strengths can empower others to achieve so much more, with real impact.
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