Be Act Change with Dr. Esther Zeledon
Aicila: [00:00:00] In this episode of Business as Unusual, join me in learning from Dr. Esther Zeledon as we dive into the transformative world of personal and organizational change. Dr. Esther Zeledon is a Latina immigrant, former diplomat and award-winning author. Tune in to discover how Dr. Zelda's Power Framework has helped both communities and individuals operationalize their visions, creating lasting change.
Whether you're looking to redefine your path, inspire collective growth, or understand the importance of alignment in achieving goals, this episode will provide valuable insights and real world examples to ignite your journey.
Aicila: Hi, welcome to Business As Unusual. I'm here today with Dr. Esther Zeledon of BE Act Change. Welcome to the show.
Esther: Thank you. Thank you.
Aicila: And doctor can I call you Esther?
Esther: Yeah,
Aicila: Awesome.
Like I know how much work that is from the outside. I'm like, if you wanna walk around saying My name is doctored everybody all the time. I fully respect this [00:01:00] so much, so many props is the Latina, immigrant and former diplomat turned award-winning author, international speaker and coach. She's collaborated with global leaders to address complex humanitarian challenges.
Her transformative book and workbook. Creating your Limitless life empowers individuals, corporations, nonprofits, and refugees to unpack their superpowers, break free from expectations, align with their true purpose and elevate others' highest aspirations. That sounds like a great idea. She sparked a movement of self-transformation with thousands of testimonials attesting to its impact.
Esther's high-achieving journey is a powerful testament to resilience, trailblazing. And trailblazing inviting her readers to redefine their paths and challenge the status quo, which I'll just addendum there, feels like we should be challenging the status quo. So I'm really glad you're here.
Esther: Yes, yes.[00:02:00]
Aicila: Is there anything else you'd like to add or
Esther: No, you got it. You covered it.
Aicila: So I, uh, I appreciate you sharing so much information. I, for, for the folks out there who wanna peek behind the curtain. I ask people to gimme a lot of information before they come on so that I can prepare and it's really helpful and Esther, you know, send it right away.
So I have lots of times to sit with it. I also love the name of your company be act Change.
And so I used to tell my kids, you know, A dream without a plan is just a wish.
Esther: Yes. I'm gonna even write that down.
Aicila: So.
Esther: a plan is a wish. Exactly.
Aicila: Mm-hmm. Which is fun. I mean, wishes are great and I like to see things happen. Which sometimes, I'm forging ahead, and then they have to kind of rein me in. But I think you need all, all kinds. 'cause I, I also, run into that where people have that analysis paralysis
Esther: Yeah.
Aicila: and I'm, I'm just like, no, we've been sitting here too long.
We have to go get some data, right? Like, I'm not saying I know the right thing to do, but I'm not [00:03:00] gonna know that until I go try some things and see, you know, what, what actually has any chance of success
Esther: Exactly,
Aicila: failure. Honestly, it tells me some places not to start. Right.
Esther: or just that it is just not the right time yet.
Aicila: Yeah. Or is the right, or I'm not the right person, or, you know, there's so many things you can learn by, by just give dipping your toe in. Like, this water's very cold. I'm not jumping.
Esther: Exactly.
Aicila: I grew up in the East coast where the ocean is to be looked at. It's not to be, I dunno, I, I've always been in California, I'm going to the beach and I'm like, do you want bug bites and smell like seaweed? Like, why do you go to the beach? You know? It's like, oh, when you're out there, you gotta get in it.
It's nice.
Esther: It's still cold in California.
Aicila: Oh yeah. But I don't know. I think it's a a,
Esther: Yeah.
Aicila: it's a different world anyway. I, and. So you've obviously accomplished a lot of things. It would, are you able to share? One of the things I really love is for if we can get people kind of into the [00:04:00] impact or the experience. So a place or person or like that, that someone could relate to that really shows what happens when somebody
Esther: Yeah, yeah,
Aicila: into this.
What is, what is that? Is there an example that comes to mind or an.
Esther: yeah. I have
Aicila: I probably a lot but one that you feel comfortable sharing right now.
Esther: I have so many. But I think the one that probably I, I mean, I'll share several, but let's, let's start with one.
Aicila: All.
Esther: I think the one like, and I, and I talk about this in the, in the book, it's, it's the biggest one that I had, actually when I was a diplomat in humanitarian aid, which I, I know, has been like completely gutted now, but. When it existed, like, I really wanted to change status quo and how we were doing things. So like we, there's, there was a traditional model of like where you give people money of what you think they should do, right?
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: that's the paradigm almost like we're living right now where it's like, I direct you to do this.
Right.
Aicila: Yeah.[00:05:00]
Esther: I was really switching that to have we asked people? Like what their dream is, what their wish, what their aspiration. Like, instead of putting it down on people, let's find out what is their aspiration vision. I call, you know, I call it mission, vision, purpose, and let's find alignment to that, right? So. How I worked in practice is I convinced these, the leaders to let me do this right? And then, uh, I got some seed money and I went out and did this listening tour with a bunch of different communities, a bunch of different leaders, and I was like, what is your vision? What's your dream? Right? At first they gave me this like standard presentation, what I wanted to hear, and I'm like, no, no, no, really tell me like, what is it deep inside?
Like what do you, how do you, if you could have no limitations, what would this look like in five years? And then from there, when I had all the data. I started to see connections, like how could I connect that to what I was, what the organization was doing,
Aicila: Yeah.
Esther: find the alignment, and so then I found this alignment with this one guy, and we're still really good friends.
His name is Robinson in the DR- haiti border, [00:06:00] and he had this crate and it looked crazy. Then
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: was a fisherman and he had this crazy dream. He's like, look, it's, it's, it's like this tiny town in the DR- haiti border. Everyone thinks that the border is like super dangerous. You know, you hear in the news and it's bordering Haiti and there's nothing there.
And you imagine like, I don't know, guards and ugliness, right? But it's actually this beautiful spot. Like when I went there I was like, how is this, how does people don't come here? It looks like Cabo San Lucas. And I was like, how does nobody know about this? But he had this vision that he's like, I. Have this vision of growing this big dive shop, bringing people here, bringing tourism here.
He's like, the thing is he's like back in the 14 hundreds and like late 15 hundreds, he's like, this used to be the spot. He's like, this was like the colonial like ship spot. There's 450 shipwrecks here. This used to
Aicila: Hmm.
Esther: be like the center of the whole island. And he gives me all this history and he's like, and I wanna bring that. to life and [00:07:00] bring ecotourism, because what they were facing was that they had to go out like an hour, hour and a half to find fish because it was overfishing.
Aicila: Hmm.
Esther: The coral reefs were dying. He's like, I'm not seeing the same sea life. He's like, not a lot of people are visiting.
He's like, I don't want to go anywhere. I don't wanna move anywhere. So I was like, you know what? I believe in your vision. So I found some. I'm like, man, we could align this to like saving corals, biodiversity, we could align it to livelihoods and ecotourism. Right? So I started to find alignment and I start pitching,
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: right?
And so like one of my strengths is I help people. Pitch, pitch
Aicila: Mm.
Esther: pitch scripts, like, and like pitching can be anything. It's not just like a social entrepreneurship thing, right? You gotta pitch, you gotta know, you gotta be able to speak about yourself if you're looking for a job, if you're trying to promote within an organization, if you're trying to even, uh, tell your kids what vacation to go to, right?
You need to know how to do a pitch.
Aicila: Yeah.
Esther: And so I, I went and [00:08:00] pitched this idea. so I, and then I got the money and we co-created it together. So we created this like, I call my model, like the, the power model, right? So it's like a power framework, and we shared the power.
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: from that, from his vision, we created a five year plan.
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: that's like the O. And then we worked together on it and made his vision a reality. And
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: by the end of the five years, we raised a hundred million dollars. The town completely transformed from a fishing town to an ecotourism town. He ha he got his dive shop catamarans. Um, we worked with social influencers so that, you know, it's a, it's a huge local now tourism spot.
He's been on Ocean X, Nat Geo, he's been on the History Channel. Uh, I've brought, you know, when I was there in the org, we brought in like ambassadors, congressmen to go look at it and experience it. Um, and now it's, it's, and then he got government and companies, you know, to then come into the vision and he employs all the [00:09:00] fishermen.
The fishermen have transitioned. And
Aicila: Mm.
Esther: more importantly, well the fish came back, the coral restored, right? So all his visions came, right? And so he's very visionary, but that's how the framework
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: taking this vision and taking it from a vision, like you said, like it's not, you know, taking it from like that dream stage. To an actual reality
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Esther: everyone together along with it. Right. And we were able to find something, 'cause it, 'cause they used to, like the groups used to fight a lot. We, but, but with the shared vision was able to bring everyone together and bring in everyone's like different strengths and superpower to work on it together in their own way.
That worked. So everyone in the community was involved and we're all equals, right? It's not a hierarchy thing. It's
Aicila: Yeah.
Esther: bring something to the table and we can make this work. So that is how. My framework works on a big scale, and even when the funding ended and I left and we're still, you know, really good friends every, he's continued it, right?
He then made another five year vision plan of how to take it to the [00:10:00] next level, and he's been doing it. You know, and now he's getting like merchandise, and now he's like, you know, next, now he's doing like a training diver, right? So it's like every step along the way, right? In making these visions right?
It's, it's, it's like, it's, it's a 20, I always tell like entrepreneurs, it's a 20 year thing, right?
Aicila: Yeah.
Esther: it's not one year, two years. It's what is the legacy you're building in 20 years and how do we create that? So that's like on a big scale. On a small scale, right, like on a person, it's helping them create, right, their own version of their limitless life, right?
And that's why I am, and I have this book, creating Your Limitless Life with Chasing the American Dream crossed out. And it's basically like, what is your vision of that? Right? It's not, it's not anyone else's vision. It's not what everyone else is telling you. What is yours and then how do we. Operationalize that. Like that's really my super skill is like taking people's [00:11:00] vision, like their mission, purpose, vision, and helping them operationalize it. Because that's what happens is 92% of people give up on their goals, and then
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: of people are not clear on their purpose. When you have those two statistics, right, you end up having populations that then just follow the status quo or whatever people tell 'em to do. But that doesn't lead to sustainability, right? That's why we have so much like unhappiness, unfulfillment, frustration, all that, right? And my whole thing is like I'm pro I, you know, my whole concept, right? And I have a lot of case studies in my book and like I gave more examples. It's like actually. You can make that vision a reality, And it's about the feeling and impact you wanna create in 20 years. Because how you get there is gonna change, right? Things are gonna happen. What's happening
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: the world, right? It's, it's changes,
AicilaRight,
Esther: that vision of the feeling and impact won't how you get there might.
Aicilaright.
Esther: how do we create these?
How do we operationalize it for you that it's like in the 15, 10, 5 years, so that you stick. To it that you make it, that you believe in it, [00:12:00] undo all those limiting beliefs, right. Really believe in it so that we can flip. That's my mission. And life is like to flip that statistic, that it's actually like, you know, that 92% of people make it happen and that like only, you know, and the same thing with purpose, that everyone understands what their mission, vision purposes that also leads to healthier workplaces.
Right. And, and one of the other
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: about is at the same time I was doing this work with him. I was also working internally in the organization of the team where I was like, Hey, okay, I'm building. I had to build a team from the bottom up with all this money. And I was like, okay, but my team needs to be in alignment.
Like what's your, this is the mission vision that we're gonna create in this place, but what are your own professional aspirations? What's your personal aspirations? How can we align both, right? Because when people feel that alignment, know where they're going, they want to be there, they wanna be engaged, they wanna be productive, right?
And so it's like attracting the right people to your team. It's not about, like, I even challenge the way you do, you hire people, right? I, I don't need [00:13:00] someone in five, 15 years of experience or certain degrees, you know? And I'm coming from someone who has the all the degrees. It's
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: is the how to that we need. I. To
AicilaYeah.
Esther: and that everyone has a space at the table to bring that in, right? And that we don't have to, we, we sure we have our roles, but everyone brings something and everyone's valued, everyone's appreciated. And that led us to like being the, that led to even more impact because then we all wanted to be there.
We were all, we were all part of this journey, and it was like a shared success. So that's how the experience is. So like I do it different ways, right? So I help individuals that are, you know, like they might be a startup and social entrepreneurs operationalize it. I help teams, you know, understand, like, come together, right?
They may have conflicts, they may have like disengaged members or people like, they, they, they see that there's like something just not working right? I go in, I interview every single person. I try to understand what is their understanding of what's happening, um, how do they see it, and then put that all together and be [00:14:00] like, okay. This is, let's all co-create where we're going now, get everyone engaged, get everyone on the same track. Who do you need to bring in? What are the gaps? Right? And so I come in to help support the teams and help them get those structures so they can reach, right? Whatever vision they're trying to
AicilaHmm.
Esther: I also help individuals land the jobs that are in alignment with them, right?
Like so many, like people wanna also don't wanna have businesses. They want to go into jobs, but
AicilaYeah.
Esther: we're like, we're gonna take the first one. And I'm like, wait. Which is the one that's gonna value your how too. Sometimes we get frustrated in jobs because we're, the way we're pitching ourselves, showcasing is based on like tasks we do, but not the solution we bring.
And you wanna be in a
AicilaMm.
Esther: value you for the solution you bring and how you
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: you're transparent about that, then they understand what they're getting. You know what you're looking for. Right. So. I help people create this alignment right through the, through the power framework and, and it's applicable to everything. Community [00:15:00] groups, couples, families, businesses, teams. Yeah.
AicilaYeah. It, it, it comes across as an incredibly powerful perspective and, and that you were talking about teams and. And it's, it's not an accurate way to call it, but we'll talk about like miscommunication and, and I feel like a lot of times it is that different perceptions and if you're standing in someone's shoes and looking out, it's like, oh, the, their perception is totally valid.
There's no, there's no problem with that. And, but then when they run into each other, you get attached to, oh, I'm, I'm right. And then, and that's where , the bigger. I wouldn't say con, I guess conflicts come and, but I don't think necessarily conflict's bad either. I think it's, that's where you develop learnings and understandings of different perceptions and, and create really powerful teams because you understand how to see things, if not in the same way, to respect the differences that create that strength.
Right,
Esther: And actually people, they're fine with that, but they wanna feel the, the, the [00:16:00] problem is where then they don't feel valued and appreciated for it. Right. It's like when
Aicilaright. Yeah.
Esther: for it. So it's creating the space where. What you bring is valued and appreciated. So if you're someone who's always like if, and people understand that, if you're someone who's like, you know what my how-to is that I like to challenge, I like to play devil's advocate.
Right? And if people know that in the team, then they're gonna, when you bring that in, they're gonna be like, oh, okay, awesome. This you, you know, let's say Sarah's gonna come in and bring us the devil's advocate and they come and embrace it, and then they're valued for it rather than attacked for it. And so like,
AicilaMay or Yeah.
Esther: that everyone knows what everyone is bringing. Oh, and that way people feel like they're being actually utilized as well. Like one of the biggest problems is when people feel underutilized and not like to their potential.
AicilaMm-hmm. Yeah, I, I have those friends that I call when I'm trying to do something and I know they'll poke holes and that's what I want because before I take that step out into committing myself, my resources to it, I want to get. The [00:17:00] holes and figure out are those are those challenges I feel up for? Did I anticipate them?
Or maybe I should pause a minute because there's more going on here than I was able to get, get some sense of before I started thinking about action.
Esther: Yeah.
Aicilasay I rush in, but I do also do a little research.
Esther: And you know what's interesting though is that your friends might not even know that they do that, right? I have this really cool exercise that I tell everyone to text five of their friends like that don't know each other and ask 'em. What do you seek me out for? How have I impacted you? When and how?
And be like really specific about an example. So then you could see the themes that come out and people are like, oh my God, I'm sought out for that. Right? And so it's like, we don't even know. The how we solve problems and what people seek us out for. And that's like a way of validating it that throughout your whole life and realize that's always been me, right?
So it's like that, that takes away also from like defining yourself by like what your job and what you're doing now. It's like, no, I've had this way of like solving problems and helping people my entire life and [00:18:00] I'm gonna, and it's just about how am I gonna continue doing that in different spaces. But it's a really cool exercise.
'cause sometimes like
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: with people, they're like, I had no idea. That's how I help people. I hadn't, I mean, like I see now the themes and Whoa. Right. And they might not even, it's like a blind
AicilaYep. I, I think that's a, and my business is different, but similar, some similar perspectives. And I, I feel like one of the things I see the most is that it, we, we don't value the thing that. We do as easily as we breathe because we don't have any sense that it's not just what everybody does, right? And so we wouldn't think that someone values that from us because we don't even think it's a thing we're doing.
And, and so really helping people to get some sense of. Understanding that so it can become more explicit and less intuitive. 'cause that's how then you can then make it more intentional in terms of how you engage, learn, and share. 'cause a lot of times we give too much or too little when we're not clear on what it [00:19:00] is that we're actually offering.
So that's a great, that's a great tip. I'm gonna pass that on. I mean, I guess I am, 'cause it's gonna be on podcast. But also in conversations, do you have a couple other tips you can give people who are. Uh, maybe they, they're in a place where they're aware and they're, maybe it's how they could understand how they could find their purpose or how they could become more actionable.
It just a small thing, obviously.
Esther: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I mean there's, there's a lot of different I, different tips I think, how I like to. Start people out though is with, um, the visioning exercise, right? And so like, I like to just start off with like, just like having people just close their eyes and imagine in five years how they want to feel and the impact they want to be having.
And like, really go deep. Like, who are you with? Where are you? Who are you working with? What's your day look like? What are you doing? Like, oh, and I really just guide them through this [00:20:00] visualization. And if you actually take the time to do that, it starts to tell you a lot, right? Like, like some people get visions of, I'm not working in an office, right?
I'm
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: I am, I am. Like, I'm partnering with different organizations or like, and I have them go, tell me how your day looks like. How, what are you doing when you wake up? How are you feeling? Who are you working with? Right? And it starts to tell you where you wanna go, right? Other people are like, wow, I, I, I go into an office and I have this team and we're doing graphics, and I also have time with my kids.
Right? But the vision gives you a sense. how do you want your life to look like in five years? What's that feeling like? There's a feeling that comes up for you and when you're thinking about it, and then I have 'em summarize it for me in a word. So I think that's one tip I could have is think about five years, what's the feeling and impact?
And summarize it in a word. It could be that you want to feel accomplished, you want feel [00:21:00] peaceful, you wanna feel balanced, you wanna feel calm. The next exercise is to take that. And bring that down to next year, let's say one year from now. Right. What, how do you wanna feel what you're doing? And, and it forces the person that next year has to build to the five years.
It's not the same. And I think that's where people are like, wait, oh, next year and then five years. Right? And, and it's like, what can be that feeling and impact also in one word that builds to that five year? Because then you start to realize, hey, you know what? Things are not gonna happen. In one year
AicilaYeah.
Esther: overestimate what happens in one year. We underestimate what we can do in five and to realize,
AicilaHmm.
Esther: you can move three things at a time, but you need to know where you're going. just
AicilaYeah.
Esther: exercise and not attaching it to a metric, right? So I force people don't, don't tell me in five years I'm [00:22:00] making, you know, a million dollars and I'm living in a yacht.
Like, no, like what is. The feeling and impact you're trying to create, by taking that to that space, we're not creating this sense of like metrics that we might, you know, we may meet, we may not meet. Right. But they're not, that's not the, the goal here. The goal is what is that feeling and impact so that you're constantly creating that. Then people can extend that to 20 years. So I usually start people there, and that's like a tip that just to give you some clarity of where it is you're looking for. And it also gives you clarity of what's holding me back to get there and what
AicilaYeah.
Esther: to make to do that. So that is the simple thing to start with, that you can just take home with you and then be like, okay, does it look like?
Where am I? What am I doing? Who's around me? Yeah.
AicilaThat sounds very effective. Thank you for [00:23:00] sharing. What does success look like for you?
Esther: So I do the same thing for myself, right? What's that impact and feeling? Um, and I do it at all the way to 40 years, right? So I do like 40, 35, you know, all that, all the way to the end. for me, what I like, like I already know, is seven years, seven year word is to be. Uh, is I want to feel influential, not in a sense of influence, like, um, like fame, more like influential in the sense of helping switch that statistics.
It's almost like I, I visualize it as like a light bulb, like. Opening up in people, right? It's like, oh my God, now, like they have that clarity and now I can move forward, right? So that influence of doing that at a scale. And so for me, success is all the testimonials I [00:24:00] have. I, I feel like I already have success, and I think at this point the feeling and impact
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: have is just continuing serving and continuing creating that light bulb in people so that we can have like a society that's based on alignment.
Because I think that when people are in alignment. Then that's when we create community. That's when we create kindness and solidarity. That's when we create a more compassionate world and it's when, and we're in a growth mindset and it's when we're in scarcity mindset, which is what I feel like we're facing right now, we're
AicilaYeah.
Esther: from a pace of fear, that's when we're like, everything about me, me, me, me rather than the collective. And that's why a lot of this work is about child. 'cause when we were children, because I do this for kids too. kids know exactly how they want to change the world and how, and like they can answer the questions really fast at seven, but by 10 they're already like, uh, societal [00:25:00] conditions, right? And they wanna do something as a collective.
And then we kind of then society take 'em to individual. And so it's like, I want to bring people back to your purpose that's gonna serve the collective. So success to me will be when we can shift the pendulum. Back, you know, the other way to
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: as a collective and together and all of us working in Unisom and like, and like just being this, you know, this, this solidarity movement.
AicilaWell, and I've been, I'm only two thirds of the way through, so I don't know the ending yet, but I've been reading this book called Humankind. I don't know if you've heard of it. And he. It's, you would love it. It came out in 2021. I just picked it up. A friend of mine's an author and she does futuristic sci-fi and she does a lot of reading because she's imagined a world, uh, in which there's neither military nor, uh, police.
She believes that's more, but it's hard to create that because it's so steeped in our. Cultural landscape. [00:26:00] And so she does a lot of reading of sociology and research to kind of get some sense of what does that look like. And she read this for one of her books and she was like, I really want you to read it so we could talk about it.
And I started reading it and I'm talking about it with everybody and her 'cause it's, it's just so interesting because he's really gone through and all of those studies that, that are very famous that talk about how we were very selfish and how the minute that we have a chance to hurt people, we will. If they were fabricated.
Esther: Yeah,
Aicilayou get down into the research, it's not real. We are. W do we occasionally behave badly? Yes. And so far he seems to be like, I'm two thirds in, so I am not spoiling it for you guys. 'cause I, I don't know. But so far it seems like actually the, the thing that creates that is not the, the underneath primitive part of ourselves.
That's the part of us that's collective, which aligns with what I believe in experience what you're talking about with kids. It's the part of us that owns property and, um, tries to, to dominate other people. That, and that's, that's our civilized [00:27:00] self. Uh, so do that, do with that what you will, but
Esther: But, but there's power, right? Like, and I've
Aicilamm-hmm.
Esther: through my work and I've seen it when I, when with myself, everything. When people and people want to come together, there's like an epidemic of
AicilaYeah,
Esther: Like
Aicilathere is.
Esther: it. And like that, that's why I have the Chase of America Dream. It's not so much of the. You can want those things. Like I, I put there like, it's okay to want a house, all those things, right? But
AicilaYeah.
Esther: that we've defined it as it's my individual chase and only I matter. That's, that's the American dream thing that I'm fighting. It's,
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: It's, it's, there's a bigger, like that's so limiting, right?
Like there's
AicilaRight.
Esther: can do. As a collective and we can do it together and we can, and there's space for all of us. And it doesn't have to be this me versus you or you know, and, and we're kind of see it right now, like, well if, you know, if you have, then you take from me. It, it does. There's, there's enough for all of us
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: together for solutions.
Um,[00:28:00]
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: check it out. I am a
AicilaNow you, well,
Esther: of
AicilaIt's been a really. Refreshing and especially in the, the current climate, to to also feel genuinely validated in my belief in people. I'm not totally naive.
I know we all have our moments, and at the same time, I feel like for the most part, people are pretty good and people constantly go out of their ways. Go out of their way to do things for strangers or to help people that they know and they don't know that, that doesn't make financial sense. And for me that's, that's because we don't actually care about that.
The, that's why the propaganda is so effective. Like we have to be marketed to constantly that this is the way, because our natural instincts and our, our, our desire for connection will take us away from it the minute that we have any free time or space or ability to escape it. Except for I think a very small amount of people.
So.
Esther: No, no, I totally believe in that. And, and I agree. I mean even like with my, uh, I, you know, it's funny 'cause it's some of, one of the status quos too [00:29:00] that, that I fought even with my business is that it's a social enterprise. So I, like, I give. Back to the communities through the proceeds. And even people were like, well, that's not good business.
I'm like, but who's defining that? I'm like, actually, like, the more you give, the more you receive. Right. But it's, it's like these, these paradigms that we're taught, know, in the society of like, this is the way, and, and it's not, that's not true.
Aicilawell it was as part of the post growth entrepreneurship training cohort a couple years ago. They do a lot of late regenerative economy work. And, and, and, and it was, once again, it was really interesting to me because in like really thinking about that versus sort of the extractive models that, we've inherited, and one, I think business needs to be more part of social activism because by, by separating it, it creates a. An unnecessary barrier because commerce is part of life. People have always traded things for things and that's not problematic.
And it's when you [00:30:00] take from the system without replenishing it, that you destroy it. And that, that doesn't make any sense. Like if I'm a. If I'm a logger, I want to take care of the forest because I need to give back so that it's in balance so that I can continue to build things with wood. And it's, it's a matter of paying attention, but this idea of just taking it away and going somewhere denies that we're part of the things that we're, that we're involved in that way.
And you're probably all already on board with that, obviously. It's just that like how come that's not good business? Because obviously that is good business then. Then you have more trees in the future, and your children do. But for some reason, this idea of destroying, you know, there's that old nursery riddle, what is it?
Or you know, don't destroy the goose that lays the golden eggs. Like why? Why be so greedy
Esther: Yeah,
Aicilathat you can't enjoy the benefits? And then maybe go enjoy yourself. Like sit on the beach,
Esther: Right.
Aicilawatch the ocean if you're on the East coast.
Esther: That [00:31:00] that's, that's also, we have to challenge that like rest, that that joy is part of it. Rest is part of it, and yeah,
AicilaSo I had to, my favorite question now is what advice would you give your 18-year-old self.
Esther: Oh man, I have so much advice for my 18-year-old self. My 18-year-old self was the, I mean, uh, my book is really, uh, really hyper niche at the high achiever, people pleaser.
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: you know, I'm a recovering, I, I always say recovering because you always, the things you overcome, you're always still overcoming.
Right. Um.
AicilaYeah.
Esther: But I think the first thing I would say is the, listen to your intuition. There was so much, um, I always, I've always had a really strong intuition and I silenced it for so long, and I think a lot of, a lot of us do. Right. That's what I have in the back. Like, do you have this voice inside of you?
Right. And I think if anything to my 18-year-old [00:32:00] self, I'd be like, follow that intuition. Take those risks and like, really just get out there, right? Like there was this, I waited, I kept on waiting for the accolade to be
AicilaHmm.
Esther: so I waited for like the, even though I was like mobilizing, I was always a community mobilizer. Like on the side, you know, and like being president of organizations and doing these things. But like, I was always doing it like at a scale where I felt safe, you know, I played it safe too long. And so my, my whole thing was like, I was always waiting like, well, when I have this power position, when I have this title, when I have this PhD, when I have this director thing, right?
And that's part of that American Dream model, right? Um, that's when I can, and I think if I would tell my 18 year olds like, just, just do it now.
AicilaYeah.
Esther: it now. You already have like your how to. have it now. it now. And and that's why I like doing those exercises like with students too. Like a lot of my pro bono, the social enterprise [00:33:00] workers with students, 'cause they like in their LinkedIn they just put like, I'm a student, I. I am, uh, I'm going to, when I graduate, and I, and I have them like do these, these vision words and I do that. I help them unpack their how to. 'cause they don't, they're like, I don't have any how to. I'm like, yes, you do. And we do like the, the HS exercise. I do this $40 billion question with them, and I have 'em now introduced themselves by their how to, I'm like, you're more than a student. You know, it's not like when you finish something, it's not when you turn 20, it's like. have value today. So I think at that 18-year-old self is like, yes, you're gonna continue your education, you're gonna continue growing, but like you take action now. Start
AicilaYeah.
Esther: legacy now. Stop waiting. And, and it, that's still a message for me now, right?
Like I think we
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: I still am always waiting for. Something, you know, like because of everything going on at world events, I was supposed to, I was gonna hit this big metric this year, know? And now I have to [00:34:00] adjust because of everything going on.
AicilaYeah.
Esther: I find myself being like, well now I have to wait to hit this one metric.
Do what I was gonna do. And I have to tell myself the same thing I would tell my 18-year-old self. Why are you waiting for that?
AicilaRight.
Esther: don't, that's
AicilaThat's a good question. Why are you waiting?
Esther: waiting for that? Like, why
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: validation?
AicilaYep.
Esther: it's the same. Just, just, just, just do it.
AicilaJust do it.
Esther: do it. So that's, that's the biggest advice I
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: But I mean, there's a lot of other ones
AicilaYeah, I mean,
Esther: the, you know.
Aicilathat's why I love it. I'm like, I'm like, there's so many things that we could say to ourselves and I think it is always, you know, who we are, what we've grown through. There's always a little relevance to us today.
Maybe today, what's something you're excited about in the work that you're doing or your business? Any books or events, things coming up that, that you wanna let people know about?
Esther: One thing that. [00:35:00] Really been. Um, so my husband and I, we, we do breath work and, uh, it was already picking up for us in, um,
AicilaI.
Esther: know, this year. And I think what's been really nice is that it's actually, that's something that's picked up more than we had envisioned. And like right now there's like such a need for it.
Like people need to like release. like release tension, release anger. There's so much anxiety and uncertainty. I think we have like every day something changing and um, it's been really a really, really cool thing. So we've been hosting like in-person and virtual events and it's been growing and it's like a beautiful community because like we do the, the exercise people release people share and it creates this safe space.
And at first we had. Not blended, different genders. And that was completely blended. even that's been beautiful because there's been people in the group going like, wow, like I haven't been in like mixed groups [00:36:00] and I feel very safe and like, so
AicilaHmm.
Esther: this like safe space for people to be able to. Release. So like they can recenter and not just release, but even just tap into their intuition of like what they, what they need to do, what they should do. It's been really beautiful. So that's something I've been really excited about. We're gonna be expanding that more this year, and it's been our happening organically, like it's just energetically aligned and happening
AicilaMm-hmm.
Esther: And that's also part of the second book we're pitching because I, the next step of creating your limitless life, it's like. Is the trailblazing. There's no more roadmap. So now there's no road. You gotta trust yourself and, but how do you do that? And I, and I think it's really hard for people tap in and there's so many different ways to tap in, and I think it's just that up, right?
There's all this. Stigma and myths around tapping in, or it's like, you know, it's, [00:37:00] people are like, oh, it's woo woo, or it's only for this type of population, but the truth is, it's for all of us and it's all of ours. And so that's
AicilaYeah.
Esther: what, where we're that's the, that's the light in the tunnel
AicilaYeah. That's beautiful and, and there is so much that's powerful in genuinely breathing. You know, there's, there's, it's, it's really beautiful. For folks who are listening, how do they learn more? Follow You, get in touch.
Esther: Yeah, so I'm on Instagram, um, be, act, change, right? So be you, take action, change the world. And um, and I'm also on LinkedIn. my name so they can get in touch there. I, I actually answered all the dms I get. Um, and we are on our, we have our website be act change.com, right? So you can see every, all the different things that, that we do. And then I have a book and workbook creating Your [00:38:00] Limitless Life. And I purposely have the digital copy very accessible because I want everyone to have. Be able to
AicilaYeah.
Esther: unpack their purpose. I tell people all the time, it's my full coaching program there, because it's not, I really, I don't have a scarcity mindset.
It's growth. So do all the stuff, you know, it's, it's do all the exercises. anything, it'll help you learn more about yourself and get to take you one more, one step closer to making your vision a reality.
AicilaAwesome. Yeah, so go, go check that out guys. And thank you so much for joining me today. I really appreciate it.
Esther: awesome.
AicilaAnd thanks. Thanks for listening everybody. See you next week.
Thank you for joining me. I hope you enjoyed our chat as much as I did. I really appreciate Dr. Odin's approach to understanding and harnessing our own vision to create truly powerful opportunities that we'll be excited about. Explore your [00:39:00] own limitless life by checking out Dr. Odin's. Book and workbook on vision alignment and operationalizing dreams.
Follow, be, act, change on Instagram for transform for transformative insights.
Next week, tune in as I talk to Deb. Founder of Herbal Eclipse of Herb Eclipse Skincare products.
Thank you for tuning in to business as unusual. Remember, in this ever evolving world of modern business, it's not about fitting in. It's about standing out. See you next time. Stay curious, stay innovative, and always keep it unusual.
