Q. What is your favorite part of being Latina?
Dancing. I love the vibrancy of it. When I give keynotes and talks, I always start with a Zumba. I even do it for corporate events. There’s power in dancing. You release, you laugh, and it’s joyful.
Q. Tell us about growing up.
I was born in Nicaragua. We then moved to California for five years and then to Miami when I was 10. My parents are super educated, but we grew up paycheck to paycheck in the U.S. On my website, I say that I’m an extreme couponer, and that’s because I had to be if I wanted to get the things I wanted. I also learned how to travel for free because I wanted to tour the world. I volunteered for conferences, to be an assistant in different events if it paid for my trip — I learned how to hustle. I’m proud to say that after my journey, I don’t hustle and grind anymore. I now grow my business at a speed that I like. I don’t have guilt; I prioritize family and joy.
Q. Tell us about your professional journey.
I went to Swarthmore and then Berkeley, where I got my Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy Management. In college, I had like six jobs, and then in graduate school, I got my own fellowship money. I then taught in Ecuador for three years. I realized that to solve complex environmental issues you need both an understanding of psychology and pioneering research. From there, I joined a fellowship in government, where they brought in academics or PhDs to serve as advisors in different areas, and I eventually became a diplomat. I moved overseas and climbed the ladder until I hit what ended up being my last posting. In that position, I raised $100 million through an approach that focuses on listening to people and their needs and helping them find and implement solutions. We tried something different that the local community was able to leverage naturally and, unlike many development projects, we created a genuinely sustainable impact. When the local government became so invested in the work that they themselves took it over, I realized my job was done. I made the decision to transition out of the diplomatic service, went into consultancy and, from there, started my own business.
Q. How do you explain to others what you do?
I’m in the business of impacting lives. I do that by helping individuals discover their purpose. I help teams, organizations, nonprofits, and communities discover their mission and vision. I then take that and help them create the roadmap to make it happen and build the resilience, longevity and sustainability to keep it going. That is my superpower.
Q. You’re so good at explaining that. Tell us about the journey of creating a polished self-branding pitch.
It’s what I help many high achievers do, because as high achievers, we like doing lots of things. We have a many passions, we want to change the world, and we want to bring our solutions and innovation to different spaces. Society, however, is not made for us; society has boxes and titles. I help people unpack it all by discovering their unique value outside of their current title. I say, “Let’s figure out what is your unique superpower that you bring? Let’s make sense of it with your life to make sure you are bringing it into all your spaces.” After that, we draft an umbrella statement as a way for you to communicate it and keep it in the front of your mind. When we think about it this way, people realize their superpower has been there their whole life. This same approach can also be applied to teams to create a mission and vision — and even to families.
Q. As Latinas we’ve been taught to be grateful once we reach positions of power or leadership or once we advance in our careers in general. How do you help Latinas reframe this gratitude for work and turn it back onto themselves to reach that purpose?
It starts with owning your power and value and realizing that your skills and solutions are needed. We bring a unique lens. You don’t have to apologize or explain your pivots, and you also don’t need every certification in the books to be ready to take the next step. When I left my position in government to start my own thing, even the people closest to me thought I was going to fail because I had a Ph.D. but not an MBA, for example. Then there’s the guilt, especially when you’ve made an impact and are the only Latina. You’re told you have to be grateful, be an example, and be content. But at some point, owning your power means recognizing when things aren’t aligned anymore. High achievers value growth and curiosity. In many ways, we are changing societal norms, and that means there is no path in front of us, so we have to trust our intuition. Let gratitude come from having the strength to believe in yourself and your dreams.
Q. Your book- Creating Your Limitless Life- talks about many of these themes. How do you explain to people who haven’t read it what it is about and why they should get it?
The journey of this book is funny. I started off wanting to share the formula for finding your purpose because that’s what I help people do; that’s my superpower. I read a lot. I did a lot of research. I’ve been to close to 100 countries. I looked at the Japanese Ikigai model and many others to ask how people are thinking about purpose. And I concluded that those models had the fundamental questions- what do you love? What do you teach the world? But they didn’t have the “ugly side” of purpose which I think also needs to be included. Because if you’re a person who wants to serve the world, and gets excited about lots of things, you’re prone to overworking, you likely have a hard time saying no, and you are more likely to stay in something too long because you don’t want to let anyone down. There are a lot of things that are tied to purpose that can create vulnerabilities for you, and you don’t have to wait until you hit a crisis to address those. So, I was ready to share all of that, and the publisher came along and said Esther, you have to share your own story. In our culture, we don’t talk about our struggles and the things we endured, and I was reluctant, but I am glad they pushed me to do it because I needed that growth. And so many people now that have read my story have thanked me becuase they no longer feel alone. It’s a story that people relate to as high achievers, as Latinas, as immigrants, as overthinkers, as dreamers. And I’ve tried to show them all not just the greatness inside us but also how to bring it out to the world and live a life where what you do aligns with who you are.
Q. How do you balance all of this with the realities of being a mom in this society?
It’s so hard. At times, women’s empowerment is almost a definition of women’s burnout. Because society basically tells us we can take all the adjectives of the man. We can be the founder, the CEO, etc. but they didn’t add the woman’s adjectives to the man. So, we’re supposed to be supermoms, super bosses and super everything. It’s a lot. Luckily, I have a spouse who does a lot of the caretaking and the cooking, and we’ve redefined what that means for our household to make it work. Now, I’m at a stage in my life where I have started to see the same patterns in my daughter as I’ve seen in myself, and I’ve had to pause and be cautious. She wants to achieve and be the best student, get A’s and have a 4.0. I’ve had to ask myself, “What did I need as a child?” The answer is I needed space for creativity, I needed validation outside my academics, I needed balance, and I probably needed to go to therapy younger than when I did in college. Part of what we have to do as parents now is break those cycles and help our children so their worth is not tied to achievement or adjectives.
Q. Who else should we feature on Informada?
Your community would love Ashley Stojanov Ojeda. She’s the author of Jefa in Training, which is a step-by-step guide, in Spanglish, to guide Latinas wanting to create successful business.