In this episode of 12-Minute Convos with Jesus Believers, Engel Jones connects with author, coach, and speaker Esther Barasa, joining the program from Nairobi, Kenya, the city in the sun. Esther shares a profound, eye-opening testimony about overcoming the hidden trap of living a scripted life. Growing up under a very organized father, Esther spent years following expectations that were not her own, including becoming a teacher and later spending 15 years working in corporate banking.
Although she achieved external success, Esther felt a deep, persistent unsettling in her spirit. Seeking God's guidance and working with a mentor, she discovered that her true passion lay in training, coaching, and empowering others. That revelation led her to found Design Your Life Academy, a platform dedicated to helping women stop living other people's scripts and step boldly into the unique purpose God designed for them. A mother of five children (four boys and one girl), Esther also shares the joyful and unexpected story of how God expanded her family over the years. If you have ever felt trapped by societal expectations, stuck in a career that does not fit your soul, or ready to discover God's authentic blueprint for your life, Esther's story will deeply inspire and empower you!
Guest's Bio
Esther Barasa is a Kenyan Leadership, Learning and Organizational Capability Consultant, executive facilitator, transformational coach, author and Founder of Design Your Life Academy (DYLA).
With over two decades of experience spanning banking, leadership development, organizational learning, consulting and coaching, Esther works with leaders, professionals and organizations to strengthen leadership capability, develop people, improve customer experience and build high-performing workplace cultures. Her corporate journey includes more than a decade with Standard Chartered Bank, where leading and developing people deepened her conviction that sustainable transformation begins from within.
Through Design Your Life Academy, Esther helps people identify and break limiting beliefs, inherited patterns and invisible scripts that can keep them from living and leading with intention, confidence and purpose.
Esther is also a co-author of Bounce Back, a book centred on stories of resilience, recovery and the courage to rise after difficult seasons. Her contribution reflects a message that has become deeply personal to her: life's hardest seasons do not have to have the final word.
A committed follower of Jesus Christ, Esther's faith has been shaped not only through seasons of achievement, but also through profound personal loss, transition, betrayal and a life-threatening childbirth experience in which both she and her son survived. Her story is ultimately one of God's preservation, forgiveness, healing and the discovery that active faith sometimes means trusting God when everything familiar is falling apart.
She is passionate about helping people recognize what God has placed within them, find the courage to use their voice and live and lead with greater intention and purpose.
Her current song: God is still writing my story...
Connect with Esther:
- Website: www.designyourlifeacademy.co.ke
- LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/esther-barasa-70718230
- Design Your Life Academy: www.designyourlifeacademy.co.ke
- Bounce Back: https://www.amazon.ca/Bounce-Back-Lessons-Resilience-Tenacity/dp/9914935613