In this episode of The Essence of You Podcast, host Steph Lokelani sits down with her friend Celia Espinoza, a finance officer at Idaho Housing and Finance Association, for a heartfelt conversation about culture, identity, and the winding paths that lead us home to ourselves.

Steph and Celia first connected through the Boise Metro Chamber's b|Wise mentorship program, and their friendship has only deepened since. Together they explore what it means to feel disconnected from your heritage while living far from your roots, and how food, music, family rituals, and even a spontaneous trip to Mexico City or Hawaii can reconnect you to where you come from.

Celia opens up about a life-changing trip to Standing Rock in 2016, a period of homelessness that followed, and the full-circle career journey that eventually led her into affordable housing finance. She also shares how a mentor believed in her before she believed in herself, and how she now pays that forward through community outreach with organizations like Breaking Chains in Nampa.

Steph shares her own journey reclaiming her Hawaiian middle name, Lokelani, and the family recipes and traditions that keep her culture alive here in Boise.

This is a conversation about mentorship, motherhood, cultural pride, and finding your way back to what really matters.

About Celia Espinoza: Celia works in affordable housing finance and development across Idaho, but her story is rooted in much more than her career. A grandmother, a first-generation Mexican American, a lifelong learner, and someone deeply connected to culture, spirituality, and community, she draws from her own experiences navigating hardship and finding her voice. Her journey has shaped a passion for creating opportunity, encouraging others to see themselves in spaces they may have never imagined, and honoring the stories that make us who we are.

Key Takeaways: - Community and mentorship (like the b|Wise program) can turn strangers into lifelong friends and support systems. - Feeling disconnected from your culture is common when you're raised far from your community, but small rituals can help you reclaim it. - A single trip to your ancestral homeland can be profoundly grounding, even if you can't trace your exact family history. - Sometimes the people who believe in you before you believe in yourself change the entire trajectory of your career. - Giving back looks different for everyone: from mentoring interns to giving at-risk youth a tour of your workplace. - Culture is often kept alive through the smallest things: Saturday morning music, a family recipe, or a name you almost stopped using.

Chapters: 00:00 - Cold open 00:20 - Welcome to The Essence of You 00:36 - How Steph and Celia met through b|Wise 03:38 - Networking without the small talk 07:24 - A healing retreat with an herbalist 11:13 - Feeling disconnected from your culture 15:46 - Capturing grandma's stories before they're gone 18:49 - Discovering Giraffe Laugh 26:18 - Lomi lomi salmon & Hawaiian food traditions 28:10 - Keeping culture alive on Saturday mornings 29:38 - Four names & reclaiming a Hawaiian identity 34:16 - The calling to Standing Rock 42:54 - Homelessness to a full-circle career 46:16 - The mentor who believed in her first 51:35 - Giving back through Breaking Chains 57:29 - Hobbies, flow & making time for creativity 1:00:25 - Who are you at your core?