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Who are you when you separate your identity from the expectations placed on you?

In this episode of Inherited: The Podcast, we sit down with Denise Joseph, Owner of Called Into Confidence, Public Health Analyst, and Whole Brain Thinking practitioner, for a powerful conversation about identity, confidence, culture, faith, purpose, and understanding how we think.

Originally from Trinidad, Denise knows what it feels like to live between worlds—navigating cultural expectations, professional responsibilities, and the quiet pull toward a deeper purpose.

Her work combines lived experience, public health, Whole Brain Thinking and HBDI®, and a faith-centered approach to helping purpose-driven people move from confusion to clarity and step confidently into their calling.

In “Finding Your Identity Without Losing Yourself,” we explore how the expectations we inherit can quietly influence the decisions we make about our careers, relationships, leadership, and even who we believe we're allowed to become.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Cultural identity and navigating life between different worlds • The expectations families and communities can place on us • How inherited definitions of success can shape our choices • Understanding your individual thinking preferences • Whole Brain Thinking and HBDI® • Confidence versus certainty • Why self-awareness can change how we communicate and make decisions • Code-switching and navigating professional environments • The experiences of Black and Latina professionals • Faith, identity, purpose, and discovering your calling • How to recognize when you're carrying someone else's expectations or fears • Breaking generational patterns without rejecting where you came from • Finding clarity when you constantly second-guess yourself • Building confidence without losing the parts of yourself that matter

Denise challenges us to consider that sometimes what we inherit isn't only trauma.

We inherit expectations.

We inherit ideas about success.

We inherit fears.

We inherit cultural messages about what is acceptable.

And sometimes we inherit a version of ourselves that was shaped around what everyone else needed us to be.

Understanding where those messages came from gives us an opportunity to decide which ones still belong in our lives.

Because finding yourself doesn't have to mean rejecting your family, faith, culture, or community.

Sometimes it means understanding everything that shaped you—and finally giving yourself permission to choose what comes next.

About Denise Joseph

Denise Joseph is a Public Health Analyst, Whole Brain Thinking practitioner, and Owner of Called Into Confidence. She helps purpose-driven individuals better understand how they think, recognize their strengths, communicate with confidence, and move toward greater clarity in their personal and professional lives.

🌐 Connect with Denise: calledintoconfidence.com

About Inherited

Inherited: The Podcast explores the stories, beliefs, trauma, resilience, culture, and emotional patterns passed from one generation to the next—and asks what we will intentionally choose to heal, redefine, and carry forward.

🎙️ Real Stories. Deep Roots. Generational Healing.

🌐 inheritedpodcast.online

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, and share this episode with someone who may be trying to discover who they are beneath everything they've been told they should be.

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

What if one of the greatest gifts you could give your family was a conversation most of us are afraid to have?

In this episode of Inherited, hosts Jessica Sanchez and Dr. Valencia Henry sit down with Yvonne Caputo, author of Dying with Dad and founder of Steadfast Pen LLC, for an intimate conversation about death, dying, advance care planning, family communication, and the peace that can come from knowing—and honoring—a loved one’s wishes.

After spending 17 years working in a retirement community, Yvonne witnessed what could happen when families were forced to make difficult end-of-life decisions without knowing what their loved one truly wanted. Determined to create a different experience for her own family, she began a conversation with her father that would ultimately become one of the most meaningful experiences of their relationship.

Yvonne shares how discussing advance directives and later completing the Five Wishes helped her understand not only the medical care her father wanted, but also how he wanted to be comforted, treated, and remembered.

When the time came to honor those wishes, Yvonne didn’t have to guess.

She knew.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why families often avoid conversations about death and dying • What can happen when end-of-life wishes haven't been discussed • The importance of advance care planning • Yvonne’s experience with the Five Wishes approach • How to begin difficult conversations with parents and loved ones • The emotional burden families may face when they have to make decisions without guidance • How culture, faith, and family beliefs influence conversations about death • Grief, preparation, and finding peace after losing a parent • Why these conversations should happen before a medical crisis • What Yvonne learned through her journey with her father

Yvonne also shares the powerful experience that inspired her book, Dying with Dad, and why honoring her father’s wishes left her with what she describes as a profound sense of sacred joy.

This conversation reminds us that preparing for death isn't about giving up on life.

It's about loving people enough to make our wishes known.

About Our Guest

Yvonne Caputo is an author, speaker, and founder of Steadfast Pen LLC. Her experiences working with older adults and later navigating her own father’s end-of-life journey inspired her passion for helping families become more comfortable talking about death and dying.

Connect with Yvonne:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/yvonne-caputo-1449137 Facebook: facebook.com/xcskiyvonne

📖 Look for her book: Dying with Dad

About Inherited

Inherited is hosted by Jessica Sanchez, Founder & CEO of Daughters of Both Suns, and Dr. Valencia Henry, Founder of VQS Access Health.

🌐 inheritedpodcast.online

If this episode makes you think about someone you love, don't just share it with them.

Use it to start the conversation.

Because the stories we inherit matter—but so do the wishes, values, and conversations we intentionally leave behind.

Hey! I'd love to hear your thoughts, send me a voice note.

What happens when a man is grieving—but feels like he has nowhere to put the pain?

In Episode 8 of Inherited, hosts Jessica Sanchez and Dr. Valencia Henry sit down with Alfred J. Robinson, author of A Black Man’s Divorce Memoir, for an honest conversation about divorce, fatherhood, grief, faith, masculinity, and the emotional experiences Black men are too often expected to carry in silence.

Alfred shares his lived experience navigating the end of a marriage, changes in daily access to his children, family court, and the process of rebuilding his life and faith after everything he knew changed.

Together, we explore what happens when grief goes unnamed—and why men need spaces where vulnerability is not treated as weakness.

In this episode, we discuss:

• The grief that can accompany divorce and separation • Losing everyday moments with your children as a father • Why some Black men struggle to openly express emotional pain • Cultural messages around masculinity, strength, and vulnerability • Navigating fatherhood after divorce • Faith after loss and major life transitions • The importance of mental health and healing spaces for men • Breaking generational patterns around emotional silence • Redefining strength for the next generation of Black boys and men

One of the most powerful questions raised in this conversation is simple:

Who takes care of the men who have been taught to take care of everyone else?

This episode isn't about blaming mothers, fathers, former partners, or families. It's about creating room for a conversation that is often missing: men experience grief too, and they deserve opportunities to process it, heal from it, and remain connected to their families and communities.

About Our Guest

Alfred J. Robinson is the author of A Black Man’s Divorce Memoir and Chief Creator Officer. Through his writing and advocacy, Alfred speaks about divorce, fatherhood, faith, family court, and the emotional realities men may struggle to put into words.

Learn more about Alfred and his work at BlackManDivorceMemoir.com.

About Inherited

Inherited is hosted by Jessica Sanchez, Founder & CEO of Daughters of Both Suns, and Dr. Valencia Henry, Founder of VQS Access Health.

🎙️ Episode 8: What Happens When Black Men Grieve in Silence?

🌐 inheritedpodcast.online

If this conversation resonates with you, subscribe to Inherited, share this episode, and start a conversation with a man in your life. Sometimes the most important question we can ask is simply: “How are you really doing?”