Letters From The In-Between

Vanessa Santos

Some women don't fall apart. They just quietly outgrow everything they built. This is a podcast for her, the one who did everything right and still felt the ache of something missing. The one who held it all together so long she forgot what it felt like to come apart honestly. The one who isn't lost. She's just in the middle of becoming something the world doesn't have a name for yet. Every episode is a letter. Written and read by Vanessa Santos, founder, builder, and the woman who chose herself at the height of everything. Welcome to the in-between. These letters are for you.

  1. 1d ago

    Letter #26: My Dad Called Me This Week. I cried.

    This letter is about the particular tenderness of being seen by someone who loves you and doesn't always understand you and realizing that both things can exist at the same time without canceling each other out. It's about what nobody prepares you for when you are the first in your family to do something different. Our parents survived so we could thrive. The least we can do with that inheritance is actually use it. Reflection at the end: what it means to stop waiting for understanding before you keep building and why the only approval that actually changes anything is your own. Vanessa's favorite tools for productivity, here. // Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Letters from the In-Between is the unfiltered record of what that looks like. The rebuilding, the becoming, the refusal to shrink back into a version of herself that no longer fits. It is for the woman who is accomplished by every external measure and still feels the quiet pull of something more. Something she can't quite name yet. Vanessa names it for her. Strategic business architect. Founder. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them. Keywords: first generation, immigrant family, women entrepreneurs, building in public, generational wealth, women of color in business, Latina founders, vibe coding, Build The Dream, F*ck Around and Find Out challenge, self-permission, identity, becoming, audacity, women's economy, entrepreneurship, personal development, sovereignty.

    10 min

  2. Jun 18

    Letter #25: What If You F*cked Around And Found Out?

    This letter is about audacity as a practice, not the absence of doubt, but the decision that your vision matters more than your hesitation. About the alignment people mistake for luck. About the women who watch from the sidelines and the grief that lives in that silence, the kind that has nothing to do with the women they're watching and everything to do with the gap between what they know they're capable of and what they've been allowing themselves to do. Vanessa talks about wanting "love you" money, not "f**k you" money. About stopping the habit of being the first person in the room to tell yourself your dreams are too expensive. About what happens when a woman finally stops treating her own potential like it belongs to someone more deserving. The economic participation gap between men and women is projected to take 135 years to close. None of us will be alive for that. But she intends to make it shorter — one woman at a time. Reflection at the end: the sign you've been waiting for is the one you give yourself. / Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Letters from the In-Between is the unfiltered record of what that looks like. The rebuilding, the becoming, the refusal to shrink back into a version of herself that no longer fits. It is for the woman who is accomplished by every external measure and still feels the quiet pull of something more. Something she can't quite name yet. Vanessa names it for her. Strategic business architect. Founder. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them. Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™ Keywords: women and wealth, female founders, audacity, alignment, women's economy, gender pay gap, building in public, self-permission, Latina entrepreneurs, women and money, starting over, entrepreneurship, personal development, identity, sovereignty.

    7 min

  3. Jun 13

    Letter #24: Unseasoned Chicken Is Running The World.

    There is a moment that comes for every woman who has been giving herself away for too long. It's the feeling of meeting her threshold of discomfort. Then she finally decides, I am no longer settling. In this letter, Vanessa names the one quality shared by the most powerful, most wealthy, most influential people in the world. It is not intelligence. It is not privilege. It is not luck. It is the decision to stop negotiating with themselves. This episode is about the shame you have been carrying that was never yours. The inheritance of shrinking. The cost of making yourself palatable. And what becomes possible the moment you put it down. Plus - What's Moving this week: why women are founding nearly half of all new businesses while receiving 1% of venture capital, what MIT's study of 2.7 million founders says about starting over at 45, and the Cambridge trading-floor research that proves your morning body check-in is a performance edge, not a wellness trend. / Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Letters from the In-Between is the unfiltered record of what that looks like. The rebuilding, the becoming, the refusal to shrink back into a version of herself that no longer fits. It is for the woman who is accomplished by every external measure and still feels the quiet pull of something more. Something she can't quite name yet. Vanessa names it for her. Strategic business architect. Founder. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them. Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™ Keywords: women's wealth gap, female founders, venture capital gender gap, starting over at 40, midlife reinvention, somatic intelligence, self-worth, women and money, letting go of shame, building a life on your own terms, women's economy, Latinas in business, personal development, entrepreneurship, identity, sovereignty.

    10 min

  4. Jun 6

    Letter #23: Even Rich People Wonder

    A former corporate peer pulls Vanessa aside at a reunion and admits something most successful people never say out loud — that even after everything they've built, they still wonder if they could be doing something else. In this letter, Vanessa traces what that conversation unlocked, why she made the decision to end Glow Up, and what it actually means to stop operating in contradiction with what you believe. Plus what's moving in the women's economy this week: why visibility is currency, what the psychology of investment actually does to how you show up, and what Jennifer Lopez's "happy era" has to do with the permission you keep waiting for someone else to give you. Reflection at the end. / Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Letters from the In-Between is the unfiltered record of what that looks like. The rebuilding, the becoming, the refusal to shrink back into a version of herself that no longer fits. It is for the woman who is accomplished by every external measure and still feels the quiet pull of something more. Something she can't quite name yet. Vanessa names it for her. Strategic business architect. Founder. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them. Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™

    9 min

  5. May 29

    Letter #22: The $528 Billion Opportunity

    What happens when a woman finally stops performing the version of herself that kept everyone else comfortable? In this letter, Vanessa makes herself the data point, tracing the moment she stopped playing roles that were never hers and what followed when she chose herself instead. Plus what's moving in the economy right now: the K-shaped split most people don't see coming, why women are building a $528 billion creator economy and not always capturing the revenue, and why in-person rooms are becoming the most valuable thing you can offer. (​this post​ only took 30-minutes to make) Reflection at the end, the part that's easier to say out loud than write. / Glow Up Hour​ is my free monthly gathering. Founders, leaders, creators in the same room - building the dream while honoring the human. Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Letters from the In-Between is the unfiltered record of what that looks like. The rebuilding, the becoming, the refusal to shrink back into a version of herself that no longer fits. It is for the woman who is accomplished by every external measure and still feels the quiet pull of something more. Something she can't quite name yet. Vanessa names it for her. Strategic business architect. Founder. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them. Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™

    10 min

  6. May 21

    Letter #21: This Summer You Become Lethal.

    This letter about recognizing that feeling ready is not a feeling at all but a choice. Letter #21 gives you 3 unlocks to make this the summer you become lethal. / Glow Up Hour​ is my free monthly gathering. Founders, leaders, creators in the same room - building the dream while honoring the human. Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Letters from the In-Between is the unfiltered record of what that looks like. The rebuilding, the becoming, the refusal to shrink back into a version of herself that no longer fits. It is for the woman who is accomplished by every external measure and still feels the quiet pull of something more. Something she can't quite name yet. Vanessa names it for her. Strategic business architect. Founder. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them. Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™

    8 min

  7. May 15

    Letter #20: You Are Not Behind. You Are Brewing.

    You are not behind. You are brewing. And those two things feel identical from the inside — but only one of them is true. In this letter, Vanessa talks about the specific feeling of being on the verge of something massive that you can sense but can't yet see, why the people around you right now either protect that or drain it, and what she found when she printed out everything in her notes app and read it out loud. Plus the bow and arrow framework she keeps coming back to, and why the tension is not the problem. The reflection at the end is about what it actually means to protect the thing that's forming before the world gets a chance to weigh in on it. / Letters From The In-Between Some women don't fall apart. They just quietly outgrow everything they built. This is a podcast for her — the one who did everything right and still felt the ache of something missing. The one who held it all together so long she forgot what it felt like to come apart honestly. The one who isn't lost. She's just in the middle of becoming something the world doesn't have a name for yet. Every episode is a letter. Written and read by Vanessa Santos — founder, builder, and the woman who chose herself at the height of everything. Welcome to the in-between. You were always supposed to find it. Glow Up Hour​ is my free monthly gathering. Founders, leaders, creators in the same room - building the dream while honoring the human. Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™

    9 min

  8. May 7

    Letter #19: The Universe Doesn't Care About Your Plans.

    Vanessa's birthday didn't go as planned. At 2am, Elvis seized. She canceled everything and held him all night. It was the most perfect birthday she's ever had. This letter is about what happens when you stop fighting the unpredictable and let the universe show you what actually matters. About control, surrender, and the clarity that arrives when you finally stop resisting. And it's the announcement she's been building toward for weeks. Vanessa is co-hosting Thrive and Lead at AVANCE Global — a three-day women's leadership experience at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, September 14-16, with Patty Arvielo, Co-Founder and CEO of New American Funding. The room within the room. Built for the woman who is done playing small. Reflection at the end: the thing you're trying to control is usually the thing that, if you let it move the way it needs to move, will show you exactly what you needed to see. / Glow Up Hour​ is my free monthly gathering. Founders, leaders, creators in the same room - building the dream while honoring the human. Join Letters From The In-Between: vanessasantos.kit.com Follow Vanessa: @vanessasantosleon About Vanessa Santos Leon: Vanessa invested 20+ years building empires. Then she chose the one thing she'd never fully claimed: herself. Letters from the In-Between is the unfiltered record of what that looks like. The rebuilding, the becoming, the refusal to shrink back into a version of herself that no longer fits. It is for the woman who is accomplished by every external measure and still feels the quiet pull of something more. Something she can't quite name yet. Vanessa names it for her. Strategic business architect. Founder. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them. Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™

    8 min
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Some women don't fall apart. They just quietly outgrow everything they built. This is a podcast for her, the one who did everything right and still felt the ache of something missing. The one who held it all together so long she forgot what it felt like to come apart honestly. The one who isn't lost. She's just in the middle of becoming something the world doesn't have a name for yet. Every episode is a letter. Written and read by Vanessa Santos, founder, builder, and the woman who chose herself at the height of everything. Welcome to the in-between. These letters are for you.

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