Letters From The In-Between

This letter is about what it means to be self made, how to use your influence for good and what happens when you think you've lost it all. Life has a way of showing you what matters.

This letter is also special because it spotlights two foundations doing incredible work: The Rise And Dream Foundation and Wellness For The People Foundation.

Your donation can be the reason someone's life takes a lucky turn.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.™

This letter is about the thing we try to outrun but will inevitably find out. And the only way we get to really listen is when we stop trying to fill our to-do list and be still. This letter tells you what you gain and what you lose when you choose to pause and feel.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.™

This letter is about trusting your vision before it makes sense in the material world, what betting on yourself feels like, and why your job is not to fix, save or absorb, but it's to observe and allow things to settle. Vanessa also gives a recap on Thrive & Lead at Avance Global and provides a preview into next year.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.™

This letter is about finding your people. The people who see you and aren't trying to dim your light. Post the Thrive & Lead energy, Vanessa describes what the energy felt like and what happens you are in alignment.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.™

In this letter Vanessa shares a moment in time that changed the trajectory of her career and it began with a $350 investment. This letter explores the feelings of taking a chance on yourself and the realities of how proximity to the right spaces gives you access you wouldn't have otherwise.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.™

This letter talks about the inherent power and economic force that are Latinas and why Vanessa and Patty are building Thrive and Lead.

Meet the women speaking at Thrive and Lead and join the movement to create a more equitable and profitable world for women.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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 of Build The Dream, Co-Founder of Thrive and Lead. Keynote speaker. And the voice for women who are done building lives that don't belong to them.

Build The Dream. Honor The Human.™

This letter was recorded raw, no edits, and to serve as a reminder that even in your season of transformation, you have something to offer. You are worthy of love and support. The reminder you needed to hear is here.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.™

This week's letter is about where the money is going, and who gets to hold it.

The largest wealth transfer in history is moving toward women, around thirty trillion dollars by 2030. I map what that actually means: the value we already create for the economy, the leverage that decides whether we keep the money or just carry it for someone else, and the AI adoption gap sitting between us and real ownership.

This one is about ownership: of your time, your money, your work, and the tools that compound all three.

Sources:

McKinsey/Bloomberg (wealth transfer) · McKinsey Power of Parity ($12–28T) · Inc./PitchBook (2025 unicorns) · HBS AI Institute / working paper 25-023 (adoption gap) · Google Cloud + MIT Tech Review + DCD (AI energy/water).

Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.

It's 8/8, the Lion's Gate, the most potent manifestation day on the calendar, and I'm interrupting your regularly scheduled life to remind you of something you already know and somehow forgot: you are so lucky, and you are so powerful.

In this one I get into what it actually took for you to be here, why contrast is how you finally fall in love with yourself, and what to put down today so ease can walk back in.

Read along, or better, listen and say the words with me. I am ready. I am ready. I am ready.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://buildthedream.co/letters

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.™

This week, 110 people unsubscribed from my letters. A few marked me as spam. A few called them inappropriate. I could have spiraled over it. Instead, I want to tell you the thing nobody says out loud about growth: every time you become more of who you actually are, you lose people. That is the tax. In this episode I get honest about why the ones who leave were never yours to keep, why a shrinking circle is what growth looks like from the inside, and how to stop letting other people's comfort keep you small.

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Join Letters From The In-Between: https://vsantos.co/#newsletter 

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.™