What Do You Stand For? I have news. 🎧

Letters From The In-Between: What Do You Stand For?

​Vanessa Santos

Authenticity as a form of protest. - @WeTheUrban

Listen to this letter on Spotify / Apple 🎧

What do you stand for?

Not what you do for work. Not the title on your LinkedIn. Not your Instagram bio. Not the role you play in everyone else's story.

What do YOU stand for?

If you can't answer that clearly, it's probably because you're still carrying things that aren't yours.

Expectations. Identities. Dreams you inherited instead of chose.

And, full hands can't receive.

Let that land for a minute.

That's Phase 3 of The Self-Reclamation Method™: The Shedding.

PHASE 3: THE SHEDDING - Release what's not yours to carry.

You've held it so long. The grief. The resentment. The anxiety. The comparisons. The weight of self-erasure. The version of success that looked right but didn't satisfy. And it's gotten heavy. The only option left is to put it down.

The Shedding is freedom. It's truly stepping into the fuck around and find out era.

You cannot carry the old and hold the new. At some point, you have to choose. Otherwise you will continue the pattern of allowing the baggage to create drama on the life you are choosing to create.

Journal on these: (writing them down, it let's your brain and heart take a break.)

What are you still gripping that's quietly crushing you? What would you put down, let go, if you trusted you'd be okay without it? What will you stop carrying that was never yours to begin with?

I spent twenty years making people and organizations WEALTHY. Scaling brands. Winning awards. Getting into rooms no one in my family had ever entered.

And I broke myself apart doing it. I was building from obligation, not desire. Squeezing myself into lanes. Being digestible so I could be the expected kind of visible. Just enough but not too much.

Let me state for the record, that today, I don't do lanes. And neither should you.

Bad Bunny reminded us last week: the belief in yourself is the richest currency. People will learn to adapt to you. Being memorable isn't about diluting yourself ti fit in. Being memorable is about creating your own lane. Being delulu enough to be on that lane alone because inevitably, what's unshakeable is undeniable.

So what lane am I creating? I have news. 📰

I joined the Board of Directors of Wellness For The People Foundation.

We're a BIPOC-led nonprofit redefining wellness through accessible, inclusive, community-rooted experiences. We're building a world where everyone — not just the privileged — has the tools to heal and thrive.

This is what I stand for. Equity. Access. Wellbeing for underestimated communities. Using what I've learned in boardrooms, brand deals, and life school to build something that actually matters.

If this resonates, donate here. Every dollar goes toward making wellness accessible to communities who've been left out. If you'd like to partner with us, reply and let's set up a virtual matcha date. 🍵

You can't stand for something until you shed what's been standing in your way.

The roles. The expectations. The old stories about who you're supposed to be. The stories others tell about you that don't reflect your truth.

The Shedding isn't about letting it all go to hell (although this is also the start of our villain era. 💅🏽), it's THE plot twist in your life story. It's about finally putting down what was never yours so you can pick up what is.

What will you stand for? Reply and let me know. (and it better start with yourself)

See you next week for Phase 4: The Becoming.

"What's unshakeable is undeniable." - This letter.

Vanessa

P.S. Tomorrow inside Glow Up, we're talking about your relationship with money, because you can't build what you stand for without resources. Join us: February 12th, 11am PST. Next Session, March 19th.

These letters are for women and allies who refuse to erase themselves on the way to success.

But if it is, welcome to the syndicate.