Figuring Sh!t Out
Figuring Sh!t Out

Figuring Sh!t Out

Vanessa Fontana

Overview
Episodes

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Welcome to Figuring Sh!t Out - a safe space for deep healing & brave living.

This show is a living archive of becoming who you were always meant to be.

It’s an ode to awakening, remembering, and reclaiming your power in the duality of a chaotic, ever-shifting world. 

Combining stories of raw-lived experience alongside actionable guides and frameworks, host Vanessa Fontana - a 25-year-old writer, creative, founder, and corporate drop-out living in New York City - explores what it means to find stillness in the skyscrapers, healing in the hustle, and clarity in the chaos.

Bridging esoteric wisdom, philosophy, spirituality, healing, empowerment, and humor, this podcast is your companion to navigate the complexities of young adulthood and live more authentically.

So, what is Figuring Sh!t Out?

A normalization of what isn’t figured out. An embrace of what is. A deep peace within both. And the courage to keep moving anyway.

SEASON 4, BEING & BECOMING, LAUNCHES 9.28.2025

This season is about courage: the kind that moves you forward before certainty arrives, and the kind that turns the unknown into a place of possibility. 

Stay Connected:

IG: @byvanessafontana

TikTok: butterflyfountain

Youtube:@figuringshitout

Inquiries: [email protected]

FIGURINGSHTOUT.COM

Recent Episodes

110. Your Gift Was Never Meant to Look Like Theirs
DEC 7, 2025
110. Your Gift Was Never Meant to Look Like Theirs

This episode is about remembering that your purpose was never meant to look like anyone else’s - and releasing the comparison that’s been convincing you you’re behind.

I believe that we all have a gift. I believe that we all have a purpose. I believe that it is buried within the places we don’t want to look. It is entangled in the masterpieces of destruction, it is the diamond in the roughest moments of life, it is forged in the fire of standing tall as you face yourself - no longer running away. 

But in this age of endless self-help prescriptions from talking heads on the internet, 25 year old millionaires who tell you you're doing something wrong because you haven't figured out how to make 100k overnight while gallivanting at the beach, how can you not feel like you're behind? Like you’ve missed something?

Comparison does not just steal joy from you - it steals your knowing, your presence, your direction, and the thread of your purpose from you.

These are illusions that are meant to distort our inner compass and seep us into comparison. To keep you running towards something that isn’t your own.

No one else has lived the life you’ve lived through your precious eyes. 

And for that reason, the unique purpose that you have - the gifts that you have - are buried within the threads you have been weaving your whole life, not in the framework of someone else’s. 

This episode is for anyone who feels like they're behind, who feels a little confused, who feels like they don't quite know their purpose but have been trying to find it, who feels like they have one but don't know where to start in pursuing it, who wants to pursue creativity in some form but feels limited, who wants make their creativity their living but has no clue where to start -

I see you.

But here's the truth:

Knowing your purpose is only half of the equation.

Staying true to yourself in it is the other half. 

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Rate the podcast on your preferred streaming platform!!

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READ THE SUBSTACK PIECE HERE

COSTA RICA spots are still open till 12/22!! DM me over IG if you wanna chat about it <3

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MERCH

IG: @byvanessafontana - follow along to see the voyage this week!

TIKTOK: @butterflyfountain 








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33 MIN
109. I Quit my 9-5 One Year Ago to Pursue a "Creative Life." Here's the Truth.
NOV 30, 2025
109. I Quit my 9-5 One Year Ago to Pursue a "Creative Life." Here's the Truth.

Saying yes to yourself is an unraveling process of becoming closer and closer to the gift of uncertainty and confronting the fear that holds you hostage in order to receive it.

In this episode, I share reflections of my journey in the last year saying the biggest, boldest yes I ever have: leaving my 9-5 last year to pursue a creative life.

This episode was recorded from an adobe home in Santa Fe, New Mexico gifted by Two Casitas (explore their homes here!!). I found myself here to meet Julia Cameron, author of the Artist's Way at a coffee-shop event she was holding for her latest book. I flew here to say yes to a little call in my heart, to explore what was within it, and to ask Julia to be a guest on this podcast. (stay tuned to see what happens next!!)

This episode covers the many lessons I've learned while taking the Road Less Traveled - including a deeply honest admittance of the challenges that come with choosing less stability for more internal certainty while living in the flux of a place like New York City.

In this episode - I explore what it means to actually say yes to yourself, what it takes to live a creative life, and a few things I wish I would have known before taking the leap.

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Comment what you want to hear next <3

Rate the podcast on your preferred streaming platform!!

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Read the Substack Piece

COSTA RICA spots are still open!! DM me over IG if you wanna chat about it <3)

MAILING LIST (10% off Merch + a Free Energy Protection Meditation <3)

IG: @byvanessafontana - follow along to see the voyage this week!

TIKTOK: @butterflyfountain 

MERCH

WRITE TO ME FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON AN UPCOMING EPISODE 



Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/figuring-sht-out/donations

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38 MIN
108. The Good Idea Fairy, Synchronicity, & Following the Breadcrumbs
NOV 23, 2025
108. The Good Idea Fairy, Synchronicity, & Following the Breadcrumbs

you can’t create a life you love while starving the part of you that was born to create it.

chapter three of The Perfectionist Diaries is an ode to the Good Idea Fairy - this childlike, intuitive, enchanted part of you that I created to represent the little voice that drops breadcrumbs, whispers nudges, and hands you ideas that could change your entire life (if you'd just listen!!)

this episode is about repairing that relationship:

letting your creativity breathe again,

acting without needing certainty,

learning the sacred art of detachment.

and a core Figuring Sh!t Out theme:

following the spark even when it makes no sense on paper.

and at the end of the episode - big news about how I'm doing just this!! (AGAIN?? ...yes.)

bringing this series full circle and closing the loop on fear, flow, and creative devotion.

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DM me over IG if you wanna chat about it <3)

GOOD IDEA FAIRY & CREATIVITY HEALING MEDITATION: Here.

Perfectionist Diaries Episodes:

Chapter 1: Do it Scared

Chapter 2: Make it Exist, then Make it Good

MAILING LIST (10% off Merch + a Free Energy Protection Meditation <3)

IG: @byvanessafontana

TIKTOK: @butterflyfountain 

MERCH

WRITE TO ME FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON AN UPCOMING EPISODE 

My Substack <3



Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/figuring-sht-out/donations

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32 MIN
107. Fire, Flow, & Imperfect Creation: Make it Exist, THEN Make it Good. (The Perfectionist Diaries, Chapter Two)
NOV 16, 2025
107. Fire, Flow, & Imperfect Creation: Make it Exist, THEN Make it Good. (The Perfectionist Diaries, Chapter Two)

Creation requires both the fire and the flow.

In Chapter Two of The Perfectionist Diaries, we explore the cosmic dance between masculine and feminine energy: the part of you that initiates, and the part of you that softens and refines.

This episode is a gentle excavation of the shadows beneath perfectionism: the fear of being perceived, the fear of shining too brightly, the ways we reject our own wholeness.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to start before you feel ready, hold yourself through imperfection, and create from your deepest truth.

In it, we explore:

  • The philosophy of “make it exist, then make it good” - separating creation (masculine/action) from refinement (feminine/receptivity).
  • Why perfectionism exists: subconscious rejection wounds, fear of being seen, fear of success, fear of being misunderstood.
  • Spiritual bypassing and how it keeps creators from healing the origins of their perfectionism.
  • The necessity of shadow-work & some tools for creative recovery for anyone who wants to create authentically.
  • The balance of masculine + feminine energy in the creative process.
  • Survival vs. Creation: How survival mode kills creativity, and why you must bring play, fun, and joy back into the process.
  • A framework for taking action from a place of wholeness

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IF YOU <3 FSO, RATE THE PODCAST, LEAVE A COMMENT & SAY HI, AND STAY CONNECTED!

COSTA RICA 2026!!!

COMMUNITY / ROAD LESS TRAVELED INVITE: DM Me "Invite" On IG (@byvanessafontana)

MAILING LIST (10% off Merch + a Free Energy Protection Meditation <3)

IG: @byvanessafontana

TIKTOK: @butterflyfountain 

MERCH

WRITE TO ME FOR A CHANCE TO BE FEATURED ON AN UPCOMING EPISODE 

My Substack <3



Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/figuring-sht-out/donations

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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40 MIN