What If More Preparation Won’t Help?

Welcome to Wednesday. Safe moves are officially off the table.

There comes a point when more preparation stops preparing you.

One more round of research.

One more revision.

One more conversation.

One more credential.

One more week to think about it.

One more tweak before you put it out there.

It all sounds perfectly responsible.

But here's the question:

Will any of it give you the answer you're actually waiting for?

Because sometimes you're trying to answer a question in private that only the world can answer for you.

Recently, I wrote on LinkedIn about the ways women can play small while convincing ourselves we're simply being professional.

Someone left this comment:

That last part stayed with me.

Trust the market to tell you the rest.

Because there are questions preparation can answer.

Is this work good enough to carry my name?

Have I done the work I know needs to be done?

Is this ready for someone else to experience?

Have I thought through the consequences of this decision?

And then there are questions you simply cannot answer alone.

Will people buy it?

Will this idea resonate?

Will they recommend it?

Will that person say yes?

Will this positioning work?

Will the opportunity lead somewhere?

Those answers require contact with the world.

At some point, preparation stops giving you new information.

Movement gives you the next information.

Think about something you've been preparing to do.

Launch it.

Pitch it.

Apply for it.

Raise your price.

Publish it.

Make the ask.

Reach out to the person.

Put your name forward.

Now ask yourself:

Get specific.

Then ask:

If the answer is yes, keep preparing.

Get the information.

Do the work.

Fix the thing that genuinely isn't ready.

But if the answer requires another person, a customer, an audience, a decision-maker, or the market to respond?

You're not waiting for more preparation. You're waiting for feedback you can only get by moving.

So move.

Send it.

Ask.

Publish.

Offer.

Apply.

Launch.

Let reality give you the next piece of information.

I got to practice this myself yesterday.

The audiobook of The Brazen Code is officially out in the world.

It wasn't the launch I originally planned.

The ebook and paperback aren't ready yet. They'll come later.

Last week, I told you why I decided not to let one delayed piece become a stop sign for everything else.

Yesterday, I moved what was ready.

And now something can happen that couldn't happen while the book was still sitting with me.

Women can respond to it.

They can tell me which ideas stay with them.

They can tell me what challenges them.

They can tell me what they disagree with.

They can put something into practice.

They can tell another woman about it.

There are things I can learn now that no additional week of privately working on this book could teach me.

The work needed to leave my hands for that learning to begin.

And that's the part of over-preparation we don't talk about enough.

Hesitation doesn't just delay the outcome. It can delay the information you need to make your next move better.

If you've been reading the Power Letter since the beginning, you've heard me talk about the Hesitation Tax before.

It's the price women pay when we know enough to move but hesitate anyway.

Lost time.

Lost money.

Lost visibility.

Lost opportunities.

But hesitation isn't always obvious.

Sometimes it looks remarkably responsible.

Preparation.

Due diligence.

Professionalism.

Research.

Polishing.

Perfecting.

Every one of those things can be valuable.

Every one of them can also become a very convincing reason not to move.

The question isn't whether preparation is good or bad.

The question is:

Is this preparation helping me make a better decision, or helping me avoid making one?

That's a harder question.

And it's one worth learning to answer.

Because being Brazen isn't about rushing unfinished work into the world.

It isn't about lowering the quality of what you do.

And it isn't about acting recklessly just so you can say you acted.

It's about knowing when preparation is still serving you and recognizing the moment when action becomes the next source of information.

That's when you move.

Brazen Law reinforced: Don't wait for preparation to answer a question only action can answer.

What are you trying to figure out before you act that you can only learn by acting?That's today's move.

Prepare for what preparation can solve.

Then stop asking it to do a job it can't do.

Move. Get the information. Make the next move better.

Women like us don't wait to know everything. We move when we know enough.

—Martise
Founder, BrazenEra
Author of The Brazen Code

P.S. - Yesterday was a big day.

The audiobook of The Brazen Code officially launched.

And there is something wonderfully appropriate about the fact that the first version of this book to enter the world is one you can hear.

Because I don't want the Code to sit quietly on a shelf.

I want women talking about it.

Challenging it.

Sharing it.

Practicing it.

And deciding what it looks like when more of us Put Ourselves First, Be Brazen, and Huddle Our Teammates.

The ebook and paperback will follow when they're ready.

But you don't have to wait for them.

You can listen to The Brazen Code now.

[Listen to The Brazen Code audiobook →]

One more thing:

Think about a woman you know who has been preparing for something for a very long time.

Instead of telling her:

“Just do it.”

Ask her a better question:

“What are you still waiting to learn?”

And if the answer is something she can only discover by putting herself, her work, her idea, or her ask into the world, remind her:

You might already know enough to make the next move.

Then help her make it.

Women like us don't just encourage each other to move. We help each other recognize when it's time.