You Voted. Now What?

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

Yesterday was Election Day.

You voted.

Maybe you woke up this morning feeling hopeful.

Maybe frustrated.

Maybe concerned about what comes next.

Maybe you're still waiting to see how things turn out.

But regardless of the results, I have a question:

What are you going to do with your power between now and the next election?

Because your vote matters.

And so does what happens to your money.

Your opportunities.

Your ownership.

Your influence.

Your autonomy.

And your ability to make decisions about your own future.

Voting is one way we exercise power. It cannot be the only way.

I wrote The Brazen Code because I was angry.

And concerned about what the future could hold for women's rights, opportunities, and freedom.

Because something wasn't adding up.

Women did not become this capable, accomplished, and economically powerful just to become more compliant.

Yet we're still being handed the same outdated instructions.

Wait your turn.

Be likable.

Ask nicely.

Prove yourself again.

Don't make anyone uncomfortable.

Trust the system.

And while we follow those instructions, we're supposed to believe that if we just keep working hard enough, recognition, opportunity, and influence will eventually follow.

Maybe.

But that's not a strategy I'm willing to bet women's futures on.

I've started calling this moment the B.S. Era.

A time when many women are questioning whether the progress we expected to keep expanding is as secure as we believed.

The term is new. The patterns behind it aren't.

In The Brazen Code, I examine those patterns and offer a different playbook for responding to them.

Because here's what I know:

The B.S. Era may be the environment. It does not have to be the era we live by.

We have more power to exercise than we sometimes recognize.

And we don't have to wait for an election, an appointment, a promotion, or someone's approval to begin using it.

This week, I challenge you to make one move that increases your power without waiting for someone else to hand it to you.

Start with this question:

Maybe it's your money.

You're earning it, but you haven't taken the next step toward building financial independence.

Maybe it's your career.

You're waiting for someone to recognize that you're ready for the role, the raise, or the opportunity.

Maybe it's your business.

You're hoping the right person discovers what you're building instead of making the introduction, pitch, or offer yourself.

Maybe it's your influence.

You have ideas, expertise, and relationships that could move something forward, but you haven't put them to work.

Now ask:

What's one decision I can make or action I can take that gives me more control?

Not someday.

This week.

Negotiate the terms.

Put your name forward.

Make the BIG Ask.

Learn what you own.

Take a step toward building income you control.

Introduce two women who could create an opportunity together.

Don't wait for the entire environment to change before you change how you operate within it.

Think about the difference between waiting to be chosen and creating another option.

A woman wants a leadership role.

She can keep working hard and hope someone notices.

Or she can make her interest known, find out who makes the decision, build relationships with people who can advocate for her, and pursue opportunities beyond her current organization.

She may not control who selects her.

But she can increase the number of people and opportunities that can consider her.

A founder needs capital.

She can wait for an investor to discover her business.

Or she can strengthen her financial knowledge, build relationships with women who have capital or access to it, and pursue funding conversations strategically.

She may not control the outcome.

But she can stop leaving the entire process to chance.

That's the distinction.

Exercising power doesn't mean controlling every result.

It means identifying what you can influence, what you can build, and which decisions no longer need to remain in someone else's hands.

You don't have to control the whole system to make a move that changes your position within it.

Here's where this becomes bigger than any one woman.

Voting matters because the laws, policies, and public institutions that shape our lives matter.

We need to remain engaged in those decisions.

But women's economic power is also built in workplaces, businesses, investments, contracts, boardrooms, relationships, and everyday decisions about who gets access to opportunity.

That's why The Brazen Code is built around three pillars.

Put Yourself First.

Make decisions that strengthen your economic position, autonomy, and future options.

Be Brazen.

Act strategically on what you know without automatically waiting for permission, perfect certainty, or someone else's approval.

Huddle Your Teammates.

Move information, opportunity, customers, capital, access, and influence toward other women.

Because individual agency matters.

But agency multiplied through coordinated action can become something much bigger.

One woman negotiates for more.

Another shares what the position actually pays.

Another creates an opportunity for a woman-owned business.

Another introduces a founder to someone with capital.

Another uses her influence to bring more women into decisions that affect their economic futures.

That's how we begin building power that doesn't depend entirely on who happens to be holding office.

Not by pretending politics doesn't matter.

But by recognizing that our power has more than one arena.

And we have work to do in all of them.

Brazen Law reinforced: Don't wait for someone else to give you power you can already begin exercising.

If you stopped waiting for the system to change before making your next move, what would you do differently?

That's today's move.

Stay engaged.

Know what you control.

Build what you can own.

And use your influence to open doors for other women.

Women like us don't exercise our power once every election cycle. We build and use it every day.

—Martise
Founder, BrazenEra
Author of The Brazen Code

P.S. - There's a reason I opened The Brazen Code with these two sentences:

The B.S. you have endured is an interruptible pattern.

This book is that interruption.

I wrote it because I wanted women to have a power playbook designed around our economic agency, ownership, influence, and freedom.

Not another set of instructions for making ourselves more acceptable within the existing rules.

The audiobook is available now, and I'm excited to share that the ebook is now available through Amazon and everywhere ebooks are sold.

The paperback is still in production as I work through the remaining layout challenges. I'll share the release when it's ready.

In the meantime, the ideas are out in the world.

Listen to The Brazen Code on Spotify.

The B.S. was the pattern.

You are the interruption.

This week, I challenge you to have one conversation with another woman that goes beyond what happened on Election Day.

Ask:

"What kind of power do you want more of in your life right now?"

Money?

Ownership?

Freedom?

Influence?

More say in the decisions that affect her?

Then ask:

"Is there something we can do to help each other build it?"

Maybe that's sharing information.

Making an introduction.

Referring a customer.

Supporting her business.

Or identifying an opportunity you could pursue together.

Because Huddle Your Teammates isn't just a nice idea.

It's what happens when women stop treating power as something we each have to build alone.

The B.S. Era doesn't get to dictate how we operate.

Women like us don't just hope for a more powerful future. We organize, build, and act to create one.

United we rise. Stay brazen.