Welcome to Wednesday. Safe moves are officially off the table.
A woman recently set out to break the women's record for rowing solo from California to Hawaii.
Then she realized she was on pace to break the men's record too.
Not by a few hours.
By more than a week.
That wasn't the part of her story I couldn't stop thinking about.
It was something she said in one of her video journals.
"It's been hard for me to absorb that this is happening."
She talked about spending much of the row convincing herself she would slow down.
That something would happen.
That maybe she wasn't actually on pace to do what the numbers were showing.
Then she said something that stopped me:
"I know it's a pretty human thing to do, but it's also a very female thing to do. Discredit your abilities even when you're doing them."
That sentence stayed with me.
Not because she lacked evidence.
Because she was surrounded by it.
Why this matters right now
A lot of ambitious women assume hesitation only happens before success.
Before the launch.
Before the promotion.
Before the raise.
Before the big ask.
But hesitation has another form.
It shows up after the evidence.
After you've landed the client.
After you've exceeded the goal.
After you've delivered the results.
After you've started outperforming the benchmark you originally set.
Instead of updating our expectations, we explain the results away.
Maybe it was luck.
Maybe it won't last.
Maybe something will happen.
Maybe it's too early to claim it.
Meanwhile, the evidence keeps accumulating.
Today’s Move
Ask yourself:
What result have I been minimizing?
What achievement have I explained away?
Where has my performance outgrown my expectations?
If I trusted my own evidence, what bigger goal would I set next?
Your evidence is allowed to change your ambition.
Don't keep measuring yourself against a standard you've already outgrown.
Proof it works
Toward the end of her journey, Kelsey thanked the people who believed in her while she was still trying to absorb what she was accomplishing.
That stood out to me.
Because sometimes we don't need someone to convince us we're capable.
We need someone to remind us to believe the evidence.
This is one of the reasons I care so deeply about women building intentional ecosystems.
Sometimes your teammates can see your trajectory before you can.
Not because they're imagining your potential.
Because they're watching your results.
Brazen Boost
One of the most expensive forms of hesitation is continuing to negotiate against evidence that's already in your favor.
Brazen Law reinforced: Your evidence is allowed to update your ambition.
A question to sit with today:
Where have your results already earned permission for a bigger goal?
That's today's move. Let your evidence redefine what's possible.
—Martise
Founder, BrazenEra
Building Project Brazen 2026
P.S. - Inside the BrazenEra Business Club, we practice three collective acts of agency:
• Raise your price.
• Make a BIG ask.
• Build your Starting Five.
But one of the most valuable things we also do is hold a bigger vision for one another.
Sometimes another ambitious woman can see that you've already outgrown your old benchmark before you can.
That's the power of a huddle.
One more thing:
One of the pillars of the Brazen Code is:
Huddle Your Teammates.
If these Power Letters have helped you think bigger, take bolder action, or create more leverage, forward this email to a woman who's building something ambitious.
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Power compounds when women share it.