The Brazen Code: The Bold Idea That Will Change How Women Lead

I created the Brazen Code in the aftermath of the November 2024 elections. That night made something brutally clear. Progress for women in this country is not guaranteed. Rights can be rolled back. Power can be revoked. And if we keep playing by rules that were never designed for us, we will always be asked to settle for less.

The Brazen Code became my answer to that moment. My declaration that women do not need permission to lead, influence, earn, or decide. My blueprint for how ambitious women reclaim power in systems that still expect us to make ourselves small.

Months later, I came across a TEDx event with the theme Bold Provocative Ideas That Will Change The World. I only watched the videos and read the recap, but it was enough. It reminded me why this message matters and why I need to bring it forward with more intention and urgency. It pushed me to return to the book I started last year and recommit to publishing it before the November 2026 midterms.

This is not a season for quiet women. This is a season for brazen ones.

Why the Brazen Code Exists

We live in a culture that praises women for being bold in theory, then punishes us for being bold in practice.
We are celebrated for being collaborative, but questioned when we command.
We are encouraged to ask, but only if we ask nicely.
We are applauded for ambition, but only if our ambition does not threaten anyone else.

This contradiction runs through our workplaces, our politics, our communities, and even our technology. A recent study showed that AI often advises women to aim lower than men with the same qualifications. That is not a glitch. It reflects the data these systems learned from. The world has trained women to shrink, and technology absorbed the message.

The Brazen Code exists to override that training.

It is a framework designed to help women stop performing palatable roles and start leading from their full power. It is a system for multiplying a woman’s influence, money, and freedom. It is the first domino in what I call the Brazen Era.

Playing nice has never changed the world.
Playing brazen will.

The Three Pillars of the Brazen Code

1. Put Yourself First

Not selfishly. Strategically.
Every revolution in history began with someone who refused to wait for approval.
When a woman prioritizes her power, her profit, and her peace, she teaches the world how to treat her. She shows other women what is possible. She becomes the blueprint.

Putting yourself first is not indulgence. It is leadership.

2. Be Brazen

Boldness is a moment.
Brazenness is a method.

Be the woman who says the thing others swallow.
Ask for what others think you cannot have.
Move with speed while others are still asking for permission.

Safe choices do not create empowered women.
Safe choices create regret.

Brazen is resourceful.
Brazen is decisive.
Brazen is necessary.

3. Huddle Your Teammates

Power is not built alone.
Women rise faster when we rise together. Every ambitious woman needs a circle that amplifies her voice, her reach, and her opportunities.

A brazen woman does not collect followers. She builds allies.
She surrounds herself with people who match her energy and multiply her momentum.

This is how movements grow.
This is how the Brazen Era becomes real.

Why This Moment Demands Brazenness

We are living in a time when women’s rights are once again up for negotiation, yet women have more education, ambition, and earning power than ever before. We are standing at the edge of two contradictory realities.

In moments like this, hesitation is a luxury.
Clarity is power.
Ambition is necessary.
Brazenness becomes the difference between generations losing ground or gaining it.

The Brazen Code is not rebellion for the sake of rebellion.
It is reclamation.
It is a roadmap for women who refuse to let history repeat itself.
It is for the woman who knows she was not born to shrink herself into systems that were never built for her.

The Brazen Era Begins With You

Bold ideas inspire change.
Brazen ideas demand it.

If you are an ambitious woman reading this, consider this your call to step fully into the power you keep dimming. The world is not waiting for permission to decide who gets to lead next. Neither should you.

Do not just talk about empowerment. Practice it like a sport you expect to win.
Do not just ask for more. Take it.
Do not wait for the right time. Create it.

The Brazen Era will not be handed to us.
We will build it ourselves.

And it starts right here.

United we rise. Stay brazen.
—Martise