Let me share a brutally honest example of this exact problem from my own leadership journey. Despite having spreadsheets, guest interviews, and an entire robust system planned for my podcast launch, I made what seemed like the logically sound decision to always feature guests or co-hosts. But I was ignoring what I knew about the people that engage with me professionally. They like to hear content delivered by me. Six months into recording, three guest interviews rescheduled in the same week, putting my launch deadline at risk. The kicker? After years of working with top performers, I admitted to my team, "I knew that this would happen, but I talked myself out of trusting that instinct." This is the hidden cost of overriding your authentic judgment for logical analysis—you're actually teaching yourself not to trust the very instincts that got you this far.

A fellow veteran once said to me: "You're such an accomplished woman." My actual response out loud, "Am I?" I wasn't being falsely modest. I genuinely didn't know. Because I don't think much about my credentials: B.A. in 2005—that was a long time ago M.A. in 2022—took forever to finish Military service—yet I never deployed to combat Building this business—we're still small Let me pause on that last one. Do you know the actual SBA definition of a "small business"? Depending on your industry, you can have 500 employees or make millions in revenue and still be classified as small. But I was using "small" like it meant "not enough yet." Like it carried shame. Being shameful and being humble are not the same thing. Humility recognizes gifts received. Shame dismisses value earned.