Be the Bumble Bee

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"Let me prove you wrong."
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How many times have we thought that? And then how many of us have used that as THE fuel that drives us forward.
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For me, my earliest memory of a "watch me" moment was when I stood up to our mentally abusive stepfather.
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He used to use his anger—yelling, name calling and aggression—to drive fear through everyone in the family. From an early age, I remember him being triggered about the smallest things and then calling my mother the most terrible names while occasionally punching holes through the drywall. He would yell for all to hear—his way of gaining control. We lived in co-op housing so walls were thin and the neighbours politely pretended not to hear, even as he would leave the house while uttering these terrible things and pacing outside.
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One early summer evening, when I was about 12 and playing outside with some friends, I heard the yelling start. The fear quickly became secondary to the embarrassment as I heard him leave the house getting louder. My face burning with shame.
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I remember him saying that she was nothing.
I remember him saying that we were a burden.
I remember him saying that we ruined his life.
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As I saw him come around the corner to where I was playing, something in me erupted.
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It was my earliest version of "I'm proving you wrong" physically manifesting.

I started screaming back.

There was no planning it. The words just came out of my mouth. I yelled the truth as I saw it.
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That he was a bully.
That we didn't need him.
That he needed to shut up and leave.
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The world felt like it had stopped spinning. There was no noise. Just this loud undeniable pause.
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And in that moment everything shifted for me.
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​I knew.​
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My resilience. A refusal to surrender. The beginning of "let me prove you wrong" was born.
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It's my super power but, like any strength, it's also my biggest weakness. Now, 30 years later and some therapy, I understand how to use it in ways that work for me instead of keeping me in survival mode.
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Knowing the difference is the game changer.
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59:58:21

Let's talk about not giving up and Jasmin Paris.
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I just finished watching The Finisher about Jasmin Paris—Jasmin was the first women to finish one of the worlds most infamous ultra endurance races—the Barkley. A 100 miles (although some argue it's actually more like 120 miles) in 60 hours through altitudes that are equivalent to climbing Mount Everest—twice—from sea level.
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It's not for the faint of heart. Only 40 runners are accepted. And, just this year, in 2025, no one was able to finish the race in time.
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Jasmin is not a sponsored athlete. Trains on her own. Has no special gear. She's a mother of two young kids. A wife.

She's also a woman who said, "Let me prove you wrong."

After smashing the record (men's & women's) by 12 hours for the 431.3 km Spine Race, Jasmin felt called after she heard that no woman had ever finished the Barkley course.
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The race organizer, Gary 'Lazarus Lake' Cantrell, talks about how, "Mathematically, you cannot support the possibility of what [Jasmin] did," based on her lap times. After 4x20-mile laps that each takes roughly 12 hours, she had to finish her final lap with a quicker pace than her first lap.

If you have ever run an endurance running event, that's very difficult to do, if not impossible, because your body is so depleted that your best at that point is almost always slower than your first lap.
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It's a fantastic documentary and it's a lesson in trusting yourself and finding your refusal to surrender.
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She finished it in 59 hours, 58 minutes and 21 seconds—just under the 60 hour cut-off.
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When asked how she did it, Jasmin says it came down to one thing:

It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes by Mary Kay Ash:

"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."
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Women are bumble bees.
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They tell us we can't but we continue to prove that we can.
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Things I Love (and learned about)

Stories of female brand acquisitions and exits don’t get nearly enough spotlight. This year, I’m making it a priority to change that—sharing more of these stories and the impact behind them.

A recent one that's super inspiring is Allison Ellsworth's selling Poppi to Pepsi for almost $2B 👏
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But I'm curious—are you interested in hearing more of these stories?

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In solidarity 🖤

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makeher is a labour of love because I believe that women deserve to feel good, build wealth and wellness, and create a life that inspires them. We do this by sharing our stories and challenging the status quo. I'm here for that.

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What to expect? I'm the co-founder and CEO of joni, board member at FemTech Canada and mother of two teenage daughters. I send out just one email on the first day of each month about things I've learned, loved and tried through the lens of a 45 year old perimenopausal woman in a world built for men by men. Read prior months here.

If you don't feel this newsletter is for you, that's ok. Just know that I'll miss you.
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