Who are you?

If you’re a human being (hi), you’re probably used to being asked things like, “what do you do?” or “where are you from?”

An answer trails off your lips like muscle memory.

A founder. A builder. A visionary. A maker. A shaker. 

You list off the ways that qualify you to hold this label: a background in finance, maybe tech. Your alma mater. Maybe an accelerator you went through. A recent evaluation. 

You spew the ways that you spend your time to provide further evidence: work 80 hours per week. Eat standing up and staring at a screen. Skip your best friend’s wedding. Stop cycling as much as you used to.  

But who are you?

It’s a question that we’re rarely asked, but simultaneously the answer that gets to the truest essence of who we, well, are. 

The one that allows us to be in conversation with both ourselves and the world.

A world where now a machine can build an MVP in a weekend, spew out a GTM strategy in seconds, or do your modeling better than you.

In an increasingly digitized world, who are you is one of the only questions that a machine can’t answer for us.

Being human is our last line of defense in an automated world.

Beyond defensible, what makes you *you* is your edge.

And when pieces of you start slipping through the cracks, you’re only in conversation with a fraction of your human…and therefore a fraction of the humans around you.

People are the foundation of every great product. 

Behind every idea offered, check signed, task completed, conversion made… is a human.

The resonance between your product, whatever that may be, and the market is in direct correlation to how you relate to yourself – and those around you.

When we listen to our own needs, we understand how to best direct our energy in the most meaningful ways.

When we open our ears to our audience’s true demands, we build for their genuine desires rather than selling to them from a place of assumption. 

When we bear witness to the humans we collaborate with, we see dots connected that we would have never been able to link ourselves.

Companies that stay in conversation with the human side tend to stay in the game longer and reap disproportionate outcomes. 

We unlock more time, money, ease, resonance. Not from a place of forcing ourselves into a template, but in shedding it all together because we found the courage to listen to our true selves.

The most sustainable foundation of all is our values, our talents, our passions, our stories, our experiences…the threads of our why.

They’re the glue that hold together what we do and serve as the foundation of who we are.

Being human is not a selfish weakness, it’s a sound business strategy.

To be HUMAN AF means a commitment to:

• Staying aligned with your authentic values (even if the status quo differs)

• Making reflection a regular practice (it’s what keeps you in alignment with the above)

• Honoring your energy (and that of others)

• Slowing down to speed up (because intentionally is intelligent)

• Creating businesses and infrastructure that actually nourish you (not deplete you)

• Showing not selling (you have a real solution to share)

• Remaining in community (with those who make it easy to have faith)

• Leading with your why (trends come and go but your why is your forever compass)

• Questioning the old ways (and trusting what feels true to you)

• Protecting your humanity (nothing can replace it)

You are the moat.

And your humanity isn’t going anywhere. 

Being HUMAN AF means embracing it. 

Come join The Aligned Neighborhood – humans who are doing the same.*

*Free for the first 20 early access humans who join.