Over the last few months, I’ve been working closely with my marketer on something that sounds big and corporate, and therefore really shouldn’t require me to stare into the depths of my soul to answer. My personal brand.

I think I took this completely for granted at every company I ever worked for. They had a mission statement. Values. Corporate branding woven into the very ethos of the organization. And I… never appreciated how much work that actually took.

Short of going back in time and giving twenty-something Monica a stern talking to, I’ve come to retroactively appreciate how much a company’s values shape everything. How people react. The questions they ask. The decisions they make when things aren’t obvious.

I see this clearly with my clients too. When there’s alignment on values and a clear North Star, it’s simply easier to improve processes, get buy-in, and make change stick. Change lands better when it’s aligned with what the organization already believes it stands for.

So, after a surprising amount of soul searching, here’s mine.

Continuous process improvement.

I was at Evolve last week, and during a Women in Tech brunch, we were asked to write down the problem we’re working on. The thing we’re trying to solve.

Normally, that would be a tough question for me to answer at 7 a.m., pre-coffee. But because I’ve been thinking so much about my North Star, I didn’t hesitate.

I wrote: being 1% better every day.

And it really is the thing that shows up everywhere. Not just in my work, but in how I live.

I’m a lifelong learner. A lean nerd. Someone who’s always identifying bottlenecks and looking for small improvements. I listen to all the audiobooks. I keep my local library in business. I absorb anything I can about improving my business, my time management, and honestly, my happiness.

Once I saw that pattern clearly, it was obvious.

This is where I’ll be candid.

One thing that’s been frustrating me lately is how often I hear people describe themselves as “AI specialists.”

To be clear. I love AI. I use it constantly. It’s powerful. It’s changing how we work.

But to me, AI is a tool, not a destination.

Process improvement is my thing.
Operations is my thing.
Systems, workflows, and making work calmer and more effective is my thing.

AI helps me do that better.

So here’s my hot take. (And yes, I’m wincing a little knowing this is now published and hard to take back.)

I don’t think you can be an “AI consultant” without another angle.

It’s like saying, “I’m proficient at Excel.”
Great. Proficient at Excel to do what?

Build dashboards and identify outliers?
Reconcile data with extreme attention to detail?
Train others on how to use Excel effectively?

Those are very different value propositions.

The same goes for AI. You might be great at building agents. But to solve what problem? Or maybe you’re great at teaching others how to build agents for their specific needs. In that case, you also bring curiosity, requirements gathering, and solution design to the table.

AI amplifies expertise. It doesn’t replace the need for one.

If someone asked you to write down, in a few words, the problem you’re always looking to solve, what would you say?

Not your job title.
Not the tools you use.
The problem you solve.

I really do want to know - what’s your North Star? What’s your tried and true approach, the one question you always go back to, the one angle you can’t ignore, the one thing that (maybe) keeps you up at night or wakes you up at 5:30 in the morning because you just have to find an answer?

Let me know!