The Eight Things That Make AXL, AXL
Every creative community says it values things. Few write those values down as a working definition of behavior. AXL has: eight of them. We call them the drivers, and they’re not aspirational language for a wall. They’re what we actually expect of each other.
Here they are, one at a time.
Driver One — Presence over Performance
We refuse to be driven by a desire to perform for the approval or the applause of man. Instead, we are obsessed with finding out what pleases the Lord. That’s not a preference — it’s a fork in the road, because you can’t serve the fear of man and the fear of the Lord at the same time. You have to pick, and this driver is us picking.
Driver Two — Character over Gifting
Your gift can get you in the room. It cannot keep you there. That’s the whole driver. If you don’t have character, God can’t use your gifting in the room — talent without formation is a loan against a platform you haven’t finished paying for yet. We’ve watched it happen: someone gifted enough to lead, carrying something underneath the gift they hadn’t dealt with. The gift doesn’t cancel that debt. Only character does.
Driver Three — Righteousness over Relevance
Relevance produces carnality. Say that back to yourself before you argue with it. Chasing what’s culturally current will always, eventually, pull you away from what’s actually right — not because culture is evil, but because it moves too fast to aim at and hit truth by accident. So we don’t aim at relevance. We aim at righteousness, and trust that it brings its own timing for influence, on its own schedule, not culture’s.
Driver Four — Collaboration over Competition
Lay down the ambition that needs someone else to lose. That’s the ask. We’ve seen a songwriting session between two friends turn into a song neither of them would have written alone — better for the collaboration, not despite it. We’ve seen a young woman at a CoLab Night sing an original song out loud for the very first time in her life, because someone finally asked her to instead of competing with her for the mic. That’s what this driver produces when you actually live it: people who wouldn’t have gone first, going first.
Driver Five — Relationship over Opportunity
This is the driver that costs the most to keep. Ask God about the opportunity before you take it — not after, when you’re already committed and rearranging your life around it. Don’t sacrifice the relationship that matters most to get somewhere that looked good from a distance. A move made for opportunity can quietly cost a marriage, a friendship, a family, while looking like success from the outside. The correction isn’t “don’t pursue opportunity.” It’s: pursue it with your eyes open to what it might cost the people closest to you, and ask first.
Driver Six — Intercession over Infatuation
The newest driver, added after we noticed something missing in our own culture: a habit of praying for the people culture is obsessed with, instead of just being obsessed with them ourselves. When you catch yourself fixated on someone — an artist, a public figure, anyone culture has put in front of you — that fixation is raw material. Redirect it. Turn the scroll into a prayer.
Driver Seven — Kingdom over Culture
A kingdom doesn’t run on permits and process. What the king wants, he gets — and that’s a good thing, because he’s a good king. AXL operates the same way, under a better King than any culture, platform, or industry standard. When what He wants and what’s culturally normal disagree, we don’t split the difference. We go with the King.
Driver Eight — Obedience over Sacrifice
The driver that costs the most to talk about, and the one we close on every time: full, immediate obedience — not obedience delayed, not partial obedience dressed up as sacrifice so it feels more spiritual than it is. Right away, all the way, happy heart. Not eventually. Not with resentment. That’s the standard, and it’s worth sixty honest seconds of asking yourself where you’ve let obedience stall.
These eight drivers were first taught as a group by Lauren Caldwell, AXL Hubs Director, at AXL Creative Co.’s July 2025 Creative’s Intensive. Published with her approval.