Attention is the new distribution
AI didn't create the attention problem. It just made it everyone's problem at once.
A founder asked me recently what I'd change about sales and marketing strategy in the age of AI. They expected me to talk about tools, automation, better targeting.
My answer was different.
The biggest shift isn't what AI can do for your outbound. It's that every channel is getting noisier, faster. More apps, more email, more content, more AI-generated everything. Buyers are more confused and more skeptical than ever. The signal-to-noise ratio is collapsing.
The founders and sellers cutting through aren't winning because they found a better tool.
They're winning because people already know them. Trust them. Follow them.
Attention is now the scarcest commodity. And the only way to earn it is to build an audience before you need one.
I was, and still am, an introverted engineer. Posting on LinkedIn does not come naturally. I resisted it for a long time. But I kept posting because I watched it move the needle in ways I couldn't ignore. Consulting conversations that started with "I've been following your posts." Perch customers who learned about a new feature from my feed. Opportunities that had no clear attribution but traced back to someone knowing who I was before we ever talked.
The leverage was real. So I kept going.
If you're a founder, an account executive, an operator, or even someone early in their career without and established identify, here's what I've learned:
1. Be genuine. Most people use AI wrong here. Let it edit and speed you up, but the themes, the stories, the perspective have to be yours. People can feel the difference.
2. Know your audience. Posting for everyone means posting for no one. Get specific about who you're actually trying to reach.
3. Pick two or three themes you know deeply and try stay in your lane. Branch out methodically to test. Linkedin rewards consistency.
4. Mix up the content within those themes. Product updates, industry takes, stories from the field. Not everything has to be a lesson.
5. Just start. A lot of my posts flop 😂. It can be very discouraging. But every few weeks a flop turns into a DM that turns into something real.
The cost of ignoring this is going up every year. AI is flooding every channel with generic content, generic DMs, generic comments. I am getting blown up. The founders who built real audiences before the noise got worse are going to have a serious advantage.
The best time to start was two years ago.
The second best time is now.