The guest-post pitch story is painful because I’ve been on both sides of it. You can usually tell when someone’s actually read your work, and AI can’t fake that bit very well.
Roy nails the operational core here: the three moves work because they're actually about diagnosis, not persuasion theater. Leading with their problem forces you to do the work of understanding. Saying the awkward true thing is just refusing to create friction you'll have to resolve later anyway. Adding value first is how you prove you're not optimizing for volume.
The part that landed hardest for me: "Trust is the absence of a gap between what you wrote and who you are." Most people read that as a vibe thing. But it's structural. Every time you let AI sand down a rough edge you'd actually keep in conversation, you're building a gap your buyer will feel before they can name it. The silence after is he friction of inconsistency. Roy shows the math on that clearly.
Thank you for your comment, Anita. Trust is more important than ever, and AI does structurally remove us from it, if we let it. Which is why it's important to understand the why, and how to stay genuine.
And yes, I loved that line too. It's so quotable! Haha
"Every time you let AI sand down a rough edge you'd actually keep in conversation, you're building a gap your buyer will feel before they can name it."
Man that is a great addition to this conversation!
Worth adding: AI-generated copy tends to smooth out the specific noun. It'll write "streamline your workflow" instead of "stop re-entering the same customer data into Salesforce three times a day." That specificity gap is usually the fastest way to spot (and fix) AI-flavored writing, even before tone comes into play. Do you have a checklist for catching that in drafts?
Thanks, Mohamed! And yes, that’s a good catch. AI does tend to smooth things over like that. Yes, I have claude skills that edit everything I write and strips them of AI “tells” in the drafting stage.
That’s a great add Mohamed! The specific gap is key to connecting to your customer and meeting them where they are at as well. Thanks for adding that to the conversation!
The guest-post pitch story is painful because I’ve been on both sides of it. You can usually tell when someone’s actually read your work, and AI can’t fake that bit very well.
Very true. I think it’s one of those great examples of where you still need a human the loop.
My goal right now is to automate other tasks so I have more time to read and comment on all the Substacks I subscribe to. haha
Roy nails the operational core here: the three moves work because they're actually about diagnosis, not persuasion theater. Leading with their problem forces you to do the work of understanding. Saying the awkward true thing is just refusing to create friction you'll have to resolve later anyway. Adding value first is how you prove you're not optimizing for volume.
The part that landed hardest for me: "Trust is the absence of a gap between what you wrote and who you are." Most people read that as a vibe thing. But it's structural. Every time you let AI sand down a rough edge you'd actually keep in conversation, you're building a gap your buyer will feel before they can name it. The silence after is he friction of inconsistency. Roy shows the math on that clearly.
Thank you for your comment, Anita. Trust is more important than ever, and AI does structurally remove us from it, if we let it. Which is why it's important to understand the why, and how to stay genuine.
And yes, I loved that line too. It's so quotable! Haha
Keep up the awesome collabs!
Thank you! Looking forward to our collabs, too :D
Love that Anita, that is spot on.
"Every time you let AI sand down a rough edge you'd actually keep in conversation, you're building a gap your buyer will feel before they can name it."
Man that is a great addition to this conversation!
Just lots of quotable things flying around! 😂
Worth adding: AI-generated copy tends to smooth out the specific noun. It'll write "streamline your workflow" instead of "stop re-entering the same customer data into Salesforce three times a day." That specificity gap is usually the fastest way to spot (and fix) AI-flavored writing, even before tone comes into play. Do you have a checklist for catching that in drafts?
Thanks, Mohamed! And yes, that’s a good catch. AI does tend to smooth things over like that. Yes, I have claude skills that edit everything I write and strips them of AI “tells” in the drafting stage.
That’s a great add Mohamed! The specific gap is key to connecting to your customer and meeting them where they are at as well. Thanks for adding that to the conversation!