Why Everything Feels Like Spam

Honestly, I've probably spent 8 hours writing and debating sending this email. Is it useful? Is it relevant? Will people judge me for it?

There are 1,618 people receiving this - all people who've been part of my life and career for more than a decade. Is this worth their time?

One thing I’ve been working on is ending stories that don't serve me anymore. This is one of them: "This isn't good enough. Why would anyone want to receive this?"

But another story, one that's probably more true, is this: “This is useful information for anyone responsible for revenue and customer acquisition. It's not perfect, but it's our lived experience running a multi-channel ABM plays for more than 15 growth companies in the past year.”

So I'm sending it.

If it's not useful, no hard feelings. 🙃

Let’s get into it.

I talked to two founders a few weeks ago. Both run GTM teams (one sales, one marketing). Here’s the headline from those calls:

Jesse:

Sean:

Your email and LinkedIn probably have a lot of this:

"Hi [First Name], I noticed [Generic Observation]. We help [Your Industry] companies like [Competitor] achieve [Vague Outcome]. Are you available for a quick call?"

AI was supposed to make outbound better. Instead, it made everything feel automated, impersonal, and spammy.

Here's the rub: Either be genuine and don't reach enough people, or be efficient and sound like everyone else.

Use AI a lot. As much as reasonable. Don’t abandon it.

But don’t outsource your thinking.

Most people use AI for shortcuts: "Write me 50 cold emails, one for every person on this list"

This creates slop. And lots of it.

The better approach is to do the hard work of understanding your prospect (their role, their challenges, their context), then use AI to help you format or expand your thinking.

Keep your brain on — don't delegate the actual thinking. You’re good at that part.

Authenticity at scale is possible in that order: be authentic first, then scale second.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

That's not templated. That's contextual. And it only works if you have the signal to know what's actually happening.

When you know someone's already paying attention — they viewed your profile, engaged with content, looked at your team — you don't need to "break through the noise."

They're already listening.

Your message isn't cold anymore. It's contextual. And reply rates will show you that’s the case.

Our product doesn't write your messages. And it won’t do your job for you. It will show you who's worth reaching out to and why.

That context is what makes authenticity scalable.

Pull up the last 5 emails or LinkedIn messages you sent.

Ask yourself:

If the answers make you uncomfortable, you’re in the right place. You’re a human, figuring it out like the rest of us 🙂

Now imagine if you could see:

Would that change how you write the next message?

Everyone is still figuring this out. Literally everyone. Don’t forget that.

AI should help you work faster, not think less.

Sadly I forgot that when writing the first 3-4 drafts of this email. I had Claude analyze my standup calls with my cofounder, then analyze some newsletters I find interesting, and write me versions of the newsletter based on our internal call recordings. The result was a shitload of newsletters. which at first felt great - check the box. I now have a newsletter. But when I actually analyzed them with Andrew - they were garbage.

It was a fun AI Automation built to make something easier, not something valuable. So I blew the whole thing up and started again.

I hope this was useful! If you’ve made it this far, I’d love a reply or any feedback on this email.

-Aaron

Mavin reveals who's interested in you and your team on LinkedIn — turning invisible activity into clear buying signal.