The Distribution and Attention Era: Unlocking Success in the Age of AI
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My latest article: The Distribution and Attention Era: Unlocking Success in the Age of AI
The digital landscape is undergoing a shift. AI has democratized the creation of software, drastically reducing time-to-market. However, the ease of creation has also intensified competition. In this environment, the biggest lever for success isn’t just building innovative products, it’s mastering distribution and capturing attention.
Software is easier to build now with tools like Bolt, Cursor, Vercel, Lovable, etc. It is easier than ever to create and deploy a SaaS product, non technical people are building cool things, but is the thing you are building really a good product?
You need to have a good product, while building can be done fast, having software development basics are a must have. AI coding assistants aren’t mind readers, and they are not always thinking about user experience, security, optimizing egress and ingress transactions, and overall stability of your products code base.
Getting the basics right is important, you have to know what you’re doing, otherwise you’re going to have a hard time solving problems.
Now that we have that out of the way, let’s say that you have a decent product that took a week to build, now what?
This democratization comes with a trade-off: a saturated market. The question is no longer, “Can you build it?” but “Can you get people to notice it?”
Why Distribution is the Game Changer
Distribution: the ability to deliver your product, service, or message to the right audience at the right time is now the ultimate differentiator. A brilliant product without visibility will fade into obscurity, while a good product with strong distribution can dominate its niche.
How do we get people to notice our product?
There are a couple routes you can take with this one, for me it’s very clear and it depends on the type of product you have; B2B, B2C, B2B2C, C2C. I’m going to provide a small guide for B2B and B2C, the last 2 can be one with a combination of these 2 tactics.
B2B
Traditionally for B2B software the best thing I’ve found that works very good is building a personal brand. The amount of founders building in public on platforms like X and LinkedIn has grown a lot over the past few years
Personal branding has proven to be highly effective for B2B software founders
Employee-shared content receives eight times more engagement than brand-shared content, highlighting the power of personal accounts
According to Forbes people are 77% more likely to buy from a company if the CEO uses social media, which is particularly important in the B2B market.
Ever noticed company pages flop on LinkedIn while founders thrive? We’ve all seen it, company pages get so little engagement, but why?
People are in tune with people, we love seeing founders share their vision and life through posts, podcasts and videos, we want to know about them.
People buy into people before they buy products. Don’t believe me? just look at this post.
I analyzed 20 top LinkedIn content creators and this is what I found
Average Engagement Rate
The average engagement rate across creators is a benchmark for comparing individual performance.
Creators with a higher engagement rate often have more focused content and dedicated audiences.
Follower Count vs. Engagement Levels
Creators with fewer followers but high engagement rates show strong audience loyalty.
Categories for engagement levels:
○ Low (0–1%): Indicates either a mismatch in content or less engaged followers.
○ Moderate (1–2%): Reflects balanced content with decent engagement. ○ High (2–5%): Strongly engaged communities.
○ Very High (>5%): Typically niche or highly relatable content.
Style Patterns
Storytelling
Posts often start with a compelling hook (e.g., “In 2008, I was broke…”).
The body of the post takes readers through a journey or transformation.
Ends with a relatable lesson or actionable takeaway.
Actionable Advice
Successful creators provide clear steps or frameworks that readers can immediately apply.
Example: “How to use AI to save 5 hours a week.”
Actionable content builds trust and positions creators as experts.
Authenticity and Vulnerability
Sharing failures, struggles, and lessons creates deeper emotional connections.
Posts that say, “Here’s what I learned when I failed,” tend to be highly relatable and shareable.
Engaging Visuals
When images are included, they’re often custom-designed graphics or attention-grabbing visuals that reinforce the post’s message.
Charts, diagrams, or screenshots (e.g., of tools in action) provide visual clarity and add value.
Data and Evidence
Posts that include stats, case studies, or performance metrics tend to attract more comments and shares.
Audiences appreciate tangible proof of effectiveness or results.
Community-Centric Approach
Creators ask questions, involve their audience, or share follower success stories to foster a sense of community.
Engages audiences by making them feel seen and valued.
Key Patterns That Drive Success
Relatability: Posts that reflect shared experiences (e.g., struggling with self-doubt, learning something new) resonate deeply.
Educational Value: Audiences seek creators who teach or share insights.
Call to Action: Top posts often end with a question or invite engagement (e.g., “What’s worked for you?”).
Consistency: Frequent posting helps build momentum and keeps creators top-of-mind.
B2C
If you have a B2C offering like Loom, Notion, Tinder, Strava, Midjourney then you’ll have to take a different approach, while having a personal brand is goated, because the fact that you can be seen by a lot of people makes distribution easy, this is not always the case and if you’re starting from scratch why would you bother on creating a personal brand, building a personal brand is a long game and for B2C there are better strategies.
Building an audience from scratch is a challenging endeavour that requires significant effort, strategic planning, and adaptability. The high competition and constant evolution of digital platforms necessitate a well-thought-out approach and persistent effort to get eyeballs and traction on social media nowadays, it may take you multiple months or even years to have a significant engaged audience. Imagine all the work you have to put in to make people start noticing you. Instead leverage already established and engaged audiences.
Leverage already established communities and position yourself as a leader inside those communities. Communities are not only about one person, if you can establish yourself as a leader inside a community or a tribe you’re going to be able to influence other like-minded people and create your “own audience” inside a group of people. This will allow you to redirect that attention into anything you want; a private community, a podcast, a software product, mentorship, etc.
The best platforms for this are Reddit, Discord, Facebook groups, IndieHackers, launching on Product Hunt, etc.
Once you’ve found Product-Market-Fit the goal here is to foster engagement inside established communities to generate trust in order to get people to TAKE ACTION, such as joining separate private groups, making members sign up for a newsletter, joining a waitlist for a product, etc.
Next steps
Like Alex Hormozi said, the secret to my success is delaying gratification. Being ok with repeating this 5 step process over and over again until you’ve amassed a following, build trust and relationships with people + delaying your ask, is crucial in order to drive traffic to your products and offers without the need of starting from scratch as a creator.
By cutting out the time it takes you to build an audience online and jumping straight into an engaged audience, you’re basically time traveling. If you’re developing a product, start funnelling people in through warm Dm’s, it’s going to be more likely people end up subscribing or buying from you than a stranger.
Utilize Launch-Based-Marketing to launch your product or offer and let inside a pool of people on your wait list, let them know you’re going to make a first launch and open limited spots. Once people use your product or solution, get customer feedback and iterate. Encourage satisfied community members to refer others and share their positive experiences.
Share case studies and success stories from community members who have benefited from your product or insights. Provide exclusive offers, discounts, or early access to community members as a token of appreciation and to incentivize action.
My newsletter subscriber count after experimenting with this idea, providing value on Facebook groups.
Attention: The Scarcity Economy
Attention has become the most valuable currency in the digital age. With consumers bombarded by content, brands must compete fiercely to stand out. Winning attention requires a blend of creativity, timing, and consistency.
Key strategies for capturing attention include:
Storytelling: Crafting compelling narratives that resonate emotionally with your audience.
Personal Branding: Building a recognizable and trusted voice that adds value to your niche.
Memorable Design: Investing in distinctive visuals and branding that command interest.
Real-Time Engagement: Actively participating in trending conversations and cultural moments.
Why do Narratives matter?
Have you heard the term “Demand generation”
Demand generation is not just a marketing tactic; it is the orchestration of curiosity that naturally transforms into need. At its core, demand generation asks us to reflect on how value is perceived and how trust is cultivated in a world saturated with options.
Effective demand generation introduces an unmet need in a way that feels deeply personal to the audience. The aim is not to sell immediately but to awaken a latent curiosity that whispers, “There’s something more for you here.” — Take a look at the whole Red Pill movement that’s been going on for years and subcategories like “Looks maxing” it is all a construct, a narrative designed to infiltrate your mind and slowly manipulate you to take action, in order to fix your life whether you want to see it as good or bad, we are all influenced every day to make decisions, at the end we are all consumers and people buy into narratives.
Trust is the cornerstone of demand. Without it, even the most ingenious strategies crumble under the weight of skepticism. Demand generation, then, is not just about telling a story but ensuring that every touchpoint of that story reinforces credibility.
Think of trust as a series of small commitments. A free resource, an insightful webinar, a conversation on social media, each interaction builds a bridge between you and your audience. The audience does not need to be dazzled, they need to feel understood. By empathizing with their struggles and speaking to their aspirations, you become more than a brand or a product; you become a partner in their journey.
Demand generation is not all about pushing but more about pulling.
Instead of convincing the audience to want something, the goal is to reveal how your offering aligns with what they already desire.
True influence is not about bending others to your will, but about guiding them toward their own truth.
How would I practice demand generation?
I would start by asking and answering these questions
What problems keep your audience awake at night?
What values resonate deeply with them?
How can your message make them feel seen, heard, and empowered?
Use these insights to craft narratives that evoke curiosity and empathy. Share stories that illuminate, educate, and inspire. Be present where your audience gathers — not to broadcast, but to engage. And above all, remain authentic.
Do you know what industry is the best when it comes to narrative building?
Crypto and Blockchain.
The crypto market is speculative, and a powerful narrative can pump prices significantly, even in the absence of substantive updates. Investors often buy into the story rather than the product itself. The narrative around Solana meme coins and the shift away from Ethereum tokens is a fascinating example of how storytelling and community-building drive attention and adoption in the crypto space.
The narrative begins by framing Ethereum as the incumbent. While Ethereum has historically been the dominant platform for meme coins and DeFi (Decentralized Finance) projects, it is often criticized for high gas fees, slower transaction speeds, and scalability issues. This sets the stage for Solana to present itself as a challenger.
Solana meme coins, such as Bonk and others, leveraged this blockchain’s narrative to position themselves as the “next big thing” in the meme coin market. They built on the following key storytelling elements:
Community Ownership: Projects like Bonk airdropped tokens to Solana users, creating an immediate sense of inclusivity and loyalty.
Rebellion Against Ethereum: By framing themselves as the underdog, Solana meme coins positioned Ethereum as the “old guard” while portraying themselves as fresh, agile, and community-focused.
Meme Culture: Solana coins embraced irreverent, humorous branding, which resonated with younger, digitally native investors looking for the next viral opportunity.
The migration from Ethereum to Solana isn’t just technical; it’s ideological. The story taps into broader crypto narratives of decentralization and accessibility. Moving away from Ethereum is framed as:
Escaping Elitism: Ethereum’s high fees and institutional focus are contrasted with Solana’s more “grassroots” approach.
Adopting the Future: By switching to Solana, developers and users align themselves with an ecosystem that prioritizes innovation and inclusivity.
Creating New Opportunities: The Solana ecosystem is positioned as a less saturated, lower-barrier market for new projects and traders looking for high growth potential.
The strength of this narrative has had tangible impacts such as Massive User Adoption, Mainstream Recognition and Developer Migration.
The narrative of Solana meme coins and the migration away from Ethereum tokens is a masterclass in storytelling and narratives It combines:
A clear antagonist (Ethereum’s high fees and inefficiencies).
A strong protagonist (Solana as the agile, scalable alternative).
Emotional resonance (community ownership and rebellion against the status quo).
In crypto the narrative today is agentic AI
Speed as a Competitive Edge
content creation has changed a lot with the arrival of AI, what would take days or weeks to craft now we can do in a couple of minutes.
Image generation, text generation, video generation, music and audio, we can even create digital versions of ourselves. Now we have people creating AI UGC content creators and scaling content on TikTok for brands and pages, you can generate hundreds of static images in seconds.
While this is great, we need to take into account the human element, the best personal brands are the ones that create the best connection/relationship with their audience. content needs to be personal, and have a personality.
While AI allows you to scale content output, more isn’t always better. High-quality, thoughtful content that sparks conversation and connection will always outperform sheer quantity.
In an era where AI-generated content floods every corner of the internet, the most valuable creators and brands will be those who can marry speed with substance. They’ll leverage AI to enhance their efficiency but maintain a strong human connection in every interaction. The brands that succeed won’t just be the fastest or the loudest, they’ll be the ones that listen, empathize, and engage meaningfully.
Final thoughts
As AI continues to democratize tools and processes, the competition for attention intensifies. The market is now saturated with products and content, and the differentiating factor isn’t innovation alone — it’s the ability to tell compelling stories, foster trust, and create meaningful relationships. Distribution, engagement, and authenticity have become the cornerstones of sustainable growth.
The key to thriving in this environment is balance: leverage AI for its unparalleled efficiency while doubling down on the human touch. Create content and products that resonate on an emotional level. Build narratives that align with your audience’s aspirations and struggles. Remember, people buy into people and stories — not just features or speed.
That’s all, I hope this article inspired you to take action and provided some insights