Prove you're not a robot

I write weekly about the strategies, habits, and tactics around cultivating the connections that matter to you.

Every now and then, someone would reply to an email with: "Did Zvi actually write this?"

This wasn’t last week, this has been happening for years. For much of my career, I’ve had an executive assistant who, among many tasks they’d be responsible for (including researching where I can get a decent matcha when traveling), would sometimes impersonate me in communication. So, fair question. I’d quickly jump in personally, sometimes even with a text, to verify that yes, it was me!

Last December, I wished someone a Merry Christmas. They don't celebrate Christmas. A harmless mistake as I was going through my contacts that morning shooting off messages. The response was instant: "Automation fail!"

The thing is, a human actually sent it. But that didn't matter. The assumption now is that there's no human behind the curtain at all.

Think about the last cold email you got. Did you read it, or scan it for signs of life? A weirdly perfect subject line. A compliment that could apply to anyone. Referencing an old job. A message that feels like it was generated in bulk because it was.

The ratio of human-to-AI content is plummeting. Your LinkedIn feed, your inbox, your DMs. We're swimming in content that was never touched by a human hand, and we haven't figured out what to do about it. You used to spot AI by looking for the em-dash. Now even that trick is dead. (Ironic, I know.)

So here's what I think happens next.

We go back to the chain.

When we can't trust the message, we trust the messenger. And when we can't trust the messenger, we trust whoever introduced us to them. Beth trusts Jack. Jack trusts me. Therefore Beth gives me five minutes of her attention.

But that chain is fragile. One lazy, obviously templated message and you snap the link. One generic outreach that screams "I didn't write this" and the person on the other end files you as “spammer” or even worse - under "bot"

Every interaction now has to pass a higher bar. Personal, relevant, and clearly from you. Here's how:

Reference something specific. A recent post they wrote, a conversation you had, a mutual connection. Anything that proves that their name wasn’t pasted into a template or scraped from the web.

Switch channels. See something interesting on someone's LinkedIn? Text them about it. Reply to their tweet via email. And, gasp maybe even call? That kind of cross-platform move is nearly impossible for AI to pull off at scale. For now, it's one of the strongest "proof of human" plays you've got.

Add "no need to respond." A bot would never voluntarily reduce engagement. When you tell someone there's no pressure to reply, you're signaling that this is about connection, not conversion. Counterintuitively, it tends to increase responses too.

Keep it short and direct. AI tends to over-explain. Humans get to the point. Like I'm doing right now (or trying really hard).

The world is getting noisier and faker by the day. Some will mechanize the crap out of every interaction and scale it - but in my world, people who win are the ones who can prove, in every interaction, that there's someone real on the other end. Your chain of trust is everything. Don't break it.

Until next week, Zvi

P.S. Test me. Ask something only a human would bother answering.

On YouTube: The Vulnerability Hack: Using Genuine Concern to Build Unbreakable Relationships

Think being “professional” means hiding your real self? In this video, we unpack why actually caring is your secret weapon for building trust and how to do it without sounding like a motivational poster.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Why pretending to have it all together is ruining your connections

• The brain science behind why vulnerability builds trust

• 5 practical ways to show you care without making it weird

• How to ask better questions that lead to real conversations

• The surprising power of a message with zero agenda

You can see all my videos and interviews on my channel! If you find these helpful, I’d appreciate a like, subscribe, and share with a friend, colleague, or enemy.

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