Last week, my friend Lauren texted me about a book online that looked exactly like mine. Same orange cover. Same font. Same little black sticker. Different name on the spine.

Turns out "Dave Stone" has been pumping out AI-generated knockoffs by the dozen. I should have been furious. I wasn't. I was tired.

In this issue of the Mike Kim Letter, I unpack what I'm calling visibility fatigue — the exhaustion of trying to be everywhere, all the time, all at once, while AI bots run circles around you on the same treadmill.

We'll get into:

• Why the volume game is unwinnable (and why even YouTube and Amazon are losing it)
• What the rise of AI knockoffs is actually telling us about trust, substance, and personal brand
• The Shohei Ohtani question: are you trying to be a five-tool player when the lineup needs you in one specific spot?
• Why I wrote this issue with pencil and paper — and why it turned out infinitely better
• The one question to ask yourself this week: Where does your voice actually come alive?

This is part 2 of a 3-part series on the forces reshaping what it means to build trust, credibility, and a body of work in the AI era.

Read part 1, The Tabloidization of the Internet.

Part 3, The Great Letting Go, drops next week.

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📙 My WSJ bestseller, You Are the Brand

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Watch on YouTube »

In this episode, I discuss "The Tabloidification of the Internet"... my observations on mass media and how click-bait headlines influence public perception. This discussion encourages critical thinking and media literacy in a digital media landscape.

1:46 - Social media is the new supermarket tabloid
2:58 - How Buzzfeed and Upworthy created click-bait
5:18 - Not all views should count the same
7:15 - Click vs. Relationship
8:49 - A small action item to try this week

Subscribe to the Mike Kim Letter: http://mikekim.com/newsletter

📙 My WSJ bestseller, You Are the Brand: https://amzn.to/40Ntc2O

CONNECT WITH ME

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikekim
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mikekimtv
• TikTok: https://tiktok.com/mikekimtv
• X: https://twitter.com/mikekimtv
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/mikekimtv

(Watch on YouTube or read on my site »)

I've been going on something called an "Artist Date": a solo outing, once a week with your "Inner Artist," to something that feeds you creatively.

The idea comes from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, a book that's been sitting on my shelf for a year. I finally decided to go through with it.

A few links I mentioned, all in one place:

• The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron (get the hard copy) »
• Blackwing video by The Wall St. Journal (great storytelling) »
• Blackwing's site (you can't get these on Amazon) »
• Doug's Comic, Wait it Gets Worse »
• Lauren's site, laurendaviscreative.com »
• Rich Relationships: Create a Million-Dollar Network for Your Business by Selena Soo »