Every weekend in Washington, D.C., Liz Murphy had a brunch ritual.
Before she walked in, she'd make sure her friend grabbed a table by the window. That way, Liz could see her friend before she ever reached the table.
Was her friend three mimosas deep with her head in her hands? Then something went wrong, and Liz needed to show up ready to listen. Or was she smiling and loud? Then it was time to celebrate.
When Liz shared that story with me on the Marketing Smarts podcast, she landed the point that changed how I think about content: before she opened her mouth to speak, she observed.
That's human. We all do it naturally. But then we walk into work, hang up our human hat, and start writing things like "you may want to consider."
Liz is a content strategist and longtime friend, and she's one of the most human content people I know. Here's what she taught me about being human in your B2B content, and why it matters even more in 2026. One clear step at a time.
What "Being Human" in Content Actually Means
"Be human" can sound squishy. So let's get specific.
Liz's answer was refreshingly simple. You already are human. You talk, connect, joke, and listen every day. The problem is that most people override those defaults the moment they start creating content.
Being human in content means doing what you naturally do. Observe. Listen. Talk like a person. Have a real opinion.
The fact that we even have to ask what "human content" means shows how far we've drifted.
Why Sounding Human Matters More in 2026
When Liz and I talked, AI writing tools were just starting to remove barriers to content creation. Her worry was that people would use AI to sidestep the hard parts instead of asking the bigger questions. What do we really have to say? What do we stand for? What do our people need from us right now?
That worry has aged well.
Raptive, a media company, studied how 3,000 U.S. adults reacted to content they suspected was AI-generated. When people suspected AI, they rated the content 48% less trustworthy, 57% less authentic, and 60% lower in emotional connection.
Here's the part that should stop every B2B marketer in their tracks. Raptive's research found the penalty applied whether or not the content was actually written by AI.
Think about what that means. If your content sounds robotic, corporate, and committee-approved, readers may treat it like AI slop even if a human wrote every word.
Sounding human isn't a nice-to-have anymore. It's a trust strategy.
Why We Flip the Switch at Work
So why do smart, interesting people turn into beige content machines at work?
Liz had a theory that goes all the way back to cavemen. We're wired to belong. To stay with the tribe. To not get kicked out and become a dinosaur snack.
So when it's time to stand out, we pull back. We ask what competitors are doing. We look for "best practices." Sometimes we just ask, "Who can we copy?"
Liz has interviewed countless CEOs, VPs, and subject matter experts for content. People with decades of experience. And when she'd ask a simple question like "What's your opinion on this?" they'd recite something straight off the company website.
If you're just copying what everyone else does, Liz said, you become wallpaper. You're invisible. And that defeats the whole purpose.
Shine or Belong? The Light Bulb Lesson
This is the part of our conversation where Liz got emotional. And honestly, so did I.
She'd been asking herself a hard question: do you want to shine, or do you want to belong?
Then she painted a picture I can't forget. Imagine a football stadium with a thousand people on the field. Each person has a light bulb over their head: red, blue, green, or purple. An announcer says, "There are four perfectly matched groups here. Go find each other and build something amazing."
If the light bulbs are off, people just cluster with whoever is closest. They conform around things that have nothing to do with them.
If the light bulbs are on, everyone finds their people easily.
Here's why that matters for your business. Your buyers want to be seen, heard, and understood. They want to land on your digital doorstep and feel relief that they don't have to over-explain themselves.
But Liz pointed out the other half. They have to be able to see you too. If your light is off, the right buyers can't tell you belong to the same tribe.
I connected this to leads on the show. If you're a purple light bulb but you're attracting red ones, that might be why your leads aren't qualified. Your content isn't showing who you really are.
Takeaway: Ask yourself honestly. Is your content jamming itself into spaces where it doesn't belong, just to fit in?
Start With Two Documents: Messaging and Style
When I asked Liz how to actually inject humanity into content, she started with something practical.
Go back and read your content. Is the language on autopilot? Are you just writing words with no soul behind them?
Then she named two documents many teams are missing:
- A messaging strategy: the what of what you say.
- A style guide: the how. The wrapper. Your voice.
Both are separate from your content strategy, which covers the topics you'll write about. Many teams have a content calendar but no clear voice. That's how you end up sounding like everyone else.
Observe Before You Speak
Here's the exercise Liz takes every client through, for any blog post, web page, or podcast.
She asks, "Who are you talking to?" They usually describe a persona. "CEO Susie. She likes Golf Magazine."
Great, Liz says. Now why is she here?
Imagine Susie sitting across the table from you. She hasn't said a word yet. What does she look like? Is she stressed? Happy? Proactive or reactive?
Say she's a VP of Marketing who tells you she wants more leads. What isn't she telling you? Maybe she also desperately wants to keep her job, and stop hearing from sales that her leads stink and from leadership that marketing doesn't add value.
That's where the human layers start to peel back.
Liz put it well: a buyer persona is your anchor and your compass. But it's only the beginning of the human story your content needs to tell.
Takeaway: Before your next piece of content, write down three things your buyer is feeling that they would never say out loud on a sales call.
Stop Building Camels
Liz shared one of my favorite jokes. What's a camel? A horse designed by a committee.
Look at a lot of corporate headlines and you can see it. The CEO wanted this word. The VP wanted that one. Another department needed its phrase in there. The result is a camel.
Her go-to question for every headline and piece of content: is that what I'm really trying to say?
And another one for your website: did you write this so a stakeholder would sign off, or did you write it to connect with a human? Those are two very different goals.
Sometimes you'll need to push back. Liz's approach: ask the stakeholder, "I understand you like that, but is that a preference, or is it based in fact?"
Be Yourself (Yes, Even in B2B)
Liz's second tip sounds simple: be yourself.
People tell her she "gets away with a lot." On her website, her main call to action button said "Take the Cannoli." She's talked on stage about her cat named Nicolas Cage and her lifelong love of Han Solo.
And she serves owners of multi-million dollar companies who take her seriously. Why? Because even when her personality shows up loud, she still answers their questions with laser precision.
That's the balance. Personality isn't a replacement for substance. It's the wrapper that makes the substance memorable.
Liz checks every piece of content with a few questions. Is this story meaningful? Is this bit of personality just confetti to keep things light? Am I giving them what they want, what they said they want, and what I know they need?
And she added something we forget. Your audience is human too. Behind the suits and job titles, they have weird hobbies and guilty-pleasure TV shows just like you. Liz and I both love the Fast and Furious movies, and I'm not ashamed to say it.
Nobody wants sterile anymore. We're stronger when we connect.
The Biggest Hurdle: Killing Ideas Too Soon
When I asked about hurdles, Liz named one I see constantly. People try to come up with ideas and refine them at the same time.
Those are two different steps, she said, and you need to firewall them.
She pointed to John Cleese's book Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide. As Liz described it, Cleese argues that adults forget how to play, but play is where new ideas come from. And new ideas are fragile. They're easy to smother before they ever get a chance to grow.
Every time you kill an idea on arrival because "so-and-so won't like it" or "that's stupid," you lose a chance at something great.
Finding the gem idea is about at-bats. You don't need every idea to work. You just need one.
Takeaway: In your next brainstorm, ban critique for the first 20 minutes. Collect ideas only. Judge them later.
Checklist: The Human Content Check
Here's a quick checklist built from Liz's questions. Run your next piece through it before you hit publish.
- Did I observe first? Do I know what my reader is feeling, not just their job title?
- Is this what I'm really trying to say? Or did I water it down?
- Did I write this for a stakeholder or for a human?
- Is this preference or fact? If someone wants a change, which is it?
- Does it sound like me? Would someone recognize our voice without the logo?
- Is my personality adding meaning, or just confetti? Either is fine. Know which.
- Would I be proud to say this out loud? If it sounds like a robot, rewrite it.
How Do You Measure Human Content?
This is where Liz surprised me. When I asked how to measure whether content is truly human, she didn't reach for a dashboard.
She said you'll know.
You know when you gave it your all. You know when you gave up fighting for the idea you believed in, or phoned it in. And if you pretend otherwise, you'll keep looking at other brands' content and wondering why theirs has more spark.
She also offered a gut check I love. Are you only excited about an idea because someone else did it first? If someone pitched it in your meeting before anyone else had done it, would you have said yes?
Now, don't misunderstand. Liz is a big believer in content that makes money. She's said on stage that every piece of content needs a business case and a direct tie to strategy and revenue. That's how you measure the "what."
But the human element is what takes content from good to great. And as Liz put it, you can't always quantify it, because you'll never know how much business walked out the door to someone else.
How to Bring Humanity Into Your Content, One Step at a Time
This is how we'd walk through it with you at Sidekick. Don't try to do all five this week.
Step 1: Audit for autopilot. Read your last five pieces of content out loud. Mark every sentence that sounds like a committee or a robot.
Step 2: Write your messaging strategy and style guide. Define what you say and how you say it. Keep it simple and usable.
Step 3: Observe before you write. For your next piece, imagine your buyer across the table. Write down what they feel but won't say.
Step 4: Firewall ideas from editing. Brainstorm freely first. Refine later.
Step 5: Run the Human Content Check. Use the checklist above on everything you publish. And if AI helps you draft, make sure a human voice and real experience shape the final version.
Questions to Sit With This Week
- Is your light bulb on, or are you blending in to belong?
- Would your buyers recognize your content without your logo on it?
- What idea did you kill recently before giving it a real chance?
- Are you writing to get approval or to make a connection?
The Bottom Line: Do It Scared
Liz closed with words from her friend Natalie Franke, Chief Evangelist at HoneyBook and author of Gutsy: do it scared.
Then Liz told a story about one of her favorite movies, The Godfather. Today it's a classic. But during production, almost everyone expected disaster. Paramount pushed to make it a cheaper, modern-day story set somewhere like Kansas City. Studio leaders didn't want Marlon Brando or Al Pacino. Francis Ford Coppola later said he came close to being fired several times.
Masterpieces rarely look like masterpieces while you're making them. They usually come with a chorus of doubt.
Your content will feel like that sometimes too. That's not a sign you're failing. Liz said content can hurt because creating something from nothing is hard. That's the process.
So be human. Shine. Turn your light on. And when your finger hovers over the publish button, do it scared.
