We’re going to say something that might ruffle a few feathers in the marketing world.
The advice you’ve been given about “speaking directly to your ideal client” and “addressing their pain points and desires” the stuff every marketing guru and business coach has been telling you for the last decade?
In 2026, it’s not enough. And frankly, we’re all bored of it.
Scroll through any Instagram feed right now. Count how many infographics you see. Count how many posts start with “Struggling with [insert client pain point]?” or ” Are you a [insert direct ideal client avatar]” Count how many captions feel like they were written by a committee, or increasingly, by an AI that’s been fed the same marketing playbook as every other AI.
Now count how many times you actually stop scrolling.
The content that stops the scroll isn’t the polished infographic. It isn’t the perfectly crafted pain point post. It’s the human moment. The unexpected one. The one that makes you think “oh, I didn’t expect that from them.”
We know this because we’ve been proving it, in our own business and in our clients’ businesses, for years.
The data nobody talks about
Let’s start with some numbers.
Our weekly newsletter has a 65% open rate. The industry average sits at around 35-40%. That gap that 25-30 percentage points of people who open our emails when they’d ignore someone else’s, isn’t because we write better subject lines. It’s because our newsletter reads like a letter from two humans [ well a letter from Alan!], not a broadcast from a brand.
We talk about what we’re watching on Disney+. We reference Ted Lasso. We mention the chaos of the week, the kids, the glue sticks on the dining table. And then,woven into all of that, we deliver something genuinely useful about online visibility.
People open it because they actually want to read it. Not because they think they should.
But here’s the example that really tells the story.
Our best performing LinkedIn post of all time wasn’t about online visibility. It wasn’t a case study or a tips carousel or a thought leadership piece. It was a photo of our family sitting on a kerb at a European service station on a road trip to Spain, and a caption debating why European motorway services are so much better than British ones.
Comments. Shares. DMs. More engagement than almost anything we’d deliberately crafted to perform well.
Because it was real. Because it was unexpected. Because it made people smile and think “oh, they’re actual humans.”
“But I need to talk about my business, not my life”
We hear this a lot. And we completely understand the instinct.
You’re not a lifestyle blogger. You don’t want to turn your business account into a personal diary. You have expertise to share and services to sell and you’re not sure where running, or road trips, or your slightly chaotic home life fits into any of that.
Here’s the reframe.
You’re not sharing personal content instead of business content. You’re sharing personal content as a bridge to business content. You’re using the human moments to invite people into a relationship, and then, once they’re in, the business naturally follows.
Alan talks about his running on social media. A lot. Ultra marathons. Fell running. The 5am starts. The questionable training decisions. And you know what? Approximately two thirds of one of our most recent Digital Circus cohorts [our online visibility community] traced their journey back to Alan’s running content. Not to a sales post. Not to a carefully crafted visibility tip. To a conversation that started because someone else ran too.
That’s not a coincidence. That’s human connection doing what human connection does.
The ten florists problem
Here’s a thought experiment.
Imagine ten florists in the same city. All roughly the same quality. All roughly the same price range. All on Instagram. All posting beautiful photos of their arrangements.
Now scroll through their feeds. Bouquet. Bouquet. Wedding flowers. Seasonal arrangement. Bouquet. Bouquet.
They’re all lovely. They’re all technically good content. And they’re all completely indistinguishable from each other.
Now imagine one of those florists starts showing up differently. They post a video of the chaos of a Saturday morning when three wedding deliveries are all going out at once. They share the story of the customer who cried when she saw her birthday arrangement. They post a photo of their hands, scratched from thorns, stained with pollen, with a caption about why they still love this job after fifteen years.
Which florist do you remember? Which one do you feel like you know? Which one do you call when you need flowers for something that really matters?
This is the “you are the niche” principle in action. The florist hasn’t changed their product. They have changed their visibility. And the differentiator isn’t their flowers, it’s them.
Human connection isn’t soft. It’s strategy.
We run a flagship annual event called the Funpreneurs Big Day Out. On the surface it looks like a networking event at a theme park. And yes, there are workshops and business conversations and genuinely useful content throughout the day.
But the real magic isn’t in any of that.
It’s the moment two people end up sitting next to each other on a rollercoaster and spend ninety seconds screaming at the top of their lungs together. By the time they get off that ride the professional guard is completely down. They’re not two business owners carefully managing first impressions anymore. They’re two humans who just had a ridiculous shared experience.
The conversations that happen after that moment are completely different from the conversations that happen at a standard networking event. They’re honest. They’re real. They go somewhere.
And the clients who’ve been part of that journey, both at our events and in our online community, stay longer, go deeper, and trust us with more of their business. Not because we’re better at what we do on those days. Because the relationship is built on something more than a transaction.
That’s not a soft benefit. That’s retention. That’s lifetime value. That’s the kind of warm audience that arrives at your website already predisposed to say yes.
Human connection isn’t the nice-to-have. It’s the commercial strategy.
The AI problem [and the human solution]
Here’s something worth saying out loud in 2026.
We are absolutely drowning in AI generated content. You can spot it within seconds. The slightly too perfect structure, the generic examples, the language that’s technically correct but somehow feels like it was assembled rather than written. It’s everywhere. And we’re all quietly exhausted by it.
Which means something genuinely interesting is happening. In a world where polished, generic, algorithmically optimised content is cheaper and easier to produce than ever before, genuinely human, specific, personality led content is becoming more valuable. Not less.
The scroll stopping moment isn’t the perfectly crafted post anymore. It’s the one that could only have come from one specific human, living their specific life, with their specific perspective. The one that makes you think “only they would say it like that.”
AI can absolutely be used to help with productivity, structure and output. But it can’t replicate your voice. It can’t replicate your stories. It can’t replicate the fact that you once sat on a kerb at a Spanish service station and had strong opinions about the can of cold coffee. [Because cold coffee is where it’s at on holiday!!]
You are the machine. You are the voice.
And in 2026 that is your single most powerful competitive advantage.
So what does this actually look like in practice?
We’re not talking about oversharing. We’re not suggesting you document every moment of your life or manufacture vulnerability for engagement. You’re not Katie Price with her mucky mansion.
We’re talking about something much simpler. Finding the moments from your real life that connect to what you do and who you are, and weaving them into your content deliberately.
The rule we give our clients, and the one we live by ourselves, is #BeSocial. Social media’s number one job is to be social. Not to broadcast. Not to sell. To connect.
That means replying to comments like a human, not a brand. It means sharing the behind the scenes moment, not just the polished outcome. It means letting people see the person delivering the service, not just the service itself.
Because people don’t buy from businesses. People buy from people. We all know that cliché. The difference is actually doing something about it.
Where to start
If this is resonating and you’re not sure how to make your content more human without it feeling forced or uncomfortable, that’s exactly the kind of thing we work on with our clients.
It starts with understanding your online presence as it currently stands. What story are you telling? What story could you be telling? Where are the gaps between the two?
Our Online Visibility Audit gives you a forensic look at your entire digital ecosystem — including your content, and tells you exactly where to focus your energy for the biggest return. Delivered to your inbox within 3-5 working days. £195. No calls. No faff.
Book your visibility audit — £195 →
Or if you’d like a proper conversation about how to make your content more human and more effective — book a free virtual cuppa and let’s talk.
Have fun always. 💛 Emily & Alan, Yellow Tuxedo
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