If you have a brand in 2026, you should be thinking about one thing: how to make your content feel more human.

It feels all kinds of yikes to even admit that we’ve reached a point where human isn’t the default. But bots and AI slop aside, I think we’ve also just reached an inflection point in marketing.

People are tired of optimizing every corner of their lives. People are tired of being told there’s always something they need to fix.

That means that leading with your authority or expertise isn’t always the best first move anymore (though, of course, those things are still important!). But before people care about what you know, they increasingly want to know you/your brand. They want to experience your perspective. They want to feel confident that you aren’t duping them and actually understand what they’re going through.

And if there’s one surefire way to make your content feel more human, it’s to bring more real-life human voices into it. (Go figure, right?)

Anddd how do you uncover those voices and stories?

You guessed it: interviews.

Interviews are a big (and favorite) part of what we do at ES ContentCreative. We interview our clients to understand the stories behind their brands, and we interview people on their behalf to uncover the real-world impact of their work.

For Catapult Greater Pittsburgh, for example, our ongoing blog content was rooted in interviews with the people at the heart of their work — from cohort members sharing deeply personal experiences to local changemakers and leaders shaping their programs. Those conversations gave us the details, perspectives, anecdotes, and direct quotes we simply couldn’t uncover from a brief alone.

And that’s exactly what they can add to your brand too — that little dash of spice here and there that can bring your website, blogs, social content (really, your entire brand) to life.

But there is most definitely an art to conducting a good interview. And after doing hundreds over the years, I may not be anywhere near Ira Glass or Oprah status, but I have landed on a few principles that help me avoid reading stiffly from a question list or racking my brain to fill an awkward silence.

File these away for the next time you need to ground your copy in the real voices and perspectives of the people your brand serves.

1. Do your research

This may seem obvious, but it’s a step people often brush past.

Before you write a single question, spend time thoroughly researchingyour interviewee — and I mean a deep dive. Read their website and previous interviews. Scroll through their social media. Listen to podcasts they’ve appeared on. Consume whatever relevant content you can find about that person, organization, or brand.

This gives you the context you need to ask informed questions rather than wasting valuable interview time rehashing information that’s already readily available.

It also makes everything that follows better.

2. Start with small talk

Okay, I’m not one who usually advocates for small talk, but there’s a time and a place for everything.

I’ve found that a little chit-chat before the official interview starts helps establish a connection and puts the interviewee at ease. And the more comfortable someone feels with you, the more likely they are to move beyond rehearsed talking points and give you something real.

Now that doesn’t mean you have to have a 10 minute conversation about the weather, but do try to identify one or two genuine points of common interest during your research and use those as your launching pad.

You could say, “Hey, I noticed you also studied X. What did you think of your program?” or “I saw you just got back from Lisbon — I was there last month and loved it.”

The point is to find a natural entry point into the conversation before you start firing off questions.

3. Structure your questions like a story arc

Just like a good story, your interview should have a beginning, middle, and end.

Here’s the format I’ve found works well in most situations:

• Start with their origins and why: How did they get here? What sparked the idea, decision, or work you're discussing?
• Move into the meat of it: What are they doing? How are they doing it? What challenges, decisions, or turning points have shaped the process?
• Finish by looking forward. Once they’re warmed up, move into the bigger-picture, philosophical, or more challenging questions. What have they learned? What do they think needs to change? What comes next?

Beyond helping the conversation flow, this structure gives you something incredibly useful when you sit down to write: the bones of a story.

4. Triangulate your curiosity

Triangu-what now?

Allow me to explain.

People respond to genuine curiosity. When you’re actually interested in someone’s answer — rather than simply working your way through a predetermined list of questions — they can usually feel it. And that genuine interest tends to lead to more illuminating conversations.

But your curiosity shouldn’t exist in a vacuum.

The best questions sit at the intersection of three things:

·      What makes you curious: If something catches your attention, follow it.

·      What interests your interviewee: If they light up when talking about a subject, there’s probably something worth exploring there.

·      What matters to your audience: Because ultimately, the conversation still needs to serve the people who will read, watch, or listen to it.

Find the overlap between those three, and you’re much more likely to uncover something worth sharing.

5. Incorporate context

Remember all that research you did? Now’s the moment to put it to good use.

Instead of asking broad questions that could apply to anyone, reference specific aspects of your interviewee’s work, experience, or background throughout the interview.

Rather than:

“What strategies have worked well for you?”

Try:

“I saw that you led X campaign in 2022. What did that experience teach you about Y?”

That extra bit of context immediately adds depth to the question. It also signals to the interviewee that you’ve done your homework and are genuinely invested in the conversation — which often encourages them to give you a more thoughtful answer in return.

6. Challenge assumptions

A good interview shouldn’t simply confirm what you already know.

Look for opportunities to question assumptions, explore tension, or ask why someone chose one approach over another.

For example:

“Most people in your industry seem to approach this through X, but you chose Y. Why?”

Or:

“There’s a common assumption that X is the biggest challenge here. Is that actually what you’re seeing?”

These questions can move the conversation beyond surface-level explanations and into the reasoning, nuance, and perspective that make an interview genuinely interesting.

Just remember: challenging an assumption isn’t the same as trying to call someone out. Approach it with curiosity, not confrontation.

7. Don’t be afraid to go back to basics

Remember when your teacher said there is no such thing as a stupid question? Well, I beg to differ, buuutt I will stand by the fact that basic does NOT equal stupid.

Something that feels obvious to your interviewee may be completely unfamiliar to your audience. And occasionally, asking someone to explain the fundamentals produces one of the clearest — and most useful — answers of the entire conversation.

Ask them to define the problem they’re trying to solve. Explain why something matters. Describe an idea as if they were talking to someone who knows nothing about their industry.

You may uncover an important detail you had overlooked, cr you may simply prompt them to explain something complicated in refreshingly accessible language.

There is one important caveat: don’t use “going back to basics” as an excuse for skipping your research.

If ChatGPT can answer the question in .5 seconds, you may want to consider if you should spend your interviewee’s time asking it.

The best interviews feel like a good yap sesh

Ultimately, a strong interview isn’t about asking the cleverest questions or simply acquiring information.

It’s about creating the conditions for someone to tell you something meaningful.

So do your homework, give the conversation somewhere to go, listen closely enough to notice when something unexpected deserves a follow-up — and MOST importantly — stay curious about the person sitting across from you.

Because when you get people talking about the things they know, care about, struggle with, or believe in, you walk away with that valuable thing we talked about at the beginning of this article — perspective.

And that’s often what makes a brand feel human in the first place.