Once I spoke to this week’s grasp in advertising, I used to be shocked at how seamlessly she had mixed her two skilled loves, digital advertising and life teaching. I’ll admit to having been skeptical about life teaching up to now, however this dialog modified my thoughts. As a life coach, she developed a framework she calls the Three See’s — extra on that under — that may assist any marketer up their sport.
Meet the Grasp
Sheena Hakimian
Senior director of digital client advertising at Condé Nast and licensed life coach
Enjoyable truth: Sheena’s journey to turning into a life coach started at her favourite NYC restaurant, Piccola Cucina, which led her to taking an eight-month certification course. “The perfect choice I ever made,” she says.
Lesson 1: Give attention to what you’ll be able to management.
“There’s simply a lot change,” Hakimian says, in what I might contemplate a gross understatement in the intervening time. “From the [shift in traffic patterns] to us not understanding precisely how AI goes to form our jobs to issues occurring on the earth.”
When you deal with all of that without delay, it turns into muddle. (See: my mind.) And all these uncertainties simply breed extra nervousness. However “how do you construct resilience to uncertainty?” Hakimian asks. “It’s by specializing in the issues you’ll be able to management.”
As a marketer, this would possibly appear like what your information is telling you, understanding your buyer wants, or rising your e mail lists.
Condé Nast has a really various set of manufacturers — Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and Self-importance Honest are only a few — so Hakimian actually took the time this yr to “slice and cube. Actually understanding completely different segments of your web site and the way they reply to completely different components of your funnel.”
“We all know we will’t have a one-size-fits-all technique on our web site anymore,” she says. So about that slicing and dicing: She did A/B testing inside simply the politics part of Self-importance Honest. And she or he discovered that permitting readers one free article earlier than gating the content material — i.e., requiring a subscription — led to a 20% enhance in subscriptions of their check panels.
Hakimian and her crew have taken loads of time over the past six months to do that testing thoughtfully — as a result of what you do with the info is one thing you could management.
Lesson 2: Make your boss’ life simpler.
“What [is my boss] speaking about that may not be on the KPI sheet?” Hakimian asks. It’s not a rhetorical query: You’ll be able to’t clear up enterprise issues in the event you don’t know what they’re. “The mindset is, I’m right here to make my boss’ life simpler.”
That doesn’t imply Hakimian doesn’t care about herself — “it simply implies that I’m aligning [with] the people who find themselves accountable for my profession.”
![i’m aligning [with] the people who are responsible for my career. what [is my boss] talking about that might not be on the kpi sheet? —sheena hakimian, senior director of digital consumer marketing at condé nast and certified life coach](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/hubfs/sheena-hakimian-3-20250731-8315244.webp)
She’s spent a lot of this yr engaged on being communicator, even sharing her communication purpose along with her crew and asking them to carry her accountable.
And which means being listener.
Wanna make an impression? “Actively listening — if you actually pay attention,” Hakimian says, you’ll have the ability to ask higher questions and discover extra readability. Whether or not it’s a 1:1, a Zoom assembly, or perhaps a firm all-hands, Hakimian retains her ears open for issues, complaints, or different bugbears.
“After which I can simply shift my mindset — and clear up for that.”
Lesson 3: Construct a robust in-person model.
As each a life coach and a digital marketer, Hakimian sees her personal private progress — notably unlocking her self-confidence — as important to her advertising profession.
“An excellent tangible method to actively pursue constructing extra self-confidence — and in the end self-worth — is by constructing a robust in-person model,” she tells me.
It’s not that your digital presence is much less essential — “we’ve got to take management of how we’re perceived on-line,” she says — however Hakimian is “on a mission to remind people who the way you’re perceived [in person] is essential. Actually essential.”
So essential, in reality, that Hakimian constructed a framework she calls the Three See’s: The way you see your self, how others see you, and the way you see your future. She makes use of this proprietary framework in her life-coaching enterprise to assist different folks construct a robust, aligned private model.
However like every good marketer, Hakimian examined it out first — on herself.
“Getting tremendous self-aware and sincere with myself has launched loads of that imposter syndrome in order that I might go in and take dangers” in her job as a advertising chief at Condé Nast. And that, she says, will make you stand out.
Lingering Questions
This Week’s Query
Have you ever discovered AI making an impression in your work at Condé Nast? If that’s the case, has it been a internet optimistic or internet unfavorable? In some ways, the proliferation of AI content material is making creating high quality content material, particularly instructional content material, tougher so I am all the time curious how this new expertise is affecting different fields? —Max Miller, Founder and host, Tasting Historical past
This Week’s Reply
Hakimian says: From a advertising and subscription standpoint, we’re excited to discover how AI may also help us ship extra dynamic, personalised experiences on our websites. That stated, the human contact continues to be the guts of our technique, particularly relating to model voice and artistic path.
The rise of AI-generated content material has truly made high-quality, considerate content material much more useful. It’s simpler than ever to pump out content material, however a lot tougher to construct belief, credibility, and originality.
At Condé Nast, our distinctive edge continues to be our storytelling and editorial integrity. AI, to us, is a software to scale our voices round that, not substitute it. So general, I’d say it may be a internet optimistic when used with intention. However like something, it relies on how thoughtfully it’s built-in.
Subsequent Week’s Lingering Query
Hakimian asks: [Our next master in marketing has] constructed an unbelievable status for understanding Gen Z conduct and creating genuine, community-first content material. In a world that’s continuously chasing virality, how do you steadiness consistency with creativity, and what recommendation would you give to manufacturers attempting to construct real relationships over time, not simply attain?
