After I spoke to this week’s grasp in advertising and marketing, I used to be shocked at how seamlessly she had blended her two skilled loves, virtual advertising and marketing and lifestyles teaching. I’ll admit to having been skeptical about lifestyles teaching up to now, however this dialog modified my thoughts. As a lifestyles trainer, she advanced a framework she calls the 3 See’s — extra on that underneath — that may assist any marketer up their recreation.
Meet the Grasp
Sheena Hakimian
Senior director of virtual shopper advertising and marketing at Condé Nast and qualified lifestyles trainer
A laugh reality: Sheena’s adventure to turning into a lifestyles trainer started at her favourite NYC eating place, Piccola Cucina, which led her to taking an eight-month certification route. “The most efficient determination I ever made,” she says.
Lesson 1: Focal point on what you’ll keep an eye on.
“There’s simply such a lot exchange,” Hakimian says, in what I’d believe a gross understatement nowadays. “From the [shift in traffic patterns] to us no longer figuring out precisely how AI goes to form our jobs to objects happening on this planet.”
In case you center of attention on all of that immediately, it turns into muddle. (See: my mind.) And these kinds of uncertainties simply breed extra anxiousness. However “how do you construct resilience to uncertainty?” Hakimian asks. “It’s through that specialize in the issues you’ll keep an eye on.”
As a marketer, this may appear to be what your knowledge is telling you, figuring out your buyer wishes, or rising your e mail lists.
Condé Nast has an overly various set of manufacturers — Pitchfork, The New Yorker, and Vainness Truthful are only some — so Hakimian in point of fact took the time this 12 months to “slice and cube. Truly figuring out other segments of your web site and the way they reply to other portions of your funnel.”
“We all know we will be able to’t have a one-size-fits-all technique on our web site anymore,” she says. So about that chopping and dicing: She did A/B trying out inside simply the politics phase of Vainness Truthful. And she or he discovered that permitting readers one loose article earlier than gating the content material — i.e., requiring a subscription — ended in a 20% building up in subscriptions of their take a look at panels.
Hakimian and her staff have taken a large number of time during the last six months to try this trying out thoughtfully — as a result of what you do with the knowledge is one thing that you’ll keep an eye on.
Lesson 2: Make your boss’ lifestyles more straightforward.
“What [is my boss] speaking about that will not be at the KPI sheet?” Hakimian asks. It’s no longer a rhetorical query: You’ll be able to’t remedy trade issues in case you don’t know what they’re. “The mindset is, I’m right here to make my boss’ lifestyles more straightforward.”
That doesn’t imply Hakimian doesn’t care about herself — “it simply implies that I’m aligning [with] the people who find themselves liable for my occupation.”
![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://wpfixall.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/sheena-hakimian-3-20250731-8315244.webp)
She’s spent a lot of this 12 months operating on being a just right communicator, even sharing her verbal exchange objective along with her staff and asking them to carry her responsible.
And that implies being a just right listener.
Wanna make an affect? “Actively listening — whilst you in point of fact concentrate,” Hakimian says, you’ll have the ability to ask higher questions and to find extra readability. Whether or not it’s a 1:1, a Zoom assembly, or perhaps a corporate all-hands, Hakimian helps to keep her ears open for issues, court cases, or different bugbears.
“After which I will simply shift my mindset — and remedy for that.”
Lesson 3: Construct a robust in-person emblem.
As each a lifestyles trainer and a virtual marketer, Hakimian sees her personal private enlargement — in particular unlocking her self-confidence — as crucial to her advertising and marketing occupation.
“A really perfect tangible approach to actively pursue development extra self-confidence — and in the long run self esteem — is through development a robust in-person emblem,” she tells me.
It’s no longer that your virtual presence is much less essential — “we need to take keep an eye on of the way we’re perceived on-line,” she says — however Hakimian is “on a project to remind those who the way you’re perceived [in person] is essential. Truly essential.”
So essential, in truth, that Hakimian constructed a framework she calls the 3 See’s: How you spot your self, how others see you, and the way you spot your long term. She makes use of this proprietary framework in her life-coaching trade to assist people construct a robust, aligned private emblem.
However like several just right marketer, Hakimian examined it out first — on herself.
“Getting tremendous self-aware and truthful with myself has launched a large number of that imposter syndrome in order that I may pass in and take dangers” in her process as a advertising and marketing 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 affect to your paintings at Condé Nast? If this is the case, has it been a internet certain or internet detrimental? In some ways, the proliferation of AI content material is making developing high quality content material, particularly instructional content material, tougher so I am all the time curious how this new era is affecting different fields? —Max Miller, Founder and host, Tasting Historical past
This Week’s Solution
Hakimian says: From a advertising and marketing and subscription point of view, we’re excited to discover how AI can assist us ship extra dynamic, personalised stories on our websites. That mentioned, the human contact remains to be the center of our technique, particularly on the subject of emblem voice and artistic route.
The upward thrust of AI-generated content material has if truth be told made high quality, considerate content material much more precious. It’s more straightforward than ever to pump out content material, however a lot tougher to construct agree with, credibility, and originality.
At Condé Nast, our distinctive edge remains to be our storytelling and editorial integrity. AI, to us, is a device to scale our voices round that, no longer substitute it. So general, I’d say it may be a internet certain when used with aim. However like the rest, it is dependent upon how thoughtfully it’s built-in.
Subsequent Week’s Lingering Query
Hakimian asks: [Our next master in marketing has] constructed an improbable recognition for figuring out Gen Z conduct and developing unique, community-first content material. In a global that’s continuously chasing virality, how do you stability consistency with creativity, and what recommendation would you give to manufacturers seeking to construct authentic relationships over the years, no longer simply achieve?
