Emma Lenhart Of HireInfluence: How AI Is Disrupting Our Industry, and What We Can Do About It
An Interview With Cynthia Corsetti
Look to Work Already Being Done in the Space.
Spend time digging into what is already being done in your field of work with AI. For marketers especially, there are campaigns, companies and projects launching every day.
Artificial Intelligence is no longer the future; it is the present. It’s reshaping landscapes, altering industries, and transforming the way we live and work. With its rapid advancement, AI is causing disruption — for better or worse — in every field imaginable. While it promises efficiency and growth, it also brings challenges and uncertainties that professionals and businesses must navigate. What can one do to pivot if AI is disrupting their industry? As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Emma Lenhart.
Emma Lenhart is a digital marketer passionate about helping brands grow their presence through creative marketing and storytelling. She originally relocated from Cleveland, OH, to Chicago to pursue a Public Relations and Advertising Bachelor’s Degree at DePaul University. While in college, Emma freelanced digital marketing services to brands from her dorm room, and also launched a self-titled lifestyle blog and grew a following online. In 2022, Emma joined the HireInfluence team to help ideate influencer marketing campaigns and digital strategy for brands.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series. Before we dive into our discussion our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about what brought you to your specific career path?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by aesthetics and felt a strong need for personal creative expression. Growing up, I loved taking photos and planning photoshoots with friends, filming and editing videos, curating outfits I liked…anything where I was able to create something physical that first started as an idea in my head. This piqued my interest in marketing and the creative fields within the industry before I was formally introduced to digital marketing as a senior in high school, working as a PR intern in Cleveland. When I moved to Chicago for college, I was blown away by the teeming creative community within the city and its ability to celebrate individuality, which inspired me to start sharing my creative ideas on social media and continue to work in digital marketing.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
The team of people I work with at HireInfluence are open to learning from others and adapting to the ever-changing landscape of this industry. I’ve learned the most during my time at this agency from others on the team who are willing to share their own area of expertise with me.
I’ve also been encouraged to pursue opportunities for growth and expand my own understanding of marketing/advertising whenever possible, which is important to me. I recently attended Adweek’s NexTech 2023 conference virtually on behalf of HireInfluence; a 2-day conference experience that allowed me to hear top marketers from companies like Pinterest, Spotify, and Buzzfeed speak about shifts they are seeing in both the tech and marketing industries on the horizon. From that experience, I was able to take my own notes back to the HireInfluence team, and share my learnings to foster further conversation and learning.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
I would say being resourceful, curious and empathetic.
I attribute a lot of my success thus far to my resourcefulness. A lot of moments in my career have prepared me to instinctively respond to challenges in business in this way now, especially while in undergrad freelancing and managing my first few clients. That time in my life taught me how to seek information and use those findings to build solutions to whatever difficulty I was facing.
Another character trait of mine is that I am an innately very curious person. My curiosity always signals to me that I should follow that pull and expand my learning or understanding of whatever I’m wondering about. I think being truly curious and knowing when to lean on others to learn from them and their experiences is undervalued in today’s world — and having the humility to recognize that you don’t know it all.
Leading with empathy in business has always helped me and allowed me to feel more fulfilled at work. Connecting with others in this way allows me to be a better colleague to members on a team, communicate with kindness, and highlight others for their unique gifts and talents. While working in the marketing and advertising industry has lots of pressure for performance, I always strive to operate from a human-first lens and shed light on the people behind the scenes that make it all happen.
Let’s now move to the main point of our discussion about AI. Can you explain how AI is disrupting your industry? Is this disruption hurting or helping your bottom line?
I feel excited about AI and the opportunities this new tech can bring to the marketing industry and beyond. In my opinion, I see so much potential for how AI and data-led marketing can help marketers better understand their target audiences, which translates into more effective, engaging and personalized marketing experiences. To me, AI feels like it is really raising the bar for marketers, and I think that it has the power for good when used responsibly.
Can you share a pivotal moment when you recognized the profound impact AI would have on your sector?
There have been lots of conversations at work this year about AI and AI-based initiatives we’ve seen in the industry. However, it was only until I set aside proper time to dive deeper into my AI learning and try it myself that I had my eyes opened to the possibilities of the tech.
How are you preparing your workforce for the integration of AI, and what skills do you believe will be most valuable in an AI-enhanced future?
I think the ability for marketers to remain flexible and adaptable as we continue to integrate AI is what will be really important here. There is so much to learn from AI right now but as with any new tech, it can change and progress rapidly. Being open to AI now and in the future while maintaining your ability to pivot as a marketer will be crucial.
What are the biggest challenges in upskilling your workforce for an AI-centric future?
I’ve seen over my career in marketing that change is often met with pushback and resistance. I think getting the larger industry on board and open to working with AI will be a big challenge across the board, as some people will inevitably want to stick to how things have been done in the past. However, I like to challenge this way of thinking and see it as an opportunity for continual growth and education for everyone involved.
What ethical considerations does AI introduce into your industry, and how are you tackling these concerns?
There are a lot of ethical considerations that need to be brought to attention and discussed among the marketing and creator marketing industry. A big priority for me is to make sure that AI is used responsibly — and in my work, this looks like me viewing AI as a tool to have in my kit, rather than something that would replace my own original work and ideas. Additionally, I think there is an urgent need to protect the value of creators/artists’ work and intellectual property in conversations about AI. There is so much passion, hard work and time that goes into working with artists and creators on content, and AI in my mind cannot replace the value of human-crafted creative or storytelling. I want to see a reality in which both things can work in tandem.
What are your “Five Things You Need To Do, If AI Is Disrupting Your Industry”?
1 . Jump In.
Instead of staying intimated by AI, find a way to jump into learning about it beyond the surface layer. This could be so many things — a podcast, YouTube video, learning course, etc. but something that educates and demonstrates AI that interests you.
2 . Look to Work Already Being Done in the Space.
Spend time digging into what is already being done in your field of work with AI. For marketers especially, there are campaigns, companies and projects launching every day.
3 . Talk to Others/Peers, Have Conversations about AI.
Talking to others about what they are seeing and learning at work is so valuable — and is what initially got AI heavily on my radar for 2023.
4. Play Around/Have Fun!.
It’s fun to experiment with new tools and you never know what may come of it. Try to take the pressure off of learning everything about AI and instead, play around with the new tools you learned about back in the aforementioned podcast/video/course.
5. Experiment With How to Add AI to Your Work.
After getting experience with AI, think about ways in which having this tool at your disposal can change your current workflow. Which problems in your business could potentially have AI-powered solutions?
What are the most common misconceptions about AI within your industry, and how do you address them?
I think a lot of people are scared of AI without even knowing what it is and what its capabilities are. And while I can acknowledge this viewpoint, I truly think that this stems from a misconception and fear people have that AI will take their job/position/etc from them. Instead, I would challenge people to think about AI as a positive asset for marketers; where it can help inspire ideas, complete tedious tasks, provide data on customers to get a better and more comprehensive picture of your consumer, etc.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?
There is a short poem by Erin Hanson that reads:
“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask, “What if I fall?”
Oh, but my darling,
What if you fly?”
I first read this poem as a teenager, invigorated by these words as I dreamed about the possibilities of my future ahead of me; but also feeling anxious and worried I might not succeed. As I’ve grown as a person and a woman in business, I keep the question “What if you fly?” close to me, to serve as a reminder that there is a choice to be made in the mindset of how to approach potential, and that I define my successes/failures. Choosing optimism and trusting in my abilities is an active choice I have to make to remain empowered by life, instead of retreating into being fearful and backing away from it. It also reminds me to always encourage other people around me to dream big and not hide their own visions for things they want to see made real in the world.
Off-topic, but I’m curious. As someone steering the ship, what thoughts or concerns often keep you awake at night? How do those thoughts influence your daily decision-making process?
A lot of my work is on the creative strategy side of digital marketing, so I find that ideas for current and potential campaigns are what occupies a lot of my headspace. In my day to day life, I consciously try to make an effort to pay attention and remain present in order to notice motifs and small details around me that can spark inspiration. For my daily decision making, I make an effort to check-in with myself and work alongside my intuition.
You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
My movement would be about fostering creativity and acceptance from a young age, instead of criticizing personal creative expression. The stories I’ve most resonated with and been most motivated by are those told by other people who have had to strive through adversity in order to make it to where they are today. I’ve had to overcome this struggle myself, as I dealt with a lot of negativity from peers while expressing myself creatively at a young age. While I know now that these experiences can be character-building in business, I wish I could protect young people from unwanted negative outside influences, and instead “fan the flame” of their creativity so that it can grow and flourish unapologetically.
How can our readers further follow you online?
You can find me on all social platforms under @emmaklenhart.
Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About the Interviewer: Cynthia Corsetti is an esteemed executive coach with over two decades in corporate leadership and 11 years in executive coaching. Author of the upcoming book, “Dark Drivers,” she guides high-performing professionals and Fortune 500 firms to recognize and manage underlying influences affecting their leadership. Beyond individual coaching, Cynthia offers a 6-month executive transition program and partners with organizations to nurture the next wave of leadership excellence.