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In business and in life, Merit\u2019s chief marketing officer Aila Morin\u2019s number one rule is to always sleep on it; a philosophy she credits to her growth as an executive, and frankly, her mental health. \u201cIf I get hit with a problem, I have to be able to say, \u2018thanks so much for sharing that with me and let me get back to you,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201c[Realizing] I don\u2019t need to provide someone with an immediate reaction in the moment [has honestly been the most important thing for my nervous system]. I have never regretted taking a step back.\u201d<\/p>\n
What becomes immediately clear in speaking with Morin is how decisive she is, again, both in professional and personal spheres. A self-proclaimed creature of habit, she\u2019ll automate anything she can; though, she doesn\u2019t try to systemize creativity. Her best ideas are formed on airplanes\u2014at cruising altitudes with no working WiFi; on vacation when she\u2019s off the grid, or in what she calls the in-between moments, like on her morning commute and at the dentist. \u201c[Ideas] come together for me very quickly, say 20 minutes, but it\u2019s hard to control when that happens,\u201d she says. \u201cThen I just write it down as fast as possible, and share with the team very early because I love to download an idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morin joined Merit as a senior vice president a year prior to its 2020 launch, when the brand was still in its inception stage; not yet the lineup of makeup essentials targeted towards millennial and Gen Z women that you might know and love today. Though she was technically promoted to CMO in 2023, the core focus of the job remains largely the same: \u201coverseeing product development, creative, marketing, customer experience, everything end-to-end that you experience in the brand, as well as creating the business fundamentals of the direct-to-consumer and Sephora split,\u201d she details.<\/p>\n
As CMO, Morin has to straddle two worlds\u2014the operational and the creative. \u201cI live in the \u2018building a P&L\u2019 left brain of \u2018how are we driving profit and how are we driving scale?\u2019 And then I live in the deeply creative side of \u2018what are we naming a product, what is the positioning, and how is this different and special?\u2019\u201d I ask her how she bridges? this split. The answer? Location and strategic scheduling.<\/p>\n
Her home base in LA, she tells me, brings out her creative side. \u201cI have a lot more space,\u201d she says. \u201cI have an office with all my bits and bobs, [so] I can think. When I go to New York, which is usually once, if not twice, a month, I\u2019m there to work on a P&L, to externalize a project, to operationalize something through the business.\u201d Over the last six years, Morin has shepherded Merit through far too many launches, campaigns, and milestones to count. In building the business and growing her team, her personal time has shrunk. In her 20s she was all career\u2014all gas, no breaks when it came to taking care of herself. Now she asks, \u201cWhat is the time that I\u2019ve built for myself and what are the non-negotiables that I put in my personal life? How can I apply the discipline that I put into building a business to how I take care of myself?\u201d<\/p>\n
Eight hours of sleep and daily movement\u2014be it Pilates, an hour walk, or tennis\u2014are essential. To ensure she hits her goals, she schedules all her workouts at the beginning of the week, and plots them on her calendar with transit blocks for commuting. \u201cIt\u2019s more like a commitment to get it done even if it doesn\u2019t look perfect,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I say I make it a priority, I adjust my life around making that happen as though it was my job.\u201d Morin will even request walking meetings with team members, or squeeze in a quick 20-minute strength workout after a long flight if necessary.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n