The Tamesis
In business and life, Merit’s chief marketing officer Aila Morin’s number one rule is to always push through; a philosophy she attributes to her growth as an executive and, frankly, her mental health. “If I have a problem, I have to be able to say, ‘Thank you so much for sharing this with me and let me get back to you,'” she said. “[Realizing] I don’t need to provide someone with an immediate response [has honestly been the most important thing for my nervous system]. I have never regretted taking a step back. “
In speaking with Maureen, it was immediately clear how decisive she is, both professionally and personally. She describes herself as a creature of habit who automates anything she can. However, she did not try to systematize creativity. Her best ideas are formed on airplanes—at cruising altitude with no available WiFi; on vacation, when she’s off the grid, or in what she calls in-between moments, like her morning commute and her dentist appointment. “[Ideas] “I get together quickly, like 20 minutes, but it’s hard to control when that happens,” she said. “Then I write it down as quickly as possible and share it with the team as early as possible because I like to download an idea.”
Morin joined Merit as senior vice president a year before Merit launched in 2020, when the brand was still in its founding stages; it didn’t yet have the lineup of makeup essentials for millennial and Gen Z women that you may know and love today. Although she will be technically promoted to CMO in 2023, the core focus of the job will remain largely the same: “Overseeing product development, creative, marketing, customer experience, everything end-to-end across the brand, as well as laying the business foundation for direct-to-consumer and the Sephora spinoff,” she detailed.
As CMO, Maureen must straddle two worlds: operations and creative. Because she lives in two worlds—an operational world and a creative world, she continued. “I live in the left-brain side of ‘Building a P&L,’ thinking, ‘How do we drive profits and how do we drive scale?’ And then I live in the creative side of, ‘What do we name the product, what’s the positioning, what’s different and special about it?'” I asked her how to connect? This split. What’s the answer? Location and strategic dispatch.
She told me that her hometown in Los Angeles inspired her creative side. “I have more space,” she said. “I have an office with all my bits and pieces in it, [so] I can think. When I go to New York, usually once or even twice a month, I’m there working on the P&L, externalizing projects, implementing something through the business. Over the past six years, Morin has led Merit through countless launches, campaigns, and milestones. In the process of building the business and growing the team, her personal time decreased. In her 20s, she threw herself into her career without taking a break from taking care of herself. Now she asks, “How much time am I creating for myself?” What non-negotiables have I invested in my personal life? How can I apply the discipline I practiced when starting my business to how I take care of myself? “
Eight hours of sleep and daily exercise (whether it’s Pilates, an hour of walking or playing tennis) are crucial. To make sure she hits her goals, she schedules all her workouts at the beginning of the week and plots them on a calendar with transportation routes for her commute marked. “It’s more of a commitment to get it done even if it doesn’t look perfect,” she said. “When I say I make it a priority, I structure my life around achieving it as if it’s my job.” Morin will even ask for walking meetings with team members or, if necessary, squeeze in a quick 20-minute strength workout after a long flight.
