Positions Outside of Management with Executive Director of Professional Relations, Alisha Merlo
Welcome to another episode of “Dream Job with Danielle Cobo”!
Today, I am blessed to be joined by Alisha Merlo.
Alisha Rose Merlo has dedicated over 20 years of her professional life to the medical aesthetic space. Her true passions lie in helping practices deliver next-level patient experiences, optimizing operational efficiencies and boosting treatment and product sales. Working for leading organizations such as Obagi Medical Products and Medicis Aesthetics, where she spent 10 years of her career, she has been an award-winning sales professional and well-respected practice consultant. Alisha is often asked to share her expertise on podium at medical conferences and has been a contributing author in publications such as MedEsthetics Magazine, The Dermatologist, Executive Decisions in Dermatology and Plastic Surgery Practice.
Alisha is currently the Executive Director of Professional Relations for Colorescience® where she contributes to sales, marketing, training, business development, clinical studies, and key opinion leader and society relationships. She considers it the perfect blend of her experience and what fills her professional tank. Her recent passion project has led her to chair the North County San Diego Stop Traffic Walk and take on the role of Associate Director for the Coastline Dream Center Human Trafficking Prevention and Restoration program.
“We get hung up on doing everything so perfectly and that's just not the way life is" – Alisha Merlo
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Highlights
💫 2:08 A little about Alisha's career journey
💫 7:37 How Alisha made the pivot out of medical sales
💫 13:52 How Alisha created her dream position
💫 19:44 Say yes when opportunities present themselves
💫 22:23 How to push past limiting beliefs in the workplace
💫 25:35 Three takeaways from today's conversation
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Choosing the Best Decision that Fits You
I love to start my career journey with a mindset that I had. I started in medical [field] as a Director of First Impressions at the front desk in an Orthopedic Group. I had a college degree, part of a master's. And here I was, greeting patients, prepping charts, and answering phones. I say that because my humble beginnings really were a foundation for where I am today. And so when I was working in orthopedics, I always thought to look behind me and see what were the other roles and opportunities in the practice. It wasn't about me getting out and finding the next best thing. I was like, “Maybe the next best thing is here.” So through observing and asking about what other people were doing in the practice, and really seeing what was happening, I was able to move up and became a clinical study coordinator for the group.
And there, I loved it. I got to be part of innovations and new devices in spine surgery coming out, observe cases, work with industry very closely. And it was when I was working with industry very closely, listening to these presentations from the sales reps—I remember sitting there listening to one and thinking, “I could also do that job.” That was the voice in my head. Not only could I do that job, I thought I would really like that job. And so this was the time when the internet was really brand new. And monster.com was the only online job resource. And so as tenacious as I was, I just started applying for every single pharmaceutical drug job that was ever posted. And that included submitting 121 resumes.
Once I have an idea in my head or something that I want to go after, I really don’t give up. And I really felt that this was the next step in my journey. Then it came down to two roles. Sometimes we're also forced to face two decisions, right? We have to figure out what the opportunity is. So I was being interviewed at the time for a cardiovascular health company. At the time, it was called SmithKline Beecham, and it was for their hypertension portfolio. I flew out to the east coast because that was where the drug Central was. I had multiple interviews, and at the same time, I was being interviewed with another smaller company that was based out of California. But Glaxo offered me the job. And I was very excited. I thought this is prestigious; this is pharmaceuticals! Their training was six weeks in New Jersey. At the time I had a two year old. So you know the struggle of balancing home and career and I thought, oh my goodness, and I said, “Well, can I come back on the weekends?” They said no. They said, “We have to be there training. You have to be there for six weeks. That's the commitment you cannot leave.” I was like, “Well, what if I flew myself back?” And they said, “No, we need you there.” I really had wanted that job.
But I still was interviewing, as I had just mentioned. There was a smaller medical company based out of California called Obagi. And I also was very fortunate to get a job offer from them. And their training— the first thing I said is like, “How long is your training program?” And they said, “Five days in Kansas City.” I said, “Sold.” Because I really liked what I saw with the company, but it also fit and matched with where I was in my life. And that was an important step. I wasn't pursuing medical aesthetics, I just wanted this type of role. And I was willing to be able to do whatever it took, but not at the expense at that time of obviously, having a young family.
That really speaks to people when looking at organizations to work for: if a company is not supportive of individuals putting their family as the number one priority, they may not be the company I would necessarily want to work with because being a parent is first and foremost. Second is the job. But also being a parent is a motivator as to why you do the things that you do and why you continue to thrive in your career, because you want to provide for your family.
Sometimes it just depends on the stage in life that you're at. Sometimes you have more flexibility as I did have later on in my career when my husband decided to agree to be the stay-at-home parent. And I was able to pursue the opportunities I had ahead of me. But I agree with you that work-life balance—I think sometimes it's 50-50, sometimes 100-0, sometimes it's 60-40. It does change depending on the moment in time. But yes, family for me, is always part of the equation and the factor and being put at the forefront.
The “Next Step” is not always Climbing the Ladder
Tell us a little bit from there. How did your career journey go from being into sales to then transitioning into some of the variety of roles that you've had? Because a lot of times what happens is people enjoy their job, they want to accelerate their career, but they may not necessarily want to go into management. So where did you go? And can you share some of the different roles that you've had?
I went from Obagi, to being offered the opportunity to launch the first hyaluronic acid filler in the US with a company called Medicis. And that was a sales role. But I want to call something out, about how I was able to get that opportunity was because of my success at Obagi, for sure. I was Rep of the Year, won the Rolex—you know all the accolades that come along with being a successful person in sales. But at the same time, I always kept a pulse on the industry, what was coming, what was outside the US, what were doctors looking forward to. And so I was really very active not only in what my product or my day-to-day was, but what was going on outside.
So I was brought on as part of the initial team to launch wrestling the US and it was epic. It was an epic time. And I was honored to do that. And I worked for them in that sales role from 1993 until 2010. And so the same thing happened: I won multiple awards and all of those accolades of success that were important to me in my career. Those were acknowledging my hard work and effort, and what I did for my customers. But at the same time, I was always looking out for what the opportunities are. Obviously, the the standard path, as you said, is sales management, sales leadership. And so I had a couple of times where I filled in for people, for managers that may have gone on maternity leave or some vacancies in my territory during that time. But you know—I loved being a leader of people, I loved working with them—but I just really wasn't passionate about that. And it was a struggle, because I was like, “Okay, what's wrong with me? That's the next step, right? All the way up the ladder.” And I said, “Well, if I'm not passionate about it, I'm certainly not going to want to pursue it.” But I did again, as I did in the Orthopedic Group, as I did when I worked at a budget, I looked around me and asked what were the other departments? What were the other areas of opportunity? And I asked the people and established relationships with those departments in those teams and that was really important. Sometimes marketing and sales can have this tension, and I am not a tensed person. I am about really helping to break down barriers and walls when it comes to relationships, so I am very engaged with Marketing. But also at that time, there was a new team being developed called Professional Relations. And I was like, “What is this?” It was a really cool hybrid between kind of sales, but it was considered non commercial, but still customer facing. And that's another thing that I didn't feel for me in a management role that I wanted to give up: the day-to-day interacting with my customers, my partners—that was totally fulfilling for me to take them on the journey of working with our company. So we had this opportunity, and I latched onto every person on that team, and learned about what they were doing, learned about what the goals were for that team, and basically said, “If there's an opening, I'm interested.” And you can talk to several people who started that team before I joined it. They know I was pretty tenacious as I was with the 121 resumes. To say “I'm really interested in that”, “this would be my next step,” [I am] very transparent with my manager. I will be honest with you, I always want to have transparency and honesty and relationships. So my manager knew that I wasn't interested in taking her job, but really moving into another area of the company and had support there.
I'm glad that you speak to that. And the reason being is, when you work closely with your manager, and you really communicate what your goals are in taking that next step in your career, your manager can be your biggest advocate. They can align you to mentors within the organization, or to special projects to be on to get exposure to these different roles. So communicating your career goals and where you want to be is extremely beneficial when you're communicating it to your manager and linking arms with your manager to help you get there.
I was very fortunate to have some great managers at that time, who supported me for that, and they looked at their job was not just to ride the coattails of me being successful, but really to help push me on to where my next step would be in the company. And so I was able to work in professional relations there and helped build the team that was focused on practice development or practice management. This was really early on. So 2010, a long time ago. Now, every company has adopted to actually have a whole team that does this, but it was, I would say, the kind of special forces of the company. And through that, my job was actually to go to every thought leader’s practice, evaluate the patient experience from the first phone call to post treatment, to marketing, and put together a plan in place with them to be able to take it to the next level. And I'm talking about thought leaders, we're talking about the people you see on the podium, to the people you see in publications, and go into their practice and basically point out what they're doing wrong, or could be doing better. And I was blown away by the trust that I had, as I was able to establish with these doctors and be able to put together the opportunity for them to grow their business in this manner, in those roles. And that was really fulfilling for me.
There's so many companies out there that have adopted this role. The Special Forces rolling, really linking arms with these key opinion leaders and helping them set up for success. Because if they are successful, then it's the ripple effect to everybody else in the industry.
I am with an incredible company, I went back to skincare. I went from skincare to injectables, to device, to Health Tech, and then back to skincare. And it's not in any way a step backward. It was a step forward. So Color Science is an incredible company that has a legacy known for creating innovative products to protect and rejuvenate skin health. And I first connected with Color Science and the team there when I was working in another company doing more health tech type of things. And when I was working for a startup, I always seemed to have this startup attraction, doing things that have not been done before. When I looked back to prepare I have to say I took that leap of faith and did something I didn't do before. And so Color Science had approached me when I was in another role with a startup medical device company here in Southern California. And I realized in relationship with that with what this role was that it wasn't for me, it was actually a marketing position. It was a little bit junior to what I was doing but it really wasn't, at that time, great for me, but what I did was to make sure I maintained a really good relationship with the Chief Business Officer Teddy Bell who had approached me for this opportunity. I follow the company. I was really looking and listening to what they were doing. And then one kind of post success note, I got a note back from Tyson, “I need to share with you what we're doing. We're doing this really cool thing is it's really innovative.” And I was like, “I'd love to have coffee.” So I sat down, and listened to where the company was headed, going from a mineral makeup kind of line moving into really skin health and rejuvenation, putting science, doing clinical studies, really doing things that were really taking them to the next level when it came to their offerings. And he sat down, and he would always close out our calls with like, “Oh, I wish we could hire you. I wish we could poach you.” And I was so intrigued. And I said, “Well, what would that look like?” And literally, I think he was frozen because I'd always gently turned him down. He's like, “I don't know. We don't really have a job. Let me get back to you.” And so throughout the conversations, I had the opportunity to, I like to say, for five months “date” the company. And we realized where we were able to match what their needs were as an organization with my skill set and things that I was looking to do for the next step in my career. So it really was through listening and learning—paying attention to what's going on not in my world, but their world, bridging that gap and finding and some synergy there. So my role at Color Science, the title is Executive Director of Professional Relations, but I get to drive in every highway of an organization. So I do oversee our clinical studies. I love that part of it—from helping the team to be able to create the actual protocols for a study to publication, right all the way through getting to see that and oversee our thought leader relationships. I have been able to establish some incredible relationships over my two decades, with these thought leaders from my previous role. So I keep them in the know when I give them the corporate hugs and information and support them when they're on podium or in publication. I also am a part of training and development working with our learning platforms. I work and support our corporate accounts, so sales there—so I get to do marketing, sales and clinical. I mean, it is a unicorn of a job. And I am so grateful, because it keeps me interested. And it also keeps me learning and growing. It allows me to contribute so much to what I feel is our company's vision and purposes.
I love that you created this position, because a lot of times, people will just look at their company and go, “Okay, well, there are positions open. There are no positions open.” But really when you can take your skill sets and you can say, “I see an opportunity to continue the advancement within our organization and to add value to our customers. Here's all my skill sets that are going to take this organization to the next level”, you get to create positions. You get to add value. You get to use your skill sets. And what's the worst that could happen? Somebody would say no, right? But you were able to present this idea and they created it for you. And it really speaks to your success, your value, and all the different areas that you could work with an organization that you get to touch. You've pretty much touched every division within your organization. It's so special.
I'll share a quote that has driven me actually since college. The quote—I didn't know it in college, but [only] the sentiment behind it. And I stumbled upon it later in life, and it's from Sir Richard Branson. “If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you're not sure you can do it, say yes. And learn how to do it later.” I feel like we're always so caught up in perfectionism and making sure we're gonna get everything right and perfect all the time. And that's just not the way life is. And if you want to stay in that same box, obviously, it's very safe there. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if you're looking to grow, and you're looking to try to go beyond what might be the norm for the protocols, we talked about it, like going up and just saying, “I'm in sales. Now I'm going to be in sales management, then I'm going to move over here and move up there.” To really look around, you take that complete view of what's going on the opportunity in your organization, in your industry as well.
We let fear get in the way; we let our limiting beliefs get in our way. And it really, truly does us no service, and does not even do a service for that organization. If you're being offered something, it's because somebody recognizes your potential, your skills, your abilities, and even if we don't see it in ourselves, go for it. Just go for it. Don't be afraid. And as Richard Branson says, as you learned along the way—and I've learned on my long—you'll pick it up, and you surround yourself with others that can help you along the way who are already doing it right and already doing it well.
Ageism as a Limiting Belief
I've been around for a long time, right over two decades. You think that sometimes, your experience might make you show your age. That you're too old to be able to start off something new. Maybe you don't have enough energy; maybe you're not going to understand what the current trends are, or what is the most innovative out there. And I would have to say that is an absolute falsehood. Because when we look at life, knowledge is what we gain along the way. You don't gain the wherewithal to know everything by doing something one time. It's multiple times. Putting things into practice, failing, and then getting back up and figuring out a new way—all these things come with time and with experience. So knowledge is what we gained along the way. But wisdom, when we are at a later time in our life, is applied knowledge. And I think what we can do to overcome that is in our own mind. To not think that I'm too old to take on this new opportunity or this new role but to say I am perfectly equipped, because of all of the things that I've experienced in my life, to be able to be the best person for this role. That's my approach to ages. I mean, you have to get that number out of your head. It's just a number and yours can be unlisted. And to really pursue it is to recognize all that you've accomplished, all that you've acquired, and all that you can contribute to where your next step is going to be.
There's there's no replacing that experience. Everybody adds different values to their team in the organization. And in some areas, it's good to have somebody that's fresh, and new, and innovative, with a new perspective, someone new to the industry to ask questions. And then on the flip side, there's value to having somebody that's got industry experience who's had years of experience in their career, because they're able to be a mentor. They're able to share what's worked, what's not working, and really inspire and empower other people within the organization through their success and failures.
In life, and especially our professional lives, there are two things that we should treasure and nurture:
our relationships
our reputation
Those are earned through time. So I now can say when I worked in Professional Relations at Madison, I established relationships with thought leaders like Vivian Mackay and Amy Tao, and that I can actually text them on the phone really quickly on a weekend and get a reply. And I don't leverage that for professional gain. I leverage that because my heart is behind it. I've had years of time in industry with them. And forming those strong bonds and relationships, I can help to benefit them in something that they may need or go to them when it's something that we'd love to collaborate with them within the company.
What are three things that you want our listeners to walk away with?
Lead with giving before getting. I truly feel that if you lead with how you can help that customer, how you can help that company, how you can help that friend or family member, you are coming with a place and an intention that will touch somebody a different way, versus just trying to get something from them, get their business, get their order, get their help or assistance.
Surround yourself with wise counsel. This is actually very biblical.Faith is a very important part of my life. We often can get stuck in the vacuum of our own minds and experiences. And it's good to have people in your circle. And you know the power of three, right? You don't need 100. You need some trustworthy people whom you can be vulnerable with and whom you will trust and will be honest with you.
Overcome your barriers. Not just external but internal. You have to address both if you want to pursue something that will take you beyond where you are today.
