How Not to Miss the Sound of Opportunity Knocking with Alisha Merlo
Leadership is creating a better future for your business and others.
In this episode, The Girls of Grit continues their conversation with Alisha Merlo. With 25 years of experience in the medical aesthetic industry, Alisha shares her unconventional path, from retail and telecommunications to her true calling in healthcare, showcasing the power of resilience and seizing opportunities.
Alisha reflects on her transition from a front desk director to a clinical study coordinator, where her interactions with device reps ignited her passion for the medical device field. She shares valuable lessons on persistence, continuous learning, and aligning career choices with personal values and family priorities.
Her leadership insights emphasize creating a better future, empowering others, and maintaining a balanced approach to mind, body, and spirit.
Tune in to gain valuable perspectives on navigating career transitions, embracing opportunities, and leading with purpose and integrity.
Episode Chapter Markers
00:00 Introduction and Special Guest Announcement
04:44 Alicia's Journey into Healthcare
05:24 Early Career Experiences
06:05 Transition to Orthopedic Practice
08:32 Pursuing Pharmaceutical Sales
10:06 Reflecting on a 25-Year Career
14:07 Insights on Leadership
20:51 Empowering Others and Final Thoughts
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
The Power of Resilience in Career Transitions: Alisha’s path from retail and telecommunications to medical aesthetics shows how resilience can turn setbacks into career opportunities.
Leveraging Early Career Experiences: Her shift from a front desk role to a clinical study coordinator highlights how early jobs can be stepping stones to future success.
Aligning Career Choices with Personal Values: Alisha’s career choices reflect how aligning with personal values and family priorities enhances job satisfaction and balance.
The Importance of Continuous Learning and Growth: Emphasizing ongoing education, Alisha shows that a growth mindset is crucial for long-term career success.
Healthy Leadership: Discover what healthy leadership means and why it's essential for both personal well-being and team effectiveness.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“It's so important that we as professionals, as women, as leaders and aspiring leaders really can have the opportunity to connect.” — Alisha Merlo
“Leadership is creating a better future for your business and others.” — Alisha Merlo
“A healthy leader produces faithful followers.” — Alisha Merlo
“Your leadership is not just about being the boss of somebody and having a direct report or a team.” — Alisha Merlo
“Your leadership is how you are helping others grow, whether they're on your team or not on your team, in your neighborhood, in your church, in your family.” — Alisha Merlo
“If you're healthy in your lifestyle, then you're healthy in your mind and you're healthy in your business.” — Anneliese Rhodes
“If you're the best where you are, there's going to be so many doors open that you don't see.” — Cynthia Ficara
“When you find another woman who can empower you, you become so much better.” — Cynthia Ficara
Mentioned on the Show:
Polaris Project: Organization with education and information on human trafficking prevention
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. They have amazing information on child sex trafficking and the growing crime of Sextortion which is another form of child sexual exploitation.
Learn more about Human Trafficking and how you can support the cause.
About 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 a well-respected practice consultant. Alisha is often asked to share her expertise on the podium at medical conferences, is a frequent podcast guest, and has been a contributing author in publications such as MedEsthetics Magazine, Modern Aesthetics, The Dermatologist, Executive Decisions in Dermatology, Plastic Surgery Practice, and Ask Us Beauty Magazine. She has also been featured in publications such as SDVoyager and Canvas Rebel.
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 her role the perfect blend of her experience and what fills her professional tank.
Alisha has a heart for community service, and this passion has led her to contribute her time and talents to efforts to end human trafficking and support survivors. She is the Chair of the North County San Diego Stop Traffic Walk, the Associate Director for the Coastline Dream Center Human Trafficking Prevention and Restoration program, and a founding task force member for the ASLMS New Beginnings Branding Tattoo Removal Program.
Alisha and her husband call beautiful San Diego home. She thrives on being outside and enjoys time at the beach, hiking, or taking walks with her two grandchildren (with the best SPF protection, of course).
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A Team Dklutr production
Blog Transcript:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Anneliese Rhodes: Hey, Cindy, and hey to all of our listeners out there, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Secrets in Medical Device Sales brought to you by The Girls of Grit.
Cynthia Ficara: Thank you, we are very excited to have a very special guest on our show today. And, honestly, I'm just going to step back and allow Alicia to completely introduce herself and tell us your story and we just are very excited to.
How Alisha’s Diverse Career Path Led to Success in Medical Aesthetics
Alisha Merlo: Well, first of all, I have to thank you, ladies, not just for having me as a guest but for creating a space for us to gather, get together, listen, and learn from one another. It's so important that we as professionals and as women, as leaders and aspiring leaders really can have the opportunity to connect.
So thank you for creating a space and I am honored to be your guest. And it's a fun story to tell and I love that I get to share it with you upfront. Thanks, because my journey into healthcare and the aesthetic side of healthcare is like a tapestry, I'd like to say it's woven between determination and opportunity with a little bit of what I'd like to say grit and grace, that you guys kind of have in your podcast name.
So I graduated college with a degree in speech-language pathology, which sounds extremely brilliant and bright and just exciting. It was for sure, but my path initially kind of paused when life circumstances paused my pursuit of a master's degree, which you need to become a licensed speech-language pathologist, along with some other kind of post-educational experience.
I'm not going to dive into that, but in the interim, I kind of experienced a lot of different things. I was in retail sales, I sold aerobic clothing, and I sold shoes when Nine West had shoe stores. And then I even sold voicemail, I remember like this is how old I am. I'm a level 55 in a few months and so I sold voicemail and it came out and it was like the stutter tone voicemail, the one that made answering machines obsolete.
That's how old I am, and it would be like you pick up the phone and you hear that stuttering dial tone, you put in your code and you get your voicemail. So I saw that residentially and commercially and talked about the difficulty in understanding sales and it from telesales that selling something that had to do with telephonics.
It was kind of crazy, but it was great. But I was very persistent, and I just had this longing to return to healthcare that was just beckoning me because I was in roots and so I seized a role, in a very busy orthopedic practice, and I thought to myself, I am not somebody who has a big ego. If I'm trying to start, I'll start at the ground level and I feel there's great value when you get in on the level because then you see everything as you go up and you have an understanding of the foundation, right?
Because that's the strength of it, and so I was completely resolved to be the best first impressions front desk person that I could ever be. I was keenly observant, I observed everything I wanted to say, I didn't just only look at who was in front of me, which was the patients, but I looked at who was around me, beside me, and all the other facets of the practice.
So what were other people doing in the practice? How could I make their job easier in the role that I had, but how could I see the opportunity perhaps to do something else? And that helped me to be able to see the possibilities out there, and what I wanted to do and what I didn't want to do. I knew I didn't want to get into billing, and I knew I didn't want to run the practice.
And really if you wanted to get to that higher level, somebody had to die which is like getting on the Supreme Court, it just wasn't happening. However, I felt attracted to this role in the practice called the patient care coordinator and working directly with the surgeon, which I know you probably work with these types of people with the surgeons that you work with.
And I thought, you know, that's what I want to do but there was no opening. However, the group eventually brought on a young spine surgeon. And I was like, raising my hands like this is the job I want. And so I was able to start working with a spine surgeon. I felt so grateful because he was just a kind of a teacher and he was young and excited and fresh.
He allowed me to do so much more, and he would teach me how to read MRIs. I got to do medical assisting and then eventually I got elevated into the role of being his clinical study coordinator. That then allowed me to engage even more directly with the device reps that we worked with, especially from the study, and even the drug reps as well.
I was always a person when somebody came in. I wanted to present their product, I would listen to the lunch, I would just grab and go, which a lot of people would do. And I thought that's disrespectful. Number one and number two, I'm like, I'm going to learn something, I know I'm going to learn something.
I'm the girl that asks a lot of questions and so I can distinctly remember sitting across from this pharmaceutical rep who was talking about this muscle relaxant, which I probably could have told him about as well. But I just sat there and in my head, this voice goes, I could do that job and then I was like, aha, that's what I'm going to do.
And so what I decided to do was tell my surgeon and he 100 percent supported me. He said, go for it. This is when the online job opportunities just started coming up. And there was one site called Monster. com. I sent out 121 resumes to every pharma job in Northern California or the Bay Area.
That's the area that I lived in at that time that was available, I mean, I didn't care. He wrote me a great bed of recommendation, I had my resume, and I was just going to go with whatever was out there. I was going to throw my hat into the ring to get it. Eventually got called in for an interview, and moved to the final stages for a pharmaceutical company for their cardiovascular health portfolio.
And I thought this was hitting the big time. I sat in there and they made me the job offer, but they said you have to come in for training and the training was six weeks. And I had just had a child, a couple of years before my son was two but you know, so fairly newly married and I just couldn't leave and they weren't flexible with me coming back in between.
And so I had to regretfully decline that opportunity. I was kind of heartbroken, but at the same time within those 121 resumes, there was a small dermatology company that was focused on skincare and that won me over because they only had five days of training and it aligned perfectly with my family obligations responsibility and getting my foot in the door for some sort of medical pharmaceutical sales.
I didn't care where I ended up. I just wanted to end up in that overall field but man 25 years later you guys. I reflect so gratefully on a career path that has been sculpted by learning, growth, and the privilege of enhancing aesthetic care for people. Each step has been a testament to developing resilience and the power of I think you guys speak about this a lot with your guests, seizing pivotal moments in your life.
And so 25 years later, which is the 25th year of me being in the medical aesthetic space, I feel so grateful. My faith is my foundation and I truly feel that God has led me into this marketplace, to incorporate so much that he has gifted me with to bring back to the world, my peers, and the partners I work with.
That's kind of where it has led me to Color Science. I've been with a lot of really cool companies and leaders in the industry and Color Science by far has been the best organization that I've ever worked with, celebrating almost seven years with them.
The Power of Resilience and Seizing New Opportunities
Anneliese Rhodes: Alicia, that's fantastic. And you know, one thing that you said that kind of struck me towards the end is when you realize that even though that pharmaceutical job was going to be amazing for you, it wasn't going to work for you. And I think, you know, sometimes we as women struggle because we want to just seize every opportunity.
We want to just go out there and conquer it all. But I think what you did was very wise beyond your years. And that was you recognized what was most important to you, which was your family. And lo and behold, another opportunity presented itself and you took a hold of that and here you are 25 years later, happy.
I'm sure your family is wonderful and intact and your kids are older now, of course, but that is something that has to be commended because I think sometimes we think another opportunity is never going to come. If I don't do this one, I'm never going to be able to get another opportunity, and you did.
You know, it sounds like it came pretty soon after and see where it's led you now. So I commend you on that and I want to encourage our listeners those out there that think, well, I have to go after this job because it's the only thing I can do. No, you don't. Other opportunities are going to present themselves. You don't have to take a job and you shouldn't have to take a job.
Alisha Merlo: Not when it comes to high risk and expense and cost to you personally. And I think that my life experience before pursuing that allowed me to build up that resilience to keep my eyes open to other opportunities as I did in the orthopedic practice, right?
I was like, okay, let me taste and see and experience what's out there and what is or isn't going to work for me, whether that's because I just wouldn't have a passion, for example. Doing the numbers piece of it, there are people way more gifted than me. I'm terrible at that stuff, I’ll leave it to those experts, but I think that a true thing is to be able to recognize what you want and what you don't want and be okay with embracing and recognizing that some things aren't going to be for you and you just don't have to go through it because of fear of something else not showing up. And fear is a terrible thing for us to succumb to professionally and personally.
Cynthia Ficara: Absolutely. You know, Lisa and I have done an episode on that, and there's an acronym that when we think about fear, it's this was not coined by me, but it's false evidence appearing real, it's not real.
You know what? I'm going to go back to something else, and you said in your story, you chose a word I thought was interesting when you said, you know how your path has grown. You said it was sculpted by learning, et cetera. I believe that you made your path and everything that you did was amazing.
And I got to tell you, you said something that I think we need to highlight. You were talking about going into that front desk and you said, I want to be the best front desk person. That is one of the key things that women in careers need to understand in careers is that if you're the best where you are, there are going to be so many doors open that you don't see.
And then you literally walked right through that and when you said by learning and being open, you sculpted this career to be doing what you're doing today and where you are. And I just think that's extremely commendable, and so it's very exciting to hear you say that and very encouraging that other women out there can do the same thing.
Alisha Merlo: Thank you. I appreciate that so much.
Defining Leadership and Creating a Better Future
Anneliese Rhodes: One of the things that we love to ask a lot of women that we interview and men, especially when you're in a leadership position is what does leadership look like to you? Because it's a really hot topic for a lot of our listeners. And, you know, it's interesting.
We hear kind of the same message from a lot of leaders, but we'd love to hear from you and your perspective and what that looks like and how you got to where you are today in terms of your leadership abilities and the teams that you have and really what's formed that.
Alisha Merlo: I appreciate you asking this question and letting me know it was coming and listening to your past guests as well helped me to prepare. I took some notes on this because service level, when you think of leadership, people think of, you have a team and you're in charge of building the strategy and then having those work with you on your team execute that strategy. But I'm like, how can I make this more sustained and how I view leadership?
I wrote down a couple things so if you indulge me a little bit I'm going to refer to my notes but they're in front of me. In just its essence, leadership is creating a better future for your business and others. That was what just spoke to me, a better future for the business that you're in and for others.
And I say others because we're not only leaders within our professional life and our place of work, but we're leaders in our homes, and in our communities. For me, in my church, I've assumed some leadership roles and some outreach roles. So really, our leadership and the talents that we bring extend even beyond the boundaries of, you know, who signs our paycheck and who we spend 40 plus hours a week with.
I think in essence, it’s really about building that better future and helping others to recognize that and be a part of it, even finding them in themselves. And then there were two other things if you can indulge me too, that I was looking at with leaders. So look at this and I looked at like, you know, we've heard the analogy like a boss versus a leader or a manager versus a leader.
I'm not going to get into that. I'm going to focus on some of the positive things.
The Essence of Healthy and Empowering Leadership
Alisha Merlo: So I was looking at things like, what makes a leader healthy because health is a super big part of my life, mind, body, and spirit. And so in leadership, what does healthy leadership look like? And I said, well, a healthy leader produces faithful followers, right?
People want to be able to come alongside you and support your vision, your genes, and your strategy, because of what you're offering to them. So instead of being unpredictable, somebody that's healthy and has a clear vision. You're not domineering, but you listen, you collaborate, and you're not secretive. Transparency, trust, and visibility are incredible. I see that as a huge trait and something I value in the leaders that I work with today at Color Science. You're not passive, waiting for stuff to happen, but you're very active.
A healthy leader is engaged in the day of the organization as well. You don't have to be in it doing it, but you know what's going on. When you're a healthy leader, I think people want to follow you. They want to sacrifice and they want to give you their best every day you show up.
And then the other thing I thought about leaders. What does it take to be an empowering leader? So you're not just producing followers like some sort of, mindless cult but you're producing other great leaders because a lot of times people don't recognize their leadership potential because maybe they're not in a title of leadership.
Maybe they don't have direct reports and I'm gonna be honest with you, I right now don't have any direct reports in my role, but I am a leader within my organization because I work cross functionally with almost every single group in the organization. Empowering leaders do all the things that healthy leaders do that I just shared, but they're not focused on themselves. It's really how they empower people with the ability to say yes to the opportunities they receive and the visions they have. And I think that ability to help others say yes, creates that kind of culture of empowerment.
So those are a few things that you guys stimulated me to think about when you ask about what leadership is to me.
Anneliese Rhodes: I love the mind, body, and spirit. Cindy, what about you?
Cynthia Ficara: Well, so mind, body, spirit brings me to one of the most, you know, whenever you hear something, it throws you back. So I was a swimmer for a long time and I did master swimming and we had this coach who also trained the other young swimmers and I tried to come on early Friday mornings and it'd be a busy week.
And some days I'd be really tired or some days I'd have a headache or some days you're like, Oh, this is crazy. And he would look at me and he would say, mind, body, spirit, get in the water. And it was one of these things where he's like, yes, you have a lot of work, but you're not going to be your best until you put it all together, and if you're not nurturing those simple things.
I can see him right now just standing on the side of the deck telling, mind, body, spirit. He was a coach for 47 years, you talk about leadership. That's somebody who coached Olympians. So, Dudley Duncan is his name and it's something that will stick with me.
He also coached my daughter. I just sat there and thought, you're right. What I loved, you just mentioned healthy leadership and empowering leadership. It brings so much more. And so I really thank you for that because we have a lot of listeners that might be thinking about advancing in their roles or currently, but there's also the box, right?
We always think about the box of leadership that we only are to serve this, like you said, direct reports underneath. And I liked that you opened the word leadership to a lot more that we can bring to our teams and our businesses.
Anneliese Rhodes: Yeah. I love that mind, body, and spirit. I mean, when you said, and it made me think of, you know, health and diet, and Cindy and I are as active as you are.
And you know, it's all about if you're healthy in your lifestyle, then you're healthy in your mind, you're healthy in your business. It shows, you know, in the clothes you wear off that thing, all those things combined to give you more confidence. But when you said a healthy leader, it just brought to mind a really strong yet open leader who is shining brightly, right? Like just to me, it's like a bright, shining leader and it's somebody that I would want to follow no matter where they're going. If they're going to take me up this massive mountain that I'm going to have to climb, I'm going to do it because they're doing it with me and they're happy to do it, and they're encouraging us.
And it's just like your coach, Cindy, it's all about being that healthy model. Not an unhealthy browbeating, beating you down. You know, you're going to do this because I said this type of mentality. And like you said, you bring that to the home too, right? I mean, we're mothers, we're wives, we're sisters, we're aunts.
We bring a certain amount of leadership as well, even into our friendships. And I think it's so important to keep it all healthy. So I love that.
Cynthia Ficara: Yeah, I know the new word you coined new word, healthy leadership
The Power of Encouraging Leadership
Alisha Merlo: It's like being able to recognize as a leader the potential of others, and as an example, one of the things that I've been able to do in my role at color science is, you know, I said I don't have direct reports right now I created a community of our partners who are subject matter experts, their nurses are licensed as statisticians or business professionals within the practice, and we call them are no better skin pros.
And so they're kind of people that aren't ambassadors or where they're just promoting the products, but they're educating and elevating their peers and others to be better in their business, in their treatment recommendations in understanding and product knowledge. But what is part of being a pro is that they also have opportunities to elevate to get on podium to publish articles in journals and the magazines to be able to provide media opportunities for quotes in publications and beauties.
So I've had the joy of doing all that in my profession, which has been such a blessing. And now I see all these other pros that don't have that opportunity but have the skill sets and the desire and the drive to want to do it. And so I am coaching them through this process. So they're the ones now at the level of leaders.
And that has been so much more exciting. And I have a great leader who you interviewed Heather Goodchild. She was one of your guests and she also speaks on the podium. I'm just going to give you an example of somebody in a leader, encouraging your coach to encourage you, right? Like pushing you because he saw the potential within you.
And I'm sure Lisa, you haven't had the same exact experience with people in your life. You just haven't thrown the story out there, but, you know, I'm always aware of deadlines to submit abstracts to speak on the podium. That's the way it usually works right at these medical conferences. And so a deadline I was coming up last Friday and I had already had our pros who are submitting and I'm like making sure they're getting their abstracts and helping them craft what their talks are going to be.
And I love that, and I said to Heather, I think I'm going to sit this one out for this one. And she goes, no, you need to talk, you need to submit it. You should talk about this, or you should talk about that. And I was like, okay, and I went back because at the beginning of every year, I prepare myself and I write out about five to six abstracts that I would think I would like to speak about that would bring value to others, not just for myself.
And I just went to my archives like okay what do I have in there and it was so interesting because a couple of the things that I had in there were right in line with what she was encouraging me to do. Here I am being encouraged by somebody who is my leader to do something that she sees in me that would bring value and an opportunity to grow and shine.
It's such a really important thing to consider for your listeners, your leadership is not just about being the boss of somebody and having a direct report or a team. Your leadership is how you are helping others grow, whether they're on your team or not on your team, in your neighborhood, in your church, or in your family.
Cynthia Ficara: Well, you just had a perfect example. And I see why color science is so successful. And, again, this is another company that's majority women, and here's Heather, your leader, encouraging you, but you just gave the example of what you did for the others. And you know what it is? It's like you have this company of all the people who want to be the best at the front desk, you said that at the beginning.
When you encourage people, they want to come work for you and you provide this culture that allows them to grow and do better. And that's where you see things succeed as Lisa and I talked about in one episode about how when you find another woman who can empower you, you become so much better.
And it's so great to hear your examples of how you work with these other women who lift you and bring value to your business. So kudos to you all over there, Color Science, because you're certainly doing something.
Alisha Merlo: We got the secret sauce for sure, but it's not a secret because we keep coming on podcasts like yours and speaking, so hopefully the gospel of being a good, healthy leader is getting out there to everybody.
Cynthia Ficara: Well, that's our new secret. You know, we are the secret to medical device sales, so we've got the new healthy leadership secret. Thanks to Alicia.
