Today, I’m so excited to share my conversation with Aila Morin, Chief Marketing Officer of MERIT and a founding member of the team. At MERIT, Aila leads the entire consumer experience — from creative and product development to marketing, customer experience, digital, and retail strategy. And yes, she stepped into the CMO role at just 30 years old.

In this episode, we talk about her very non-linear path into brand building, what she learned from seven early startup failures, and how she approaches building campaigns — often starting with the concept before the product even exists. We get into she thinks about hiring and developing top talent, and what emotional maturity really means when it comes to leadership.

At the core of our conversation is one big idea: Aila’s belief that she cannot build products she doesn’t personally believe in. Her approach isn’t trend-led or theoretical — it’s intuitive, rooted in lived experience, and deeply connected to community.

If you’ve listened to Creative Juicy before, you know how much I love speaking with people who work in brand, social, and marketing — and candidly, this is one of my favorite conversations to date.

If you’re building a brand, leading a team, or simply looking to level up in your career, this episode is for you.

So excited to share my conversation with Kavi Moltz, Co-Founder and Creative Director of D.S. & Durga, the Brooklyn-born fragrance brand known for world-building through scent.

We talk about building a brand around specificity and storytelling, the evolution from flea-market bottles to national retail stores, and what it looks like to grow a business as both a creative and a co-founder.

We get into the magic of scent and memory, how D.S. & Durga collaborates with artists and creatives, and what Kavi is looking forward to as the brand enters a new era.

Shop D.S. & Durga at dsanddurga.com

Grab the D.S. & Durga x Soft Services Debaser Buffing Bar for a special someone this holiday season

And find more CJP conversations at CreativeJuicyPodcast.com

Creative Juicy's very first VIDEO podcast!

A deep dive into the rise of Jacquemus, how Simon Porte Jacquemus built a brand that reaches far beyond the fashion subset, and tips for how to create brand affinity with your target consumer.

Let me know what you think in the comments! x M

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Shop Jacquemus in NYC at 143 Spring St.

Watch Creative Juicy on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ha15rd6mwYY?si=C9BL6K8l0kNXQy0C

Subscribe to CJP on Spotify to watch all video podcasts in app: https://open.spotify.com/show/5MhOb3l8qDZFqFNKhljzoF?si=d48760dbdc6948dc

Today I share a conversation I had with Natasha Pickowicz, a NY-based pastry chef and author of cookbook, More Than Cake.

Similar to Natasha’s cookbook title (though we do talk a little bit about baking and pastries in this episode), the core of it is really so much more than that and transcends industries. We talk about how Natasha approached the pivot she made in her late 20s to explore a career in food and restaurants, how she learned on the job and gained the skills she needed to excel from place to place, what it was like being let go in Covid and having to start from scratch and, of course, More Than Cake including how her cookbook came to be, the way she collaborated with her mom to bring the recipes to life, and a lot more. 

Buy More Than Cake HERE

+ follow Natasha on IG!

x M

THE BRENT BEHIND BRAT: A reworked episode from Episode #4 of Creative Juicy with Special Offer's Brent David Freaney

Read about him in the New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/26/style/what-is-brat-green.html

He's a genius and I am so proud of him.

Julia Haber is the Co-Founder and CEO of Home From College, a nationwide career platform that helps students start their professional journeys (think everything from building their resumes, to getting gig work, securing internships, and a lot more).

Julia herself has built a career studying and starting businesses in the college space, and I loved learning about how she’s grown Home from College from an impromptu domain purchase on March 15, 2020 just two days after the world went into lockdown to where it is today.

This conversation really took me back to experiences I had during my internship days, my college experience in general (which is not a time of my life I would choose to repeat), and I know I would have benefitted so much if Home from College if it were a thing when I was in that stage of life.

This episode is great for anyone who wants to learn from a self-taught leader (Julia has never had any corporate work experience and she’s pretty badass). It’s also a good listen if you’re interested in learning more about Gen Z or if you’re building something and want to hear how someone else has done it very successfully and methodically so far.

Enjoy! x

Julia on IG: https://www.instagram.com/juliahaber/

Julia on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@julia.haber

Julia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliahaber/

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Home from College: https://homefromcollege.com/

On IG: https://www.instagram.com/homefromcollege

HoC on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@homefromcollege

Sydney is the creative force behind All I Wanna Do (AIWD), a social media collective of strategists and creatives with a knack for telling brand stories that resonate.

Last time we spoke on Creative Juicy (Episode 9!), Syd was still part-time at an agency, while taking on her first few clients on her own (that episode is great if you want to learn more about agency life and getting your footing in the world of social) so I thought now was an excellent time to catch up since she is now fully dedicated to building the collective.

We talk about the kind of work that Syd produces for her client roster, what influencer marketing is actually good for these days, the role of community managers and why businesses should rethink that position in their corporate hierarchy, the few things she always does in order to win new client business, and a lot more.

If this sounds interesting to your or your brand, you can reach Syd at [email protected].

Enjoy!

Sofie Pavitt is a licensed esthetician, founder of Sofie Pavitt Skincare Studio, and now founder of her namesake product line, Sofie Pavitt Face. 

In this episode, Sofie and I talk about her career in fashion before facials and how that foundation set her up for success in what she’s building today, the moment she knew she could quit her job and do facials full-time, how she took the studio from one treatment room on canal street to two treatment rooms, to her first hire, and beyond, the reason Sofie went after problematic skincare, specifically, how’s she’s building a killer skincare brand that already has 17 beauty awards in just a year and a half (that’s right... 17 in just 18 months!), and so much more. 

I especially loved learning about how Sofie thinks about collaboration with brands in the same space and what she attributes to the PR pick-up she’s gotten in the press since she launched the studio.

She is clearly super smart and went after a need she identified in the market - and totally nailed it. It's also a need I personally relate to, as I’m sure many of you do too. 

I hope you enjoy my chat with Sofie as much as I did!

x M

Shop Sofie Pavitt Face: https://www.sofiepavittface.com/

Visit Sofie Pavitt Skincare Studio: https://www.sofiepavitt.com/

Sofie on IG: https://www.instagram.com/sofiepavitt/

Sofie Pavitt Face on IG: https://www.instagram.com/sofiepavittface/

Today I am taking a spin through the CJP archive and resharing a conversation I had with Ramon Owen, otherwise none as REO, very early on in my pod journey. It was actually my second episode released ever! 

REO is an artist across many different mediums. He’s a music producer, a photographer, a digital artist, he’s designing rugs, he’s a dancer - his artistry seriously has no bounds. 

It was a bit surreal for me to re-edit this episode because back when we recorded it in 2022, I never would have thought I’d be able to relate to some of REO’s life experiences as much as I can now. I wanted to re-release it because unless you’ve been with Creative Juicy since the beginning, you probably haven’t heard it and REO’s perspective on self expression and art as healing and creating with intention I think is a really important one. 

So I hope you enjoy it! This is REO for Creative Juicy!

x M

REO on Twitter: https://twitter.com/thisREO

REO on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisreo/

Michelle's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mich_wainwright/

Bec Mapes is an artist, designer, entrepreneur, and business mentor who has spent the last decade leading and growing sustainability-minded companies.

Today’s episode is a little different than most, because while I often have founders on to discuss their businesses, including what led to starting them, the challenges they faced along the way, how they think about brand and marketing and production, today Bec shares a realization she had after 3 years of building her own hair care line, that she is not the right founder for the brand she had built. I applaud Bec for her vulnerability and transparency in this conversation, and think it’s really important for other founders or creatives facing rejection to hear from someone who has gone through it and is still transitioning into her next phase of work.

We talk about fundraising and what Bec wishes she had known about it, the one thing she would have approached differently from an early age if she could press do-over, making mistakes, and how to change course and move on.

Here is Bec Mapes for Creative Juicy!

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Bec on IG: https://www.instagram.com/becmapes/

Winden on IG: https://www.instagram.com/winden/

Shop Winden: https://winden.world/