Bluemercury CEO Marla Beck wakes up every day at 6 without an alarm

Marla Beck, cofounder and CEO of
Bluemercury.
Kate
Warren

• Marla Beck, the cofounder and CEO of beauty-store chain
  Bluemercury,
  has a jam-packed morning routine.
• Beck said in a
  column at The Cut that she wakes up naturally at
  6 a.m. every day, walks four miles or runs up to five miles,
  reads four newspapers, and tests beauty products in the office
  in her master bathroom — all before heading into work.
• Beck is one of many CEOs who say they wake up before dawn to
  jump-start their workdays.

There’s nothing laid-back about being CEO of a cosmetics company,
and Marla Beck is proof.

Beck, the cofounder and CEO of beauty-store chain Bluemercury,
revealed her jam-packed morning routine in a column by
Jessica Prince Erlich at
New York Magazine’s The Cut.

Beck told Erlich that she wakes up every morning at 6 a.m. —
without the aid of an alarm clock — and walks four miles with her
husband Barry, the other cofounder of Bluemercury and the
company’s chief operating officer. On days when Barry is
traveling, Beck said she does five miles of interval training at
the gym instead.

Back home by 8 a.m., Beck said she powers through four morning
newspapers: The New York Post, The New York Times, The Wall
Street Journal, and the Financial Times.

Read more:

21 successful people who wake up incredibly early

One some days, Beck said she doesn’t head into work until as late
as 11:30 a.m., but that’s because she’s already started her work
day from home. Beck wrote that every morning, she tests beauty
products from the home office in her master bathroom — sometimes
the process involves dozens of products and spans up to three
hours.

Beck’s habits mirror those of other successful executives like
Apple’s Tim Cook, GE’s Jeff Immelt, General Motors’ Mary Barra,
and Virgin Group’s Richard Branson, all of whom have reported

waking up before dawn to jump-start their work days.

So far, Beck’s routine has led to success for Bluemercury. In
2015, Macy’s acquired the chain for $210 million while keeping
her as its CEO. Bluemercury now has shops in Macy’s stores as
well as more than 150 freestanding locations across the US.

“I’m always thinking about products, I’m never off,” she
told The Cut. “But I’m lucky that I have the opportunities I have
to create and have a family. I’m really lucky.”