Codie Sanchez says her approach to meetings is 'kind of intense,' but the goal is simple: waste less time and make better decisions.
The entrepreneur and creator, who leads Contrarian Thinking, says meetings should only include the people who actually need to be there. She also says anyone at her company can leave a meeting if they feel they are not needed, and she often asks whether a topic even belongs on the agenda.
'We’re not that big of a company, so they might just be like, 'Anybody need anything for me? I think I’m not needed here. I’m going to go work on X,'' she said. 'And everybody would be like, 'Okay, cool, bye.''
Sanchez also protects her mornings. She said she schedules no meetings before 10 a.m. so she can use her most productive hours for deep thinking. 'My brain’s smarter in the morning than it is in the evening,' she said. 'By the end of the day, I’ve had decision fatigue. And I think that’s true for most people.'
That focus on efficiency runs through her broader business philosophy. Sanchez said most of her career success has come down to making good decisions. She also wrote about cutting people from processes, automating work, and avoiding too much time in meetings and status updates so founders can focus on harder problems.
The founder of the Austin, Texas-based company also uses practical guardrails to keep herself on track. She said she is forgetful with dates, so she uses a virtual assistant for reminders. She also lives by her calendar, uses a timer when she needs to focus, and even has a red light pointed at her face at her desk and a treadmill for phone calls.
Sanchez’s new book, 'Own or Be Owned: Build a Business So Good It Doesn’t Need You,' is built around that same idea: owners should build companies that do not require constant presence. It follows her New York Times bestseller 'Main Street Millionaire.'
For founders, the lesson is straightforward. Meetings are not a badge of importance; they are a cost. Every unnecessary attendee, every unfocused agenda, and every hour blocked in the wrong part of the day eats into output, margins, and momentum.
The founders who get this right move faster. They protect their best thinking time, keep the room small, and turn meetings back into a tool instead of a habit. That is how you build a business that runs on decisions, not on calendar noise.
