Codie Sanchez has an 'intense' approach to meetings and 3 rules she swears by

Entrepreneur and creator Codie Sanchez knows she has a "kind of intense" approach to meetings.

"Meetings should only be for people who need to be in them, because nobody wants more meetings than you need," she said. "So I'm always asking: Does everybody at this meeting need to be in here?"

The ex-Wall Streeter made a name for herself by buying "boring" businesses like laundromats. She founded the Austin, Texas-based company, Contrarian Thinking, which helps owners buy and build businesses. Sanchez also has a big social media presence, including 3.3 million Instagram followers, and hosts the No. 14 business podcast on Spotify.

Sanchez said a "big thing at the company" is that anyone can leave any meeting if they feel they're not supposed to be there. It's not to be rude, but to maximize efficiency.

"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.'"

She'll often say, "Do we need to talk about that? Should we sideline this?"

"That can be seen as kind of intense, but in my mind, what I'm saying is, 'I'm saving you time,'" she said. "So it's more important to be efficient than sugar coat it and be nice."

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For her, that means no meetings before 10 a.m., so she can save the mornings, when she's most productive, to do work that requires 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."

She said most of the success she's had in her career has come down to making good decisions.

Helping owners find efficiencies so they can run their business without being constantly present is a theme of Sanchez's new book, "Own or Be Owned: Build a Business So Good It Doesn't Need You." It's a follow-up to her New York Times bestseller "Main Street Millionaire."