I’m the CEO of Fishwife. I rely on 'monkey bar' meetings and 8-mile runs to get things done.

Becca Millstein launched tinned seafood brand Fishwife in 2020, inspired by her own experience enjoying seafood tapas in Spain. Alyson Aliano for BI This is an as-told-to essay based on a conversation with Becca Millstein. She is the co-founder and CEO of Fishwife, a tinned seafood company based in Los Angeles. The following has been edited for length and clarity. I love my job so much. Since starting Fishwife, my life has been pretty much the same. Now there are just way more people to help me. I love being super hands-on, and that's definitely how I am as a CEO. It's about finding the balance between delegating and holding on to the things that truly bring me joy as the team grows. It's a huge transition. I'm used to doing those transitions because I started as just one person doing everything. I have faith in the system that if I give up certain things, the more important things for me at this moment will take their place. I try to keep things as simple as possible outside of work. I definitely could wear the same outfit every day for an entire week, and I often do. T-shirt, jeans, sweater, keep it focused, not wasting brain energy on it. Habit is really the friend of frenetic founders. Here's what a typical day in my life looks like. Millstein said her routine isn't glamorous: based in Los Angeles, she starts her day early to keep up with colleagues on the East Coast. Alyson Aliano for BI My busy morning starts at 6:30 am It's all pretty boring. Nothing too sexy. My usual routine when I'm home is to get up at 6:30 or 6:45, head into my office, and do Slack, email, and triage. There's no time for a morning routine because it's wake up and OK, let's go. Usually, calls start at 9 AM. So I basically have 7 to 9 AM to get through the first batch of emails because I'm on the West Coast, and we have a lot of East Coast and middle-of-the-country employees. It's an inferior time zone — when I'm working in New York, or even on Central Time, it's such a gift to get more time to do deep, focused work in the mornings. I'm diving into calls for many hours and usually freeing up around 3 PM. I run Fishwife with 'monkey bar' meetings and AI support We have one-on-ones on the team at Fishwife among many, many people. I feel like those are the monkey bars people are swinging to, keeping the momentum going: They're really focused, don't waste any time, and are clearly propelling us to the next action. That allows the company to move very quickly. We have intense documentation for everything at Fishwife. It's a real culture of note-taking. My favorite really basic tool is the agendas that we have linked in every single one of our meetings. We will not have a meeting at Fishwife without an agenda attached to it — ever. AI note-takers make it so much easier to make sure action items are followed up on. It's taken probably five to eight hours of work out of my week on average, sometimes much more if there's a presentation or something along those lines Usually, I'm ordering lunch between meetings and just powering through to 5 PM, which is not advisable. We should take breaks during the day. Fishwife is known for its eye-catching art, innovative flavors, and savvy marketing partnerships. Alyson Aliano for BI I need my long runs to process and catch up on podcasts I usually leave here about 5 or 6 PM and go for a long run, about eight miles. I just can't exist without it. I'd go crazy. I go on the same run every day or every other day. It's called the Arroyo Seco path; part of it runs along the Los Angeles River, which is kind of a misnomer because there's not a lot of water in it. A good half of it goes through really beautiful woods. With days going as quickly as they are and being as information-packed as they are, that is a really critical time for me to be outside and digest work issues. I do so much thinking about the day and how to deal with certain workplace issues, like hiring processes. There have been so many ideas that I've worked through or come up with for the company while running. I'll also do calls when I'm running so I can fit them into my schedule. I also take that time to listen to podcasts, usually business or news podcasts like Acquired, How I Built This, and Masters of Scale. I just started listening to Diary of a CEO. Then I listen to news like Ezra Klein, The Daily, Pivot, things like that. It's very enriching because I do not read a lot outside of work these days, sadly. And I look forward to the runs to digest and move my body. It's the cherry on the sundae at the end of every day. I catch up on deep focus work before dinner My husband [musician and comedian Pete Martin, who performs as Petey USA] cooks me dinner while I work. That is the quietest time for me to be able to focus, so I'm either getting through emails or deeper projects. I'm about 60% as productive at night. I'm not necessarily doing my best thinking, especially because I've been on calls all day. But I know I need to clear everything out and check off my to-do list, because if I don't, the next morning will be like hell on earth. I'll talk to Pete while he's cooking, too. I'm not helpful in the kitchen except for moral support. I unwind with walks and TV, and swore off social media After dinner, Pete and I hang out. We love to go on little walks around the beautiful neighborhood we live in. Evening runs are a non-negotiable part of Millstein's routine to catch up on podcasts and think through the events of the day. Alyson Aliano 2026/Alyson Aliano We also love to sit on the couch. There's always a lot of stuff to talk about at the end of the day, so we chat a lot. We've been watching a lot of horror-comedy or new-wave horror TV shows — recently Widow's Bay, which was the best show I've seen in a while, Severance, and Something Very Bad is Going to Happen. I deleted social media — no Instagram, I never use TikTok, and I feel like that's been good. Although I still need to look at it for my role, it's really helpful not to have it on my phone. I keep a strict bedtime so I can get seven hours of sleep I try to have as little sleep as I need to perform at my best, and that's seven hours. One day, eight hours would be cool. If I sleep five hours, I can't do my job, so there's no point in trying. Historically, if I've made a decision and thought, "Why did I do that? It doesn't make any sense," it's always when I'm not well-rested, I'm traveling, or I'm working super myopically on one project, and I'm not thinking as critically. If I'm consistently going to bed every night at 11:30 PM and waking up at 6:30, that feels good. I repeat the same thing most days. I always work on Sundays, so I'm ready to attack the week. There's so much going on that's unpredictable and changing that I really want to control the variables I can control. Consistency is key. Read the original article on Business Insider

Read it at Business Insider ↗

← Front page