Sallie L. Krawcheck is the CEO and Co-Founder of Ellevest, the digital-first investing platform for women. Ellevest empowers women to take control of their finances, and recently announced a $33 million fundraise, with investors like Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Aspect Ventures, PayPal, Mastercard and Valerie Jarrett. Before founding Ellevest, Sallie worked on Wall Street, where she was the CEO of Merrill Lynch, CEO of Smith Barney, and CFO of Citigroup. Wondering what this business mogul does to kickstart a successful day? She shares a typical morning in her life below.

 

Time you wake up: Depends on the time of year. Winter is Seasonal Affective Disorder season for me, which wreaks havoc on my sleep. Then I’ll wake up as early as 3am. Other times of year, I’m more of a 5am gal.  

 

4:30-5:30 A.M. I wake up and stare at the ceiling. I turn off my alarm clock (which is set for 6:30am), since I’m already awake.

5:30 A.M. If I’m at home (I travel a couple of days a week), I go into the kitchen and bring on the liquid. Water, orange juice and coffee. I pour a little half and half into a saucer for the cat and put it next to me. I go through overnight emails and social media feeds, skim news, try not to send Slack messages to the team with new ideas from overnight. I give up trying not to send Slacks and send them. Have another coffee.

6:30 A.M. I watch the sunrise with said coffee in front of the big windows in the front of my apartment. I pat the other cat.

7:00 A.M. I get ready for work. I internally grumble about the extra 15 minutes (or more) a day that we women have to spend on hair and makeup, which the guys don’t. (And that 15 minutes a day adds up: it’s an hour and 15 minutes a week; 5 hours a month; and 60 hours a year….or one full workweek a year.) But I do it anyway.

8:00 A.M. I grab a Lyft to work. The morning doorman and I tend to high-five each other as I get into the car. He’s the best.

8:30 A.M. I arrive at work, in the Flatiron District of New York City, to a typically pretty empty office. We have a few people who get in by now, but most of the office comes in closer to 9:30am, and works later. I tend to traffic cop work for the first hour.

9:30 A.M. Meetings for the day are now underway: product meetings, design reviews, client meetings.