The CEO of Bombas socks attends up to 15 meetings a day. Here's how he keeps them short and productive.

• David Heath is the CEO of apparel brand Bombas, which has raised $150 million in funding.
• He said he attends anywhere from eight to 15 meetings a day.

David Heath is the CEO of cult-favorite sock and apparel brand Bombas, which he cofounded with Randy Goldberg, the company's chief branding officer, in 2013. The brand has donated more than 50 million items to charities in the US in the past decade. In February, Bloomberg reported the company, which has raised $150 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase, was eyeing an initial public offering.

Heath told Insider he attends and runs between eight and 15 meetings — some in person, some online — every day.

As Bombas navigates the transition to hybrid working, Heath said he's found it helpful to outline meeting ground rules to participants and highlight what's expected of employees. This helps those working remotely feel connected to those in the office, as well as keeps everyone motivated and engaged.

These ground rules have been useful for smaller meetings as well as company-wide ones with 200 attendees, he added. Here's how they work.

Stick to an agenda and time limit to avoid 'squirreling'

If you're a fan of the Pixar movie "Up," you probably remember Dug the dog, who would shift his attention away from whatever he was doing whenever a bushy-tailed distraction came into his eyeline and shout, "Squirrel!"

"Squirrel moments" are common in meetings, too, when discussions lead to topic changes and going off on tangents. This is why Heath said he creates a tight agenda ahead of each meeting and roughly allocates time limits for each agenda topic — because, in his experience, people will manage to fill whatever time they're given.

Taking inspiration from "Up," the idea of "squirreling" has become the Bombas euphemism when something is distracting and needs to be taken offline.

"It's this fun and helpful thing our company has adopted. We'll say, 'That's a squirrel,' so we call it out with something that feels lighthearted and funny rather than, 'Hey, you're distracting the meeting,'" Heath said.

Eliminate devices (unless they're in service of the meeting)

Heath said he's very disciplined when it comes to limiting technological distractions in his personal life, keeping his phone on "Do Not Disturb" mode at all times, turning off red notification alerts on his devices, and avoiding all social media. This translates to how he runs his company, too.

In meetings, he said, he adopts a "no devices" approach unless devices are in service of the meeting — for example, if someone is sharing a document with the rest of the meeting, answering a poll on Zoom, or working on their computer during an interactive portion of the meeting. Heath also uses a notepad instead of a device to take notes.

Encourage people to behave as if they're in the office — even if they're not

At the height of the pandemic, it wasn't unusual for someone to be in a virtual meeting while stroking a puppy in their lap. Now that people are heading back into offices, multitasking during meetings shouldn't be encouraged in the same way, Heath said.

"People who are remote now have to start behaving as if they were in the office, because no one is in a conference room making a salad. That would be super distracting," he said.

This is especially true, he said, for meetings with larger groups of people. In smaller meetings with only a few people, everyone tends to be more engaged because there's less space for the silent participant.

Heath knows it can be difficult to avoid the temptation to type away on your computer or let your eyes glance over at the flashing tab on your screen. So instead of calling out employees who are multitasking during meetings, Heath said he praises those role-modeling attentiveness.

"I try to make examples like, 'I just want to call out Bill for doing a really great job today and being the model citizen of someone who's engaged.' They sit back, you can see their hands, and you know they're sitting there listening as if they were in a chair in the conference room," he said.