Breaking the cycle of burnout with Kruti Kanojia of Healthy Gamer

Akua: Did you know that around 48 percent of independent business owners have experienced burnout in the past month? Today’s episode, we are breaking down mental health, performance management, and how we can prevent burnout in our business. Kruti Kanojia, who is the co founder and CEO of Healthy Gamer, which provides mental health support for the internet generation through coaching, content, and community.

Kruti shares with us a unique way her and her husband started Healthy Gamer, what burnout really looks like in your business, and how we can create sustainable practices to support our well being and success. This conversation was so impactful and just really serves as a reminder that as independent business owners, we need to take care of ourselves so that we can continue to do what we love.

Now let’s get into the episode. Hey everyone. This is your host, Akua Konadu, and you’re listening to the Independent Business Podcast. More people than ever are working for themselves and building profitable businesses in the process. So on this show, I get to sit down with some of the most influential authors, entrepreneurs, and creators to break down the science of self made success so that you can achieve it too.

Hello

Kruti. How are we doing? Good.

Kruti: It’s so nice to meet you, Akua. I’m doing great. How are you?

Akua: I am good. And I think our audience are just so excited to know more about Healthy Gamer, how you guys are making an impact. And I just, I’m really excited for you to be here to talk about performance and burnout because I know a lot of us as independent business owners, we are in busy season preparing for Black Friday, you know, the holidays are coming up.

And so I think this is a really great time on how to really pace ourselves, essentially, and just, you know, have a healthier outcome and just a good way to wrap up the end of the year. So thank you for being here.

Kruti: Totally. Yeah, I’m so glad to be here because our busy season is Mental Health May. So lessons well learned there that might help for the holiday season for you guys.

Akua: Absolutely. And so I would really love for our audience just to know essentially how Healthy Gamer came about and why did you got you and your husband decide to launch this business?

Kruti: Sure. It’s kind of a funny story. Healthy Gamer was never supposed to work. Healthy Gamer was kind of an experiment. So my husband is a psychiatrist and when we met in college, he was kind of coming out of this like video game addiction phase.

He wanted to become a monk and then we Started hanging out. We got together. He decided he didn’t want to be a monk anymore. And he ended up getting into medical school thinking that, you know, he wanted to know how people’s minds work. And I’ve been in digital marketing, digital strategy. My career was in startups.

I was in those digital marketing roles. And then as he was going through residency, we had just had our two kids. In residency, and he was like, you know, I could do this fancy pants psychiatry. He had a great private practice in Boston working with like, you know, on Commonwealth Ave and like, you know, one of those high end kind of sit back 20 hours a week private practices.

But every time he was online, he was like the people that really need help. Are the people that were like me 20 years ago, and so I was doing my health care management MBA at the time, and I thought if you really want to do this, like at scale and a sustainable way. My digital marketing background, my healthcare management stuff that I was learning, I can go to business.

I can take this project into business school and workshop it. And so we had all these plans. I was hitting like, it was Boston, right? So in Boston, what you’re supposed to do with the healthcare business is raise investment capital and do all this stuff. And I just was very. It just didn’t feel right because investor types that I was talking about, somebody told me there’s two types of investors.

There’s East Coast and West Coast. East Coast wants a bill code. They want, what is that doctor going to bill? And then they’re just going to cash that in all day, every day. And they’re basically playing the insurance game. West Coast investors wanted users. They wanted people that were going to be there Months, months, years, years.

And this is mental health. I didn’t want people here for months and years. I wanted people to get better, move on. And like, I wanted churn. And so for a West coast investor, that was like the scariest thing. And then I thought, you know what? We don’t need this. Let’s just see if it works. And so we really leaned into the lean canvas MVP kind of model.

And then the pandemic hit and. Mental health exploded and I think it was just everything that we needed to really scale was already in place at that time and people had such needs so we were able to kind of rise to meet the needs so here we are.

Akua: Yeah. Oh my gosh, that is such an incredible story of even, you know, number one, um, your background just in digital marketing and then your husband also too with like having a video game addiction and then wanting to be a monk.

And I think again, it just shows just the beauty of life in general. Like you just really, It really does. It does. Like, you really just don’t know where things are going to transpire, where things are going to lead you. But at least in every single season, even within that unknown, you took certain pieces that you carried over that has helped you build the business that you have today with Healthy Gamer and the impact that you guys are making, especially that, you know, through the pandemic.

And I think a lot of us are still, um, the pandemic has really just changed so much. So much of us internally, how we work, how we, um, you know, take care of ourselves, how we now build our businesses, like so many different ways and what used to work doesn’t work anymore. And so I think it’s great that now you guys have are just really being so innovative and how you guys are really supporting people with their mental health.

So that was, I love that story.

Kruti: Thank you. I appreciate that. I think I agree so much. I think the pandemic really showed us like, all right, if we’re going to work eight, 10, 12 hour days, it really better be something that you feel great about building and that it’s really going to impact. Cause before this, I came from alcohol.

I came from music. I came from like cars and the stuff I was selling didn’t matter, right? Like nobody needs, you know, the stuff that I was selling. Um, so it felt really nice to be able to grind for something like this.

Akua: No, I, I think that’s such a, such an important thing is that you really do have to be passionate about what it is that you’re selling or building because again, um, is this something that you can sustain five years from now, 10 years from now?

So really, again, leaning into your passions, I think is just such a good reminder. And I’m so curious to know more about your journey in regard to mental health. Um, Of just, you know, your husband has a very interesting story, but I also want to know with yours, especially you being an entrepreneur working in the digital marketing space, what has your mental health, like what is your journey with mental health looked like and how has that evolved since launching Healthy Gamer?

Kruti: Yeah. So. When we had our kids, I started seeing somebody for what I thought was PPD, but maybe it was just the transition of it all. And I remember walking, I would walk and I would relish the walk to this woman’s office and she had all of the credentials. She was highly recommended. And I just remember thinking like, what are we?

Do, like, does this have an end point? Like, what are we doing? Like, we’d get into it and then, like, just as, like, something was starting to happen, it would be like, okay, well, that’s, that’s all we have time for today. That’ll be 300. I’m like, what? For what? It was just wild to me that, like, I was privileged enough to be able to see kind of the best of the best.

Um, I had access. I had. You know, a strong understanding of what mental health, like, really could look like, and it was just floundering. And I, I just remember thinking, there’s got to be a better way. There has got to be a better way. There has to be some structure, some end point, some thing that’s a little bit early.

Yes, it’s a process. Yes, you have to do the work. But, and this is my problem in healthcare in general, there’s too much opacity, there’s, you know, you’re just kind of at the mercy of whatever the provider thinks is appropriate with like very little. Translation into like what it really means for you. So when I thought of like healthy gamer, we, we base it on a couple of pillars, right?

It should be affordable. It should be inclusive and it should get it like you should have that get it factor right off the bat. And for this population that we are working with, which is young people. About 70 30 male to female. They don’t have the time, like, to just float around for, like, a month or two months.

That’s like half a semester for them, right, if you’re in college. And that’s just too long to not know where this is going. So When I thought of like, how do I shape healthy gamer? How do I take such a big thing like mental health and make it apply kind of product thinking to it? It just, those were the pillars or what it needed to be.

So we really leaned into peer coaching because it was affordable. The like, get it factors there because you’re coming off of somebody’s lived experience. And it moves faster. I think like we wanted it to be in weeks, not years of when people see progress. So that’s what I’m like, really excited about with healthy gamer because there’s so like lean into those three areas has been really, um, helpful, I think for a lot of people.

Akua: Yeah, and one thing that I love is that what you highlighted earlier is just, I don’t think we just realize how a lot of the times, especially in the healthcare system and number one, I’ve said this before, like, just the current infrastructure that we have just doesn’t do a good job of supporting independent business owners.

And you just even that in general, but. Of like how transactional it is to really just get help, uh, you know what I mean? Like, you know what I mean? And the amount of money that you have to pay just to be able to get that support that you need. And so I love how you took your own personal experience and being able to make it more affordable and accessible for people, because for some people it could really truly be a life or death situation.

And I think a lot of the times too, within our businesses, we find ourselves consistently on this hamster wheel. And, um, a lot of the times, like even myself, I all of a sudden have been writing this hamster wheel that I’m all of a sudden like, where the hell did I end up and why am I here? You know what I mean?

And I think there’s like, I think just even you bringing that where it’s like, okay, you have a way where people can be able to get that access that helps where they can check in with themselves, that support, but also to where you want the churn. I love that because I think a lot of the times we view, you know, when we are looking to get support and this is like, however.

You feel that it’s best for you. If you’re listening, sometimes you feel like, well, how long do I have to keep doing this? Sometimes it’s exhausting. And I think again, it’s like, yeah, you want to equip people to have those tools to be able then to move forward and live the life that they, that they’ve always wanted to live in or, and else to be able to build the business that they always have wanted to have.

And I think that’s just such, I just, I just love hearing that experience. And I think it’s a really good reminder of don’t be afraid to go on your healthcare journey and also to just really. Figure out what’s best for you and that you don’t always have to feel stuck. Like you should be working towards getting better so you can move forward.

And so that’s just, I just loved everything that you shared. I feel like it’s kind of a double edged sword. Ego, essentially. And I think even myself, I’m guilty of this. Like I, struggle to ask for help. I am a first generation. Um, you know, I, my, my family immigrated here and I think, I know it’s cultural, but I also know a lot of people to like generational.

It’s really hard for me to ask for help. I will literally run myself into the ground before I asked for help. And I know that is not good. It’s not good. And I have been working through that. And I know that there’s other business owners where they find themselves working, working, working. And sometimes.

Again, it’s that ego. And so I guess, do you see that where it’s like a lot of people, even business owners, have this ego? How do we kind of put our ego aside? Like, what tips do you have for entrepreneurs who kind of struggle with that? Yeah.

Kruti: Well, you know, I live on the internet, so we get humbled all the time really quick.

Yeah. I think, so there’s so many layers to the burnout, asking for help, ego pieces, right? Let’s look at ego first. Usually when you’re starting a business, it’s about, like, I have something to offer. And if you lose that sense of what you have to offer, all you have is the grind, right? And then it’s just work and work and work and work.

And so if you don’t have that, like, sense of like, I’m putting forth this goodness into the world, I’m giving my, the parts of myself that I want to give to the world, then you’re just working towards. something else. You’re working towards not fulfilling kind of your purpose and your motivations. And that’s when burnout is really going to hit.

You know, it’s interesting because we, we run a coaching program and I work with an executive coach and that has been so game changing for me to like, understand what When to delegate out, um, when to timeline things, how to know when something isn’t working, just cut some, because I think a lot of it too, as independent business owners is we say yes, too much.

We see opportunity everywhere. Oh, I could do that. I could do that. I could do that. If I just build this, then maybe that will work. And if that works, then I could do this. And like, instead of seeing like one straight, bright line with maybe a couple of forks, we see just. opportunities and clouds everywhere, and it’s very difficult to operate that way.

So being able to really maintain focus to like, no, this is what I want to contribute to the world in order to get there. I need to do this, this and this and this. And we talk a lot about burnout. Burnout is when you’re doing the same thing over and over and you don’t see any change when you see the change, when you see results, when you see that, like, okay, this is worth it.

I can keep going. Then we can grind. But when it’s like, no matter what I do, nothing changes. That’s when it’s really hard. And I think that’s when you also get a lot of like morale burn in the company culture and stuff like that. So really steering people through that as a leader, you have to maintain your own sense of purpose.

You have to maintain your own bright line and like, make sure you’re there. And if you’re there, you can rally people around you. As for asking for help, I will reframe that a little bit as well. I would reframe that to like, what can you delegate? What do you need to learn? So there’s something like, if I stay true to like what my actual skill is, everything is hunky dory.

When I try to do things that I am not good at, or I don’t know how to do, or it takes too long to learn, or it’s too risky to get it wrong, I’ve gotta, I’ve gotta seek some counsel. And usually like having a big network is a huge advantage in that. So if you don’t have a great network, I would really invest in building that it’s time, but as long as you’re like minded, it’s really worth it.

And I think the best time to network is when you don’t need anything because there’s nothing worse than meeting someone’s like, Oh, you run a podcast. Can I be your guest? Like that’s not networking, right? That’s just asking for a favor that you don’t really need. You haven’t earned the right to ask that favor yet, right?

So networking, I think is a really big one for being able to kind of trade barter skills. I’m really good at this. I could, I would love to help you out. Oh, you’re really good at that. Can I learn more about how you did that? Could I talk to you a little bit about that sometime? I’d love to take you out for coffee, whatever.

Stuff like that, I think goes a really long way for. Not asking for help, but like trying to trade knowledge or skills.

Akua: Yeah. I love what you said to the, of like how you view burnout because I literally have never thought of it that way. I think that’s another thing too, is that we as business owners, we hear a lot about burnout mental health, but I feel like there’s so much more complexities to it that we just don’t know.

And it’s true. Like when I think about my own journey, like I get burnt out on things when I’m doing the same thing over and over, and I’m not getting the results that I’m looking for. And. Yeah, I just think about so many things in my business where I’m like, Oh my gosh. And then, you know, having to change that.

And I think a lot of the times we’re like, I think there’s different, there’s obviously different levels to burnout, but that is such a good way just to really use as a litmus test, right? Just to see where you’re at. And so I have been, this is kind of lame, but maybe, maybe not, I don’t know. But I’ve been listening to this podcast on repeat because of like just what I shared earlier and she, less Alfred of Balanced Black Girls, she was on the show, um, a couple months ago.

I She has, she said this from like Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t know if you’ve ever, everybody knows Grey’s Anatomy, but there was a specific point where Christina Yang, she described that scene with like Christina Yang saying to Meredith Grey of like, with uh, you know, McDreamy, like he is dreamy, but he’s not the son you are.

And, you know, that podcast was like, okay, remember all the time that you are the son again, like what is it that you have to offer? So always putting yourself at the center and everything else around you is the supporting character, right? Like, and so that’s just, I’m like, obviously it’s like very different.

Like if you have family, kids, whatever, but at least in some point in time, you have to make yourself the son and using that as a litmus test to like, okay, like. Is this aligned with me? Does this work for me? Can I continue this? You know what I mean? And I think for me, that’s how I’ve been viewing it of like, just really being able to stay clear on this path of, um, focusing.

Cause yes, opportunities, we are entrepreneurs, like our minds are so innovative all the time to where we see opportunities everywhere. But I’m like, okay, is this going to get me to the goal that I want to do? And so that I can continue to offer what I want to offer? No, then I have to let it go. And so that’s kind of how I’ve been working through that.

And again, I love what you said too. Like, you want to build community when you don’t need it. That’s the best prime time because you just life be lifin and you just never know what’s gonna happen. And so then when it does happen, that you have no problem then reaching out to people to help support you in any way, shape, or form.

So I absolutely love that. That’s just like so many things that I feel like I need to chew on. And if you’re listening, I encourage you to chew on as well. So.

Kruti: I think it’s one of the big reasons people go back to grad school or business school because, like, we need help, but, like, we don’t know exactly where and it’s such a great opportunity to, like, build that network because I was just talking to an old friend from business school the other day, um, who would kick my ass in a negotiation any day and I was like, I don’t know how to structure these deals.

And she kind of bumped me up and she was like, no, no, no, you can probably, you should be charging three times that because, you know, how else is this person going to be able to accomplish what they want to? And, you know, a part of our business model is we keep our consumer pricing very low and we kind of make it up with our enterprise pricing.

Anyway, TMI, maybe TMI, but just being able to reach out to someone who’s like, this, this woman’s a negotiator. I should talk to her about that. It’s been really, I think it’s great because I get to just meet her cause I know her and she’s a good person. Right. And I didn’t need anything from her at the time.

And now when I reach out, it’s like, she’s a good person. I didn’t need anything from her. So I got to get to know her and just. Enjoy the connection. And now when I do have a question, I have somebody who I care about, who cares about me, that’s going to give actually good advice.

Akua: Exactly. And advice that’s really genuine and has like your best interest at heart.

And I think that’s, that’s such an important, important piece. And so technology is just, you know, it is evolving rapidly. And so where do you see mental health, performance management, right? Like how can we manage our performance and just the evolution of technology? Do you see that more so harming mental health or benefiting business owners?

Kruti: Let’s talk about burnout a little bit and let’s, let’s like kind of understand the problem. I think, so we run a creator coaching program. We work with content creators to help them manage burnout. And so we have all these like different measurement instruments in place. And what we basically see is creators are different from the general population in two very significant ways.

Their anxiety level is crazy, is through the roof. Their sense of life purpose is crazy and through the roof. So telling somebody that has very high life purpose to take a break It might help their life, their anxiety, but it doesn’t help their life purpose. And without life purpose, all you have left is the anxiety.

So if that sounds like you, you’ve got to work on both the way that you work has to kind of keep that life purpose up. And the way that you are cast to start bringing that anxiety down without that. Burnout is very stubborn. It’s very hard to rearrange everything. So for me, coaching is better because I can plan in set structure and that alleviates my anxiety for like, Oh God, what’s going to happen next quarter or whatever.

But for other people, if meds is the way to go, if a diagnosis is the way to go, please do that. So then the question is technology, right? I think technology is very much a double edged sword because on the one hand, it is more access, more power, more knowledge, more information, but on the other hand, it’s just more.

And we don’t need more, we need less. We need to cut. I almost want an AI to eliminate all of the AI in my life, like, don’t show me anymore. Is there an AI extension that cuts all of the AI generated content? That is what I want. I want to reduce, reduce, reduce. I think technology for mental health is interesting because The problem in mental health, I’m going to say that a lot, one of the problems in mental health is there’s no, we talked about no transparency, another way to say that is there’s no accountability, there’s no way, your therapist does not typically tell you, this is going to take about a year, Or you’re going to see progress very slowly, but around three, stick with me three months and then you’ll really see it.

Like they don’t operate that way. Typically. Some maybe are amazing and do if you do amazing, but a lot of times it’s just like, okay, see you next week. And. What technology has to offer is enforcing accountability of like, we should know somebody of this profile, kind of like the creator was telling you about, we should know what that profile looks like and what the track to progress looks like.

And we should have that accountability and mental health the way that we do. other aspects of healthcare. It takes about this long to get better from this kind of injury. It takes about this long to recover from this kind of disease. We should have that for mental health. Of course, there are going to be exceptions.

That’s not really the point to have at least a picture. And if you are an exception to know how you’re an exception is really, really important. And I think technology can really empower that. There have been a couple of experiments with, um, chat rooms and things like that. Where people think they’re talking to a person, but they are just talking to AI and they get better.

But, as soon as you tell them, hey, that wasn’t a person you were talking to, all that progress goes out the window. If they think they’re working with a human, then you’ll see progress. If you think that it’s just a machine out there, I have the privilege of getting to know kind of the insides of some other mental health companies.

And I think most people are seeing that supporting providers is the way in technology, helping providers act on more data, reduce their administrative burden, which I think every, every person Business owner can help, like, relate to you, right? Uh, if you have information, you don’t have to do as much grunt work, and there’s, like, less friction and all the different people you have to work with.

Amazing. I think that’s really the role for at least now.

Akua: Mm hmm. Yeah, no, I think there’s a lot to unpack in what you shared, and I think that’s so true. Like, we still, as human beings, really do create that human connection. And I even just think of, like, even when, uh, Companies have those chat bots. I’m like, can I please just talk to a person?

I always ask immediately, like, I think , yeah,

Kruti: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0. I’d always like,

Akua: I don’t wanna talk to you. I wanna talk to a human being. Because again, those emotions, a lot of situations aren’t black and white, like, you know what I mean? And I think again, it just shows the complexities of just being human, which is beautiful, but also too complicated.

And, but I think, again, it just really goes to show that as business owners as you are, you know. As we are navigating technology, I think it really just really reminder just to stay grounded with you and who you are. And also to I love that you said that accountability piece that wherever you’re getting that support from, um, whether it is a provider or however, just really making sure that you have all of the necessary information that you need in order to make the decisions that are going to work best for best for you so that you can continue to pour into your business so that you can continue to serve others the way that you, that looks good for you.

And I think it’s just such a good, good point of like everything that you shared. And just, I think as AI, just in general, just technology continues to evolve that we are going to crave human connections even more. And I do think that that’s going to empower people to find more innovative ways for us to still continue to stay connected.

And if technology is that great, like, you know what I mean? But I think again, it’s still gonna, there’s like negatives, but also positives that I do. as well that we’re going to be able to find new and fresher ways to continue to stay together and not lose that human aspect, if that makes sense.

Kruti: It does. I think we’re all craving more human connection.

Akua: Yes, more, more than anything. I just thought that was super interesting that you said with earlier with content creators, how you’ve noticed where, you know, we, they naturally have high anxiety and also to like our sense of like sense, just having that sense of purpose in life is also really high with content creators, business owners.

How are you, I think the biggest issue that we, a lot of us have is that we don’t spot the red flags right away. We don’t realize we need help until we’re in the thick of it. And so how can we spot some of these things within ourselves right away? So we’re like, we know like, okay, let me get the help now before things get rough.

Kruti: You know, I had a great boss. He opened MTV Asia. He’s a brand guy, a marketing guy. And one of the things that he told me is you should be doing the things that only you can do. Everything else outsource because all businesses fundamentally is generating something that people value enough to pay for. So if what you’re doing is not valuable enough that somebody will pay for it, you either have to figure out what they will pay for or it’s like, is it a pricing thing?

Is a product thing? Is it a wrong person thing? Or is it, this is just not the right time. This is just not it. You know? This is where kind of like a more classic entrepreneur product market fit framework really comes in handy where it’s like, is it the product? Is it the message? Is it the brand? Is it the price?

Is it the way it’s being promoted? Is it the way the experience is? Like, what is it that isn’t working is really helpful. And so that’s where I lean in with my executive coach and my network and stuff like that to kind of like, tunnel down into things. And of course, my team who have expertise in their areas.

So I think it’s at the point that you cannot decipher what isn’t clicking. That is when the flag should be going up. Like, why isn’t it working? Because if you know what it is, like, we’re, we’ll, we’ll figure it out. We’ll grind and find solutions. Like we can get there. But the things start to go off the rails when you don’t know why things aren’t tracking.

Akua: Yeah, I think that’s such a good point. I love too how like, a lot of the times we can think of like, Oh, it’s how I feel. But you’re like, no, like, let’s look at what’s actually working in your business. Let’s look at what the data is telling you, right? To where like, even sometimes if you’re, if you’re not paying attention to your body, sometimes the data is going to tell you right then and there that you should be really looking at things differently.

And like, that’s a red flag that you need to spot. I think that’s such a good point and just a really good reminder for business owners that if you’re not going to listen to anything else, just look at the data. Just look to see what’s working in your business and what’s not. What are you putting in and what’s the output?

What are the numbers saying? Because the numbers always tell a story, you know? And so I think that’s just such a, such a good reminder in a really key tactical way that business owners can just get a sense of. Essentially, how are they running their business? Because like I said before, we find ourselves consistently on the, on this wheel.

We’re like, yeah, we think we want to go here. But then we’re just going, going, going. That we, by the time we get there, we’re like, I don’t even think this was the right direction I wanted to go originally. And it’s because we’re not doing those check ins with ourselves. It’s because we’re not learning.

Looking at like what’s working, what’s not, we just keep going and going and going. And so I think that’s just a great way for business owners to stop, pause, look at, like, just have a really realistic picture of what’s happening. So that again, they can make those decisions that work best for them. And so a question that I want to ask is what can business owners just really start doing today?

Just to really take care of themselves. As I said, as we’re getting ready for black Friday, people I know are already starting to warm up their list, getting ready for sales end of the year. Um, so what are some ways that business owners can just really start taking care of themselves today?

Kruti: I love this question.

I think it looks a little bit different for everyone, but I think you need a physical release. And you need to do something that like makes you happy. So for me, I’m an extrovert working from home. Like I need to see people. So when I work out, I work out with a neighborhood friend. We go twice a week. Like we have a great relationship and like, you know, it costs more, but I’ve opted to like work with a trainer and like get my extrovert self, but also my physical play tennis.

And then also, like, really having, having a happy home is really important, like, not carrying that stress home, not snapping at your kids, like, it’s okay if maybe they’re late to school one day because you wanted, like, not you wanted, but like, cuddles were in order, right? Like, we need to just 10 minutes today.

We’re going to be 10 minutes late for school. Not the end of the world, but it’s doing everyone a world of good to like, have that connect. I think you need a physical release, you need a social release, and you need a happy home.

Akua: Mm. I love that. Yeah,

Kruti: take

Akua: care of yourself. 1000%. And I’ve also like realized to even with me and my anxiety, I like need to have a very clean home.

So like now I do like these, uh, like closing shifts is what I call them at night. Like I clean up my kitchen, like I just make sure things are organized and stuff like that. And some days it doesn’t happen and that’s okay. Like I’m not, I’m not. whatever, you know what I mean? But at least I’ve realized that I’ve just had, I’ve had such a much better day and a just much more smoother day when I have like closed down my house and like I have my little sink light on, but you know what I mean?

Just everything is very clean and chill. But then also see when I actually sit down as well and like do a to do list for the next day. stay. Like I have noticed as well that I have much more of a plan. It saves me more time and I’m having to make less decisions throughout the day because also too decision fatigue is real.

I struggle with that. So I’m like, if I can even like reduce some of those decisions, um, it has made just a lot of help with my mental health, which has been awesome. So I love that you said that, like your space, your physical release, mental release, like social release. Um, just those things of like, where can you just, truly do things that bring you joy.

Kruti: I think part of it is saying no to some things. Like I don’t want to go to that event. It’s not going to like really tick those boxes. It’s not really going to drive those goals. Like I said, yes. And I feel bad for canceling, but like sometimes you just need to draw that line or like, I can’t see that relative this often.

It is too interfering with like the peace and tranquility of the family or whatever it is, you know, like being able to like really protect your. energy in your space is important. I think there is a kind of flip side to the coin where everyone is so me, me, me now that it’s like, again, it’s hard. So for everything you say no to, like, I’m not going to see that person.

I will show up for this other person in my life. I will go check on this. older relatives, see how they’re doing. Maybe I’ll bring them a meal or just cook an extra portion, whatever it is. So kind of still be enough service to your community in the way that you can. You know, I don’t think you can expect people to show up for you if you don’t show up for them.

So,

Akua: yes, yes. 1000%. I think even to add to that, I’m just like really just being clear about communication. So even if you can’t show up for this person, but maybe you can show up for them in a different way that, you know, maybe just is where they still really appreciate, you know what I mean? What you’re doing, even though you couldn’t show up in this specific way and this specific way that maybe they would have wanted.

And so, um, I think again, like even just that, as we continue to serve others as well, as we protect ourselves, it’s just. I think it’s just really having that clear, honest communication with where we’re at. Because sometimes, you know, we can’t give a hundred percent and that has to be okay. And you just do the best that you can.

So I have absolutely loved, love this conversation, Kruti. And so every question that we love to end with is what do you think is the biggest differentiator between the businesses that succeed and the ones that fail? I

Kruti: think it’s, it’s a very simple inability to generate value. Like, it’s a very simple.

Inability to create something that people are willing to pay for, you know, there’s like nuance, like maybe these people wanted it. Maybe I started baking in my neighborhood, loved it, but like, that’s as far as I could go. Well, maybe other people just don’t know you, right? Like maybe your effort, like your personality isn’t translating outside of like that core market, which is a very difficult challenge.

But that’s where, that’s where people fail, like an inability to focus and to build the value in the right stages of growth. Um, but I’ll tell you if I had raised 20 million as a mental health startup, Healthy Gamer would have failed. I would have thrown money. Hand over fist trying to build mobile apps and like run product teams and recruit expensive tech talent.

And I would have completely missed the point because the value that we bring isn’t through a perfect shiny app. It’s because people don’t have enough information about mental health. And so for a healthy gamer, content is everything. Psychoeducation is everything. And then all of our resources, I think, are on mission, on brand, inclusive of our values and generate good value for everyone involved in the ecosystem.

But it would have been very easy to fail if I had just done what everybody else was doing. So do it your way. You’re the one that sees the value of what you’re doing. Listen to that.

Akua: Yes. Oh, love that. Love that so much. And for everybody that wants to connect with you, where can they find you?

Kruti: Three years ago, I would have said Twitter, but today I’ll say LinkedIn.

I think it’s just, uh, maybe I’m sharing more there these days about kind of as a, as a entrepreneur, but also a mom and someone who happens to have expertise raising kids in this tech enabled world with all of our learnings from Healthy Gamer. So I’ll be sharing more there.

Akua: Oh my gosh. Yes. Well, everybody definitely make sure to check out Healthy Gamer and Kruti.

Thank you so much for being here. I have loved this conversation. Yeah,

Kruti: me too.

Akua: Yeah, absolutely. And for everybody listening until next time, that ends our episode of the independent business podcast. Everything we’ve discussed today can be found at podcast. honeybook. com. Head to our website to access for show notes, relevant links, and all of the resources that you need to level up.

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