Muskaan Sancheti is one of the Co-founders of the State Plate.

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The State Plate is a website where they deliver regional, indigenous food products from different parts of the country, like Govind Bhog rice from West Bengal or Jeeravan Masala from Indore, and list everything on the website to deliver it across the country 🥘

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She has been running State Plate for the last three years, and it's been a very exhilarating journey.

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What is your morning routine like?

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My morning routine is very short. 

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I've been focusing a lot on my health, diet and workout, So I've been experimenting with intermittent fasting. 

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I actually don't eat in the morning because of this, my morning routine has become shorter. I use that extra time to spend with my family before everybody leaves for their work.

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My family likes to sit together and talk about how everyone's days are going to look. This energises me for the rest of my day 😄

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What do you do in the evenings?

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I work out in the evenings.

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I either go to the gym, or I go swimming. Swimming is something that I really enjoy, and it de-stresses me 🏊‍♀️

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I've been following a good skin care and oral care routine in the last few months. 

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For the past few months, health had really taken a back seat. I started noticing a lot of things that I didn't like about myself, so I have started becoming a little bit more proactive in making sure that I do things that are good for my body 🏃‍♀️

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How do you manage your workload?

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When we started State Plate, there was compartmentalisation of work, and we didn't even have a concept of weekends. We were just working all seven days. We liked it that way also.

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It was that initial excitement of getting things done and challenges, but I started realising eventually that it was getting toxic. 

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Whenever something was going down at work, it was kind of affecting everything else in life.

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Now what I've been doing to make sure that the workload is not too much is being more strict with myself.

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For example, I will not be working on a Sunday, or I will not be working after like X-PM today. This is my time to do everything else, to talk to friends, talk to family, just to pursue more hobbies. I think that really helped 😃

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How do you Identify areas to improve?

As a founder, One problem is that it's not easy to get feedback from your team.

There is an inherent problem that people face with being very direct with their feedback to you.

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Somebody who's always given me good feedback is my co-founder. I know that he will give me very unfiltered feedback, unlike a lot of other people.

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He's somebody that I can always rely on to be harsh with me.

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Besides that, I think when I speak to other people in the ecosystem, other founder friends, or just observe them 🧐

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We have a monthly review session that we do with everybody that's calendared, which is also a two-way feedback session 📆

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Probing more into stuff that they say, asking them how it could have been better, what I could have done differently, and not letting them go until I'm getting something concrete out of them, is something that I try to do.

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I think introspection works when I'm sitting with myself and thinking about things. 

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I think this is more of a long-term thing. Maybe three months or six months down the line, when I realise something didn’t go according to the plan, I think to myself what I probably should have or could have done differently and how I can change the course of action in the future. 

Writing also helps me.

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A lot of times when I have too many thoughts going on, I try to write them down to really like to figure out how I can change and what I can improve ✍ 

What do you do for your mental health?

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I overthink a lot, and I am a little emotional.

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It's a personality trait because of which I think a lot of things do tend to affect me. A few months ago, things in the business were slightly on the lower end, because of which I had really started feeling very insecure and doubting myself.

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A few things that really helped me get out of that is I've identified a set of people that I'm comfortable with, who will not judge me, who will listen to me rant without trying to tell me that my problem is not big enough. 

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The other thing is I've been focusing on health 🩺

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I've also been trying to focus on pursuing hobbies like cooking and reading, which I had stopped doing when the business started because I kept telling myself that I didn't have time for other things 📖

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I have started making time for other work so that if things are not going great at work, I have a bunch of other things that will keep me grounded and happy.

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Any advice for entrepreneurs and team leaders?

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Prioritise mental health from day one, unlike me, who did it much later after it had already affected me.

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For example, making sure you have the weekends for yourself, focusing on hobbies, talking to friends, and having a solid support system around you. 

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The important thing is to give it a lot of importance instead of just neglecting it and thinking you can deal with it later 🚀

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As a founder, when you are going through a load, it does not only affect you but also the team and the stakeholders, which will end up affecting the business.

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Thank you 🧡

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