Katina Mountanos & Dupi Bajaj are relieving burnout with creativity

Over three quarters of adults are estimated to suffer from burnout — a problem that SHACK15 members Katina Mountanos and Dupi Bajaj decided to tackle with their startup called Daydreamers, which aims to use creativity as a way to combat and prevent stress and burnout in the long-term. Mountanos and Bajaj spoke with the Journal about their experiences and what led them to Daydreamers, and how you can take part.

SHACK15: What did you do before starting work on Daydreamers? Can you tell us about your backgrounds?

Mountanos: I like to think of my career path as "connecting the dots looking backwards." Dupi and I met as undergrads at NYU Stern, and like many of our peers, I went to work for Goldman Sachs in data analytics after graduating. I pretty quickly realized that wasn't the space for me, and after some time at a philanthropic venture fund focusing on mental health-driven investments, I started my own community platform called On Adulting, which focused on navigating adulthood in a mindful way and grew to an audience of 75K. In 2019, I was asked to write a book on this topic by Simon & Schuster, and received my Master's in Clinical Psychology from the Mind-Body Institute at Columbia University. I think I've always tried to find a story within large sets of data.

Bajaj: I had a bit more of a linear career path than Katina. Before Daydreamers, I started my career in healthcare investment banking in NYC, and then moved out to Silicon Valley to work for Jeff Skoll's private equity fund focusing on healthcare investments. My parents wanted me to be a doctor, but working on changing healthcare from the business side was my compromise! That said - even though my career may not reflect it, I have always been a quiet 'creative' tinkering in the background. I even built our couch from scratch during COVID.

SHACK15: What inspired you to start Daydreamers, and can you describe it?

Mountanos & Bajaj: Both of us come from immigrant backgrounds, and were often told growing up that being 'creative' was something we could do once we were 'successful' first. But, while we were working in these intense careers, often teetering on the edge of burnout, we found ourselves turning to creative practices in order to cope. The options were usually limited - we were either walking down the 'crafts' aisle at Michael’s feeling extremely overwhelmed at where to start, or we were bombarded by that same achievement-driven mentality to turn our creative practice into a side hustle. From our own experience, we knew that creativity had an immense power to shift your well-being for good, and after discovering the decades of scientific research to back it up, we started Daydreamers.

Daydreamers is a well-being company that's democratizing creativity as a tool for long-term health. Instead of becoming the next Picasso, we're helping our members re-engage their creative brain for connection, fulfillment and other positive health benefits. We know that turning any well-being practice into a consistent habit is different for everyone, so to start, we've taken a user-centric approach to solve all the pain points that come up during the journey. The Daydreamers membership provides members with the physical creative tools, accessible support and well-being analytics to make space for creative well-being habits in their lives over the long-term. Right now, our focus is on tackling burnout, but in the future we'll expand into other well-being areas that creativity has the power to change like isolation and cognition.

We're currently in beta but are already seeing some astounding outcomes - for example, our members experienced a 50% reduction in burnout, 4x increase in resilience and the majority of them are now engaging in creative habits 2-4x a week. We can't wait to officially bring Daydreamers out into the world later this year. Our beta is invite-only right now, but we'd love to have SHACK15 members take part. If you'd like to grab access, you can get on the waitlist here and write 'SHACK15' in the recommendation page.

SHACK15: With the topic of wellness becoming more widely discussed, where does Daydreamers fit into the dialogue?

Mountanos & Bajaj: It's amazing how much has shifted in the cultural conversation around destigmatizing mental health across the spectrum. Even when we started working on Daydreamers at the start of COVID, the openness about discussing emotions and well-being was nascent. If the past few years have taught us anything, it's that we can't wait to care for our mental health until there's a crisis - we have to think about it from a long-term perspective. And, that's really where we see the power of Daydreamers and creative habits: to help us move from baseline to thriving.

We see Daydreamers as a massive opportunity to expand and define the next generation of proactive mental health, outside of therapy and meditation. Creativity is an innate human behavior - it's something every one of us possesses and engages in quite often up until adulthood - but has rarely been used as a well-being practice. As the conversation around mental well-being and brain health expands, we see Daydreamers as a gateway to helping adults cultivate more openness, curiosity and imagination, and really, as the next major practice for daily health hygiene. Think of it like what meditation was a decade ago.

SHACK15: How does creativity help relieve burnout? What is some other advice you might have for better managing a work-life balance?

Mountanos & Bajaj: Creative habits, or getting into the flow, are actually the main predictor of happiness and well-being according to research - more so than mindfulness or other health practices. Specifically, creative-based practices have been called the "antidote" to burnout, because they reduce stress, increase focus and allow us to feel more alive. On our team, we call creative well-being "sweating for your brain."

The most fascinating part about creative habits is that they don't need to be a long, drawn out practice to start your brain on a positive upward spiral. Research shows that even just getting in the flow for 15-minutes can have positive well-being effects for up to two days afterwards. We also really love thinking about creative habits as a radical choice in the world we live in today - they're less about something your Dad tinkers around with in the basement, and more of a boundary-setting tool between you and the world.

That said, we all know that work-life balance, especially with the way we're living today, is a myth - but worker burnout has never been higher (76% of adults in the U.S. say they feel burned out, though we suspect that in reality it's more). At Daydreamers, we really like to play around with the idea of scheduling time in our calendars to be "unproductive" or daydream, even if it's only for a few minutes each day. While it might seem counter-intuitive, daydreaming actually helps us make more creative connections in our brain while reducing stress. It's a great way to jumpstart the transition between "work" and "life" - even if you're still sitting in the same spot :)

Link to join the waitlist for Daydreamers: https://daydreamerspace.typeform.com/ddwaitlist