10 Tips For Using Instagram for Business

Episode 3 of my podcast was to help you with simple tips and tricks for using Instagram to grow your business.  I am going to list the 10 tips below but make sure you actually listen to Episode 3 of the T.J. Mousetis Podcast to hear the explanation of each point!

1. Have a mission statement specific to your brands Instagram
2. Ask questions about your posts before you post them
3. Have a schedule
4. Post should be good but don't need to be perfect
5. Batch create content ahead of time
6. Don't overkill aspects of Instagram
7. Rarely try to sell
8. Interact with your followers
9. Don't copy.  Be original
10. Have Fun!

If you have any questions that you'd like me to answer on your podcast comment on this post or ask on one of my Instagram photos - @tjmousetis

Life is Awesome!

Every morning after I wake up I usually do a few things in no particular order.  I kiss my wife, read my bible, look at June on the monitor and check a few things on my phone.  One thing that I have been checking more regularly lately has been an app called Time Hop.  It's an app that shows you what you posted on social media last year, two years ago and so on.  Well, today when I checked the app I saw this photo from SEVEN YEARS AGO!

Look at me!  I look like a little kid! I probably wasn't even shaving at that point in life.  There is something very special about this photo and as I looked at it I felt tears come to my eyes and "love waves" hit my heart.  This is one of the first photos that my wife ever took of me.  We had only been dating for about two months and this photo shoot was one of the reasons we started talking in the first place.  This is the beginning of what has become seven of the most amazing, spectacular years of my life.  Now, not everything has been sunshine and rainbows for us.  We've had some hard and difficult times, we've had heart ache, frustrations, mistakes and pain, but I can still look at this photo and scream, "LIFE IS AWESOME!"

Because life will always be awesome when you have love in your heart. I am not talking about superficial or attention grabbing love that you see all over our news media.  I am talking about a love that fills your soul with purpose, passion and life to the full!  While I would like to give credit to my beautiful wife Brooke for that love, I cannot.  That love that has filled the last seven years of my life with awesomeness comes from Jesus.  I can't make it any clearer than that.

Now there are two types of people in this world.  People who will read that and think, "that's awesome!" and people who will read it and think I just offended my wife by saying her love isn't as good as the love of Jesus.  Well, to the first type of people, "Thank You, It is awesome!" and to the second type let me explain.  Jesus filling my life with love has given me the ability to love and be loved by my wife in a way that's on a whole new level.  His love makes our love more valuable, richer and bigger than it could ever be on it's own. It's God's love that has made these 7 years so spectacular and His love that will carry us through the next seven and the next and the next!

Yesterday Brooke and I were running some errands and when we parked the car in front of our house it was pouring!  June was sleeping in her car seat so we just waited in the car while it rained.  After it stopped Brooke wanted to take a few photos of June and since she can't stand on her own that makes me her set of arms and legs while Brooke shoots.  I think when June is older she is going to wonder why I am holding her in so many photos.  Mom has the skill, dad has the arms...

So here is the most recent photo my wife Brooke has taken of me.  It happened yesterday.

So why am I telling you this story?  What is the point?  Well, first of all I just wanted people to see that old photo of me because it cracks me up.  More importantly, I wanted to tell this story because sometimes you just need to know that life is awesome.  That you could have just taken a photo or had a conversation that seven years from now will mean so much to you.  I had no idea when Brooke took this photo that it would be on the precipice of the best seven years of my life.

So if you feel like life is not great right now, keep pushing through.  Keep going at it with a positive attitude and passion.  If you feel like you don't even have that then open the Bible and read about Jesus, let His love push you to the place where life is awesome because it always is with Him.

Life is flying by and it's only when we look back do you really understand the value of a moment.  Try to enjoy those moments as they happen as much as you can. Take a second when something awesome is happening.  Turn off the TV, turn off the phone and enjoy that moment.  Remember it. Treasure it. Cherish it because...

LIFE IS AWESOME!

Creation 2015 - Morning 1

First of all excuse any typos or weird auto corrects as I type this out on my phone.  It's morning 1 at Creation Music Festival and I woke up from one of the worst nights of sleep ever.  I never sleep well when I am away from Brooke and she is coming up today so there was that.  My air mattress also decided it wasn't going to be filled with air in the middle of the night so I woke up at 2am in a swamp of a mattress formerly filled with air. I decided a hard ground was better than a half filled air mattress so I moved to the floor of the tent.  I fell back asleep with no problems until an hour later a few water drops landed on my forehead because it's so humid in Pennsylvania that water forms anywhere.  So at 3am with a nice refreshing pick me up I moved again in the tent.  It was about 5am when the girls in the next tent over started giggling and talking about how much they fart in their sleep! I think I slept another hour until I finally decided to get up and have some quiet time.  My favorite part of this festival is the mornings.  It's so quiet and beautiful out here with the dewy mornings and cool mountain air. I am reading through 1st Peter and two words really stuck out to me.

1 Peter 2:17 "Honor everyone."​

There are a lot of odd ducks that come to Creation and I need to love them by honoring them even though I think they are weird.  That is what I will challenge myself with today.  ​

Also, pray Brooke and June get here safely and it doesn't rain!​

30 Things I've Learned in 30 Years

You probably clicked on this link expecting to see a list of 30 bolded bullet points that you would scroll through.  Well, the title was a lie!!! Muahaha!  And that's because life isn't best lived from a list of suggestions and ideas.  Life isn't bolded lists and Buzzfeed.  Life is a paragraph and ellipsis...

So, in 30 years here is what I have learned.  I've learned that just because you read a post on the internet of 25 Places You Should Visit Before You Die, you won't necessarily go to those places.  I've learned that posting a photo about the diet you want to do on Instagram, doesn't mean you'll actually follow it and loose the weight. And here's why... 

Life is lived with action, passion and energy.  Life is full of awesomeness and excitement, especially when it's lived by following God, loving others and working hard.

But, more than anything, I've learned that I have a lot of learning left to do.  I'm looking forward to another 30 years of learning through action, risk, hope, triumphs and mistakes. And not by reading lists on the internet. Wouldn't you agree?