Today’s Tidbits Birthday Girl is Tanya Kostetsky, founder of Content Haus, a digital marketing agency specializing in content marketing and social media management.
I’m pretty sure it’s 37, but who can ever really be sure? 🤪
How are you celebrating?
I love to spend my birthdays in West Texas, swimming at Balmorhea or hiking the Fort Davis Mountains. The area is amazingly beautiful in the spring!
What’s on your birthday wish list?
I’d love a kayak for me and my pup to enjoy the rivers of central Texas.
You founded Content Haus specializing in marketing, production, and social media management. Tell us about why you started your business.
To put it simply, Content Haus was the amalgamation of my desire to be an entrepreneur, my talent for tech, and my passion for travel. But really, I get super geeked about other entrepreneurs doing and making cool things. It’s these makers, doers, and dreamers that I want to see succeed and get to tell their story. Small business owners are the REAL ones, you know? Anyone who’s super passionate about what they do and respectful of my work, I consider an ideal client—extra ideal if they make tasty things I can eat or drink. 😉
You call Content Haus a brand’s marketing BFF. What do you do to help grow your clients?
I help brands to show up consistently and authentically in the digital space—and a real BFF is going to make sure you stay authentic to who you are. They’ll be the first to call you out when you’re acting like anyone but yourself, and I think that is just important to do from a professional standpoint as it is on a personal level. So, we focus on building a solid brand reputation from them and create a strategy from there that makes sense—typically incorporating some social media component with it. Social media is all about brand building *not* advertising. From there it’s all just secret sauce! 😉
What was your background before starting Content Haus?
After I received my BA in Marketing from Texas State University, I moved to Houston and immediately fell in love with the city’s scrappy, underdog character, creatives on the come-up, and infinite diversity. For seven years, I supported local brands and gained experience as a marketing manager at Whole Foods Market. I then took on the role of marketing director at Buffalo Bayou Brewing Company, where I learned even more about the bev industry and startups. In 2020, amidst the challenges of the pandemic, I founded Content Haus—and I’ve never looked back!
Three things brands are doing wrong on social media.
1. Treating it like advertising: These are NOT one in the same, y’all! Follow us on Instagram if you want to know why. 👉🏼@content.haus
2. Posting without strategy: Throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks is definitely not the vibe anymore. Quality > quantity when it comes to basically everything—especially your content. Have a rhyme or reason for what you’re doing before you start doing it.
3. But also, not showing up: Yes, it’s smart to have a strategy in place before you show up—but that doesn’t mean it needs to be uber complicated. (Ideally it isn’t complicated at all!) But don’t let the fear of not “measuring up” or not gaining tons of traction right away stop you from showing up at all. The fastest way to NOT grow your brand is to not show up!
Your personal favorite social media platform.
Don’t sleep on Pinterest, y’all, for real. Your target audience is probably all over it without you even knowing, and their advertising capabilities are pretty rad.
Tell us about one of your favorite projects you’ve worked on.
We’ve run some really cool campaigns for City Orchard in Houston. They make award-winning cider from their upstate New York orchards. The story about making their ciders with real fruit and juice involved visiting Poteet to capture some amazing shots in strawberry fields. Try their Strawberry Basil—trust me!
You recently moved to San Antonio – what do you love about San Antonio, what do you miss about Houston?
I love living next to the missions in San Antonio. I can jump on my bike and I’m five minutes away from the River Walk trail. To quote Ina Garten, “How wonderful is that?!” However, I’ll miss Houston’s diverse food, Astros games and the Art Car Parade!
Your daily uniform?
Sunglasses, Leggings, Linen Top, Birkenstocks. ✌🏼
Always in your work bag or clutch.
My beloved Emotional Support Water Bottle is always there when I need it. 🙌
Three apps you can’t live without in your job?
Canva, Airtable, Pallyy. You’ve heard of the first one, but the other two? Get yourself familiar with those bad boys.
Podcasts or series you’re addicted to.
Hard Fork, Sounds Like A Cult, The Dropout, Maintenance Phase. Pretty much sums up the breadth of my interests. 😂
A mantra you live (or work) by.
A combination of “Do or do not, there is no try” and “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” I know, very punk of me. 🤘
First thing you do when you wake up, last thing at night.
Check social media. Oopsies.
First concert you ever attended.
Bright Eyes at La Zona Rosa in Austin – I was an emo bb!
First job ever.
H-E-B, true Texan here! If you know, you know.
Best book you’ve read lately…
A fav regular read for me, especially when life gets too fast, is Blissology: The Art and Science of Happiness.
What’s your most memorable birthday celebration ever?
My best friend in high school threw me a surprise birthday for my 16th birthday complete with a moon house. It’s probably the most thoughtful gift I’ve received.
Go-to perfume.
Oils.Earth “Presence”— Smells amazing + supports a local maker! #winwin
What is your sign and do you identify with it?
Aries lady 100% ♈🔥 I am a fire sign through and through. You’ll get a taste of that in Content Haus’s spicy haute content! (See what I did there? 😉)
@content.haus
Want to be the next Tidbits Birthday Girl? Tell us why at submissions-houston@gotidbits.com.