If you’re wondering what the hell is a Mosaic Journal, wonder no more as Murad Huseynov, the founder himself, is here to tell you all about it…

I can’t exactly pinpoint the moment I started to feel a certain way about social media. It might have been after I spent several hours scrolling endlessly on TikTok. Not a single video on my For You page made me laugh, think or entertain me in the slightest.

What was the point of it all? How could someone like me, someone so afraid of not living up to my full potential, lay in bed scrolling for hours on an app filled with brain rot? I’m looking at you too, Instagram and X, and even Facebook, if you’re a boomer.

So here I was, feeling disgusted by social media, with Christmas fast approaching (this goes back a bit). The stars aligned perfectly for me to stumble upon a Mosaic Journal (she finally gets to the point).

The Mosaic Journal is the perfect blend of old-fashioned photo albums and a dash of technology but only to make things easier! The product itself is a gorgeous coffee table photo album with 365 photo inserts. That’s the traditional part.

With this photo album, you also get an app for your phone, where you upload one photo a day. Just one. The friendly team at Mosaic prints your photos and sends them to your door every month, so the pages of your coffee table book are filled with memories all year round. Beautiful, isn’t it? I’ll let Murad, the founder, tell you the rest…

Murad, as the creator of the Mosaic Journal, what does mindful living and wellness mean to you?

For us, it’s really important to have one foot in the digital world and one foot in the physical world. The digital side makes things accessible, while the physical side is where the mindfulness comes in.

For me, this product was something I essentially built for myself. I was the classic user. I found myself scrolling a bit too much, thinking, “I want to get out there and do more,” but at the same time, I also wanted to appreciate the things I already had more. So, by receiving the photos every month and physically placing them into an album, I was forced to slow down in a very busy world. You’re actually putting them into the book yourself, which brings something really special. It’s a moment to hold these memories, moments you wouldn’t typically share on social media.

We’re talking about photos of family, colleagues, small days as well as big days. There’s something beautiful about looking at those moments and recognising your life for what it is – usually pretty great. I believe perspective can do a lot for all of us.

Living in different countries and meeting people from various ethnicities and religions, I became fascinated by the stories of life. Every individual I met had this incredible story, and I became obsessed with the idea of creating a mirror where people could look into it and see their own lives reflected back to them in a positive way. I think so much of the world around us tries to distract us from that.

Is that where the inspiration lies then?

For sure. The idea has been a long time coming. I came up with it when I was 20, 21. At that age, you’re going out socially, and I realised I was part of a demographic that used to use Facebook for photos and BlackBerry for messaging, but those things came and went. I wanted to create something permanent, something you could keep forever. And I think it’s the perfect product.

I have seen on your social media, you’re pretty open that you left your stable job at 27 to work on the Mosaic Journal. How do you muster the courage to do something like this?

The honest answer is, it’s called burning the boats. You make a decision that you can’t go back on. I remember typing out the message to my boss because I had reached a point where I was really unhappy in my job. My thumb hovered over the send button for so long because I knew I didn’t have any savings in my personal account. I didn’t live with my parents or anything like that, I still had rent to pay.

I was still in the events industry, working at nightclubs and things like that, just to get by while trying to get my business off the ground.

How long did it take you to bring your vision to life?

I think it took about two years to bring Mosaic Journal to life. We spent seven or eight months building a really basic version and gathering feedback from people. Once we were happy with that feedback, we spent a year building what’s being used now.

I think, you know, I’m just as guilty as anyone else of sometimes looking for the next thing. But I do my best to practice what we preach – I use the product every day. It helps me journal the growth we’ve had, and it’s really useful to look back and think, “Wow, a year ago, we would have been so grateful to be in this position.” It definitely makes me feel more grateful for sure.

What would you say was the most difficult aspect of this whole journey for you?

I think the most difficult thing, for sure, was income. It’s really hard to be innovative in a city like London, where the cost of living is so high and you’re working on something that requires large amounts of money, like building software and a physical, tangible product. That was definitely the hardest part – having to juggle side hustles for extra cash.

TikTok has been a big part of your product’s visibility, did you have a strategy going into it, how you’re going to position the Mosaic Journal to TikTok users?

Yeah, for sure. Ultimately, this is how I see it. The average person spends several hours a day on their phone, so in my head, I picture it like a real street – a physical street. It’s a place where people spend time.

And if it’s a place where people spend time, it makes sense for you to be there talking about your product. Of course, it’s an interesting balance for us to strike. I wouldn’t go as far as saying we’re anti-social media, but social media addiction is real.

I think everything in life comes down to balance. Like, you can abuse hamburgers if you eat too many of them. In the same way, we think social media is incredible for spreading messages, but it just comes down to using it in a balanced way.

This was my next question too. Mosaic Journal’s ethos encourages people to step away from social media but yet so many businesses, including yours, rely on it for sales and brand awareness, so how do you approach that?

It really does come down to that word – balance. I think the most beautiful thing about my experience with Mosaic is that it’s actually reduced my social media time. Once I’ve gotten my photo of the day, I feel really happy about not being so attached to my phone.

But when I say reduce, I don’t mean taking it all the way down to zero. I think social media can do amazing things, like spreading ideas and connecting people. So it’s really about being a more conscious user, rather than getting lost in endless scrolling.

With so many wellbeing products on the market and so much demand for them, what do you think this says about our society?

I think it definitely shows that we’re trying to move towards something – it indicates there’s something we’re all trying to get away from or move toward. And I think that’s both a good and a bad thing, depending on how you look at it. It’s a bad thing because we’ve identified something we don’t like. But if you flip it, it’s a good thing, because once you identify it, you can begin to improve it.

So, it’s tough in that regard. But it’s great that people are recognising there are things in their lives they want to move toward. At the same time, we spend so much time on social media, and it’s such a congested space, full of advertising. It completely makes sense that people want to get away from that, right?

And I think it’s great that people are seeking out tools to promote mindfulness and well-being. There are always new tools for that, which is a good thing.

For me, it’s always been really important for these tools to be accessible. Our app is completely free, with no advertising, and it always will be. The only cost is for the delivery of your photos – that’s the £9.99 charge.

We didn’t want to charge a premium for the message we’re delivering. Being able to appreciate, remember, and reflect on your life shouldn’t be an exclusive thing.

Is there a book or a podcast that had a lasting impression on you and your outlook on life?

So many, it’s hard to pick just one, but I’ll name a random one. I loved ‘A Short History of Nearly Everything’ by Bill Bryson.

Bill is such an amazing storyteller. He starts at the Big Bang and takes you through the history of the universe and our planet all the way to today. For me, it’s always so interesting to think about our place in the world – especially considering that, even though the news often focuses on conflict, there’s less conflict now than there has been in the past.

And access to things like clean water – it’s just being mindful of history and realising what it actually took for the world to get to this point. I love to meditate on that sometimes. It just makes me feel happier.

Any guilty pleasures?

I mean, I love video games!

I grew up loving video games, even before I spoke English. It was almost like the only language I understood. But unfortunately, I don’t have much time for them now. Games like ‘Sekiro’ or ‘Dark Souls’ – those really intense, difficult, challenging games, they’re known as some of the hardest ever made.

I don’t know what that says about my personality, but I love the feeling you get when you finally finish them. And also, the immersive stories. Those are the two things I enjoy the most about them.

Of course, I love other things like traveling, which gets me out of the house, but video games are definitely my guilty pleasure.

And, finally, what’s next for Mosaic Journal?

We have some exciting news that we will be sharing in the next couple of months but for now, I’m just very happy that we have gone from having members in one country to 21. So it’s just about continuing to grow whilst still making it feel like a really tight-knit community.

You can visit mosaicjournal.com to find out more about this brilliant product. When I say brilliant, I really mean it, as I have one myself and truly love it.