About Money Lab and Matt Giovanisci

My name is Matt Giovanisci. I'm self-employed and work from home. But it's nothing special. I wake up whenever I want, put my sweatpants on one leg at a time, and tell my butler to make me an egg soufflé just like everyone else.

Ok, I don't have a butler.

I started a website in 2006 called Swim University. The site now makes over $250,000 a year but it took 10 years.

In March 2015, I started a coffee education website called Roasty. I sold it in 2018 for $55,000.

I created Money Lab (this site) in 2016 so I can build more brands, make more money, and write off my homebrewing hobby. Speaking of which, I started a homebrewing site called Brew Cabin.

I design and code all my own sites by hand. Write the words. Film and edit the videos. Produce the podcasts. Illustrate the graphics. But now I have a team that helps me with writing and editing podcasts.

In case that wasn't enough, here's my entire entrepreneurial timeline.

Money Lab Rules

  1. Have fun. Make money.
  2. Be honest and 100% transparent.
  3. Ignore "best practices" or do the opposite.
  4. Show. Don't tell.
  5. Always entertain.
  6. Challenges must have a deadline.
  7. Design to make consuming content easy or entertaining.
  8. Writing should be casual, short, and to-the-point.
  9. Do what you're best at and the money will take care of itself.
  10. Don't spread yourself thin.

The idea for these rules came from Chuck Jones' "Road Runner Rules."

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

I get asked about the tools and software I use and like. So instead of answering these questions over and over again, I built this section. Note that some of these things are affiliate links. When you click them and pay, I make a commission at no additional cost to you.

Ahrefs: SEO Research and Tracking Tools Ahrefs: SEO Research and Tracking Tools

Tools to grow your search traffic, research your competitors and monitor your niche

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
ScreenFlow for Mac ScreenFlow for Mac

This is what I use to record all my screencasts that need to be animated. It's also the software we use to create animated videos for Swim University's YouTube Channel.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
TubeBuddy: A YouTube Tool TubeBuddy: A YouTube Tool
Free

This is the tool I use to optimize my YouTube channel and do keyword research. It also helps me to steal tags from competing channels 😉

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
My Top Pick
ActiveCampaign For Email Marketing ActiveCampaign For Email Marketing

This is currently the email marketing software I'm using for all my brands. Mainly because it saved me money every month and automation goals is the killer feature I needed all my life.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Adobe Creative Cloud Adobe Creative Cloud

I use Premiere to edit videos, After Effects to make them cooler, Illustrator to draw, Photoshop to enhance, and XD to design pretty much everything.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Ecamm Live: Streaming Software for Mac Ecamm Live: Streaming Software for Mac

This is the software I use to run Money Lab Live weekly shows on YouTube. I pay annually for the PRO version.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Podia: Digital Product Hosting Podia: Digital Product Hosting
Free 14-Day Trial

Everything you need to sell online courses, downloads, and memberships without worrying about the tech. This is what I use to host all my online courses.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
My Top Pick
WPEngine Wordpress Hosting for Bloggers WPEngine Wordpress Hosting for Bloggers
Starting At $25/mo

I pay them to host all my websites, including this one. I switched to them back in March 2016. Great customer service, super-fast servers, and affordable.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Asana: Work Management Platform for Teams Asana: Work Management Platform for Teams
Try for FREE

I run my business(es) and life with Asana. My motto: if it's not in Asana, it doesn't get done! I highly recommend Asana to as a task management platform.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
My Top Pick
WP Rocket: Page Speed Plugin for WordPress WP Rocket: Page Speed Plugin for WordPress
$49 a Year

An all-in-one plugin for caching, lazy loading, and other page speed stuff that plays nice with WP Engine. Installing this alone improved my page speed drastically!

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Transistor: Affordable Podcast Hosting Transistor: Affordable Podcast Hosting
Try FREE for 14 Days
This is my favorite podcasting hosting company owned by my buddy Justin Jackson.
Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Gusto: Payroll For Online Business Gusto: Payroll For Online Business
Try FREE for 1 Month
This is the company I use to run payroll. Highly recommend!
Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
My Top Pick
Reform - Hosted forms. No code required. Reform - Hosted forms. No code required.
$19/Month

A simple form builder that offers the simplicity of Google Forms with the all-in-one solution of TypeForm. And it's cheaper than TypeForm.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
My Obvious Choice
Lasso: The All-In-One WordPress Plugin for Affiliate Marketing Lasso: The All-In-One WordPress Plugin for Affiliate Marketing
Try FREE for 14 Days

My very own WordPress plugin that lets you add, manage, and display your affiliate links from any program, including Amazon. Increase conversions. Find new affiliate link opportunities. Earn more revenue! Less than 5 minutes to set up.

Matt Giovanisci (me) earns a commission if you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.
Lasso Brag