Live In The Feast - 802 - Experimenting, Getting Unstuck, and Why You Should Build a Team (Even If You Don’t Want To) with Matt Giovanisci

802 - Experimenting, Getting Unstuck, and Why You Should Build a Team (Even If You Don’t Want To) with Matt Giovanisci

Explicit content warning

04/21/20 • 53 min

Live In The Feast

Today’s co-host is Matt Giovanisci. Matt is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Money Lab, a website where he writes, podcasts, and chronicles epic experiments about making money online.

Matt is a proud generalist. Over the course of his career, he has worked with clients, created online courses and products, and built multiple businesses. He’s also a musician.

As a kid, he started out as a pool boy. He taught himself how to build websites and created Swim University, which is still his main business today.

One of the recurring themes in Matt’s story is his desire to constantly learn and try new things. This has created lots of twists and turns in his career, but he’s figured out how to make it work for him.

One of the things he does particularly well is documentation. He knows how to show his work, as Seth Godin likes to say, and writes in-depth articles about everything he tries.

In today’s episode, we talk about how to run experiments in your business without losing focus, how to get around the roadblocks holding you back, and why you should build a team, even if you like doing everything yourself.

"If someone tells me I can't, I will. If someone tells me it's impossible, I will do whatever it takes to make it possible." ~ @MattGiovanisci

Main takeaways

Transitioning your focus from one aspect of your business to another comes from your desire to learn and grow. Having a generalist perspective can make this process easier.
If you continue to do everything yourself, you're wasting time that could be spent growing your company. Hiring someone is a great way to force yourself to focus on the things only you can do.
Take new projects one step at a time. If you think you need something, investigate it. Create a hypothesis, try it out, and let that inform your decisions.

Links and important mentions

Stay in touch

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 2 of Season 8

Today’s co-host is Matt Giovanisci. Matt is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Money Lab, a website where he writes, podcasts, and chronicles epic experiments about making money online.

Matt is a proud generalist. Over the course of his career, he has worked with clients, created online courses and products, and built multiple businesses. He’s also a musician.

As a kid, he started out as a pool boy. He taught himself how to build websites and created Swim University, which is still his main business today.

One of the things he does particularly well is documentation. He knows how to show his work, as Seth Godin likes to say, and writes in-depth articles about everything he tries.

"If someone tells me I can't, I will. If someone tells me it's impossible, I will do whatever it takes to make it possible." ~ @MattGiovanisci

Main takeaways

Transitioning your focus from one aspect of your business to another comes from your desire to learn and grow. Having a generalist perspective can make this process easier.
If you continue to do everything yourself, you're wasting time that could be spent growing your company. Hiring someone is a great way to force yourself to focus on the things only you can do.
Take new projects one step at a time. If you think you need something, investigate it. Create a hypothesis, try it out, and let that inform your decisions.

Links and important mentions

Stay in touch

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 2 of Season 8

Previous Episode

801 - Socializing for Introverts and Organizing Events with Emily Leach

Today's co-host is Emily Leach. Emily has been a freelancer for 20 years and organizes many big events, including TEDx Talks and the Freelance Conference.

Emily is a hustler. If she puts her mind to something, she goes out and does it. Most recently, she set out to host her first virtual summit. Freelance Conference (or FreeCon), was created out of a need that Emily was already working to fill through her site, Texas Freelance Association.

In the beginning, she had hundreds of freelancers, but no gigs. Knowing that it would fizzle out quickly if she didn’t do something, she started personally evaluating jobs on Craigslist and other platforms and then hand-matching them to freelancers in her community.

As Emily watched the community grow, and more freelancers find the support they needed, she saw an opportunity to scratch her own itch and create something unique. And thus FreeCon was born.

In today's episode, I talk with Emily about socializing for introverts, how to find solutions by looking at your own skillset, and how to evaluate your business needs without over-committing yourself.

I really want their [freelancers] voice out there. It gives me an opportunity to support the work that you guys are doing and put you in front of other people and engage with what you're talking about and help some other freelance business owners get more reach. ~ @emilyleach

Main takeaways

It's important for freelancers to be able to meet up and support each other through shared ideas and networking. Conferences are a great way to do this.
Figure out how to market your skillset. You may not even realize that you possess a skill that's valuable or needed by someone else. You can become a specialist by looking at what people need.
It's easy to take on a lot of different projects as a freelancer, but once you're over-committed, it can be hard to identify what you should let go. It’s important to evaluate everything you’re doing and figure out what’s important.

Links and important mentions

Stay in touch

For full show notes and resources

Live In The Feast - Episode 1 of Season 8

Next Episode

803 - Day Rates, Attracting the Right Clients, and Building a Business Around Your Life with Sarah Masci

Today’s co-host is Sarah Masci. Sarah is a designer, entrepreneur, and the founder of Bracken House Branding Co.

Sarah has been in the online business game for 15 years now, and she’s the epitome of building a business around the life she wants.

In the beginning, she experimented with lots of different channels and products, including Etsy and blogging. Since she was DIYing everything—from her website to her ads—others began asking her for help with branding and design. She dabbled in client work as a side hustle for a few years before deciding to go all in.

Sarah currently uses a day-rate billing model, and building her reputation with clients early was important when she decided to make that change.

Knowing her work was solid, clients were excited by the billing mode. And it’s worked out well. Sarah has been doing day rates for two years now and is still going strong.

Sarah has also expanded into creating courses and products that help other designers figure out how to use day rates themselves.

In today’s episode, we talk about the benefits of a day rate model and how it can reduce stress, how to make the transition yourself, and how Sarah started creating courses on the subject as well.

“Get clear on just a few things that you are really good at—something that you’re consistently asked to do and something that gets you out of bed on a Monday morning ready to conquer your day.” ~ @Sarah_Masci

Main Takeaways

The first thing to do before you start offering day rates is knowing what you're going to offer. Don't offer too many things. Instead, offer the things you're really good at—something you can do consistently, and something that excites you.
Testing day rates can be as easy as messaging your client base and asking if it works for them. If you have the reputation, it won't be hard for them to get on board with what you're doing.
To make sure the work is doable within a day, have clients fill out some sort of questionnaire. Make sure to set expectations for communication throughout the day.

Links and Important Mentions

Stay in Touch