My Story

I grew up in a very small town in Maine.  My parents unintentionally taught me that the greatest value in life is self-improvement. If you are not improving, you’re stagnating and that leads absolutely nowhere.

We have separate words for “life” and “survival” because they are two separate concepts.

My life was greatly influenced by my discovery of 101 in 1001 – a project where you attempt to complete 101 goals in 1001 days.  I’ve created 5 lists over 10+ years and spent the vast majority of my adult life in the pursuit of these goals.  I take my list very seriously and have goals that are simple “experiences,” difficult life changes, incredible achievements (if & when I reach them) and sometimes very spiritual.

I am also influenced by my competitive streak. I want to win and I enjoy business because you can very easily keep score.

I’ve never done what was expected.  I graduated high school a year early.  I joined the Air Force instead of going straight to college. After graduating law school I took a year off and lived in Korea taking photos & teaching kids.  I achieved a goal of earning 6-figures three years straight and left the business.  I started another business in an entirely different industry and worked for myself for over a decade before joining a marketing agency.

So why read my blog?

I think I have something to say that is worth reading.  I have experience, knowledge, the ability to express myself and teach others, and a willingness to share absolutely everything I know.  This blog will be full of technical knowledge as I am very well versed in many digital tools.  It will have stories from my hundreds of clients, thousands of client meetings, and many sleepless nights trying to perfect who I am.

My “Highlight Reel”

Content & Work

  • I wrote one of the top stock photography blogs (Nil to Mil) for 3 years. I still have over 3500 images for sale on many stock photo sites.
  • I’ve moderated a community of 20,000+ (OpenSourcePhoto) and was a moderator at Inbound.org before it became Growth Hub.
  • I’ve written over 1000 blog posts across six web properties.
  • I have started and grown three businesses to over $100k in revenue, all very profitable.
  • My agency experience allowed me to work on several thousand different client websites, in all aspects of marketing, for one of the largest digital agencies worldwide.

Teaching

  • I started teaching when I was 20 as a teaching assistant.
  • Spent a year teaching English to young Korean children. Quickly learned the words for “fat teacher,” too.
  • I taught a 2-day Masterclass at the largest photo tradeshow in the world (WPPI)

Skills & Unusual Personal Notes

  • I read over 1200 words per minute and type 135 wpm, about 3x average.
  • Over 10 years I have read over 400 business books cover to cover including Selling the Invisible, Influence, Never Eat Alone, Guerilla Marketing, The 4 Hour Work Week, Good to Great, Getting Things Done, The E-Myth and every Seth Godin book ever written.
  • I’ve collected over 4000 Evernotes related to digital marketing and regularly read nearly every article every day from 250+ marketing blogs.
  • I finished a Tough Mountain Challenge run, completed a half marathon, played college tennis, and have attended 8 major professional sporting events including MLB, NBA, AFL, NHL, NRL, ATP, World Cup and the Olympics events.
  • Lived in 4 countries on 4 continents and have completely circumnavigated the Earth: from Boston to New York to Dubai to Melbourne to Los Angeles to Boston.

That’s me, Matt Antonino.

My clients (across all businesses) have included Time Warner, The Discovery Channel, Best Buy, Groupon, Livestrong, Audiovox, Newsweek, USA Today, Hotels.com, HSBC, Forbes and many, many more.