The Dream Dean

MDW: Million Dollar Weekend

For the next several weeks, my friends Ivor and Joanne decided to join me in a challenge – to complete the activities in the book, “Million Dollar Weekend: The Surprising Simple Way to Launch a 7-Figure Business in 48 Hours (here’s a link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Weekend-Surprisingly-7-Figure-ebook/dp/B0C3ZH8FY5/ref=sr_1_1).” And to make it more fun, we decided to share our results with others. I’ll post our results on this blog; join us on this adventure to see if we can create something that generates income, not in 48 hours, but in one month.

Bill’s Results

Chapter 1: Just Fu**ing Start: Begin Before You Are Ready.

• Challenge 1: The Dollar Challenge. Ask someone you know for a dollar investment in you and your future business – one measly dollar!
  • I asked my wife for a dollar to support me on the challenge. She gladly gave me one dollar to support me on this journey.
• Challenge 2: Now, Not How Challenge. Ask one person you respect for a business idea.
  • I’ll be honest. I didn’t ask anyone for a business idea, but I had several people ask me for at least one business idea and/or an idea to get started on their idea. My friend Bianca came up with the idea to create a “Style Alignment Checklist,” a checklist for people to use to identify where they are in their style journey. It’s awesome!
  • Side note: One of my LDC community members asked if I could come up with one or two activities that she could give to faculty and staff on her campus to really get connected to purpose and meaning. And she only had 20-30 minutes.
• Challenge 3: Choosing Your Freedom Number. Start by choosing a short-term monthly revenue goal – Your Freedom Number – and make it a number that doesn’t scare you.
  • My Freedom Number is: $1,000 over the next three months. I want to use $2,000 to help purchase a new couch and loveseat in July, $1,000 for a trip for me and Rebecca – I’m thinking Stone Mountain, GA or Greenville, SC.

Chapter 2: “The Unlimited Side of Asking: Get a Gold Medal in Rejection.

• Challenge 4: The Coffee Challenge. Go to any coffee shop or anyplace in person. Make a simple purchase and ask for 10 percent off.
  • I don’t drink coffee. However, I decided to make my ask another way. My wife and I went to a Mexican Restaurant with a couple of friends. I asked if we could get 10% off our bill. The waitress gave us the 10% off, plus honored our coupon. I gave her a 30% tip. Besides, she make the guacamole dip at our table, which was cool.

Joanne’s Results

• Challenge 1: The Dollar Challenge
  • I was scared to ask my friend for the $1 because I know she doesn’t have a lot of money but I have bought from her business before. She doubled my ask and gave me $2! That really surprised me for some reason. People giving me MORE than I asked! Or maybe people valuing what I have started more than I expected.
• Challenge 2: Now, Not How Challenge
  • Texted my “supportive” friend for business advice. Interesting that I labeled my friends. LDC work has an activity where I have already been thinking about what type of support each friend offers. This friend was so supportive and I received praise and virtual hugs but no advice. In this case what I also needed was practical ideas. This time I reached out to my most practical and frugal friend and asked her what she would pay for career coaching services and what type of services she really wanted. She said as a mother of 4 she not only would pay for but wanted someone to personally walk WITH her through the processes of re-entering the workforce. Gold! Idea! Written in my idea spreadsheet!
• Challenge 3: Choosing Your Freedom Number
  • My number $175 per month or $2,100 per year while I keep my day job for 2025-2026, broken down as: $500 to get to NC once a year, $600 a year for cost of business (Gas/ supplies/ virtual platform/ liability insurance/ pay for LLC), $500 profit to reinvest, $500 to save. This number might be too low, but it’s a start. I made $120 this month so that sounds possible.
• Challenge 4: The Coffee Challenge
  • I don’t drink coffee and as a natural saver (no I am a really good saver) I would never spend money on a drink…blasphemy! But a challenge is a challenge. I drove to the nearest Dunkin (my small town is not sophisticated enough for Starbucks) and walked in with my typical enthusiastic persona. I really wanted to make sure I acted as myself to see if the normal me (not the sales me) could do this. A lady about my age greeted me. I asked for a small tea $2.59. I looked at her and said “Can I have 10% off of that.” She asked me why and thank God the book tells you what to say to that. I responded, “actually I am doing a business challenge that I am really excited about that tells me to ask for a discount.” She looked at me and said “Sure…that makes sense.” No it doesn’t. What?!? I gave her a tip of $1. She smiled at me and said…thanks that helps pay for my 12 year old. We both felt great! I was in so much shock I almost left without the tea. Ps: When I got home I looked at the receipt (which I treated with honor btw) and got a 26 cent senior discount. I’m going to completely ignore the fact that I gave a $1 tip. Giving is still so much easier than asking but I am impressed with this motivating experience.

Ivor’s Results

• Challenge 1: The Dollar Challenge
  • One of the joys of personal training is being able to have great conversations with individuals who may not be clients. A client of one of my colleagues whom I’ve known for a while now and become good friends with was who I requested the $1 from.  They Immediately said YES.
• Challenge 2: Now, Not How Challenge
  • I received more advice than ideas about business that mostly centered around me looking into mentoring, counseling, motivational speaking and starting a podcast.
• Challenge 3: Choosing Your Freedom Number
  • I went back and forth with this one but ultimately settled on $2k a month as my freedom number.  $500 for church, missions, discipleship work, $250 for travel, $250 for me, $1,000 for my 3 grandchildren.
• Challenge 4: The Coffee Challenge
  • I am not a coffee drinker so I went with asking for a discount on my dinner Friday night. I ate Chinese.  I was able to get the discount AND an egg roll. Who knew? I tried to do it with my new shoes purchase.  While the 10% discount was met with a no they did honor two expired $30 coupons. Ha!

Join us next week for the next series of challenges!