Goodreads
Things to remember
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Who is the type of person that starts a million-dollar business? The type of person who asks for what they want. If you want a new job at a new company, you have to ASK for it. If you want more money from your boss, you have to ASK for the raise. If you are selling something, you have to ASK the customer to buy it. Even at home, if you want your spouse or kids to treat you better, you have to ASK them.
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It is deadly to build a business without first verifying that there are paying customers.
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Steve Jobs said, “You have to start with the customer experience and work backwards.”
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Old school: You focus on business model planning and obsessing about the product at this stage.
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New school: You’re going to focus on the conversation with the customers, a dynamic back-and-forth that will help you iterate your product in terms of what the customer wants before you make or spend a thing.
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Business creation should always be a conversation
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Still stuck? Here are four questions to get you going:
- What is one thing this morning that irritated me?
- What is one thing on my to-do list that’s been there over a week?
- What is one thing that I regularly fail to do well?
- What is one thing I wanted to buy recently only to find out that no one made it?
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It’s easier to sell to a large group of people who’ve already spent money on a product or service.
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Honestly, the number one regret of just about every entrepreneur I know is this: “I wish I started my email list sooner.” Don’t be that person. Email marketing needs to be your new best friend.
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Even if you don’t have a business at this very moment, it’s great to start building your email list NOW—so when you do want to have a business, you already have a trusted group of people who WANT to help you out.
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A healthy email list has a 20 percent open rate. Target that.
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That means putting the landing page address in your:
- Email signature
- Biography on Twitter, LinkedIn, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook
- Those offer more leverage than most people think.
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Here are four examples of Lead Magnets I use:
- A checklist that can be used to properly perform something I explained in a video.
- A template for determining, say, a business’s profit margin.
- An advanced guide that goes further into the details of a subject of one of my videos.
- A unique book that provides substantial value but is offered for free. For me, it is 11 Side Hustle Ideas to Make $500/Day from Your Phone.
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Frankly, everyone in your audience matters forever, but especially at the beginning, you should respond to every single new subscriber. I STILL do this for nearly every single email and did for most of my YouTube comments.
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I always advise sending your best Content Email (free course, best articles or videos, content most useful for your audience, etc.) in the beginning.
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Lean in and commit to 100 reps. (Think of this as doing reps and practicing as opposed to failing or succeeding.) This changes your mindset and makes it much easier to sustain forward motion when things get tough.
- If you want to start a YouTube channel, publish 100 videos.
- If you’re doing a newsletter, write 100 emails.
- If you’re starting a new hobby like chess or guitar, practice for 100 days.
- If you’re creating a business, directly pitch 100 customers.
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Here are my five exact questions to create your own marketing plan (and if you want to see the original Mint marketing plan, go to Million DollarWeekend.com):
- What is your one goal for this year?
- Who exactly is your customer and where can you find them?
- What is one marketing activity you can double down on?
- How can you delight your first 100 customers?
- If you HAD to double your business with no money in thirty days, what would you do?
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I can’t stress how important this is, so I’ll repeat it again: WORK BACKWARDS FROM YOUR GOAL!
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Do some keyword research on sites like AnswerThePublic or SpyFu to discover what people in your niche are talking about.
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I find thirty days is more than enough to get results from your marketing experiments.
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To build his network, Andrew set a goal: “Meet five new people per day for my first six months in the Bay Area.”
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In less than a year, Andrew was associated with high-profile people like venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (cofounder of Netscape) and entrepreneur Eric Yuan (founder of Zoom). And through that strategy he became a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most respected venture capital firms in the world.
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His strategy amounted to persistently reaching out, following up, and asking for referrals.
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After meeting someone new, Andrew would send them a thank-you email. In it, he would include:
- Highlights from the chat he found interesting
- Follow-ups and to-dos
- Request to meet more people
Summary
1. Idea Generation and Validation
Kagan starts by brainstorming ideas that could meet immediate market demand. He focuses on finding a “pain point” that people are actively seeking to solve, as this tends to create the most traction. Once he selects a few ideas, he quickly validates them by reaching out to potential customers and gauging their interest. Instead of spending hours perfecting his product or business model, he spends this time testing how much people are willing to pay for his solution. This rapid validation process helps him avoid investing in ideas that don’t resonate with the market.
2. Lean Start-up Principles
Using a lean start-up approach, Kagan emphasizes creating a “minimum viable product” (MVP) quickly—something basic but functional that meets the core need of customers. He avoids unnecessary features, aiming to develop just enough to get feedback and start making sales. This approach minimizes both time and cost, allowing him to launch within the weekend timeframe. The MVP mindset is central to Kagan’s philosophy, as he believes it’s better to have a rough product in customers’ hands and improve it based on real feedback than to aim for perfection before launch.
3. Marketing and Sales
Kagan’s marketing strategy during this challenge is about leveraging direct, scrappy techniques rather than relying on ads or complex campaigns. He reaches out to potential customers personally, often by using platforms like social media, email, or online communities where his target audience is likely to be active. By focusing on organic outreach and personalized messaging, he engages customers directly and makes sales quickly. This hands-on approach also helps him better understand his customers and the language they use, which he can then incorporate into future marketing efforts.
4. Rapid Execution and Adjustment
The essence of Million Dollar Weekend is rapid execution. Kagan operates with a sense of urgency, maintaining a strict focus on his goal and actively avoiding distractions. He experiments, assesses results, and pivots as needed. For instance, if one marketing tactic or product feature isn’t working, he immediately adjusts his approach without losing momentum. This agility allows him to remain flexible and make changes in real-time, based on customer feedback or initial sales performance.
5. Focus on Cash Flow
A key focus of Kagan’s challenge is to generate immediate cash flow rather than planning for long-term revenue streams. By concentrating on short-term sales and keeping expenses low, he demonstrates that even a small amount of initial revenue can fuel further growth or product development. For entrepreneurs, this approach can offer essential validation and generate capital to support future business needs, all while proving the viability of the idea in a real market.
6. Mindset of Iterative Learning
Finally, Kagan views each aspect of this challenge as an experiment and an opportunity to learn. Whether an approach works or not, he treats it as valuable feedback. This iterative learning mindset allows him to build a business faster and smarter, as he can refine his methods, messaging, and product based on real data rather than hypothetical assumptions.