Dennis Yu is on a mission to create a million jobs by offering hands-on social media coaching and partnering with universities {and professional} organizations. Dennis is the co-author of the #1 best-selling social media guide on Amazon, “The Definitive Information to TikTok Advertisements” and he’s an professional advisor in job creation.
He has labored with shoppers like Nike, Pink Bull, Quiznos, Ashley Furnishings, the Golden State Warriors, and a big selection of native companies and professionals. Dennis has spoken at over 750 conferences in 30 international locations, and he’s captivated with coaching younger adults and enterprise house owners.
For extra particulars, go to his web site right here.
Right here we sit down with Dennis, to know a bit extra about his journey as an entrepreneur.
Q. Inform us a bit of extra about your journey as an entrepreneur – how did you get began? What impressed you?
Dennis: I by no means needed to be an entrepreneur, I used to be simply an Asian child who was excellent at math and seen that every thing had a distinct worth. Why is it {that a} postman makes lower than an airline pilot? Why did Godiva chocolate value greater than Hershey’s chocolate? This curiosity led me to check economics on the London Faculty of Economics, and I additionally discovered about Wall Road from my mother’s aspect of the household.
Total, I’ve all the time had a pure love for information. I ultimately acquired a job at Sabre, which is likely one of the world’s largest information techniques exterior the US. Sabre ruled American Airways and the CEO was my mentor. Again within the 90s, I constructed the a.com web site and I used to be shopping for software program on behalf of American Airways, so I discovered lots about that and programming languages.
I spent plenty of time in Silicon Valley whereas working with American Airways and I might watch inventory costs go up 20 factors when corporations introduced that American Airways was a shopper. So, I made a decision I needed to be on the opposite aspect of that, I needed to personal one of many dot coms and become involved within the gold rush. That’s what I did and I acquired into Yahoo very early. I’ve constructed a superb community since then, just by being in the appropriate place on the proper time.
Q. The place do you see most individuals go incorrect on the subject of information, whether or not it’s of their enterprise or gross sales course of?
Dennis: The most typical mistake is that they don’t use information as a result of they assume they know higher. It’s the Dunning–Kruger impact, you recognize? Individuals who don’t have nice experience or talent in a specific topic can overestimate their information. Somebody can really feel very assured about one thing however be utterly incorrect.
Knowledge is like turning the sunshine on in a darkish room. I created the $1 a Day technique, which consists of operating a number of adverts on the identical time for a greenback a day. It’s all about testing totally different variations round one theme that already works and seeing if we will do higher. This technique permits us to seek out what actually works to spend money on it. In any given group of issues, there’s all the time going to be a winner. Advertisements usually are not the exception, so it’s all about discovering that winner and betting on it.
Q. What’s one factor that’s made the most important distinction for you when it comes to your success in each your private {and professional} life?
Dennis: Mentors have made the most important distinction for me. Each success I’ve ever had has come from a mentor opening a door. In highschool, I labored tremendous onerous and acquired actually good grades. I felt invincible, however then I noticed that different children didn’t do in addition to me, however they had been beginning companies, touchdown nice jobs, and discovering success.
I went to high school with tremendous rich children however I knew that cash wasn’t the benefit they’d over me. The benefit was their community. After I was working at American Airways and the CEO was my mentor, I acquired to fulfill the CEO of Goldman Sachs, hang around with the chairman of Allstate Insurance coverage, had dinner with one of many US Presidents, and even met Margaret Thatcher.
I don’t say this to name-drop, I say this as a result of I didn’t work onerous to get to these rooms, I simply occurred to know one one that had all these connections. The folks you meet can open plenty of doorways for you. You may assume you’re a giant deal since you made 1,000,000 {dollars} final yr, however you then meet somebody who makes the identical quantity in a day and that adjustments your perspective.
Q. Who’re your mentors now and who’s the most important inspiration for you?
Dennis: Darryl Isaacs is a tremendous legal professional and he’s referred to as the “Kentucky Hammer” and he’s in all probability essentially the most well-known individual in the whole state of Kentucky. He’s all over the place, on billboards and adverts, he’s inescapable! He has made it in all elements and he’s nonetheless one of the vital humble males I’ve ever met.
He’s the type of one that provides out his cellphone quantity to anybody who asks for it and he’s truly obtainable for folks. One time, I used to be with him and a few girl messaged him at 2 am. It seems her daughter was run over by a truck and handed that day. Darryl calls the lady and the very first thing he did was console her.
He prioritized her, not the case, that will come later. Darryl really cares about folks and the group he lives in. After I meet folks like this, I’m wondering how I may be extra like them, as a result of they’re extremely inspiring. It’s pure goodness and I consider it’s crucial to unlock that inside ourselves. It doesn’t solely make us higher folks, it makes us higher at every thing we do.
Q. Do you consider we will manifest something we would like or we should work onerous for it? The place do you sit on that spectrum?
Dennis: I believe they’re each true. I consider in manifesting, karma, and the universe, however I don’t consider issues occur on their very own. So, it’s a mix of manifesting what we would like but additionally working in direction of it.
I believe it’s a easy legislation of the universe that if you happen to give to different folks, they provide again. There’s precise math behind it. The typical individual meets round 400 folks. In the event you do one thing good for one in all them, even when they’re strangers, they’ll keep in mind that and do one thing for you sooner or later. Whether or not that’s referring you to a brand new shopper or introducing you to somebody, and so forth. That’s how your attain begins rising.
While you do good issues for everybody you meet, not simply the folks that you simply’re conversant in, you’re making a community that may assist you obtain your objectives. The folks you assist develop into advocates for you, so your community grows past the 400 folks you meet on common. Some consider that’s magic, but it surely’s simply math.
Q. What would you say has been essentially the most satisfying second you’ve had in your enterprise profession?
Dennis: Essentially the most satisfying factor about my profession is creating jobs. Little question about that. Serving to folks get jobs and supply for themselves and their households has been my mission in life. I retired 20 years in the past and, throughout the time I spent at Yahoo, I helped create tens of millions of jobs. At the moment, I proceed to do this by advising others.
Just lately, I used to be with John Jonas, the founding father of onlinejobs.ph, the world’s largest digital assistant freelancing group. We had been making movies for digital assistants the place we supplied suggestions for many who wish to work for American businesses or companies. We gave them a roadmap of the talents they wanted, defined what it’s like working with Individuals, and supplied as a lot perception as attainable so they may obtain their objective.
To most individuals, the concept of giving again is an afterthought. You recognize, they attain a sure level of their careers the place they’ve made a sure sum of money, they usually begin to really feel responsible. So, they donate a share of their wealth to their favourite charities or universities, or they do one thing good for his or her neighborhood. However what if giving again was truly the core of your enterprise?
That is one thing Naveen Jain helped me notice. He as soon as stated that nonprofits are horrible organizations as a result of they’re not accountable like companies. So, why not have a enterprise that’s based mostly on the issues that truly matter to you rather than donating 5 cents of each greenback?
That acquired me pondering, what am I good at? Nicely, I’m good at information and math, what if I pour my information right into a course? What if, as a substitute of promoting it, I give it away to folks in creating international locations who’re on the lookout for jobs or wish to develop their small companies? There are expert folks on the market who’re making $100 a month in these international locations, simply getting by. But when they discover ways to do digital advertising from folks like me and others, they will begin making $500 a month. That’s life-changing, and it’s what I’m targeted on.
Q. Who’s the person who challenged you to include that mannequin?
Dennis: Naveen Jain is the one. I consider he began 9 corporations in numerous industries and every of them remodeled a billion {dollars}. Consider it or not, he’s at present the one individual with mining rights on the moon. His work is unbelievable, notably what he’s doing with Viome, which is a well being intelligence service that assesses mobile well being, intestine microbiome well being, mitochondrial well being, stress response well being, and immune system well being. The science he’s arising with is straight out of a science fiction film, but it surely’s actual.
Folks usually freak out about how AI is included into many of the instruments we see these days. I believe these are simply instruments. Within the final 30 years, instruments have been getting smarter, that’s all. A wise instrument that is aware of learn how to use different instruments continues to be a instrument itself as a result of they want the appropriate prompts to operate. It’s the identical with folks. Giving a idiot a calculator gained’t make him a genius mathematician.
AI instruments usually are not going to interchange us, they only make us extra productive. Nonetheless good these instruments are, they don’t substitute pondering. For instance, AI writing software program can’t substitute nice writers or copywriters as a result of, to be a author, it’s a must to be an incredible thinker first. It’s the identical with every thing else. That’s why I don’t consider that machines or robots will insurgent like Skynet. That’s a Hollywood trope. Robots and machines merely serve us they usually’re eliminating plenty of jobs that shouldn’t have been jobs within the first place, so I’m very optimistic about AI.
Q. Do you assume it’s inside our management, or is AI too good?
Dennis: I believe it’s inside our management. There’s one thing you’ve in all probability heard of: Common Fundamental Earnings (UBI). Economically talking, I believe it’s inevitable, and UBI results in the subsequent factor, which is Absolutely Automated Luxurious Communism (FALC). These adjustments will free folks’s time to only do no matter they need, whether or not that’s taking over portray or serving to different folks.
The founding father of Open AI, Sam Altman, wrote an article about UBI titled “The UBI of Every little thing”. There, he expressed that UBI is inevitable and when the it lastly occurs, it will likely be based by taxing income-producing property like expertise.
He believes that every one billion-dollar tech corporations ought to pay a ten% of their worth as annual tax. If these large corporations are rising at 20%, what’s a ten% tax? Then, the tax will descend from the most important tech corporations to decrease ranges of wealth. The results of that’s that individuals will make 100 million, 10 million, or another quantity, and that’s how issues will work.
To maintain updated with Dennis and his journey, join with him on Fb and LinkedIn.
