Dennis Yu is on a mission to create one million jobs by providing hands-on social media training and partnering with universities and professional organizations. Dennis is the co-author of the #1 best-selling social media book on Amazon, “The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads” and he’s an expert advisor in job creation.
He has worked with clients like Nike, Red Bull, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, the Golden State Warriors, and a wide array of local businesses and professionals. Dennis has spoken at over 750 conferences in 30 countries, and he’s passionate about training young adults and business owners.
For more details, visit his website here.
Here we sit down with Dennis, to know a bit more about his journey as an entrepreneur.
Q. Tell us a little more about your journey as an entrepreneur – how did you get started? What inspired you?
Dennis: I never wanted to be an entrepreneur, I was just an Asian kid who was very good at math and noticed that everything had a different price. Why is it that a postman makes less than an airline pilot? Why did Godiva chocolate cost more than Hershey’s chocolate? This curiosity led me to study economics at the London School of Economics, and I also learned about Wall Street from my mom’s side of the family.
Overall, I’ve always had a natural love for data. I eventually got a job at Sabre, which is one of the world’s largest data systems outside the United States. Sabre governed American Airlines and the CEO was my mentor. Back in the 90s, I built the a.com website and I was buying software on behalf of American Airlines, so I learned a lot about that and programming languages.
I spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley while working with American Airlines and I would watch stock prices go up 20 points when companies announced that American Airlines was a client. So, I decided I wanted to be on the other side of that, I wanted to own one of the dot coms and get involved in the gold rush. That’s what I did and I got into Yahoo very early. I’ve built a good network since then, simply by being in the right place at the right time.
Q. Where do you see most people go wrong when it comes to data, whether it’s in their business or sales process?
Dennis: The most common mistake is they don’t use data because they think they know better. It’s the Dunning–Kruger effect, you know? People who don’t have great expertise or skill in a particular subject can overestimate their knowledge. Someone can feel very confident about something but be completely wrong.
Data is like turning the light on in a dark room. I created the $1 a Day strategy, which consists of running multiple ads at the same time for a dollar a day. It’s all about testing different variations around one theme that already works and seeing if we can do better. This strategy allows us to find what really works to invest in it. In any given group of things, there’s always going to be a winner. Ads are not the exception, so it’s all about finding that winner and betting on it.
Q. What’s one thing that’s made the biggest difference for you in terms of your success in both your personal and professional life?
Dennis: Mentors have made the biggest difference for me. Every success I’ve ever had has come from a mentor opening a door. In high school, I worked super hard and got really good grades. I felt invincible, but then I realized that other kids didn’t do as well as me, but they were starting businesses, landing great jobs, and finding success.
I went to school with super wealthy kids but I knew that money wasn’t the advantage they had over me. The advantage was their network. When I was working at American Airlines and the CEO was my mentor, I got to meet the CEO of Goldman Sachs, hang out with the chairman of Allstate Insurance, had dinner with one of the US Presidents, and even met Margaret Thatcher.
I don’t say this to name-drop, I say this because I didn’t work hard to get to those rooms, I just happened to know one person who had all those connections. The people you meet can open a lot of doors for you. You might think you’re a big deal because you made a million dollars last year, but then you meet someone who makes the same amount in a day and that changes your perspective.
Q. Who are your mentors now and who is the biggest inspiration for you?
Dennis: Darryl Isaacs is an amazing attorney and he’s known as the “Kentucky Hammer” and he’s probably the most well-known person in the entire state of Kentucky. He’s everywhere, on billboards and ads, he’s inescapable! He has made it in all aspects and he’s still one of the most humble men I’ve ever met.
He’s the kind of person who gives out his phone number to anyone who asks for it and he’s actually available for people. One time, I was with him and some lady messaged him at 2 am. It turns out her daughter was run over by a truck and passed that day. Darryl calls the woman and the first thing he did was console her.
He prioritized her, not the case, that would come later. Darryl truly cares about people and the community he lives in. When I meet people like this, I wonder how I can be more like them, because they’re incredibly inspiring. It’s pure goodness and I believe it’s very important to unlock that within ourselves. It doesn’t only make us better people, it makes us better at everything we do.
Q. Do you believe we can manifest anything we want or we must work hard for it? Where do you sit on that spectrum?
Dennis: I think they’re both true. I believe in manifesting, karma, and the universe, but I don’t believe things happen on their own. So, it’s a combination of manifesting what we want but also working towards it.
I think it’s a simple law of the universe that if you give to other people, they give back. There’s actual math behind it. The average person meets around 400 people. If you do something nice for one of them, even if they’re strangers, they will remember that and do something for you in the future. Whether that’s referring you to a new client or introducing you to someone, etc. That’s how your reach starts growing.
When you do good things for everyone you meet, not just the people that you’re familiar with, you’re creating a network that can help you achieve your goals. The people you help become advocates for you, so your network grows beyond the 400 people you meet on average. Some believe that’s magic, but it’s just math.
Q. What would you say has been the most satisfying moment you’ve had in your business career?
Dennis: The most satisfying thing about my career is creating jobs. No doubt about that. Helping people get jobs and provide for themselves and their families has been my mission in life. I retired 20 years ago and, during the time I spent at Yahoo, I helped create millions of jobs. Today, I continue to do that by advising others.
Recently, I was with John Jonas, the founder of onlinejobs.ph, the world’s largest virtual assistant freelancing community. We were making videos for virtual assistants where we provided tips for those who want to work for American agencies or businesses. We gave them a roadmap of the skills they needed, explained what it’s like working with Americans, and provided as much insight as possible so they could achieve their goal.
To most people, the idea of giving back is an afterthought. You know, they reach a certain point in their careers where they’ve made a certain amount of money, and they start to feel guilty. So, they donate a percentage of their wealth to their favorite charities or universities, or they do something nice for their neighborhood. But what if giving back was actually the core of your business?
This is something Naveen Jain helped me realize. He once said that nonprofits are horrible organizations because they’re not accountable like businesses. So, why not have a business that’s based on the things that actually matter to you instead of donating five cents of every dollar?
That got me thinking, what am I good at? Well, I’m good at data and math, what if I pour my knowledge into a course? What if, instead of selling it, I give it away to people in developing countries who are looking for jobs or want to grow their small businesses? There are skilled people out there who are making $100 a month in these countries, just getting by. But if they learn how to do digital marketing from people like me and others, they can start making $500 a month. That’s life-changing, and it’s what I’m focused on.
Q. Who is the person that challenged you to incorporate that model?
Dennis: Naveen Jain is the one. I believe he started 9 companies in different industries and each of them made over a billion dollars. Believe it or not, he’s currently the only person with mining rights on the moon. His work is incredible, particularly what he’s doing with Viome, which is a health intelligence service that assesses cellular health, gut microbiome health, mitochondrial health, stress response health, and immune system health. The science he’s coming up with is straight out of a science fiction movie, but it’s real.
People often freak out about how AI is incorporated into most of the tools we see nowadays. I think these are just tools. In the last 30 years, tools have been getting smarter, that’s all. A smart tool that knows how to use other tools is still a tool itself because they need the right prompts to function. It’s the same with people. Giving a fool a calculator won’t make him a genius mathematician.
AI tools are not going to replace us, they just make us more productive. However smart these tools are, they don’t replace thinking. For example, AI writing software can’t replace great writers or copywriters because, to be a writer, you have to be a great thinker first. It’s the same with everything else. That’s why I don’t believe that machines or robots will rebel like Skynet. That’s a Hollywood trope. Robots and machines simply serve us and they’re eliminating a lot of jobs that shouldn’t have been jobs in the first place, so I’m very optimistic about AI.
Q. Do you think it’s within our control, or is AI too smart?
Dennis: I think it is within our control. There’s something you’ve probably heard of: Universal Basic Income (UBI). Economically speaking, I think it’s inevitable, and UBI leads to the next thing, which is Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC). These changes will free people’s time to just do whatever they want, whether that’s taking up painting or helping other people.
The founder of Open AI, Sam Altman, wrote an article about UBI titled “The UBI of Everything”. There, he expressed that UBI is inevitable and when the it finally happens, it will be founded by taxing income-producing assets like technology.
He believes that all billion-dollar tech companies should pay a 10% of their value as annual tax. If these huge companies are growing at 20%, what’s a 10% tax? Then, the tax will descend from the largest tech companies to lower levels of wealth. The result of that is that people will make 100 million, 10 million, or some other number, and that’s how things will work.
To keep up to date with Dennis and his journey, connect with him on Facebook and LinkedIn.
