Dennis Yu is on a mission to create 1 million jobs by providing practical social media training and partnering with universities and professional organizations. Dennis is the co-author of the #1 Amazon bestselling social media book, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Advertising, and a job creation expert advisor.
He has worked with clients such as Nike, Red Bull, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, and the Golden State Warriors, as well as a variety of local businesses and professionals. Dennis has spoken at over 750 conferences in 30 countries and is passionate about training youth and business owners.
For more information, see his website here.
Here we sat down with Dennis to find out a bit more about his journey as an entrepreneur.
Q. Tell us a bit 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 good at math and noticed that everything cost differently. Why does a postman get paid less than an airline pilot? Why does Godiva chocolate cost more than Hershey’s chocolate? This curiosity led me to study Economics at the London School of Economics and also learned about Wall Street from my maternal family.
Overall, I’ve always had a natural love for data. I ended up working at Sabre, one of the largest data systems in the world outside of the U.S. Sabre oversees American Airlines and the CEO was my mentor. In the ’90s, I built the a.com website and bought 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 when I worked for American Airlines, and I watched as stock prices went up 20 points every time a company announced that American Airlines was a customer. So I thought I wanted to be on the other side of that, own one of the dot-com companies and join the gold rush. So that’s what I did, and I joined Yahoo pretty early on. Since then, I was just in the right place at the right time, and I’ve built a great network.
Q. Where do you think most people get it wrong when it comes to data, business, sales processes, etc?
Dennis: The most common mistake is not using data because you think you know more. This is the Dunning-Kruger effect. People with little expertise or skill in a particular area can overestimate their knowledge. They can be very confident about something, but actually be completely wrong.
Data is like shining a light in a dark room. I created a “dollar-a-day strategy” where I run multiple ads simultaneously for $1 a day. The idea is to test different variations around one theme that’s already working to see which performs better. This strategy allows me to find what really works and invest in it. In any group, there are always winners, and advertising is no exception. So it’s important to find the winners and bet on them.
Q. What has made the biggest difference to you in succeeding in both your personal and professional life?
Dennis: Having a mentor has been a game changer for me. Every success I have had is because of the doors they opened for me. In high school, I studied hard and got great grades. I felt invincible, but I realized that other students, while not as successful as me, were starting businesses, getting great jobs, and being successful.
I went to school with super-rich kids, and I knew it wasn’t money that made them better than me. Their advantage was connections. When I worked at American Airlines, the CEO was my mentor, I met the CEO of Goldman Sachs, I hung out with the chairman of Allstate Insurance, I had dinner with one of the presidents of the United States, and I even met Margaret Thatcher.
I’m not saying this to promote my name, not because I worked hard to get into those rooms, but because I happened to know one person who had all of those connections. The people you meet open a lot of doors for you. You might think you’re a big shot because you made a million dollars last year, but then you meet someone who makes that same amount in a day, and it changes your perspective.
Q. Who is your current mentor and who is your biggest inspiration?
Dennis: Darryl Isaacs is a fantastic attorney, known as the “Kentucky Hammer” and is probably the most famous person in the entire state of Kentucky. He’s on billboards, in ads, everywhere, you can’t escape him. He’s successful in every way and is one of the most humble men I’ve ever met.
He’s the kind of guy who will give you his number and actually makes time for you. One time I was with him and a woman messaged me at 2am saying that her daughter had been hit by a truck that day and died. Daryl called the woman and comforted her first.
He made her a priority, and it wasn’t something that came later. Daryl cares deeply about people and the community he lives in. When I meet people like this, I think about how I can be more like them, because they are incredibly inspiring. It’s pure goodness, and I believe it’s so important to bring out that goodness in ourselves. It not only makes us better people, but it makes us better at everything we do.
Q. Do you believe you can achieve anything you want or that you have to work for it? Where do you stand on that?
Dennis: I think both are true. I believe in manifestation, karma, and the universe, but I don’t believe things just happen by themselves. It’s a combination of manifesting what we want and working towards it.
I think it’s a simple law of the universe that if you do something for others, they will do it for you. There’s some real math behind it. The average person meets about 400 people. If you do something nice for one of them, even if they’re a stranger, they’ll remember it and do something nice for you in the future. That’s how your influence starts to grow, whether that be introducing you to a new client or introducing you to someone else.
When you do good things for everyone you meet, not just those close to you, you create a network that helps you achieve your goals. The people you help become your advocates, and your network grows to over 400 people that you meet on average. Some people think this is magic, but it’s just math.
Q. What has been the most satisfying moment in your business career?
Dennis: The most satisfying part of my career has been creating jobs. There’s no question about it. Helping people find work and provide for themselves and their families is my life’s mission. I retired 20 years ago, but during my time at Yahoo, I helped create millions of jobs. Today, I continue to fulfill that mission by advising others.
Recently, I was with John Jonas, founder of onlinejobs.ph, the world’s largest virtual assistant freelance community. We produced a video for virtual assistants, offering tips for those who want to work for agencies and companies in the US. We provided a roadmap of the skills needed, explained what it’s like to work with Americans, and offered as many insights as possible to help them achieve their goals.
For most people, the idea of giving back is an afterthought. Once you earn a certain amount in your career, you start to feel guilty. So you donate some of your assets to your favorite charity or university, or do something good for your neighborhood. But what if giving back is actually the core of your business?
This is something Naveen Jain helped me realize. He once said that nonprofits are terrible organizations because they’re not accountable like businesses are. So instead of giving 5 cents on every dollar, why not start a business based on what you really care about?
So I thought, what am I good at? I’m good with data and math, but what if I put my knowledge into a course? Instead of selling it, what if I offered it for free to people in developing countries who are looking for work or want to grow their small business? There are skilled people in these countries who are making $100 a month just to get by. But if they learn how to do digital marketing from me and others, they could be making $500 a month. That’s life-changing and that’s what I’m focused on.
Q. Who encouraged you to adopt that model?
Dennis: Naveen Jain is one such person. He has started nine companies in different industries, each of which has made over $1 billion in profits. Believe it or not, he is currently the only person with moon mining rights. He does some amazing work, especially what he does with Viome, a health information service that assesses cellular health, gut microbiome health, mitochondrial health, stress response health, and immune system health. The science he produces seems like something out of a sci-fi movie, but it’s real.
People are often surprised that most of the tools they see these days have AI built into them. They think that these are just tools. Over the last 30 years, tools have gotten smarter, but that’s it. A smart tool that knows how to use other tools is still a tool in itself, as it needs the right prompts to function. The same goes for humans. Give a fool a calculator and he’s not going to turn into a genius mathematician.
AI tools do not replace humans, they only make them more productive. No matter how smart these tools are, they cannot replace thinking. For example, AI writing software cannot replace a good writer or copywriter. To be a writer, you need to be a good thinker first. Same with everything else. That’s why I don’t see machines or robots rebelling like Skynet. It’s a Hollywood cliché. Robots and machines are just serving humans and they are taking over a lot of jobs that were never supposed to be jobs in the first place. That’s why I’m very optimistic about AI.
Q. Do you think that’s within our control or is AI too smart?
Dennis: I think it’s within our control. You’ve probably heard of it: Universal Basic Income (UBI). Economically speaking, I think it’s inevitable. UBI will lead to the next thing: Fully Automated Luxury Communism (FALC). These changes will give people more free time to do the things they love, like painting or helping others.
Open AI founder Sam Altman wrote an article about UBI titled “UBI for Everything,” in which he says that UBI is inevitable, and that if it eventually comes to fruition, it will be achieved by taxing revenue-generating assets, such as technology.
He thinks that every billion-dollar tech company should pay 10% of its value in taxes every year. If these giant companies are growing at 20%, then 10% tax isn’t a big deal. Then the tax trickles down from the biggest tech companies to the lower levels of wealth. So then people start making $100 million, or $10 million, or whatever number, and that’s how things work.
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