Dennis Yu

Brutal efficiency-- my way of getting things done

It’s 3:42 am on a Saturday morning and I’m almost done with my work. These techniques may or may not work for you, but I’ll share anyway:

  • Don’t go to bed until you’re done: Why? In the morning, you won’t remember. New things will come up.  Knowing you must get your
    work done before sleeping brings more focus– it forces efficiency.  You can finish on a good note.  Downsides– you might have a morning meeting you can’t skip, which means you won’t get enough sleep. You risk becoming addicted to this approach and become a vampire.
  • Meet in their office, not yours: That way you can leave easily. If they are in your space, not so easy. Plus, walking around will do you good– it’s exercise, plus you see
    more than if you sit in your corner office isolated from what’s going on.  Being with the troops breeds egalitarianism instead of hierarchy.
  • Follow up the same day: This is like point #1. When you go to a conference or some get-together and come back to the hotel with a stack of cards, it’s easy to say you’ll follow up in the morning. Don’t.  You won’t do it nor will you remember who the person was and what you talked about.  An immediate response draws surprise since it’s so rare for someone who gets your card to actually respond. Look at your own experience and judge if that’s true.
  • Ask “So what’s the next step?”: This will quickly kill idle chatter, gossip, and complaining. You force yourself or your colleague to find the next action.  In meetings, this is especially effective, since most people are just competing for airtime to hear themselves talk.  The more people, the more of an issue and the more important to drive to action instead of endless philosophizing.
  • Delegate: Yes, even if you could do it better. But don’t do it if they’re not reliable, able to self-diagnose issues (so you don’t have to keep checking in on them), or if it’s core to what your business
    does.  For example, don’t delegate or outsource product management and requirements writing– that’s defining your business.  If it’s
    not core– accounting, design, hosting, legal, whatever– outsource.  If it’s important, but not critical, then hire someone internally.  For an analogy on delegation, you can learn to scale up.
  • Finish what you started: Don’t go to 90% and think that you’ll come back to it later.  That extra 10% will cost you 100% more time to do it later because of something called context-switching costs.   Better to have a couple of things actually complete than 10 things 90% done.  Knowing that you’ll finish what you started will breed massive confidence in yourself and those around you.  Don’t stop midway in a task to look for garage sales or Denver strip clubs, no matter how tempting.  Keep going.  I wrote this blog post knowing that I would go to bed by 4 am– and this I’ve done.

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Dennis Yu

Dennis Yu is co-author of the #1 best selling book on Amazon in social media, The Definitive Guide to TikTok Ads. He has spent a billion dollars on Facebook ads across his agencies and agencies he advises. Mr. Yu is the "million jobs" guy-- on a mission to create one million jobs via hands-on social media training, partnering with universities and professional organizations. You can find him quoted in major publications and on television such as CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, NPR, and LA Times. Clients have included Nike, Red Bull, the Golden State Warriors, Ashley Furniture, Quiznos-- down to local service businesses like real estate agents and dentists. He's spoken at over 750 conferences in 20 countries, having flown over 6 million miles in the last 30 years to train up young adults and business owners. He speaks for free as long as the organization believes in the job-creation mission and covers business class travel. You can find him hiking tall mountains, eating chicken wings, and taking Kaqun oxygen baths-- likely in a city near you.
I'm a member of Blitzmetrics Academy and a friend of Dennis to boot. Not only is Dennis highly intelligent and full of great and creative ideas, he's also incredibly generous with both his knowledge and his time. Success couldn't come to a better guy. Thank you for all that you do for the world, Dennis! 🙏

Michael Pacheco

Marketer

Thanks 🙏 for being shining light in this industry. Love what your building for works overseas too network for jobs so innovative. Dennis helped me navigate having bad experiences with marketing agencies and doing dollar a day marketing which has helped my personal brand tremendously. Highly recommend.

Eric Skeldon

Founder at Kingdom Broker

Working with Dennis has been a delightful experience. After meeting him in 2015 I got to collaborate with him on countless occasions. His understanding for state-of-the-art marketing, his implementation, and his leadership put him into the top 0.01% of marketers and mentors.

Jan Koch

Ihr kompetenter Partner für innovative KI-Strategien.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dennis for my podcast in 2021 and since then we have maintained a friendship that grows with each interaction. I have seen Dennis' devotion to his friends and clients firsthand, and our conversations often result in us talking about how we can provide more value to the people around us. He is someone whom I can ask questions on a technical level, and look to on a personal level. If you have any hesitancy about hiring him, get over yourself and do it!

Isaac Mashman

Help scaling personal brands.

Geez, where do I start recommending Dennis? First, he is an absolutely brilliant marketer who understands where marketing is today and where it's going tomorrow. He also has an incredible passion for the International Worker community. The lessons he has taught me from his almost 20 years of experience hiring International Workers have been immense. Most importantly though. Dennis Yu is someone who wants the absolute best for you and is willing to tell you the truth. Dennis sat with me at a point in my business where I was floundering but did not want to admit it. He asked some very straight forward questions to get me to admit my issues, highlighted the issues, and then helped me create a roadmap to success.

Atiba de Souza

International Keynote Speaker | Video Content Superman | Superconnector |

Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will notr regret Dennis, which I had the pleasure of working with is one of the most giving, honest and tell you as it is person I ever know. The knowledge this man has is remarkable and he just gives it out freely. He is not pretentious and always entertain anyone big or small in the industry always willing to help. If you ever get a golden opportunity to work with him or mentored by him say YES!. You will not regret

Nixon Lee

The PR Whisperer

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