Dennis Yu

I Practice What I Preach: Behind the Scenes at KROQ Studio

Imagine walking through the halls of a legendary radio station, surrounded by memorabilia from rock legends like The Offspring, Lorde, Coldplay, and the Red-Hot Chili Peppers. I recently experienced this at KROQ in Los Angeles while visiting with my friend, Dan Ulin, from Elite Student Coach. KROQ, a commercial radio station that has shaped rock music for decades, served as more than just a backdrop; it offered valuable lessons on relationship-building and personal branding. Insights from the Studio Tour Kevin Klein, the morning show host of Klein. Ally. Show, graciously guided us through the studio. The respect he commands in the music community is clear from the autographs of artists like Lumineers, Incubus, and Counting Crows, which decorate the studio. Kevin emphasized that these items remain unlocked and accessible, representing the open and genuine connections he’s built over the years. Kevin and Ally Johnson spend time with iconic artists because they understand the power of personal connections. This approach highlights a crucial business lesson: overcoming stage fright and building relationships come from genuine engagement. Legends like Smashing Pumpkins, U2, Lenny Kravitz, and Twenty-One Pilots visit KROQ because of these strong, personal ties. When I asked how AI fits into their setup, Kevin explained that they’ve been experimenting with voice cloning, using AI for both practical tasks and lighthearted content. For instance, they’ve created AI-generated voices for public figures like Ellen and Trump, adding a comedic spin to current events. Kevin added that some stations have adopted full-time AI DJs, hinting at the potential for even greater changes ahead. Seeing how much AI had already become part of their day-to-day workflow was fascinating, setting the stage for a new era in media. Key Lessons for Business The Power of Relationships Observing Kevin Kelly’s interactions revealed that long-term relationships with major music figures grow from consistent communication, trust, and respect. This principle applies to business as well. Whether dealing with clients, partners, or your team, personal connections can make a significant impact. Preparation is Key Preparation can transform your interactions. Before meeting Kevin, I researched his background and discovered his role as the founder of Pie-Wine, a brand featured on Shark Tank. Knowing that Pie-Wine raised funds with different wine flavors allowed me to offer valuable insights using my expertise in SEO, PPC, Facebook ads, and Google Ads. By understanding what matters to the other person and preparing accordingly, you enhance your ability to contribute meaningfully. Whether interacting with high-profile individuals or everyday contacts, being ready to offer value is crucial. Authenticity and Engagement Walking through KROQ made it clear that authenticity drives success. From unscripted moments with Kevin Kelly to capturing real experiences on video, these genuine interactions highlighted the importance of authenticity in business. Authenticity builds trust and loyalty with clients and customers. Dan, a longtime KROQ listener, highlighted how radio hosts use their voices to engage audiences with humor and connection. He advised paying attention to how DJs modulate their voices and interact with listeners. These skills—engagement, humor, and active listening—are vital for success in various aspects of life and business. Creating a Lasting Impact KROQ’s hallways, filled with signed guitars and artist posters, reflect its rich legacy. Similarly, in business, creating a lasting impact involves building a memorable brand that delivers consistent value. By intersecting your passions with your professional network, you create a cohesive narrative that resonates with your audience. This approach helps platforms like Google and Facebook understand and promote your brand effectively. Aligning your brand with your interests and connections can strengthen your online presence and support business growth. My visit to KROQ provided more than just a glimpse into rock history—it offered a masterclass in relationship-building, preparation, authenticity, and creating a lasting impact. The next time you meet someone new, consider how you can prepare, add value, and build a meaningful connection. Just like the legends honored at KROQ, the relationships you cultivate today could be the foundation of your success tomorrow.

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Why You Must Own Your Marketing: The Key to Control, Cost Efficiency, and Long-Term Success

This morning the owner of a plumbing HVAC company asked me how much to build their website. $650 one-time is the short answer. But let’s break this down and see how most home service businesses screw this up badly. It’s no secret that a plumbing HVAC website is just a template that you can inject your name, phone number, and other details into. A reasonably competent VA following our checklist can do this for a few hundred dollars. However, if you want a skilled American to fine-tune the site to rank on Google, ensure proper call tracking, and help get the right content in place, these folks cost $60,000 to $100,000 a year. The real cost lies in troubleshooting performance and tuning content, which means that a “website” should typically cost around $2,500 over 6-8 weeks to coordinate after the VA has done her part. Many of you guys see marketing companies charging $8K or even as much as $50K for a website. Does this mean our plumber friend is getting ripped off? Not necessarily, since the agency is probably bundling in Google My Business optimization, Local Service Ads, and other services. However, charging separately for SEO on a monthly basis is a scam, as I’ve explained in detail in other posts. The same goes for monthly “hosting and maintenance” fees, since all of us know that we can use WP Engine for $30 a month, a bit more if you opt for VIP support, especially if you have a lot of sites and need super-fast loading, security, and support. When people ask me for help fixing their existing site, I first check to see if they have WordPress and all the necessary plugins for analytics, content, etc. If they do, then we look at what stage their business is in. If they are in a major Google local category (plumbing, landscaping, electrical, etc.) and doing at least $80K a month, tuning their site is usually easy – often doable for $1,500. But we prefer long-term relationships (think wives, not hoes) where we can put a team on it and have an American team leader actively watching and managing. The ongoing VA cost for a retainer should be $500 to $750 a month, depending on whether the scope includes social ads and video editing, in addition to just Google-related tasks (website, GMB, LSA, SEO). Add in a senior client strategist, overhead for tools/training, and a 20% profit margin, and retainers are typically $2-3K a month per client location. HVAC businesses may be at the higher end of this spectrum (versus karate studios at $500 a month). Clients in New York City would also be higher, since there’s more competition and, therefore, more work. There are agencies that charge $10,000 a month (which isn’t necessarily bad, depending on what you’re getting). But then they outsource to white-label fulfillment, paying $300 a month for implementation and assigning 50 clients per account manager. That’s a pure money grab, as they’re primarily sales-driven organizations where the leader isn’t a hands-on practitioner, believing they need to know only a bit more than their client about digital marketing – which isn’t much. So now you see why pricing in website building is all over the place. All digital services are connected through the website, so bundling makes sense. There is so much outsourcing and “easy money bros” taking advantage of uninformed clients that the markups are insane. The solution is to understand exactly what you’re getting and work only with folks who have published SOPs. And you must own your marketing assets. No more “website is free” deals, where you pay $295 a month but lose your site if you ever leave. The same goes for PPC, where the agency owns your account, and if you try to leave, they make up some excuse about “intellectual property.” Consider your own costs in running a service business. There are the actual materials and product (the equivalent of VA labor in our case), your various people, marketing costs, overhead, and then a healthy 20% margin. A few weeks ago in Paris, I paid $24 for two croissants and two coffees. You know the actual cost was maybe a dollar. But what else are you paying for? If you want to own your marketing and hold it accountable, I created a 5-step guide with Marko S. Sipilä that you should review.

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Why ‘Social Media Marketers’ Get It Wrong: One Strategy for All Platforms

What I’m about to say pisses off most people who do social media marketing or believe they do it for a living because they think every social channel is different. They think what you post on YouTube should be different from what you put on TikTok. Twitter should be text-based, while on Instagram, you need to focus on reels. YouTube content should be long-form, while LinkedIn is for your resume or business tips. From a consumer’s perspective, that’s true. But we work for our clients to drive sales, not just entertain or inform. When I’m on social media, my goal is to drive sales, not target everyone on LinkedIn or TikTok. On TikTok, I can target older people or any audience by focusing precisely on who I want to reach and the content I provide. It’s channel-independent. 

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The Real Secret to Home Services Marketing: It’s Not About the Tools

The “secret” to marketing for a home services business is not killer technical expertise in PPC, SEO, or whatever the tool companies and gurus are trying to confuse you with. Here is the secret…. Have solid teams that do great work, which generates happy customers. Then “marketing” is just amplifying the goodness already there. No amount of amplifying a dog turd or seasoning it with a magic blend of spices is going to make it delicious. Even if Gordon Ramsey was the chef and had a million dollar kitchen, you wouldn’t eat that dog turd, would you? While we are hiring video editors, PPC specialists, WordPress developers, and account managers, really what we are looking for is high quality people who truly care and actually understand what these landscapers, plumbers, pool builders, and electricians do. The successful business owners know the key is having a great team first, then tools and processes later. The smarter the AI-infused tools and platforms become, ironically, the STRONGER your advantage becomes in attracting and growing the best people. Since the AI eliminates the technical advantages that folks like me have worked so hard to develop, I can’t beat the computer in math, chess, or PPC. It’s the quality of the ingredients and the people using the tools that matters most. Would you agree?

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How Scott Richter Became a Gambling Influencer and Hit a $1M Jackpot!

If you’re into gambling, Scott Richter is someone you’ll want to talk to. Scott and I have a long history, I’ve known him for 25 years. Since then, Scott Richter has transformed himself into a huge gambling influencer, able to bring whopping traffic to casinos and anyone who wants to reach gamblers. He runs a YouTube channel called “The Big Jackpot.” He appeared on the John Daly Show, ran Affiliate.com, and is one of the biggest people in online marketing. Thirty years ago, Scott was one of the biggest OGs in email, websites, affiliate marketing, social media, and other channels. When he started in 2000 with email marketing, it was all about ringtones, affiliate marketing, and email submissions. I’m holding a Blackberry Curve, a true sign of the times. It kind of reminds me of Harrison Gevirtz who had 3 different phones. We have some cool memories together. Once, we went swimming across Georges Lake on a UTV, which is half a mile long. Ten years ago, he began recording videos of himself playing slot machines; his channel recently exploded in popularity. Last December, Scott hit a one million dollar jackpot live that nobody has ever recorded. Scott went from being a behind-the-scenes boss running traffic and managing businesses to becoming an influencer, showing his face in front of the camera while playing slots. The first few years were rough for Scott. He was shy and nervous, especially when fans asked for autographs and selfies. He never wanted to be on camera and thought he wasn’t anybody famous—just a guy playing slot machines. When he was in Germany, people came up to him. In Mexico, at a hotel having breakfast, people recognized him. This happened because he gets 20 million views across all his socials. We analyzed his stats, and nearly half the viewers watched till the end. For example, if Scott gets 300,000 views, almost half watch it again because: People want to see if he wins. Skipping to the end isn’t as exciting. Slot machines are fast-paced. Viewers rewatch to catch missed details like “What just happened?” or “How much did he win?”Many watch to learn how to play. There are no tips, tricks, or secrets; if there were, Scott would be gambling 24/7 instead of being an influencer. Many of Scott’s viewers are high rollers who bet $50 to $100 or more. They won’t watch someone betting a dollar. Since Scott Richter is a high-stakes gambler, they watch him to see his betting strategies, how much a machine can really pay out, how he loses money, and how he wins money. In the affiliate space, what works today won’t work tomorrow.The same applies to gambling and influencer marketing; strategies change every two years. It’s tough for Scott to continuously develop fresh and bigger ideas to stay relevant and maintain his audience’s interest. He has to reinvent himself every two years. Some people think Scott is ahead in gambling, especially since he won a $1 million jackpot last year. However, Scott says that over a lifetime, no one can honestly say they’ve come out ahead in gambling even if you’ve gambled for 20-30 years, unless you’ve won something extraordinary like $10 million, it’s nearly impossible to be ahead overall. When you come to Vegas, the casinos put you up in the nicest suites and take care of you, which means that Scott must be losing a lot of money. Over his lifetime, Scott has lost a couple of million dollars. He’s had years where he lost a million dollars or been up by half a million. You lose eight out of ten times, but one big win can make up for three or four losses. Out of those eight losses, there are usually a couple of times you break even. Gamblers have disposable income and are okay with spending money on gambling as a form of entertainment. While some people have gambling issues and shouldn’t gamble, most gamblers can afford it. They are prime targets for credit card companies, cash advances, vacation packages, cruises, and luxury brands. Scott’s high-end audience, who often gamble with $25,000, $50,000, $100,000, or even a million dollars, can easily buy a $3,000 Gucci shirt or other luxury items. Scott met Tim Cook a day before this interview and was surprised that Tim, worth $2 billion and running a $2 trillion company, didn’t have a security detail. Scott meets numerous people and has collaborated with many. People like working with him because he reaches a broad audience. He appears in many Vegas residency shows. Magic Murray, Tape Face, and Piff the Dragon have collaborated with him because their fans see them on his show and get curious about him. Facebook is Screwing Creators Like Scott Richter They find out that Scott Richter has a show at the Tropicana, Harrah’s, The Linq, or other hotels, which serves as great advertising. This is why hotels and casinos love Scott; he provides excellent marketing. For example, many casinos, especially those in Colorado, have a lot more traffic, thanks to Scott. Imagine this—Facebook demonetizes Scott Richter, claiming their AI flagged a violation. They don’t tell him what the violation is. They just say, “Try something new,” hinting that his content might be burning out. That’s clearly not the case—if his audience was losing interest, he’d be seeing a drop across all platforms. But he’s still getting the same views elsewhere. Years ago, Sheryl Sandberg thought AI and automation would replace humans, saving Facebook on support costs. But what if they realized now that people—not AI—should be handling support? The real joke? Facebook is actually asking Scott to send a screenshot to prove if he’s being recommended or not. Scott Richter is just one of many being wronged by Facebook. If you want to help us get this message across, share this article with as many people as possible. Let me know what you think about Scott Richter.

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Steven McConnon Was Looking to Break into Silicon Valley and He Did

Ten years ago, I met Steven McConnon. Today, he’s realized his dream of breaking into Silicon Valley. Over the years, I’ve mentored Steven, watching him grow and overcome challenges. Steven worked hard and stayed committed to his goals. Now, he’s a Technical Project Manager/Solutions Architect at Facebook Reality Labs. Seeing Steven achieve his dream fills me with pride. His story shows that with diligence, dreams can come true, no matter the obstacles.

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How We Drove $38 Million in Ticketmaster Revenue for the Golden State Warriors

I got a lot of hate because we ran ads for the Golden State Warriors for five and a half years. I had all these “friends” saying, “You know I’d love a ticket for my buddy and for my girlfriend,” and you might laugh, but many of us are guilty of cold-emailing and cold-calling like these folks. They ask for your time, money, and connections without adding value first. Like anyone else, I believe in driving sales and working hard. But the way to do it is to CREATE VALUE FIRST. Not blasting out thousands of messages, like some desperate college kid hoping that submitting thousands of job applications will improve his chances. If you want someone important to give you their time– perhaps it’s a potential client or an expert that you’d like advice from– treat them like humans first. Few people take the time to do their homework, get clarity on what they want, and create value first. If you’re one of these folks, you already know how easy it is to get access to the busiest, most successful, most important people. In the first year we ran ads, they hired a new head of marketing named Kenny Lauer, the new CMO. He said, “Dennis, I’m starting this new job and you’re the first person I’m calling because a lot of other marketing people have tried to do social media and run ads but couldn’t get it to work. I’m staking my reputation on this, so I’m really counting on you, buddy, to come in and work some magic here.” I said, “I don’t promise magic, but I promise we do what we do really well, which is find what’s working and amplify it. By looking at the analytics and setting up what we call digital plumbing, we figured out who was buying tickets and who the best fans were. If you build lookalike audiences, even a 1% lookalike audience based on people who buy, provided you have a custom audience pool of at least 200 really high-quality people—not just people who visited the website, but people who’ve actually bought tickets—the work has been done for you because you started with the right initial ingredients.” In that first year, we spent a million dollars and drove $38 million in Ticketmaster revenue, provable in the system. We didn’t care about how many fans, likes, or followers we had. We cared about revenue measurable inside the Ticketmaster system. Ticketmaster had to make several changes to their system because they didn’t have the kind of tracking we were looking for. For example, Ticketmaster had to implement secondary revenue tracking because of us. This meant distinguishing between resale tickets and those sold for the first time. Our games were all sold out, but tickets can be resold multiple times. We tracked the revenue from resale tickets, making significant money. We earned 15 cents on every dollar of resale revenue and remained profitable. We simply amplified what was already working, partly because the team was doing really well, winning NBA championships and similar achievements. I got hate from other agencies saying, “It’s easy for Dennis to be a successful social media agency because he has the Golden State Warriors as a client.” I would respond that we show incremental revenue because of our efforts. The revenue is going up because the team is winning and ticket prices are increasing—which makes it harder for us to sell tickets since the revenue team is raising the prices. When you have a lot of attention, and we had the winning team, the cheerleaders made videos for us. We got sponsors like WingStop, United Airlines, and Uber; they did all kinds of unique things. I was hoping for Buffalo Wild Wings, but we got WingStop. They initially gave us terrible creatives: coupons like “buy 10 wings, get four free,” and wanted us to run them on our site, Facebook, and other social media channels. I told them it wasn’t going to work. The first year, we did it their way because their brand team wanted to use us like a commercial—we just pushed it out there. The click-through rate was about 0.2%. I said, “You know what we should do? We should have each player say what their favorite flavor is—zesty garlic, habanero chili, or honey mustard. Just have each of the players hold up a wing with their favorite flavor, and then you can run your coupon: buy 10 wings, get four free.” It took me two years, but finally, I got them to agree because I showed them the results of the stuff they put out there. I ran it their way because I didn’t want to argue, and we had a contract with them. Then we ran it my way. We got a 2% click-through rate, which was 10 times higher. We were also able to measure how many more people went into the store because we had digital plumbing set up. With Google and Facebook, you can measure how many store visits you have when you run ads, which we were able to tie back to the point of sale. This allows us to see how many repeat customers they are able to get, not just people who came in for the coupon, but also how many people continued to come back. We were running a quasi-agency for several big brands sponsoring the sports team. This was great because I had access to some huge companies’ databases. I got access to them because they wanted to match their CRM, which is called a custom audience, also known as offline conversions, which Facebook and Google still have. For some reason, no one seems to know about this, but in retail, it’s huge. We did it for Ashley Furniture, the world’s largest furniture manufacturer. We matched these custom audiences and ran offline audiences, measuring store visits. We found that every dollar spent on ads drove $28 million of revenue for Ashley Furniture. And we’re

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World Gym Leveraging the Social Amplification Engine

We had World Gym as our client. They’re the original gym for bodybuilders like Frank Zane and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and they were running professionally shot corporate ads. Their ads weren’t working on TikTok. So I did a search on TikTok for World Gym and saw a bunch of regular people working out at World Gym. They were doing leg raises, stretching, talking about their diet, and even doing exercises the wrong way to make fun of others. These were regular people of all different shapes and sizes—not Mr. Olympia, perfect bodybuilding magazine types—just actual normal people who go to this gym. We took their posts and started boosting them. It brought in new members, just like those people in the videos. Is that a surprise? No, because people will buy from people they trust. This has nothing to do with the internet. So why wouldn’t you leverage that? It’s just another way of saying social amplification. The Social Amplification Engine Our whole six-phase process is called the Social Amplification Engine.   You’re amplifying the social proof and the goodness of what your customer is doing. The better job your clients are doing the easier it is to amplify. So if you’re an agency your biggest issue is choosing the right clients. When you choose clients that are already doing well, amplification is easy.

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Jack Wendt is 19 and Knows How to Network with High-Value People

If you don’t know how to network and you’re afraid of meeting people or you’re getting nervous. You’ll want to know how Jack Wendt networks with high-value people and is now going to become the head of Strategic relations at Caleb Guilliam’s company Better Wealth. He graduated high school last year and went straight to the Army National Guard. He’s in aviation intelligence. He did basic training and learned all the crazy, top-secret stuff. Just 12 days after he graduated, he had no job offer. So, he flew down to the event, hoping to figure something out. And he did. He was with Caleb in Nashville, learning on the job. He told Caleb he wanted to help and learn from him, aspiring to be like Caleb. He wanted to combine his strengths with Caleb’s and improve. It worked out. They created a position for him in Caleb’s company. Jack Wendt says it’s about asking the right people the right questions. A lot of life’s hardships is figuring out who to ask and what to ask. Jack didn’t know Caleb and was at a random event with high-profile business connections. He liked that Caleb is young, innovative, a genius communicator, and great at networking. He wanted to learn how to do that. Once he completes the trial period, his title will be Head of Relations, Operations. It was about asking the right person the right question, focusing on humility, ability, and connection. We’re moving into a world dominated by AI, losing personal touch. That’s why strategic partnerships and personal connections will always matter. AI can’t replicate this unless we have humanoid robots like in Ex Machina. Maybe that will happen someday, but that’s far off. I can Imagine being 19-year-old Jack, trying to build real relationships with high-value people. Seeing someone as high-profile as Caleb would be intimidating. We live in a world that encourages us to be consumers. On TikTok, scrolling is a comfort zone where there’s no judgment or rejection. But to get ahead, you can’t fear rejection. Take the salespeople in Salt Lake City, for example. They spend two years on missions, facing constant rejection. This makes them the best in the world because they learn to embrace rejection and overcome it. Overcoming fear and putting yourself out there is crucial. Everyone has a little voice in their head holding them back, but sometimes you need to push that voice forward. Think about it—what’s the worst that can happen? You have to be more like a missionary. But what if you’re an introvert? What if you don’t have the charisma that Caleb and I have? Are you doomed to fail at building relationships with high-value people? I believe everyone has something to offer. While Caleb and Jack rely on charisma, those traits are learned, not innate. It’s harder for some people, but it’s all about trial and error. Failing is how you grow and learn. Is building high-value strategic relationships better than focusing solely on selling? One of the best ways to scale sales is through word of mouth and personal connections. Having someone vouch for you is invaluable. This is where strategic partnerships come in. Many people have loyal fan bases in niche markets. For example, Jack is currently looking at popular YouTube channels in the fly fishing community. Jack sells life insurance, and many fly fishing enthusiasts are in their target audience. It may seem unusual for a 19-year-old in a life insurance company to collaborate with a fly fishing YouTube channel, but there’s a lot of value in it. By leveraging these partnerships, you can tap into existing communities and build trust with potential clients in ways traditional selling often can’t. Jack’s fascination with watches started at 13. His grandpa had some watches and said, “Jack, I’m about to buy a $4,000 watch. Any money you save me, I’ll give you half.” Jack found that watch for $3,500 and made $250. For a 13-year-old, that was amazing. He thought, “I could do this for people.” At 15, during quarantine, he started flipping watches. He bought a few at a time, starting with a $150 watch. The first watch he bought and sold cost $150. Two weeks later, he sold it for $375. He kept doing that, parlaying his success like in the book Smart Cuts. He didn’t know the concept yet, but he kept growing his money and increasing his margins. With more money, he bought more watches and continued to grow his business. He took a break while he was at basic training, but now he’s working with a partner to launch an e-commerce company. This helps Jack with strategic partnerships because he can approach high-worth individuals and identify their watches. Today, Jack walked up to a guy and said, “Hey, I love your Rolex. Is that a Daytona or a Rolex Explorer 2?” It instantly breaks the ice and gets them interested in what he has to say. It’s an actual conversation where you exchange stuff. There’s so much small talk today, and people are on autopilot, having the same conversation over and over again. Breaking that gets their attention. It doesn’t have to be about watches; it just needs to be something you’re genuinely interested in. Start with a hobby or something you love. Jack didn’t figure out what he wanted to do until halfway through his senior year. He had no clue whether he should go to college, join the military, or go straight to the workforce. All these options felt daunting. He applied to colleges and got into a few, but it didn’t make sense to him. So many people go to college, put themselves in six figures of debt, and not many end up successful. Jack realized that college isn’t always necessary. Education is not bad, and he might still get a college degree, possibly online while working full-time. He just needed options. He joined the Army National Guard. He always wanted to serve, partly because his dad

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