Ep38 Transcript: Networking and Making Connections – Top Takeaways from Dennis Yu

Andrea Vahl: How do you network better and make better connections? In episode 37, I interviewed my friend Dennis Yu, a master connector, and he had a three-step process. We’re going to dive a little bit deeper into that process. And talk about some of the extra things you can do to make better connections.

Hello dreamers. Welcome to the Late Starters Club, giving you the inspiration, mindset, and tools you need to start something midlife and beyond. Remember, it’s never too late to follow your dreams.

If you haven’t had a chance to go back and listen to episode 37 with Dennis Yu I highly suggest you go and do that. He is on a mission to create 1 million jobs in this third phase of his career. And the way he’s going to do it is by making better connections. So let’s talk about his three-step formula.

Step number one was to gain knowledge and build a reputation. Now he’s one of the smartest people I know, so I think for him gaining that knowledge is very easy. He’s stayed curious his whole life.

But the other thing that I think he has done is to build a reputation around that knowledge. People know that he has that knowledge. When he was younger and in college, the word got out that he had a reputation for being able to help people. So it was mostly through referrals.

But I think another way you can build that reputation would be to market that you have, that knowledge. I think sometimes we forget as we’re starting something new that the word has to get out somehow. And for sure, referrals and word of mouth are a great way to do that. But I think another way to do that is telling stories, maybe doing a little bit more marketing. So if you’ve started something new where you’ve got a lot of experience and you want to grow that thing. Then you might have to figure out a way that you’re going to market the fact that you are the go-to person for that subject.

Step number two is to help people. And Dennis definitely does that. He helps a lot of people. He helps people for free a lot of times. He shares his knowledge very freely and in fact, he’s given us access here at Late Starter’s Club to his VA course for free. Normally $189. So go and grab that if you haven’t done that already, it’s great.

And I think another part of that equation is to helping people joyfully. People don’t want to feel like they are a burden. He is helping people very freely and he’s excited about helping people. And you can see that it brings him joy to help people.

He doesn’t necessarily have an agenda with helping people. He’s just helping them joyfully. And you don’t. People to feel like a burden.

Yeah, I’m going to help you, but I’m going to need something in return.

The other thing he does is provide real value when he helps. Now, helping people can get complex because there does have to be some boundaries around that.

Yeah. Yeah, if you could just help me for 40 hours a week. Thanks.

You have to know when to draw the line.

And one of the other things he does is the third step, which is make connections. And that can be a great way to have those boundaries where if someone is asking for something beyond what you can provide, you might make a connection to their next step if you have an idea for what they could do next to get more help. Or you could make a connection with someone who could help them a little bit more. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that person is going to help them for free, but it could be the right connection for them to make more progress.

One of the things that Dennis does well is connecting people. And I think as you grow your network and are able to remember how people can help each other, you can help make those connections. And you get credit for that help because people think, oh, Dennis is the one who helped me get the real help I need.

Another thing that Dennis does that I love is lifting other people up, and he talked about how two-thirds of his posts were honoring other people and lifting their successes up.

And it brought to mind that quote from Maya Angelou is that people will forget what you said, but people will never forget how you made them feel. And I think that’s another secret to Dennis’s success is that he makes people feel good.

And he also posts about his own failures, and I think that’s actually important because it allows other people to then help you.

So it allows you to show where you have a weak spot maybe, or something that you need and people can help you and you need to accept that help. It’s definitely one of my weak spots is not accepting help.

And I think another thing Dennis does really well is leveraging his team. He does have a team of virtual assistants and people who work for him and work with him, and I think that can be a key to having a bigger goal. Like creating 1 million jobs. You’re not going to be able to do that alone. You’re going to need the help of other people and you’re going to need to make a lot of connections.

So if you’ve got a big goal, networking and making connections is really important.

Hope that was helpful, and make sure you grab the free guide Top Tools for Late Starters on the website at latestartersclub.com and let’s turn dreaming into doing.