Two years ago I was a high school kid making dunk videos on YouTube. Today I co-founded Local Service Spotlight, I’m one of the 24 athletes signed to Shaq’s DunkMan League, and I’ve spoken at digital marketing conferences around the country. The through-line for all of it is one person: Dennis Yu.
Meeting Dennis
Dennis Yu is one of the most respected voices in digital marketing. He’s spoken on stages around the world, built and sold brands, and mentored hundreds of young professionals. When I first met him I didn’t have much to bring to the table other than a genuine willingness to learn and put in the work.
Learning by doing
Dennis’s mentorship style isn’t lectures or theory. It’s real work on real projects. He put me in front of tasks that felt slightly bigger than what I thought I could handle and let me figure them out. That’s the pattern that’s shaped everything I’ve built since: content strategy, personal branding, entity SEO, and the AI Builder program we run through Local Service Spotlight.
The AI Builder program
The AI Builder program at Local Service Spotlight is where young adults learn to build AI-driven systems that solve real problems for real local service businesses. Instead of grinding through abstract courses, participants ship agents, workflows, and content that actual business owners use to grow their revenue.
Dennis leads the program and I help run it day to day. We take young people who are curious about AI and marketing, give them a foundation, and put them straight onto live client work. The results are what matter — not credentials, not resumes, not what school you went to.
From student to leader
The thing about Dennis’s approach is that it doesn’t leave you as a permanent student. If you take the reps, you become the person others learn from. That’s the transition I made, and it’s the one I want more young adults to make too.
If you’re a young adult interested in building real AI skills on real projects, check out localservicespotlight.com.
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