Build Log · Personal Brand Engine
Catching the Wave: Turning Ethan Pimstone’s 52.5-Inch Moment Into a Community — In One Session
A dunker goes viral. The clock starts. Here is exactly how we turned a fleeting viral spike into an owned audience, a home base, and the start of a paid community — step by step, so anyone can audit it.
Ethan Pimstone just tested a 52.5-inch vertical. If you don’t live in the dunk world, here’s the translation: that is one of the highest verticals a human has ever recorded. The clips are flying around Instagram, Dunkademics, and the dunk community. Thousands of new people are typing his name into a search bar for the first time this week.
And until today, that search hit a dead end. No website. No home base. No way to turn a viewer into a follower, a follower into a member, or a member into a customer. Dylan Haugen’s audit scored Ethan a 42/100 — “Prospect” tier, no Knowledge Graph, no site on his name. The talent is real and proven; the infrastructure to catch the wave didn’t exist yet.
So in a single working session, we built it. Here’s the whole thing.
52.5″MAX VERTICAL
42→AUTHORITY, PRE-BUILD
1DOMAIN SECURED
2SITES LIVE / STAGED
Who Ethan is (the part that makes this a movement, not a stunt)
The reason this is a community and not just a highlight reel is the story underneath the hops. Ethan didn’t grow up a prodigy. He walked into high school at 5-foot-4, pre-puberty, a corner-three-only player whose freshman goal was to touch the bottom of the backboard. Then came what he cheerfully calls the “Fortnite era” — ten hours a day on a controller, the least-active stretch of his life.
A late growth spurt, four years in the weight room, and a brother who begged him to train for two straight years changed everything. In 2023 he tested 44.5 inches off zero jump training. At Dunk Camp 2025 he tested 47.5″ and threw his first Eastbay ever the same day, touching over 12 feet. Dunk Talk #64 called him “the 48-inch jumper who came out of nowhere.” Now he’s at 52.5″.
That arc — picked-last late bloomer to one of the highest verticals alive — is the most relatable origin story in the sport. It’s the foundation of the mission: prove explosive athleticism can be built from nothing, at any age, by anyone, and document the come-up in public so the next kid who got picked last has a roadmap.
The coach in the family
“Jordan” isn’t a hired gun — he’s Ethan’s older brother, Jordan Pimstone: a 45-inch tester, a full-time strength coach, and the architect of “Jump Backs,” the self-built training system he’s logged every workout into since 2017 and now runs other athletes through. Jump Backs is the natural engine for a paid tier — the brothers’ real method, packaged.
The strategy in one breath
A viral moment is rented attention. The job is to convert it into owned attention before it fades. That means three things, fast: a home base on his name, a way to capture every visitor, and a clear ladder from “free fan” to “paying member.”
- Home base — a site on EthanPimstone.com that Google, ChatGPT, and sponsors can read.
- The funnel — a landing page that turns the viral traffic into emails and community sign-ups today.
- The ladder — a free tier (community + Ethan’s journey) and a paid tier (the Jump Backs system + coach access).
What we did, step by step
Done
Mined the moment
Pulled together everything the web and the dunk community are saying — the 52.5″ record, the Dunk Talk #64 feature, the Dunkademics spotlight, the Dunk Camp numbers (12’1″ touch, 0.23s ground contact), and the brother/coach dynamic — and separated the verified facts from the hype. (One claim circulating about a prior record-holder didn’t hold up to sourcing, so we left it out. Verify before you vouch.)
Done
Picked the tools
Recommended Skool as the community home: it bundles a free tier, a paid tier, and courses in one place, with leaderboards that fit a vertical-jump PR community perfectly. The landing page is the front door; Skool is the room.
Done
Built the landing page
Designed a full community landing page — hero, proof, the come-up story, the mission, free vs. founding-member tiers, a “meet the coach” section for Jordan and Jump Backs, FAQ, and an email capture. Slots are marked for three quick videos and real photos.
Done
Shipped it to dennisyu.com/ethan
Published live as a starting point so Ethan can share it immediately while the real domain stands up.
Done
Secured the name
Checked GoDaddy, found EthanPimstone.com available, and registered it for one year.
Done
Stood up the real site
Provisioned a managed WordPress site for EthanPimstone.com and pointed the domain’s nameservers at it. DNS and SSL are propagating.
Next
Flip the homepage live
The moment DNS resolves, the landing page becomes the EthanPimstone.com homepage. Then: wire the Skool links, drop in Ethan’s videos and photos, and verify the entity in Google Search Console.
The call to action — and what we need from Ethan
The page already has a clear ask (join free → upgrade to founding member). The one thing only Ethan can provide is his voice. Three short, phone-shot, vertical videos turn a nice page into a movement people want to join:
Video 1 — The Hook: “I started high school at 5’4″ and gamed ten hours a day. Three years ago I couldn’t touch rim. Last week I jumped 52.5 inches. Here’s how.”
Video 2 — The Mission: “Who is this community for, and what do I wish I’d had when I thought dunking was impossible for someone like me?”
Video 3 — The Invite: “Here’s exactly what you get inside, what we’re building together, and what to do next.”
“I don’t want anyone else to waste three years thinking it’s impossible. The come-up is happening in public now — come build yours with us.”
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the CEO of Local Service Spotlight, a platform that amplifies the reputations of contractors and local service businesses using the Content Factory process. He is a former search engine engineer who has spent a billion dollars on Google and Facebook ads for Nike, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, Red Bull, State Farm, and other brands.
Dennis has achieved 25% of his goal of creating a million digital marketing jobs by partnering with universities, professional organizations, and agencies. Through Local Service Spotlight, he teaches the Dollar a Day strategy and Content Factory training to help local service businesses enhance their existing local reputation and make the phone ring.
Dennis coaches young adult agency owners serving plumbers, AC technicians, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and believes there should be a standard in measuring local marketing efforts, much like doctors and plumbers must be certified.