Alejandro Dinsmore

Finding ways to live a better life through intentional work.

Founder (raised 2M in funding) | Early-stage Product Manager  (0-11M ARR) | Forbes 30u30 (not in jail)

Newsletter: https://alejandrodinsmore.substack.com/

Product Manager

Founding Product Manager - 1500% increase in Loan Volume in 2023. 

Working on B2C and B2B initiatives across the business.

Claude code’s first birthday event was a great time (well done Anthropic)!

If you work at a company that has fully adopted Claude code then you know it’s hard to understate the impact it’s having across all functions, not just engineering. 

It’s also made work a lot more fun. 

It lets me focus on the things that matter and handles a lot of the monotonous tasks, in way that is simple and addicting.

Hard to believe it’s only been out for a year. Can only imagine where things will be by claude code’s second birthday…

No alternative text description for this image

Jay Yang

Head of Content to Noah Kagan

Deciding to drop out of college to join Acquisition.com changed my life.

But that's not where the story starts...

When I was 16, I cold-emailed Tyler Denk, the CEO of beehiiv, with a list of ideas on how I could help. That email turned into an internship where I built beehiiv 101 - a course that’s helped hundreds of users unlock the platform’s potential.

At 17, I sent Noah Kagan, founder of AppSumo, a 19-page pitch deck breaking down gaps in his social media and email marketing - and how to fix them. That landed me a role as Head of Content, where I led campaigns (like the one that made Million Dollar Weekend a New York Times bestseller).

At 18, I decided to try my hand at the game of business and scaled a boutique ghostwriting and creative studio to six-figures within its first year.

At 19, I dropped out of college to work at Acquisition.com on Alex & Leila Hormozi’s media team where I led the written content engine. I was their first and only internal copywriter and wrote across every major format including social, email, ads, VSLs, and YouTube.

I also helped run the marketing campaign that broke a Guinness World Record for most nonfiction books sold in 24 hours and generated $106M in three days. 

It's been a ride.

Today, I focus on three things:

First, I write books about building a career without waiting for permission. My first book, You Can Just Do Things, became an Amazon #1 bestseller.

Second, I publish The Spark, a weekly newsletter on marketing and strategy read by more than 10,000 people. It's where I test ideas before they turn into books, frameworks, or client work.

Third, I work directly with a small number of founders and CEOs on developing their brand positioning and creative strategy. If you're looking to elevate your brand, feel free to reach out :)

When I’m not working, you’ll usually find me lifting heavy things (roughly 10-12 times), playing pickup basketball, or working on my next book.

Content Strategist

When I was born, I couldn't walk, couldn't feed myself, and was pooping my pants on a pretty consistent basis.

Someone else had to handle basically everything for me. It was a dark time.

But I kept showing up. Did the work. Ate the frog.

And today?

I walk everywhere. Feed myself daily. The pants thing is largely resolved.

I'm not saying it was easy. I'm just saying that if a screaming, immobile person with zero useful skills could turn it around, maybe you can too.

#youcanjustdothings #yourwelcome #justgrindharderbro

Every day I see this handsome, successful-looking guy in his 20s, and I finally dared to ask what he does for a living...

While he was fixing his hair, he responded, "I'm a copywriter."

"How much do you make per month?" I had to know.

"Roughly $25k a month."

I was in awe. But that wasn't as shocking as what he told me next.

"You won't believe me, but I don't have a degree in English or business," he said.

I felt my heart beating faster. A copywriter, $25k a month, no degree... I had to get to know this man, pick his brain apart, and learn a thing or two about becoming as successful as he is.

I reached out to shake his hand and ask for his name, but my fingers hit the mirror.

The cost of not being surrounded by other ambitious driven people is way too high.

Before dropping out of college to join Acquisition[.]com - I sent my parents a 5 page memo weighing the pros & cons of taking an alternate career path.

For context:

• I was a freshman at the University of Illinois. 
• I was running a six-figure ghostwriting agency. 
• And honestly? Life was pretty good. 

But I was always obsessed with greatness.

And I knew that the fastest way to get to greatness was to swallow my ego and take a few steps back so I could take a hundred forward. 

I mean, would I rather learn business theory in classrooms or actually be inside of a fast-growing organization and learn hands-on? 

Anyway. I was scared sh*tless sending this to my parents. 

Idk if this would be helpful to others who are thinking through a similar decision.

Should I share the full memo?

I've written a newsletter essay, nearly every week since I've been 16.

I'm 20 now. I have FOUR YEARS of "public journal entries".

Sometimes I like to read them and reflect on how far I've come. I can't wait until I have a decade of them.

went on a solo trip to SF this past week

so glad I went

reinforced and refined how I want to live & who I want to bring along for the ride

highly recommend

The person obsessed with reaching the summit as fast as possible will climb faster than those around them - but they also tend to miss the view, the wildflowers, the conversations at camp… all the reasons climbing is worth it in the first place.

Some people are just inevitable. You can see it in their eyes, the way they move, the way they talk, the way they explain their goals. Life will delay them and distract them, but it can never stop them.

Covid-19 wasn’t 3 years ago, it was 7 years ago.

Questions I ask myself when I edit:

Follow Jay Yang for more tips on writing, marketing, and strategy :)

One of the best feelings is opening social media and seeing your friends do something cool and use your catchphrase 🥹

This morning someone asked me why they should start a business if they knew it had a high likelihood of failing.

Here’s what I told them:

When you're young, you don't need your business to be successful for it to be "worth it".

The knowledge, skills, and experience you gain far outweigh any monetary outcome.

It's not about WHAT you achieve, but WHO you become.

Everything compounds and stacks on each other.

You learn how to:
- create a compelling offer
- run a marketing campaign
- take a sales call
- deal with unhappy clients
- face failure, rejection, and criticism

Business growth is personal growth in disguise.

Beware the Shadow Career:

“Sometimes, when we’re terrified of embracing our true calling, we’ll pursue a shadow calling instead. That shadow career is a metaphor for our real career. Its shape is similar, its contours feel tantalizingly the same. But a shadow career entails no real risk. If we fail at a shadow career, the consequences are meaningless to us.” - Steven Pressfield

How many people have dreams of starting a business but stick to a corporate job they don’t love because it’s comfortable?

How many would-be musicians dream of filling arenas but keep their songs in the shadows?

How many aspiring artists sketch ideas but never share their work?

~~
This was a small excerpt from my book You Can Just Do Things.

You can read the first chapter (for free) here:

Open article: Home | The Spark by jayyanginspires.beehiiv.com

A quick dose of inspiration in your inbox, every Sunday.

My take: I love seeing my friends win. That's it. There's no means to an end. No secret agenda. No "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours". I just love seeing good people win. 🤷‍♂️ 

And hey, if I give out a lotta love and some returns... even better :)

Author, “Unhinged Habits” | ex personal trainer | Helping you break bad habits and build your rich life with strategic subtraction | 205,000 books sold | Dad to 3 young kids.

A friend here told me that they never endorse or recommend anyone here on LinkedIn.

“Curious, why not?” I asked.

“Perhaps it is like institutional neutrality.” She said. “If you speak about gaza then you need to speak about ukraine etc.”

Here’s my response. Curious for your take on the comments:

“That’s fair. I’d challenge you on it though. 

My view is that there’s a sort of literary citizenship that exists the same as being a citizen of a city or state. It’s up to us to help and lift one another up however we can. When that happens, we all thrive and good work proliferates. 

It takes no money and almost no work to publicly support somebody else doing good work. To have the power to make somebody’s day like that and provide a positive signal encouraging a person (who might be doubting themselves at that exact moment) to keep going is something I personally always want to do. 

This is not a tit for tat thing. If somebody offers a trade or a share for share, ignore it. They are not the type of person you want to associate with. 

And it will not be even. You will support more people than will support you. That is fine. Good, even. You’re putting more positivity into the world than you’re receiving. What a wonderful thing.“

The worst regret isn't failing. It's knowing you never gave it a real shot. If you're going to start a business, quit talking about it at parties and actually do it. If you're going to write the book, stop researching and planning and put pen to paper. If you're going to love someone, love them with everything you have. Be all in. No half measures. Fail spectacularly if you have to, because at least you'll know. The only thing worse than losing is wondering if you could've won if you'd actually tried.

A lesson on staying in the game:

Every week, a father would hold out a dime in one hand and a quarter in the other and tell his youngest son to pick one. Every week, the boy picked the dime.

His older brother pulled him aside one day and said, "You know a quarter is worth more than a dime, right? You're losing money every time."

The younger brother smiled and said, "Yeah, I know. But the moment I choose the quarter is the moment Dad stops playing the game."
~~
This was an excerpt from my most recent newsletter.

The Spark is a free weekly newsletter where I share bite-sized insights on strategy & life.

You can read the latest edition here:
https://lnkd.in/gCHDF3jx

This was me 4 years ago 😆 

Feels weird to feel old now. I love to see it.

I truly believe an underrated way to spend your youth is to build the foundation for the life you want to live.

Obviously have fun, be a kid, make mistakes.

But why not get a head start if you know what you want?

I'm 20 now. Living my DREAM life. And it's because I spent the last 5 years figuring out my talent, then doubling down and exploiting it.

With AI and YouTube, you can't use your age as an excuse for not being able to do big things.

If you're in your teens or 20s, and you want feedback or someone to bounce ideas off of... my DMs are always open! Keep getting after it ✊

SWE @ Google | AI Automation | lifequesters.club

is it just me or is every high schooler a founder 😭


like seriously, i'll just be casually scrolling and i'll see posts by literal 16-YEAR OLDS like Lilly Schade Gerald Anggono Dami Oke Mariam S. Nicolas Dunlap Hareem Nadeem Daniel Sevostyanov Ananya Avadhuta Naira M Ayesha Faisal Pavan Kumar

with headers like 

"founder @ ___"
"growth @ ___"
"building ___"
"CEO @  ___"

is this the world we live in now? 

where literal children with infinite potential and ideas are able to build their dreams because AI has lowered the barrier to entry that much?

it's a crazy time we're living in

it's insane bc when i was 16, i was just watching pokemon youtube videos and praying that any college would accept me

it's incredible to think we live in a world where young people now have access not only to knowledge faster than ever, but the TOOLS to build their dreams faster than ever

excited to see how young folks shake up the game for the uncs 🥳😆

taplio

The Battle

Alejandro Dinsmore

Jay Yang

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreAlejandro Dinsmore's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJay Yang's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Alejandro Dinsmore

Jay Yang

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Alejandro Dinsmore's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreJay Yang's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreAlejandro Dinsmore's LinkedIn Performance