About

Thanks for getting to know us!

I’m Nick Jeong, your back pocket marketer. I help businesses build trust with their customers and expand their online influence, driving real business growth. If there’s a single belief that drives this agency, it’s this:

Business moves at the speed of trust.

The secret to success is setting up opportunities for customer risk taking and delivering on promises over and over again. Trust builds loyalty, and loyalty increases the bottom line.

Before starting Upstart Marketer, I led a team at one of the largest sports prescription eyewear companies to scale up revenue 40% year over year. I also served as the digital marketing director for a corporate wellness company, attracting RFPs from businesses across the USA, including Fortune 500 companies. My work saved thousands of hours in productivity and generated millions in revenue.

Then I left.

I left because it bothers me that so many entrepreneurs and small business owners today are sold on marketing that fails.

So much of marketing done today is spent chasing vanity metrics.

It pisses me off knowing there are marketing specialists and agencies conning people out of their chance to make a difference with ineffective marketing.

Worse, the likelihood these entrepreneurs take another stab at marketing in the future is diminished because trust was broken by the very people who should know all about building trust. Those businesses that do try marketing again will have justified cases of marketing PTSD, and that slowdown in trust building slows down business.

This has to change.

What We Do at Upstart Marketer

Great marketing is like the opening moves of a relationship. It’s not enough to publish optimized content for Google or the other platforms. Nobody gets a second date for just showing up.

We help our clients find their message and share it with clarity & candor while leveraging our marketing know-how to stretch their online reach.

To make our clients a compelling choice in a sea of options, we build every marketing campaign on:

What they do
How they do it
Who they serve
Why they do what they do

Optimize for the platforms. Develop for human connection.

Our clients enjoy marketing strategies designed to scale as their businesses expand. We lay a strong foundation with their websites that convert visitors into sales or contacts for further rapport building over other marketing channels. After we help our clients build that foundation, we shift between content creation, customer journey refinement, and maintenance.

Here's how we can help you grow:

Search Engine Optimization

Content Marketing

Digital Marketing Consulting

Coaching & Mentoring

My Story

It was June 2010 when I got my first full-time job at a family-owned Japanese restaurant in the little town of San Marcos, California.

“I want you to think of this restaurant as if it were your own,” Mrs. Lee said as she transitioned the interview into training. “Take care of our customers like they’re family.”

I was 20 years old, halfway through a bachelor’s degree in writing with no real work experience. I jotted down every word Mrs. Lee had to say. This would become the first of many lessons in business and marketing over the next six years I worked at the restaurant. But the biggest lesson?

Business Moves at the Speed of Trust

Our restaurant was struggling long before I started. The Lees had seen good profits when they first took over, but the 2008 financial crisis changed everything. We were losing regulars and failing to keep the new customers coming in. It was clear that a restaurant couldn’t survive without consistent, loyal customers.

One day, a customer came up to the register visibly upset about the service he’d received. I didn’t know much about marketing back then, but I did remember Mrs. Lee’s words from my first day—Take care of our customers like they’re family. So I took a chance, apologized, discounted the family’s meal, and promised to serve them personally next time. The customer left happy, knowing that his experience mattered.

When Mr. Lee reviewed the receipts at closing that night and saw the discount, he turned beet red. “What is this?” he asked. “Is this your business? What do you know about business?”

It’s true—I had little business experience then, and no formal marketing training. But I was beginning to understand something crucial: Customer trust is everything.

Consistency is the Foundation of Loyalty

The reality was that all the discounts, new menu items, and special promotions we ran at the restaurant didn’t matter much when our food and service were hit-or-miss. Our only marketing back then was word of mouth, but inconsistent service meant we couldn’t even rely on that.

Over time, I saw how inconsistent customer experiences drive customers away, not just from restaurants but from all businesses. Fail to deliver on promises, and customers will start looking elsewhere.

Toward the end of my time there, the Lees were tired and ready to retire. The choices they’d made to keep their business running were starting to feel like a weight. Eventually, they sold the restaurant. A new owner came in, updated the decor, brought in new staff, and even kept me on to help with the transition. But despite his efforts, the restaurant couldn’t regain its customer base and eventually went under.

The final lesson from my time there?

Half-Baked Marketing Kills Businesses Faster Than No Marketing at All

Today, I’m the SEO and content marketing manager at a leading e-commerce eyewear retailer, where my team and I work to help customers find and trust our brand. I’ve learned that great marketing isn’t about gimmicks or surface-level stats; it’s about setting up opportunities for customers to trust you and delivering on promises, over and over again. That’s how businesses grow loyal customers and how loyalty drives growth.

It frustrates me to see so many entrepreneurs and small business owners today being sold marketing that doesn’t work—marketing that focuses on vanity metrics instead of what really matters to their business. Trust can be broken so easily in marketing, especially by specialists who should know better.

The truth is, digital marketing isn’t magic. It’s a platform for building strategies that help grow and sustain a business. But there’s an essential piece missing in so many marketing efforts today:

Marketing that Scales with Your Business and Develops Your Brand

Imagine where you could be if you had a marketing strategy that could grow your business and grow with your business. SEO can’t save a business if the website copy doesn’t inspire trust. Even the best marketing can fall short if customer service fails to follow through. First, build a foundation on quality and trust, and then let marketing amplify that.

Here’s how we can help you do that:

A One-on-One Consultation: We’ll talk about your business, your challenges, and the growth you want to see.
A Custom Marketing Strategy: I’ll create a plan tailored specifically to help you reach your goals.
Consistent Delivery: With our expertise in SEO and content marketing, we’ll help you build a foundation that connects with customers and grows as your business grows.

It’s that simple. Contact me to schedule a consultation, and let’s create a marketing strategy that puts your business on a path to real, sustainable growth.

Work With Us