How a late-night ad at 19 sparked my journey into marketing, creativity, and purpose.
Before I was building brands and content strategies for health and wellness companies in San Diego, I was just a 19-year-old working in the back of a small mineral supplement company called Eidon Ionic Minerals. That job became the unexpected start of everything I do today.
Eidon was small—just seven of us—so I wore a lot of hats: production, shipping, warehouse operations, receptionist, and eventually, the in-house content guy. We had one company camera, a Canon 80D, and I started using it to take product shots. The office manager at the time—someone my age—was just as hungry to push the company forward. Together, we started spearheading Eidon’s social media. That experience lit a fire under me and opened my eyes to what this thing called “digital marketing” could become.
One day, we were in a company-wide meeting (again—just seven of us). Someone mentioned wanting to run a Google AdWords campaign. No one had any clue how to do it. But before I could even raise my hand, the office manager volunteered me.
She looked around the room and said, “Eric can figure it out.”
She believed in me before I did—and she needed someone to help push the digital vision forward. She threw me into the fire… and I didn’t back down.
Rick Wagner, Eidon’s founder, gave me the green light. That trust changed my life. He didn’t have to hand the keys to a 19-year-old kid who was splitting time between answering phones and packing boxes. But he did. And I’ll always be grateful for that moment.
I went home that night, watched 6+ hours of YouTube tutorials, took notes, and troubleshot every screen I didn’t understand. The next morning, I launched my first ad.
Budget: $800.
Return: $6,000
That $6,000 felt like a million dollars to me. It wasn’t just about the money—it was the proof that effort in could equal outcome out. That cause-and-effect, results-driven nature of marketing immediately reminded me of what I loved about sports. The performance. The pressure. The payoff.
That’s the night I fell in love with marketing.
At that point, I started realizing content was its own art form. I had picked up the camera for functional, transactional reasons—to support my marketing. But over time, I became obsessed with getting better at it. I picked up a Canon 77D and started shooting anything and everything I could across San Diego.
Driving around the city just to find new backdrops, new lighting, new compositions—this became my new obsession. And during that phase, I sharpened my creative eye while still growing as a marketer.
I didn’t wait for the perfect path—I built it through action, creativity, and a belief that every skill I picked up could be the start of something bigger.
A couple years later, I got a chance to interview at Meal Prep Sunday San Diego. I was nervous—it was my first real marketing interview. Abtin Naderi, the founder, sat down with me and asked to see my work. I was confident in my creative, but I hadn’t yet mastered the full technical side of marketing—Google Ads, Facebook Ads, funnels, CRMs. I had the heart, but not all the reps.
I’ll never forget it. Abtin looked at me and said:
“You don’t know jack shit about marketing. But I can teach you that.”
That was the start. And we hit the ground running.
At the time, the company was doing about $4 million in revenue. Over the next two years, we scaled it to $12 million. And it wasn’t easy. The growth was intense, the stakes were high, and the pressure was real—but it gave me something college never could: full immersion.
Because of the size of the ad budget and the trust I was given, I was able to learn everything:
This was the missing puzzle piece. It was where creativity and strategy finally came together for me.
And beyond the skills, what made the experience so powerful was that I got to build relationships with the people who really made the business run—the production team, customer service, logistics, the heart of the company. I wasn’t just a marketer—I was the number two in the company. And that meant something to me. Because real marketing starts by understanding the real people inside the operation.
After everything I learned, I knew I couldn’t keep this knowledge to just one company. I had seen firsthand what great content + real strategy could do. So in 2021, I finally launched what I had been thinking about since I was 19: By Design Promotions.
Wanting to work in the health and wellness space wasn’t random—it was personal. I had competed in wrestling and football in high school, then spent years in Olympic weightlifting. Fitness, movement, discipline, and recovery had been a part of my life since day one.
So now, I bring all of it together—my creative background, my strategic growth mindset, and my life as an athlete—to help health and wellness brands grow, scale, and make real impact.
By Design is about more than aesthetics. It’s about building brands that are built to move. Systems that scale. Creative that converts. And doing it all with intention.
I truly believe in connecting people with the right products, the right services, and the right brands to live healthier, more aligned lives. And in a world where marketing is often about hype or manipulation, I want to do it differently.
Marketing should help people—not trick them.
That’s why I work with health and wellness entrepreneurs, service providers, and product-based brands who are actually making a difference—and help them reach the right audience with clarity and confidence.
And I want to end this story with a deep sense of gratitude—for the people who helped shape my path:
Every one of those people—and every uncomfortable step—led me to where I am today.
And we’re only getting started.
