From Wine Cellars to SEO Success: Lessons from My Unconventional Career

My name is James Nathan. I’m 36 years old, living in Richmond, London, with my fiancé and our lovely golden retriever. My journey has not been a straight line. Every twist and turn has helped me learn how to assist businesses in unlocking real growth today.

The Early Hustle: Where It All Began

My first job at 16 was with Bright-sparks, an event catering company. I was watering tables at races and exclusive city dinners. Long hours. Hard graft. But I loved the energy, and I got to work alongside my mates.

After that, I worked for Party Ingredients, serving high-end food in some of the fanciest venues across London. It was certainly a step up in pressure!!

Later, I joined Blues Agency. I was in the kitchens of big financial firms, helping feed London’s corporate machine.

At another point, I worked with a charity in south-west London. They helped kids from the streets get an education. This was a very different kind of learning, one that I was used to - just real, hands-on support. That job taught me perspective. Not everyone gets the same start in life. Each job taught me something new. But they all had one thing in common, graft, grit, and getting stuck in. Lessons I carry with me to this day.

A Gap Year Filled with Learning

When it came time for a gap year, I already knew I wanted to keep working. I enrolled in Ballymaloe Cookery School, where 5 am starts and 12-hour days were the norm. From feeding chickens to cooking delicious meals, I learned a new respect for discipline and hard work. After three months, I left with both a merit certificate and invaluable life lessons.

Next, I joined a ski instructor course with B.A.S.I in Zermatt. I had been skiing since I was three, and I initially thought it would be all about powder, carving, and late-night bars. The reality was quite different, focusing more on classroom learning than slopes. However, by the end of the course, I achieved my qualification to teach, which was the real goal.

Following that, I went to Greece and worked as a chef at a private members club on the coast. This experience continued for seven months, filled with 35-degree heat, a substantial amount of ouzo, and plenty of fun. Afterwards, I found myself back in the UK, cooking in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Falling Into Wine: Finding My Niche

At 19, I started working at New London Wine, a well-known merchant in Battersea. During three years there, I learned everything about fine wine trading. Eventually, I moved through four more independent merchants across London. I began at the bottom and worked my way to the top in each.

What I noticed everywhere was the limited digital presence of these businesses. So, I embraced the title of “the digital man.” I built websites, optimised them, and unlocked new revenue streams. At Albion Wine Shippers, I launched a spirits division. I scoured whisky auctions for rare bottles and built an online following for products that wouldn’t typically sell in a shop. This digital pivot revolutionised these merchants.

Entrepreneurial Spark: Pull The Cork

After 3½ years at Albion, I reached a wall. There was nowhere left to grow. I caught up with a friend who was running a winery in the south of France, and we pondered why we shouldn't launch our own online wine retail business.

That’s how Pull The Cork was launched, riding the wave of the UK’s natural wine movement. I didn’t know everything about natural wine, but I understood how to sell and scale. Within just two months, we had over 200 wines on the platform, many of which were totally new to the UK market and offered on an allocation basis.

I was responsible for logistics, sourcing, building relationships, tasting wines, and driving growth. My blog quickly attracted a cult following, achieving 30,000 monthly visits within four months. This initial success was further fueled by my part-time business, Market Jar.

Scaling Up: The LWS Merger

Eight months later, I discovered a struggling wholesaler: London Wine Shippers (LWS). Ironically, it was the same company I had worked for at 19, now under new ownership and £30k in debt. Despite its challenges, it had a prime warehouse and central London presence. We merged Pull The Cork with LWS. With a lean team, we became a powerful operation, shipping two pallets of e-commerce orders a day at our peak. During the pandemic, we were deemed "essential," keeping London supplied with wine and spirits during the lockdown.

As the business grew, however, so did the challenges. Internal politics and questionable decisions from the LWS side made it increasingly hard to build the business I envisioned. After 18 months, I made the tough but necessary decision to exit, even though I knew it was the right choice.

Market Jar: Building Growth for Others

Fast forward eight years, and I’m still leading Market Jar. I've collaborated with household names, groundbreaking startups, and even celebrities. I understand what it takes to drive high-ticket growth and yield results.

Having worked with all sides of the agency model, we are consistently redefining our offer.

Most marketing agencies are broken.

We were told it should be simple. Hire people who know what they’re doing. Grow faster. Make more money. But that’s not how it goes.

We’ve been on your side of the table. We’ve built brands, scaled them, and sold them. We’ve hired the agencies too. And the same problems came up every time.

The A-team sells you the dream, then hands you off to juniors. Agencies chase revenue, not profit. The more you spend, the more they charge, even when it doesn’t work. And you’re locked into long contracts, no matter the results.

Marketing should grow your business. Not drain it. That’s why we built what we couldn’t find, a new kind of growth partner. One that actually follows through.

We’re expert operators, not account managers. We spend less time talking and more time doing. Our focus is profit-first. Growth should pay for itself. Top-line revenue isn’t enough.

We work on a flat partnership fee. No percentage of profit. No misalignment. You’ll always get clear execution, simple reporting, and full visibility.

We’re not here to overwhelm you with fancy reports or acronyms you don't understand. We’re here to deliver real growth.

Most agencies lock you into £5–6k a month retainers. We don’t. Partnering with us starts at just £2,000 ($2,700) per month.

We’ve spent decades on your side. We couldn’t find the agency we needed, so we built it.

Looking Back, As We Move Forward

Each step in my diverse career, catering, cooking, wine, and entrepreneurship, has taught me crucial lessons about grit, growth, and the immense power of digital influence. Now, I dedicate my experience to helping others achieve sustainable and authentic growth.

If you’re ready to unlock real, sustainable growth, let’s talk.