056: Marcus Garrett - Understanding D.E.B.T. & How to Dig Yourself Out Of It

Jonathan DeYoe: Welcome back. On this episode of the Mindful Money podcast, I’m chatting with Marcus Garrett. Marcus survived the mean streets of an inner suburb city in Texas. He obtained a ba in business administration from A and became a certified internal auditor and worked as a financial data analyst. He worked through a ton of roadblocks to become an award winning freelance writer on topics ranging from, this is quite the range, love and relationships to debt and personal finance. On the path, he dug himself an enormous debt hole. And, um, I wanted to have Marcus on the podcast as a success story because he dug the hole. He dug himself out of the hole. Then he wrote a best selling book to talk about it. Debt free or die trying. Marcus, welcome to the Mindful Money podcast.

Marcus Garrett: Thanks for having me.

Jonathan DeYoe: I’m glad to have the conversation before we get into this. Where is home? Where are you connecting from?

Marcus Garrett: I’m, um, out of Houston, Texas, right now, so I just say Texas. I moved all around.

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. Yeah. That’s. The next question is, where did you grow up? It’s sort of the city streets of a. But what’s the town?

Marcus Garrett: Yeah, I grew up in Texas, born and raised. And I actually met my wife and moved to Denver for seven years. And at that time we dated, and I met her seven years later. Maybe another that love and relationship story that I could tell. That’s one of our plot twists. And then we, uh, made her back to Austin. I met her again in Chicago, and then now we’re in Houston.

Jonathan DeYoe: You met her in Houston and met her again in Chicago after a stay in Denver?

Marcus Garrett: No, I actually met her originally in Denver. She was home for the summer. She was going to Leola in Chicago. So shout out to Leola. That means something to somebody somewhere. And she was 27, I think. Something like that at that age. And so we just kind of went our separate ways. Actually, I might have been 27. And then the funny quick part of it is we had a mutual friend. We knew we had a mutual friend, but she has a nickname that I didn’t know at that time was her nickname. He’s like, hey, man, I want to introduce you to L. I’m like, I don’t know, an L. He’s like, she’s going to be at this day party, man. She says she knows you. I was like, I don’t know, an, uh, l. I denied it, like, three times. Came into the party and saw what would be my future wife after. I was guilt tripped for half the party. But that’s how, uh, it goes.

Jonathan DeYoe: So going way back to growing up on the streets part, or maybe there’s a house. I want to hear about it. But what did you learn about money or entrepreneurship as a kid?

e car and the radio, and then: 2040

Jonathan DeYoe: Well, we’ll draw some contrasts here in a little bit. So no talk about it at home. But were you curious earlier at all?

Marcus Garrett: I was curious in that I wanted to be rich. And so I read another book recently by Damon John, the Power broke, the guy from Shark tank that named a meaning thing to you. And he’s actually profiling a story. And the gentleman talks. Know, when he looked at Batman and Bruce Wayne, he wanted to be Bruce Wayne, he thought being rich was a job. And so I was just interested in money, and I didn’t really come from the home. We were actually fairly, like I said, frugal. I would call it cheap. And now I know why. Because they had all this money saved. They were saving a bunch of money, and they were able to put me through college and do a number of other things that benefited me and my sister personally and financially. But from my head, I’m like, I just can’t have jordans. These people are like repressing my need to buy assets. Like I said, because I didn’t understand the decisions behind it. It just looked like austerity to me. I can’t wait to escape. And so I was in pursuit of money. But I will say again, the things that they did positively. They opened a savings account for me as soon as I turned 16, encouraged me to get my first job, helped me pay for a vehicle, and I had to pay half for the vehicle, so I had to be invested in it. I even had to pay half for this remote control car that I wanted for Christmas. And so they were instilling saving and personal finance and budgeting habits in me. I just never knew why. It always just felt mean. But now I look at some of my peers and I’m like, you know, I’m glad my parents raised me the way they did.

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. How long did it take you to see that? Uh oh. Ah, these are actually good lessons.

Marcus Garrett: I appreciate it. Like I said, I appreciate it more now. I also realize that I’m very fortunate. Someone told me recently, I have a community newsletter and every Friday I just talk to the community. I don’t even try to sell them anything. I just talk about what’s going on and a gentleman who’s been following me for a while, he replied, he’s like, you’re just very fortunate to have your parents still in your life and still instilling values in you and still being able to exchange more on a like I said, it’s almost like a friendship now, maybe less so. My mom will forever see me as a child, but my father is like talking to a friend. My mom is like talking to a friend who thinks she knows better than me. And so I appreciate it more. But I think I came to recognize, like, oh, I have a different experience here. I have something that I need to share. Probably in my late twenty s and thirty s when I was starting to get out of this debt journey, and I was blogging about it and sharing all these dualities. Like most people. I’m, um, egocentric. So I view, I think my experience is how the world operates. And when I started sharing these blogs, which would now be microblogs and TikToks, people are like, oh, that doesn’t happen. Me and my parents never talked like that, and that’s not a story that I could relate to. So I began to recognize that, oh, I might have something here that I need to share with, uh, a community.

Jonathan DeYoe: So when was it that you had all this austerity placed on top of you and then you broke free of that and kind of went into kind of a, you kind of spend a lot. So just walk us through that. Start at the beginning. How did you dig yourself into the debt?

Marcus Garrett: The first time I escaped, I was actually 18 years old. I left for college. I went to a dorm university, uh, of Texas at Austin. And I went back home after that mistakenly. I mean, there were some summer breaks, but I went back after school. I had a small loan because I exhausted some of the funding that I had. About 90% of my school was paid for based on some decisions that my parents had made and some funding that I got from accolades. And I was like, oh, I’m just going to move back home and pay this off. And my mom was over my shoulder, just like she does. I think she went to my email once or somehow to this day, I actually don’t know how she found out. But my girlfriend at that time was long distance and somehow she got to our conversation. She won’t reveal her secrets. I guess she’s Batman in this scenario. And I was like, never again. I’m not going back to Shawshank. So I put all my plans aside. I moved out. I must have been graduated at 22. And so I escaped again, or at least so I thought. And I now look back. And when I talk to young individuals, I realized that I was wrong in a lot of the friction and it hurt me financially so that I could have come out of school completely debt free. If I was just able to allow my mom to read my would have been AOL messages. I don’t know what the kids are using these days, the DMs. If I was just okay with my mom monitoring my dms for maybe six to nine more months, I could have been completely debt free. But I’m like, no, I’m going to go out here, put the world on his ear. I thought when you graduated college, that was your starting line to rich. And so I was like, I’ve got a college degree now. I don’t need you all anymore. And as you said in my book, debt free or diet trying, it didn’t quite work out that way. First job out of college, I made $9 an hour. Technically, even though it was a salary job, I made $19,000. I made less at my first job out of college than I did working an hourly job. Very humbling. 22 years old, and I got a consolidation offer in the mail. I didn’t even know what a consolidation offer was. And they mailed a 22 year old who had spent $9,000 on three credit cards at that point, not maxed out a blank check. I think it was about 15,000. And I went crazy. So the quick version of it, we can go deep or we can keep it shallow, was I spent $26,000 in 72 hours. This is Google bulls. Google a bull. So, I mean, it’s a story that anybody can read on their own time. And that ultimately started the journey where I started living the debt free or die trying lifestyle. I just didn’t realize it at the time.

Jonathan DeYoe: So you built it up to 26,000. Was that the peak of the debt?

Marcus Garrett: I wish it was the peak of the debt would come at about 30,000. I think, for my own sanity, I’ve never done the real math with interest and carryover loans, and I did a second consolidation loan to bring all that debt together before I finally got my stuff together. But what happened? I do remember this part of the story. I bought a casio. I think it was flat screen tv, and it was 42 inches, and it survived, like, two relationships through thick and thin. I kept this tv with me. It was like the first flat screen tv. Now people are hearing this story, and in their mind, flat screen tv, maybe 300, uh, and 42 inches, maybe seven. It was $3,000 back in the day.

Jonathan DeYoe: First one.

Marcus Garrett: Yeah. It’s the most difficult thing for people to believe in my story. They can wrap their head around 72 hours. Like, I’ve seen rap videos, and, uh, I’ve been to Vegas once, but they’re, like, a $3,000 flat screen. That’s, like, the most argumentative story I have that I ever tell. I guarantee, I’m sure I have that receipt somewhere. And so that put us to 29,000. And then I met, uh, around that time, because apparently I’m rich. I met a high maintenance girlfriend, an enabler, and so we just kind of went out, and first we lived a consolidation loan, then check to check, and then eventually she left, and the money ran out, and so did a lot of the friends, and I was left with $30,000 in debt.

Jonathan DeYoe: So what was going on around you? Did you have friends doing the same thing, or were you different from peers?

been blogging since the early: 2000

Jonathan DeYoe: Do you think that was limited to your proximity, your peer group, or do you think this is universal across the generation?

Marcus Garrett: I won’t say my experience is unique. I can say that for sure. But I think it’s more variations. It’d be almost like the multiverse. So we were all living in the same timeline on different multiverses. So I might have been in the club, you might have been in San Jose, but I think what the similar theme is, and you can any popular or viral CNBC article, it feels like. It seems like the arc is we went to college, they were selling credit cards on the yard for t shirts and yoyos. I got a yoyo, some friends got a frisbee, and we all have this story where we got some swag, and then we ended up in debt ten years later. That credit card, I think it’s illegal these days. I don’t think they can sell credit cards on campuses anymore, but I do remember walking through the yard, and they were like, discover card, mx. Open up a line of credit. And I was like, free money. So I do think that is where the multiverse splits. And then how people spent that money or spent those credit cards is different, but we all ended up in debt.

n DeYoe: I went to college in: 1990

Marcus Garrett: That still feels true even to this day. I mean, I still get lines of credit increase that I’ll never use, and same thing with my wife now, and we’re building our credit together, and I’ll give an example. So we just bought our first home, and we’re probably going to turn into an investment property. And I think we were here maybe one or two months, and we were like, oh, we’re first time home buyers. So we’re like, okay, we wish we had known this. We had wish we had known that. And this came in the form of a letter. So I don’t know if the house is bugged, but they’re like, hey, those things that you didn’t like last week, we’d be willing to fix and repair and buy your home. It was like an investment firm. We’re like, we’ve only been here two months. We’re not so dissatisfied that we’re going to sell after two months. But both of us were like, it was a little weird. That was a little suspicious. That was a little eyebrow raising. It could be extreme. Coincidence, but it does always seem like, man, I think I’m just going to be responsible this week. And then I get an email almost like, my phone goes off right then. Like, here’s a free line of credit, or points for a vacation that you weren’t going to take, but now it’s a great deal to take. So it does feel like all these devices are listening to us in some type of capacity. I have no evidence against this, but I do look forward to the civil case.

Jonathan DeYoe: No lawsuits. So what was rock bottom for you? When did you go, like, what the hell?

Marcus Garrett: I remember it exactly. I’m 27, and by this time that the girlfriend that had enabled a lot of the money is gone now. And I had moved back to Austin, and I had, like, made this pledge that I’ll never go back home. I’m too good for this city. Which is interesting, because she went to New York. I ended up back in Austin. And so, uh, I missed a credit card payment. And to this day, I would testify in court that I didn’t get the letter. This was back before I’m old enough. Elder millennial. We got letters, they mailed things to us. So I didn’t have an electronic bill. I don’t even think I had an electronic profile. My perspective, I never got this bill because I’ve never missed a credit card. It’s like a point of contention for me. And I got the next bill, and the interest on that bill was 29.99%, which I think credit cards could still do. I thought it was illegal, so they had, like, quadrupled my interest rate overnight. And I was like, and this was the same company I had signed up for back in college. Small world, Bic world. And I’m like, hey, this is obviously a misunderstanding. We’ve been in a ten year relationship together. I’m just going to give my boys a call. We’re going to work this out. And I was like, hey, guys, what’s going on with this interest rate? I can’t afford this. And they’re like, well, basically, good luck. And I did several ego based poor decisions from there. I was like, close this credit card. I’m taking this industry down. And I transferred that credit over to another car, thinking I was going to prove a point. They’re still in business, and I think they’re a multibillion dollar entity. If you’re, you know, as I think a lot of your listeners would know, I messed up my credit utilization. All things that I did not know at that time. But rock bottom actually came a couple months later, because I can’t make these payments anymore. And I was at that time working three jobs already. It’s amazing how much in denial you can be when you’re able to make minimum payments. I’m like, everything’s fine. But I didn’t realize the tsunami was already going out. The way was already coming out, and that first credit card was the earthquake. And so the wave is coming back, and I just don’t realize it yet. And so while I should be running to higher ground, I’m just going about my normal life, working my three jobs, living paycheck to paycheck. And, uh, once I realized I couldn’t make the payments, interestingly enough, I wasn’t getting any credit card increases, and I wasn’t getting any consolidation loan offers because I imagined, which I didn’t know, my credit score was probably at rock bottom as well, similar to my emotions. And I finally got one loan offer, and I hadn’t seen one in a long time. It was like the white whale sighting. I was like, I got to get this loan. And I called him up, and I remember I couldn’t answer basic financial literacy questions, but I think if it’s an SAT test, the only thing I would have got right is my first name. And he was like, what’s your utilization? What’s your credit card debt? How much do you owe? What is your debt to income? And I couldn’t answer any of these questions, and it was so embarrassing and just so demoralizing. And I’m sure this is just a guy in a call center actually probably making more money than me, so I can’t really diminish him at that time. And I realized when he put me on hold, I need this guy to say yes. I don’t know what I’m going to do if he comes back and says no. And fortunately, he does come back and say yes. And he’s like, we’ll transfer the funds to you. And I just remember hanging up, and I was like, I’ll never be in this position again. I will never allow this to happen. And that’s why I started living what would become debt free or die trying. But that’s why I call it that is pre pandemic. It’s not the best tile in the world now, but I’m not going to do this until it’s inconvenient. I’m going to get out of debt if it kills me. And I went to still around bankrate.com, probably not as large as they were then, and I looked up a debt consolidation calculator. I was like, what would it take to get out of debt? And that was my first plan. I printed it out as a pdF.

Jonathan DeYoe: So there’s points in the first half of the book where it’s honestly hard to keep reading because you beat yourself up pretty hard. Like, I think the word that comes out the strongest in the first half are words like stupidity and irresponsibility. So why hit that so hard one again?

Marcus Garrett: I wanted to be transparent. I didn’t want it to seem like, oh, yeah, I put this loan together, and that was that. And I wanted people to feel, and either two things empathize, like, oh, man, this guy’s at bottom, or recognize because there’s people at bottom. Listening to this show right now that I’m not alone, I remember I felt alone because I can’t talk to my friends about it. They’re all rich. Remember in college, they’re all rich. We aren’t talking about money at this time, so I can’t talk to anybody about this. This is a very real struggle that I’m going through, but in my mind, I’m the only one going through it. No one can relate to this. No one’s ever been in this amount of debt. No one’s ever missed a credit card payment. I’m the only one nine. And so I wanted that to come across in the book, and I want to set the stage for what a comeback will look like. Um, I was talking to my wife, and I’ve talked on a few shows about this. In today’s reality, it’s also much more expensive. I almost think that I might need to revise or update the book. When I was getting out of debt, interest rates on credit cards were about ten to 14%. If they’re under 18% on average, I would be shocked right now. And so it’s a very different reality that people are facing, even if they were just getting out of $30,000, like myself, that are more. I do want people to recognize that. I recognize that this is a different environment that they’re facing, and I wanted that to come across in the book what I was feeling and experiencing going through that.

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, I’m curious. You talk a bit about this in the book, about how you had to solve this. I have a limited income. I have to pay minimum debt payments and hopefully some amortized principal, but I also have to pay for daily living. You have to make choices. How did you manage that?

s. You got a computer between: 2005

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. So I’m wondering if you sort of developed this four step process at that point, or did you do these four steps and then look back and go, oh, my God, there’s those four steps, and tell us the four steps.

nd organized it was. That was: 2016

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, that’s awesome. You also wrote, and maybe this is function of it being the second iteration, but there’s a chapter you start describing if you have a $30,000 salary or a $50,000 salary or $100,000 salary. This is how much car home you can afford. And then you go into some, um, this is the three or four different kind of budgeting methods. You start talking about specifics with a pretty broad brush. Was that part of the first or was that the second duration?

Marcus Garrett: That was the second edition. And that was probably informed by. So I have a giveaway. It started with a blog. Some things don’t change. So I wrote a blog. I like looking at data. Even to this day, I still like looking at data. And I had looked at, like, the Census bureau and their cost of living and debt to income recommendations, and I broke it down at that time by 30,000 thousand, which was the median income earner. It’s 40,000 now, 50,000, which was just in the middle, and 70,000 at that time was around household. Then, as you said, I did 100,000, because a lot of people just see that as a benchmark. And I was like, this is what your debt outlay based on these recommended tools and best practice should look like. And it did. Ridiculous numbers. Once again, Forrest Gump. I’m like, oh, here’s this boring data that no one to look at. I think it was like one of our best performing blogs. And so I ended up turning that into a pdf, and I give it away for free. And a lot of my personal finance and debt tools, I give away for free because I feel that’s just so foundational for people to grab. And I do that all on my YouTube channel. And that likely made its way into his book, either some iteration of that. I might not know the genesis behind it, but it’s some iteration of that likely influenced that decision.

Jonathan DeYoe: Got it. You talk about, well, I want to ask you, you said you got out of debt by raising your income, but I’m assuming you have a lot of feedback from other people, people saying, hey, I read the blog, I watched the YouTube channel, I read the book. Do you get a sense if that’s how most people solve it, or are there still people just trying to cut, cut, cut expenses?

st rates, as I mentioned, are: 1014

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. If you don’t stick with it, you just end up back where you did you. So you have this job, you got a great job. You’re data analyst, financial data analyst. Did you start writing the blog then? And then, was that a side hustle? And did you ultimately replace your full time job with the side hustle job, the income from the side hustle job, and how did that work?

nceled on March was, uh, that: 2020

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. So are you an influencer?

Marcus Garrett: I don’t like the term, but I have, yeah. Okay, good. And I am an influencer campaign. I am literally an influencer. That is how I get paid. That is my contract term. They’re like influencer, LLC or comma, LLC. And so at the same time, I’m not going to block my blessings or my bag. So if you want to call me an influencer, pay me a few thousand dollars, I’ll take it. It’s not like how I introduce myself. I don’t have any business card that says influencer.

Jonathan DeYoe: Do you have, like, a target audience that you’re trying to reach and teach, or is it really just anyone that reads the blog and loves the book?

debt, and mind you, this is a: 2030

Jonathan DeYoe: Do you want to name the audience or no?

e. If you have a channel with: 1000

Jonathan DeYoe: That’s awesome. And just from my perspective, you can have a great voice and not monetize it. That’s fine. It’s okay just to have a great voice. Like, it’s okay to just be good at something.

Marcus Garrett: I hope so, because 20 years, I have not been able to. Beyond, obviously, the speaking engagements.

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah. So there’s just a ton of noise out there. And I ask every single guest to simplify something for us, and I’m going to ask you about debt. So if someone finds themselves in debt, what is just one thing that they should do today to more financial success? Get out of debt faster.

Marcus Garrett: First thing I’m going to say is stop. Most people in debt are still spending. They’re still digging. And I don’t say that dismissively, and I don’t even say that harshly. It’s because you’re in denial. Like, well, I’m making the minimum payments. I’m living paycheck to paycheck. There’s a report that came out that said millennials are living paycheck to paycheck at 60%, and people at six figures are living at paycheck to paycheck at 48%. So it’s not an income bait. You can’t spend your way out of irresponsibility. So I guess that answer there, the inverse of that would be some accountability. Even if that accountability is, I know I’m in debt. I know how much debt I have. I know all the interest rates on my credit cards, and I don’t care. I’m going to keep spending. I can live with that. I can respect that. I’d clap my hands if I wasn’t on a podcast. I respect the accountability of that. But usually what I see is people are like, I don’t know how much I have. I don’t know where all the money went. It just runs out. It’s a mystery. There’s just more months at the end of my money, and I’m like, have you checked the numbers? And then they kind of just fade off to the black. And so that’s like, do you know how much debt you had? Do you know your plan? Do you know your purpose? Do you know the personal and personal finance, I guess, tying it all together. And if you can answer those questions, like I could, not at age 27, at rock bottom, at this call center, who’s probably just going through a questionnaire, and I couldn’t answer any of his questions. If you can answer that questionnaire, hey, that is, to me, the personal choice that you make to live your life. We’re all adults here, as majority of us are. I’m fine with that. So, uh, if you’re in debt and you don’t know and don’t like where you are, I would say to stop and start planning. And for me, it’s building a system, and like I said, automating. If you’re in debt, you know where you are and you like it, keep doing you. If you’re not drowning and facing bankruptcy. I know some people who live paycheck to paycheck, and they’re the happiest people I’ve ever met.

Jonathan DeYoe: So just really quick, uh, it’s very interesting that one of the two key levers that you have are have a plan. Stick to the plan, because for 25 years, I’ve been saying the same thing about building wealth. So building wealth is having a plan and sticking to the plan in the same way that getting out of debt is having a plan and sticking to a plan. I think there’s something interesting about that. Someone should write a book. Maybe it’s you. One other question, and that’s, uh, what is one thing that they’re doing? I don’t know what you’re going to say. It’s a simple, what’s one thing that they’re doing right now that they should stop doing? Don’t say spending. That’s an obvious one.

Marcus Garrett: Well, if I’m not going to take the obvious, and I’ll actually plug a book right there. As far as wealth, my favorite. I read 25 books when I rewrote my book. It’s the simple path to wealth by J. L. Collins. So if you read other prospectal finance book other than mine, and you don’t have to read mine, read his. His is the best roadmap of those 25, and it’s at my number one. The thing I would say is, if you’re struggling and in debt, is to look at ways to monetize. And so the cliches, as you mentioned, too. So these influencer side hustles and a lot of time they’re pandling mlms and all that type of stuff. I’m not saying that, but I was able to monetize skills and passions. I like writing. I like looking at data. I’m a money nerd, and I thought I would never be able to build an audience over that. And I was completely incorrect. I didn’t even believe in myself. My audience believed to be before I did. So if you’re struggling with that, you might already be able to increase your income, and it may be no further than what’s already on your resume.

Jonathan DeYoe: That’s awesome. Just as a quick aside, my nephew texted me this morning and said, hey, jonathan, what’s the best book that you can read for personal finance? And I told, you know, absolutely. That’s the number one book. But I said the second one was my book. Not your book, but my book.

Marcus Garrett: I understand. On my page, mine is actually listed first, but Jl’s is second.

Jonathan DeYoe: I’ll tell everyone. Read it first.

Marcus Garrett: Yeah, that’s my Amazon shop page. So you all more than I am an influencer on there, and I will get a small kickback, but it’s like less than $4 because books are usually ten to twelve. So if you want to, it’s out there.

Jonathan DeYoe: So, just before we wrap up, is there anything that people don’t know about you? I mean, you’ve been way out there, been very honest and very open, but is there anything that people don’t know about you that you really want them to know or maybe they just don’t remember?

Marcus Garrett: Actually, it would be difficult. I think what I’ve done a good job of, and I think that makes me relatable, is I am so transparent, open. I mean, we began this conversation, I call it the black box, before you actually hit the record button on the podcast, is like, I tried to be an open book. I haven’t had a question yet that I haven’t answered. Like, I got the camera. I remember probably one of my most awkward interviews, actually a radio show with, uh, Tom Joyner. I’m not even sure if he’s still on the air. And, uh, I was doing a review of another book, and this was back when I was doing the relationship writing, and it was about Kobe Bryant and how he cheated on Vanessa at that time. And, uh, it was like saying, why? That’s okay. That’s basically his book was advocating for it. Controversy has sold 20 years ago. It sells now. So that’s why I was on the radio show. And they were like, have you always been faithful to your wife, or, uh, I wasn’t married at that time to your girlfriend. And that pause felt like 22nd. That pause was so long, people called in to talk about the pause. I have a track record. And the answer was no. I think I said something like, well, you know, I do my best. Even at 21, 22, I was like, wait a minute. I’m not going to say yes or no. I gave the politician, answer the question you want to answer. And so I, uh, think I’ve been fairly transparent for 20 years, and all of it’s out there and available on Google. So, uh, I don’t think I have anything that, uh, people don’t readily know about, aren’t ready to ask about.

Jonathan DeYoe: All right, we’ll shift it up then. I’ll ask you a different difficult question. If you could get the truth about any question about the future of your life, and you knew you’d get the truth, what would the question be?

like, yeah, you’ll be good.: 1020

Jonathan DeYoe: So what if the answer is no?

Marcus Garrett: I have a response to that, and I actually just came up with it recently. Another book plug I was reading, simon Sinek’s both start with why and find your why. I’m reading them out of order because I got the titles wrong. So I’m reading find your why, which is the second book. So y’all should start with why which is the first book, which I got to reread. And, uh, you go through that journey, you find your why. Basically, it’s explorative book for you to determine your why and purpose in life. And I’m going through this just kind of the point of where I am in my life, and I realized that it’s somewhat of the pandemic. I need to connect again. I just felt disconnected from the purpose. Like, I’m making good money. I’m making more money than I’ve ever made in my life, have more followers than I ever made in my life or I had in my life. But it felt like, for what, like you said, influencer, for what? Uh, I get likes. I’m like, okay, I can’t pay my bills and likes. And it just kind of seemed arbitrary. And recently, which is big world, small world. I was actually at a meeting that I wasn’t even supposed to be at. I got last second invited, like, oh, you’re here. Come on in. I’m sitting in the meeting, and everyone there was just so connected to their job and their work, and everyone that came in the room was excited. They’re like, yeah, and I love working here. And I’ve been here 15 years and 13 years, and what it was is everyone that worked there was connected to a purpose. I mean, it’s one of those purpose driven mission organizations. And I was like, I want that energy in my life. And so I jotted down a bunch of names and I text my wife. I was like, I need to. In this case, it’d be like, get into the community and start working with these groups and having hands, uh, on and face to face interaction, which I think has been lost a lot in the pandemic. And I’d have lost my way as well. And so even if I didn’t reach Bruce Wayne level, financial freedom, and I can control that and never make a dollar, and that would still bring satisfaction to my life.

Jonathan DeYoe: Yeah, purpose definitely fills most money holes, if you can find the purpose. So tell us how people can connect with you so they can find you your website, YouTube, you name a few things.

Marcus Garrett: Yeah, I’m universally branded under the Marcus Garrett. And as you said, my big focus is YouTube. So if you are, ah, into YouTube videos, check me out at the Marcus Garrett. If you prefer podcasts, I have the Marcus Garrett show where every week we have motivational conversations with your favorite influencers and entrepreneurs about life after debt. And then if you are a. I just rebranded this, if you are an overworked and underpaid professional struggling with burnout and looking to monetize, visit themcusgarrett.com. Literally just wrote that tag like a week or two ago, so still getting the rest off of it.

Jonathan DeYoe: That’s awesome. And I just want to say thank you. It’s been great chatting with you. I’m glad you’re here. We’ll put all that stuff in the show notes, and thank you for being present.

Marcus Garrett: Thanks for having me.