How This Army Vet Gained 140K+ Followers and Became a Food Influencer

to see her face light up when she saw the Eiffel Tower. I want to create as many of those experiences as humanly possible.

Two weeks are up, you wake up Monday morning.

What the hell did I just do?

As long as those kids are taken care of, and I'm constantly traveling and inspiring other people. That's what's most important.

138,000 followers, you get millions of views, you travel the world, you get to make videos. How do you balance ambition with contentment? From South Bend to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In, the show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Quick pause in the action to tell you about my friends from Hard Truth. This is my favorite bourbon in the state of Indiana.

I was down at the Distillery in Nashville. It is a place you have to check out. This holiday season, if you're looking for a getaway, go down there, get a spot at the cabin, hang out at the restaurant, the distillery, go on all the tours. It is an amazing time. As you're thinking about holiday gifting, go pick up a bottle of Hard Truth at the nearest liquor store and and give that to the special someone in your life. It is a gift that you definitely won't forget.

There's plenty of recipes and fun stuff that you can make with their bourbon as well. I love what they have. They have some amazing collabs with people like Melanchamp Whiskey Co. Hard Truth has been an amazing partner of mine. They were at the World Nixology Championship. They were the bourbon of choice there.

Their journey over the past few years has been incredible to watch. I'm a huge fan of Hard Truth and they've been a great supporter to us. Make sure you go check out Hard Truth. Today I'm joined by Marcus Stone, but you may know him as traveling foodie guide. He is a former radio and TV communications major, now turned food influencer. He has amassed over 138,000, yes, thousand followers amongst Instagram, Tik Tok, highlighting Indiana's hidden culinary gems as well as amazing restaurants and places all across the world.

You might have just seen his birthday trip down to Peru. He was crushing it down there. Today we're going to be talking about how he transformed a lifelong passion for travel and a curiosity for food into a thriving Midwestern content brand. Talking about what sparked this uh love and curiosity for food and travel, how he's built this brand and turned it into a full-time job and what lies ahead for the traveling foodie guide. Marcus, welcome to the show.

Nate, good gosh, man. You make me sound good,

dude. You you like the food I've been eating,

dude. That stuff is Oh, I just saw a trip from was it Seattle, too? Yes, sir. Like, you've been I feel like you've been boopping around recently a lot. Like sometimes it's like, oh, it's a lot of indie stuff and then you like go and do these trips and I'm sure you're documenting everything. And that's the thing that some people don't realize when you're uh

when you're constantly on the like it's like it's a fun trip, but it's a work trip.

100%. A lot of people don't understand it. Like a lot of DMs I get, people are like, "Oh, well, just take me with you." And I'm like, "I don't think you understand. This is work for me." Like, okay, yeah, my job's better than yours, but it's still work. Yeah, right. That's a good way to put it. But before you were, you know, traveling to Peru and Seattle and doing these crazy things, like we got to start back on how a 42-year-old ends up with over a hundred and thou 100,000 followers across social media and how you built this from the south side of Chicago to Indianapolis and then to the world.

It all started like Biggie said, it was all a dream, you know. Um, actually it wasn't. It happened very spontaneous. Uh, so like to go back to the very beginning, I think where some of the the personality part from it came from was like in 1997 when I took my first radio TV class in high school

and um I did a project and I I won first place in that project.

What was the project?

It was I had to make like a little video and during the time like in Living Color was like the big TV show, right? So I had we had to make a commercial and I had a group and my group was like lazy. They wasn't really feeling it. So I had to do a lot of it. I had to write the script. I had to create the production. I had to you know on one side of the paper you had to literally show like where's the camera? Where's the angles? And then on the right side what's the script? Who's going to say what? Who's going to stand where. So I had to draw it all out. And so like I put a lot of effort and energy into it because my my team they they could care less about it but I took it serious. So I ended up getting first place in that. And then that's where my love for radio TV was established in 1997.

Yeah. And and is that what led you to go on and pursue that in college?

Yeah. So actually after high school I went to the military.

Oh no way.

Yeah. And then after I went to the military because they were going to pay for my college.

So after I got out of the military I did go to college and that's when I picked right back up on radio TV.

Oh no. What uh what branch of the service were you in?

I was in the army.

You were in the army. How long was that?

Uh three years.

Holy. Okay. So this would have been uh what grade were you in 1997?

Uh uh freshman. I was a freshman high school.

So graduate in like 2001.

Yeah, graduated high school 2001. Went right in. So September 11th happened right when I was in basic training.

You had already committed to going the military route before September 11th.

I actually joined the military like swore in on Christmas Day 2000.

Okay.

While I was in high school.

So you were already in. You know this is what you were going to do. You joined the army. Is that like Fort Benning? Did you head down there?

So I went to South G. Yeah, I did go to Fort Benning, Georgia for airborne school because I was a paratrooper. I jumped out of airplanes. Yeah,

this is going to be a brief detour cuz I I have to you join in December of 2020. You finish out high school, you you know, then you have to go

in. You're 3 months in and September 11th happens.

Absolutely. That's

how did the vibe change.

It changed dramatically. I think I have one of the like everybody has a September 11 story like if you were around during that time. So I was born and raised on the south side of Chicago. We didn't have a lot of money. I wanted my mom to come to my basic training graduation. And so I asked my drill sergeant, "Hey, can I go to the PX to Western Union, my mom some money for a flight so she can come out here to Fort Jackson to go to my my basic training graduation?"

They said, "Yeah." So we drove all the way there and as I'm standing in line at the Western Union, that's when the planes are crashing into the towers, right? And I look at my drill sergeant, he says, "We're about to go to war." So I go back out to the field and I'm yelling at everybody, "Yo, yo, you know, we were out in the field, no communication, no TV, no nothing." And you have this 18-year-old kid that's silly and you know I'm always joking and and I'm like, "Yo, we're going to war. They're flying planes in the buildings and nobody's believing me."

And I'm like, "No, no, no, no. It's serious. It's serious. It's going down." And so, uh, you know, a couple hours later, it was official. It changed thing drastic.

I was like, "Man, I signed up just so I can get my college paid for and now I'm an 18-year-old that's about to go to war. Like, if I wanted to get shot at, I would have just stayed on the south side of Chicago." You know what I mean?

But, uh, you know, when you in you, it is what it is. you got to fulfill your obligation. And so, you know, we figured it out just like everyone else.

Did you end up deploying?

Yeah, I went to Iraq in 2003 and 2004.

No way.

Yeah. I was in Scanderia, uh, 30 mi west of Baghdad, right on the Euphrates River.

What was your And you were a paratrooper?

Yeah. Yeah. I didn't jump in Iraq, though. I had like 18 total jumps in the US, but I I didn't jump in Iraq.

Oh, man. And then, so during three years, and then you did so one tour duty. Yeah, I was over there from September 2003 to April 2004.

That has to be crazy. You know, I was young.

I don't know how many people know this about Traveling Foodie Guy.

A lot of people don't know. You know, I I I try to keep like a separation between Marcus and Traveling Foodie Guy because I am a brand and I want to stay. But as I've grown as a creator, a lot of people do want to know a little bit about Marcus and so that's why I do these podcasts.

Yeah. So, you come back 2004 and your three years is is over. Yeah. and you're like, "Hey, you know, I've fulfilled my obligation to my country and to all this stuff now.

Time to go to college."

Yeah. And so, um, I went to college. I went to a community college in, uh, Champagne, Illinois. And they were like, "What do you want to major in?" And the only thing I can think about is radio TV because that's what I did in high school. And I was like, that's just what speaks to my soul. that I remember like everything about the creative process from from filming to producing to editing to the finished product like everything about that whole entire process. I mean we're talking like late 90s early 2000s that this was ingrained in my soul that it was something that I was passionate about.

Yeah. So you go to a community college and start to study um is this like a get your do you get your bachelor's degree? How does that go? So, I actually uh had my daughter right around the time that I was about to get my associates degree and um crazy now she's actually about to go to college next month.

That's wild.

Yeah, tell me about it.

Full circle.

Yeah. Yeah. I actually uh so when she was born, I was going to college and I had two part-time jobs. I was working at Outback Steakhouse and Best Buy. And funny enough, she actually worked for Best Buy as her first job, too. So,

again, another full circle, right? Between the tech and the food, right? like you knew that was like somehow going to come back together.

I I did not. I I really did not. So, um I ended up when she was born a couple of months later, I got in the auto industry and that's where I stayed for 17 years. Just worked my way up the corporate ladder.

Like a car salesman?

Yeah. Started off as a salesman and worked my way up to management and just kept going and going and going.

What brought you to Indiana?

A promotion.

Okay.

In the industry. Yeah.

So, you got a promotion and it brought you to the north side of Indianapolis.

Yeah. I um I moved to Zansville because I wanted her to, you know, she was an only child at the time and I wanted her to just be in the best schools and stuff like that. And through the research I had done, Zansville was similar to where I was at in like Illinois.

Yeah.

Nice little suburban area, small, quaint field, good school district, stuff like that.

You're like working in the auto industry. You've worked your way up. A promotion brings you to Indianapolis. And at some point, you know, like this urge to, you know, like the radio production, the TV production, like all that stuff like starts to rear back up.

So the travel started first. So growing up where I grew up, you most people don't have the means to be able to travel, let alone travel out of the country. So because I was pretty good at what I did, it afforded me the opportunity to travel outside of the country. I was spending a lot of money on material things, and I just had like an epiphany one day. I was like, I got to stop spending so much money on material stuff. But when you grow up and you don't have a lot and you you not start having the means, you want to start having a lot. So, you start doing it and it takes a while to get out of those habits of buying stuff when you you make the money you've never made before.

But then I had the realization that experiences are more important.

What was what was like the final thing like big thing you bought and you're like, you know, this isn't really just like

it it wasn't an actual thing. It was it was an actual recognition like I'm getting a new phone every year. I'm getting a new computer every year. I'm going to get a new car every couple of years. I'm constantly, you know, upgrading houses. I'm like, there's just so much materialism that's going on that and what I realized was that your phone is going to get outdated. Your car is going to get outdated. Your computers are going to get outdated. Your clothes are going to get outdated. What's something that's going to last forever? What's going to be memorable? And I was like, experiences. Travel. You know, you'll never forget, you know, when you go to a place and and the experience that the emotions that you felt in your body. So,

and the stories you get to tell from that.

100%. Like you, you know, we were just talking about the Rio story off camera, but but yeah. And so it was just a realization and I was reading a book. I was I'm very big on personal development. I was reading a book that said, "Whatever you're thinking, think bigger." So when I was like, "Okay, if I'm not going to spend my money on material things, I'm going to spend it on experiences.

When it comes to experiences, I want to spend it on travel." I'm very goal oriented. So I'm like, "What's a really cool travel goal?" And at the time I said,"I want to visit every state in the United States." All 50 states. And so, right, and you're like, "Whoa."

But the book that I was reading said, "Whatever you're thinking, think bigger." And I was like, "Well, what's bigger than visiting everywhere in the United States?" I was like, "Ah, the world." And so, like, and and at the time, I also read another quote that said, "If your goals don't scare you, they're not big enough." And when I said the entire world, it scared me. And that's when I knew it was big enough.

Yeah. Yeah.

And at that moment, I went to Hobby Lobby. I bought a 5 foot wide map and I literally sat on Google for eight hours and I Googled most beautiful places in the world and I start putting these tags on the map of most I said, I'm going to go to all these places and boom, I started. It's one thing. A lot of people have great ideas and they get the DIY itch and they go to Hobby Lobby and they buy the thing and they make it and then it just sits in the freaking garage and like they never touch it and they never actually like they may take that first step of like building a plan and they're grinding on Google and they have a Pinterest board and they ask Jet GPT to build them an itinerary but they never go.

What was the first one you went to?

Uh Dominican Republic Puntaana. That was the first place because I that was kind of like me dipping my toe in the water. That's not That's an easy not

Rick relative to like international travel like not that bad.

Exactly. It was it was one of those ones where it didn't cost a lot of money. You're still getting out of the country. You're dipping your toe in the water.

New culture like new like a lot of new stuff.

Yeah. But then like that was my first one. It was you know getting my daughter. I think she was probably six years old at the time and I was like okay this is cool. So then after that this is where it got like really scary again. I had asked my daughter if she can go anywhere in the world, wherever she want to go and she had said Paris and I think she was like seven years old at the time. Sitting there googling Paris and I'm looking at the prices and everything and I'm like, "Nah, we not going to Paris." Like I had never spent that kind of money before and then I was like, you know what? Like we work way too hard not to have these experiences, man. If I can buy all these cars and buy all this other stuff, then just save up for it. So, you want to hear a funny story?

Yeah.

So, I was in a highlevel management position at the time. This was 2017, first quarter. And I

Oh, yeah. We give us a before you go there. Uh, when did you start the travel? Like what year?

2016.

2016. So, you were grinding for a decade plus before you like like the material, the material material. And then like 2016, you're like, "No, dude. I need to go see the world."

Yes. And so, first quarter 2017, I was like, "All right, Paris it is. I'm going to make it there no matter what. My daughter says she want to go to Paris. I'm taking my daughter to Paris." And so, funny story, I ended up Ubering for five and a half months and that helped contribute to the fund of us going to Paris.

Oh, so you're you're upper management, you know, you're doing your thing, but it's like, yeah, international flights, the whole nine yards.

Yeah. I had never spent that kind of money before and I was just determined to do it. And so, this was during a time where Uber was still kind of newish and you couldn't even tip in the app. Like, people had to give you cash tips. And so, I just made it a mission. And I had a picture of my daughter on my dashboard and everybody that got in my car, like some people would even recognize me because Champagne is like a small town. And they're like, "Dude, you got like a great job making good money and you're here Ubering." And I'm like, "Yeah, I got a goal. I want to I want to go to Paris."

When did you come to Indie?

2017.

Okay. So, this was

late late 2017.

So, you started you started this mission um

in Champagne. And then when did you end up going did you end up going to Paris?

Yeah. Mhm. Yeah. So, I Ubered for like five months and some of that money helped contribute to the Paris fund and everything. And so, I went to Paris. As soon as I got back from Paris, literally

uh about a week later, I got a phone call that, "Hey, we want to give you a big promotion, but you got to move out to Indie."

Nice. Okay. Uh talk about that Paris. So, it's you and your daughter in Paris.

Yeah. And and my ex too. So, yeah, we go to Paris and um this is kind of like one of those foundational things that you'll never forget as long as you live. Um so, I had you know, we're in Paris. I never been there before, but but I was using GPS to figure out like where the Eiffel Tower was, right? And so I had a feeling we were getting close.

So like I turned around and I faced the camera towards my daughter because I wanted to record the exact moment where she saw the Eiffel Tower. So like I did a quick glimpse at it and I was like, "Okay, there it is. She's about to see it." And and when I saw her face like light up, that was the moment where I knew I wanted to travel for the rest of my life internationally because I'm big on emotions. I'm a cancer, you know, we're big emotional people. And and to see her face light up when she saw the Eiffel Tower for the first time, like I want to create as many of those experiences as humanly possible.

I mean, that's like the ultimate dad move. Like, like you're about to see this like wonder of the world for the first time and you're like, "Okay, now let me get my phone out here and make sure my dog." Yeah. A full dad mode. Okay. So, you guys go, you explore Paris.

Uh you like do this. That's a big international trip.

Yeah. And it was my second one. It was like again like I'm so goal oriented and goal driven and like

dream big, live in the sky, you know that that's that's the way my brain thinks.

And so yeah, Paris was number two. And then after that I was like, "Okay, we can't stop now. We got to, you know, and I just looked at my map, more beautiful places." And so, uh, fast forward a couple of years, end up going to Santorini, and this is where Traveling Foodie Guide, the idea of Traveling Foodie Guide started. growing up on the south side of Chicago, you're not and you're on welfare with your family, you're not used to having a lot of good food. You you just go with what you know, right? And so that led into just so much of like I eat the same thing a lot. And then I was in in a sales career forever. And when you're sales, you're constantly grinding. So it's whatever the quickest thing is, Chipotle, Chick-fil-A, whatever, you know, blah blah blah. So

wait, wait. But those are both great.

They're phenomenal, but they're not international cuisines, right?

They're not Michelin star restaurants. Let's be clear. So with that being said, when in Santorini you look up the best restaurant ever, right? So that's what I did.

Today in 2025, you know, people will can find pages like yours and all of these other food creators like everyone has like a like I feel like all these celebrities will do like best restaurant like Matt James is down in southern Indiana in Brown County like talk about this breakfast spot. But in 20 what year is this? 2018. No, 2021.

Yeah, 2021. This might have been like just the start of Instagram reels.

It was in its infancy stages like literally.

So you had to like Google and like finding these places was uh a different kind of challenge than like today you like find an Instagram reel.

Yeah. Back then early 2021 I I wasn't hopping on TikTok to find out where a restaurant was. It's just something you just wasn't doing. It's like Yelp or Eater or like those kind of things that a lot of times you can like like people buy the top position what and it's like you have to really like grind on the Yel like you got to find the Yelp elites that are like telling you where you need to go

100%. So I I was just grinding it out and just was like I'm in Greece. I want to go to the best restaurant now. I had no I wasn't food educa culinary educated back then. And so I had no idea I was in a Michelin star restaurant until I got the bill, which was $750 for a 12 course meal. And I had never spent that much at a restaurant. No. Uh me, Max, and my daughter.

Okay. So

21. And I had never spent that kind of money before, ever at a restaurant. You know, I mean, the most you go to is like a Roos Chris, you know what I mean? Something like that.

Yeah. A couple like, you know, two 300 bucks.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I never spent 750. And so that's when I realized what a Michelin star restaurant was because when I'm thinking 12 course meal, I'm like I'm thinking Americanized food and they keep coming out with all these little tiny little things. You know what I mean?

But here here's where the idea of traveling foodie guy came about. As we're sitting there on the caldera on the edge of a cliff on the island of Santorini, looking at all the white, you know, villas and all that kind of stuff out of this 12 course meal that they're bringing. They don't tell you what it is. It just is what it is. I've never been to a restaurant like this. But I'm literally sitting there watching my daughter devour all of this strange looking food that I've never tried in my entire life.

She's not batting an eye. She's not blinking. She's not doing anything. She's just they're bringing it in front of her and she's eating it. And I'm looking at it like scientifically dissecting it like what is this? I don't even know.

I think it was my first time trying caviar and a whole bunch of other stuff. So anyway, I'm looking at her and I'm like, you know what? I'm way too old to be like so stuck in my ways when it comes to food. If this girl can do it, I can do it. So I'm like, "Okay, give me that." And and I tell my daughter, I say, "Hey, record this."

Because it's my first time trying something I never tried before. So my daughter recorded it and I was like, "Ah, it's not bad, is it?" You know, I started describing or whatever. Fast forward, I get the bill shock 750 and I'm like, "There's got to be a better way." And then the light bulb hits me. What if I started video documenting my journey of all of my travels, the food that I'm eating, my reaction to it, the villas that I'm staying in, like to show all of my people back home, my military friends, my my people back home in Chicago, my colleagues and stuff.

What if I started video documenting all of this to show people like what it's like to travel internationally because I maybe I can be an inspiration for them, you know what I mean? And so, um, and I was like, also maybe I can, in doing so, I got a good personality. Maybe I can build a following and I can leverage that so I don't have to pay a $750 bill or I don't have to pay $650 a night for this villa and stuff like that. Maybe I can be like, hey, you know, I can promote you on my page that has a lot of followers and and I can get this for free. Like, I got a job making good money. What if my travel was free?

So, that's when the idea of traveling foodie guy was born. So immediately when I got back from uh Santorini, Greece, I literally Googled uh craziest foods in America and I like I'm a big spreadsheet junkie nerd or whatever. And so I got all the stuff organized and so I had a fitness page at the time and I I only had 1,700 followers. I wasn't trying to grow it. It was just an accountability page. And so I said, um, I need to rebrand this because I'm not I deleted 98% of everything that was on there.

And I said, uh, I'm going to do this food and travel thing. And I I still had my old name and I just literally started doing food tours. I was like, boom, I never been to New York. I'm going to New York and do a food tour.

Wait, what was your first one? What was the first like

Lombardi?

Lombardi.

Lombardi's Pizza. It's the oldest pizzeria in America.

Okay. It's in New York.

It's in New York.

So, you go there and is it at this point? It wasn't reals. It was pictures, right?

Uh, it was Saved Stories is what it was. It wasn't reals. I was not doing reals.

Saved Stories.

Saved Stories. I still have that save story on my Instagram to this day.

Wait, is it like if I go to

Yeah, just go to my page and and scroll all the way to the right on my save stories. You're going to see one that says New York on there. And the first thing you're going to see is uh like me walking through where 9/11 was and then you're going to see Lombardi's Pizza.

Oh w there's Okay. NY/

Yep. Mhm. That's it. That's where it all started.

This is where Cuz then you have you have Santorini, Dubai, Jordan on there.

Yeah.

Wow. Look at this guy. That's it right there. But you just saw it. Yeah. That's Lombardi's Pizza. That's the first one.

Yeah.

This guy. And that's what So you went out there?

I went to New York and did a food tour. Then I went to Chicago and did a food tour. Then I went to Louisville to do a food tour. Then I went to Columbus. And these are all save stories.

How did growth go from a follower perspective?

Um it it was like at a snail's pace. And then now we're going to transition. Uh, I was told that, hey, these save stories and stuff are really cool, but reals are starting to pop off. So, you really should do reals.

Realely should do reals.

So,

so what was the first reel you made?

First things first, I didn't want to do reals because I was busy. I worked a lot. I had a family. I I did not want to do reals because you have to edit and I didn't like editing. Save Stories is easy. Record myself. One take, Johnny. I'm a radio TV major. I can do it. Bam. Done. I don't have to edit it.

Hundday Johnny.

So, so I'm like real is popping off. You're trying to grow your brand. Do reals. I'm like, all right, I guess. So, Sunday, go out to brunch. Oh, yeah. And speaking of which, traveling started to get very expensive for me as I as I had this idea and I was doing all these food tours, the flights, the the the paying for the food, all the restaurants.

And what were people saying? They're like, "Oh, Marcus is doing his thing, recording it." Like,

no, no, no, no. I didn't, you know, it was Instagram. So, like Instagram and Facebook have always been kind of separate to me. Like Instagram, when I started to do this travel and foodie guide thing, it was intentional and it was for brand building. Facebook is more of like I'm I'm the OG Facebook where you had to have aedu email to get a Facebook account. Like they wouldn't even letting high school people in back then. So, Facebook is more like friends and family stuff.

So, when I started doing Traveling Foodie Guide, it just it just was what it was. I didn't I only had 1,700 followers. It wasn't a big deal. I lost some fitness people because they're like, "Man, we're trying to get fit over here and you're eating all this food." Like, okay, whatever. I only had 1,700 followers.

On Sunday, I'm I'm like, you know what? I'm spending a lot of money on these flights and all these restaurants and all this traveling trying to build this brand up. I need to chill with the money side of it cuz I'm spending a lot. And so, I'm like, let me I got to keep the content going, though, because, you know, that's how you grow it. You got to stay consistent. So, I'm like, well, let me just try to see something local.

I never thought about food when it came to Indie. I didn't I'm not from here. I had only been living here a few years, and I was just so focused on work. This was something new. I just didn't think of Indian food. So I was like, well, I want to go to brunch.

So looked up brunch garden table Massav downtown. So this was a completely different style of filming for me. Like I'm I'm in there like holding my phone, weird walking, trying to be incognito and stuff like that,

especially early on. It's so like uh embarrassing a little bit.

It felt like, you know, now granted, I don't care about the embarrassment part. It's just like it was in its infancy stages of a different kind. Like I have I had no problem when I was doing my save stories like you know trying a pizza talking about it on camera but this was different. I'm not talking to the camera. I'm recording everything. I'm looking like a weirdo in my mind back back then. Right.

And so I even my daughter like she had never even seen me do it. So I'm like holding the phone and I'm eating the food recording myself and she's like what are you doing? Like

don't worry about it.

I got this idea.

We got to pay the bills. Hopefully this will pay for your college one day. So, so like I I go to Target. I'm sitting in the parking lot. I'm editing and and this is very important. This is very, very, very important.

So, I edit the reel and once I'm done editing the reel, I'm like, "What does this need?" And I was like, "This needs some music behind it." And I'm like, "Okay, what else does this need?" I'm like, "This needs a voice over." And so, I I throw the voice over on there and then I'm like, boom, it's edited. I got the music.

I got the voice over and post. I go back home. We go play Mario Kart. I'm not paying attention to my phone or whatever, but I just start getting all these notifications. I'm like, what's going on? She's killing me in Mario Kart right now.

Like, and so I look up and and I had never seen those type of views before. And I was like, well, I guess we're doing reals, right?

Yeah. Like, what kind of what are we talking about like view?

Granted, I mean, I had at this time I probably had 3,000 followers. Um, but you know, thousands of views.

Yeah.

You know, when when you don't have that many followers, you're only getting like a few hundred, right, on average because social media isn't going to show your content to all your followers. It's a paytoplay, you know, kind of franchise or whatever. So, I start getting thousands of views on one video that I just made. And I was like, well, it looks like we're doing reals, right? So, that's where it started. I was like, okay, well, since I'm doing reals, let me look around this area and see what food content creators are doing.

And this is also very important because we'll probably hop back into this and I want to plant the seed. So I started looking for I looked up indie foodies like I just looked it up on Instagram and I wanted to see what other food content creators were doing because I never thought about Indie for food. I was like I'm traveling foodie guide. I've traveled all over city traveled all over the world. So I saw what people were doing and after I I made my assessment I said the first thing that came in my mind was how can I go left? How can I do something that people aren't doing?

What I saw at the time was people like going this is what it looked like on average. Someone would go into a restaurant with their phone. They would wave it around just to kind of show you what it looked like. They would wave it around the food to show you what the food looked like and they were like follow me for more. Like that's what it looked like. And so my radio TV instincts kicked in.

I was like, what what's missing? What can I bring to the table? How can I be a person of value? I was like, number one, it's it's missing like a really cool voiceover. Like nobody's really talking on these reels. Um, nobody's doing cinematic style filming.

It just seems like everybody's walking and just waving their camera around. Like how can I make this look professional, almost like a commercial? And that was just the big thing to me. I wanted it to look high quality. I wanted to look radio TV. And again, we're still talking like late 21, early 22.

And so I was like, "Okay, um, let me with my personality. I'm fun. I'm upbeat. Let me make a really cool voice over for this. Let me make sure I do cinematic style filming." Oh, I also see not a lot of people are actually showing themselves eating the food.

Like if you're a foodie, you have to show your food. You have to show your reaction and stuff like that. Like maybe a couple of people were, but most people weren't. It was it was more so about like follow me. Hey, I went to this really cool restaurant that you probably don't know about. This is what it looks like.

This is what the food looks like. Follow me.

Mhm. And so my immediately immediate thought was how can I be different? So that that's very important because from day one I never wanted to like fit in. I wanted to stand out, right? Because I had big goals of becoming like a travel influencer to show. I didn't even know that term existed back then, but that's what it turned into. That's what my goals were. I wanted to be this person that displayed places at the highest fashion so I can build a big following so I can get my travel paid. the first reel from Garden Table, you know, it it goes well. Yeah.

Uh do you like how many followers did you gain from the first one?

No. So, so okay, it's better if I explain it this way. So, um the first year that I since I started creating uh travel content in Indie, food content in Indie, 10,000 followers

through a year,

which I thought,

how many videos do you think you put out in that first year?

Two to three videos a week.

Like that first year. I think a lot of people don't see the hustle that goes into producing content.

So my second year is where that actually comes in. So once I got to 10,000 followers, I remember at the beginning of the year I was like, "Yo, this year I want to get 25,000 followers." So I'm like, "Okay, my first year I got 10. My second year I want to do double plus a little bit more." And I ended up getting 80,000 followers that second year.

Smokes. and and I was pumping out five to seven videos a week on that on top of working 60 hours a week full-time job. So, what I was doing was I would go to these rest I would literally go to three to six restaurants in one day on my off day and film all this content and I would literally pump it out every single day.

Uh, okay. Wow. Let's dive into this a little bit cuz I do think people think, yeah, you go in there, you wave your phone around, you get a couple things, you say, "Follow me, whatever." You smile, you and it's like

it's storytelling. Like a big piece of it is storytelling. And it's not like like I had to post 112 videos before one got over 10,000 views. Like I get the like you got to grind early on there and every like, "Oh man, I got 5,000 views. I got like they got 10,000 views. Let's go." Like, "Oh, I got seven new followers." Like it's like very handtohand combat. And I do think once you hit the 10K, when you hit the little K, you're like, "Okay, now we're like and it starts to like kind of snowball a little bit there."

Yeah. And I remember having the conversation like there were like other I had started to become like social media friends with a lot of other food content creators and we get all invited to the same events and everybody was happy for me because they're like, "Dude, like you had 10k followers and and like there was only two people that I had saw in the 20s. There was uh Sierra in the City and Mike G." And I was like, "Okay, like Sierra reminds me of myself from a format of quality content and like, you know, really cool OCD thumbnails and stuff like that." And Mike G was like a young black dude that was cool, that looked like me, sounded like me, that showed me it was possible to actually grow like in Indiana.

So those two were my like primary like inspiration people. I I was like, "Okay, they they're showing me that if I stay consistent with producing quality content and just stay authentic, you know, to myself, then it's possible." Yeah. And so I was like, "Okay, everybody's like, "Yeah, 10K." And in my mind, I'm like, "Yo, like I want to have a million followers one day." Like I I dream big.

And so I was like, "Okay, 25 the second year." And then maybe, you know, that's the way my brain was thinking. I hit 25,000 like my first three months of that year. And I was like, "Wow." Wow. And I was like, "Okay, 50 then."

And then I hit and then it got closer to my birthday in July. And I was like, "Yo, it would be great if I can get to 50 by my birthday." I got to 50 by my birthday in July. And I was like, "Well, let's go for 100 then." I was like, "Wow, that would be crazy to go from 10,000 to 100,000 in one year." I ended up at 80.

What year was this?

This is my second year. I think it was 23.

23. Yeah. Okay. Uh, so you you get to 23. You're right around 80,000 followers.

Yeah. My second year. Were you spending most of your time traveling or in Indie or how?

Still in Indie. Still in Indie. Because

was the name traveling foodie guide?

Yeah, I had changed my name to traveling foodie guide by the time I had created my real at Garden Table.

Okay. So, you knew that that was the goal was like I want to get my travel paid for. I want to like do this thing. Where was the first time that you got a free meal from somewhere?

So, building my brand, this is very important if you're going to get inspired by this podcast to to understand this. Initially starting out, I understood that in order to build my brand, I had to invest in myself first, which mean I paid for 100% everything. I was building my resume. Every restaurant I went to, I paid for. I never asked for anything for free. I never asked for a discount.

I was building my resume. Then when I started creating content in Indie, I had a little bit of a resume. I took that garden table reel and I would go into restaurants and I would ask for the manager and I would say, "Hey, I'm an I'm an aspiring content creator, influencer, and I'm trying to build my brand and I have a little bit of a following and I make videos like this and I'm wondering if I can make a video like this for you guys." And it started off, they were like, "Yeah." I'm like the only thing I require is I just I'm asking your permission to do this and I just want to sit somewhere in a corner, you know, by window light to make sure that I'm not bothering anybody and I got good lighting. And so that's what it was.

And so I took that garden table video and I went from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant saying the same exact thing. And then it went from okay, okay, okay, yeah, I don't care. Do your thing because it it wasn't that popular during that time.

Yeah. So then one of the restaurants gave me a discount and then the next one gave me a discount and then it got to the point where my followers started to grow a little bit. A restaurant gave me the food for free and then the next one was for free and then the next one for free and then then it got to a point where it was like how much do you charge for this and I was like wow it's growing. It went from me paying for all of this to getting a discount to getting it for free to now I'm getting paid to do it. Like what was like like that's always an interesting point too where someone's like

what do you charge and you're like

bro you should it took every ounce of energy because keep in mind I had like a a good full-time career that I was in that I'm like in upper management and making good it's not that big a deal. So I just shouted I just like I didn't bat an eye. I didn't make a facial expression but in my brain I was like holy crap like I can get I can charge for this. But what' you say? I said 100 bucks.

Oh

I said 100 bucks. Dude, that's bold. I feel like I mean, how many followers do you have at the time?

3,500, 4,000, something like that.

I mean, 100 bucks. And they're like, "Yeah, sure."

Yeah. Exactly. I mean, as a business owner, 100 bucks that it's new. I mean, what's a business owner like? What do I got to lose? It's 100 bucks. If nothing comes from it or whatever.

Exactly. So, you start So, it goes from you're like, you're getting permission, you're doing all the stuff, it grows, it grows, and then you're like, "Yeah, the hundred bucks." Like, that's like we're all everyone's just figuring it out.

So, here's a question I have for you. M you go from like exponential growth, 10,000 to 80,000 in 2023. Here we are today in 2025 and you're uh 138.

Were you posting on TikTok at the time, too?

No. So, I actually didn't start my TikTok until the beginning of last year. I mean, again, it's just it's just navigating your way through it and figuring it out. I had started becoming uh creator friends with other creators around the country. You know, you find each other through the algorithm and whatn lot and and I was like, I got to get a Tik Tok. so I can leverage, you know, that extra audience because by that time when you're getting that kind of followers, you're consistently getting paid for your content creation and whatnot. And so I wanted to leverage it by any means necessary.

Yeah. Obviously the growth rate slows down a little bit in 2024, right? You don't you didn't go from 80 to a million, right? So like how how did that like change your perception? Like what ended up happening there? Take us through that.

The market started to become very saturated. That's part of it right there. Um, and then I also was like, okay, I am traveling foodie guide, not indie foodie guide, right? Like I had got so caught up in the growth and becoming a person of value to Indiana, the hooers, providing all like searching out the restaurant. Like more people were starting to inbox and email and DM me to, you know, for for marketing and stuff like that. I had to get back to my roots.

I was like I was like I I never created traveling foodie guide to be indie foodie guide. The reason I stayed consistent with that content was because I remember the first comment that I got when somebody said I've been living in Indie my whole life and I never knew this restaurant existed. Thanks traveling foodie guide. And that's when the light bulb went off like I'm a person of value here to Indie. And then I also remember this was during a time when I first started creating these indie reels. we're coming off of COVID and I'm establishing relationships with the restaurant owners and they're telling me like COVID did us bad.

Like we almost went out of business because of it. And I was like, yo, with my influence, someone like me could actually help a small business grow just by doing what I love. And that's when I went into overtime. I'm like, I live here in India. I want to help these small businesses. So that love for wanting to help the small businesses grow and and help the consumers find places without having to navigate online and go through all these blogs and and websites to try to find out where to go.

Like people can get 30 second snaps of traveling foodie guide showing you what the restaurant looks like, what the food looks like, his take on it, and boom, I want to go to that place.

Yeah.

Like that's the way that consumers want to consume food information these days. They want to get these little 30-se secondond clips. They don't want to read, you know, six paragraphs on that website with terrible iPhone pictures and and they just want to, hey, give it to me quick. Is it good? Is it bad? What does it look like?

Okay, cool. I like this. And I was like, okay, we're on to something. This is the way consumers want this information. So, I just went overtime on it. But then it got to a point where I was like, wait a minute.

I I started this because like I'm like, I got out of the travel. Like, I went to a few places. You saw it on my save stories, you know? I went to Dubai and Jordan and and a few other places. What I noticed when you said like, you know, it didn't go from 80 to a million. What I noticed was, this is crazy to say, when I started creating travel content, my views were significantly less.

And I realized why it was my predominant audience was right here in Indiana. And I still get DMs to this day when I post travel content out of the country. I could care less about some place that I'm never going to go to. That's the mindset. people want the my followers are predominantly hooers. They want to know what's going on around here.

Most of them that that's the way they think. Some of them are like, "Hey, we appreciate your travel content is cool. Like that's inspirational. I maybe want to go there." But that's a small percentage. A lot of people still have like a local mindset.

And there's nothing wrong with that because, you know, support for your local community is extremely important. But I from day one have always been interested in the world. Like my brain just thinks bigger. And so when I create this travel content, it's selfish because it's it's my goals for the longest period of time, but I'm doing it because I want to inspire other people and show you like what the world looks like. The the biggest p of all of it, the biggest piece of all of it, if you don't like

what you're doing, like then you'll never make it as a creator. If you're just doing it for views or doing it because it's what's going to get you followers or this that or like it'll never work%. Even if people don't like everyone doesn't love your travel content, if you like doing it, like it is good for your soul and you see it as artwork, like you got to do it. Quick boss, I think we can all agree that fall is one of the best times of the year in Indiana. Whether it's festivals, tailgating, or scenic road trips, it's a fun and busy time for everyone. With all that running around, it's the perfect time to make sure that your vehicle is ready to roll.

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Videos that have 56 7 800,000 millions of views. I got those videos in my catalog. I posted a video yesterday. It barely hit 3,000 because it was a travel video of a pizza place in Seattle. Some person, their ego would have been extremely bruised and like, you know what? I'm done with this.

It just sucks the algorithm. I'm never going to figure it out. I'm like, bro, like this is what I do for a living now.

Like, and if and if somebody is out in like I'll be in Seattle this fall,

and you better believe I'm going back. I'm going to check out all the recommendations you had. And like, and you know, it will maybe it doesn't go viral right away cuz it's not top of mind for me. Like, why do I need to watch a video about pizza in Seattle today? But I'm going to remember it.

Yeah.

And later on down the road.

But you you hit a very valid point. Um and and this kind of like continues the story. It got to a point where, you know, I'm auditing my life. if I'm I'm in in the late 30 early 40 range and I'm auditing my life and I'm like what do I want the rest of my life to look like? So in the life insurance world they say the average man lives to be about 80 years old. Obviously some more some less but on average it's 80.

And so I'm like man I'm I'm 40 years old. I'm halfway I'm at the halfway point in my life. What do I want the rest of my life to look like? I'm I'm trending in traveling foodie guide. It's it's linear success. And I and I'm like, I went to high school and college for radio, TV, communication.

Like these days in 2020, whatever. That's social media is pretty much what it is. And I'm like, you know, and there are people that are becoming very successful off of it. And I'm like, if they can do it, why can't I, you know, like this is a passion of mine. So I decide to go all in. I said, you know what?

Like, you know, granted, I was in my career for a long time, made a lot of good money and stuff like that, but then I realized what was most important to me, and it was creating these travel experiences. I got a kid that's about to be going to college. I just want to do what I love. I I love content creation. I've loved I created content in 1997. That was the first time I created content.

It's a passion of mine.

Award-winning commercial. Don't forget about it.

One day, I got to go back to that high school and I got to find that footage because I'm telling you, like, I know that I'm going to be like really big one day. And it's a it's an important part of my story. You

mean one day,

Nate? You know how my brain thinks, man. I'm trying to be way way way up here. I I got a long way to go to get to where I'm trying to go to. And even when I get there, I'm like, "What's next?" Right? That's just the way my brain is.

Well, how do you balance that between like some people would be like, "Dude, you got 138,000 followers. You get millions of views. You travel the world. You get to make videos." Like, how do you balance ambition with contentment? It's tough and it causes a lot of mental health issues and I'm not even going to lie about it. Um, it's it's that I did a stint in personal development where I was averaging reading about a book every week and a half and it was primarily on personal development and growth because I was a leader in my uh prior industry and I just wanted to be great. And so I just did so much self-help work and it's just like if nobody's going to help hold me accountable to my success, I got to do it myself. And so I've created mentally these standards that I have to exceed in order to be what I feel is great and they're they're skyhigh

and and it's a sliding scale, right? It's like

well it's it's what I realized was that success wasn't linear. I I didn't know once I started to learn more about successful people, I realized that no one had become their definition of success by just going up and up and up and up. they had to go through some of these leaps and bounds and peaks and valleys

and and it's like the more I learn and like study into this and think about it, it's not like there's not like a follower count or a view count that is like success versus not success. It actually from my perspective gets broken down to the habits. It's like am I doing the inputs every day that successful people do? like you're going to be successful and like whether it's 50,000 or 100,000 or a million followers or views or whatever it is like that's actually not how successful people their bank account I don't think there's like a moment where you're like yep $276,000 in the bank now we're successful you you hit it right on the head and I'm glad that we actually having this conversation because there's a few things that I've learned along the way success isn't determined by the amount of money that's in your bank account my and I've had several definitions of success over the years but my most recent one that I'm sticking with is being able to do what I want when I want with whoever I want.

That's my definition of success. And it has no amount of money attached to it because I live my life's purpose right now over the age of 40 with two primary things in mind. Making sure these kids is taken care of and traveling. Like that's those are the two main things that I'm focused on right now. My daughter's college gets to pay for get to get paid for so she can pursue her dreams. I got the little one making sure that you know I'm grooming him into something great and outside of that travel experiencing the world exploring the seven wonders of the world hitting up every continent exploring different cultures and stuff like that.

I don't care how much money is in my bank account as long as those kids are taken care of and I'm constantly traveling and and and inspiring other people to live out their dreams. That's what's most important.

And I I think there's actually a good exercise that all listeners could go do. And it's like you you got to build your north star and find out like where you're trying to get to. And it's like kind of sounds like fufu or whatever, but truthfully, if you don't know where what direction to paddle, it's like every day you might not take a thousand steps towards your your northstar, but you might take like a few baby steps. You might like

at least point yourself in the right direction. And I think once uh for me specifically when I started to like really lay out goals and and have a what that I wanted to do, it's like oh now it's like where every day we're just like getting a little closer, getting a little closer, getting a little closer and you're building these successful habits versus just being like I'll one day like because it never will be like you'll get to your bank account number, you'll get to your follower count, your view count or whatever and you're

want more.

Yeah. What do you mean

you want more? Um, you you hit it right on the head because in in order for me to do what I do now, which I just hit the one-year mark of doing this full-time as my profession.

Congrats, brother.

I had to take a pay cut. I really did. But I had to think about what was I sacrificing, what was important to me, and how did I want to live the rest of my life. If I live the rest of my life chasing money, I would consistently have headaches all the time. And if after you're over the age of 40, like you just realize that I just want peace in my life. Like you know, you're young.

So then yeah, you lead into social, you want peace and you like become a social media influencer. Like

it was very peaceful when I was at Machu Picchu. It was very peaceful when I went to go see Christ the Redeemer. It was very peaceful at 6:00 in the morning when I was at the Eiffel Tower and I took a selfie by myself. It was very peaceful when I went to go to the Roman coliseum. It was very peaceful when I woke up in Maldes at the number one Airbnb in the world. Peace.

The number one Airbnb in the world.

Magic Hills, Bali. Yo,

it was very peaceful. Nate,

this is the number one. Can I ask like what's what's a night there?

Guess what? That's what Traveling Foodie Guy is all about. It cost Traveling Foody Guy nothing.

That's so sick. What does it cost not travel? What does it cost?

It doesn't even cost a lot though. It really doesn't. Like look look up the rates. It doesn't even cost a lot. Wow. B. It's very inexpensive in Bali. There's a lot of Americans moving over to Bali right now because the dollar goes so far.

Yeah. Like two nights, you know, you're you're 700 800 bucks a night. Yeah.

Like not bad, honestly.

Yeah. But but it was peaceful.

But it was peaceful. And then you check your comments and you're like, there goes my piece. Um classic. Okay. Talk to us. What? So you have you do this intros introspection, but were there like specific targets or numbers or

anything from the business side that you were thinking about that you had to hit before you were willing to leave a stable career with two children?

Yeah. So, um I had gotten used to making a certain amount of money that I'm not going to talk about.

Yeah.

Everything is about perspective and context.

Yeah. And I I was told a long time ago, sometimes you don't talk about your goals and and your money because certain people may perceive it as bragging. And that's not the type of person I am. That's not in my DNA.

I do what I do for my own personal goals and my own personal life. I'm not I don't throw nothing in nobody's face.

I remember the first time that I had made a lot of money in one month from traveling foodie guy.

It it was as much money as you can make in a corporate career.

Yeah. And at that point I was like, is this sustainable? Is this can I do this consistent? And so um I made a goal. When it got to about 3 months from that point, I actually looked at my yearto date to my career and I looked at my year-to- date to travel and foodie guide and they were very close to each other. And I said, I do traveling foodie guide two days a week and I do this five days a week.

Then that's when a light bulb said, is this my exit strategy? And so I said, okay, I want to make sure I have x amount of money in the bank account. I want to make sure that I can sustain this type of income consistently for a while. And if I have x amount of money in my bank account, a savings account, and I have assets and stuff like that, too. But if I have this amount of money in my savings account, and I'm consistently making this, if I'm doing this two days a week, what if I did it five days a week? And so, I scaled it and I put my two weeks notice in and I said, uh, this is what I want to do for the rest of I prayed about it and I said, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Two weeks are up. You wake up Monday morning.

What the hell did I just do?

You're like, "Yo, take me back. Come on."

What the hell did I just What did you do? You wake up and what do you do?

I smiled. I really did smile. I woke up and I smiled because uh for the past 17 years, unless I took a vacation, I've worked every single weekend.

Oh yeah, that auto industry.

Yeah, I worked every because that Saturday is your biggest day of the week. It's when everybody's off work and everybody goes shopping.

You like Mondays or something off?

It was Thursdays.

You get Thursdays. So that's when I was creating my food content on Thursdays going to restaurants all day.

So um I smiled. I was like wow I got a Saturday off and I'm not on vacation like what do I do on myself like um but I did smile but um it's crazy because it was like that's when remember success isn't linear. That's when it went down for me. It literally went down as soon as I quit my job. And and I was like okay thank god I got my assets. Thank god I got this money in my savings account.

Thank god I have excellent credit. Like thank God you know I'll be all right. It's not the end of the world. it's time for me to go traveling, you know what I mean? So, I I just did some did some traveling and just enjoyed life and I was like, it's okay. I got my account, you know, little things come here and there, but it it got a a little bit scary.

I never was too scared, but it got a little bit scary. And then like first quarter, it's crazy. This is 25 now. First quarter 25, like the economy is going crazy at January, the beginning of this year. You know, expenses are going up, income is going down, places are going out of business. It's not a good time for restaurants to start marketing in January and February.

It's their slowest months. And I'm like, okay, it's it's not all rainbow, sunshine, and unicorns, but thank god I got money in my savings account and and you know this stuff. But then it that that was just me being me because honestly, I just have skyhigh goals. Like yes, I took a pay cut, but that doesn't mean that I want to stay at that place forever. like Travel and Foodie Guide is a business and I I need to I would love to be an income replacement to be making the money I was making doing what I love, you know? Yeah.

And it's it's trending in that way. But the first couple of months it wasn't trending that way. And crazy enough, if if people knew what I made in January and February, they'd still be like, "Dude, like you still were killing it." And I'm like,

"Your definition of killing it and my definition of killing is just two completely different things."

You have like It's different for me. Like I'm a a solo guy lives here in Broadripple. like I don't have kids to think about. It's like so it was really easy for me. Uh I left my job in May of 24.

Congratulations.

Yeah. Uh it was so I I hit one year but like I didn't know anything about income. I was like ah dude I'm pretty we made 10 grand at the ND500 in 2024 and I was like 10 grand to tailgate. Like I can do this. Let's go. Little did I know it was going to be a journey, right? Um, but no, it's it's totally like I would say for people out there that are thinking about leaving their job to go pursue whatever it is, like it's not just like willy-nilly like, oh, just go leave and start it, but like have a plan. Think about what and like what the average salary like isn't that hard to replace. It's hard, but it's not like impossible, insurmountable.

Correct. And and granted, what people have to realize is that I I spent 17 years in a career that I was dedicated to, that I invested in myself. I wanted to be a phenomenal leader in my industry. I wanted to be a subject matter expert. I was a trainer. I invested in myself.

Therefore, I got great results. And so, therefore, I made really good money. So, income replacement for me is hard. I didn't make the average salary. So, honestly, if Travel My Foodie Guy makes $10,000 in a month, that's a failure for me. I I can't live off of that.

I can't I got I have a mortgage. I have car payments. I have bills. I have a kid in college. I got a kid that just turned one years old. Like, I have to Yeah.

I have to make more than that. Yeah, I gota I can eat ramen noodles and like like chilling broad like but but obviously you know like one day like as you can integrate like I do think that's like just an entrepreneurial thing in general like the older you get and the more money that you make the harder it is to so like the risk that you take even though like on paper not even on paper in general like oh yeah we both quit our jobs around the same time the risk that you're taking is way like if I

you know if it doesn't work out for me like I could go get a marketing like I'm not going to lose like I don't that much to lose anyway. No one's counting on me to pay the bills.

And you know what's driving me? Like literally passion is just literally driving this vehicle right now because I believe in myself. It never was about just being a local influencer that goes to restaurants and does these little videos. Now granted, when people see Traveling Foodie Guy for the first time on social media, that's what they see. They see a guy going to a restaurant. But having an opportunity to have this conversation with you on a podcast gets people to know the deeper underlying passion that went behind it from its infancy stages of what drives me.

They get to know Marcus.

Yeah.

Yeah, man. This is this is awesome. Like I love hearing I mean there's just not that many full-time creators in Indiana or people that have built, you know, any sort of media business. So, I find it very fascinating to hear your story and like what got you to take the leap full-time to do this after a 17-year career. Yeah.

At 42 years old, man. And think about this. My space that I'm in, content creation and influencing, is primarily dominated by 20some year old beautiful people. And I'm not that. I'm 42 and I'm no Morris chestnut. You know what I mean? If you're not a just straight up beautiful supermodel person, your followers should count as like three. Yes.

You know, it's like you got to $100,000 and you didn't post a thirst trap. That's that's impressive. Come on. Um

Okay. Talk to us about what's coming down the pipeline. What can we expect from Traveling Foodie Guide as we continue to close out 2025, head into 2026? This will be coming up on year two for you

fulltime. Yes. So, I want to transition more back into travel content because being an indie and creating all the indie content got me where where I'm at now, but it's not going to take me to where I want to go. Again, when I started this, it was all about international travel. So, expect more travel content to other countries. Um, my current goals are visiting all seven wonders of the world. I've already seen four of them. So, actually, you're the first person to know. Second person to know this, but um I'm going to see Chichinita in a couple of weeks.

Which one's Chichinita?

It's in Mexico.

Oh, that thing. Yeah, it's like a Mayan temple or Aztec Inca, something like that. Okay.

Over by Tulum. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going to Tulum uh in January. So, if you have any good Tulum recommendations,

I got you. Don't worry.

Chichinita. Okay. Um and then also um next year I'm in the process of planning uh the pyramids in Egypt and the Taj Mahal in India. And last on the list will be the Great Wall of China.

So wait, what four have you hit so far?

I've seen uh the lost city of Petra Jordan, the Roman coliseum, Machu Picchu, and uh Christ the Redeemer.

Christ the Redeemer. And then it'll be Chichinita.

Chichinita, Taj Mahal, and Great Wall of China. And then the other one's just for what was it? The

So they they have the pyramids as the old seven wonders of the world. They don't count it as the new seven wonders of the world. It's crazy. But I put it in there because I mean we're talking about the pyramids and guys, right,

dude. That's that's awesome. So, and I do believe that when you have a campaign like a journey, people are invested. This is my journey. And then you could even go back and re-edit that stuff of like seven wonders of the world. I visited them all. I'm on this mission. Like anytime I want

I got all the content.

Oh yeah. I may need to go back to Paris because when I was in Paris in 2017, I wasn't a content creator then. But uh what what's really dope is um so I'm a photographer too and when I started doing this traveling thing like I would take my DSLR and I would like take these pictures. The sad thing is like I never printed any of them. So uh just this uh I want to say three two three months ago I started printing my pictures from all over the world on these 20 by30 canvases that I'm going to hang in my house. So, like if you ever come to my house, you'll be able to see like all of my and and it's crazy. A few people come over, they be like, "Who took these pictures?" I'm like, "Me?" Like, people know me as a content creator for video. And but I'm like, "Yeah, these are like pictures from 2015 and 16 and 17 and 18 and 19 that I took that I'm just now blowing up and making big." So,

so awesome, dude.

But yeah, my my long-term goal for Traveling Foodie Guide is I want to have my own television show. Um, I don't think that there's any television show like the one that I want to create because it doesn't encompass all three things together. Uh, if you want to know where to to eat, you go to like the Food Network, right? If you want to know where to travel to, you go to the Travel Channel, right? Like, you know, Guy Fiery has his D. But there's there's not a show that has like the human itinerary effect into it to where it starts out with where to go and what to do and what to eat and where to stay all in one.

Like there's no show that exists like that. And when people travel, that's that's what they want to know. Where am I going to go eat? What hotel, Airbnb or villa am I going to stay at? And what am I going to do? There's no TV show that encompasses all of that.

So I I want Travel and Foodie Guide to prove to be the first TV show that encompasses everything with travel.

All right, we got some listeners from some from some different television media organizations. Let's uh let's make that dream happen. If you're watching this right now, I'm telling you, Traveling Foodie got approved as going to be one of the best TV shows that's out there on your network because no other TV show like it exists right now.

The interesting thing is like why would it even have to be a TV show? It could just be like a YouTube channel. I

I think it's the radio TV.

Yeah, I think that's I think that might be like an old school thing cuz like look at Mr. Beast. Like I would rather be a Mr. Beast than any network like

and and maybe it could be that. Maybe it could be both. I would I would actually say look into like getting the show like figuring how you want to do it in a YouTube format and license that content and that's do the Pat McAfee thing.

That's that's part of it right there. It's like starting to create content towards that journey to where it will attract networks.

It's so interesting too of like we do a lot of YouTube. We've been like putting a lot into it. It's hard.

It's very hard. It's my least it's my least followed account.

It's so different.

I'm like it's so funny. I get comments on my YouTube all the time like, "How is this channel not bigger than what it is? This is great content." And I'm like, "I don't know, bro. Tell your friends to follow me."

Yeah. Like it's just it's the same way for But when I It's because uh this is my Okay, I'm not going to act like I'm an expert in YouTube here, but YouTube somehow knows when it's a video made for YouTube. Like if I sit down in the camera with a teleprompter and I'm like, "This is your guide to all things Indiana." Like blah blah blah blah. In this video, you're going to learn about this, this, and this. and by the end you're going to be an expert in everything Indiana then it does well and if I don't if I just like post a podcast clip or I like post a real no doesn't do

yeah and you know what what I think it is is I don't have the capacity and maybe I need to hire people I don't have the capacity to engage with people like I do on my Instagram account which is why like my Tik Tok account is doing okay but I don't invest the amount of time in my Tik Tok as I do my Instagram like and my when people see me out in person around Indiana they show me so much love and It's crazy because I can tell which platform they follow me on by how they approach me and their age.

Yeah. Right.

Usually the younger people are like, "Oh man, I love your Tik Tok traveling foodie guide and stuff like that." Like I go to the fair and see some of the younger people and they and I'm like, "Tik Tok like man, my followers are on IG." And somebody in, you know, late 20s, early 30s and up, they're like, "Oh man, I love your IG content." It's like, you can tell.

But does it come back again? Like oldies like I say that with respect. With respect. Like there are grandmothers on TikTok, grandfathers on Tik Tok that love me. Yes. They go nuts for it.

Same. Um I I'm in restaurants and the seniors, I guess that's an easy way to put it. The the 55, 60 and up, they'll see me when I'm in the restaurants recording content and they're like they'll walk by and tap me on the shoulder. Young man, I love what you're doing.

Yes.

And I'm just smiling. You know what I mean? Like wow. Legendary. I love it, dude. Um, so so fun. I do think Yeah, there's a there's a whole vibe between Instagram and Tik Tok and all the different things. But dude, you're doing great stuff. You are you're really uh just the videos are always uplifting and fun and you make an impact in these small businesses.

That's what's most important to me. You know, like Traveling Foodie Guide is a business, but a lot of people have to understand my business is helping other business. Like I always think of that in mind. I'm always thinking what kind of value, what kind of perspective, how can I make it entertaining, how can I make it different than someone like I never want to hop on a trend train. You don't see Trap and Foodie Guy doing many if any trends at all because my whole focus is if I'm going doing a collab a paid collaboration with you and I'm helping market your business. Number one, I have to be genuine and authentic. And number two, my focus is how can I help your business grow?

Yeah. Amen. I love it. Well, we've come to the part of the show we have a few segments here to to wrap things out. Yes, sir. The first question is brought to you by our friends at JC Hart.

They're a leader in creating enjoyable living experiences at apartment communities all across Indiana and beyond. Check them out at home is jcart. com. My question for you, Marcus, why do you call Indiana home? I I love the Midwest. It fits my vibe very well.

I'm a very humble person. I come from hardly anything and I I like that it has a great school system here, a decent stable economy. I'm I'm wellreceived here. I get a lot of love. I don't know if I would have that same experience anywhere else. I can go back home and live in Chicago, but it's so expensive.

I'd be broke. I can go live in New York, LA, and try to pretend to live some fancy lifestyle, but that doesn't interest me. Like, I love the cost of living. I love how I'm received. It's a great place. I get to experience all of the seasons here, you know.

So, uh, yeah, I love Indie and Indie helped make who Traveling Foodie Guy was. I got to pay my loyalty, my duty, my respect, and my homage to Indie.

Amen.

That's why I'm rocking this jersey right here,

sir. Come on. All right, we got some uh we got some rapid fire lightning round questions for you.

What was the dish that you ate the first video in Santorini?

Caviar.

Caviar. So, first time trying caviar. First time trying caviar and I did and I eat it to this day every time I see it. And that was and that's what Traveling Foody Guide is all about. Trying things that you never tried before.

Yeah. Okay. When Marx's television show Traveling Foodie Guy approved launches, what's the first episode?

I want to take my mama to Africa.

Wow.

I want to take my mama to Africa. We didn't have the best relationship for the longest time, but we rekindled that relationship about five years ago, and ever since we did, we've we've been rocking and rolling. Did you just take her somewhere?

No, I I facetimed her in Rio to show her uh the Christ the Redeemer statue.

That's amazing. Yeah.

Uh what was your first video to get over 100,000 views?

And I want to say it was one of the huge culinary videos.

Do you remember uh what video you had posted that took you over to 100,000 followers?

It wasn't a video at that time. I was averaging about a thousand followers a day and I just kept watching it tick tick tick. I kept hitting refresh and it just kept coming and I was like oo in about five minutes this is going to happen. It it wasn't a video like like seriously I remember there was a time I was averaging about a thousand followers a day.

Dude that's that's just got to feel like you got lightning in a bottle. You're just crushing.

I want to get back to that.

Um what's been the most surprising dish you've ever eaten?

Namayaki.

Namayaki.

Osaka Japan. It's a fried cabbage dish that incorporates squid, octopus, shrimp, and other seasonings and flavors and all that. It's been the most interesting dish that I never thought that I would like ever. Oman namayaki.

Namayaki. Okay. I love that. That was when you were in Japan. You guys did the Mario Kart thing.

Oh my gosh.

That was one of my favorite videos,

bro. You got to do it. Put it on your bucket list. Like you're driving through the streets of Tokyo.

I can't leave Indiana. I'm pretty locked in here. Come on. No, I I love that one, dude. Is there a food that you still refuse to try?

I've tried it twice just because I'm like, now that I've expanded my food palette, let's let's keep trying it. But I just can't get past raw oysters. My the first time I tried raw oysters, it was at Raw Bar downtown Mass A. Did it in a story and spit it out. Now, and and this it was on my story forever, too. It got the most engagement that I had ever gotten at that time. So, that was at the beginning of Traveling Foodie God's culinary journey. So, I tried raw oysters again like literally like five months ago and I'm like, "Nope. My palette still hasn't developed over all these years to love these raw oysters. I'll do Rockefeller all day long, but um I just don't think that I'm going to try raw oysters again."

There you go. Hey, I think that authenticity is good though.

I I'm going to show you this, but you have to promise me one thing.

Yeah.

You cannot say the name of the restaurant.

Okay.

Okay. Promise.

Promise. You have my word. This is a marketing company that reached out to me and you can see the date says yesterday and they I'm going to hand you my phone in a second, but as you can see yesterday they reached out to me and they represent a place, right?

And so do me a favor and I want you to read this before you say it out loud because I want you to omit the restaurant name on that. So this was someone who approached me yesterday to collaborate with a restaurant. Give the viewers and listeners a synopsis of what you just read. When it comes to this restaurant, unfortunately, I wouldn't be able to collaborate. I've tried their food a couple times and I'm just not a big fan. I wouldn't be truthful to my audience by saying it's good.

What's the date on that?

That is July 29th. That's yesterday.

That's yesterday.

That's yesterday. And I appreciate that

cuz so many people think that all he does is just turn on the camera, smile, and wave and say it's the best thing he's ever tasted.

That is so important for people to know. And that has happened multiple times. People think that, oh, Traveling Foodie Guy just gets paid to turn on a camera and try food and say it's good. I've got the comments of, "Oh, Travis Foodie Guy says everything is good." If Trap Foodie Guy says it's good, it's on my page because I like it. Now, my taste buds are different than yours. And we all have subjective taste buds. But there's proof in the pudding, and this isn't the first time this happened. This has happened multiple times where someone will reach out to me and I'm like, "Hey, I've tried it before. Unfortunately, the money doesn't matter." Yeah.

It just doesn't matter. Well, and that's why I like obviously I'm not a not a food influencer, but like when we start a conversation with a partner, it always starts with a video concept. Like if it's not a video that I would make for free, like we I worked with Indiana Brewers Guild and it was like taste testing Indiana beer. I'm like, "Oh, I would make that video even if it wasn't like a paid promotion like because it's and I was promoting their summerfest." Yeah. But it's like everything we go into there, we go into the conversation and we say, "What's the video concept?" Like is it is it something that if I had an unlimited budget and could make it for free, I would make it. And if we if it is, then we do it. And if it's not, then we don't.

Yeah.

I get approached by a lot of alcohol companies. I have to decline every single one of them because I'm like, Traveling Foodie Guide is not I I don't drink alcohol. So, I can't get on my platform and tell people how good wine tastes because I don't drink wine. Your cocktail. It's like I I just don't drink. So,

well, if you need someone to tag along, like take the bullet for that one. I got you. Right. There are a lot of business restaurant owners that are going to come and watch this.

If you had a few tips for a local small business owner about marketing, whether it's their restaurant or their business, what would you say?

I would say build your brand organically online. So, there's two ways that you can, you know, a lot of questions that I get is, you know, how do you accomplish this growth? There's two ways you can do it. You can do it organically, which is harder and a long lonely road. You have to stay super consistent. You have to be educational, valuable, and entertaining at the same time. You have to do it just about almost every day. Or you can do the paid route. If you have a bag of money, you know, make some content, throw some paid ads at it, pay to play.

Hit us hit us up, right? Like you want you want to get some view. Like, come on.

Yeah. You pay to play. Uh, I went the organic route, but I would say if you're a restaurant owner, you're trying to to grow your business. It all starts with your brand because all of your customers are online over eight hours a day looking at their phone and your business should be in front of them. Traveling Foodie Guide is a business. Why do you think I post so much? I'm in front of people all day long.

Uh, I I totally agree with that. The one thing I've given a tip is

look at your screen time. Like look at your personal screen time. There's so many people that want to go viral and want to be influencers, want to be this, but they don't like they don't like know the culture online. Like I bet if we went and d and and dissected your screen time, I bet Instagram would be number one, Tik Tok would be number two. Well, from like a social media platform,

Instagram would be number one, Tik Tok would be number two, YouTube would be number three. And that's based on your subscribers. But if I bet if you switched it and you started spending all of your time on YouTube, learning how it works, interacting, commenting, doing all things, I bet you'd start to see that growth rate increase. I see that all the time. If

what gets measured gets managed. If I spend like a a two or three week stint on Tik Tok, I learn more about Tik Tok and I post better Tik Toks and then my Instagram like dwindles off. And then if I spent more time on YouTube, my YouTube would grow faster. So many of these marketer it's like if your social media manager like isn't in like isn't consuming content like and I hate to say it like you got to have good screen time if you want to produce good content.

You're right man. I've

kind of like bad

I've worked with so many marketing companies and I've seen so many people but comparison is a thief of joy and I never want to talk about anybody else but I'm just like the worst thing you can do is take advice from somebody who hasn't done what you what you're wanting to do. And I see so many people out there giving advice about things that they haven't done to people to inspire them.

And granted, it's like I do think it's uh it's easier to grow a personal page, but like we're doing it with our company page right now and it's a grind, but like if you but we are like in the ecosystem. We're like, you know, commenting. We're doing the whole thing. Like I mean, uh I think I don't know if you've worked with them, but I know they go to Bulls in Business and I sing their praises. Bulldogs moving company.

They're great. They're doing a phenomenal job right now,

dude. It's moving.

They're killing. They're doing it exactly right. If they stay consistent, they will go to the moon.

Yeah. It's a moving company. Like, let's be No offense to them. I love it.

You're You're hitting the hammer right on the head because truthfully, it doesn't matter what your business is, whether you're a restaurant or a moving company or an electrical company or a plumber or whatever the case may be. If you build your brand, your job is to say, "Whenever someone does think about plumbing, I want to be the first person that they think about."

Amen.

That's the goal. I love it, dude. All right, we've come to the part of the show. These are the same three questions that we ask everyone who comes on. Marcus, you have traveled the world. You've been to four of the seven wonders of the world. You know, you talk about going to the DR, you're going to Greece, you're doing all these crazy cool things. You've been around, but what's something that the world needs to know about Indiana?

Indiana is a great place to visit. And if you haven't been here, you need to come here. And you need to have an open-minded, optimistic attitude. There's such a negative public perception of Indiana that influences people mindset to make them not want to come to Indie. But I'm the type of person that will always find the good out of anything anywhere that I go to. So if you just open your mind and have a positive optimistic mindset and come to Indie and talk to people who love Indie and can show you things about Indie that's phenomenal about it, it just may change your perspective. I love Indie.

It all starts from the way that Hoosiers talk about their home. Like we are so humble and at times like we like take that as like oh yeah it's like what like because you don't you don't want to feel braggadocious. You don't want to talk about how cool it is. You don't want to talk about all these things cuz that's not what Hoosiers do.

And it's like if you when you go into Chicago next when you go back home and when people ask like oh like you see someone like oh where are you living now? And if you when you go if and it's like yeah I live in Indie like blah blah blah. And it's like no no you got to say I live in Indiana. There's really cool stuff here. We got great restaurants. We got this. We got that. and like say it with some gusto. Then people are going to be like, "Dang, why do I keep hearing about Indiana everywhere?"

There's a reason why people from California are moving to Indiana.

Mhm. Next question. You get to shed a little bit of light, some love on a place that more Hooers need to know about. Marcus, what is a hidden gem in Indiana?

Turf's Kitchen.

Turfs.

Turf's Kitchen.

What is Turf's Kitchen?

Exactly. It's the hidden gem of all hidden gems.

Turf.

It's literally hidden. The crazy thing is it's in Castleton. It's right behind Arby's. It's like next to a auto body mechanic shop

and catering and kitchen.

And they are so fire. Like their restaurant. I don't even think that it's the size of this room right here.

This is a restaurant. So I

What do you get at Turfs?

Their sandwiches. It doesn't matter what sandwich they're make. Their sandwiches are fire.

Fire. Okay, hear this. Hear me out on this. They do a lot of So it's like it's like club, short rib, cubano, CBR. So like not not a huge menu, but they do these platters like lunch catering.

Mhm.

Oh man.

Turf's Kitchen. It is the hidden gem of all hidden gym. Every And I'm talking about I go there even when I'm not filming content. Like it's a fireplace.

Yes. I'm trying to tell you it's the hidden gem of all hidden gym. They have no street signage. They're not main visibility from the road. You They're behind something and next to a mechanic shop. It is the holy wall hidden gem of Indie.

Turf's Kitchen.

I love it. That's a really good hidden gem.

Final question of the day. This is how we get future podcast guests or learn about Hoosiers that are doing fun stuff. Who's a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things.

Traveling Foodie Guy. Hey, traveling foodie guy is going to the moon and this is my one opportunity to get a selfish humble brag out of myself, but

I believe in myself so much that I left a multiple six figure career to pursue my dreams of creating travel and food content. I'm going to the moon one way or another. I don't know if it's next year, the next 5 years, next 10 years, but keep Travel and Foodie Guide on your radar because this hooer is going places.

Amen, dude. I'm excited to be in your corner, Marcus. I appreciate you coming on the show today, talking us through the beginnings back on the south side of Chicago in high school with TV, radio production, getting into, you know, a 17-year long career, the birth of traveling foodie guide, and your love and curiosity for the world. Uh, your energy is infectious, man. I I love rooting for you. I love seeing all the cool stuff you're doing.

If people don't follow, where can they find you? Who are you? If you don't follow me, what rock have you been living under? No, I'm just kidding. Uh, follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, traveling foodie guide. That's gu because I am your go-to guide for food travel fun.

Check him out. He's doing awesome stuff. You've definitely you've seen his videos. They have seen your video at this point. I'm excited to check back in. Maybe maybe we come on and do like a whole food reviewing episode.

Do something fun there.

I got some stuff in mind.

Hey, there we go, dude. I appreciate I'm excited to see at some point when this when this uh TV show comes to life, man.

Man, I'm going to have you you're going to come with me on the episode.

Let's go. We should go travel somewhere throughout the state,

bro. I'm ready.

We should go eat lunch in the smallest town in Indiana possible.

I'm 100% game. Set it up. I'm there with you. We doing it together. Let's go.

Let's go. Appreciate you, brother. Thanks for stopping by the studio and we'll talk to you soon.

Thanks for having me on.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all of my gear recommendations at sweetwater.com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @ natepangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the state great. We'll see you next time here on Get