Garrett—known as Garrett from Goldies on social media—did not intend to become a full-time creator when he joined TikTok in 2022. He actually started the account @garrettfromgoldies to promote Goldies, a healthy seltzer brand that he created as an alternative to alcohol.

“I had stopped drinking when I was 27 years old,” says Garrett, now 33. “I was kind of stagnant in life and career and relationships and the underlying, common denominator for all of the problems was alcohol.”

Goldies, available in flavors like Cucumber Supertonic and Yuza Spritz, was born out of his desire to have something fun and tasty to drink when he went out with friends.

Garrett, who was working full-time at an investment bank when he started the brand, became the face of his self-funded side hustle on TikTok. On the platform, he shared snippets of his life in NYC and invited his followers to alcohol-free parties to promote his beverage.

His videos performed well—so much so that he was starting to get paid to do promos for other brands. “But the business was not doing well,” Garrett says. “Food and beverage is hard, because you’re not actually in the beverage business. You’re in the distribution business.”

Garrett weighed the challenges of distributing seltzer against the potential of TikTok, and creativity won out. He put Goldies on the backburner and continued making lifestyle videos while working at the investment bank.

He held onto the @garrettfromgoldies handle, calling it “part of the lore.”

A gregarious, curious and active guy, Garrett shares everything from his adventures in dating to his sewing projects to his workouts by the Hudson River. He’s always reading a book and firmly believes that anyone who lives in New York and doesn’t have a library card is making a big mistake.

Just a few weeks ago, Garrett—who has done brand deals with Peloton and Eventbrite and currently has more than 113,000 followers—made a big move. He ditched his job in finance to become a full-time content creator.

Now, he’s excited to have even more time to support NYC’s small businesses on TikTok. It’s clearly something he is passionate about.

To wit: Rather than do this interview via phone or Zoom, he invited me to one of his favorite hangout spots, Café Panino Mucho Guisto, a cozy café located on Hudson Street in the West Village next to the late legendary urbanist Jane Jacobs’s townhouse.

Garrett is well-versed in her life’s work, which was all about preserving walkable neighborhoods and communities and mom-and-pop shops.

@garrettfromgoldies #janejacobs #sidewalk #nyc #westvillage #strongcommunity ♬ original sound – Garrett from ?GOLDIES?

“If you move here like me,” says Garrett, who arrived in New York a decade ago from his native Canada, “you have a responsibility, in my opinion, to honor all of the things and build off that, not tear it down or destroy it.”

To that end, when Garrett’s favorite egg guy—an Amish man from Millport Dairy—recently moved to a new location on the Upper West Side to sell eggs after being booted from the Union Square Greenmarket, Thomas used TikTok to gather a group of people to shop at the new location.

And when Italian sandwich shop Cappone’s opened near his apartment, Garrett made a video about their meatball subs, bringing in lots of new customers.

@garrettfromgoldies Im going to regret this if these guys start running out of meatballs but the world needs to know about this sandwich #nyc #food #meatballs ♬ original sound – Garrett from ?GOLDIES?

In fact, when Garrett walks me up to Cappone’s after our interview so I can get a meatball sub to go, the beaming owner greets him with a big smile and a handshake and happily reports how great business is thanks to Garrett’s post.

The New York Sewing Center in the garment district is another benefactor of Garrett’s attention on TikTok. He took a class at the sewing center to learn how to hem his shorts and later transformed one of his favorite New York Rangers hockey jerseys into a pair of shorts.

@garrettfromgoldies Lets go RANGERS #nhl #sewing #nyrangers ♬ Hold It on to You – Muspace

Currently, Garrett, still very much an entrepreneur at heart, is in the midst of designing a tote bag with straps that make it easy to attach a rolled-up yoga mat.

Once the design is where he wants it to be, “I’m making them in New York City. So, it’s jobs for New York people,” he says, pointing out that it’s going to make the bags more expensive, but he is insistent on keeping the money here.

Garrett is also collaborating with another creator, Shea Gomez, on a YouTube series in which the duo will take viewers on walking tours of various New York City neighborhoods, mapping out routes that include stops at mom-and-pop shops. The first episode, focusing on Brooklyn’s Greenpoint, launches next week.

Anyone who has moved to NYC from somewhere else, somewhere smaller, somewhere less stimulating, can relate to Garrett’s unabashed love and appreciation for the city and the people and the unique little businesses that make it like nowhere else on Earth.

You can see how living here has opened up a whole new world of possibility and connection for him.

“The most important thing I’ve ever done in my life was move to New York City,” Garrett says, noting how he has grown as a person in every area of his life during his time here. “New York will always be a destination for people trying to better their lives.”