Hello Sean, tell us a bit about yourself and your business. 

Hello Erika,

Before I tell you who I am, let me tell you who I was. Back in 2016 I was a qualified dental technician in England, with the mindset of get a job, get a house and start a family.

On my 24th birthday, I decided I was bored with working a 40 hour week and traveling a total of 20 hours to get to and from work and still being in debt. So I decided, along with Taylor (at the time my girlfriend, now fiancee) to go traveling in Australia!

Within 4 months, we were on a plane to Oz. We really learnt what struggling was when we arrived, going from bad job to bad job from bad hostel to worse hostel.

It took us a while to find our feet, but when we did, things started to go great. We learnt a lot from the experiences we had and we wanted to inspire others to do the same.

We decided to write a book on these experiences. The book is called ‘Backpacks To Beer Taps’, a way to make our millions! (Book Link – if you have an amazon associate account use your link)

On the 1st month of sales, I sold 15 copies … bought by me and given out as gifts to friends and family. No one cares about a book if they don’t know who the author is (especially an autobiography)!

This is when FSG Travels was born (previously known as Failure, Success and Goals). I worked 60 hour weeks on the brand and around 40-60 hours on jobs to fund it.

Over the last 7 months, our social media following has grown to nearly 10k due to us taking our niche to the extreme! ‘The Funny Backpacker’ was born; this went over all of our networks;
• YouTube funny travel videos
• Instagram with our parodies
• Website with our blogs
• Twitter with funny backpacking tips

The funny thing about all of this is the fact that we work more hours than I used to do while working in a dental lab – but I never want to go back!

Backpacks to Beer Taps

What are your focus areas and why? 

So, our main focus is to make people laugh, then inspire them to stop and think. I don’t think travel is for everyone, but everyone does need to think about their goals and working towards them.

How would you describe “FSG Travels” in a few words? 

Funny, travel and crazy… definitely crazy

Where do you think “FSG Travels” is making an impact? 

FSG Travels seems to be currently making an impact with the parodies. The reason why is because they are so interactive. As you get others involved and wanting to take part. This brings a community feel to travel.

What were some of the biggest challenges you encountered while building “FSG Travels”? 

Money is a challenge, more so earning for more traveling … when I first started out I was annoyed that I couldn’t compete with the artist travel bloggers and vloggers. What I mean by artist bloggers are the one making amazing shoots of landscapes using their drones, hi-tech cameras and top of the range computers to edit on.
I just haven’t got the skills or the money! I learnt quickly not to compete but to do my own thing! This is where the parodies were born.

You also have a successful YouTube channel. Tell us about how you built it up. 

YouTube is the hardest social media platform out there! The algorithm is so difficult to learn and impossible to try and beat. I would love to say I have a successful YouTube channel.
Saying this YouTube is amazing for building community and it does take a while to grow. Having no background in media, editing and recording a video was extremely hard. This was made worse by my small camera and slow computer!
Over time I have learnt what I can and can’t do and how to add my niche to videos. My videos have improved massively! My tip for you on to grow a successful YouTube channel is to learn more and stay consistent!

In a few words, what is one of your best travel stories? 

I worked in a titty bar for 6 months…

What was your favorite blog post to write? 

So when first started blogging, my writing skills were terrible. I have a real difficulty with spelling, grammar and writing. When I was still at school, my teachers wanted to get me tested for dyslexia. I refused because I didn’t want to have a excuse for why I can’t do something.

My first blog post for travel was my favourite, due to the fact that I used it as a diary of my thoughts on my life and how scared I was of traveling to Australia.
This blog was unreadable to most and to be fair, I was blogging as a way of keeping a diary on my travels, so I wasn’t bothered either. I loved the fact that I could write whatever and whenever I wanted.

Since then this blog post has been edited and turned into the introduction to our book. Today most of my blogs and writing in general is edited by Taylor MacKee (including this interview). The way I talk is not edited so you may find words back to front as she likes to keep my style. She tidies up spelling, missing words and grammar.

Where was your favorite place to travel to? 

As a kid, I saw most of Europe with my family and I’ve seen some amazing places around the world.

But one of my favorite places is Florida in America. I have been there twice. The second time was when I went there with my friend (Ross McIntyre) and his family. They paid for everything, it was such amazing experience! Just a little bit of advice, don’t go for a wee up a tree in the Everglades… there are crocs about!

Can you share with us some of your Backpacking Parodies? 

Only because you asked … man boob warning! Check out our parodies here.

And to find more about me, check out fsgtravels

Don’t forget to Smash it.