Travel content creator, storyteller, and bestselling author Drew Binsky joins Anita Sharma for the Season 2 premiere of Signed: Conversations with Digital Mavericks. In Part 1, Drew shares how he became one of the youngest people to visit all 197 countries in the world and built a 20 million follower community in the process.

Drew opens up about his first international trip to Israel in 2009, catching the travel bug while studying abroad in Prague, and teaching English in South Korea for 18 months where he earned his black belt in Taekwondo and visited 20 countries in Asia. We discuss starting his travel blog "The Hungry Partier," meeting Lee Abbomonte (who became the youngest man to visit every country at age 31), and doing the math to realize he could do the same thing in five years.

In this episode, Drew talks about the gift that changed everything: his girlfriend (now wife) Deanna giving him a video camera in Hanoi on New Year's Day 2017. He shares posting his first-ever video "What Can $10 Get You in Vietnam?" and watching it hit 100,000 views in one day, completely blowing his blog traffic out of the water. We explore the early days of travel vlogging, staying a week in each country to meet locals for authentic and affordable experiences, and the realization that the more he traveled, the more he realized he didn't know anything about the world.

This episode is about following curiosity across borders, turning passion into profession, and the beginning of a journey to visit every country on Earth.

Part 2 next Thursday!

Follow Drew: @drewbinsky

Disclaimer: I'm a lawyer, but this podcast isn't legal advice. It's for general information only. Listening doesn't make us attorney and client, so if you need legal advice, please talk to a lawyer in your area.

Credits:

Produced by: Anita Sharma & Phoebe Dunn

Creative Producer: Khairi Williams

Script Editor: Mac Montandon

Technical Production Support Provided By: Seth Richardson

Edited by: Carmine Mattia

Social Media Strategy: Maureen Lloren Sedlak

Signed Theme Music By: Carmine Mattia