For some people, capturing content of themselves is their worst nightmare. When it comes to then posting said content online? That’s a big fat no from me (and about 97 per cent of my social circle, tbh). For Jack Steele and Matt Ford (affectionately known as Falcon), the comedic duo more commonly known as The Inspired Unemployed, it all started as a pipe dream.
The high school mates went from tradies frequenting job sites to national sensations amassing a giant following, with a healthy dose of business endeavours to match (most recently, their travel company, ARRIVAL).
Nowadays, the pair travel the world to road-test all the trips they have on offer via ARRIVAL, getting to try everything from surfing to quad biking and beyond. But their success definitely wasn’t overnight, and it most definitely wasn’t by chance.
I sat down with the boys to chat all things working together, ARRIVAL, and cringe — more specifically, how to overcome it in order to reach your dreams. (And yes, that statement in itself might’ve been cringe, but I digress.)
Hi, Jack & Falcon! Thanks for your time — let’s get straight into it. Tell me about The Inspired Unemployed journey. How did it start, and when was that moment of “oh wow, this could be an actual thing”?
Falcon: We’ve been friends since high school, and we were just always mucking around and making our friends laugh doing stupid stuff. After high school we started working as tradies, but after a couple of years we quit our jobs to go travelling overseas for six months.
Jack: When we left, we started The Inspired Unemployed page, hoping we’d come home with maybe 10,000 followers if we were lucky. Bit of a pipe dream, really. We were posting videos the whole time we were travelling, just having a laugh, but when we got back to Australia we had literally zero followers. Like, proper zero.
Falcon: We were about to delete the whole thing and go ask for our old jobs back when we were like, “Stuff it, let’s post one last video”. That one video just went mental, and it’s kind of never been the same after that.
What’s been the most unexpected part of working together to date?
Jack: I think that it actually works so bloody well.
Falcon: Yeah, agreed. We spend literally all our time together, we live together, we work together, and we never fight. I couldn’t have imagined it would be this positive and easy.
Jack: Maybe we’re just lucky, or maybe we’re both just too lazy to argue, but honestly, it’s been the best part of this whole thing.
@theinspiredunemployed Just regained 7% of my attention span #rawdogging #anotherdayanotherrecord ♬ Everlong – Foo Fighters
Let’s talk ARRIVAL. What was the thinking behind it, and what was it like working behind the scenes to get it off the ground?
Falcon: Travel has always been a huge focus for us. We always worked just so we could go on holiday, and have done so many trips together and with our wider group over the years. We’d go on these amazing trips — like to Jordan, where we did this mental adventure, sleeping under the stars in the desert and exploring ancient ruins. It was the trip of a lifetime, to be honest.
Jack: Whenever we would come home from a trip, people would flood our DMs asking where we found these trips, and honestly, I’d spent hours digging through Reddit threads to find them, and sometimes it would feel a bit dodgy but they’d always be the most amazing experiences. I’m always the one stuck planning every trip for us and our mates, so I just thought, “Why not build a site that does it for you?” That was in early 2023 and every couple of months after, Falcs and I would talk about about it, and by the end of the conversation we’d decide against it — it felt like too much work.
Jack: But then we met Quentin Nolan at Snow Machine, which he owns and operates, and it felt like fate. Bloke’s been in the travel game for ages and started selling ski trips on MySpace back in the day. We convinced him to come on board as a co-founder because he would know how to actually turn this idea into a proper travel company, and it was the best decision.
Jack: Yeah, we couldn’t have done it without the whole team. We’ve been trying all the trips on the platform, which has been incredible — proper dream job. We’ve been motorbiking through Kyrgyzstan, surfing in the Mentawais, getting bogged in a Maserati in Dubai. Some big highs and some stressful bits, but that’s what happens when you’re the ones testing it.
What’s your vision for ARRIVAL in, let’s say, five years time?
Jack: I think in five years, we want ARRIVAL to be the go-to for anyone who wants to travel off-piste. Not just Aussies, but people from all over the world who are sick of the same old tourist traps.
Falcon: Yep, and we want to try a bunch of new trips and put them up on the platform, always keeping it different and interesting.
What advice would you give to someone looking to follow in your footsteps as entrepreneurs and social media personalities?
Falcon: It can feel really embarrassing to post online when you don’t have a following. Like in the early days, when I was dressed up in a wig dancing on a table, thinking about having to walk onto a job site the next day was tough. You just have to pretend it’s not embarrassing and keep going.
Jack: Yeah, totally. And if you can, find someone to do it with. Having a partnership gives you so much support and strength — bouncing ideas off each other, sharing the joy of going through it together, having someone who cares just as much and understands all the stresses. Whatever kind of business you start, having a co-founder is really good, and make sure they’re someone you like.
What’s the most unhinged thing you’ve seen at work that we can legally publish?
Falcon: Working as tradies, you see some pretty cooked stuff. During renovations, there’s just rat nests and all sorts. I worked with a guy who used his nail gun to shoot at a rat when it tried to jump on him on a job site. Probably not OH&S approved, but it was bloody effective.
@theinspiredunemployed When the boss leaves early on a friday
♬ original sound – T.I.U
If you had to describe your inbox in three words, what would they be?
Jack: Messy, chaotic, infinite.
What’s your email signature?
Falcon: Just our logo, I think.
Jack: Yeah neither of us have a proper title – just our names and the logo. Keeps it simple.
What’s on your hype up playlist?
Falcon: “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd is definitely on there. That song just gets you going!
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