Youth & Innovation: From Classroom to Commerce from FWD Fest

Note: the following transcript was generated by AI and therefore may contain some errors and omissions.

G’day and welcome back to the Forward Thinking Podcast, this special edition of the Coast and Commerce Podcast, which we recorded live at Forward Fest 2025. I’m Ben Amos from Innovate Media. And I’m Craig Josic, co-founder and chair of Forward Fest. Now this is episode two. So if you haven’t listened to episode one yet, make sure that you catch that one because that last episode really frames what we’re going to hear today. So a really inspiring group of young entrepreneurs who I think

we can learn a lot from even for us more seasoned entrepreneurs. Absolutely, Ben. Look, I first met these three founders when I was on Shark Tank for the DeLorean project. And to see their journey and how they’ve just continued to inspire not just others around them, but themselves and grow is being incredible. They also, I’m very proud to say that they are part of the Leap Forward program.

which is supported by Queensland Government. Now they are the youngest to be part of this cohort, which is exciting. So let’s get into it and hear their story and be inspired. Welcome back to Forward Thinking, a special edition of the Coast and Commerce podcast recorded live here at Forward Fest 2025. I’m your host, Ben Amos from Innovate Media. And today we’ve kind of crammed into the little space here because we’ve got three incredible entrepreneurs from Glasshouse Christian College. We’ve got Holly.

And we’ve got Liana and we’ve got Jolee here. So guys, I’ll let you guys do the talking. So tell us like what brings you to Forward Fest and why are you here? What brings us to Forward Fest is the environment. Like you were able to make so many connections. We came here last year when we were still a part of the DeLorean Project. Jolee spoke on a youth panel and that opened up so many doorways for us. were able to connect with such amazing people.

met one of our mentors here, Gavin Kearley, who helped us immensely. And then this year we’ve been invited back and we’re pitching. tomorrow. So tell me about room Readi, which is your business idea that started at school, but now it’s gone beyond that, right? So tell me about room Readi. Who wants to take this one? I’ll say how it started in the DeLorean project last year, and then we can go into what it really is. So year 10,

We’re just high school students as you are. We’re online shopping in class because school’s boring. And our teacher, Rob Steffler, catches us halfway through the act. And in the DeLorean program, you’re meant to talk about problems and innovation and how to solve these problems. And he really got us thinking, what are the problems within shopping and how can you solve that? So we were thinking about online shopping initially, and then we kind of moved into in-store shopping and realized that there’s an array of problems all throughout both.

And that’s when room Readi was sort of born. Yeah. Nice. Do want to add to that, Liana? So we are the co-founders and we’re building a digital platform that helps retailers just start winning by delivering their customers an unmatched in-store experience. So as Jolie said, there are a bunch of problems with in-store shopping as well as online. Yeah. So a few of these problems, for example, say you’re in-store shopping, it’s a complete nightmare.

Your size is nowhere to be found. The dressing room lines are endless. You hardly have time to try anything on, which is the whole point of it. And the staff are usually completely MIA. So usually from there you turn to online shopping and then you gotta wait days for shipping. When it finally arrives, it’s not what you wanted, it doesn’t fit how you wanted, so you’re just stuck returning items, wasting even more time. And people are time poor, money hungry. We don’t have time to spend a week shopping. Love it.

Holly, can you maybe tell me a little bit about the DeLorean Project? you know, this is where this idea got a start for you guys. So what is that, if people haven’t heard of it before? So the DeLorean Project is run by our facilitator. Well, just one of them is Rob Steffler, who is like, who was like the main like coordinator of it all. So it’s like a program where all the kids are put in a room and we’re told basically,

that the idea of this like subject in school is not like a normal subject, like as such it’s more to be like innovative and have your own ideas and see where that leads you. So we got told we were going to make our own business and at the start we weren’t very bright around the idea because we weren’t really sure what this DeLorean project was. We were kind of just like yeah it sounds cool but like is it worth our time?

And then we had one lesson where, cause like all these speakers come in, like guest speakers about like how they’re entrepreneurs and we’re just kind of listening like, yeah, that’s cool. But like, how do we get there? You know what I mean? And so we spent like a few like lessons in that room wondering why, but then Mr. Steffler had this conversation with us and it was like, he just told us to like say yes to every opportunity. And at this point we were kind of like still lost and we’re

We were lost through most of the program. And then we were like, OK, we’re stuck in this program. We have to make a business. We have to pitch at the end of the year. What are we going to do? So we decided to put our heads together and make something of this program that allowed us to have resources, people, networking, connections. And we’re like, we’re going to actually use this because what school offers

that kind of like program for kids when it’s mostly just like normal classes like math, English, like this was our space to like learn and like throw ideas out without being judged or like looked upon, you know I mean? Yeah, very cool. Excellent. So I’m going to ask each of you the same question and give you a little bit of time to think while I ask you the question. Okay, I’m going to start with you Jolie, but basically the question is, know, as you’ve kind of taken on this entrepreneur mindset and you’ve got your business.

you know, to where it is today. What’s been the biggest learning for each of you? So the biggest kind of aha moments, the thing that’s kind of like, I didn’t even think like that until this moment or the biggest thing that you’ve had to overcome. So I’ll start with you, Jolie. Okay, definitely. I can remember one key moment. It was last year when we first started. I don’t know if you’re familiar, but Something Tech in Brisbane, that conference.

We were dying, it was right after this conference actually, we were dying to go, we really wanted to go. Gavin Keighley was like, you girls, you’re so good, I have this vision, you girls are going, I want you to pitch on that stage, it’s gonna be amazing. We’re like, my gosh, let’s go, let’s do this. Keep in mind, we know nothing about anything, like I’m 14 years old at the time, I knew nothing, so with all this confidence, we go into this meeting with the lady who runs the program, and she is such a lovely lady.

but she was so brutally honest and absolutely thrashed us and humbled us to the core. And at that moment, I think the three of us were really just like, damn, we got a lot to learn from here. So that is definitely one of the hardest things was navigating our way through this world, which is full of adults and full of people who know so much more than you. And you’re just kind of floating around like, what am I actually doing? But it’s okay. I think we’re all learning as we go. And the three of us especially have learned so much.

in the past year even, so that would be a bit of a humbling moment there for Very much so, very humbling for us, but it was great. We’re best friends now, we love her. Leanna, what about you? What’s been one of the key learnings as you’ve taken on this entrepreneur journey? I would say one of the key learnings is know who you are talking to before you start talking. We were at Something Tech, we had our own booth, a part of the Female Founders Showcase.

and the booths weren’t all set up yet so we were just kind of chilling waiting for people to come. We were very nervous and this guy came up to our booth and our teacher Mr. Seflas said you need to talk to him. We were like yeah sure we’ll talk to this guy like who even is he. So then we just started.

like pitching our idea and mind you this was in a very early phase we weren’t that great at pitching we just kind of like word-vomited and we were so nervous and we didn’t stop talking and he was like yeah like I think my wife would like that okay and then Rob was like let’s get a photo and I’m like why do we need a photo with some random guy so then we took the photo and he Rob came up to us after and said do you know who that is I’m like no like who is that

It was Steve Baxter who was a shark on Shark Tank. we were so embarrassed. We like, my gosh, there’s no way we just actually word-vomited to this man who was so important. So definitely we learnt that we need to pre-frame the conversation, know who we’re speaking to so we know what to say and we don’t ramble on. Well, there you go. That’s a…

I like that. Good learning from that too. Holly, what about you? Okay, on a more different note, I think for us is that we’ve learnt that criticism and feedback is so important during our journey because like we wouldn’t have evolved Room Readi to what it is now without all the comments, without the feedback, without like the countless like listening to people and like taking on what they have to say instead of pushing it away. We’ve learnt to like really like open our mind and like realise that

we need to adapt these things because these like that’s what the people want. Like we want to help the people. So at the start, I don’t think we really had the skill or like the knowledge of like what feedback meant. Like sure, we would listen and be polite, but we didn’t realize how beneficial it was for room Readi. Yeah, awesome. So whoever wants to field this one, but what would you say or what would you want to say to maybe another young person who might be 12, 13 years old, like when you guys started and you know, to think like.

Do you need to like get through school and finish that and go to university to start an idea or what would you say to those people? Okay, I definitely, well we’ll all touch on this, but definitely when we first started, especially we were very anxious about Year 12 and ATAR and you know, what, will we have to give something up? We all work part-time, we all go to school, we all are trying to make this business work with family and friends and social life.

So there’s kind of lots of balls in the air and managing that is definitely something that you learn as you go on throughout time, you you get better and better at that. But I definitely would not let that stop you. Like no matter what people throughout your whole entire life, you’re going to have a busy schedule no matter where you are, no matter if you’re in high school, you’re working full time, you’re going to be busy all the time. So I would just say if you have an idea and you’re ripe and you’re youthful and you are capable of doing it.

Just go for it. There’s literally nothing stopping you. And there’s so many resources and there’s so many people out here that we’ve personally encountered that want to help you and that will help you. I don’t know if you want to touch on that. I think that Forward Fest is such an amazing event because it fosters youth innovation. So this event helped us so much with making connections. And what we’ve realised is that

You know, all these business people, they aren’t scary, they don’t want to tear you down. They will help you and they want to invest in the younger generation that is coming through because at the end of the day, the younger generation is the future. So yeah, that’s what we’ve found. Amazing. Polly, do you want to add anything too? Yeah, I think that age or like where you are in life doesn’t stop, like it shouldn’t stop you. Like I think if you have an idea and like

You want to put it out there. don’t think you should, you shouldn’t listen to your friends. If you have a friend group, this is really important. Don’t listen to your friends. Don’t listen to them if they’re like, it’s never gonna work. You’ve never done this before. You sound silly. That should not stop you. If you have an idea and you really care about it, you will put it out there. And I think that it’s important for everyone to know that. Your age, where you are in life. Even if you start a little bit later, it doesn’t matter.

Amazing. So Holly, Liana, Joel Lee, co-founders of room Readi. If people want to follow the journey, do you have some social media accounts or website that you can send people to? We have LinkedIn, a LinkedIn company profile is under room Readi, not with a Y, with an I. R-O-O-M-R-E-A-D-I. Beautiful, We also have an Instagram, a TikTok. The TikTok’s a bit chaotic, but it’s just a behind the scenes.

Yes, it is all under Room Readi. So you can go follow us on all of that. Search us and you’ll find it. Amazing. And well done, for getting this far and also good luck for the pitch tomorrow as well. That should be I’m sure you’ll smash it. And for you guys watching, thanks for joining us for this episode of the Forward Thinking podcast. Make sure to subscribe so that you don’t miss the next episodes that we’re recording here live at Forward Fest 2025 today or future episodes of the Coast and Commerce podcast as well. We’ll see you in the next episode. Bye now. Bye.

How amazing is that episode? I hope that has inspired you. Their enthusiasm and passion is infectious. yeah, I hope that has inspired you to actually look at your opportunities that you could actually make an impact in your community. Yeah, CJ, as a parent of two daughters myself who aren’t quite at the age that those guys were, but it’s inspiring to think what you can do at such a young age as well.

In fact, if you’ve been inspired by this episode, I encourage you to share it with a young innovator or entrepreneur that is in your family or around your ecosystem as well. I’d love for you to share this episode and hit subscribe so that you don’t miss the next episode of the Forward Thinking podcast. We’ve got an incredible bunch of episodes coming up. So we’ll see in the next episode. Keep moving forward.