Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast

EP.20 – Genius at Play: Marnie Forestieri on Empowering Early Learners

• Roy Richardson / Sean Murphy • Season 2 • Episode 20

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In this episode of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast, host Roy Richardson and co-host Sean Murphy interview Marnie Forestieri, a nationally recognized entrepreneur, author, and early childhood education advocate. As the founder of Young Innovators Academy and a former journalist turned EdTech leader, Marnie blends creativity with business acumen to transform how children learn and grow. She shares her journey from media to education, the challenges of scaling impact-driven ventures, and her mission to empower educators and parents through innovation. Join us for an inspiring conversation on leadership, learning, and building a legacy through purpose-driven entrepreneurship. 

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Don't miss the opportunity to be inspired by Marnie's story. Tune in now to hear about her incredible journey.

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Roy Richardson:

Hello, I'm Roy Richardson, and this is the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Welcome to another edition of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast, brought to you by Aurora Infotech, cybersecurity firm helping businesses stay secure in today's digital world. I'm your host, Roy Richardson, and I'm joined by my insightful co-host, Sean Murphy. Sean, always great to have you here. Ready for today's conversation?

Sean Murphy:

Absolutely, Roy. I am honored. It seems like these podcasts get better and better every time we join it. We have the pleasure of having Marnie on today, and she's gonna go into her story, which um it's like we were talking a few minutes ago about when I first met her a couple of years ago. This the smile just radiates on walking in purpose. And I I I immediately was drawn to that. Didn't know it until a couple of months later, seeing her talking about leadership at the GrowFL event, and then going to her site, seeing that she's all about leadership, and and and that's a passion of mine. So, anyway, with all of that being said, I think our listeners are really gonna lean into this segment with an outstanding individual.

Roy Richardson:

So back to you. No doubt, no doubt about that. And I second everything you said there. And I know today we're both thrilled to welcome Marnie Forestieri. Let me let me walk her runway of accolades here. But, you know, TEDx speaker, educator, entrepreneur, and founder of the Young Innovators Academy. And from hosting a TV show at the age of seven to building a scalable education ecosystem, Marnie's journey is all about preserving the magic of childhood, curiosity, and empowering future leaders. Marnie, welcome to the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast.

Marnie Forestieri:

We are gonna have fun. I already know that.

Sean Murphy:

Yes. All right, good deal. Well, before we dive into your story, let's start with a few fun questions to get to know you better. What's something quirky, unusual, unexpected that your team knows and loves about you?

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, if you that depends who you ask, okay. But I think I'm known for different things. For example, for my passion, my my yeah, passion for what I do every day, but also for like getting everybody, asking everybody, do you have dessert? Do you have chocolate? Even though I've told them if I ask for chocolate, don't give it to me because I'm on a diet. But then I will go and forget that I asked that and I go and ask them. And they already know. So uh they claim that I'm not very consistent sometimes with those things.

Roy Richardson:

Got it, got it. Awesome. So, so so you know, I I can totally relate with the dessert part of it. And, you know, I would say I I saw in your bio an interesting point that that you were a TV show host at just seven years old. Tell us a little bit about it and what I was like. Right.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, I grew up in a very small island in the Dominican Republic, and I went to this TV show when I was seven as a guest. Um, out in the cook section. I was showing the other kids how to cook. I don't know how to cook up to this day, which is funny. But after the show, the producer approached my my mother and asked her if I wanted to be a show host. So apparently, even though probably what I was cooking was not good, they liked they liked what I saw. And I had the great privilege of being raised by parents that would allow me to try new things. I was excited about that. And my parents allowed me to do that. So pretty much I grew up every Saturday entertaining crowds of hundreds of kids, and we had to come uh up with uh like the different sections of the show. That ended when I turned 11 because they fired me from the job. You're gonna fire at 11. At 11 because I was no longer a kid, and it was a kid's show, and that was uh a very interesting experience, but those lessons from from that season of my life stayed on and are an inspiration for what we are doing today at Young Innovators.

Roy Richardson:

That's awesome. You see, you mentioned small island, the Dominican Republic, first of all, a very beautiful country and one of my favorites. I hail from an even smaller little island that could probably fit 300 times in the Dominican Republic called St. Martin. But, you know, uh very interesting story. And you mentioned getting fired there. I would I would venture to say there's probably some attorneys who would who would probably look into child labor laws.

Marnie Forestieri:

I've seen this catch up limitation past a long time ago.

Roy Richardson:

Awesome. So let's jump in a little bit to your to what you're doing today. And you know, I would say, you know, what's one myth or misconception that people have about early childhood education? I know this is really a passion of yours, and so lay it out there for us.

Marnie Forestieri:

So once I found out that I wanted to devote the rest of my life to early childhood education, I went through a long journey that took me where I am today. But the whole idea of the brand, and it was very tied to our core beliefs, me and my team, that is to protect the integrity of early childhood education and to provide great environments for the children during the most fertile years of their brain development. This this is where it happens in the first five years. So you can like track, go back to your childhood, you will see that even if you don't remember, a lot of who you are today has to do with the people that were around you, how they talk to you, how they like like approach different challenges and fears. So preserving that integrity of that environment became my priority and my my life's mission and work.

Sean Murphy:

That is mentioned to you when we were getting ready to start the the podcast that I was with the Leadership Institute and um um truest bank owns this leadership institute that their predecessor, BBT, has owned for about 30 years now. It was in the 20s when I was there, but the institute's been around about 75 years. Wow and and and a lot of what we learned as leaders and executives was that that early childhood was very, very instrumental in the way you led people as adults. And so I love, love what you said there. It just reminded me of that. And I know some of our listeners who have been through some of those programs. Roy, you've been through it, and there's others that are frequent listeners will will really lean into that. Now that we've warmed up a little bit, let's rewind a bit. You talked a little bit about how the journey started as a seven-year-old in the Dominican Republic. Tell us a little bit more about that journey from educator to entrepreneur and artha. I know, I know you're not just an educator. You've done TED Talks. You have your own podcast. When whenever I reached out to you, I did some research. And like I said, I've sat in on events where you've talked about leadership and importance of it. So let's talk a little bit about that journey a little bit more and the things that you're doing.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, I think you grow as a leader with your walk, right? Like I in my case, my first career was actually a journalist. That's how I started. And that I ended up working for CNN, Spanish. So it was an amazing experience for me because it taught me how to be fast and persistent and and the value of so many things of integrity and and speed. Because it's a really fast-paced environment where you have to make decisions instantly. So I think I had I got a lot of learning. But after doing that, like five years in my career, and I'm like, I need to transition to something like different. And one of the situations was that my father passed away. So I suddenly had to step on as an only child. I had to go back and I had to take care of my my family's business. So that's how I had to become an entrepreneur. I had no idea that the impact of my my dad's legacy that was not spoken. A lot of of dads sometimes don't they don't talk, but the kids are watching.

Sean Murphy:

Got it.

Marnie Forestieri:

I think he didn't trim, he didn't send me and give me the training, but I started remembering like everything that I have watched him do in his businesses, and I started replicating, and that was actually my first business. Like turning around what he left, his legacy, and selling it.

Sean Murphy:

What kind of business was it?

Marnie Forestieri:

So he was a distributor for for Kodak. I don't know, probably the new generation, they don't even know.

Sean Murphy:

What are you talking about? Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Marnie Forestieri:

But so what he was doing that in the island and photographic. There used to be something for the next generation that's listening that you used to take your film and develop. So he used to. And my first decision as an entrepreneur that I was rushed into this position all of a sudden, it was like, this is this is not a sustainable business for the future. So I knew I had to reinvest the the funds and restructure the company. And what I did back then, I I actually sold the I didn't even sell the business. I sold all the merchandise, the assets, and I did my first business with was property management. So I leased the spaces that he had. And with that, I created like a baseline for me and my future that could allow me to do the things that I really want to explore. So I was very grateful. Up to this day, I still that manage. That's my first business. And and then I started exploring like what do you want to do? Before I became an entrepreneur, I I think it's very important to learn with other people's money. I actually went to corporate America and I work in the telecom, telecom. So I was the VP of marketing, I did sales, and so I had that experience of working for a larger company, spending larger budgets, which gave me a very better understanding of the how the different departments are interconnected. And that was back in my 30s. So I had a very successful uh corporate career, ended up working with Verizon in the Caribbean, great company, and like as a consultant. And then I finally said, I I want to move to the US. And that was the beginning of my entrepreneurial journey. I'm ready. I already understand. Now I'm ready to become what I I need to become. And I didn't know what I wanted to do at the beginning. I probably that happened.

Sean Murphy:

You mentioned Kodak. Kodak was the apple of that generation.

Marnie Forestieri:

Yeah.

Sean Murphy:

That was on the back end of that generation when what you're talking about. But Kodak and Xerox and Polaroid, those were the big three, you know, mag three back then. And so that is fantastic that you had the the knowledge to take over the business. And you said you went to work for Verizon.

Marnie Forestieri:

Yeah, for another company called Centennial, and then ended up working for Verizon.

Sean Murphy:

Roy's laughing because Roy was in Telcom. So my background.

Roy Richardson:

So I yeah, I I uh my previous company, my this is my second technology company. My previous company was a telecom that that we created and and that ended up flipping after 10 years. Um and it was based in St. Martin. But you know, so yeah, the telecom marinas, everything that you just said there, and I stayed with the parent company, so learning those different departments and how things are uh reliant on each other. And Centennial PR was actually one of our landing partners for the fiber cable from St. Martin. So yeah, small world.

Marnie Forestieri:

That was a great experience for me. And but one to your point of Kodak and Polarite and all those iconic brands that nobody knows now, right?

Sean Murphy:

Right.

Marnie Forestieri:

One thing that I always like heard my father say, and I think that's one of the things that stayed with me, is like he didn't want to train me to follow a business, he wanted to build a skill set. Yes, and and that was so important because I, in his career, I saw how that industry had been disrupted with like new technologies. I started seeing that, and that's why I decided to close the stores because I didn't see a future in that. And thanks to his teaching, that he said, like, look, you're you don't you're not married to a brand, you're not married to like a product, you're married to your evolution, to making and that thought like like followed me for the rest of my life. So I was never I have never been afraid of starting over, as you will hear, as you I continue. I've never been afraid because I kind of as as visioners sometimes we can't even see the end of a company at the beginning, right? Like like we we can see, okay, this is not built the right way. But the reason I chose that early childhood to bring it back is because I was an entrepreneur in the US. I didn't even have the the visa, okay? So I had to find a visa to stay here. I can't I became EB5 investors, but okay first in the in the 2008. Um, and I sponsored my family. So I I was determined I want to live in the United States. And the reason why, um I mean, I'm a I'm a European national, so I could have lived anywhere in the world, right? Everybody, but nobody, no other place in the world attracted me. That's not me. I am an entrepreneur, and I knew back then that the only country that would provide me that environment is the United States. So happy. And sometimes now that I'm a proud American, but like we forget back how we started this country. It's three of us, right? That's right. That's right. That's right.

Roy Richardson:

That's right. That's right. You know what? I will jump in real quick here, Sean, and say that you know, you you you mentioned some amazing brands back there, right? And and companies of the past with Xerox and Kodak, etc. Let's park Motorola right next to that. Yes. These are stalwarts that I would say that you know you would never have thought would not no longer be around. But when you fail to innovate to keep with the trends, you know, and I and I I think I remember the Kodak case study and was was just a perfect example, a case study on missed opportunities and and ongoing adoption, right? You said something earlier, Marnie, about Kodak, Kodak, and and the new generation. They probably think you're talking about the rapper.

Marnie Forestieri:

I thanks for enlightening me because I wouldn't know who Kodak is.

Sean Murphy:

Florida's own Kodak Black, right? That is funny.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, you're trendy. You know, Roy, you are you're in touch with the new generation.

Sean Murphy:

That's funny. Well, listen, real quick before we go into, you know, we move on, I will tell you that you're trendy as well. I went, I I I had the pleasure of stopping by one of your locations, and there's robots in there where these kids are interacting with robots, and you're like, what? That's amazing. And the lady, the lady who runs the location, she's like, Oh, yeah, we've had these for four years. I'm like, what? Four years? Yeah. I'm like, I gotta take a picture of just the robots because it's so cool. And and she's like, well, you know, these are kind of old, you know. We're probably gonna be upgrading, you know, sometime soon. And so yeah, that that is innovation.

Marnie Forestieri:

Thank you so much.

Roy Richardson:

That's that's amazing, and it not going not going too far back on on the companies we call before, but you know, the the failure to innovate and stay ahead and and how do you say have the vision. You've invested in four in robots four years ago. They're they're they're coming up now. I don't know. Sean, you're mentioning that, and I'm seeing the Jetsons for some reason the other They look like them.

Marnie Forestieri:

Yeah. They had the kids named them and they were dressed up for for the Halloween to the well I I'm gonna go.

Sean Murphy:

You I'm I'm gonna say this, Roy, before you you you I'm gonna start us into the next segment since we've talked about innovation and stuff like that. And you can ask your question, but I'm just gonna talk about you. We the approach that you have to education is anything but traditional. Walking through the halls of the facility, it was just amazing. Roy couldn't make it. He wanted to attend. We had talked about him coming, but he wasn't able to. But we're talking about there was you know, the robots in the facilities, the things where they're they're they're learning to, you know, draw, and you can see how their hands are being developed at different ages. And then the other cool thing that I thought was like, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. The kids were using wood shops types of equipment that allowed them to build trucks. And I'm like, I see some, I see some future, you know, wood shop people here where they're using instead of using technical, you know, skills like one group, you got some that are gonna do just just do traditional. And they'll look back and like, you know, we went through Miss Marnie's academy at three and four years old learning this stuff.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, they probably won't remember the name that my name, but but yes, you're in a way.

Sean Murphy:

They may not remember the name, right? But but anyway, so Roy, I'm a little excitable. You know how I get. So take and ask your question that you were gonna ask, and I just wanted to throw that out.

Roy Richardson:

No, but that that's that's amazing, and and it's amazing to hear, and it takes me back to my early childhood and in the islands where we had, and you you talked just now about the skilled, you know, the skilled learning, right? And and I can tell you a lot of what I learned in my early childhood in the islands with those skill type workshops, you know, I still rely on today, right? So you're so right in terms of the impressions from that age and how you know it's almost that, you know, they are, how do you say, what what is learned at that early, early age, and I can speak for myself. I have memories that are frozen in time, but it's just amazing sometimes when I go back and I reference certain things that, you know, speaking to my mom, she's like, How can you remember that? You were like three or four years old, right? So let's get back to this here. What makes Young Innovators Academy different from other childcare centers?

Marnie Forestieri:

So Young Innovators is an evolution, right? I started writing curriculum in 2013. And the reason I decided to start writing curriculum is because what was out there was traditional. And I back then I saw the opportunity to expose kids to experiential real life learning situations, and that it was completely disconnected. And that the gift of early childhood is that everybody is born an innovator. We're all. If you spend some time in our schools, the kids will teach you the principles of innovation. They haven't naturally, it comes natural to them. They they communicate, they're not afraid of anything. Just look at a two-year-old and take a chair away. They will try to grab that chair for like the rest of the day. They're persistent, they're not afraid. And when they're exposed to the right environment, all those skills blossom. So the challenge was like, how do we preserve this natural abilities that children possess and preserve that for the rest of our lives? Uh and the problem is that we like when we like expose children to rigorous academic environments, all those skills disappear.

Sean Murphy:

Yes, yes.

Marnie Forestieri:

Absolutely. Like like I could ask you like a question, chemistry question, or one of your least favorite subjects in middle school, high school, elementary, you probably won't be won't remember anything, right? Because we were trained to be test takers and and and just pass the exam. And and the moment that we like completed the exam, guess what happened to that information? We no longer remember because it was not hands-on, it was not connected to the real world and live experiences. So that's what young innovators is. It's like a laboratory of real-world problems, and every single lesson plan starts with a challenge that the kids see in their daily life. So the kids already trained and we called it. So I developed this curriculum. We wrote one first, and then we were forced to rewrite a second one. And the same team that wrote it back, we said, How can we make it much better? And how we did it was like we connected the 21st century skills movement, which are the skills that key kids need in the future, with more STEM thematic topics that children were interested in. And then we blended the two. And we put it was our challenge was how do we communicate in a very simple way that parents and teachers and everybody else understand? And it took us a while until one day, Dr. Debbie Mitchell, which co-wrote the curriculum from yeah, she was used to be a UCF professor, and Sarah Sprinkler, an amazing educator, they came out. Oh, we have it. It's the CAPE strategy.

Sean Murphy:

Oh, yeah.

Marnie Forestieri:

CAPE is the child, the image of a child as a superhero solving problems on their own. I mean, I remember the first images of the marketing promotion was were kids using a cape strategy. And the cape was the four letters of like actually infusing the 21st century skill. The C was challenge. So all of a sudden, the kids started to see everything as a challenge. Everything is a problem that they can solve. And that we took it to another level, to every single domain from literacy to math. And I'll give you an example. The second one, the A for CABE, is analyze. So we we are training kids that before you come up with an idea on how to solve a problem, you have to research. So we give them the tools to do that research and we guide them to the process on how to sort that information. And then the brainstorm a solution for that challenge that we gave you, and then make a prototype, make a solution, make it happen, and then evaluate. Like the E was evaluate, see if it works, and be the voice for your community. And it became so then our channel was like, okay, now we have to rewrite every single thousands. Um I mean, we have like over 10,000 lesson plans daily reading for everybody. And we were like, okay, so how do we pack all this? It was so much fun to write this curriculum. Just to give you an example of how the Cape works, the theme is the moon, earth and space. At the beginning, all these challenges are set up for the kids. We're going to the moon at the end of the month. Okay, an imaginary trip. So before we go to the moon, we have to get ready. So the whole like all the the the weeks they lead to to an to like like scaffolding of this theme. And the kids are from exercising on how to go to the moon when they get there to how to build a spaceship and counting how many people can we uh can come with me in my rocket ship. And at the end of the unit, then everybody's going to the moon. The parents are going, everybody's going in an intergalactic trip, imaginary, and the kids have so much fun. So that's how we infuse it in every day. So to create an environment that is fun for the teachers and for the parents and for the children in the school.

Roy Richardson:

You know, Marty, that's amazing. I'm leaning back a little bit into my childhood now. I had in my fourth grade year, I had a teacher who who, by the way, we're still very, very good friends this up, you know, now. But what what made him, I would say, stand out as the best educator that I ever had in the experience was uh, you know, and back then we we didn't have you know class different classrooms and going from one to the other was one teacher that would teach math, et cetera, et cetera. But when it came to history, he would actually turn out the lights and tell us, hey, put your heads down, close your eyes, and as I tell you the story, and he actually sat there and told it and made it and brought us into the story as if we were actual characters in that era. And you know, it just was phenomenal to see, and and you know, we've it was a very small class, but some of us still get together once in a while, and and you know, with with him, uh he lives in in Europe now. Um, but it's like the appreciation, everyone he inspired to learn and go a different, you know, to take things to the next level. So, you know, when when you were talking about that whole, you know, your cape and and and the different elements, etc., it just took me back, but amazing. And it's it's really, really refreshing to hear that because I as a business owner, one of my biggest challenges that I find today when we are hiring and interviewing people or even working with people is what I call surface knowledge. Nobody actually looks to deep dive anymore to find, you know, figure out what the challenge is, figure out what the solution is, come up with a prototype, and even evaluate that prototype. And if it doesn't work, go back to the drawing board. We we take things today at face value. So kudos to you.

Marnie Forestieri:

And that's what we remember. What we experience is what we remember. Going back to your experience, like reliving that, those uh the history lessons to me, like going back to the to my early years, being a show host, those are the experiences that stick with us, that build our skill set. And that's what children are not exposed to in education. And that's our commitment to change. But in order to deliver that, there's a whole machine that has to work. And as a business person, that has been the challenge, right? Like, how do you really build a machine where this is actually happening in the school? And that the challenge was in order to have an environment like that and the schools that you visited, Sean, you need great leadership, you need great teachers, you need you need a great like thought leader at the top because it doesn't work. You you have to have that that commitment first to the quality and to the experience in order to trickle that down. And that as an entrepreneur, we have the the formula, great, the lessons written, the videos, but if you don't have the staff to to be able to deliver a high-quality educational experience, you cannot do anything. And the biggest challenge is that the reality of the industry is that it is a really high turnover industry. We're not gonna change that, right? Nobody wants to work in childcare. If they if they work in childcare might for a couple of years, then it's it's a lot of stress. They they will move on to something different. You don't have that stable workforce, and that is the challenge of the whole industry.

Sean Murphy:

Got it. And so that was one of the questions. That was the question I was gonna ask you. And so you're you're you're having a challenge with high turnover, but I would imagine your leadership team does that turnover quite frequently, or is that still that stays intact, and that's how you can keep your culture and your mission on point because your leaders are are are are stable.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, young innovators, we don't have the high the high turnover problem because we inspire the teachers. So we are way below average.

Roy Richardson:

Very good.

Marnie Forestieri:

I think if you want to know the the culture of a company, look at their indeed reviews, look at their glass doors. That's what people look at. You see this childcare company that leaders are bad, management is bad. It's because probably it is. But so we we take care a lot of the employees first. Like that's very important, that culture that they do feel because we do know that it's a very stressful job, and you and you need to make them feel that what they're doing is important. And COVID changed a lot of those things for many operators. I'm I'm talking now about nationwide. Turnover is the biggest operational risk of providers in an industry where we we do need, we cannot put artificial intelligence and we cannot put any like robots there. I think that's the challenge. So when when we grew to four locations, the Young Innovators Network, and we learned a lot from that experience. The first one is like running a school out of the Orlando pocket was more like was was challenging for us because we had a school in Tampa that did very well, but it was not the same culture. Same they had a great team, but but I when you don't have the right leadership close to you, that you can't. So from that lesson we learned, we eventually sold it this summer to an amazing operator. An elementary school teacher that became our first licensee. But what we learned there is the importance of the principal, the director of the school. That person is the community liaison, the expert in early education. And it's really hard to scale quality in our in the industry. So that's that's what we and this is not the first company that I built. I learned that the hard way. That was my challenge, right? We'll probably talk about it. I I saw how dysfunctional a system can grow into when you you don't have the high the right ingredient.

Roy Richardson:

So true. I mean, I could tell you that, you know, one of the things, uh, Marnie, that that we looked at in my in my previous company was expansion to to other markets. And we actually went, my business partner and I at the time, we went to another market for a familiarization trip. And we both, you know, got on the flight within, you know, six hours, went back to where we came from, and said that, you know, there was no way we could expand there because, you know, we realized that the secret to our success was what you just said was having that leadership and to maintain the culture and and having that culture just how you say infused and and be uh contagious throughout the organization. And having some, you know, having having a remote site where we had to jump on an airplane to go to without us one of us being there, it was a recipe for disaster. So I can certainly understand.

Marnie Forestieri:

It was now the school is a hundred times better than when we left because we sold it to the right person, right? Like somebody that has skin in the game, that has the respect, that has the commitment to the quality. And that was very hard to find in an employee. Because childcare is is an education company, but it's also a business. So we we had like employees that we hired that were very comfortable having less kids than what we wanted, right? Like didn't understand because they they were in they had the salary, the employee mindset, and that that was the gap, right? So we learned that, but our leadership here is extraordinary, and that's how we are keeping the culture, and now we're ready to scale to help.

Sean Murphy:

Yeah, I didn't. So so tell us a little about the scale and your and your growth expansion over the next three to five years, if you could.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, of course. I've been working on this for 10 years, okay? So I've in my industry, I think I've seen every single I've I've done every every business model. I I started as a franchisee in in the industry, and that gave me the impression of what happens when you're in a rigid system that doesn't innovate. So I I said, I am a terrible franchisee. I have to get out of here because these people are not gonna change. And they that's where the innovation in the curriculum came about from that experience. So I said, they are not gonna change. And they didn't need there were a lot of people in that space that were not educators, so they didn't understand that they were not even understanding what we were saying, the educators, right? Like the importance of building these early years. So that experience taught me that. Then I bought an independent center, and I remember my banker, Mike Smith from Truis, Baby NT. He thought it was crazy because it was a school in foreclosure. It's the school that we still have, our first campus. And he went there and and the school was, I mean, losing money. And he looked at me, he said, You are crazy. What are you gonna do with the school? How are you gonna turn this school around? Are you sure you want to do it? And I said, Absolutely, I can't, like, yes. So, what we did here is the first time we implemented our formula and our playbook, which is let's put a very good curriculum, deliver quality. And that real estate asset was not a brand new school, but we converted it. We, you know, we improved the location, uh, we made it better, and then all of a sudden we were full. And that was the that was my experience being in an independent childcare center. And from that experience, what I learned is like it's really lonely to be by yourself in a community and not and not have all that interaction with with other providers or get tips marketing. It's very, it feels isolated, and you need a lot of information from marketing HR. It's it's a skill set that you cannot even build in one lifetime, especially marketing. And then I realized, wow, this is tough. And then that first location became a franchisor. And we opened many locations with that model, we with that first curriculum, but the experience of becoming a franchiseur taught me that every community was different, and that a franchise contract was too rigid to allow franchisees to innovate what they needed to do. So, I mean, Winter Park, you you went to Winter Park is a completely different demographic culture than Winter Garden. And we're in the same city or Ovido. It's like you need to understand the flavors of every community, you understand the demographic, every everyone is a different challenge and a different buyer persona. So, from that experience of being a franchiseor, I learned that. I learned like you need to give them the flexibility to skate to to you know build their their own model. And that's exactly what we're ready to do with young innovators. It's called Young Innovator Schools. My challenge was that I needed to build uh technological infrastructure to deliver the services. And I tried to do it for many years, but I found out that I'm a terrible engineer. Or I could never deliver, like I could I hired engineers to deliver the product, but it was never scalable. So we could never bring it to life until last year we found we met an amazing entrepreneur who was one of the founders, engineering founder Netflix, and he has a company of 800 engineers around the world. Very cool. And and he is brilliant, he's a leader in the AI tech, and he already had all these offices around the world. And I I I said, I didn't even know who he was, and I pitched him like I've been trying to do this platform with this curriculum that you know to inspire children to do different and to upload content, but it's it was never good, so I haven't been able to launch it. And he said, you know what? I will build it for you. And Barash Munapavi, which he's my partner, and we're very proud to welcome him as the co-founder of Young Innovator School, which is our future. He finalized this incredible tech product platform to host the curriculum training to make it visible for the the teachers and and for the users of the platform on how to deliver the quality. So finally I was able to, well, we were able to do that.

Roy Richardson:

Nice. Excellent. That's that's uh amazing. And and uh, you know, how do you say it it's uh it's a testament that, you know, once again with adversity along the paths, you you know, one door closes, another one opens, right? And now you've you've met somebody who can actually partner with you and and help take and make your dream a reality. But you know, speaking a little bit about adversity, every founder faces tough decisions. Let's talk a little bit about yours. Can you describe a challenging moment in your career when you felt like giving up and what strategies or mindsets helped you overcome it?

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, so I think the biggest challenge that I faced was allowing the wrong people in my company. And I think that happens to a lot of founders. When I opened Obido the first time, I had these two guys that came for a year every single day. Every single day they went, and I'm like, what the heck? What are you guys? What are you doing here? And they were like, Oh, we want to help you grow. We want to help you grow. At the end of the year, I was already opening our a school in Legnona. I won the contract with them after five years of relationship and beating, and we were opening this school, and then I led the wrong people in the company. And while we started growing this, I I started feeling this is wrong. I made a huge mistake. And I felt that it was like going to a playground with like, and I couldn't, I couldn't do it anymore. I was, I was feeling like I was not myself. I my health was deteriorating for working with these two individuals. And I said, I I can't do it anymore. I mean, I don't even care if they can take it because I don't want it. And I I think the hardest moments was accepting that I didn't want to grow with them. I had to let our school in Legnona go. And I worked really hard for that school for many years, but I was like, you know what? If if this is what it takes, it's okay. God will provide, we'll do it again. And then going back to my team and telling them, look, guys, we're gonna do it again. I'm sorry. Like we made a mistake and nobody was happy by then. And and and I saw how the culture that they brought in was like affecting not only me, but everybody else. So I I I my first step was apologizing to everybody. I was like, guys, I'm sorry, I made a mistake, but this actually ended up being the best thing that happened to us because even though we like, like we struggled, it took me a lot of years even to forgive those people, right? Like, I mean, and forgive myself for allowing them to come into my business. I was like, why? I mean, they didn't have any money, they didn't have any, like, why did I allow these guys in my company? And I think that was the biggest challenge, allowing my forgiving myself for that mistake, but learning from it and surrounding myself with very wise people that would never let me make a mistake like that. So, in that time, we also met these Harvard professors, and they they were they were the first ones that frame it. Dr. Edward Cove. He said, Like, this is so good, guys. This is the best thing that happened to you in your life. I don't know why, because now you have a prototype that is not gonna work, and you're gonna build it again. And we framed it like that. We're like, wow, yes, because we tinker, we took the whole company, we we took everything we had done, and we said, like, wow, you know, this is what we can do in the curriculum, this is what we can do in HR, this is what we can do in marketing. And when we took apart everything together and brought it back, we realized that what helped us stay grounded was never looking back, never looking sidewalk, and just moving forward and just competing with ourselves. I mean, it's we were competing with ourselves, with what we had built, and now we had to do it again. And it was an amazing experience of it humbled us, it allowed me to learn to forgive like like like people that hurt you and don't care about it. And it allowed me to let go and and say, you know what, like when things go, it's because some you have to have your both hands to receive the blessing that's I I always say that, you know, and first of all, thanks for sharing that amazing story.

Roy Richardson:

And there are not many people around that get to have a dry run, learn from it, and then do it all over, right? And and I always tell I tell my kids and I tell my my staff here as well, you know, making a mistake is okay as long as we learn from it and we can move on and recognize that it was a mistake and we have the recipe to improve it. We improve the mistake, then is when we have a problem, right? So, no, that's amazing. That really, really amazing. So, Sean, let's uh let's delve into the evolution of the of the of the childcare industry.

Sean Murphy:

Right. So we know that like other things and the childhood industry, care industry is is evolving very fast as well. What trends are you observing, particularly in the areas of consolidation, private equity? You talked about that. So dive into that for us a little bit and let us know what's going on there.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, I think there's that trend of the private equity sector coming into most small businesses that work, and childcare happens to be one of them. And we are seeing that consolidation of smaller centers, which can be good too or bad if it's an organized system that is mature. So, like we've seen that disruption enter our bucket. There's so many private equity companies going and uh and a lot of the bigger players entering the industry that that for certain it's gonna be a different industry in five to ten years.

Sean Murphy:

Got it, got it. How how does the shift impact innovation and competitiveness or competition in the marketplace?

Marnie Forestieri:

I think I think that depends on on the firm and depends on the leaders of the company. I mean, I do see the the key of this industry in reality is the operator on the ground. Because as as we discussed, the community every community is different. And and an innovator cannot be in every location trying to pinpoint what's particular about this location. So the the the success, the playbook uh of a company coming in and taking over, it would be the ones that are willing to adapt, that are willing to respect the local leadership and give them autonomy and and and and foster that creative spirit and and treat the teachers right. I think that's that's the trend. Give you the a lot of companies that in the industry that don't treat people good, uh that's why it has uh the reputation of the high turnover. But there are some that are starting to offer things that we've never seen in our industry, like uh health insurance and case and things like that. And that's what I would eventually like to see because it's uh this is a job for teachers, and I'm a big advocate of the career and profession. If you're born a teacher, you're born a teacher. This is this is a calling, and I have so much respect for this woman. And I think at the end of my career, what I would like to see is that a company comes and treats them with the respect, with the honor, with the opportunities to grow, but also with some security.

Sean Murphy:

Yeah, interesting. I can remember when I visited your location, I was telling you it's been about 10 years since I've been uh in early childcare center, right? And we were at one near downtown where there's very little turnover. And the vibe of the location was very similar to the vibe that I saw at your location. You know, all of the all of the staff and even the parents were you know speaking, hey, good morning. And and you know, it was just very uh very friendly, open, and you can tell that you have definitely set the right direction as to the way folks are in there.

Roy Richardson:

So but anyway, Roy, you were gonna say well, you know, it's it's uh, you know, they say that uh every ship needs a captain, but a captain without without a rudder is is a is a rudderless ship. So uh it sounds to me like what you're saying there, Sean, is that uh the rudder, the rudder's uh has everything pointing in the right direction there. Right. So amen. Congratulations on that. Let's talk a little about about how you support others through your work, Barney. How do you partner with educators, parents, or providers beyond your initial engagement?

Marnie Forestieri:

So because it became it became my mission just to be an advocate for children through adults. So I've been writing, I'm an author for Griffin House, which is an education company, and I developed toys for Kaplan too. So the mission of that part of my personality was to educate the parents, which is what we do through the podcast, the new generation of educators, and just to pass the torch as we head towards like more mature ages, to be make sure that they respect that those early years and how children should learn. So that's why we have we host the podcast. It became a whole movement of how to practice the CAPE strategy with you know the parents as educators. We have an app on the phones that young innovators have. That's what's coming live to that. That's how we are gonna scale is through through this products because we we learned that we didn't want to open more schools ourselves. We didn't have the bandwidth to do it. We had three really well-run schools, but the moment that you have four, five, six, I mean, it's too many hats, too many. We uh we didn't want to do that. And franchising, as we started discussing, was not the option for us because we wanted to do more like a support licensing for providers that provide high quality services, like a blend model, because they do need it. The ones that are not in franchise, they do need all the services. So that's why we're getting ready to launch.

Roy Richardson:

Nice. And can you can you I mean thank you for that? And first of all, I I think uh, you know, when it's it's amazing to see your your how do you say, you can connect the dots and as you're going through your story with us and on your own experiences, right? When you realize that being a franchisee was not for you, it was too rigid, it's it wasn't what you wanted, and you're taking that now into your own program that you're developing and making sure that you're not putting those same restrictions and guardrails on people so that they can be successful and innovators, if I may use that term, and and and their partnership with you. That's that's that's great to hear. And and you know, can you share a success story or moment that really affirmed your mission?

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, I think there are so many moments. Like from parent front, from the children's front for me, and and from from the providers that we're starting to serve in our pilots. Because you know, you guys are both in the tech space that before you launch a product like that, you need to mature and make sure it works really, really good. I'm I'm one user that if the if the product doesn't work and I have a glitch or something, I I give up, right? So you have to be really careful. So we have uh pilot providers in the system. So that is what is helping us refine what we want. So from the children's perspective and testimonial, I think my biggest joy is going to a school and listening to a three and four-year-old explain to me why it's great to fail, because that's part of the philosophy. They will tell you because they we practice growth mindset, infuse in that is amazing. So we when you hear a child, because it's part of their routine, their the the rules of making, the rules of growth, the the rules. When I hear a little child tell me that it's okay that they failed because they can do it again. The first prototype doesn't work. It doesn't work, that's okay because we can evaluate and then we can do it again. I mean, that that is a way of thinking. So that's what the young innovators curriculum does is they practice it on a daily basis that they already know. They wake up, they come to school, and where is the problem that we're gonna solve today? Which problems are we gonna solve?

Roy Richardson:

That's amazing.

Marnie Forestieri:

We're gonna make it, let's make it happen. Because you have to teach kids what we we were talking that everybody's very abstract nowadays, right? Like, oh, can you please solve that problem? And they bring it back to us. But we are empowering the kids to become makers. That's where the Harvard, we we had a wonderful partnership with Harvard professors that came this year to Orange County, and they really trained like the county. We we didn't we didn't keep it with young innovators.

Sean Murphy:

Oh, very cool. That's awesome.

Marnie Forestieri:

Yes, the early learning coalition, it was a community initiative. Yeah, so and the early learning coalition of Orange County sponsored it, and it was such a beautiful, community-driven because different providers serve different market service segments, uh, and and everybody needs that same mentality. So that's our mission from from the child, from from the parents, when when when we can see that we're helping a parent feel safe, that their kid is fine. I mean, our parents trust us so much, especially in established schools, because when you're opening a first, the first like year of a new school is always like, you know, you're trying, or you're putting the team together. So they're all always like glitches in the system that you have to improve. But in established schools, like our parents, you know, Vito has been open, they just drop the kids and they're like, you do whatever you want with them. Trust us, right? Trust the results. I think that's the big the biggest testimonial and the peace of mind that comes that they're learning, they're knowing while they're at work, providing for the family. So and then from the providers, like my biggest joy now that I'm working more with the providers, the the people that we're gonna serve, and for me, that gives me so much hope to be able to help somebody in the community that has an entrepreneurial mindset in the game that understands that that we are able to carry some of the load because this is a hard industry, this is a hard job. And just by being able to help somebody else that's starting in the journey, that is an honor.

Sean Murphy:

Very, very cool. Man, you've given us a lot of great stuff. Yeah, so let's let's do a quick round of rapid fire questions, you know, stuff you can just go from your gut. Tell me your favorite book.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, I read the one that I read every day is the Bible.

Sean Murphy:

Oh, yes, yeah.

Marnie Forestieri:

And I mean, there's so many books. I'm a very fast reader. Okay, so guess what I'm reading right now? Mr. Hack of the The Hack of the by Roy Richardson. I enjoy yeah, wow, this is really important. So I started reading the for the first chapters, but I am a very eclectic reader, I read very fast, and I I enjoy the variety. I I couldn't, you know, like I assume I think it's important in Spreneur because the disruption, disruptive thinking comes from this like like all the intersection of all the domains, right? That's where it comes from. So I can read a novel, or I can read a business book, or I can read a psychology book, or I can read anything like that. Some hacker book or the hacker book, which is my book for the weekend.

Roy Richardson:

Well, I look I look forward to getting all the questions.

Marnie Forestieri:

I really have a lot.

Roy Richardson:

Awesome. So tell us your best. I mean, you you are you are first first and foremost, I would say that you know your your aura is is is really you know permeating through through the video here. And I'm like, I'm like supercharged, right?

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, I have a light here. No, no, no, no, no.

Roy Richardson:

It's just energy. It's the energy. So so so tell us how how do you dial it back and how do you recharge from from the journey you've been on and you know keep things flowing?

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, I think my perfect balance is my husband, and he he's the one that can put up with me. He always says he he's a veteran, he's a military guy, and he always says that if he wouldn't have had that military training, he wouldn't have survived this. So, like you he's a military man, so yeah.

Sean Murphy:

Which branch?

Marnie Forestieri:

The Air Force.

Sean Murphy:

Tell us one word that that describes your leadership style.

Marnie Forestieri:

I think I um I allow people, I trust people, and I allow them to make their own decisions, even if they fail. So I'm very open and I I'm very good at delegating.

Sean Murphy:

Got it. That that that's a lot of words, that's more than one, but we'll go we'll go within is a good one.

Roy Richardson:

So, Marnie, if if you could assemble a dream board of advisors from people who are here today and maybe those from the past, right? No restrictions, who would be on it and why?

Marnie Forestieri:

That's a super smart question, okay? Because I mean, I think we in every team, you need a futurist, you need a realistic, you need an analytical, you need somebody that's always questioning. So you need all types of personalities. Putting this team, it was hard. But I do have a couple of them that are already in my life. One of them is John Diarmas, he's a very well-known leader in our community, and he's just brilliant, he's a visionary, so he would take that role. I would take my my husband, he's really good reading people. I'm very bad sometimes, but he's really good. So he's the realist and he's the people reader. And I think that uh for analytical and for data and for all those things, I think we have so like great, brilliant minds that I don't know if we I would like them on the board because I really don't know them personally. Because I think a team, they all have to, even though we have different personalities, they all have to get along. So I wouldn't bring a historical figure in the in the equation. That's the reason. Because for me, I think the secret ingredient of the team, I thought a lot a lot of people, I was wow, you know, if I could bring a board, I would tell Oprah to come and join me, right? And I would take all the like amazing women out there that are entrepreneurs uh to join the board too, or or a couple of these tech guys that are geniuses, right? Elon Musk, I don't know if I want him on the board, but it's like for the people I think I answered the question, right? The people that I know.

Sean Murphy:

Yes. John and I did a men's group for about five years. John's a great guy. I hadn't seen him in in over a decade. He started traveling down to South America a lot. So we we so I when I saw his name, I was like, oh my gosh, uh, I gotta reach out to John and say what's up to him. So that that is fantastic.

Roy Richardson:

And a great board. You know, my wife is my partner in my business as well and keeps me grounded. And and I know Sean's wife keeps him grounded, so all good. Those are uh, how do you say our North stars, right? So angels. Yes, definitely, definitely. Definitely, definitely. And like you say, the the only people who will put up with us.

unknown:

All right.

Roy Richardson:

So let's shift gears and talk a little bit about balance, you know, something that every entrepreneur wrestles with, and God knows, you know, we we get in there and sometimes forget about time and everything else and health. And but you know, what routines or habits help stay, you know, keep you grounded?

Marnie Forestieri:

So I started incorporating more habits as I entered my new decade a couple of years ago, because that's when you slow down and you have to visualize how do you see yourself for the next generation, right? And I always had this older friends, Sarah Sprinkle, which are great friends, and Dr. Debbie Mitchell, that are a couple years and in age, they're different, but in the heart, they are, I think, we're all the same age. I always admire that. And if I I had that as a reference, I always say, I want to be like them when I'm that age and have that wisdom and that half that peace that comes from experience. If I do that, I have to start doing things differently. So I start, I start, I used to wake up at 3 a.m., at 2 a.m. Right now, my priority is my sleep. That's my priority my whole day. And so I rearrange everything so to actually put back what I neglected in the previous decades because I was working, and I put it back on the on on the forefront of what's important in this decade and and the well-being and connecting with the friends. I am very lucky because I have a lot of really good friends from my childhood.

Sean Murphy:

Oh, that's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah, well, I love what you said about um uh um sleep. I read something when I was at the institute about the importance of executives, you know, making sure they pay attention to that. But looking back on, let's talk about something about doing some things a little bit different than you from in the past. So if you could change one thing about your journey, what would it be?

Marnie Forestieri:

When you have a growth mindset, you have to say nothing. I think every single lesson, even the mistakes that uh we made, I made that I'm I'm responsible. And that was the most important thing. What I would change is actually being like faster to recognize when I make a mistake. That like I'm and just like adopt it and and embrace it and learn from it, I move on.

Sean Murphy:

Right, right. And then you know, you mentioned earlier about uh having the wrong the two men as your wrong as wrong business partners. Anything you took away from that that you learned from it other than, hey, I made a mistake in choosing them and that it's important to have the right people. Anything different from that? Well

Marnie Forestieri:

I did this time to avoid that that would happen to me because you cannot imagine how many investors I get. I I see the same guys coming for young innovators every single day. They come, oh, do you want money? You want this, you want that, blah blah blah. But this time I I spot them from far. And then I have good people around me this time, including my team members, because they went through that experience with me. Like now we're like, hey, nope, that's we've already been there. Like, yeah, we've we've know your roads. Yeah, we we have rules, and I learn not to make decisions on my own, right? Because I might be too trust. I'm I might be as an early childhood person that I think everybody's great. Um, and that's not the case. So now I surround them by people that are more objective that would give me their honest opinion about a deal or or an opportunity. And we had even more opportunities in young innovators. And we saw the same people, the same profile walk into the door. But this time we were very good at saying thank you. You cannot come in.

Roy Richardson:

You got it. Let's let's wrap this section with you know, three top pieces of advice for leaders and founders.

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, the three, learn to pivot, have a forward-thinking attitude, surround yourself with really good people, and don't be afraid of innovating because if you don't, your company is not gonna grow.

Sean Murphy:

Yeah. So as we look ahead, let's talk about your legacy and vision as we begin to wrap this podcast up. But uh, what legacy do you hope to leave through the Young Innovators Academy?

Marnie Forestieri:

Well, the legacy is nothing, I think as we get older, we become less interested in building our name, but more interested in building others. So my my legacy would be to inspire a next generation of childcare owners. As we we're about to exit in a decade or a decade and a half, right? Forming that leadership and seeing that that we are able to pass the torch to people that are as committed as we were in our generation, which like sometimes it's hard to see, but that would be the biggest legacy to that people continue this commitment to provide that environment for the kids.

Sean Murphy:

Excellent. Excellent, excellent. I tell you what, like I said, I I go back to the very beginning of the conversation today when I met you and your husband at the award ceremony, and I just there was, you know, this light that we talked about a few minutes ago, right? It was radiant then, and you could tell that you were purpose-driven, you had this growth mindset back then, and man, this has been rich and inspiring, uh, everything I thought it would be. And so I I thank you. Where can our listeners connect with you, learn more about you and what you what you're doing and how you're changing lives in our community?

Marnie Forestieri:

So the Racing Innovators Podcast is a good way to connect because there is a space for forward-thinking conversations about education and the racing innovators hashtag in Instagram. And if LinkedIn is more the space where we can I connect with other providers or people that are looking to enter the industry, so that's the people that we're getting ready to serve, the legacy that we're starting to build. So, but if parents, the podcast, and for providers, LinkedIn and also the podcast.

Sean Murphy:

Got it, got it. And any final thoughts before we wrap this thing up? Any shout-outs you want to give? This has been unbelievable, incredible.

Marnie Forestieri:

A shout out to you guys for bringing back the memories of your childhood. I mean, if I was able to do this with the conversation that we had today and bring us back to that, that reminds us of our purpose because we all play our destiny in our early childhood and in our childhood. We all play that. You probably were like uh, I don't know, they didn't have cybersecurity in back in your age, but something related to what you played with.

Sean Murphy:

Right, right, right.

Marnie Forestieri:

So if we always got it's always our passions are always rooted there. And if you get lost in your life, it's okay. Just go back there, just have these conversations, and you'll quickly realize what your purpose in life is.

Sean Murphy:

Right, right. Very well said. Well, again, Marnie, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. Um, your passion for empowering children, your commitment to innovation. Again, I I I it was amazing walking through and seeing uh all of the different things that you're doing. I went to a couple of different labs that you have there. You know, it's truly inspiring. And as one again, who's consistently try to just make our ecosystem better, I believe our listeners will walk away with a deeper appreciation for the foundation of importance of early learning. I know my kids went to a non-traditional type of learning, and I look back on that with with great fondness. And again, the other part of it is how visionary leadership can transform an entire community. And you're doing that. So again, thank you for sharing your story, your wisdom with us today.

Roy Richardson:

Roy? Yeah, no, absolutely, Sean. Marnie, I just want to echo that sentiment. First of all, and let me say thanks for the journey back to the early childhood days. And I can see, like, like I said, the the aura, the energy. You almost make me want to be a child back in the early development days now, so that I could be a student in your academy.

Marnie Forestieri:

Okay, it's don't worry.

Roy Richardson:

Your your your journey from from the you know from the classroom to to the boardroom and everything in between. You know, it's amazing to see what you've been able to put together, the lives that you're touching. You know, you talk we talked about legacy just now and the legacy that you want to leave behind, but I think there was one thing perhaps overlooked there is the legacy that you are already leaving behind just by the lives that you're touching at such a young age and the impression that you're leaving on them and setting them up to be future leaders, future engineers, future skilled people and critical thinkers. Critical thinkers. You know, I mean, I I can't say enough. This has been an amazing, amazing journey for me, and I know I can speak on behalf of Sean. You know, you've shown us that building something meaningful takes courage, clarity, and a whole lot of heart, and that you have. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for being you and for being a dynamic business leader, and we're chairing you on every step of the way. And if Sean and I can be a resource for you, by all means, absolutely ask and we'll be there.

Marnie Forestieri:

Thank you so much. Thank you for blessing the community with this amazing podcast, too.

Sean Murphy:

Right. And to our audience, uh, thank you for tuning in to this edition of uh of the Dynamic Business Leader Podcast.

Roy Richardson:

If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who would benefit from Marnie's story. And we'll be sure to include the link to her podcast down below. Sean, take it away. Until next time, stay curious, stay driven, and keep leading with purpose. Hi, I'm Roy Richardson, host of the Dynamic Business Leaders Podcast. Are you a business owner or leader of a successful business? If yes, we'd love to have you as a guest on our program. Our goal is simple: we provide a platform for leaders to share their experiences to benefit others. We want to hear your story, how you got started, the challenges you faced along the way, and your passion today. If this sounds like you're you know someone who fits these criteria, then be sure to get in touch with us by visiting our website linked in the episode description below. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel and click the notification bell to be notified when our next episode goes live. Or if you'd rather listen to us during your car rides, you can also follow us on your favorite audio channel using your podcatcher. Thanks again, and remember, keep crushing it.