Lacey Filipich - Public Speaker | Entrepreneur

Engaging audiences of all ages on financial independence and entrepreneurship

Lacey knocks the socks off audiences with her enthusiasm, humour and insight. From HRH The Duke of York to classrooms of teenagers, her storytelling inspires, motivates and leaves an indelible mark on memories – and lives.

Hi, I’m Lacey Filipich

I started my entrepreneurial journey with a hair wrap stall at 10 years old. Today, I am the co-founder and director of two successful education businesses; Money School and Maker Kids Club.

Between hair wraps and start-ups, I graduated as valedictorian from the University of Queensland with an Honours degree in Chemical Engineering. I moved to Australia’s ‘wild west’ to begin my career in mining, rising quickly through the ranks. A health scare and my sister’s suicide opened my eyes to the world beyond work, leading me to redesign my life and take five mini-retirements in the next five years.

This was achievable because of my financial position: I started investing at 19 and now earn a passive income. I consider myself time rich: able to choose if, when, where, how, on what and with whom I work. My story is one of many in the Financially Independent Retiring Early (FIRE) movement supporting the idea that end-of-life retirement is optional.

Featured speaking topic

The Rise of the Kidpreneur: Why Our Students Will Need an Entrepreneurial Spirit

There’s a lot of noise from experts about major shifts for the future of careers and workplaces for our young people. There’s no doubt critical thinking and complex problem-solving skills will be essential tools for our students’ career success, in fact, the face of the job market is changing so rapidly we’ll all have to think and behave like entrepreneurs. So, how do we prepare our students to succeed in a future where they’ll need to be consistently able to spot problems, find their own opportunities, have sound financial literacy, and, most importantly, be able to take effective action quickly?

We teach them to be entrepreneurs. Now.

We don’t need an education revolution. There are already opportunities to build our students’ entrepreneurial ‘muscles’ within the existing curriculum by incorporating techniques into current subjects. For example, we could utilise Digital Studies for app design and development, Social Studies for mapping out a launch of their own micro-business, incorporate a SharkTank-style pitch assessment instead of written one. The first spark of an entrepreneurial mindset can be inspirited in your Primary School classrooms. In addition, you’ll help solve a problem that’s proving difficult Australia-wide: improving youth financial literacy. After working with over 100 ‘kidpreneurs’, I’ve found launching a micro-business is the single most effective weapon in my financial education arsenal. Even without entrepreneurial know-how, it can be the same for you.

Recent talks

TEDxUWA | Why you should think about financial independence and mini-retirements

Pitch@Palace Australia 2.0 | Finals Pitch

Money School for Young Adults

Women in Technology WA (WiTWA) Keynote | Techtrails at Girrawheen High School

Downloadable speaker pack coming soon

Client love

“You spoke at my school when I was in Grade 12 in 2016. I went home and told my mum ‘My life changed today’. Two years on, I want to thank you for your words. Now I am in my second year of a Commerce/IT degree with over $15,000 in shares and I am so proud of the investments I have made, not to mention travelling to Europe twice since finishing high school. I love watching my money make its own money. It is so satisfying to watch dividends come in for not working at all. I would not have thought that was possible two years ago. Thank you.”