Co-founder · your presenter

About Rod Soper

Rod has spent 35 years helping children flourish, as a teacher, assistant principal and principal. He co-founded Thinkers.inq, a play-based preschool in Sydney, and co-wrote My First Year at School (Early Childhood Australia). Today he trains early childhood educators across Australia.

What he's learned is simple. The children who settle aren't the ones who read first. They're the ones who can manage big feelings, join in, ask for help and stay curious. And a child has truly made it to school when they feel they belong there.

Rod is also the author of the children's picture book The Great Gratitude Surprise and the Research in Practice Series, Spaces That Teach.

Co-founder

About Mel Browne

Mel is a multi-award-winning ex-accountant and ex-financial advisor who went from less than zero in her thirties to owning multi-million-dollar businesses and financial independence in her forties.

She is a serial entrepreneur. She co-founded The Money Barre, a financial planning firm for Gen X and Gen Y, now Melissa Browne Courses, and was CEO of A&TA, an award-winning accounting firm. With Rod, she co-founded and was Director of Business at Thinkers.inq, a long-day preschool built around creative and critical thinking, which she sold to an ASX-listed firm in 2019.

Today Mel is a financial educator, speaker and advocate for financial wellness, with a particular focus on helping women and families feel comfortable talking about money and confident doing something about it. Through her online courses she has helped tens of thousands of people improve their financial literacy and confidence, and she hosts the Uncensored Money podcast.

She is the author of five books, including More Money for Shoes, Fabulous but Broke, the global bestseller Unf*ck Your Finances and Budgets Don't Work (But This Does).

At The Happy Preschooler, Mel is the one making sure great early years advice stays affordable for every family, and she presents the Club's money sessions for parents.