The Bearded IFA
Welcome to The Bearded IFA — honest conversations about money, business, leadership, life, and everything in between.
Hosted by Rob Lewis, better known as The Bearded IFA, this podcast goes beyond pensions, investments, and financial planning. Drawing on years of experience as an Independent Financial Adviser, business owner, entrepreneur, and active member of the local community, Rob sits down with inspiring business owners, leaders, professionals, and changemakers to uncover the stories behind their success.
Expect real conversations, practical insights, lessons learned, challenges overcome, and plenty of laughs along the way. From building businesses and managing money to leadership, personal growth, community impact, and navigating life's twists and turns, no topic is off limits.
Whether you're an entrepreneur, business owner, professional, aspiring leader, or simply someone who enjoys hearing authentic stories from interesting people, The Bearded IFA offers valuable insights and thought-provoking discussions from people who have been there and done it.
Pull up a chair, grab a coffee, and join the conversation.
The Bearded IFA — where money meets life, business meets people, and every story has something to teach us. 🎙️🧔🏻♂️
The Bearded IFA
The Bearded IFA Diaries | Why Every Child Needs Creative Problem-Solving Skills
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
How do we prepare children for jobs that don't even exist yet?
In this episode of The Bearded IFA Diaries, I'm joined by Hayley Laidlaw-Wilson, co-founder of Sniff and Snails, a business on a mission to inspire the next generation of innovators, creators and problem-solvers.
Together with her brother, Hayley has developed hands-on kits, educational resources and engaging content that help children build essential STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) skills while challenging outdated stereotypes about who technology is for.
In a world where technology is evolving at an incredible pace, creativity, curiosity and critical thinking have never been more important. We discuss why these skills matter, how parents and educators can encourage them, and why inspiring young people to think differently could shape the future of our workforce.
Hayley also shares the story behind Sniff and Snails—from the original idea and the challenges of launching a business, to growing a brand with a clear social purpose. We talk openly about entrepreneurship, resilience and the realities of building a business that's making a genuine difference.
Whether you're a parent, teacher, business owner or simply passionate about education and innovation, this episode is full of thought-provoking ideas and practical inspiration.
In this episode:
🚀 The story behind Sniff and Snails
🧠 Why STEAM skills are more important than ever
💡 Encouraging creativity and problem-solving in children
💻 Breaking down stereotypes around technology and engineering
👩💼 Building a purpose-driven business with family
📈 The challenges of launching and growing a business
🌍 Preparing young people for the careers of tomorrow
✨ Hayley's vision for the future of Sniff and Snails
This conversation is about much more than education. It's about giving the next generation the confidence, curiosity and skills they'll need to thrive in an ever-changing world.
The Bearded IFA Diaries — real conversations with inspiring people, exploring business, leadership, innovation and the ideas shaping tomorrow. 🎙️🧔🏻♂️🚀🧩
Welcome to the Diaries of the Bearded IFA and today's guest is Hayley from Sniff and Snails. Hailey, welcome.
SPEAKER_01Thank you. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
SPEAKER_00You're very much welcome. Now let's jump straight into it.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00Sniff and Snails. What's that about?
SPEAKER_01Okay, shall I start with just explaining where the name comes from? Because I think that's probably a good entry. So my brother is called Joseph. When I was younger, I couldn't pronounce his name, so it was Joe Sniff. Um, and Sniff has stuck. His response to me was Haley Hell Snails. So Sniff and Snails is a nod to basically our childhood. My brother invented the microcontroller, which is a small computer that's used in about 14,000 schools in the UK to teach physical computing. My background's in technology. Growing up, we were always just taking things apart, exploring, just inventing things. So Sniff and Snails was an obvious name for the actual, the actual business. So the actual business then, or I think I'll start with the actual business in terms of the products and services have shifted, you know, over the last couple of years, and we're about to do another big pivot. But the purpose and the mission has 100% still stayed the same. So my background in technology and also working in kind of the AI space, I'd just seen the impact of not having diversity or kind of other represented groups working in that field. And that means, you know, what the impact that has actually on the products and services. So the mission is totally to inspire children from all different backgrounds to just get hands-on with technology, to understand how it all works. Um, and yeah, ultimately that's that's really the mission.
SPEAKER_00So, in a nutshell, sniff and snails, partnership, you and your brother, yeah, and you've created a business that's all about putting technology in front of the kids.
SPEAKER_01100%. We just want to inspire them to love technology, understand actually the good things that it can do by, but the way that we're doing it is not okay, sit in front of a screen and learn to code, because that's absolutely not what we want to do.
SPEAKER_00It's all and maybe redundant now with AI.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Like I'm a massive advocate for we need them to have computing and AI literacy, which means then they can engage in a conversation. You know, it's going to be part of every single job, you know, of the future. Um, so it just like we have, you know, English literacy and numeracy as key skills, like computing and AI literacy should absolutely just be exactly just a fundamental skill. It's it's a fundamental skill now. So I think you know, the curriculum, what we've seen, and it's about to shift in the next couple of years again. The curriculum today very much focuses on let's teach them coding skills so that they become a can become a programmer. Absolutely not. Like let's actually help them understand how it all works, how they can create with it, how they can solve problems with it. And that's really what Snuff and Snells is all about. Just how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00And how do you do that? How do you get technology in front of kids, make it engage and make it fun? Because as we know, kids are some of the best critics in the world, aren't they? If they don't like something, they'll tell you 100%.
SPEAKER_01So um this is it's a bit of a strange story there. So the the crumble controller, which is used in our craft and code kits, um, my brother had always taught to me about that, and I'd kind of it just went over my head. And I he's very much a ones and zeros guy, I'm very much like more of a creative. And it wasn't until I had um uh our first daughter, my my husband and I is our first daughter, we started playing with it. And the first project that we made with it was we attached it to motors and wheels, and we attached it to an ultrasonic sensor, which is basically a distance sensor. So if something's in front of it, then you know, make the motors go. But we put all of that equipment on a massive uh spider, like a meter-wide spider, hid it underneath the sofa. So when uh my mum sat on the sofa, this giant robot spider came out. That's how you engage children. So, you know, the input, everything that you should teach, you know, a children is input, process, output. Every computer, whether it's an iPad, laptop, um, whether it's you know, something in your like a device in your fridge, whether it's any of these robots we see dancing, you know, on Instagram and TikTok, they all work the same way. So input, process, output. And the kids get to actually touch the input, which is the ultrasonic sensor, they get to touch the output, which is the motors and wheels, and the coding is just the bit in the middle, the instructions that are saying if something's in front of it, then make the wheels go forward. So that's how you teach them the you know, the coding and computing literacy, but while they're physically just making something really, really cool uh with it. So how yeah, how do we do it? Is we put the crumble first of all in crafting code kits and started selling them. Um, and we're about to pivot the business a little bit away from that, not away from it, but take our learnings and move it forward.
SPEAKER_00Before we talk about the pivot, then I'm just thinking back in my time into school, yeah, technology, and I still remember because I loved it, this robot where on the top of it it had um buttons. Yeah, it had buttons to go forward, backwards, left, right, and how many steps. And it sounds like your systems are way more fun and engaging than so that's a B bot.
SPEAKER_01So what they still use the B bot today. Uh yeah, so they'll still use the B bot for younger years today. If you took all of the plastic away from the Bebot, you would basically, you know, have all of the equipment that we have. So the biggest thing that I wanted to do is um I started, you know, given I work in technology, I started looking for products that were out there to use with my own daughters as well. And what I found is everything was kind of uh pre-packaged within plastic. So they don't understand, they don't get to, you know, touch and feel that input process output model. Um, so yeah, if you took the B bot and took all the plastic away, you would basically be left with kit that they can turn into anything which is our kit.
SPEAKER_00And that's, I suppose, for the child the fun part of making something, crafting it, colouring it, putting it together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the best the best workshops and the best things that everyone loves is just going in the recycling box, getting lots of cardboard and building their own cardboard robots. And you know, there's lots of hot glue that you can find in our house. Uh so I need to find a solution for that. Um, but that's coming too. But yeah, they can make all sorts of things, you know. So we've got a hand that waves to the postman when someone comes to the door, you know, around our Christmas tree is all of the like uh uh red, green, blue RGB LEDs. Uh yeah, there's tons of I I always explain to people our house is a little bit like do you remember um Honey I Swink the Kids? Do so do you remember Zilinksy? They don't basically I'm doing more like Zelgsley in our house. So our house is full of cardboard circuits, all sorts of stuff, but the children don't see it as coding. So our eldest um will say, Can we make a crafty cracium? So she doesn't she doesn't connect coding and computing to any of it, and the I remember the moment she said that, I was like, it's working. Like that's exactly that's exactly the point, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah I love that. Do you feel that over the last couple of years, because we've seen the raise the the the rise of AI, which it seems to come from nowhere, we we didn't have it, now it's everywhere. Do you think that's making your case and your business model even more powerful now? Because people are starting to realise, oh, we have got to take technology way more seriously than what we were doing?
SPEAKER_01Massively. Um, massively. And I think that is part of the pivot, you know, that we need to do is in any business, you always need to play to what the market is hearing. So, you know, part of that is it doesn't fundamentally change, you know, our our business or our products, it changes the way we go out to market. So actually, it's a massive advantage for us that all of this has gone into mainstream, you know, world. Um, it you know, we do locally in Flincher, we'll do um, and hopefully we're gonna continue to do as well just after a call I had earlier, which is good. Um, demystifying AI workshops. And in those workshops, I always start with saying AI, you know, it's not a new thing. So artificial intelligence, the first conference on AI was in the 1950s, so it's over 70 years old. And people are like, What? How did I not know this? I'm like, you didn't know it because it wasn't pushed in the media, um, you didn't know it because it wasn't as good as it is today, because it didn't have all the data it could actually work off. So I always explain every time we've asked Alexa, you know, that's been training models to understand how we use language to speak. Um, every time we used, you know, our phones to ask for things, that again has been training all of these artificial intelligence models. All of the smartphones and smart devices that we've been using have basically been building up a plethora of data that is now made, you know, Chat GBT or Claude or whatever people are using as powerful of as it is today. But AI has been around since like the 1950s. Um, and I link that to the basics or the basic of AI is exactly just a set of you know instructions, so just lines and lines of code. So the first AI that we heard about that, you know, beat built the I beat the famous chess player was literally just lines and lines and lines and lines and lines of code. Um, the only thing that's you know happened now is that code can actually learn to develop and improve itself because it has data to work on. So yeah, I think the it it can only help us now. We just have to lean into that messaging a bit more.
SPEAKER_00And how are you gonna lean into that then? So you talk about pivoting the business. So um just recap what have you done in the business up until this point and what you're gonna do differently going forward, do you think?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the the main thing that we've done is develop kits for the home market, which are craft and co kits, which means it's a kit that they can then learn all of the principles of coding, how all computers work, how all robots work, but while they're physically making projects that they can play with and touch, they can make disco domes, reaction timer games, the cardboard robots that I talked about.
SPEAKER_00All these are available on your Instagram.
SPEAKER_01All of these are available, yes, all of these are available to Bagau. Um, what I uh when we the the reason we moved back to North Wales as well is because growing up here, we knew there wasn't really much here. Like it's a bit of kind of a gap in, you know, we're not Banger, we don't have Banger University, etc. So we moved back up here, but part of that and you know building the products that we sell to the home market, I wanted to go back into schools, but actually by going into schools, that taught me lots in terms of actually what we need to improve the kits on. So whilst it's got you know really like good visual and you know written instructions that are really, really easy to follow and guided, and the journey continues online is um we realized in the workshops that we did locally, the confidence in the parents isn't there to buy a kit. I see. So the pivot that we're in now, it's not really a pivot, but what we're trying to focus on more is how do we get to those parents to build that confidence first because we didn't grow up with any of this stuff. So how do we get to them first that actually they then are comfortable with having that kit in the home and it doesn't sit on the shelf and they're just gonna be a waste of money, and it's a waste of money. So yeah, I think the biggest barrier, you know, for us so far has been the confidence of parents. So the the pivot on the craft and co kits, they will still say we're just going to make improvements to the existing kits. Um, but we're also going to add more products to the suite. So we start to have products where if someone's if a parent isn't comfortable jumping straight into you know bringing a craft and co kit home, there's other options for them to start on the journey earlier. So that's what I'm quite excited about. I'm very excited about that at the moment.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's really interesting. I think it's been interesting hearing that you've been able to go into schools, get kids' feedback, and make your business better. Yeah, often in business, we don't have that opportunity to go to our ideal target audience. Yeah, what do you like about this? What do you like about it?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's been the when we've gone into schools, we've we haven't been doing, you know, us to students, we've been doing family workshops. So the parents have come in, the children have been working with their parents, right? And the literally the theme all the way through across all the workshops, the parent will come in and go, I don't know where to start. The kid was it's totally fine. The kid's full of confidence, right? Absolutely spashing it. Um, miles away, the parent then follows on with the children, they go, Oh, it's not actually as hard as I thought it would be, and it's really not. Um, and then you know, the parents at the end will go, This is great. Where can I get one? So that has been the best, you know, sort of test uh for the products to go, they love the product, but we absolutely have to get, you know, that something to take them on the journey to build that confidence up.
SPEAKER_00I've also seen that feedback. I don't know if you're aware of this. I'm a school governor at a primary school where you've gone in and done some sessions. Oh, they go, and I've had the feedback from the teachers and from the head teacher in terms of how much the kids loved it and how they're still talking about it six months later. When's that lady coming back in with the robots?
SPEAKER_01I know. Well, hopefully, hopefully again soon locally. So that that's the yeah, that's the message. Yeah, the robots they all love. And uh so we always have a a thing in all the workshops where I ban the word yes. So I always check with the kids and the adults. Um, are you ready to move on to the next step? And they instead of saying yes, they have to shout li ha as loud as possible. So I think that's also why they love it though, as well.
SPEAKER_00So it's like a thing.
SPEAKER_01They get to be loud, yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00I can't wait for my child to have a session with you and I can come along and have a go.
SPEAKER_01You absolutely need to be, and that that's exactly the fact that you know, that is you would want that session right first. So, yeah, the the next kind of suite of products will be very much around, you know, starting. If you've got, you know, a three-year-old, three to five, there'll be something that you can start them with. So you build your confidence with them, or you build your confidence as they're learning uh five to seven again, and then you know, almost our craft and code kits become when you as a family are ready, you know, to start building and creating stuff, you can do it together. So I think that's that's really our next phase.
SPEAKER_00So again, it's an amazing family time, isn't it, to be to be doing something like that together? If for a moment, if uh rewind slightly and just focus on on the business. Um when when you set up the business, did you think that it was gonna be a quick journey in terms of we're gonna build this, people are gonna love it, and it's gonna blow up? Or did you think that actually it was gonna be a big educational piece because you're bringing something really different and new to the market? What where where was your your thinking at the start?
SPEAKER_01That's a good question. So I think I I don't think I thought about it. I think I was in my head, I thought, right, we actually have, you know, the technology there, which you know was really advantageous for us. There's not, you know, the amount of investment that would have had to go in to build that would have been huge. Like there's a software, platform, hardware, we manufacture everything. Um so I think, yeah, I think I thought we'll make these kits, they'll be amazing, then we'll put them out there, um, and then we'll, you know, add more kits to that range. I don't think I expected to, you know, have learned so much in terms of we re what we really need to do to get to the parents and have expected almost to go, let's pivot like quite a lot.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So, you know.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's a purchase decision by the parents, isn't it? Exactly. So you can win the kids on say we love this. Always win the kids. They're not in the shop buying it.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. Easy to win the kids, absolutely easy, and that's that's kind of the frustrating part, is the kids absolutely love it, you know, and the the creativity and you know, just also the mess, though, to be honest, as well, which is the fun part. They could love it, you know, the stuff they come up with is amazing, and they never once, you know, no, no kid has ever said to me, I wouldn't know where to start. You know, they've just got like hands-on and tried things and it's not worked and or it has worked, and then it's built their confidence like massively. Yeah. Um, and what I find as well is, you know, sometimes if you went into a workshop and you did, you know, did it some, I don't know, a different subject, you might have, you know, a proportion of the children totally into it, a proportion that weren't. But in every classroom we've gone to, in every workshop, all of the children have just loved it because it it touches that hands-on side, you know, it doesn't tie them into a solution so they can make their own, you know, creation. So they could make a frog or a robot or you know, whatever they want.
SPEAKER_00Um and redo it.
SPEAKER_01And take it apart and redo it. It's it's us as you know, adults is the blocker for, you know, really making sure that, you know, the next generation of like all the children now are set up for the future. That's genuinely what I believe is, and that's really where I want to make sure that we focus our efforts to go. How do we help grown-ups, but you know, both parents and teachers like uplift their confidence so that they can just do this much more with ease with with children at home and in school.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so it's just organic, it's just part of what we do, yeah. Rather than being something that's fatty and something new.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. And that's what it's always felt like to me, which has frustrated me, is you know, if you're doing living science and plant science, build a plant water monitor, you know, it would take half an hour, but they would learn so much out of it, and the skills they would develop would be set them up much more, you know, for the future than you know, sitting there and getting them to, you know, code account on scratch, uh, even though I love scratch um and block-based programming, but it doesn't, you know, it doesn't necessarily excite everyone's real world action. Doesn't have the real world exactly.
SPEAKER_00So, yeah, we we're nearly out of time. Yes. Any shout-outs, any mentions uh to be honest, I could talk to you forever, Haley, because I find it fascinating. So we'll we'll get you on to do more sessions, don't worry. But anything to sort of finish up on?
SPEAKER_01Um, I think probably just if you're a parent, then you'll see us launch a newsletter really, really shortly to actually start that journey called Raise Curious. And if you're a teacher and you're in Flintshire, then please reach out because there are free classroom kits that you can use. Um and if you're a teacher outside of you know of Flintshire, there's a classroom hub that we're launching with all creative coding, lesson plans, projects, videos, everything on there for free. No login or anything.
SPEAKER_00Amazing. That's actually a good shout out. It's a good shout-out, and that should be welcomed by teachers because they have a lot on their plates. So anything that's already made for them that they can plug into, I'm sure will be a great resource. So thank you, Hailey. Absolutely fascinating. I can't wait to keep watching what happens with sniff and snails. For anyone listening, watching, please check out their Instagram page in particular. The reels, the fun stuff they do, it's it's it's brilliant. Kids love it. So yeah, cheers, Hailey. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01Thank you very much.