now you’re probably wondering how my
world has someone this young experienced
risk in her life she hasn’t risked her
money and she hasn’t risked her life
what could it be
my name is Brooke Yocum and I’m your
typical teenager most of the time I love
playing sports watching Netflix getting
good grades and I love shopping with my
friends but I’m also that teenager that
when I realize a problem I try to make a
solution when I was 12 I started to
realize typically when I would go
shopping with my friends we would forget
our gift cards at home or if we
remembered to bring our gift card
there’d only be like two dollars left on
it so this made me start to think
shouldn’t there be a solution for us to
easily store all of our gift cards once
I realized this problem my goal has
always been to make a solution for teens
and the solution is gift pocket gift
pocket is a mobile app designed to help
teens easily store and manage all of
their gift cards and I’m the CEO and
founder of gift pocket once I came up
with the idea of gift pocket I put into
action when I participated in the young
entrepreneurs Academy and from there I
became an engaged client with Revlon
ventures they’ve both helped me make my
dreams of being an entrepreneur a
reality through this whole experience it
never really hit me that I’d be a head
of a company and be in charge of people
even though I’ve had no business
experience but I’ve quickly learned how
to be in charge on the outside it may
look like I have everything under
control
but the journey to get there hasn’t been
as easy as it looks
one of the biggest risks I’ve taken from
this venture is the risk of failure by
creating gift pocket I’ve had to face
this fear every day even the washington
post says 9 out of 10 startups fail gift
pocket was just an idea but to make it
into an app I’ve had to go through
thousands of iterate
by doing thousands of wireframes the
only way to make my vision of gift
pocket a reality is I’ve had a wire
frame different screens of the app at
first I thought it was impossible I even
tried to convince someone else to do it
for me but after struggling through and
believing in myself I’ve made so many
wireframes and now it’s super easy while
creating the wireframes for gift pocket
I know now that gift pocket is more than
just an app it’s a platform to give
teenagers the ability to control what we
consider money which is gift cards
there’s been times when this app could
have failed but my fear of failure has
motivated me to keep going my
persistence to keep refining the app is
to make the best experience possible for
the user I refuse to let the risk of
failure prevent me from giving up every
single day I’m proving myself to adults
that they need taking me and gift
pockets seriously I’m only 14 years old
I still go to school at Upper Arlington
High School and I play soccer but I am
also an entrepreneur most people think
that a 40 year old is not capable of
starting the company but I’m on a
mission to prove them wrong and I know
now that age should not limit you on
what you want to do in creating gift
pocket I’ve had to rely on other people
to make this app a reality however when
meeting with other individuals
I fear that they’ll dismiss some ideas
it won’t take me as seriously as if I
were an adult getting over these hurdles
has been a challenge and a risk but
their focus and persistence I’ve been
able to remove doubt about myself these
fears and risk are holding me back
but there’s one fear that could stop me
from making my dream a reality for the
first year of working on gift pocket I
didn’t tell anyone about my app I don’t
want people to judge me and look at me
differently
I knew once I told people there was no
way I could go back
the fear of being different prevented me
from embracing the support of my peers
but it’s not just me according to this
stage of life LLC 40% of teens are
afraid of peer pressure or not fitting
in with people at school the fear of
being different is demonstrated by the
clothes we wear the sports we play and
the decisions we make – your typical
teen the fear of not fitting in prevents
us from doing the things we want to do
take the circle I’m standing in for
example this circle is where everyone’s
comfort zone is and where they want to
fit in they step out and they step right
back in because they’re afraid of what
will happen but what I realized is the
best things happen when you step outside
your circle and you risk being different
there’s no way I will be able to go
after my dreams of starting my own
company if it weren’t for me stepping
outside my comfort zone and risking
being different the journey that gif
Puckett has taken me on has helped me
learn and grow as a person without it I
want to be able to face my fears head-on
I know now that to pursue your dreams
and to achieve what you’ve always wanted
to achieve sometimes all it takes is
stepping outside your circle thank you [Applause]
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