For Nicole Dyson, leadership has always been about looking beyond what exists today and asking what could be possible tomorrow.

After almost a decade as a teacher and leader in Queensland public schools, Dyson left the classroom nine years ago to found Future Anything, an education organisation helping schools reimagine learning and giving young people the tools to become innovators, thinkers and creators.

What began with around half a dozen schools has grown into a national organisation working with more than 200 schools each year, with its Future Anything Challenge culminating in a national final where students pitch for a share of $150,000 in prizes and funding.

For Dyson, the decision to leave a secure career was less about stepping away from education than finding a way to make a bigger impact.

“My dad used to say, ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ in decision-making moments like that,” she says.

“In my head, the worst that would happen would be that I would give it a crack and then I’d be back in the classroom 12 months later.”

That willingness to take a chance has become a defining part of Dyson’s leadership journey – and one she hopes to pass on to the young people coming through Future Anything.

“I wasn’t running away from the classroom; I was leaning in to the possibility of something bigger,” she says.

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Nine years on, the scale of what Dyson has built is something she admits still surprises her. But growing a business has brought a different set of challenges, particularly as a woman leading a scaling organisation.

“I think the reality is that every business owner is just making it up as they go,” she says.

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“I think the easy part has always been the work with schools. I love walking into school communities and seeing the impact on the ground with young people, but the challenge has always been how do you navigate a scaling company as a female founder, particularly in the economic climate that we find ourselves in now.”

Dyson is frank about the structural barriers facing women in business, pointing to the significant funding gap experienced by female founders.

“It is a challenge to be a female founder in the room,” she says. “I think to find your voice in that space is always going to be more challenging than what male founders have in the same circles.”

But, rather than softening her leadership style to fit those spaces, Dyson has embraced the responsibility of challenging them.

“In order to break the ceiling, you have to step out of line, and that’s not always comfortable for other people to hear or be on the receiving end of,” she says.

“I’m probably quite unwilling not to say the hard thing in that moment, and so sometimes that can be unpopular. But if I don’t say it, then who does?”

That confidence was shaped in part by another woman leader: Dyson’s grandmother, who ran a real estate agency on the Sunshine Coast at a time when women were rarely seen in senior business roles.

“Real estate is a very masculine industry,” Dyson says. “I watched her lead a large office of mostly male sales agents who were out every day selling property under her brand. I was inspired by her confidence and the unapologetic way she went about commanding space in a time and an industry that actively worked against her.”

That sense of paying leadership forward sits at the heart of Dyson’s work. She believes women need to see different models of leadership to understand what might be possible for themselves.

“We all do what we do because, at some point, we saw somebody who inspired us, who made us wonder about a future that we hadn’t imagined,” she says.

“All I can hope is that the work that I do in education and leading inspires the next generation of female founders to see that anything could be possible if they’re willing to take a chance and a leap of faith.”

Dyson knows first-hand the value of recognition and connection. As a member of the inaugural InDaily Queensland 40 Under 40 cohort and winner of the Game Changer Award in 2023, she says the experience gave her an opportunity to connect with other Queensland leaders and, importantly, shine a light on education

“In Queensland, we have such an incredible cohort of innovative and charismatic leaders working across so many different sectors and spaces, so getting the Game Changer Award was quite unexpected.

“The other side of it was, tech and AI are elevated in the current space so to see our work in an industry like education being acknowledged also made it more special for me; because that level of acknowledgement isn’t just about our work, it’s also about the teachers in classrooms who are doing this work on the ground.

“And so my recognition felt important because it felt like it was recognition for the teachers, too.”

For Dyson, recognising emerging leaders is only part of the equation. The next step is ensuring their stories reach beyond the networks they already inhabit.

“A network like the InDaily 40 Under 40 gives you a platform and a community to build around, which is really important,” she says.

“But with that platform and community, there’s also a responsibility to make sure that those different voices are seen beyond the network they might be in.”

It is a responsibility Dyson believes belongs to everyone – women supporting women, and male leaders actively amplifying the women working within their own organisations and industries.

Because for the next generation of leaders, seeing someone else step forward can be the moment they begin to imagine a bigger future for themselves.

The 2026 InDaily Queensland 40 Under 40 Awards will be held at Rivershed, Brisbane, on Thursday, August 27. Purchase your tickets today and join Queensland’s business community in celebrating the state’s next generation of leaders.