Episoder
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What if the thing your child keeps getting in trouble for at school is the exact gift that will carry them through life?
In this episode of More Than a Score, we sit down with Odette Barry, PR and media relations founder, community builder, and a self-described former professional nightmare.
Odette grew up in an affluent Melbourne community with two high-achieving older sisters and parents who valued education above almost everything and invested dearly for hers.
She struggled with authority, could not sit still, and collected report cards that told her, year after year, that she was failing. She left school with an ATAR score of around 56 and a core belief that she had let everyone down.
What came next was anything but a straight line.
Odette found her first real sense of worth blending drinks at Boost Juice, where the noise, the systems and the fun finally fit the way her brain worked. She married at twenty-one, became a mum at twenty-two, worked at Westpac while raising her son, ran a fashion side-business, and started university for the first time at twenty-six after one encouraging boss told her she could.
Today she runs Odette and Co, a Byron Bay agency helping not-for-profits and social change makers challenge the status quo, the very skill school kept trying to stamp out of her.
This conversation explores non-linear career paths, using your unique gifts, ADHD and the way different brains learn, self-doubt and confidence, self-compassion, and what it takes to parent a child who is nothing like you.
Odette is honest that the damage school did was real and lasting, and just as honest about what turned it around: being seen by the right people, being given agency, and slowly learning to trust herself.
For parents, it is a reminder that the kid who questions everything is not a problem to fix. For students, it is proof that a low score is a moment, not a measure of who you are. And for anyone staring down a changing job market and the rise of AI, Odette offers a clear-eyed, generous view of the human skills that will always matter.
In this episode, you'll discover:
• Why the traits school punished, challenging authority and questioning everything, became the core of Odette's career
• How report cards that said "failed" hardened into a core belief, and how long it took to undo
• Why Boost Juice, not school, was the first place she felt she had real value
• How a mentor named Steve Browning changed her path just by listening and telling her she could do more
• The reframe from her mother-in-law about a "neurological rewiring" that lifted years of guilt
• How she rebuilt her confidence, and why she still calls the confident version of herself a mask
• Why being a young mum was the best decision she ever made, despite the judgement
• The three ideas that shaped how she parents a son who is nothing like her
• Why she now sees learning outside the classroom as a genuine life force
• What she looks for when she hires young people, and the story of the candidate who would not take no
• An honest, practical message for parents about helping kids into the workforce in the age of AI
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning assistant leader, on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along here or at muchmorethanascore.com -
What if not knowing your path is not a problem to fix, but the very thing that builds a creative and resilient life?
In this episode of More Than a Score, we sit down with Manny Kechayas, musician, former teacher, self-taught video producer, and co-creator of the highly successful Australian children's entertainment group act Pevan & Sarah.
Manny spent most of school waiting for a lightbulb moment that never came. He was the quiet kid who flew under the radar, poured himself into drumming, and left school with a score he was embarrassed by and no obvious next step.
What followed was anything but a straight line. Manny auditioned into the Victorian College of the Arts, taught instrumental and classroom music, completed a Masters, and slowly built a children's music business almost by accident, beginning with songs his partner Sarah needed for her own classroom.
After years of underpaid gigs, including a now infamous concert played to nobody, the breakthrough came from a graph showing classrooms watching their videos during school hours.
They launched the subscription platform Cub Club just before the pandemic, and the work they had quietly prepared took off while the rest of the live arts industry fell silent.
This conversation explores non-linear career paths, creativity, self-directed learning, and what success looks like in a world without a playbook.
Manny makes a surprising case that restriction is the spark of creativity rather than the enemy of it, and offers parents a clear, practical message about letting young people be bored, giving them agency, and not being afraid to let them fail.
For parents, it is reassurance that a child without a clear plan is not a child who is behind. For students, it is proof that the slow, winding road can lead somewhere genuinely good. And for anyone navigating a changing job market and the rise of AI, Manny offers a grounded perspective on the human skills that will always matter.
• Why Manny left school with a low score and no clear career path, and how he sees it now
• What it means to wait for a lightbulb moment that never comes, and why that is okay
• How restriction and limits can fuel creativity rather than block it
• Why boredom is the beginning of invention, not a problem for parents to solve
• The case for letting young people make low-stakes mistakes while the cost is small
• How Manny taught himself music production and video editing from scratch
• The story behind Pevan & Sarah and the Cub Club learning platform
• How they found their audience by reading their own analytics
• What success looks like when the job you do did not exist a generation ago
• Why interpersonal skills and resilience outlast any single test result
• A reassuring message for parents whose child does not yet have a plan
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
Manglende episoder?
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What happens when your child does everything right and still hits a wall?
For any parent of a driven, high-achieving young person, Sarah Kechayas' (co-founder of Pevan & Sarah) story is both honest and reassuring.
This is part one of a two-part conversation. Sarah is a musician, performer and co-founder, with her partner Manny Kechayas, of the much-loved children's kids entertainment group Pevan & Sarah. (Now found on ABC iView!).
Sarah left a specialist music school as a high achiever who had cleaned up at her Year 12 awards and been told all her life that she could be whatever she wanted. Then she auditioned for every major performing arts course in the country and got into none of them.
At seventeen, having done everything she'd been told would lead to her dream, it felt like a rude awakening.
But Sarah didn't stop. She took a music certificate at the Adelaide Conservatorium, kept performing, kept making connections, and eventually completed a Bachelor of Music, only to discover how little a degree alone guarantees in the arts.
From there, her path wound through instrumental teaching, running children's parties, integration aide work, special needs teaching, and years in the classroom.
None of it looked linear, but all of it tied together: teaching, music and the work with kids combined into Pevan & Sarah, a national brand and company she and Manny took full-time in 2021, and which now reaches children right across the country.
We talk about the teachers who championed her, the rejection that taught her what awards never could, the trap of measuring yourself against a single path, and her honest reflections on ambition that never quite feels satisfied.
Her advice for any young person who feels behind is simple: keep your passion, but diversify, take the blinkers off, and stay open to possibilities you can't yet see.
If your child is comparing themselves to a tidier path, this conversation is a reminder that no score or rejection defines where they can end up. This is part one, so after you listen to this, tune into Part two, where the conversation continues with her co-founder Manny Kechayas.
What You'll Discover:
• Why doing everything right still doesn't guarantee the outcome you planned (and why that's not a failure).
• What a wall of audition rejections taught Sarah that awards and accolades never could.
• How a "long and messy" path through teaching, music and work with kids quietly built the foundation for a national brand.
• Why a Bachelor of Music, or any degree, is a starting point rather than a guarantee, and how that realisation reshaped her thinking.
• How Sarah and Manny knew it was time to take Pevan & Sarah full-time, and the leap of faith behind it.
• Sarah's honest reflection on ambition that never feels satisfied, and what she's learning about pausing to celebrate.
• Practical advice for any young person who feels behind: keep the passion, diversify your toolkit, and take the blinkers off.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
What if success has less to do with having a perfect plan and more to do with understanding your strengths?
In this episode of More Than a Score, we sit down with Steve Younane: a business leader, CEO, musician, father, and someone whose pathway from school to leadership was far from predictable.
Growing up as one of seven children in a family that deeply valued education, Steve felt the pressure that comes with looking up to high-achieving siblings and wondering whether you could ever measure up.
At school, he wasn't driven by academic excellence. He openly shares how he struggled to focus, often felt distracted, and saw studying primarily as a way to get a score that would help him move on to the next stage.
What he didn't realise at the time was that many of the strengths that would shape his future were already emerging.
Through music, sport, leadership opportunities, and building relationships, Steve was developing skills that couldn't always be measured by tests or report cards.
From forming a school band and leading teams to eventually leading major organisations and global brands, Steve's story is a powerful reminder that success rarely follows a straight line.
This conversation explores comparison, confidence, self-awareness, leadership, and the importance of recognising that people contribute in different ways.
For parents, it's a reminder that a child's future isn't determined by how motivated they are by school alone. For young people, it's reassurance that not having everything figured out doesn't mean you're falling behind.
And for anyone navigating uncertainty, Steve offers a thoughtful perspective on finding your strengths, backing yourself, and building a meaningful life and career.
What You'll Discover
• What it was like growing up as one of seven children in a high-achieving family
• Why Steve often felt distracted and disconnected from traditional study
• The pressure of comparing yourself to siblings and peers
• How music became one of the first places he discovered confidence and purpose
• Why leadership often appears before we recognise it ourselves
• The surprising lessons Steve learned from forming a band and leading teams
• How strengths developed outside the classroom shaped his future success
• The role self-awareness has played throughout his career and leadership journey
• Why different people bring different strengths to teams
• What Steve wishes young people understood about success and career pathways
Recorded at Sabre Sound Studio
A special thanks to the team at Sabre Sound Studio for hosting this conversation and providing a fantastic space for meaningful conversations like this one. If you're looking for a professional podcast, audio, or creative recording space, be sure to check them out.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your teenager is unsure what comes next, this episode is reassurance that confidence usually comes after action, not before. It is for parents supporting a young person through big decisions.
What if the right path only becomes clear once you stop chasing it? Athan Didaskalou, founder of the Australian luggage brand July, talks honestly about his uneasy relationship with school, the uncertainty he felt early on, and how curiosity and hands-on experience mattered more than perfect results.
His story is a reminder that there is no single right pathway after school, that skills are built through experience rather than qualifications alone, and that one result never defines future potential.
For any parent supporting exploration without pressure, or any young person rethinking their direction, this conversation offers a grounded, generous perspective. Success is built over time.
In this episode, you’ll discover and learn:
• Navigating uncertainty after school with no clear plan
• Why confidence comes after action, not before
• Building skills through experience rather than qualifications
• How parents can support exploration without pressure
• Why success looks different at every life stage
Because school is only one chapter, and success is built over time.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child is told off for the very things that make them, well them, this is for you. The traits flagged at school are often the foundations of a thriving life later.
What if the qualities that make your child different at school are exactly the ones that help them thrive in life?
Sarah Pound, known as Wholesome by Sarah, is a nutritionist, author, educator and mum of three whose report cards often said she talked too much. That trait became the foundation of a career built on communication, connection, storytelling and community.
Sarah reflects on the adults who believed in her, the times she was told she could not do something, and the many pivots that shaped her path. It is honest reassurance for parents raising children whose strengths do not always fit a classroom.
🎧 What You'll Discover In this episode:
• Why Sarah never worried too much about being the "perfect student"
• How being told she talked too much eventually became a professional strength
• The role friendships, connection, and community played during her school years
• What happened when she was told she wouldn't be able to manage a Year 12 subject early
• How proving people wrong became a powerful source of motivation
• Why different learners don't always thrive in traditional classroom environments
• The impact of supportive parents who encouraged effort without applying pressure
• Sarah's journey through multiple careers, pivots, and reinventions
• What building Wholesome by Sarah has taught her about backing herself
• Why success isn't about following the expected path
• A reassuring message for parents raising children with different strengths and personalities
• How to recognise and nurture qualities that may not always be rewarded at school
In the words of Sarah: it's a cracker of an episode!
Know someone with an interesting or unique pathway? Tell us about it via an email to [email protected] or DM on Insta at @morethanascorepod.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child does not love the classroom or does not have a clear plan, they are far more normal than they feel. This episode is for parents of a young person who shines outside school.
What if success is less about getting it right the first time and more about staying open to opportunity? Stephanie Pahl is an athlete, captain, coach, and fitness professional whose confidence and identity came through sport, teamwork, and belonging rather than academic accolades.
Since school, her path has wound through university course changes, coaching, high-performance sport, and the fitness industry. It is a conversation about accepting change, trying different things, and understanding that progress does not need to be perfectly planned.
For parents, it is a reminder that success is not one size fits all, and not loving school does not mean your child is behind.
What you'll discover:
• When school doesn't reflect your child's strongest qualities
• How sport, teamwork and belonging build a young person's identity
• Why not loving school doesn't define your child's future
• Changing university course and finding a new direction
• Building adaptability and resilience through change
• Shifting the measure of success from results to fulfilment
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child quietly compares themselves to high-achieving siblings or peers, this honest
conversation will help. Note: It briefly discusses suicide, so please choose what feels right for you.
What happens when the thing you worked so hard to achieve makes you question what success even means? Melissa Lozanovski is an educator, leader, former founding principal, and mum.
At school, she compared herself to academically high-achieving siblings and carried quiet pressure to measure up. She entered teaching young, led early, and built a new school from the ground up, while privately navigating grief, burnout, and a health scare that forced harder questions about what matters.
Her framework of becoming, belonging, and lifelong learning offers parents a hopeful way to think about success beyond grades, titles, and recognition, and why every child's path unfolds differently.
🎧 What You’ll Discover In this episode:
• How comparison with siblings and peers shapes a child's confidence
• Why one adult believing in a young person changes everything
• The emotional weight that can sit behind outward success
• Protecting wellbeing while chasing achievement
• Why belonging and emotional safety matter for growth
• Thinking about success beyond grades and titles
Know someone with a unique story or path? Share it with us at [email protected]!
If this conversation brings anything up for you, support is available:
• Lifeline Australia (24/7)
https://www.lifeline.org.au or 13 11 14
• Beyond Blue:
https://www.beyondblue.org.au or 1300 22 46 36
• Kids Helpline (for people aged 5–25): https://kidshelpline.com.au or 1800 55 1800
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If you are watching your teenager leave school without a clear direction, this episode is
a reassurance that they are not behind. It is for any parent worried about the missing plan.
What if success was never about the perfect plan, but learning to adapt when the plan
changes?
Ben Amos is a teacher turned entrepreneur and digital storyteller who built his career
by staying curious and figuring things out as he went. The path he first wanted did not work out, teaching became the fallback, and that backup became the foundation of a career spanning education, entrepreneurship, and creativity.
Ben reframes failure as feedback, draws a line between passively hoping and actively creating opportunities, and shows why adaptability can matter more than certainty. If your child has not figured it all out yet, this will help you breathe.
🎧 What You’ll Discover In this episode:
• Why a school score doesn't define your child's future
• How a fallback plan can become a launching pad
• Helping teenagers handle real responsibility
• Why adaptability matters more than certainty after school
• Reframing failure as feedback, not a final verdict
• Supporting a child who has no clear plan yet
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child has ever been labelled at school, this episode is for you. Being called lazy was
never the real story. It is a reassurance for any parent advocating for a child who learns
differently.
Called lazy, placed on the lowest table, and told she would not succeed. The truth was very different. Myfanwy (Van) Fitzpatrick struggled at school not because she lacked ability, but because her dyslexia and dyspraxia went undiagnosed.
She absorbed those early labels into her identity for years. Then, despite being written off, she completed multiple university degrees, became a teacher and moved into counselling.
This is a conversation about how labels shape a child, the hidden impact of undiagnosed learning differences, and the critical role parents play in advocating when the system gets it wrong. Intelligence is not the grade you get.
What you'll discover:
• What to do when your child is called lazy at school
• Signs of undiagnosed dyslexia and dyspraxia in school
• How early labels shape a child's identity and confidence
• The turning point of finally being diagnosed and understood
• How to advocate for a child who learns differently
• Why intelligence is not the grade you get
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your teenager left school without a clear sense of what success looks like, they are more normal than they feel. This is for parents who want to support without forcing a path.
What does it look like to navigate school, life, and identity when the path is not clear? If your teenager left school without a clear sense of what success looks like for them, they are far more normal than they feel.
For Jasper Nettlefold, school often felt like a minefield, something to get through rather than connect with. He left without a clear plan and without a strong sense of what he wanted. If that sounds familiar, either for you or your child, this conversation will land.
What followed for Jasper was not a perfectly mapped journey. It was a series of experiences through sport, different jobs, travel, and relationships that gradually built his confidence, perspective, and sense of who he was.
Success, in his story, was not handed to him at the end of school. It was shaped slowly through the choices he made, the people he surrounded himself with, and his willingness to keep moving even when he was unsure where it was all heading.
We explore what it feels like when school does not quite fit, why not having a plan after school is far more common than most families assume, and how everyday jobs and experiences can quietly build identity and confidence. Jasper is open about the role of mentors and relationships, and about how comparison to others can hold a young person back from finding their own definition of success.
For parents, there is a clear and gentle message: you can support your child without forcing a path. For students and anyone who did not follow a straight line, this is reassurance that taking a different route does not mean falling behind. You do not need to have it all figured out. You just need to keep moving forward and trust that it will come together.
What you'll discover:
• When school doesn't fit and feels like something to get through
• Why having no plan after school is more common than you think
• How everyday jobs and experiences build confidence and identity
• The role of mentors and relationships in finding direction
• Supporting your child without forcing a path
• Why taking a different route is not falling behind
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If you have ever worried that your child does not fit the traditional mould, this is a hopeful, practical listen for parents and educators alike.
What happens when school does not quite fit, but life beyond it opens something bigger? Lael Stone is a speaker, educator, author, and school founder who reflects on leaving school without being defined by her score, traveling overseas alone at seventeen, and starting businesses before she had it all figured out.
This is a conversation about what becomes possible when young people are given permission to explore, and adults choose connection over judgment. Lael offers practical insight on how young people actually ask for help, why vulnerability matters, and what it takes to become a safe adult in a young person's world.
• Why a school score never has to define your child
• Helping a young person who feels not smart at school
• Travel and real-world experience as a different education
• What stops teenagers asking for help, and how to lower the barrier
• How to become a safe adult in a young person's world
• Building learning around connection and emotional safety
Know someone who'd be perfect for the pod? Get in touch with us at [email protected].
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If you are watching your child step off the traditional track, this is reassurance. For Sam, leaving school in Year 11 was the start, not the setback.
What happens if you leave school early and do not follow the expected path? Sam Gawenda left in Year 11, became a bricklayer, moved into mortgage broking, built and sold a business, and is now starting a new chapter. His pathway is a clear reminder that success is rarely linear.
But the conversation goes deeper than careers: it is about doing hard, uncomfortable things even when fear is present, and the role of mentors and environment in shaping who we become. He also explores rites of passage and what is missing for many young people today. No single score or decision defines your future.
🎧 What You’ll Discover:
• Why leaving school early in Year 11 didn't limit success
• The non-linear path from a trade to building a business
• Why doing hard, uncomfortable things drives growth
• How environment and mentors shape a young person
• Modelling courage and resilience as a parent
• Focusing on vision rather than the exact process
Know someone else with a unique or interesting path? Share it with us at [email protected]!
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child is measuring their worth by a number, this episode offers a better measure. It is for parents who want to understand what actually shapes a meaningful life.
Blaise Witnish got an ATAR she was proud of, but that is not what made her successful. A CEO and global team leader, she boarded in Year 12 after financial hardship, found her strengths through drama and stand-up comedy, and built a twenty-year career from the ground up.
What stands out is what she learned about people, strengths, resilience, and connection.
She explains why understanding your child's strengths is a game-changer, introduces the eight-to-one rule for building confidence, and makes the case that communication is a future-proof skill. Scores can open doors, but they do not define the life you build.
What you'll discover:
• Why understanding your child's strengths is a game changer
• The eight to one rule and how it builds confidence in young people
• How hardship and change build real resilience
• Why communication and connection are future-proof skills
• What an ATAR really does and does not mean
• Strengths tools to explore: Clifton Strengths and VIA Character Strengths
🔗 Explore Your Strengths (As Mentioned in This Episode)
If this episode sparked your thinking about strengths and self-awareness, here are a few great tools to explore:
• Gallup CliftonStrengths - a widely used tool that helps identify your top strengths and how to apply them in life and work.
• VIA Character Strengths Survey - free, research-based survey that highlights your core character strengths.
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - personality framework that helps you understand preferences in how you think, work, and relate to others.
These tools are discussed in the episode as potential helpful starting points for people, parents and educators to better understand themselves and each other.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your young person does not yet have a direction, this shows how a real creative career is built. It is for parents and students unsure about the next step.
Not everyone leaves school with a clear plan, and not everyone needs to. Hayden Bevis is the founder of Poster Boy, but his path there was anything but straight: optical mechanic, trivia host, early YouTube experiments, then a creative business grounded in storytelling. He challenges three quiet assumptions, that you must be creative to do creative work, that careers should be linear, and that success starts with certainty. He makes a strong case that communication, expressing ideas across mediums, may be one of the most important skills for young people today. Creativity is something you do, not something you are.
What you'll discover:
• Building a creative career without a clear plan
• Why creativity is something you do, not something you are
• Turning making things for fun into paid work
• Learning through feedback, rejection and iteration
• Why communication may be the most important skill for young people
• Backing yourself instead of waiting for permission
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child finds the academic side of school hard, this lands. Not academic was never the problem, just a sign their strengths are elsewhere.
What if being not academic was never the problem, just a sign that your strengths are somewhere else? Ellie Pascazio is a makeup artist and small business owner who found school hard academically but loved people, energy and making others feel good, and never saw that as a weakness. After school she moved into beauty therapy and, during COVID, started her own business from a corner at home. It grew by word of mouth into a thriving career across weddings and events. People skills can become a young person's greatest asset, and the strengths that do not show up in a classroom can build a real career.
What You’ll Discover In This Episode:
• What it really feels like to be not academic at school
• The strengths that don't show up in a classroom
• How people skills can become a young person's greatest asset
• Starting a small business from scratch and growing by word of mouth
• Why kindness is a strength, not a weakness
• Building a life around what actually matters to you
You don’t have to be the smartest in the room to succeed. You just have to know what matters to you...and build from there.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If you are trying to help your child work hard without overwhelming them, this conversation will help you breathe. It is for parents navigating pressure and expectation.
What if success was never just about getting through school, getting the degree and starting work?
Val Gnanakone moved from Singapore to Australia as a young person and grew up where education was essential, not optional. He worked hard, got through, got the degree, and built a career.
What makes his story worth hearing is his honest reflection on what that path gave him, what it cost, and how his definition of success has evolved toward contribution and feeling comfortable in himself.
For parents, there is a gentle message about supporting a child to work hard without overloading them. One path does not have to define a whole life.
What you’ll discover:
• Navigating cultural and family expectations around education
• The pressure and the benefits of a disciplined pathway
• Helping a child work hard without overwhelming them
• Why contribution and self-understanding matter more over time
• How a definition of success evolves with age
• Why every young person's path unfolds differently
Because one score doesn't define us and one path doesn't have to define your whole life.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child is tying their worth to a number, Claire's story is one to share. It is for parents, students and anyone untangling self-worth from performance.
Have you ever achieved something others celebrate but still felt like you fell short? Claire Tonti is a former teacher turned musician, filmmaker, podcaster and CEO.
She grew up in a high-achieving family quietly believing she was not smart enough, and when she finished school with an ATAR of 89.95 it still felt like failure.
Her path did not follow a neat line; she found herself through creativity, performance and building communities. This is an honest conversation about unspoken family expectations, the weight of comparison, and why perfectionism disconnects us from who we really are.
One score does not define you, but one conversation can change how you see yourself.
What you’ll hear in this episode:
• Why an excellent ATAR can still feel like failure
• Growing up with unspoken expectations in a high-achieving family
• How perfectionism disconnects us from who we really are
• Creativity as an outlet and a lifeline
• Helping a child feel enough beyond their achievements
• Untangling self-worth from performance
One score doesn’t define you, but one conversation can change how you see yourself.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If you are navigating subject selection or university pressure with your young person, this gives real perspective. Changing direction is often growth, not failure.
This is a TITANIC episode. (See what we did there?).
Have you ever started down a path because it seemed right, only to realise it did not fit?
James Cameron is a teacher, mentor and outdoor education specialist who began university on one course and chose to shift, not because he could not cope, but because he was paying attention to who he was becoming.
Working inside schools, he sees how quickly young people tie their identity to subjects, scores and labels, and how his own greatest strengths were relational rather than academic.
For parents wondering whether it is too late for their child to change direction, James offers reassurance and clarity. Relationship-building outlasts any exam result.
What you’ll discover:
• What it feels like to change university course partway through
• Why changing direction is often growth, not failure
• Navigating subject selection and university pressure
• How young people tie identity to subjects, scores and labels
• Why relationship-building outlasts any exam result
• Choosing growth over comfort when something doesn't fit
Sometimes the most important step forward is having the courage to adjust course.
🔗 Discover more about Rise Outdoors here: https://riseoutdoors.com.au/
Check out James on Loz's previous podcast episode on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3aaJzeQdawQyZQ5KdWbUoC?si=ft0n-dFSQzecew_4dnch-A
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. -
If your child has ever been quietly written off, Cade's story matters. It is for any parent whose child has been told they are not likely to get the score they need.
What happens when you are told university probably is not realistic for you, months before your final exams?
Cade Witnish heard exactly that. Co-founder of Loud and Clear and sports-tech platform PlayHQ, he grew up in regional New South Wales labelled as someone with potential who did not apply himself.
Then his ATAR surprised everyone. But this is not a story about proving people wrong. It is about how low expectations shape who we think we are, the influence of a determined mum, and the teacher who saw something first. Potential is easily misread, and the trajectory of a life is rarely defined at eighteen.
What you’ll discover:
• What to do if your child is told university isn't realistic
• Handling the label has potential but doesn't apply himself
• Why one teacher's belief can shift a whole trajectory
• What first-generation university looks like in real life
• Why confidence often develops years later
• How potential is easily misread at eighteen
One score does not define you, but one sentence of belief can change your whole trajectory.
More Than a Score: Redefining Success Beyond School is hosted by Laura Pitt and Dan Steele, a former teacher and award-winning school leader on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria. New episodes fortnightly. Subscribe to follow along. - Vis mere
