From a Low Score to a Thriving Career: Manny Kechayas on his Path to Pevan & Sarah

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.