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Speaker 1: It's the Happy Families Podcast.

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Speaker 2: It's the podcast for.

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Speaker 3: The time poor parent who just wants answers Now.

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Speaker 1: I love what we get to do on the Happy

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Speaker 1: Families Podcast, talking to fascinating people who have done amazing things.

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Speaker 1: All this week on the Happy Families Podcast, Well, Kylie's

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Speaker 1: going to take a week off and I'm having a

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Speaker 1: chat with people who have stories to tell about how

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Speaker 1: life turned out even if school wasn't the most successful

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Speaker 1: experience for them. The reason that we're doing this is

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Speaker 1: because year twelve, students around the country either are sitting

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Speaker 1: or are about to sit their exams. Depends on which

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Speaker 1: state you're in as to whether or not the kids

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Speaker 1: are doing it right now or not. My guest today,

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Speaker 1: first guest of the week. I can't wait to introduce

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Speaker 1: you to him. His name is Ian Steele. He's from Adelaide,

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Speaker 1: the founder of South Australian charity Kickstart for Kids, also

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Speaker 1: a business owner, dad to four kids, including one foster child. Ian,

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Speaker 1: great to have you on the podcast, Thanks.

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Speaker 3: For joining me, Thanks for having me pleasure.

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Speaker 1: I also have got to mention Australia Day Citizen of

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Speaker 1: the Year twenty nineteen. This is a pretty fancy pants Bio.

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Speaker 1: We're kicking off with some awesome stuff, and because this

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Speaker 1: week is all about school, I'm particularly interested in what

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Speaker 1: kind of a student you were. Did you gravitate to

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Speaker 1: a particular subject where you were a knockout student who

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Speaker 1: just knew how to get everything right?

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Speaker 2: What was school like for you?

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Speaker 3: Well, I gravitated to getting out of school as quickly

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Speaker 3: as I could. To be honest, school was not a

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Speaker 3: big part of my life. I reckon, you know, I

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Speaker 3: reckon as you get older and you become a father,

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Speaker 3: school is for some people, and school isn't for others.

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Speaker 3: And school certainly wasn't for me. And you know, I

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Speaker 3: had a lot of close mates and it wasn't really

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Speaker 3: for them either. I think boys are certainly different than girls,

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Speaker 3: and boys grow up later in life. But yeah, look,

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Speaker 3: I was terrible at school. I couldn't wait to get

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Speaker 3: out of there. I sort of took the first job

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Speaker 3: I could. But in saying that, ever since then, I

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Speaker 3: have been trying to better myself and I've got to

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Speaker 3: say it is hard without an education.

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Speaker 1: So I want to get to that in just a second.

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Speaker 1: A couple more questions about your schooling experience. Did you

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Speaker 1: finish your twelve No where did you drop out and

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Speaker 1: what did you do when you left?

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Speaker 3: Well, I dropped out, you know, I struggled through to

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Speaker 3: year eleven. I guess I dropped out. I dropped out

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Speaker 3: in year eleven, started a year eleven or halfway through

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Speaker 3: year eleven, I guess, And I went into a like

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Speaker 3: they called it a trainee will buy right at the time,

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Speaker 3: it was a trainee will buy Yes. So basically I

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Speaker 3: was a laborer, you know, I was the youngest young

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Speaker 3: I mean, you know, look, look, it's it's not a

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Speaker 3: good thing joining the workforce at a really young age.

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Speaker 3: You know. I went in, I went to work, and

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Speaker 3: I basically got bullied for two or three years. I

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Speaker 3: can distinctly remember, you know, I would have been eighteen.

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Speaker 3: You know. I was cheeky, rude, probably pretty full of

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Speaker 3: myself and used to get stuck into the older blokes.

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Speaker 3: And one bloke turned around and builted me sort of

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Speaker 3: three times at one stage. And that's how it is.

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Speaker 3: Back in the day when you left school early, there

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Speaker 3: were no there's no work safe or anything like that.

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Speaker 3: It was tough.

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Speaker 2: Why was school so hard for you?

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Speaker 3: Well, I reckon, I had a you know, I mean,

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Speaker 3: like these days, ADHD is diagnosed, right, but back in

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Speaker 3: the day, ADHD certainly wasn't diagnosed. And I've got ADHD.

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Speaker 3: You know, I can't sit still, I can't concentrate, and

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Speaker 3: sitting sitting, you know, in a classroom for that long

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Speaker 3: just just didn't suit me. And you know, also, my

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Speaker 3: parents split up when I was about fifteen, and you know,

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Speaker 3: that was pretty tough. And you know, my mum didn't

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Speaker 3: have a lot of money, and you know, she was

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Speaker 3: always at me to go and get a job help

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Speaker 3: the family.

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Speaker 1: So and as you're going through school, you're struggling, families

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Speaker 1: kind of falling apart a little bit. You're inattentive and

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Speaker 1: kind of active. What got you as far as halfway

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Speaker 1: through year eleven? Like, how did you manage to stay

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Speaker 1: at school that long? Because it sounds like it was

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Speaker 1: a really really big challenge.

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Speaker 3: It was I had to get a job. You know

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Speaker 3: that I couldn't leave without a job because we certainly

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Speaker 3: didn't have any money in the family. So and you know,

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Speaker 3: I needed to contribute to you. I think I earned

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Speaker 3: ninety bucks when I first got Jim and I go

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Speaker 3: thirty dollars to my mum every week. So, yeah, I

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Speaker 3: needed to get a job and before I left, so.

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Speaker 1: You're going to get this job. And like you said,

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Speaker 1: it's tough. You're young, you're immature. You probably got a

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Speaker 1: little bit too big ahead on those little shoulders. And

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Speaker 1: I mean the research that's just been published in the

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Speaker 1: last couple of months from the federal government shows that

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Speaker 1: young people who go into trades and apprenticeships and traineeships

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Speaker 1: massive dropout rate, Like more than fifty percent of them

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Speaker 1: drop out without completing any kind of qualification, any kind

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Speaker 1: of apprenticeship, any kind of trade. Did you hang tight

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Speaker 1: with that first job or did you kind of get

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Speaker 1: on the job of Mary go around trying a range

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Speaker 1: of things.

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Speaker 2: How long did you stay port And no.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I stared. I stayed there for four years. Yeah, well,

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Speaker 3: and and then I went Then I went into a trade.

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Speaker 3: So you know, when I was when I was young,

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Speaker 3: the trades weren't as prolific as they are now. Otherwise

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Speaker 3: I would have probably got into a trade straight away.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, so I stayed there for four years and

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Speaker 3: then went into a trade after that.

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Speaker 1: As I listened to the story in the way you're

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Speaker 1: telling it, it certainly sounds like the world is not

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Speaker 1: quite as I want to say easy, but that doesn't

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Speaker 1: feel like the right word. But the world feels like

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Speaker 1: it feels like there are more options if you've done

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Speaker 1: well at school, if you've got maybe that set of

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Speaker 1: grades that can set you up for tertiary education. Would

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Speaker 1: you agree with that or do you think that the

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Speaker 1: eighteen year older and still did actually make the right

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Speaker 1: choice doing the things that you did.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, I've got two boys of my own who

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Speaker 3: are dyslexic and have ADHD school. They hate school, but

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Speaker 3: I got them through to year twelve. I've got one

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Speaker 3: throe to year twelve. I've got one who now is

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Speaker 3: sixteen in year ten or nearly seventeen in year ten.

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Speaker 3: It's important to start at school. I really believe it's

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Speaker 3: important to start at school, not only for the options

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Speaker 3: you might have later in life, but for your community,

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Speaker 3: right for your friends. I mean, you know, you don't

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Speaker 3: realize until you've left school that school is the only

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Speaker 3: place you see your friends every day without trying. As

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Speaker 3: soon as you leave school, leave you lose that community

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Speaker 3: and that ship straight away. Look, if I think that

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Speaker 3: in a perfect world, you know, I think education is

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Speaker 3: a great thing. And in my charity, it's all about education.

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Speaker 3: It's all about trying to get these kids through to

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Speaker 3: the end of year twelve so that can become a

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Speaker 3: valuable member of the community and a valuable employee.

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about the charity, but just as

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Speaker 1: a quick aside before we step into that. Along the way,

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Speaker 1: as you've got that trade and kept on building and developing.

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Speaker 1: You've owned a pub, you've run a fruit and bedshop,

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Speaker 1: You've had a construction business, you've sold a widget business.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you keep on developing these ideas, and on

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Speaker 1: top of all of it, with with no with no

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Speaker 1: high school education, on top of all of it, you've

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Speaker 1: gone and started this, this this charity. Tell me about

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Speaker 1: how Kickstart for Kids came about.

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Speaker 3: I will, well, well, let's let's just go back to

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Speaker 3: my to my story. So you know, so I left

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Speaker 3: school completely uneducated, right, and I've always had a burning

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Speaker 3: desire to be better than what I was. So every

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Speaker 3: move I've made, you know, I might have bought a

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Speaker 3: business and I've sold it, but every time I you know,

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Speaker 3: little fruit and beached business, I sold that, they went

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Speaker 3: into a pub, sold that went into something. So it

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Speaker 3: gets bigger and bigger and bigger right as we go.

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Speaker 3: If you don't get an education, that is really what

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Speaker 3: you have to do. So if you don't get a

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Speaker 3: tersiary education, you've really got to if you really want

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Speaker 3: to make it in this world. Unfortunately, you've got to

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Speaker 3: own your own business. So, you know, that's what I did,

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Speaker 3: and I sort of realized that I didn't. I didn't

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Speaker 3: have an education, so I had to So I had

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Speaker 3: to build businesses up and become successful and then sell them,

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Speaker 3: and then you build another one up and sell them

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Speaker 3: and that. Look, that's worked pretty well for me, but

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Speaker 3: kicks out for kids out of that come about that

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Speaker 3: That basically came about from doing some men touring in

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Speaker 3: a you know, from the education department. I've always been

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Speaker 3: interested in helping young kids and coaching footy and whatever,

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Speaker 3: and I was just doing some work in a lower

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Speaker 3: social school and just noticed that the behavioral difference was

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Speaker 3: massive between those kids in that school and where my

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Speaker 3: kids went to school. And just went on from there

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Speaker 3: and obviously then found out about all these disadvantaged kids

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Speaker 3: and the horrific social circumstances they were living with. And

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Speaker 3: it's all about breaking the cycle of unemployment and poverty,

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Speaker 3: and you only can do that through education. So we

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Speaker 3: have to keep the kids at school. So everything that

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Speaker 3: we run, the breakfast program, a lunch program, mentoring, a

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Speaker 3: period poverty program, a vacation camp program, is all about

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Speaker 3: well being and keeping the kids at school so they

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Speaker 3: can get educated and finish school.

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Speaker 1: So that the aims of the charity. But how did

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Speaker 1: it actually start? So you're doing this work in this

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Speaker 1: school with the Department of Education, and you noticed that

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Speaker 1: there are behavioral differences in the two places. But what then,

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Speaker 1: I mean, the way you tell the story at this point,

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Speaker 1: it sounds like you saw a need and all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, you've created a charity that's aimed at helping

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Speaker 1: kids get through school. But what does that look like?

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Speaker 1: And what did it look like at the very start

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Speaker 1: when you saw the need?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, I'm pretty buzzy about it. You're right. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: so I ad a construction business at the time, a

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Speaker 3: building business. I couldn't take all those kids at home,

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Speaker 3: but I realized they were all starving, so they couldn't.

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Speaker 3: They didn't have anything to wheat, right, And as a

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Speaker 3: young father, I knew how unmanageable my kids were when

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Speaker 3: they were hungry. That's what these kids were portraying. So

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Speaker 3: I decided to how are we going to get into school,

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Speaker 3: how are we going to get into school on time?

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Speaker 3: And how are we going to make them happy? So

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Speaker 3: they starting to pass rain, Well, let's give them some

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Speaker 3: breakfast and give them some lunch. So I went down

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Speaker 3: to the shopping center and filled out the back of

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Speaker 3: my ute with as much product as I could and

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Speaker 3: set up a breakfast program and offer went from there. Really,

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Speaker 3: the reason I really.

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Speaker 1: Want to drill down onto this is because this people

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Speaker 1: see this need all the time, right Like, you show

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Speaker 1: up at the school or you show up at whatever

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Speaker 1: it is, and you can see that there's need, that

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Speaker 1: there's disadvantage of that, there's some challenge or whatever. But

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Speaker 1: then you've not only seen that there's a need, you've

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Speaker 1: decided to go and round up a whole lot of food,

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Speaker 1: ask for a whole lot of donations, and then you've

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Speaker 1: literally just chucked it in the back of the ute

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Speaker 1: and driven to the school and said, hey, I've got

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Speaker 1: breakfast kids.

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Speaker 3: Basically, that's how it happened. It's a bit more complicated

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Speaker 3: than that, but that's certainly how the first one started,

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Speaker 3: and you know, I did that before work, you know,

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Speaker 3: for ten years with my family and just went out

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Speaker 3: and ran breakfast programs and took kids as much food

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Speaker 3: as we could. See. The media got hold of it

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Speaker 3: and then at for you know, it just sort of

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Speaker 3: snowboard and grew from there. But yeah, I saw a

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Speaker 3: need and I did something about it. We all say

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Speaker 3: that we're going to do this, and we're going to

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Speaker 3: do that, we don't necessarily go out and do it.

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Speaker 3: I reckon blokes are renowned for that, you know, whether

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Speaker 3: it be going for a run or not having a

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Speaker 3: beer or you know, whatever it is. We're renowned for

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Speaker 3: saying stuff and not doing that. And I was certainly

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Speaker 3: renowned for it. But this rock my world. I had

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Speaker 3: to do something about it, and off we went.

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Speaker 1: So what I want to ask you is were you

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Speaker 1: always that kid, like when you were that fifteen sixteen

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Speaker 1: year old kid in a really nice Adelaide school. Were

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Speaker 1: you mindful of other people and their needs? Were you

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Speaker 1: involved in charity and service and volunteering when you were

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Speaker 1: a kid?

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Speaker 2: Is that who you've always been? No?

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Speaker 3: No, no, no, not at all. And look, rest related

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Speaker 3: to your podcast here about education and whether you need

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Speaker 3: education or Look, I think we all need life skills, right.

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Speaker 3: And I was the most hedonistic, selfish sixteen seventeen, eighteen

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Speaker 3: year old you could ever imagine, you know, I was

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Speaker 3: only worried about myself and my three or four close

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Speaker 3: mates and where an xper was coming from and what

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Speaker 3: we were doing on the weekend. But blokes, males, boys, mate,

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Speaker 3: we don't grow up until we're late twenties, really mid twenties.

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Speaker 2: And some might say a little later, just between you

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Speaker 2: and me, and some might say.

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Speaker 3: Later, absolutely even later. And mums and dads get so

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Speaker 3: wrapped up in exactly what you're talking about. Oh you know, exams,

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Speaker 3: Oh you know, how are they going to go? You're

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Speaker 3: not studying enough, You're not doing this, you're not doing that.

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Speaker 3: At the end of the day, exams mean nothing, right.

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Speaker 3: I believe if you can get broody year twelve, right,

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Speaker 3: it doesn't matter what happens in your exams, because what

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Speaker 3: you do when you leave school, I absolutely guarantee you're

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Speaker 3: not going to be doing it when you're twenty eight

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Speaker 3: or thirty two or thirty five. We all grow up,

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Speaker 3: and we all change our ideas and our ideals and

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Speaker 3: our beliefs, and we get better as we mature, and

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Speaker 3: we finally find out what we're good at and what

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Speaker 3: we want to do when we mature.

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Speaker 1: I've got to I've just got to share this with you.

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Speaker 1: I think it will resonate so strongly when I'm talking

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Speaker 1: about topics like this in schools and in organizations around

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Speaker 1: the country. Doing the various talks that I give, I

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Speaker 1: always ask this question. I'll ask parents to please put

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Speaker 1: up their hand nice and high if they are still

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Speaker 1: doing today what they thought they'd be doing when they

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Speaker 1: finished year twelve. And it's about about twenty percent of

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Speaker 1: hands go up. The other eighty percent stay down. And

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Speaker 1: then I say, okay, so if you had a plan

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Speaker 1: and it didn't work out the way in doing something

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Speaker 1: totally different, your hand and then literally eighty percent of

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Speaker 1: hands go up. And I think the point that I'm

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Speaker 1: hearing you make, and it's the one that I make

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Speaker 1: as well, is we're putting all this pressure on our

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Speaker 1: kids to get this result because the year twelve exams

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Speaker 1: become this exclamation mark on your education. But your education

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Speaker 1: in many ways, really starts out of school, doesn't it.

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Speaker 3: Of course it does, and we all know whatever you

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Speaker 3: achieve in that year twelve result can be overturned when

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Speaker 3: you actually know what you want to do by going

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Speaker 3: and applying for a different course at UNI. You know,

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Speaker 3: I often speak to parents who are still parenting their

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Speaker 3: nineteen year olds about not going to UNI. Like, these

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Speaker 3: kids have been at school for the last eighteen years

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Speaker 3: and their parents want them to go and jump into

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Speaker 3: UNI the year after. Oh my god, please let them

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Speaker 3: go and do whatever they want to do for four

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Speaker 3: or five years and then maybe go to UNI. You'll

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Speaker 3: get a higher education.

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Speaker 2: So what do you do with your kids?

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Speaker 1: You've got three of your own, and you've got to

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Speaker 1: foster child who I presume you treated your own. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: what's the conversation look like in your home when it

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Speaker 1: comes to I mean, you've already mentioned that there's some

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Speaker 1: additional needs and additional support necessary, But what's the conversation

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Speaker 1: look like and sound like as your kids move into

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Speaker 1: those later high school years.

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Speaker 3: It's about being happy. You're not happy, then you're not

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Speaker 3: being the best person you can be. So you know,

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Speaker 3: obviously I've told you about my boys. If I can

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Speaker 3: get my sixteen year old to get to year twelve,

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Speaker 3: well that'll be fantastic. But if he's all and he

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Speaker 3: he's just not happy at all, well then he goes

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Speaker 3: and gets a trade to be happy. Right now. You know,

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Speaker 3: my elder son who started a school based apprenticeship a

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Speaker 3: week got him through to year twelve and then he

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Speaker 3: started full time employment straight the year after my girls,

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Speaker 3: and it's a lot different, right. Girls are more studious.

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Speaker 3: So my girls they did all the things that they

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Speaker 3: needed to get through to year twelve. One studied a

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Speaker 3: little better than the other one, but they both got

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Speaker 3: into nursing. But none of them they're not doing nursing.

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Speaker 3: They're both having fun and they've got part time jobs

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Speaker 3: and they are living their best life. They might go

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Speaker 3: back to nursing next year. I'm sure at some stage

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Speaker 3: they'll get sick of working part time jobs, but they

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Speaker 3: will certainly, and they'll go back and go to UNI.

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Speaker 3: But they just felt that they weren't going to be

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Speaker 3: happy studying straight after year twelve.

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Speaker 2: Ian, I've loved the conversation. Thank you so much for

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Speaker 2: sharing your story.

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Speaker 1: My understanding is that Kick Stuff Kids is now in

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Speaker 1: over three hundred and sixty South Australian schools.

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Speaker 2: Is that about right?

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Speaker 3: That's all right. Sixty thousand breakfasts, ten thousand lunches, three

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Speaker 3: hundred and sixty schools and a one thousand volunteers.

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Speaker 2: It's amazing. It's amazing. Love your drive, love your passion,

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Speaker 2: love your story. I think this is going to be

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Speaker 2: so beneficial for so many parents. Thank you, Ian, Good.

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Speaker 3: On you, mate, Thanks for the chat.

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Speaker 1: That's father of four, Ian Steel, married to Georgie Adelaide,

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Speaker 1: born and bred, went to one of the most prestigious

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Speaker 1: schools in Adelaide picked up the Australia Day Citizen of

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Speaker 1: the Year in twenty nineteen. The founder of Kickstart for Kids,

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Speaker 1: business owner and just an incredible story about.

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Speaker 2: A guy who didn't do so well at school.

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Speaker 1: Obviously values education and knows how important it is, but

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Speaker 1: highlights that there is so much more to life than what.

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Speaker 2: You get on your year twelve exams.

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Speaker 1: So good luck as you have your conversations with the

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Speaker 1: kids about education and about the decisions that they're making,

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Speaker 1: and particularly about how they're going to go with their

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Speaker 1: year twelve exams. Tomorrow we have a chat with another

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Speaker 1: fascinating guy. His name is Cam Barber. Cam has mentored CEOs,

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Speaker 1: He has mentored movie Company's Fortune five hundred companies in

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Speaker 1: the US. And for those who love the AFL, the

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Speaker 1: Hawthorne Football Club and we're going to find out why

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Speaker 1: he quit UNI on day one. All this week conversations

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Speaker 1: about education and how what happened in year twelve may

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Speaker 1: or may not be the most important thing that can

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Speaker 1: ever happen in your kid's life. The Happy Families podcast

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Speaker 1: is produced by Justin Roland for Bridge Media. We have

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Speaker 1: Craig Bruce as our executive producer. For more information about

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Speaker 1: making your family happy, visitors at happy families dot com.

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Speaker 2: Today you