Driving instructors often juggle multiple responsibilities, and in this episode, we explore how technology can serve as a vital tool for self-care. Pascale Poppins joins Terry Cook to discuss practical ways instructors can automate processes, manage client pipelines, and reduce stress using tech solutions.

From setting up automated responses to creating personalised welcome videos for new learners, these strategies enhance the client experience and give instructors more time to breathe and recharge.

The conversation dives into the importance of collecting meaningful testimonials and how to leverage them effectively, ensuring that instructors maintain a positive image even when busy. With a playful tone and plenty of actionable insights, this episode is a must-listen for any driving instructor looking to improve their work-life balance while fostering better connections with their clients.

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Terry Cook and Pascale Poppins engage in a compelling conversation about the role of technology in promoting self-care among driving instructors. The episode highlights the pressing need for instructors to adopt tech solutions that not only streamline their operations but also enhance their mental well-being. Pascale articulates how embracing technology can transform daily frustrations into manageable tasks, allowing instructors to focus on their primary mission—teaching and supporting their students. By implementing automation tools, instructors can create efficient workflows that minimize stress and maximize productivity, essentially redefining their relationship with technology as one of empowerment rather than overload.

The discussion transitions into practical strategies for creating an effective customer pipeline. Pascal elaborates on various platforms like Notion and Trello that enable instructors to visualize their client journeys. This organizational clarity not only aids in managing appointments but also provides a clear overview of income streams and client engagement levels. The importance of maintaining boundaries is emphasized, particularly for those instructors who may feel overwhelmed by their responsibilities. Pascal's suggestions for automating client communication and using tech to set personal boundaries resonate deeply, making a strong case for the integration of technology into everyday practices for better self-care.

As the episode wraps up, the focus shifts to the significance of gathering and utilizing testimonials effectively. Pascal advises instructors to ask thoughtful questions that elicit more than just standard feedback, encouraging a deeper connection with clients and a richer marketing narrative. This approach not only enhances the quality of testimonials but also fosters a sense of community among students and instructors. Ultimately, the episode serves as an inspiring reminder that technology, when used thoughtfully, can significantly enhance the teaching experience and support instructors' well-being, paving the way for a fulfilling career in driving instruction.

Takeaways:

• Using technology as a tool for self-care can significantly reduce stress for driving instructors.
• Creating automated systems for client intake helps instructors manage their time more effectively.
• Personalized welcome videos can ease anxiety for new students and improve their experience.
• Establishing a customer pipeline allows instructors to track potential clients and manage bookings efficiently.
• Implementing automated testimonials requests can enhance the quality of feedback received from students.
• Having a supportive community through memberships can provide invaluable resources and emotional support for instructors.

The Instructor Podcast with Terry Cook talking with leaders, innovators, experts and game changers about what drives them. Welcome to the Instructor Podcast. This is a show that helps you become an even more awesome driving instructor and run a better business.

As always, I am your Jolly Northern host, Terry Cook and I'm delighted to be here. Even more delighted that you have chosen to listen because we are continuing season nine which is based all around the technology.

And who better to have sponsor us for season nine based on technology, the My Drive Time, the industry's premium award winning business management app.

Find out more@mydrivetime.co.uk but on today's show I get to embarrass myself by attempting to speak French as I'm joined by the delightful Pascal Poppins.

Now I'm not going to attempt the actual surname now because I butcher enough during the episode, but Pascal is here to talk to us all about using technology for self care whilst also giving us some top tips on creating customer pipelines and how to generate excellent reviews. But just before we get stuck in, I want to point you in the direction of the Instructor podcast website.

That's WW, the instructor podcast.com over there.

You can find everything we have to offer, including our entire back catalog of episodes, free resources and more details on our paid membership for which is currently a three weeks trial. Find out more@the Instructor podcast.com but for now let's get stuck into the show.

So today on the Instructor podcast I am joined by the wonderful Pascal Rishi. How was that? Was that good?

Yeah, it's good.

Excellent. And I also get the opportunity now to say bonjour Pascal.

Thank you.

Excellent. Well, we're going to stop the French there because that's about my limit. I don't want to embarrass myself too much but.

But thank you for for joining me today, Pascal. Delighted to have you. I think the first question I want to actually ask you because I think most of my listeners won't be aware of you.

So do you want to start off by telling us a little bit about you and about what you do?

Yes.

So if I have a common thread I can explain, is that I aim to reduce frustration for everybody, for the business owner, for the clients and for the teams I work with. So that looks like having a good strategy, the good tools, the good systems to work together and to amplify also profits.

So it's really a holistic view of a business. And the nice bonus is also using tech as self care. For me, that's really my big challenge in life is making sure people see tech as self care.

Because usually people who don't like tech, they really have, there is that little oh no, I don't like tech, it's too complicated. But it can be something you lean on. It can be really something that helps you day to day, that helps you do better work while wasting less energy.

And I'd be frustrated by doing things in a rush and below quality. So yeah, that's Pascal Poppins in a nutshell.

Do you know what?

I love that tech for self care and I do want to dig into that, but before we do, I have to ask you this question because I was doing a little bit of research, as I do and stalking you online and seeing what was going on and stuff. And it turns out that before all the Pascal popping stuff, you used to be a makeup artist.

And we're in the Guardians of the Galaxy film doing the makeup on Guidance the Galaxy. How awesome was that?

Oh, that's actually my best memory ever because I was doing makeup and hair and we would do things that were so different, it was so varied.

So one day I would do high fashion hair on a gent for one scene in the, you know, clean, nice city and then the day after I would throw yellow paint for the prison scene. So I was working on the crowd, so lots to do. Waking up at 3am to start work at half four so that everybody could be ready at eight.

You know, these kind of days it was lots of work, lots of fun, lots of amazing people to work with. So definitely a highlight of my career.

So absolutely nothing with what we're talking about today. But I had to ask and I'm going to stop myself from asking much more. But I want to dig into that.

What you said before techies is self care because I like that. Why? How can we use technology as self care?

So imagine you are in a rush, something came up, you need to go pick up the kids or take care of your brother and at the same time you've got a new client coming in but you can't answer and you're on the phone and you're, you know, just not answering properly because your head is in 10 different places.

Instead, imagine from your social, you have a link, people can fill a form and automatically you get the main info from them so you can contact them later. And you've got a first email that is sent automatically that say, oh hi, super happy you're interested in working together for your driving test.

Here's how I work. Here's how you can book your first test.

You know, just really welcoming, friendly if that's your tone, really serious in corporate if that's your tone.

And instead of being really like stressed out you can just send people that link and say sorry I'm in a hurry but all information can be done at this place and they can fill it. So you don't even need a website. It can be done from a free link that you attach to your social media. There are tons of mini sites nowadays.

You've got beacons, AI, you've got link tree, there's plenty you can use and you can put you know those little click to action link goes to a form, the form field, a Google sheet or your notion app. Your client is taken care of, you know that you haven't lost a client. You are not stress wondering did I send everything I should have sent?

You know, you can just focus on what is important for you right now and everything is sorting in the background. That's an example of thicker self care.

I like it. And you know what, actually there's something we're going to be talking about today, kind of those pipelines that you mentioned there.

But I think one of the first thing that springs to my mind is almost the opposite of that because I've recently put my. So I love tech, I love like online stuff and I love, I don't always like social media but I like the ability to have social media.

For example, yeah, I've recently just put my phone on do not disturb and I get no notifications from anything. And it's like when I go and choose it. So I think there's two different things.

Aren't you, you've got that idea like you said of the automating it and taking the stress off. But we can then filter it even further, choose those notifications. So is that the other side of it?

Just looking after yourself by making sure we're not taking too much on?

Yeah, exactly.

And you know when you have also your calendar, an online calendar, you can block times so you're sure that you, you don't by accident give a slot to someone at a time where you shouldn't. So it can be as silly as blocking your birthday or you know a day when you know you're going to feel weird.

We all have you know, in a year, a day when we're not at our best and we should, shouldn't be taking any clients.

You can block these days in your calendar so that you know anyone can't allow themselves into this day that you have sheltered from the outside world.

So it's all those little things that tech helps you with when you're not a good friend to yourself, when you forget to protect your time, when you forget to protect your boundaries. Because I don't know about you, but starting your business is also learning to state boundaries much better.

And what I love with templates and things that go out automatically or automatically is that you think about them once when you are calm, collected, when you can ask help to other people. You know, you just have your time and you write it.

You write your email, you say how the invoice should be paid by that time or how you don't accept this or that behavior.

You're not, you know, red angry, you're not sad, you're just, it's the moment you write and you've got help at the fingertips and you do this template once so that when you need them you don't have a risk of being too angry or not put your boundaries properly. It's that assistant of yours that takes the Lord on.

And it's easier to just send an email that's been pre written than choosing your words when you're really, you know.

I love it and it's not something that I would have really put together like that the idea of technology and self care, but if we use it in that way, I think you're right.

And just to throw sort of one more example from me, one of the things I do in my, my membership is they have open zoom rooms, I call them problem solver sessions.

And the my zoom will be off for two hours four times a month and people can just come and drop in and that works quite well because I know I'm on there for those two hours that time is blocked out but I've recently switched it and I'm now doing like 15 minute mini coaching sessions instead.

So I've just opened up my zoom schedule calendar, set my times in there and I've given that available people so they can book those 15 minute slots and that feels easier for me.

It feels like it's a way often and some people might prefer the other way but I'm finding that now I feel less pressure and less stress on that stretch stress on that. So I don't know why.

So yeah, it's just interesting in it that you've got this, this modern technology which can cause so much stress but if we use it correctly it can reduce it as well.

Exactly. And it's really, you know, the, the important thing is wondering what is draining for me what puts me under stress.

It's what I like to call what's the pebble in your shoe? Basically, because we keep on walking with this pebble in a shoe when actually there could be a way to relieve it.

So sometimes it's just, you know, the organization of it. Like you said, instead of having a big block, now you've got all these tiny blocks because it's better for you, for your energy.

For some people, it's going to be something else. For me, I know that. You know, creating invoices, for example, Hate it.

Well, nowadays, lots of places, you can actually create the invoice automatically. If people book a call automatically, the platform is going to create the invoice for you.

Relief.

Because that's a small detail that's really important. It needs to be done.

But if it's me doing it, oh my gosh, it's not just the five minutes that takes me to do it, it's going to be the hour before when I don't want to do it and the half an hour after because, oh, gosh, I've done it and now I don't have any energy left, you know, so it's. Where is your pebble? That's where you start.

You. You dropping some wisdom today. The pebble in the shoe. While I cut analogy.

But you mentioned automation again there and I think I want to touch on that because when I was decided to do this season all around technology, one of the first names that came in my brain was Pascal Poppins. And I've wanted you on for ages, but I didn't quite get where you'd fit in. But it was definitely in this technology season.

So I reached out to you and what was lovely was that the immediate reply and then, oh, Terry, I've got an idea.

We can do some on simple tools for making yourself a pipeline, for booking your client sessions and then sending questions automatically for testimonials and this kind of stuff. So. And I was just genuinely chuffed with that response. So I'm just going to open the floor to you there and then just say, tell us about that.

Yeah. So nowadays when you choose apps and things, first you need to think, how do I work? And what's missing? So that's the people and how do you work?

So I guess all honest listeners are working more from their phone, am I right? Because you're on the road, taking care of your clients, you're driving, you can't be answering the phone all the time.

So you want to have a way to not lose any Prospect.

So that's why always having some sort of waiting list or a pipeline is going to be really good because that also gives you some visibility on the money that's coming. If you buy hours, people are going to buy maybe a package first and maybe there's going to be top up.

You want to see the months when the money is going to arrive. So a pipeline, basically it's just as it says, it's a pipeline.

You're going to see things coming at different time or places and you're going to stack up by stage where people are in this pipeline. So you're going to have people that just said, oh, they're interested but they're really curious, they need, you know, help.

So you don't know if they're going to become clients because they are really, really just curious.

The people who are actually interested that maybe they've known you or someone referred you to them or maybe they've got like a deadline for a new job. So these people are really more prospect or a lead. Then you've got your clients and then you see when it's done.

So you're having a clear view of these different stages of interest. It's going to help you because sometimes you may have loads of people who are clients, you're, you know, they're full paid.

But all of a sudden you realize, I've got only one person that's really interested and I've got only two people who are vaguely asking questions. So you know that you need to put the marketing and the sales wheel on because otherwise a month later, it can be a tough month. We don't want that.

So having the visibility of your sales action is going to be really helpful because on the opposite, if you're doing something and you see all the leads coming into your pipeline, that's going to be relaxing. You're going to see, okay, what I'm doing is working. And you can really see, okay, this thing has worked. This way of speaking to lead has worked.

I've been, you know, having more people, blah, blah, blah. You can see, I think, visibility on your efforts and your result helps you sleep at night.

And before I ask you about kind of that pipeline and how we might create and that sort of thing, I just, the thing that strikes for me as well is that's going to filter customers out. It's going to filter our learners out as well.

Because there are some people that won't like my personality and they probably don't want to be stuck in a car with me for 40 hours. And I probably don't want to be stuck in a car with them for 40 hours.

So as they work through that process, which could be just two or three steps, but as they work through that process, is that going to help filter those people out? So I get people that want to work for me rather than people that just are keen to do a test and whatever.

Yeah, that's the thing. You can put in the first step, whatever you want. So I know for me, I'm weird, I'm owning it. I'm not for everybody. I'm going to acquire a taste.

It is how it is.

So if someone comes out of the blue without knowing me, without having heard anything and explain, I'm going to be really, how do you say, slow and patient to see why they ask to work with me. Because there's 99% chance we are not a good fit unless they've been, you know, hearing about me through a friend.

But if they haven't consumed my content, I'm gonna be like, oh, okay, before we sell you this big package, let's test it out. Let's do 30 minute call or an hour call. Because I know that could be a recipe for disaster. I'm not interested in disaster. I like win, win, win.

That's all I'm vibing for.

So for you, maybe you can put, I don't know, like a geek question in the form or that maybe, you know, whatever helps you break the ice as well when you first meet your client, or anything that helps you kind of make sure you've got the right people in. Maybe you put a pun, if you like puns and you know, you do lots of puns, but it's not for everybody. So maybe you put a big pun in your form.

You know, anything that helps you start to see if it's a good fit.

Yeah. And maybe this isn't quite the same thing, but I think it's a good example that applies to me and therefore driving instructors.

And it's on my Facebook page. And I've told this story before, but you know, I put stuff on there sometimes about being an ally to the LG TBQ plus community.

And when I do that, I will often get a message from someone this. And once it springs in my head with someone messaging me saying, I saw you'd had this lgt the pride flag and I think I feel safe for you.

Can I come for lessons? I thought, oh, how lovely is that?

Yeah, it's so lovely and it's so precious, both from you and for them. Like knowing you're safe with someone when you're 40 hours in a car. Yeah, that is so important.

So whatever your values are is going to be helpful for the right people to see them, because. Yeah. And if it's not for them, maybe that's for someone they know or maybe they're going to talk to an association.

Like the ripple is going to be bigger just because you are you fully and people can see it.

Exactly. And then it'll work the other way as well. So if there is someone who doesn't want to work with me because of that, it filters out.

And that's not necessarily a criticism of them. It gives them the choice to choose. Oh, I'll go with this person who doesn't have a pride flag. So I think it works both ways. But just this pipeline.

Then how do we create this pipeline? Where would we start with this?

Plenty of apps you want to have something simple. So you could have something like a Trello.

Trello board is quite easy to use and it presents as a board, so it's really like having those little sticky notes and you decide of your columns. So as I said, that can be like vague interest.

Really interested, started asking to pay, paid, you know, this kind of thing done and fully paid, for example. And the very important one will come back later, maybe. Testimonials. Gut testimonials.

You have to have that kind of step if it's something you really want to get in your flow. So Trello is a good one. Really simple. There's a free plan, really simple way. And it works on phone. I need to check normally it works on phone.

You've got notion as well. Notion. You can create whatever you want. So it may be for people who are a bit more amused by tech, because you need to create it, basically.

You also have templates. So if you look in notion and you look for CRMs, there are templates you can use.

You just duplicate it in your account and that can also work from your phone because that's going to be really important. After that, you've got systems that are a bit more, maybe pricier or bigger, like pipedrive. So that's for people who've got loads of contact.

Zoho as well has got a CRM, so maybe you've got a proper big school with lots of drivers and so that is something you can consider. But to start having something as simple as Trello, that can be just fine.

The one that I use at the minute is, and I'm just an independent instructor, but Jotform do you know Jotform?

Yeah, I know them for like forms, but I didn't know they had like what comes after.

No, they don't. That's where I'm weak. But I use that as a form to start with because that's where I put my little questionnaire on.

So any an issue that inquires of me, I just send them that straight away and it'll be like filled in, they get their address in, they get any concerns in, they get what they want from a driving instructor in, you know, availability, all this kind of stuff. So what could that. I know that's not necessarily the pipeline we're talking about, but is, could that be a good place for someone to start that?

Yeah. Yeah. One tool I love because it's really simple, it's really clean and it's got tons of features is Tally.

Tally is a little form that can connect to anything. So that can connect to a Google sheet.

So just that you could have your database and you can enrich it so you could have some sort of CRM, even if it doesn't look like a board, but it can be at least like a big table where you could have, you know, the evolution of where you're at. It's also really good to do testimonials, forms because you can rate, you can put like little stars and you know, all that kind of rating system.

So that is really, really handy and really easy to create. Tally is one of the easiest and user friendly form software I've seen.

And I should say at this point that for anyone listening, I'll put links for all this stuff in the comments in the in the show notes. They can go back and check them out. But we're just taking a brief pause to give a shout out to a few of our latest signups to the Instructor Premium.

And they are Leo, McCall, Sam and Stacy.

These fine folks have decided to upgrade their CPD with a membership to the Instructor Podcast Premium and have immediate access to hundreds of hours of videos, audios and written training to help them become even more awesome driving instructors.

So whether you're looking to improve your coaching, grow your business, or get some help looking after your mental health and mindset, sign up to Instructor Podcast Premium. There's currently a three weeks trial or you can get a 16% discount of an annual membership.

To find out more, you can use the link in the show notes or head to the instructorpodcast.com but I also want to take a moment to thank my drive time for being sponsors of Season nine of the instructor podcast. One of the excellent features that my drive time offers is journey tracking.

I've got to admit that my students do love it when we have a quick glance at the end of the lesson to see where they've been and they're often quite surprised with how far they've driven and honestly sometimes so am I. Find out more@mydrivetime.co.uk but for now let's get back to the show.

You've mentioned testimonials a few times and I do want to move on to them, but just before we do, just regarding this, this idea of getting people in the system of in this pipeline, is there anything else we can be doing there, do you think?

Well, it's going to be a first good spot because basically you have your form, you connect it to whatever so you can collect Tani to notion or to your Google sheet and that's going to be a thing. You also have apps done for people like your listeners. I know there's the sponsor that is my drive so that is something as well.

At some point maybe they'll be able to connect.

I check they're not turns up here yet but maybe they'll think of it because that's going to help you manage as well the during so you've got the start and also when you do your form you can always make them land somewhere. You know, quite often they click submit. What happens on this thank you page? Is there a message? Maybe there's a little video from you?

You know you can record yourself with your phone, put the video on YouTube for free hidden and that can just be you saying oh thank you for filling this form. I'll be back to you soon.

You know something of you and that start to create that client experience that things that's really you and that's going to make feel like oh cool, I'm looking forward to my session because let's be honest, everybody's a bit scared.

Not maybe everybody, but lots of people are anxiety nowadays about starting something new, about being on the road, about meeting new people and young people even more so having a first contact, hearing your voice or hearing your smile that can have a huge effect on people actually buying from you.

It's interesting you say that because that's what I've been thinking about a little while creating this almost like a little welcome video. You know, I'm going to be driving shooter Terry Cook. Delighted to have you on board is what you can expect. Blah blah blah.

I just like that a two minute almost like A tick tock style video that is just sent out to those students. And, and you know, I just think how welcoming would that be?

Like you mentioned then you, you've got a young student, maybe 17, who's nervous about the first lesson and then they get these videos so they know exactly who's coming on their driving lesson.

Yeah, and that makes such a difference because I know, I remember my tutor from my driving lessons. It was in Paris, 25. Ouch, 26 years ago now. And there was two moments that was really, I can't forget.

I was really scared of changing the very first changing gear kind of thing. And I thought, well, anyway, I'm scared of driving Paris, so I'm gonna take my lessons in Paris, otherwise I will never get into the town.

I will stay in the suburbs and that's silly. So I went there, picked someone and we started learning around the Pantheon, which is like a massive church inside Paris that's like a square.

So I went doing squares because that was forcing me to pass, you know, first and stop and first and second. So she took me on a very small area where people couldn't go fast. And she was so clever about that and same I was scared of going on the motorway.

And she said, okay, okay, we're not going there. And then she told me, you turn left and right, put me on the motorway. And I panicked.

And she was like, take right, there's a going out path in 100 meters. And that was true. So I went there and she said, see, you went on the motorway, you have the right to be on the motorway.

And this sentence, you've got the right to be on the road, I still hear, I hear it to this day.

So, you know, it's so important to feel for people to feel you and feel how you're going to be supportive, how you're going to help them reach that massive milestone. That's driving license. You know, it's big, it, it really isn't.

And I think sometimes we forget that, that, you know, it's something I do every day.

So when someone new comes in, it's almost like this is common to me but it's, it's brand new for them and, and that idea of, of someone coming along and, and whether it's emails or texts or, or whatever and they get like a welcome video from me and then a couple of days later they get a message saying there's a link to my theory test stuff that I do. And then a few days later they get that, you know, like that series.

It's like how much more easily they're going to be going into that, that first lesson. And I think that's great.

But just before we kind of move on to the testimonial aspect then I often leave like the plugs and stuff till the end of the show. But stuff like this with tech, I, I love exploring it, I love finding it out, but I'm not great with it.

But there's also people out there that don't even like exploring it because they're scared of it. So I suppose I've kind of got two questions for you here, Pascal.

Firstly, are you someone that if someone was struggling with this they could come to help? And also, what advice would you maybe give someone that wanted to start this but didn't know where to start?

See, I can help explaining. I do less doing nowadays but I'm recording lots of tutorials so they're at the moment just recorded and not published.

But my YouTube channel is going to be filled with that and my blog is going to be filled with explanation as well because I want everybody to try and get into it. There's so many levels of self care and success online, you just got to go and play with them. So that's going to be there.

I can help, I do consult as well. So if people have like a trouble we can go in and do it together. That's the kind of thing I can do.

So it can be just like an half an hour or an hour where I help you kind of, you know, untie the knot of where you stuck basically and how people should start, start simple, start where the pain is higher. Because if you're scared, the only thing that's going to help you move forward is having, you know, a big carrot in front of you, a big relief.

So if you imagine the relief of not having this pain again, that's going to help you have the courage to try things and really just, you know, try the simple things first. And as you see as you rip the reward you're going to be like, ah, yeah, that is worth it. So like Tally Tally is beautiful, simple app.

And then maybe after that you're going to be curious and you're going to try something else. Maybe at some point you may want to do a newsletter with an email and something that can help send all these emails.

I know Notion has started allowing you to send like one email in automation. So if you do your CRM, you can do this kind of send this, send that, but they don't have the one day later, three day later things yet.

But there are other tools you can use with that, and that's going to be helpful. So do not try to do everything at once.

Just pick something every week, maybe spend five minutes wondering what has been really annoying this week, what has been frustrating me or what did I miss? And then, you know, do that one little thing. Give yourself half an hour.

I'm creating a form this week, or maybe I'm creating an email template for people who are, you know, haven't been respectful because I imagine that happened.

Yes, occasionally. But I want to speak a little bit about testimonials because we kind of touched on this a little bit before because the.

It was interesting when you mentioned me about this and I think you said sending questions automatically to ask for testimonials. And it got me thinking about how I asked for testimonials, because I ask in person. You know, I tend to ask, and I always ask. Not on test day.

I asked a lesson before the test and I usually get one. And they're usually decent testimonials, to be fair.

But I think the problem that I've had in the past, and I think that one of the things a lot of instructors do is we'll just send a message with a link to his Facebook page or a link to Google or whatever and ask for a review. And that review will often be something along the lines of so and so was really great.

He was patient and he helped me pass the first time, which doesn't really stand out. So I think I'm going to be quite broad with this. Again, talk to me about testimonials.

Yeah, testimonials. It's a massive thing. So first, it's always nice to ask, how were you feeling before working together? Because people forget how they were before.

So that can be, you know, what were you afraid of? You can even ask this in the entry form. What is something that you're a bit afraid of? Thinking about learning how to drive.

Because if they forget, you have this in place. So having this question early on in your process, that's going to help you because you can ask after.

You can also ask, you know, what's the best memory or the thing you're most proud of during our time together? You know, trying to make them remember the experience. What precisely have you appreciated about learning with me?

What have I done that helps you learn better and get your test? Because that kind of direct people into thinking and remembering instead of writing testimonials? Because people don't know.

We don't learn in School how to write testimonials.

And some people are not good with words or they can't, you know, they don't know marketing, so they don't know what would be appreciated on a commercial sense. So having these kind of questions can be really helpful to, you know, direct. And you've got some tools also where you can actually ask a video.

Some people are more comfortable just doing a tiny video. So you could have, you know, those questions and then that is sent.

They open the email, the message, and they record themselves talking about what they liked. Yeah, so that, that can help.

No, I like it. And I think there's. There's a couple of things in there, isn't there?

So if, if we send like that form through those three or four questions or whatever, I think that does two things. When they answer it, it gives us good feedback. And we can use that on our website or whatever it might be.

But also we can then, you know, could you leave us a review on Facebook at the end of that with a link to Facebook, for example?

And then again, the good thing about doing that is they've just been thinking about all this stuff, so they're more likely to include it rather than just saying the help me pass my test first time.

Exactly. And you have to test because some people, if they see too many questions, they won't answer. So you need to, you know, test. Maybe this one is good.

You. If that doesn't give you enough good answers, you swipe it around. So, you know, it's always testing. You'll see what works best.

But you can also have just rating for the people who are really who don't like writing at all. Just see what's best, but never say, oh, that doesn't work. It's just a little trick to do. And you'll find the right way to get testimonials.

And then when we've got them, where can we put them? What do we do with our testimonials?

So there are few places that are going to be really good if you imagine your lead flow. So how people see you before they buy from you, where do they meet you? So maybe on your social media so you can reuse them and make little post.

So maybe you're on Instagram or on Facebook and you make an image and you put that screenshot on there.

You also maybe put it in that welcome email when they ask information about working with you, because that's gonna prime their mind into confirming they want to work with you.

So that's easy, you know, if you look at all your process and all the places where people meet you online or not online, that's a good place to put them on.

Yeah. So, yeah, websites as well. Supposedly we've got a website which. On your website then. Let me ask you a little bit about this.

Would you have a dedicated page to reviews and testimonials on your website? Would you just intersperse them sort of across the site?

You can have both. You can have a wall of love and you can have, you know, bitten and bobs.

You have to know on the website, the about page is the most looked at after the homepage. So not having any testimonials on those pages when you have them, it's a pity you really, really have to have those kind of. Yeah.

Love messages in there. And it's also good to have what I call my love folder.

So it's for yourself, because there's always going to be some days where you don't feel like you're doing good. Maybe your energy is a bit low or you haven't had enough vitamin D because it's winter in the uk.

I love the uk, but we know how much sun we get in the summer.

In the winter, having a look at past messages that can light you up is going to do wonders for your energy for this day and how you come back to teaching that day. So having a little folder that's accessible, so that's something I do in notion.

For example, anytime someone says something nice, take a screenshot, put it in my notion and I can access it on the go if I need a little, you know, kick up the. To get moving. So it's going to be. Yeah, anytime you can put it for yourself and for your clients, that's going to help.

I love that they've got the. The Wall of love and the Love folder. But yeah, I mean, even with that, that again, I go back to the reviews that we often get.

They're quite simple and the few lines are not personal and I think that's not going to cheer me up, you know, if I've got this love folder, as we call it, when I see that, it's not going to put me in a good way. It's just a generic kind of comment.

But if, if someone's filled in those questions or if someone's left you a more meaningful review, talking about something that I've done, me personally, that's going to have a much more positive impact in it.

Yeah. And all those personal messages like the one you got for putting a pride flag on that's also something that deserves to be in your love for the.

Even if it's not something you would put as a testimonial because that is really affirming for the work you do and how you do it. So it's something to keep as well. Really, really important.

Another place I forgot to put which is just because it's so obvious to me and I forget it all the time. It's where people book you and pay you because you need to think about the people who are 99% sure they want to work with you.

But the last minute they may be trying to book on the phone and someone says something. So having the last proof that yes, you, someone they want to work with can really help. Click on that buy button. Always good to have there.

I was listening to an audiobook last night and it said that even when there's a delay of a millisecond from someone buying, it can have a big impact in someone not purchasing because they come out of the flow of buying. So that's exactly what I was saying in it. So somewhat distracts you for a second. All of a sudden that flow of purchasing has gone.

So if you give them, when they come back and look back at their phone or the computer or whatever and go, oh, Terry was awesome. Because of X, Y and Z. Oh yeah, that reminds me. And then they'll. They'll go back in. Is that what you're saying?

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes you discuss. So you can have your neighbor, your friend said, are you sure? Worst question ever.

Because then they start to rethink everything. So having the page and be like, well, yeah, see, look, it's got reviews there.

And that's going to help them reaffirm that they are making a good choice. So, you know, it's. It's definitely a place you want them to. To be.

And then just using the website example for the testimonials again, because I've had sort of testimonials in the past that have been quite long, you know, a lot of text in there. Would you get all of that in there or would you be taking certain sentences and highlighting them or both are possible.

If you do screenshots, it's going to be better to have the full screenshot because as soon as you start taking things out, unless it's names and you always can put, you know, some sort of digital masking tape on it. But if you do actual testimonials in website where you actually import the picture and you know, like putting in the code yeah, of course.

You can just take out few sentences if it's too big and just put what really is the best part of the testimonial.

So the state of play in the UK at the minute is that there's quite a backlog on driving tests. You know, people are going to book tests and they're having to wait six months while they can book them.

And this is creating quite a queue, quite a congestion, which in some ways is good for us as instructors, because it means there's a lot of work.

So there will be people listening to this now, driving shutters that are thinking, well, I've got this waiting list of people and I've got loads of work, why should I bother doing this now? And I'm trying not to load this question, but what would you say to those people that are thinking, why should I bother doing any of this now?

Because I've already got loads of work.

Because you never know when work can stop. And that's the thing. The more busy you are, the more you want to not have to be worried about answering to people who ask questions.

So, you know, if you are busy, great, fantastic. Make sure that the quality of your answer are not going to go down because you're working nonstop.

You want to have as much free time as possible if you work a lot. So I don't know if it's like 30 hours a week. You don't want to sat every evening checking all message of the day and answering.

Because that's the thing, when you're busy, you still have people coming in and you still have to interact with them. So make it easy on yourself.

That's a really good reason to do it and get testimonials because the same, like at some point, you don't know, maybe there's a new local driver that's going to come and you never know. It's, you know, free market and all that jazz. So you need to have these in. And it's so lovely anyway to look back on these testimonials.

It's really important. There's a massive shift that makes people trust less and less brands and more and more the testimonials of people and the word of mouth.

So the more you take that in now, the more not evergreen, but the more stable your business is going to be. Because you want to have those, those are assets, those are really important part of your future marketing.

Because you don't want to spend money on Facebook ads unless you really have to and you don't want to be at some Point panicking, because all of a sudden you didn't realize, but your pipeline has dried up and you don't know why. That's the thing. If you work a lot, you may not realize your pipe is drying up.

And maybe in six months, five months, four months, three months, there's not going to be enough people to help you live the way you've gotten used to live because you've got so much more money coming in. So having the visibility really helps.

And you know when to start doing more sales or marketing action instead of one day waking you up and realizing you're just at 50% of what you should have to pay all the bills next month. So it's really, really just to be in control, having a bit of visibility and being more relaxed.

And I suppose the other one there as well. So imagine that I've got this waiting list of customers that are, you know, getting fed these emails or texts or whatever it is that's going out.

Even if one of them thought, I can't wait any longer for Terry, I'm going to go somewhere else, they've still been left with a positive image of me. So if someone else was to say, do you know what instructor? They might say, well, Terry, he's got a waiting list. But they might send me to.

Send that person to me rather than the current instructor because I'm still sending them this positive stuff.

Exactly.

So it's really important because maybe a year later their little brother is going to need someone and maybe they haven't been that happy with the one they choose in the end, but they will remember you and they will say, you know what, just go try Terry. He sounded like he was much better.

Yeah.

The other thing I wanted to touch on today with you was a little bit about memberships, because I know you work with people that have memberships and.

And those listeners, I'm sure, will be aware that I have a membership and there's more and more of them springing up in our industry, all different kinds of places and different kinds of ideas and stuff. So I think I'd just like to ask you a little bit about what are the benefits of being in the membership, do you think? As opposed to.

So let me ask me a different way.

What is the benefit of being part of an ongoing membership where I receive regular training and this kind of stuff, as opposed to going for something where I just get something worn off, perhaps.

I think we. We need community because it can be lonely being an entrepreneur.

I can imagine it's even more lonely when you are just you driving because it's not like you go to an office or you have a team and you work in the one place and you can have like coffee with people. So there's one big thing and it's also peace of mind knowing that if anything happens, you can go there and ask questions.

I was talking earlier about boundaries. Someone crossed a boundary of mine earlier this year and I went into shutdown. I was so surprised, I didn't know what to say.

And I went to a membership I'm apart from with people who do similar work online and they helped me phrase it and they helped me see that I was not in the wrong, that actually, yes, there was a boundary. So sometimes you can't decide if something is or not bad or wrong.

You know, there's all those gray area in relationships with clients when discussions happen.

So knowing that there's always a community and someone who runs the community, that makes it safe and someone you can ask questions to, that is precious. It's hard to run a business. It's harder to do it alone. So definitely community.

Even if you don't see the use right now, you don't know if tomorrow you're not going to have something where you don't want to be alone. Facing that question.

I love the answer. I loved all these answers today. These are great. But before we started recording today, we were talking a little bit about Poppins in your pocket.

And we're talking about how I may be indulging in this in the future. Tell me about Poppins in the pocket.

So it's a bit like it's not a membership, but it's for this moment when you have a question with tech and you are wondering what should I do? Or did I did it? Did I do it? Well, what's going on? So you can just text me or leave me a voice note.

And then every weekday I come back to you and I answer. Because there's always this moment when it's hard to decide and it can be just me asking you question as well.

Because sometimes deciding is being asked questions so that you can see better what's going on and what you need to do. So either I've got the answer for you or the resource. Maybe I'm just going to tell you, oh, yes, that's something that this app can do.

You don't have to spend four hours doing it, just do that in five minutes with this app.

Or maybe I'm going to ask you a question and this way you're not alone facing your Tech and your customer experience questions that can be also reading me and welcome email and telling me what do you think? Do I need to add something or to take out something?

So if someone was interested in getting a Poppins in their pocket, how would they go about doing that?

You can take contact with me. I'm really often on LinkedIn and Facebook, so do not hesitate there.

And yeah, I'm also going to send you a little form and you can give me some information. Really take the time to read a bit more about me.

But maybe if you listen to all this, you have a sense of how I work and the kind of thing I can help you with. So that's always a good sign.

And I've got a page as well I'm going to create just for you listeners where you'll have the links and everything you need and maybe some surprise video on how to handle this first welcoming sequence.

There you go, the personal surprise video. That's what we like. But yeah, no, I think that's awesome.

And a couple of bits from me because I've only just followed you on LinkedIn and I would advise that people go and do because I've been scanning your stuff on there and I think that's where the good stuff is on LinkedIn. But I will put links for the stuff you've said, stay in the show notes and the blog and all that kind of stuff.

And as you said, when you get that YouTube, we're running all the tutorials, I'll be sharing that as well because I think that will be a great place to start. But as we've said, if anyone wants any more from Pascal or Poppins in their pocket, then you can find stuff in the show notes.

But is there anything else you want to touch on today? Pascal? Any other knowledge bombs you want to drop before you disappear?

Knowledge bomb? I don't know.

But if there's one thing I really want everybody to live with is that as I said, tech is self care and a good customer experience is simply everybody winning. So you make sure that your people get the right information at the right time. You give them different ways of being served.

So maybe there's link to a FAQ page where they can read all the information. You try things because online things are not like the last bible on earth. You can tweak. People are too scared to put something online.

You can always tweak. So yeah, that may be the last tip. Do not stress over making things perfect. Do something, test it out and tweak. It's okay.

See I usually do the opposite. I usually create something quite good and then ruin it by going and tweaking it more and more and more. But, but no, do you know what?

I go back to what you said at the start, that I hadn't kind of clicked for this until we spoke about it today. And that's the idea of tech is self care. We can use this, in this, this way to look after ourselves. Yes, we can use it for his business. Yes.

We can use it to, you know, get custom and all this kind of stuff, but just the idea of making it in a way that it looks after us and it's our self care, I think it's not something that's quite clicked from before. So that may not have been the idea for this episode today, but it's definitely one I've enjoyed. So, yeah, big thank you for joining us there, Pascal.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

Thank you for having me. I've had so much fun and I'm really happy that the message is going to more people say thank you and.

I get to finish with more limited French, which is a mercy audrevoir.

Yeah, perfect. Oh, wow.

So a big thank you to Pascal for joining me there. Another cracking episode and, and I love it when I get people on the aren't from our industry. You know, I've done this right from day one.

I love hearing their thoughts and picking their brains and seeing what we can take from other industries and bring into ours now. I thought that, you know, it's just fascinating that some of the things Pascal was suggesting there.

And look, I'll be honest with you, initially we got Pascal on to talk more about creating those customer pipelines.

You know, I know a lot of instructors don't like referring to them as customers, so we can say learner pipelines and that was the idea of today's show. But when we first started talking, Pascal mentioned about tech being self care and I just thought, she's right.

I want to get into this a little bit more. And kind of we went off in a, a different, a different direction then, but I loved it.

All those links, all the, the apps and the websites that Pascal mentioned, they're all going to be in the show notes for you, so you can go and check them out.

I'm going to be looking at them and see if I can streamline a bit of my business a little bit better and get my learners in, in, in a nice little pipeline and also, you know, getting them reviews in a better way. But I've got to Be honest, the thing that I'm thinking about after the end of this episode is self care is using tech to self care.

Also want to take a moment, as always, to thank my drive time and specifically Dan Hill for sponsoring this season of the podcast Loving what My drive time are doing. I mentioned earlier in the show about the journey tracking option they have. I think it's a great resource.

I think it's, it's one of the ones that it surprises me how students react to it. I'll be honest, I didn't think of it as oh, this is amazing or anything like that, but just seeing how students react to it is just lovely.

And I've got a couple that are practicing my parents and you know, at the end of the lesson they can use that to go back and see where we've been and they can go back to those areas. So that's really useful as well. I mean, you know, it's just one of those little features that again, we're using tech to make our job better.

So, you know, big thank you to Dan and my drive time. They can find out more@mydrivetime.co.uk also want to take this moment to point you in the direction of the Instructor Podcast Premium.

If listened all the way to the end of the show and you're now listening to me talk about Premium, you must be enjoying what you've heard so far. So you can get this and more. At the Instructor Podcast Premium, we release a bare minimum of sort of six or seven episodes a month.

I commit to three episodes a month over there, free new shows and it's, it's usually six, seven, sometimes eight over there.

And it's all designed to help you in the, in what I consider the three pillars of being an instructor and that is the your health, it's your business and it's what I term as the in car stuff. And we've got all kinds of stuff to help you become better in those areas. If you want to find out more, you can reach out to me.

All the links are in the show notes. You can find stuff at the website, the instructorpodcast.com or you can sign up for a free trial. There's a free trial for a week.

I do warn people that generally people that sign up tend to stay for quite a long time. I've got quite a good retention ratio because there's some good quality stuff over there. So be warned that if you sign up you're likely to stay.

But I will also just say it's not a quick fix. We are not offering you a quick fix to become the world's greatest instructor or a quick fix to pass apart for your Sanders check.

You only want to be a listening to the podcast and b signing up to the membership.

If you're looking to really get into how you can become better at your job, how you can work better with your students, how you can increase your prices and run a better business and look after yourself mentally and physically as well, to make the most of it, you will need to put the work in. So a little water warning there. And as I said, you can find out more@wwthe Instructor podcast.com But for now, let's just keep raising standards.

The Instructor Podcast with Terry Cook talking with leaders, innovators, experts and game changers about what drives them.