Get ready for a lively discussion as Terry Cook and Chris Bensted dive into the pet peeves that really get under their skin in the driving instructor world.

From the annoyance of trainers boasting about their students' successes before the students even get a chance to celebrate, to the cringe-worthy spelling mistakes that can undermine professionalism, this episode covers it all.

They explore the importance of respecting each other's journeys, whether it's waving at fellow instructors on the road or handling questions from learners on social media with kindness rather than sarcasm. Humorously dissecting the quirks of their profession, Terry and Chris highlight the need for camaraderie in an often solitary job, emphasizing that a little acknowledgment goes a long way. Tune in for insights that blend personal anecdotes with industry observations, all delivered with their signature playful banter.

Links from the show:

Emma's CPD book

Know the HGV Zones

Blind spit awareness

Driving Test Podcast

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Terry Cook and Chris Bensted delve into the intricacies of the driving instructor industry, discussing the latest trends, news, and their own personal experiences. Highlighting the importance of camaraderie among instructors, they address the phenomenon of instructors waving at each other as they pass on the roads. While Chris emphasizes the value of acknowledging fellow instructors, Terry counters that sometimes the social battery runs low, making waving feel like an unnecessary obligation. Their banter underscores a larger theme: the balance between professional interaction and personal boundaries in the world of driving instruction.

In the latter half, the conversation shifts to the significance of awards within the driving instructor community. They debate the merits of various categories like 'Driving Instructor of the Year' and 'Content Creator of the Year,' exploring whether these accolades truly reflect the value and quality of the instructors' contributions or are merely popularity contests. With insights into how nominations and votes can be swayed by social dynamics, they encourage instructors to celebrate each other’s achievements, fostering a positive environment in an often competitive field. As they wrap up, Terry and Chris examine the importance of maintaining professionalism and respect, urging instructors to uplift each other rather than tear each other down in online spaces.

Takeaways:

• Instructors expressing their successes online should respect the achievements of their trainees first.
• Waving at fellow instructors on the road fosters community, though not everyone will reciprocate.
• It's crucial for instructors to support one another rather than criticise questions posed by learners.
• The importance of recognizing road safety and the efforts behind recent campaigns is essential.
• Awards in the driving instructor community can encourage a positive atmosphere and recognition of hard work.

The instructor podcast with Terry Cook talking with leaders, innovators, experts and game changers.

About what drives them.

Welcome to the Green Room.

This is a show we cover all the latest news and hot topics from within our little driving instructor world.

As always, I am your mediocre horse, Terry Cook.

But I'm delighted to be here.

But you'll be delighted that it's not just me because I am joined by stone cold Chris Benstead.

And how we doing, Chris?

I'm good, thank you.

Yes.

The world.

The world is a good place.

I'm happy.

Oh, why is the world a good place?

I like this start.

I'm feeling really in the right space at the moment.

I've reached some personal goals and yeah, no, I'm quite enjoying what I'm doing.

I'm still loving theory.

I thought it would have worn off by now.

I feel like you may have taken my space then.

So I'm not in that space.

Give me some space back.

But no.

Thank you for joining me today.

As always, on this dish of the Green Room, we're going to be covering news and topics.

In particular today, we're going to be looking at some of our pet peeves.

The things that maybe aren't that serious, but potentially I'm a broader side as we go along, but the things that bother us and potentially bother other instructors as well.

Now we are going to start off with some new stuff because the biggest news as, as I see it at least is you may have noticed we're not live on YouTube at the minute.

That was what we planned last month.

I say we.

It's what I planned and threw on you when you weren't.

Yeah, right.

And then I said, no, we're not anyone.

Yeah, all right.

My brain, I don't think, cannot cope with more work and more stress and pressure and all at the minute.

How do you feel about us not being on YouTube, Chris?

It doesn't feel any different to when we were previously not on YouTube.

But I don't.

I was looking forward to seeing what happened.

I like different and, you know, kind of a suck it and see.

Let's find out what happens because you don't know till you try.

So.

Yeah, but it's fine.

Yeah.

I just think.

I think everyone should.

Should give Terry a big hug and then he'll feel better.

Welcome to the Green room.

Not on YouTube.

Number 45 round.

Say number 45.

We'll be racking up those numbers.

50 next year.

That'll be a big milestone.

We'll do it live somewhere.

So we are recording this a few days after Road Safety Week and I really enjoyed Road Safety Week this year.

I did loads of stuff.

So before I tell you my stuff, what did you get up to for Road Safety Week, Chris?

Well, I have the pleasure of speaking to lots of theory pupils every week from lots of instructors.

So I was asking them all what they knew about Road Safety Week.

They didn't.

They weren't aware it was on.

And so I was doing a bit of education and I discovered a really cool thing which was my big offering, which was the campaign from National Highways.

I still want to call them Highways England, National Highways.

About the blind spots on lorries.

Have you seen the advert?

I haven't.

There's a guy who's got his little girl in the back of the car.

He's driving along and he goes into the red zone and everything goes red.

And.

Yeah, and the website, if you haven't seen.

If you've seen the advert, haven't checked out the website, it's really cool.

You move your mouse around and it reveals the blind spots and stuff and it links in with some work that I did with TRL for.

There's a.

If you search for HGV Blind Spots, TRL Transport Research Laboratory on Google, you'll find it.

There's an app that you can use which you hold your phone up and does the whole where are the blind spots?

Thing.

But there's also a nice little PDF that you can use for your pupils.

I'll send you the link.

I'm sure you can do something fancy with it in the notes.

Yes, I'm not aware of that, so I look forward to checking that out.

The video I'm aware of at the minute is the one with Ice Cream Van that is showing you how you handle pedestrians and cyclists on the road and who has priority.

And for anyone that doesn't know, pay particular attention to who is Ice Cream Man.

Hint it's not me.

Just before anyone gets any ideas, I'm not that privileged, but, yeah, I enjoyed Road Safety Week this week.

I had a similar thing to you in that I did a lot with my students.

I asked them all.

Probably not a great question, but it led to some interesting conversations which was, what are you going to do to make sure you're not one of these statistics once you've.

You've passed and I got some, you could tell who bought into what we were talking about and who didn't.

And not everyone did you know I'm not perfect, I can't swing everyone around.

But in some interesting conversations and some interesting follow up messages, I also recorded miniseries for the Driving Test podcast, one of the podcasts I do for learners, which was one episode every day across the seven days of Road Safety week.

And each episode was talking about how the driving test doesn't prepare you for safe driving for life.

And we covered things like motorways, driving in the dark, distractions, that kind of stuff.

And as I'm saying this, I realize now why the chat from the DVSA hasn't replied to my last email.

So, yeah, maybe I should have considered that slightly differently, but either way, really enjoy doing that.

And I got some really good numbers on that and some, some good feedback as well.

So that was all good.

So we set that target and the answer is yes, we can, because we raised over £1,700.

And there's still some more to go in because I've got to collect some, some pennies off my students who were joined in the raffle and stuff like that.

So the answer was no because it was too much.

Don't spoil it.

Like, this is the literally one good thing I've got going at the minute.

Don't take it away from me.

Congratulations.

Well, sorry, that's what I meant to say.

Thanks for that.

But yeah, no, I did just want to say, genuinely, I was really tough to achieve that and just wanted to say thank you to everyone that's donated or supported or shared or encouraged because at time of recording, we've actually raised more than anyone else for Break this year, which is on one hand really good, but also slightly surprising.

I would have assumed there'd be some bigger numbers than that, but maybe that just shows how overly optimistic I can be at times.

But yeah, really tough to have done that because, look, anyone that's raised money for charity will know that it can be quite disheartening at times.

You know, you put stuff out there, thousands of people see it or hear it and you won't get anywhere near that back.

So even if you couldn't donate, but you have sent me a message or commented or just shared it to try and get someone else done it, genuinely appreciate that and I know breaker grateful as well.

So, you know, well done to everyone that chipped in there.

I'm really pleased that we managed to hit that goal.

I don't quite know if I've got the gumptions to it again for Road Pieces event in May, but we'll see, we'll see.

Any final comments on sort of road safety or anything there, Chris, before we move on?

No.

Excellent.

Let's move on then.

Because I also wanted to talk about one thing that perked my attention this month, which was Louise Hay, who is the.

Oh, God, I've got this written down.

A Secretary of State for Transport, she was in the Parliamentary Select Committee, I believe it was, and she was talking about road safety and road death, essentially.

One of the quotes you said was if road death numbers were any other death, it'd be treated as a pandemic.

And the reason why I think this is newsworthy is because politicians in particular, ones of high ranking positions don't tend to say that.

I cannot recall any high ranking politician, as in one in a position, if you like, saying that for.

Well, I can't recall one saying it essentially.

So I think the two things that are prominent there is one, that the whole thing she said clearly shows she cares, is not a flippant remark because that's a direct, aggressive type of quote that the road safety people talk about that politicians don't usually.

But the other thing I liked was the fact that she used the term road death and not accident.

And for too long it's been slipped in that way, you know, accident.

And for anyone wondering why that's not why that matters, if you like, it's, it's not an accident until it's proven to be an accident.

It's definitely a collision, it's definitely someone dying on the road.

So we call it for what it is.

If at some point it's improved to be an accident, we can refer to it that way, but it's 100% a collision or a death or road harm.

So we call it that way.

And it's also paying a little bit of respect to the person that's been harmed or killed on their families.

So.

So, yeah, I was just really pleased to see the Secretary for Transport saying this.

What are your thoughts on this, Chris?

Absolutely.

I've been doing this too long to think that words mean change, but you're right, I haven't heard people really make those statements.

It's always, you know, we need to do as much as we can, you know, that doesn't mean anything.

Making that say it's Something we've, we've often said is, is that, you know, it's the biggest threat to under 30s is road death.

It fights it out with suicide.

Sadly on the statistics, and I would say over the last decade, maybe even 20 years, suicide's been up there at times and been spoken about more and has been less taboo.

Road safety still hasn't really had the recognition of the risk that because it's around us all the time and if we make it scary, we're causing ourselves a bit of a problem.

So, yeah, as always, new minister, we want to hear what she's got to say.

From what I've seen, she's kind of doing the schools and all of those things.

There's a few conferences around.

I'm sure we'll make space for her if she is available.

Instructors would like to hear and, you know, if you don't want to go to something in person, maybe fit in a podcast.

It's been suggested.

It hasn't been responded to, but I.

She's northern, right?

And a proper northerner as well, so I can see some ass kicking coming.

Maybe that's just my Norman bias coming out, I don't know.

But I'm available to translate should the rest of the country need it, so that's fine.

Oh, do I need to go proper Yorkshire again?

But one thing I hadn't put down in my notes actually, but as you were talking then, it reminded me that Sharon Huddleston, and I hope I don't get these names wrong, it was Shannon Hordelson, someone else, that met with the roads Minister, which is Lillian Greenwood, to present the proposals for graduated driving licenses.

There were two other people there and I can't remember who, so please forgive me, but Shannon Hudderson, for those that may not be aware, appeared on season seven of the instructor podcast talking about her daughter Caitlin, who died in a crash and her push for graduated driving licenses.

And it didn't feel like a publicity stunt.

The.

The government and Lillian Greenwood didn't promote it so much.

It was Sharon.

And I cannot remember who I was.

I can't remember if it was break or road piece, but it was those that promoted it as well or more so.

And like you said, I'm with you.

Words don't matter as much as actions.

You know, actions do speak louder than words, but it feels like a start.

It feels like more than I've seen in the last seven years I've been an instructor.

So, you know, that's better than nothing and you know, it's get well here's what it is.

It's getting the ball rolling and if that ball doesn't start rolling, it's never going to get anywhere.

Yeah, absolutely.

I just think that it's so often deceptive and we.

Then we don't push or.

Yeah, people stop pushing.

In the same way we, we need to make sure that if we see an opportunity that we still flag it up, that we still make the effort, you know, and at the moment, the worst thing is everybody's so busy, you know, the pressures that are still there on, on the thing that we don't want to mention because everyone talks about it too much, but the, the, the minor delays being faced by the DBSA that, you know, all of that's going on so much that it's easy to drop the other stuff.

But, you know, when these opportunities come up.

Yeah, let's shout about it.

So let's look for opportunities to support what other people are doing and to make sure that it's being spoken about as, as, you know, hopefully this mentioning it here does.

And not treating the MPs like they're a puppy is always a good thing.

You know, when they do somewhat well, then we praise them and sing their praises and then hopefully they're more likely to do the thing well again.

So, you know, treat mps like puppies.

That's what the P stands for.

Now that's what we go in with.

But before I got myself into any further trouble, let's take a moment, set the table.

Chris, do you want to tell everybody who you are and what you have to offer?

It's no wonder that you can't get a transport minister on the show, to be honest.

But anyway, who am I?

It's a good question.

Your puppies lights are come on.

Sure to follow that?

I don't know.

I am Chris Benstead.

I am the co founder of the ditc, the Driving Instructor and Trainers Collective, signposting platform for driving instructors, who seems to be spending his time at the moment answering the phone about people who've got six points on their license and are being at risk of coming off the register seems to be a growing number.

Don't do it.

Don't touch your phone.

And I'm also a theory trainer telling and pupils about why they shouldn't touch their phones because it's on the theory test.

So that is how I spend my week.

I had a great one of those today when we pulled up outside the road and the lad literally just grabbed his phone out thinking, let me show you this.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

You've literally just broken the law.

And he's looking at.

I'm like no, no, you have.

And we ran through the whole thing and I don't think the engine was even so it was the start stop technology.

So it cut out but it was still technically on which still counts.

And yeah, it, it was an interesting conversation and it's like we spoke about last month actually.

It's how do you choose Rich Lotter Brick?

Whether we agree with the law or not is almost irrelevant.

It's.

That's the law, you know.

So it was an interesting conversation but.

But yes, you are listening to the instructor podcast Green Room Edition and if you are enjoying these shows then you can always get a bit more head to the instructorpodcast.com where combined links over there on how to find out more about our membership including a three weeks trial or if you would like to go and watch his live or tech tech part in some expert sessions delivered by people such as the good man himself, Chris Benstead.

Stone Cold Responsed if you will.

Delivering one on roundabouts I think was still one of my favorite we've had either way.

Yes, go to www.the instructorpodcast.com or you can find the link in the show notes.

If you have any trouble finding this podcast, which you shouldn't do because you're listening, the website is the best place to start.

But let's move on because there's a little bit non news that I want to talk about and firstly, I want to give a shout out to Emma Cottington's new CPD book.

I'm calling it A CPD book is not doing it justice because I was privileged to have a look at an early version of this to give a little bit of feedback and it's a corker, genuinely.

I think it should be on I'm gonna say every instructor's Christmas list.

But let's face it, we don't do cpd.

There's no point putting any Christmas list, but it should be on every instructor's Christmas list because it's a brilliant way to not only track your CPD but to implement things from that cpd throughout a 52 week period.

So yes, go and check it out.

I'll find the link to put in the show notes for you so you can get it straight away.

I think there's a discount on like the first 20 or 30 people that buy it.

I don't know if that's gone.

It may have disappeared by the time this goes out.

But go and check out and go and buy it.

I'm a big fan.

One of the things I do personally on the instructor podcast premium is when I put Shawzat over there as I include some PDFs which have these CPD things on them.

I will keep doing that, but I will also be encouraging people to go and take this book because that puts it in a more structured manner.

But yes, go do it.

I'm assuming, Chris, you haven't had a chance to look through this.

I haven't, no.

But I know Emma and it's going to be awesome.

Very much so.

I'm a big fan.

But enough.

Plug in Emma's book.

Send more time plugging his own stuff.

Not us.

I want to move on because we are in award season as well.

Intelligent Instructor have recently released their categories for the awards and I thought it might be interesting if we shared a couple of those categories and spoke about potential people that we may vote for or for some ideas out there.

So are there any of these that stand out to you, Chris, or do you want me to start chucking a couple out?

No, you go for it.

Go for it.

Which ones stand out to you?

I do.

You know, the first one that stands out right, is Training Provider of the Year.

Because I have had a many a conversation with this, with people behind the scenes around this, because it's not Red Driving School or the AA or Bill Plant or BSM or anyone like that.

They just have more instructors.

That's it.

And, and I'm not mean to be critical of those guys, you know, they should win National Driving School of the Year or whatever, and I'm sure they do good training in the bulk or whatever, but to me, that's not a fair vote.

I know it's a public vote, I know it's open to a vote, but if you've got 10,000 instructors on your book and then, Chris, you're providing training and you work with seven instructors that year, well, that doesn't make them a better trainer.

It makes them have more instructors because of what they do.

So in terms of Training Provider of the Year, have you got any thoughts on that or have you got any suggestions who you might put forward?

You know, slightly cynical possibly, but the fact that they get awarded these things gets them more trainees and them getting trainees, whichever one of the big schools it is at the moment seems to keep us all in business when we're independent because we're picking up all the pieces.

I won't name specific names, but there's a couple at the moment that are constantly getting PDIs, getting in touch who are saying we haven't been given what we need, that we're being taught to pass the test, but we haven't been given the full picture, you know, and I think most independent trainers will agree, but as you said, I will be amazed if a, you know, for that training provider award goes to someone who is, is not a national trainer.

And you know, I say that as someone who's arguably a national trainer.

I work nationally, but it's, as you said, it's density of the people you can get voting for you, who will vote for the one that they've picked because they want to be on the winning team.

I think what I would say, I'm not going to say who I'm going to vote for because I don't know yet if I'm being honest.

But there are people out there like, like yourself, Chris and like Tom Stenson and bright coaching and no wish, the trainer and inspire and Bob, obviously, everyone loves Bob and clients that are learning and Lynn, Barry, you know, there will be hundreds of people that listen to this podcast and I would urge you all to go out and vote for one of those.

Now, I appreciate if everyone votes for a different person.

It's not the best result, but it still sure is getting the votes in the right direction.

I'm not.

Again, just to clarify, I'm not meaning to pick on any of the national schools when I say this.

There are faults there, you just address some of them, but I just don't feel that, that that's the right thing.

And to be fair, I think that's the only issue with the awards I've got in terms of the categories, but it's the one that springs out to me.

So in that case, professional support provider of the.

Who stands out for you there?

And also, what's the difference between a support provider and a trainer?

That was my, you know, I.

It's a weird title, Professional support provider, you know, is it.

Is it focused on apps?

Have they worded it like that?

So it is as general as you want it to be.

We've got the likes of Vicky and Kim who are doing business support stuff, you know, that.

That then fits in there nicely.

Does it include car providers?

Because actually they are a large part of supporting the business.

My number one professional support provider, I would absolutely be naming Heman Jaw controls.

Right.

There's an outside the box thought, but they have saved my life more times than anybody or anything else.

And it was only when I did an interview for you because you weren't about that.

I had that opportunity to suddenly realize how much support was given by the likes of he man.

You know, it.

It's that thing, that thing of.

Yeah, what, what do you put under that category?

It's a bit of a catch all and then I think it highlights how our industry isn't very good at that.

We don't necessarily recognize what's out there and know what's there.

It's very often instructors doing stuff, isn't it?

It's not.

We don't have other experts and professionals doing it for us.

You know, I'm a big fan of my drive time.

We use it for our driving school, for the diary, finance and all of that stuff.

And I know that they won that last time.

They really do provide the support for our business because they allow the instructors to come and do the rest of their job.

And you know, it's great.

So many instructors out there don't know that that's available as a thing, you know, which whatever version of it you choose to use.

And I just, I think as a category it always just kind of highlights the fact I like to think I'm fairly in touch.

I still struggle to make a short list of people I'd put in there.

But yeah, I don't know if it's, if it's an acceptable answer with the intelligent instructor.

But he man is my support hero of choice.

I really like that show a lot.

I will just say Nick Smith is in the, in the chat stealing my thunder because I was going to say it and I was slightly annoyed that he beat me to it.

But yeah, my drive time won last year and I wouldn't complain about that.

If my drive time won again, I think that they would, would have been my, my vote probably.

However, now I said he man and I think that's a really good show because I love my drive time obviously.

But they've never saved my life as you said so.

But it's interesting you mentioned the cars.

They have their own category as well.

But what I will say about that support provider is that is what category I put the instructor podcast in when I answered a couple of years ago and finished fifth.

So took my bat and ball on and soaked one.

Didn't enter again last year.

I will be entering this year but a different one which we'll discuss in a second because we've also going to look at the special educational needs provider of the year who are.

What, what, what is this professional?

Go on Chris, share your thoughts on this before I keep Digging this hole.

I want it.

It's not normally how I sit here, is it?

I don't normally do the it should be me thing except for getting an obe.

I think we had that conversation but anyway, I just want the letters.

I think it'd be cool.

Yeah, I really with the theory work that I do all day, every day is Sen central.

I want it to be an SEN award.

I want it to be about that.

So, yeah, thank you very much.

I would love it.

Yeah, please, please vote for me.

However, any of my colleagues that do the specialist work, I work with lots of them because obviously their pupils need to pass the theory test and if they're struggling with the driving side of things then they often will struggle with the theory.

So any of them that are doing that specialist work, I think it's under recognized.

I think the one that is almost too big to be remembered but does so much work and he keeps telling me he's retiring and I don't want him to.

He hasn't yet though.

He's John Rogers at Disability Driving instructors and I don't think people remember him under the Sen banner.

And it's send now is much more recognized which is disability on the end of the special educational needs and disabilities.

He works his backside off.

Very underappreciated and is an absolute legend.

So you know, if I'm going to step back and let someone take it, I will.

I'll let John do that with, you know, open arms.

I think there's an obvious category here because they're more prominent and I'm going to say the full name just to annoy you.

Dr.

Julia Malkin MBE.

They've got one Chris.

So for those of you listening really should be seeing Chris's face right now.

But I think I will be.

I'm always honest but I will be completely honest now.

I think part of the problem you've got is I don't think people realize that's part of what you do.

Your whole stick is theory test explained.

People don't, I don't think, realize the amount of work you do within that special educational needs vicinity.

So I would, yeah, you, you would naturally have my vote for this.

I, I think you spoke for one person on these.

I've not checked.

Did you vote for one or it's like free, you've got a vote.

I can't remember, I haven't checked but either way you would be my top on this and that's no offense to anyone and not necessarily meant as a massive compliment to you but it's true, that's what, what I would do.

But I knew you'd have a better ring on that than me.

But the next one that I'm going to come to is one that I'll be honest with you, I haven't got a clue about and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

I don't know if I'm just being completely absent minded when I say this.

Marketing campaign of the year.

Who the come?

I don't know.

You're letting me go.

I've got no words.

I cannot think of a good one.

I haven't seen a marketing campaign in, within the instructor industry that I can think of.

That's a caveat this year where I've gone.

Oh, that's really good.

Apart from the ice cream van that mentioned.

Yeah, maybe that would get it.

Yeah.

Well, there's two.

I think there's the almost too obvious one which is almost bigger than one campaign which is Ready to pass.

I still think Ready to Pass has done some brilliant work on getting the message across.

You know, I, I like the way they haven't taken the usual DVSA approach or flavor of things.

Whether you, you love it or hate it, at least there is a message going out there.

Admittedly, reports of, you know, getting a message saying, remember, if you're not ready, cancel your test.

The day after you can cancel your test doesn't help.

But I think, I think Ready to pass out there is, is one of them ready to pass out?

Sorry.

I think these things are said for the tongue, but they're often behind them.

But maybe we're just, we're worn out by it all.

And then I, I would.

The one that I mentioned previously, which is the national highways, the, the one about the, the blind spots, which is titled.

I'm just trying to find it.

No, know the HGV zones.

It's about HGVs having limited vision.

So, yeah, know the HGV zones.

I, I thought it was simple, effective and it's something that people don't cover enough.

Yeah.

Should definitely have a look at that one.

Genuine question.

Because I just thought of this as you were talking and I don't know where this fits.

My campaign to bring road safety and driving instructors closer together.

Yes.

Where would that fit into this?

Has that been effective from an outsider's perspective?

Because obviously I've got details and stats and stuff, but from an outsider's perspective, you being the outsider, where would that sit in that?

Is it strong enough to be A campaign.

That campaign, yeah.

So it's that thing of campaign, isn't it?

It's, it's the, you're, you're trying to disseminate information, which we all do all the time as what we do as a job.

I think it's that, it's that thing I 100%, I know you've got my.

If you're in there, you got my vote.

It's that challenge of getting things out there.

It's an issue that people are facing at the moment.

Facebook have changed the way they work.

You are not seeing nearly as much of the private stuff as you did before.

You're not seeing, you know, all those things.

And we are so strongly entrenched in Facebook in the vocal side of being a driving instructor.

There's so much on there that I think, you know, it's a wake up call of if we lose that, we lose a strong voice, the ability to communicate yet again.

We can't afford to.

We need to have different ways to communicate.

Need to look at all of those options and join the dots.

So I think the thing about the, about campaigns is it's a being a good campaign and it's also having the reach and the voice.

If you are not.

If you don't qualify for that for one of those reasons, that's not your fault.

That's we're not supporting our own, you know, we're not supporting these things now.

You can't support it if you don't see it.

So it's a bit catch 22, but, you know, maybe more re sneezing, as I like to call it, stolen from Seth Godin purple cow.

But anyway, re sneezing of if you see it, shout about it.

And maybe let's make it a little bit like, you know, the old.

Can't think what they're called.

The letters that used to get through where it said you're going to die if you don't give this to 10 people of the 80s or, you know, early 90s.

Let's make it that when you see something that's good, don't just reshare it.

Reshare it and tag three people that you think would be interested in it.

And if you get tagged and you're interested in it, you've got to do the same.

And maybe we can fight back a little bit against these algorithms that are trying to squeeze us out to make money.

I've got a cunning plan.

You'll like this.

Glad you said that carefully.

Yes, we, we're good.

We me and you and all other instructors that listen to this are going to campaign for driving Driving instructors to Vision Zero to win this campaign.

As a result of that, I will then put forward Driving Instructors to Vision Zero campaign and the campaign to get driving instructors to Vision Zero to win this.

So I will win first and second prize.

Prize number one will be Driving Instructors Division Zero.

Prize number two will be the campaign to get Driving Interruption Vision Zero to win this.

And if we do that and I support it, I could get third place because I could do the campaign to support the campaign to get it to.

Yeah, we found our promotional clip for the show.

That's good.

I can't if I can bother doing that, but I might do.

I'll give that some thought.

However, the next one is one that I think I would be daft not to put myself off of because Content Creator of the Year.

I.

I won that once.

Was.

Was that Gorodie or was that intelligent instructor?

I think it was in Go Rod.

Yeah, Go Rody.

Yeah, I think it was for creating this podcast.

Yeah, it was for my podcast appearance.

Do you know what?

I might start that campaign as well to get you to win the Content Creator of the Year and then you can win it.

And that's your picture of me looking really pissed off in that ground.

I'm just trying to see if it's the one on my shelf amongst the other rewards.

I'm not sure, but.

Yeah.

Who would you vote for that?

Taking me out of it?

Because I don't want to be annoyed that you don't say me.

Who would you vote for for that, Chris?

Never know.

I would vote for you.

So, you know, I.

I'm.

Again, do you know what?

A bit like I said about John Rogers, you are so prominent that you are the podcasting landscape and therefore you get ignored sometimes because we see you there all the time and we forget the effort and the quality and all of the things that go into doing what you do right.

And that's not me blowing smoke.

Genuinely.

I get to turn up and have some fun.

It's great.

I love doing this.

Thank you.

I appreciate it.

But you do the hard work, you get to take it seriously and I get to enjoy it.

And I.

If we take you out of the equation, there's some driving instructors that jump to mind.

There's a group of instructors that are on TikTok that are kind of gathering together a bit and trying to improve the social media side of things.

As an instructor, I.

I get more annoyed than I do inspired because there's always something, and that's my problem, not theirs.

But there's always something that they'll recommend that you steer with one finger or, you know, that you try and push the brakes with your hands to get good at it while you're driving.

I don't know, something silly, that criticism of things.

I respect them putting it out there and it's great.

And, you know, I'm trying to engage more positively with them.

That's one of my things I'm doing at the moment.

But I think I struggle to find something that feels positive rather than self promotional.

I say that as someone who occasionally gets accused of being self promotional.

So I know what that's about, that positivity.

It is a struggle to find something else out there that kind of stands out on socials in that way.

And there's nothing wrong with self promotion.

We're all running businesses.

It's all great.

I just think you do a lovely job of not making it seem like you're, you know, a business doing a thing.

You're doing it for all these other reasons.

They're the number one thing, you know, it's.

Yeah, that's your focus is road safety and improving instructors, worlds and all of those other things.

And.

Yeah.

So you shouldn't get overlooked and you should be at the front of that queue.

Appreciate those words.

I was.

I wasn't.

I was genuinely trying to stay away from that.

But I do appreciate it.

But look, I will be completely honest with you.

I will probably finish third in this category.

The first will be Francis, and the second will be Car School Confessions, and then it will be me.

Because the people that vote for those will not all be driving instructors.

There will be others.

And obviously they're for larger numbers in that sense.

And also, and this isn't just me, this is.

This will apply to a lot of different categories as well, where people kind of become a bit complacent with stuff.

So I think that works.

However, I am going to touch on one thing you've said, because every now and again, I allow myself to be the smug little sod.

You know, every now and again, I think it's important to acknowledge stuff and allow yourself a little bit of smugness now and again.

And every now and again I do an impression of Will Smith from Men in Black.

And I'll.

I'll listen to another podcast and I hope no one takes offense, but I don't overly care.

I listen to another podcast to watch a webinar or YouTube video or whatever.

And the Will Smith from Men in Black comes in my head and I just go, difference between you and me, I make this look good.

And then that's my little smug moment, like, yep, okay, you go beyond that.

You're being a dick.

Let's move away.

But there you go.

There's two more I want to touch on.

Then I want to touch on this one.

Rising Star of the Year.

This is sponsored by the ADI NJC Rising Star of the Year.

Now, I'm going to put my name out here straight away, and I think this is taking a slightly different take potentially on what they're referring to.

But I'm going for anywhere and I'm saying Gary Thomas for this because I think that he is everywhere and probably knows more about the industry than me and you combined at the minute.

With him out of stuff he's gone on to.

But I would throw his name in the hat for this.

And his name was the first name that came to my mind.

What I would be really interested in is how many people know who he is.

Because you can never tell that everyone.

Knows who he is.

Like, everyone I speak to knows who Gary Thomas is.

I don't whether they've been in this for four years or four minutes.

They all know him.

He's more popular than you.

Not popular.

He's more well known than you and I combined.

Everyone's more popular than you and I combined.

But he's more well known than you and I combined.

It seems that way, but I want to know if the real world seems that way.

I have heard the same thing when I've gone to something and people have gone, well, surely everyone knows who Chris is and.

No, and I don't expect them to, but they have.

And I've kind of gone, well, let's not make an assumption.

I think it just depends on the bubbles.

And it again highlights how rubbish we are at doing that as an industry.

Next, put in the.

In the chat, Becky Seton.

I think she's made a real noise this year.

I want to see what's coming next from her.

I don't.

I.

This is with the greatest respect and I have got a lot of respect for what she's doing.

I don't think she's done something award worthy yet, but I think she could.

So for me, she's one to.

One to watch rather than one to, you know, to sort of celebrate yet.

That's that bring.

Bring it on.

That's a challenge and I want to see her succeed at it.

You know what?

I'm gonna step in there and I don't normally interject, you know that, but I'm gonna step in because I completely agree.

And I think the thing that sprung to mind is I joke the other year about the instructor podcast not winning award now afterward tantrum, but I probably didn't deserve to.

This year is a year when I've.

I've created stuff.

Like I've created stuff from day one, but wasn't.

It's hard to explain, but it was new, it was fresh, it was real.

And yes, you know what?

This being honest, even though I don't like saying it did change, it did have an impact on the industry, it did shift things.

And maybe that's where you're kind of seeing Becky Seton is now when she's laying those groundworks.

And whether it takes a year or three years, that that shift can then come in.

You know, very, very few people come in and make that massive impact straight away to anything, not just driving, shooting, whatever world you're in.

It's, you know, you lay the foundations and then you.

Then you can say blow up.

I think, I think I know what I mean.

And it is.

It's that thing with her.

I say she's, you know, been there, done that in that, you know, you know, you're working really hard and it means a lot to you, but the world hasn't, you know, you haven't delivered what you want to deliver yet.

And I think there's always a danger when we get given, we get recognition too early, that we end up not achieving what we would have achieved.

And I would hate that to happen.

I want, for an award like that, I want it to be something, stand out, something different that other people haven't done before.

And, you know, I think that there's.

There's quite a few communities that have started up.

I think there's a bit of a post Covid thing with that.

Some of it is that people have put the work in, or they've been.

They've.

They've been inspired to do something different or, you know, whatever those things might be.

Starting a community isn't the thing.

Doing something with the community is, you know, and I think, yeah, it'll be that.

What.

Where.

Where's it going?

What's it going to be?

And.

And I hope, I hope she Listens firstly.

But I hope that say.

Because we've sort of.

I won't say we.

You backed me, but I picked on Becky, that she takes that as a positive of going, yeah, brilliant.

Let's see where it's going to go.

Because I think she's got the ability to do it.

And yeah, say that there's.

There's others that haven't been as prominent but are bubbling away in the background have got an opportunity.

The guys on TikTok, it's a group, I don't think they go under, a kind of a collective.

So I won't pick one one out.

But there's a group of instructors that do lives together.

They're supporting each other's development and of their socials and how to do it well and do it right, how to get the traction to get those things out.

I think that's brilliant as well.

Again, let us see what we get from that.

I want some tangible stuff.

I don't just want.

There's a name that lots of people are talking about.

I want to know why.

I want to know what I want.

I want to see something coming through.

Yeah, no, I get that.

And look, the thing is, it's this sort of thing.

We've all just got different opinions, and whoever wins, fair play to him because they've had an impact on enough people for him to vote for him.

And there are a bunch of awards, a few hundred people, maybe a couple of thousand are going to vote for, you know, So I don't want to take it too seriously, but I do agree what you've said.

And I can see not necessarily the similarity between me and Becky, but the similarity in what you're saying, in how I was three or four years ago and how everyone was when they first started.

And for me, again, going back to that 20, 21, it was.

I was finding my feet, I was creating stuff, but it's finding my feet.

And it was then built up.

And it's like, here's a thing rather than here's me talking to people.

You know, the Meghan comes along and yeah, all right, I'm horsing it, not presenting on it, but it's my creation.

It goes beyond me going, here's someone to talk about this thing to.

Here's a thing I'm creating.

And there's been lots of examples of that.

And I don't.

I'm meaning to be derogatory myself there actually not overly positive, but that's kind of the point I'm making.

Let's move on.

Because I'm getting myself flustered, because the last one I want to mention, Driving Instructor of the Year, because I want to ask you why, or if would be a better word, if this matters and if people should be putting themselves forward for it.

If it mattered.

Yes, they should.

But it's that thing of when a customer phones you up, how do you stand out?

I haven't yet seen a Driving Instructor of the Year award go to someone who's done something different.

They've been doing the same job because we all kind of do.

And again, it's that thing about being standout.

You're getting an award for being standout.

As we've said previously, too often it's about who gets the get.

Who can rally the most votes.

It's about how many people you know, how many contacts you've got, rather than.

Are you doing really well.

And that's kind of how driving instructing works, isn't it?

You're the best instructor I've had.

I've only had one, but you're the best instructor I've had.

So I'm going to shout about you.

You might be rubbish, but it's the best experience they've had.

So we'll make sure that goes down as being awesome.

Some people think McDonald's is the height of cuisine, so it's that same kind of thing.

I.

I don't know, Maybe we need.

Do you remember.

Remember the.

Oh, what was it called?

No, because I can't remember the.

It was the.

The thing on TV and they had to go through a set of puzzles and at the end there was an assault course and.

Oh, it's gonna still move.

No Krypton Factor.

Thanks.

On Fire tonight is Nick Smith.

Yeah, I know.

Shout him out for that one.

What would we do without him?

Yeah, the Krypton Factor.

Do you remember the Krypton Factor?

Yes.

That was epic.

Bring that on for driving instructors.

There's no way I'm ever winning.

But, yeah, bring that on for driving instructors.

Let's do that.

You can get your votes in.

We'll do the same thing.

We'll have that list of instructors who are going to be Instructor of the Year.

But that's it then.

You don't get to choose them, they get to win it and they get to do it Krypton Factor style with a mental agility test, with a physical test.

You know, let's put those things in there.

They've got to pass the theory test.

I will be available to help anyone who wants to train for that.

1.

And yeah, you know, they've got to do these different things and drive around a route backwards.

I don't know, I'm.

I'm going to.

I don't know how to respond to that other than it does sound fun.

But what I will say is I think the votes for this are judged slightly differently.

I think a lot of weight on this is put on the quality of the submissions rather than the quantity of the submissions.

And I know that because I finished second in Yorkshire last year and I didn't nominate and I got very few votes and it was the quality of the people that were responding rather than the quantity.

So.

So the first thing I would say, if anyone is considering doing this, don't be put off if you don't have a lot of people to put on because even someone a bit crap like me can finish second.

So at twice now second.

It's really annoying.

I'd rather not finish.

But it's.

I don't think it matters but it's fun and it's great marketing and I just think it's a lovely thing and it's a really positive thing for the industry.

You know, it's.

If we, if we can almost compare it to a driving test, we.

Why be fault focused?

Let's look at the positives on stuff.

Let's look at what went well.

Well, we can do that with these awards as well.

You know, someone not finishing first isn't a bad thing, but it's a great thing for the person that finishes first, you know, so I think they're a lovely thing.

I do think the more people that get involved, the better.

I think it's a lovely time as well.

When you see all these driving schools posting up finished silver or gold or whatever it is and in top 100.

And I just think it's a positive image for our industry as a whole.

And the more people that do that and the great thing I remember from last year actually was I saw less people moaning about it and I saw more people sharing and commenting other people's success and I noticed that more last year than I did previous years.

And I don't think it's just like, well, I hope it wasn't a one off.

I hope that continues and we can share each other's like successful, lack of a better word.

So I would encourage people to do it.

I'll put links in the show notes as well so you can find your stuff.

But like I say, it's fun.

I think it's positive.

It's.

And it looks Good and feels good for the industry.

And if you don't make that top 100, it doesn't mean you're a bad instructor.

It means your pupils might not be great at writing application forms are.

I suppose if we looked at it with a bit of a flip, it's an awesome exercise because we don't necessarily look at our successes very well.

It's an awesome exercise in you reflecting on what you do and how you stand out, because you've got to write that down.

And if you can't, then maybe it'll give you some ideas on how you could.

So maybe if you don't feel that you can enter because you haven't got what it takes, maybe next year, maybe that's your goal of going.

Right, I'm going to put something in place so that I feel I can.

You don't have to do it when you get there.

It's up to you.

But so I feel that I can compete in whatever that is.

And if you don't care, awesome, that's fine.

You don't have to, as you said, you don't have to blow out everybody else's candles to make yours shine brighter.

The last thing I'll say on this is that even if you don't put yourself forward, you still may end up in that top 100 because they reach out to students through first car.

So your students may still get approached.

And if they opt to fill in those forms, which mine did the other year, because again, I didn't put myself forward last year and then I finished second, and it's like, that was a genuine surprise when I found that out.

And it was a lovely little surprise, actually doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.

But I'll tell you what, it's nice when it happens.

So, you know, even if you don't put yourself on, you're one of those people that mourn about it, you still might win.

So, in fact, I hope that the person that wins this year is someone that moans about it every year and doesn't submit.

But let's.

Let's move on from the awards and.

Because we want to talk to you about pet peeves, because, Chris, earlier this month you sent me a message and said, can I talk about this thing that's really annoying me?

And I said, yeah, of course you come.

And then I think it was like yesterday, I said, how about we do a thing on pet peeves and all the other ideas that are deleted?

So let's share a couple of our pet peeves.

What's.

What's your.

Well, in fact, I'll tell you what.

Start with the thing you wanted to moment, right.

And it's going to sound pathetic.

And I put my hands up to start with.

It's a pet peeve.

That's the idea.

Absolutely.

And it is.

And it.

The question is, then, does it matter?

Yes, it matters to me.

So.

So it's going to matter.

Right.

And I think it matters because it's symptomatic.

So this is me defending myself before I jump.

Jump in with both feet.

I do theory as well as theory.

I do part one.

So people get in touch who have been struggling, failing.

They think they've done everything that they can and they're still not being successful.

And I will ask them, what have you been using to prepare for it?

And they will tell me that they've been using the official DVLA app.

And it really, really, really grates on me that if you can't get DVSA right and dvla, then there's probably other big things that you're missing as well, being that, you know, they are the bodies.

And I remind myself that it's just four letters.

And maybe people are just getting it wrong, but everybody gets it wrong.

You know, it's.

It's kind of a starting point for me.

And therefore, every time I see it, I inwardly groan and kind of go, you know, I can see where the problem is.

So it's a symptom.

And I don't know, should it.

Should it.

Should I feel that way?

Should it matter to me if people who are either coming into the industry or are already in the industry, you still get people saying DSA as well.

That happens.

It almost feels like you're showing by getting it right, you're at least showing that you care enough.

Maybe that's a me thing.

See, initially, when you first messaged me this, I think I replied back, yeah, it's not important, don't matter.

And, you know, I've had time to think, and I think I've got a slightly different opinion now.

And I'll explain as to why.

And it's your name, because I listened to the green room that we did last year or the end of year review today, and one of the things that I joked about on there was a number of misspellings of your name.

But the thing is, they're not misspellings.

It's a lack of care.

Because if I spelled your name and I accidentally put a P instead of an S or an A in front of An A.

Sorry.

An A instead of an E.

It.

That's an honest mistake.

And I think there's nothing wrong with honest mistakes.

I think maybe this is the difference, but I'm not going to name them.

But the people in the past spell your name with an A instead of an E, or an A and an E or God knows what other combination.

And it's not an honest mistake.

At least this is what I believe.

It's not a nice mistake.

It's because they haven't cared enough to actually check out a spell your name.

And I hate it when I make these mistakes.

And I do make these mistakes.

And now and again, someone will tell me and it's like, crap.

And I'll have to go back and change the title of a podcast, but it's too late.

It's gone out.

But it's an honest mistake.

It's not that I didn't care.

It's a typo.

You know, it's that type of thing.

So that matters to me because it's someone not paying that care.

So to me, I think it matters if someone doesn't care enough, but it doesn't matter if someone's just met a slip of the tongue or if someone just.

Just generally doesn't know.

I think that's a different thing.

That'll be my fault on that because I know we said we'd kind of share each.

Share his opinions on each other's pet peeves, and I think that with my opinion and that it matters and it doesn't matter.

Yes.

Yeah, no, that's fine.

I just for your pleasure at the moment, I am Chris Binstead.

It's not the end of the name.

It's the beginning.

That E has become an I, and it's multiple occasions from people that are not connected.

It seems to be the new trend.

So I'm sure I will have, you know, lots of people loving that and using it.

Yeah, it's.

It's.

As you said it, I don't really care when someone's saying it's a joke.

It's fine, whatever.

But there is that little bit of, you know, especially if you're tagging someone on.

On Facebook, if you.

If you tag, you know, Chris Benstead with an A, it's some bodybuilder.

I don't look like that, and I don't want to disappoint.

When I turn up, I should just.

Mention there is a video going around somewhere where I spelled your name.

Christ, Ben Steed.

That is intentional for anyone.

Don't come at me with this.

But here's the thing.

If you search my entire history, you'll find me spelling the name wrong somewhere.

That's an honest typo.

It's not a thing.

It's like, it's like, go back to the episode I recently recorded with Pascal Poppins.

And I'm not saying a surname again intentionally because I butcher that surname when I say it.

But it's still me trying.

Anyway, let's step away from that now.

We'll go down a hover, a whole other path.

Let's.

Let's move on.

I'm going to give my first pet peeve and I'm interested in.

In whether this matters, Chris, or whether I'm being a whiny little bitch.

So it's trainers who post the successes of their ADIs or PDIs, and apart from your standard tree standards check before the ADI or PDI does, because I've had people that have spoke to, and not necessarily overly negatively, but they've told me and said this was out there before I even celebrated it.

That is one of my.

I just, I think it's disrespectful.

I think it's.

Oh, you already agree me with this.

I like it.

I think it's attention grabbing.

I think it's.

It's amazing marketing.

It's brilliant.

You know, you get your name out there with them before anyone else does and they look like they are PDI or adi, whatever that you've taught for seven years.

But I just think it's.

Yeah, I think it's disrespectful.

I think it's attention grabbing and not a fan at all.

And by your expression, you're nodding and not.

And agreeing.

Moans.

I'm presuming you're a similar mindset.

I want to double down on that because as at one point I was trading under the industry's best kept secret.

Because if you can name them as a trainer, I have probably worked with them at some point on something where they've got in touch and said, I don't know this.

Can you help?

So what then often happens is, you know, people will go to different trainers for training and I love that.

I think that pick and mix approach is awesome.

I fully support it.

Very often it'll be the same names that come across and everything else.

And I'm not big on shouting about it because it's not my success, you know, I.

It's something I should probably be better at encouraging people to give me reviews or to shout about the fact and, you know, that, that I've been involved.

I'm not good at that.

So I don't.

So when the person that they've failed with more than once then shouts about how successful they've been and what they're really shouting about is that I fixed the problem, that really grates on me.

So I get it, you know, so just taking it that one step further, it's that thing of the trainer making it about them.

That for me that's the bit that grates.

And I think, I agree with you.

I think it's rude if you beat them to the punch, but I kind of think maybe let them decide who they want to credit.

And I'm not saying I want to be credited because that's not the me thing.

But they might not feel you don't know who else they've been to.

They might not feel it was you that got them there.

You're claiming that glory.

And yeah, I've seen a few go up that I know the trainee wouldn't ever have put their name to that one.

But yeah.

So yeah, I agree with you.

Absolutely.

And I would add to that the glory hunting side of it.

Yeah.

Equally grates on me.

I mean, in theory, any PDI that qualified, that has listed my podcast, I could claim credit for.

Yeah.

And well, I don't want to.

I don't have a problem with, with trainers sharing the successes.

If, if they consider it their success, then that's great because in a similar, it's not the same thing, but in a similar way as the instructors, we share our learners past pictures.

It is Mark in there's, there's, you know, I don't have an issue with that.

I think there is a slight difference and I think I would be more inclined to wait for that person to post.

Whether it's about them or not.

Wait for them to post and then just share that because that is them making it, as you said, about them rather than about the, the trainer.

But it is a little pet peeve.

And I just want to touch on this because in the chat, Garrett Millen said, welcome to the green room, Grumpy Old Men Edition.

And I think that will be the title for the show.

So Guy is getting credited the title for the show, Grumpy Old Men Edition.

But yes, that was, that was my first pet peeve.

What's your next one, Chris?

I was thinking there were a few and one of them I'm not going to go down the route of, because we sort of mentioned it with the names and stuff, which is spelling Errors.

If the word is a driving word, maneuver is the hardest one, One of the top 40 most misspelt words in the English language.

It's important to the job.

Try to learn it.

There's that approach, but I get it.

And I'm unofficially dyslexic, as in I haven't been officially tested, but I've been unofficially tested and I did really well, so I get it.

I will never pick up on someone's spelling.

Just make the effort.

But just before I move on from the spelling thing, a little anecdote for you.

I recently, this week, in fact, released an episode of the Instructor Unplugged in my premium membership.

And it was a little episode about maneuvers and about different ways we can tackle maneuvers.

And in my notes for that episode, it was either just an M or an attempted word with a red squiggle end on it.

It wasn't correct once, and it was only when I got the title of the show that I took the time to go and find out how to spell it.

I still don't know.

And I still had to get someone to check for me.

There's no line under this, but can you confirm it's right, please?

So, yes, I agree with maneuvers.

Then let's do a bigger U turn than the DVSA could do, and we'll follow that route.

So break and break.

Please get it right.

It really, really grates on me knowing which one's which.

So maneuver.

I get maneuver.

It's a horrible word.

There's too many vowels.

It's almost Welsh.

So it.

Apologies to all my lovely friends in Wales.

You know I love you.

But the break and break.

Curb with a C, not a K, you know, just.

Yeah, just.

I think sometimes doing it.

My favorite one, which I got, I saw from an instructor.

Sorry, it was from a trainee the other day.

It comes up every now and again with pupils, and I thought it was just a mistake and dismissed it until I had multiple occasions of it.

George Carriageway.

Have you had a George Carriageway before?

No, but I don't like that one.

I love George Carriageway.

I think.

I think he's great.

But, yeah, George Carriageway comes up surprisingly amount.

And it's.

I think it must just be.

It sounds like it.

And they.

Why would it be Jewel?

You know, there's no reason.

Jewel.

There's the other one.

Yeah.

Dual controls, dual carriageway.

We're not fighting with swords or pistols, so please do.

Yeah.

And.

And.

And I say.

I say that as someone who has had a lifetime of struggling with Spelling and stuff.

So I get it.

If you're not good at spelling, fine.

But they're really important words in what we do.

We use them a lot.

Have a go.

Try.

Yeah, that wasn't what I was going to say, but I'm going to go with that one.

Well, I like it.

And I think my thought is it matters when it matters.

So I think if you just type in a message to you or to I, or if it's like, whatever, as long as I can figure out what someone means, I don't care.

I think that if you're pulling out something that's attempted to be professional, then you need to make the effort.

So I think it matters when it matters.

But I will just say this is me in a nutshell.

I once thought about a month my instructor podcasting emails went out with the word instructor spelled wrong on everything.

So the hundreds of people across the space for a month every time.

Because I put it in the footnote and I changed it and I didn't realize.

And yeah, instructor was spelled wrong, so.

Which isn't great for the instructor podcast.

On a completely side note, still amusing me, when someone signs up to instruct a podcast and immediately unsubscribes when they get an email about the instructor podcast, that still makes me laugh so much to this day, it's like, what did you expect to get?

But that could be my pet peeve.

But it's not.

So, yeah, I think it matters when it matters is what I'd say.

Okay, I'll move on to mine then.

And I think that you're going to disagree with me on this one, kind of.

Because it's so.

It's instructors waving when they pass each other.

But more than that, it's instructors getting annoyed when someone doesn't wave back.

Because I rarely wear back.

And it's because I don't wanna.

Because I just want to be with my student, in my car, doing my thing, not worrying about being social to anyone else.

I don't want to be social.

I'm in my car, my student.

I just want to give them my attention.

That's enough social for me.

I don't.

I don't need more.

So if I see you, I'll nod.

I'll often nod.

I'll just give a little cursory nod.

But I don't want to do the big wave thing.

And I've done it now.

I don't say I never do it.

You know, sometimes do it through reaction.

But there are people that get annoyed by that.

And There are people that I see on Facebook completely.

I can't believe I waved an instruction anyway.

Well, first of all, what if they'll practice an emergency stop?

That's not going to end well.

Second of all, maybe they like me and they don't want to wave because the reasons I just said so.

Yes, it's not the waving.

Because if people want to wave, it's completely fine.

Is people that get annoyed when I don't wave back, when I just don't want to, just leave me alone, send me a message afterwards, that's fine.

You're right, because I disagree massively.

No, it's a mark of respect.

It's the same as getting someone's name right if it's in the same category, you can't have it both ways.

I'm sorry, but it's.

It's that thing of, you know, I think the camaraderie in a job where we don't really see each other, except for occasionally at a test center if you happen to cross paths.

I.

I got a message today that said, oh, have you seen so and so out on the road recently?

I don't have a car.

I'm not out on the road.

No, I haven't.

And you know, it's.

It's even more lonely.

That's why I turn up to the podcast.

And, And I just think that that nice acknowledgement, you're not waving for you, you're waving for them.

They might need that.

You.

You don't need it, you don't want it, but they might.

So I would like everybody to make that effort for the other person.

No, I thought I was going to.

Get you feeling bad and.

No, I get your point.

I get your point.

But I'm going to counter that with two.

This is a hill I'm willing to die on.

Right?

So, first of all, I put over 300 hours worth of content out free of charge for driving instructors, right?

I will happily taught any driver I get driving short, just message me.

Not as many as you.

I know that you're inundated, but I get instructors messaging me for advice, and I've had phone calls from them and, and all this kind of stuff.

And I go to a test center, I'll happily talk to them.

I put webinars on.

I put people in touch with each other.

I reach out to different sectors to bring people into our industry to provide stuff for people.

I'm doing all that I can get away without waving.

Right.

However, my second point will be there are times I have to look after myself.

And my social battery is really low at the best of times.

Right.

So no, that.

It actually takes energy out my social battery.

So when I'm.

When I've got that energy and when I'm a bit bouncy and happy and I'm in a playful mode, I will.

I will probably wave.

But when I'm just kind of normal, Terry, it's just like, just leave me alone.

You can wave at me.

Actually, I have no problem waving me, but it's like, I'm not waving back.

I might give you a nod to acknowledge.

And you just went on knowledge.

So I'm not ignoring anyone.

If I see you, I will generally attempt to make some kind of eye contact or not.

But I'm not doing the whole social waving thing.

It's not me.

But I will happily come and talk to you at the test center.

I will happily have a phone conversation with you.

I will happily help with any problems you've got.

But that's the one thing I'm not keen on.

I just tell everyone I'm doing an emergency stop lesson and that will solve.

Because you don't want to wave on one of those.

But yes.

So anyone that does wave me, I do apologize if I don't wave back.

It's not personal.

I just.

I just need left alone sometimes.

Great.

Give us another one, Chris.

Is this the final one?

Because, you know, we'll do one more.

We'll do one more each, then we're going to record a bit of extra magic for our premium members.

So, yeah, give us one more then.

I'm going to go with.

I have a massive issue with driving instructors who have self importance and just sit around moaning about things that don't matter on podcasts.

Well, you'll have to stop listening to the ipod then.

Just stop it.

I told you.

Difference between me and you.

I made this look good on the second promotional clip for the episode there.

Okay, well, I'm not going to respond to that.

We'll move on to mine then.

The last one I'm going to make is.

And I do think this matters, actually.

Not like the waving one so much, but it's on those learner groups on social media where the learner asks a question, even if the question is stupid from our perspective.

And then a load of instructors come on and start slagging them off and start having a go because.

And then we get the whole thing.

Well, Google it.

And I'm like, well, this is their Google.

This is Google now.

This is what Google.

If you go on Google and Google it.

They will potentially bring up a Facebook post about it on the Google search.

So they may well have gone onto Google, found this Facebook group and then asked in here.

And I think it's one of the most unprofessional things we can do.

But beyond that, it's just unkind.

And I know we have this whole thing about people being war cost snowflakes or whatever, but why would you intentionally be a dick?

It's like I mentioned before about the waving thing, right?

I'm not a dick about it.

I don't give someone the middle finger.

I just don't always wave back.

So with this it's, it's not about being woke or being a snowflake, it's about just don't be addict to him, just leave them alone.

Just don't have to be rude.

That's it.

That's my pet peeve.

If you haven't got anything good to say, don't say anything.

Well, you'd have been all quieter today if that kiss.

But no, I agree.

I think also we, it's very easy for us because we are educated about it, we're experienced with it to go well that's stupid.

But it's, it's no different to, to you saying the same thing to, you know, you, you're getting a paint around to paint your walls and you go, oh yeah, you know, it'll only take half a day and they come around to look at it and they wet themselves laughing because they got to prepare the surfaces and they've got to do all this, that and the other and you haven't got a clue about because you haven't done it.

So you know it from an educated perspective it's often easy to judge.

I had the situation come up this week where friend of the family got in touch, said on very late on Tuesday yesterday it's very late on Tuesday.

Can we've managed to pick up a test for Friday?

Can someone come and do an assessment lesson just to make sure that everything's good before we do the test.

Been taught by it, by the mum, been out and done everything, has done so with a previous child.

We also had the same last minute.com thing with and yeah, can we get someone in the current climate, can we get someone to go, go and go and help out.

So I, you know, swore under my breath a bit and then reached out and said, you know, can anyone help?

And managed to find someone to go and to go and do it.

It was actually their day off but they did it as a favor went and had a look.

It's very easy to judge that last minute thing, but you don't know the bit behind it and the fear that's being put out there about long waiting lists and you won't get one for six months and all of the other stuff.

You've got to remember their perspective on it.

And we don't want to judge those people, we want to support them.

So it gets difficult when it's the 100th message of the day saying, I got a test on Friday, can you help?

So, yeah, I, you know, I think sometimes we have to not say anything.

Agreed.

So on that note, in, in a moment we're going to have our after party with our premium members.

So do you want to take a moment, Chris, just to remind everyone what you might have to offer and where they can find it?

So if you want theory support for your pupils, then please get in touch with Theory Test explained on Facebook, on instagram or on TikTok or theorytestexplained.co.uk if you want support for you as a driving instructor for pretty much anything, then come to theditc.

T H E D I T c.co.uk, ask your question and I'll probably say, terry's got a podcast about it and then I'll message him and say, can you send me the link?

And he'll swear at me again because he has to then remember which one it was because I don't give good descriptions.

I always get it right, though.

Yeah, I know you're.

It's impressive.

It's why it makes me want to challenge you more next time.

This could be a new feature like Challenge Annika, but with someone less attractive.

Okay, so I don't know why I went there, but if you are listening to podcast Green Room edition and if you would like to join us for the after party or for this show that we're going to record or any of the other wonderful content that is in my premium membership, go and check out www.

The Instructor podcast.com.

you can find more details over there or you'll find a link in the show notes.

Or alternatively, if you just really enjoy this content and you want to support the show and feel free to sign up anyway, that way you're supporting the show even if you don't want more Terry.

But as always, thank you for listening and let's just keep raising standards.

The instructor podcast with Terry Cook talking with leaders, innovators, experts and game changers.

About what drives them.