So Kev, can you believe it? This week marks one year since we started the podcast. I know it's just flown by. Hasn't it. And it's been so nice to reach out to loads of different people as well. So yeah, a year. Amazing. Wow. Yeah. And we started out, we have no idea whether anybody would even listen. Why would people listen to us? Yeah. And yeah, I knew. So, thank you, everyone for listening to us over this past year and hope you found it enjoyable. You can't have a birthday without doing a little bit reflection and looking back a bit over the facts and figures. So I had a little look today this will be our 59th episode because while we do a weekly episode, we have put in a couple of extra upsides. When we're doing a challenge. And we've also had 12 different guests. Come on. Different episodes. And some of them have been on more than once. We've had over 14 and a half thousand downloads since we started, which is amazing. Yes, I do. I can't figure it was just sort of like blow me a little bit. Cause it's just like, 14 and a half. This is crazy. Yeah. Am I. We've also had some fantastic feedback. We've had people come up to us. So shows and conferences. And tell us their favorite bits or how much they've enjoyed it. And people emailing us saying how they found the podcast, helpful to them. And people just saying, thank you so much. I've passed my driving test or. I really understood that episode. And I've been using that in my driving lessons, which is just brilliant, because that was the aim that we set out with. Wasn't it? It was. I mean, we set out with the aim of trying to help as many people as we could. Because obviously we can't physically help all these people individually. So how were we going to do that? And the podcast was an idea. And we thought, well, we'll just give it a go. See what happens. And here we are. But to get the feedback and people are using what we're. Created. So, yeah. Fantastic. Now, one of the other things that has happened over the past year is just recently, we just got the bronze award for product of the year from intelligent instructor. Yeah. And again, I just want to take time just to say to people, thank you for voting for us. It means a lot. That people do. Take a little bit of time just to click those buttons and say vote for confident drivers. Thank you. Yeah, we really appreciate your support. So we didn't want this episode to be all about just us two. No. No, cause you probably had enough of us by now. So we invited some of the driving instructors that we work with, who are on our highly recommended driving instructors list on the website. To leave a couple of that favorite tips or pieces of advice that they wanted to share with you. So here's a couple of those.

Hi, it is Terry Cook from the Five Minute Theory podcast. I want to first of all give a massive congratulations to the Confident Driver's Podcast, reaching a year's worth of podcasts. Big well done for you guys. Keep up the excellent work, and uh, yes, a quick top tip for you guys. That is, if you've got your driving test coming up, prepare for it, plan for it, deal with those nerves in advance, so make a plan. Whatever the outcome is. So Plan A is passing. So on one side of a piece of paper, plan a pass, write down all the good stuff and plan what you gonna do if you pass, you buying a car, you have invert training, all that kind of stuff, flip it over. Plan B. Ah. Maybe if things don't go quite the way you want and we don't get quite the result you want, plan what you would do. Would you have further training, maybe some multi-story car packs or motorways or anything like that? Are you gonna look to BOOKY test as quick as possible? Are you gonna have to arrange availability of your instructor? All that kind of stuff. So whatever the outcome of your test, plan A or plan B, you know what you're gonna. It takes a lot of pressure off because nothing is gonna take you by surprise because you know what's gonna happen. Hopefully you find this useful, and again, big well done to, the Confident Drivers Podcast reaching this excellent milestone.

Hello, my name's Janet Lambert at South Down's Driving School in Midhurst West Sussex. I've got two top tips for calming driving nerves for test or driving lessons. The first one is connected to music, listening to your favorite playlist or the radio humming your favorite song or singing it even I. that works really well on driving tests. I've had one lady who sung Dancing Queen all the way around her driving test. Both her and the examiner came back happy and didn't forget it for the rest of the day. The other one I use is some thought field therapy, tapping on various different, parts, usually of the face or the hands. This has worked really, really. both for the driving test, but also for driving lessons on topics that students are nervous about. Whether it's something big like roundabouts or your carriageways or reversing or that busy junction helps to really calm them down. And I think both techniques, they just occupy the mind a little bit, help you focus on something else rather than letting those negative thoughts come in regarding the test or the driving topic.

Hi, I'm Pete from Elite Driving Solutions in Margate. I find a lot of my students have issues with social anxiety, worrying what other drivers think of them. It's really helpful for them to put themselves in the mind of the other drivers and usually realize quickly that the other drivers are not as angry or impatient as the student may have originally thought. Most drivers probably don't even think of them at all.

Hi, this is Tony from Up Driving School in St. Helens. I've been on a couple of courses with Confident Drivers and I have learned so much from these two guys, Kevin Tracy. Unbelievable. It's changed the way I work with my students beyond. Recognition, to be honest. The resources that I use most are the zones, and perceptual positioning, particularly using this resource for pretest. and I found that it works really, really well. So on top of the resources I've mentioned, the encouragement to do detective work on the students has probably been the biggest change for me, where I'm questioning deeper and deeper about. The issues and producing some really, really good results, which is down to these two guys.

Now P and Tony, that both mentioned perceptual positioning. We haven't done an episode on this yet. So it's something we might do. But both of them there. Recommended is so in advance of a future episode where we might talk about that is simply putting yourself in another person's shoes. It is, and it's seeing things from a different perspective. To gain, a different perspective on the situation that you're in. Or the task that you're about to do. Yeah. And people often find it helpful if they are worrying about what other people think such as people behind them or driving examiners on a test. Yeah. So we also thought this episode might be a great opportunity to reshare pieces of advice that some of our guests have given as well. So here's a few of those. practices key. Listen to your driving instructor. I mean, I still look at things now and while I'm driving down crown street, we should probably buy, they've got cars on both sides and I'm going by smaller the gaps over the speed. And that's, that's something that he taught me 20 years ago and, um, practice makes permanent, but Paolo parking. Yeah. Watch your angles, listen to your driving instructor and learn your craft. It takes time.

You say that to my pupils all the time. I didn't pass till third time and I was about to give up. I was like, no, I don't wanna go. I'm not gonna go. I'm not gonna pass. And then it went and passed, but even. Like I say to them all the time, I do so many courses and stuff and you know, me, I don't like public speaking either. I've had such a struggle with it over the years, but I've just worked at it and it was the same with lessons. I just worked at it and I've got there in the end. I think anything worth having it's never easy, but if you give up, you'll never get it and you'll never be any further along. So it is just. It's that chip in away. It's exactly what you just said. Small steps. Keep going.

think to yourself, Why did I, why did I not pass? Ask that question? Why did I not pass? Write it down, analyze it almost like a debriefing, I suppose, with yourself. Don't sort of think like, I probably did. Oh, the examiner was a grumpy, so he had a bad day or something like that, you know, actually take responsibility for yourself. Why didn't I, and then, listen to your instructor and say, and I probably didn't do this. I probably did not say hundred percent. Am I ready? And if you're not ready, don't take the test. So yeah, that, that would be my advice. Keep going, but don't continually do something in the same vein if it's not working.

what I find when I worked with people, particularly those that have failed their driving tests. Quite often, they're really worrying about what people behind them thinking. And I say, look, doesn't matter. Don't care about them. It doesn't matter if you know, they're getting really annoyed or angry. If you're going the speed limit, you're going the speed limit. If you're approaching a junction, yes. You need to know what's going on around. But just pay attention to what's in front of you and keep that focused, not worry about what's happening to the person behind and what they're thinking, because this is all about you. Not about them.

to be empowered to want to be better is so wonderful, and life can only improve and it might be difficult doing the first couple of steps. You will find your life improve and I can't emphasize that enough. But if you're listening in and you're like, I don't know if this is right for me, I can say that Just even starting. It's just amazing. It's just an amazing that you're listening to the podcasts it's just starting.

journaling will allow you to do either. So it depends on what it is that you're looking for really from it. But some of the biggest benefits from it is your reflection, because then that's where your growth comes from.

the people that, that come to us that have had lessons previously and give up because they was nervous or anxious and things, or are people that's just generally feeling anxious and nervous about even beginning because they've never done it before and they don't know, where to even begin with it. It's a great way of them starting to sort of already start to process their thoughts and feelings around it all because once. Kind of process that and dealt with that a little bit. They're already on, on that, you know, that better foot to, to a great learning journey and beyond

I would say keep going. I do think, I mean, we, you know, that practice makes perfect. We've all heard it said, but I do think it's true and I do think that. The more you drive, the more confident you become. I would like to drive to my prosthetics appointments in ethics without my mom in the car at some point, but I haven't, haven't got to that yet. But you know, I think it is baby steps, isn't it? And you mentioned goals there. So it is about definitely setting kind of small, achievable goals. And it's similar to. When I was recovering from my accident, I did a lot of work around goal setting I think adopting that same mentality to driving with the smaller goals and then the bigger goals is actually a really good strategy. I should really take my own advice

I think it's useful for them to know that. It's the survivor mechanism doing its job. When, when they start getting really nervous, I say, Actually, it's your body, your nervous system's trying to protect you. There's nothing wrong with you. Cause they think there's something wrong with them. I said, There's absolutely nothing wrong with you. It's doing its job too. Well, this nervous, response to these things, this fight, flight, freeze response, but it's understanding that we can recognize it, but then we can manage it. That's the thing. We can manage it. It doesn't have to then kind of spiral outta control, I think it's useful for them to know that it's, it's a normal response.

Oh, Id say if I can do this, anybody can, cuz I really thought I'd never drive again. So I don't need to just create my life in a way where it's unnecessary, but that stopped me. I wouldn't been able to move to the country if I hadn't started driving again. So it's opened up so much possibility for me. I just get the right support. I think that's the main thing. Just get the right support take your time.

So I think we can both agree. There was some great advice there, Kev. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. These are from people that have had driving experiences and. You know what they've learned and looking back on their journey. What advice they would give to someone just starting out. So, yeah, I think that's great advice. Yeah. Beryllium. So. Kev. What's our aim. What's our vision for the next year. Again, I just want to keep it. Reaching out to as many people as we can because. Everybody has a driving story and there are people out there that feel alone. Or. That there's no support for them. In. Gaining confidence with their driving. They may have lost it for whatever reason. I want to help as many people as possible. And make sure they don't feel alone, that there is something there to help them. Yeah, it's really important that people don't feel ashamed, that they don't feel alone. And that they know there are other people who feel exactly the same way as them. It's not just, you. I think the other thing is. Is for us to be here to encourage and cheerlead people. Yeah. It's sharing, a little bit of advice here and there, encouraging people to take that first step, however small it may be, but take that first step to get him back driving. Or get in behind the wheel, you know, whatever it may be. That's what our mission was really at the beginning. Wasn't it. You know, to, to encourage people to get back driving. Yeah, there's no step too small. No step. To insignificant. And. If you haven't got anybody else to share those little tiny wins with, get in touch, we're here to encourage and cheerlead you on. Yeah, and I love hearing about people's successes. So my success comes from your success. Lovely. So on that note, thank you once again. And we look forward to sharing more episodes with you over the next year. Yeah. And if there's anything that you want us to talk about, please get in touch if you feel you've wanted to become on and tell your story. Get in touch with us so we can share your story to help others. Yeah. We'd love to hear your stories. So all of our contact details are in the show notes as always, and until next time, have a great day. Whatever you're doing.