What the ADI World Looks Like from the Outside In

Key Points

• The host announces the podcast will end after the 2026 season, but hints at future changes and asks listeners to stay subscribed.
• Guest Rachel Butler discusses her personal experience with menopause, including symptoms like brain fog and sleep issues, and offers advice for women and their partners.
• Butler explains her role at Intelligent Instructor, from sales and marketing to event planning for industry conferences, and shares the platform's history.
• She provides an outsider's perspective on the driving instructor industry, commenting on recent DVSA leadership changes, test modifications, and the importance of instructors for lifelong road safety education.
• The conversation covers business advice for instructors, including pricing, social media marketing, future-proofing with accounting software, and considering a shift toward automatic/EV training.

Summary

In this episode of The Instructor Podcast, host Terry Cook opens by announcing that 2026 will be the final season of the podcast, though he hints at upcoming changes and urges listeners not to unsubscribe. He is joined by Rachel Butler from Intelligent Instructor. Butler shares that she agreed to appear on the podcast primarily to avoid offending Terry by appearing on another industry podcast first. The conversation begins personally, with Butler discussing her ongoing struggles with menopause, including severe sleep deprivation and brain fog. She advises women to recognize early symptoms, consult a GP, and consider HRT, and suggests partners simply be patient.

Butler then details her professional role, explaining that she joined Intelligent Instructor in 2016 to handle advertising and has since evolved into the Sales and Marketing Director. She is involved in content, product development, and organizing major industry events like the National Conference in partnership with ADINJC. She recounts the platform's origin, noting it was founded to continue the essential industry voice after ADI News closed.

The discussion shifts to the driving instructor industry. Butler, offering an outsider's perspective, comments on recent DVSA changes, including Loveday Ryder's departure. She views change as positive and approves of new test modifications emphasizing independent driving on faster roads. For instructors, she stresses the need to future-proof businesses by reviewing pricing, enhancing social media presence, using accounting software like QuickBooks, and considering a shift toward automatic and EV training due to market trends.

Butler passionately argues that driving instructors are underappreciated, asserting that the driving education they provide is the most impactful and enduring form of education a person receives, unlike academic knowledge that is often forgotten. She contrasts this with the general public's potential underestimation of the skill and training involved in instruction. The episode blends personal insights, industry analysis, and business advice, highlighting the human and professional dimensions of the driver training world.