0:00
/
0:00
Anyone Can Teach, But Not Everyone Can Educate: Lessons from 30 Years in Automotive Training [RR 1095]
Anyone Can Teach, But Not Everyone Can Educate: Lessons from 30 Years in Automotive Training [RR 1095]
0:00
0:00
0:00
0:00
About this episode
The conversation digs into the difference between teaching and educating, arguing that “anyone can teach, but being an educator takes work.” Drawing on decades in automotive training, the guest and host emphasize knowledge transfer, real-time feedback, and engagement that goes beyond slides or projector time. They connect an educator mindset to diagnostic thinking with the “three C’s” (Concern, cause, correction) and discuss retention challenges like attendance. The episode also highlights apprenticeship-style training structures and outcomes, plus the role of shop management support.
Thanks to our Partners, NAPA Auto Care and NAPA TRACS
Watch Full Video Episode
The best educators do more than share information, they build relationships. Todd Fortier's career demonstrates that teaching is most effective when instructors combine technical knowledge with empathy, curiosity, and genuine human connection. As the automotive industry works to address technician shortages and workforce development challenges, creating better educators may be one of the most important investments the industry can make. Todd Fortier, Professor/Program Coordinator, Illinois Central College, [email protected] Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care
The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/
Carm Capriotto sits down with Todd Fortier, retiring automotive professor and program coordinator from Illinois Central College, to discuss a lesson learned over three decades in education: anyone can teach, but becoming a true educator requires purpose, empathy, and continuous growth.
Todd shares how his passion for education was sparked by helping students experience those breakthrough "lightbulb moments" and why the ultimate goal of teaching is not simply delivering information, but ensuring meaningful knowledge transfer. As he prepares for retirement, Todd reflects on the challenges facing automotive education and his mission to help develop the next generation of industry instructors.
What You'll Learn- Why technical expertise alone doesn't make someone an effective instructor
- How educators can improve knowledge transfer and student engagement
- Todd's "Three C's" framework: Concern, Cause, and Correction
- Why connection, empathy, and vulnerability are critical teaching tools
- How to identify the root causes behind student disengagement
- The importance of recognizing the personal challenges students bring into the classroom
- Why many students leave training programs early and how educators can help retain them
- How trainers and mentors can evolve into true educators
- The soft skills needed to successfully connect with today's students and technicians
The best educators do more than share information, they build relationships. Todd Fortier's career demonstrates that teaching is most effective when instructors combine technical knowledge with empathy, curiosity, and genuine human connection. As the automotive industry works to address technician shortages and workforce development challenges, creating better educators may be one of the most important investments the industry can make. Todd Fortier, Professor/Program Coordinator, Illinois Central College, [email protected] Learn more about NAPA Auto Care and the benefits of being part of the NAPA family by visiting https://www.napaonline.com/en/auto-care
NAPA TRACS will move your shop into the SMS fast lane with onsite training and six days a week of support and local representation. Find NAPA TRACS on the Web at http://napatracs.com/
Connect with the Podcast:
- Visit the Website:https://remarkableresults.biz/
- Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/carmcapriotto
- Follow on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/RemarkableResultsRadioPodcast/
- Follow on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmcapriotto/
- Follow on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/remarkableresultsradiopodcast/
- Join Our Virtual Toastmasters Club:https://remarkableresults.biz/toastmasters
- Join Our Private Facebook Community:https://www.facebook.com/groups/1734687266778976
- Join our Insider List:https://remarkableresults.biz/insider
- All books mentioned on our podcasts:https://remarkableresults.biz/books
- Our Classroom page for personal or team learning:https://remarkableresults.biz/classroom
- Special episode collections:https://remarkableresults.biz/collections
- Buy Me a Coffee:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carm
The Automotive Repair Podcast Network: https://automotiverepairpodcastnetwork.com/
- Remarkable Results Radio Podcastwith Carm Capriotto:Facilitating Wisdom Through Story Telling and Open Discussion.https://remarkableresults.biz/
- Diagnosing the Aftermarket A to Z:From Diagnostics to Metallica and Mental Health, Matt Fanslow is Lifting the Hood on Life.https://mattfanslow.captivate.fm/
- Business by the Numbers: Understand the Numbers of Your Business with CPA Hunt Demarest.https://huntdemarest.captivate.fm/
- The Auto Repair Marketing Podcast: Marketing Experts Brian & Kim Walker Work with Shop Owners to Take it to the Next Level.https://autorepairmarketing.captivate.fm/
- The Weekly Blitz: Weekly Inspiration with Business Coach Chris Cotton from AutoFix - Auto Shop Coaching.https://chriscotton.captivate.fm/
- Speak Up! Effective Communication: Develop Interpersonal and Professional Communication Skills with Craig O'Neill.https://craigoneill.captivate.fm
Filter:
|
Technical
Too Afraid to Ask
Term
diagnose cars
"“But they have the technical skills, but the presentation, the educator mindset is just not there yet.” ... “But the three C's is we diagnose cars using the three C's.”"
“Diagnose cars” means figuring out what’s really wrong with the vehicle. Instead of just trusting the first guess, you confirm the problem so the repair actually fixes it.
In automotive work, “diagnose cars” means figuring out what’s actually causing a problem, not just guessing based on symptoms. It typically involves checking the vehicle’s systems and verifying the root cause before recommending repairs.
Term
Concern, cause, correction
"“But the three C's is we diagnose cars using the three C's.” ... “Concern, cause, correction.”"
This is a simple 3-step method: first, figure out what the customer is worried about. Next, confirm what’s actually causing it, and then decide the fix that will correct the real problem.
“Concern, cause, correction” is a structured way to communicate and troubleshoot automotive issues. You identify the customer’s concern (what they notice), verify the cause (the underlying fault), and then specify the correction (the repair action that addresses the cause).
Term
verify the concern
"“What's the concern with that student?” ... “Do we ever take the customer's word for what's wrong with the car or do we actually verify the concern?”"
It means you don’t just take the customer’s word for what’s wrong—you check it yourself. You confirm the symptom with tests or inspection so you can find the real problem.
“Verify the concern” means confirming the reported symptom with actual checks, rather than accepting the customer’s description at face value. In practice, that often means inspecting, testing, and correlating symptoms to a specific fault before recommending work.
Term diagnose cars
1 mention · 09:33Term Concern, cause, correction
1 mention · 09:34Term verify the concern
1 mention · 09:43
Select text to request an explanation
This is the Automotive Repair Podcast Network.
Hey everybody, Karm Capriotto, remarkable results radio. Good to have you here.
Hey look, I have a topic here today that I am so excited about.
What we're going to discuss needs to be discussed.
And I actually have the right person for you all to meet and hear from.
And what we're going to talk about is anyone can teach.
But being an educator takes work.
I promise you this is going to be a great episode.
Hey, thank you so much for all your loyal support and for listening.
You do know we have this great new app out, the Automotive Repair Podcast Network, the ARPN.app.
Just put in that URL in your phone, figure out if you're Apple or Android.
And I know you know that and download it.
So many great things happen there.
It's for your smartphone, the ultimate listening app.
And before we meet Mr. Todd Fortier, here's some messages from our great partners.
Hey, you know the technician shortage is real.
But NAPPA AutoCare has a solution at no cost to members.
The NAPPA AutoCare Apprentice Program builds tomorrow's technicians through a two-year, nine-stage curriculum.
Learn more at member.napaautocare.com or talk to your NAPPA representative today.
Hey, did you know that NAPPA Tracks has on-site training plus six days a week support?
It all starts when a local representative meets with you to learn about your business and how you run it.
After all, it's your shop, so it's your choice.
Let us prove to you that Tracks is the single best shop management system in the business.
Find NAPPA Tracks on the web at NAPATRACS.com.
Let me introduce you to Todd Fortier. Hello, Todd.
How are you doing, Carl?
Your resume is incredible.
Professor, program coordinator, Illinois Central College.
I think you may have said to me, how many years? 30-ish?
About 30 years in education, yeah.
I think you know a little bit about it.
I'm learning every day, so...
Yeah, I love it.
Automotive technology, East Peoria, Illinois.
The faculty forum president, ASC Master L1, L3, MLRC 1, T2, XEV 1 and 2.
I mean, you're just a brainiac.
I don't know about that. It's all about necessity, right?
If you're going to educate, you've got to be educated.
I hear you.
In October 2025, I was at his school,
and I gave my Rise of the Specialist keynote to a whole incredible group
of Illinois educators in the automotive field, and it was great.
Thank you for inviting me out there and hanging out with your school.
I love your school. It's great. It's just a beautiful campus.
Well, look, we're here to talk about anyone can teach, but being an educator takes work.
And Todd is more passionate about this than anyone I've talked to in a long time.
And everyone knows I'm on an advisory panel, and I so firmly believe that the word training
needs to leave our language, and the term educator needs to come in there.
But Todd, let me be facetious for a moment. Anyone can teach, am I right?
Yes, anyone can teach, but to be an excellent educator, it's going to take some work.
It's going to take some time and some commitment.
I was asked recently, you know, how do I get to be you?
Which, first of all, I don't consider myself anything special.
I have just tried to get better at what I do every single time I step in front of an audience.
Now, how do you get to where I'm at?
Is you train yourself to teach just as much as you train yourself to work technically?
You have to listen to the people around you and observe.
You have to be a perpetual student of education, and as I've always said,
and it's one of my favorite words, and it was taught to be by a mentor,
pay attention to everything that's going on around you.
Because in the things that you just said to this wonderful young class of future specialists,
did they really get what the hell I said?
And wait a minute, oh, look at all those crystallized.
Maybe what I did didn't work.
I lived in that fear forever.
I mean, I still do.
I want to make sure when I get done, did the message get there?
Did the learning happen?
It's one thing to present, but it's another thing to make sure that the learner got it.
I call that knowledge transfer.
It's been something that I've been writing about and saying.
Again, I probably have a dozen specialty words that I love,
and I think my listeners are getting a little sick and tired of me always interjecting them.
But if they could buy in and I can change the world, then good for me.
Okay, I want to be an educator.
I love to teach, but I also teaching and educating two different things.
What's it going to take for me, for all the chairmans of all the community colleges that are around the country,
of all the great trainers that are involved in our big companies that are out there?
There's probably a thousand training classes going on today in our industry throughout our country,
maybe even North America.
And I know one of the things that Todd is working on is how to solve this problem,
which is why we've connected.
We've been chatting a while and this man wants to retire and go out and become an educator.
Yeah, 54 days, and that's it for being called Professor 40 after all these years.
People ask me, you know, what are you going to do in retirement?
And honestly, I didn't have a good answer.
I knew I was going to help the industry.
And it was through the association that you came and talked to a good friend of mine, Chris Reynolds,
pushed me to get in front of educators and challenge them to be better.
You learn from your students after class surveys are great.
They give you some feedback, but in the moment survey of the room is extremely valuable feedback.
If you look and everybody's glossed over, everyone's on their phone, they're doing their things.
I mean, I get it.
I'm a busy person too.
I've got classes going on when I'm at vision.
I've got classes going on and I got pulled out of Tracy's seminar this last year because of a union issue.
And you are so distracted, it's difficult to get that information.
And so the easier we can make it for them to get the information,
I always say I didn't know anything about education until my students taught.
I love that.
It's the thing that you can get from every student that you ever taught.
Listen to the conversations before and after class or before and after your seminar.
Or when I say educator, lead person in the shop, the person you're standing next to, you're always teaching.
My experience in industry was wonderful because I had a lot of part-time employees were full-time instructors for the Air Force
because we were right outside the main gate.
And so when I asked questions, I didn't get, leave me alone, I'm busy.
I got a physics lesson on a napkin about air conditioning because I asked the gentleman what he was doing on a car.
That was invaluable.
And so that type of education in our industry goes leaps and bounds because it sparks that interest.
You spark a learner and you light a fire in them.
I didn't come to education because that's where I went to school.
I mean, I was a technician, moved to Northern Wisconsin and got the opportunity to teach in Champaign.
So I turned around two weeks later and moved back.
In that first class, I was teaching and I saw a face light up and the light bulb moment happened.
And I've been chasing that feeling for the last 30 years.
That was the day.
That was the day.
It was the thing that sparked my addiction to teaching people.
And that's what it is because I had a dear friend that sat in on my lecture.
He's got about 15 years between high school and college and he's like, you know, you did some great things.
You hit every person in the room.
You got everybody engaged in at least some part of what you were talking about.
How do you do that?
I said, well, I taught at the school that he does in my early part of my career.
So I called out the class number of my first class I taught.
I said, there's a VHS tape where I recorded myself in the first few months of my career.
I said, I've watched it one time.
It's never come out of the sleep since then because I don't want to be that person ever again.
That person was horrible.
It sparked in me like, I'm getting paid to do a job.
Why am I doing it so horribly?
And so I had the technical background like many of us do in the industry, you know, great presenters at Vision and Asta and all these other places.
But they have the technical skills, but the presentation, the educator mindset is just not there yet.
It can be there.
Even people that say, I hate to be in front of the room.
If they're passionate about something, being in front of the room is the least of their worries.
They've got it down.
You've got the three C's of teaching students.
Talk to me about that.
Well, this was born out of conversations that I'd heard through Illinois College Automotive Instructors Association, right?
We have high school and college instructors and every once in a while you have somebody in the room says,
I can't do that with my students.
My students aren't smart enough or they just use me as a dumping ground.
This is the worst class I've ever seen.
And I understand a little bit the frustration because there is a lot of politics and education.
But the three C's is we diagnose cars using the three C's.
Concern, cause, correction.
What's the concern with that student?
Do we ever take the customer's word for what's wrong with the car or do we actually verify the concern?
So if you're telling me that this person can't learn and they're dumped in my class because they're not a learner, verify that.
Don't give up on that student from day one.
So let's find out.
And then once we find out what the problem is, let's diagnose the root cause.
There's some real simple things.
Sometimes they're bored.
Most of the time you'll find people that go into skilled trades or technical education, they're bored in a traditional classroom.
And so they're going to be a problem.
But when do people become problems when they have free time or boredom?
Well, guess what?
In the auto shop, in the high school, you know, industrial arts or anywhere, there's no free time.
Your hands are busy.
You're busy.
I've had some of my best students, best graduates, were some of the worst students coming out of high school because they weren't challenged.
You've thrown so many great things at me, Todd.
And what I could start to think about as I roll this through, know your student.
If you stood in front of a class of 20 young people, you could probably say to me, you know, they don't talk a lot, you know, they can wander.
I got to pull that cell phone away.
And you can go around.
And what you're doing in your mind and or physically by where you place these people and how you speak to them, lifting up their ability to receive the education that you're giving them, because you've got to speak their language to them.
You meet them where they are, you solve their issues.
So they're sure you find the cause and you correct it.
You connect with every one of those students and it's that sense of caring or, you know, simply just saying hello in the morning.
You walk in 10 minutes before class starts as they walk in or as they're sitting there, you have those small conversations.
It's the connection and you said it earlier, the buy in.
If you get the students to buy into what you're selling, which is their education, their future, then it's easy after that.
Can you imagine, my God, you hit me really hard with this.
And in fact, there's a lot of great teachers, educators, trainers in our industry that greet people at the doors.
They're coming into their classroom.
And that basically says, I know you, I got you.
I got eye contact.
You're going to pay attention to my class.
And it's not they're up in front of the stage fooling with the projector.
Everybody comes in.
There's 100 people in the room.
You've vision, you've seen that many people, right?
There's no connection.
It's just as Anthony Williams used to say, the sage on the stage.
Yeah, if you can hit every person in that room with a glance, a nod, eye contact, and it doesn't matter if there's 100 or 1000.
Now, if you, I mean, obviously I've never lectured to a stadium, but large rooms like vision, I've seen people make it through that room.
They've started in the front and ended to the back and they've made it through every person.
Because it's really tough not to pay attention when something's zooming around, bouncing around like a ping pong ball.
They don't have a choice.
Todd, does the student, do they walk in and says, engage me or not?
I mean, you know what I'm saying?
You're laughing that I hit a nerve.
No, it is funny because you would think, right?
There's money paid out.
There's registration.
There's a lot of hoops you got to go through to sit in college class.
And a lot of times they go in there and it's like, you're bothering me.
This is my time.
The old fast times are Richmond High, right?
You know, don't bother me.
This is my time, Mr. Hand.
You've got to get them to understand the value of what happens.
First thing I always try to do is show that I'm not perfect.
I mean, the first thing I admit to every single class because I think it's important is I am horrible with names.
I am the worst person.
Even if I know your name and I've called you by name a thousand times, there's going to be that moment in time where it's gone.
I'm staring you in the face and I have no idea what your name is.
I could tell you everything about your life, where you've been, who you like to hang around with, what's your favorite subject, but I just cannot remember your name.
So I tell them, don't get offended.
You guys have one name to learn.
I have 50.
And so if I know it already, maybe not a good thing.
So we'll see over time, I'll learn your name and we'll get that down and we'll go past that shortcoming.
And it shows that you're human and you're not just a person out there, you know, that's much wiser and much smarter now.
So admit to them that I'll never know everything there is to know about automotive.
That is not even possible.
It's completely free for members.
This program was pioneered by shop owners Pete McNeill and master technician Jake Sorenson at McNeill's AutoCare in Sandy, Utah.
They recognized that waiting for skilled technicians to appear wasn't an option.
So they built a program to grow their own.
By recruiting motivated individuals with the right passion and attitude and providing them with structured training, they proved that apprentices could become the next generation of skilled certified technicians.
The program features a comprehensive nine-stage curriculum with in-depth classroom videos, instructor-led NAPPA AutoTech classes, web-based courses, and hands-on training with a mentor.
Apprentices move at their own pace, typically completing the program within two years.
Graduates earn four ASE certifications, the G1, A4, A5, and air conditioning, and are officially registered with the Department of Labor as Journey Workers Automotive Technicians.
And here's the business benefit.
As apprentices gain skills, they generate billable hours, often boosting shop profits as early as stage five.
Plus, NAPPA now offers a new apprentice tool kit, developed with Carlisle tools at an exclusive price, helping break down one of the biggest barriers for new technicians the cost of tools.
Together, NAPPA AutoCare and your shop can tackle the technician shortage head-on.
Start now, grow your own talent, and build your bench for the future.
Visit member.napaautocare.com or contact your NAPPA representative today and get started with your apprentice program.
Let's face it, your shop management system is the single most important tool in your shop, period.
NAPPA Tracks was built from the ground up to make your business more profitable and efficient.
We provide an extensive set of tools to increase and track profitability in real time.
NAPPA Tracks offers the industry's best post-sale support, hands down, and we train your people on-site.
Yep, on-site, and we offer remote refresher training ten times a week, and customer support is open six days a week.
Give us a call, visit the website, or join our Facebook community today to learn more.
We'll prove to you that Tracks is the single best shop management system in the business.
NAPPA Tracks is always customized and tailored for you whether you're a one-man shop or a large multi-bay or multi-location company.
After all, it's your shop, so it's your choice.
Visit us on the web at NAPPA Tracks, that's N-A-P-A-T-R-A-C-S dot com.
You wrote to me, Todd, and you said we have to have someone to upskill our people.
Explain to me in your heart what upskill means.
Here's what I've said for a long time. It doesn't matter what you score on a test.
It doesn't matter how many days of perfect attendance you had.
What matters is when you hit the shop floor, can you perform?
Can you do the job? And we get this mutual respect going with our students.
And I explained to them, I said, I don't care if you got a C and A or you failed my class, don't make me look bad when you get in the shop.
They're not calling the college and saying, hey, you know, president of the college, this student doesn't know how to change a tire.
They're going to call me and say, hey, Todd, what are you doing over there?
Wait a minute, you wouldn't let a young person leave if they didn't know that stuff.
You're saying this tongue-in-cheek, Todd, because you're not going to let anybody go out there unless they've got a C in your class.
Right, yeah. They don't get our stamp of approval on them, right?
But here's what happens in our industry, Carm, and you've seen this. We don't have technicians.
I mean, in our area, we're interviewing people we wouldn't have talked to five years ago,
hiring people that we probably would have never hired to fill spots, and it's unfortunate, but that's just the reality of it.
So we have had over a 30-year career, people leave after one or two classes because the grass is always greener on the other side.
They got enough skill to get a job, but that's what they got as a job.
If they stuck it out through the whole thing, they would get a career.
And so I do get some issues back, you know, hey, this person says they went through their program and they're not very good.
So I had to originally go out to industry and meet those people and make sure that my name was out there.
So then when somebody applied with our credential, they called for a reference and we built those relationships.
It's surprising what people will put down on paper that is not actually true.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I mean, the resumes aren't quite 100%.
I can remember I started an internship program back in 2001 and there was necessity for it.
And I kept getting a lot of shops saying I'd never hire a student from your college.
We had such a horrible experience and I finally found out the person that everybody was talking about.
I could walk into a shop and I gave the name and he went to one class for half the semester,
but put down on every job application or resume that he had graduated from our college.
And so I had to build that relationship or network so that people knew, hey, call me, get the reference.
I tell all my students, put me down as a reference that way.
I can give it to you good and bad because we want to make sure that we're bettering the industry
and not just putting people into it.
I think it's a great thing to have an individual leave, the good and the bad,
meaning if you didn't do good, please don't put me down.
If somebody's got enough common sense.
Did you ever try to convince a student to stay who wanted to leave because you really saw potential?
Always.
Attrition is something that we've been working on for my entire career.
I've got a student now is a working technician, tons of potential, got natural ability,
really critical thinker, amazing student, but only hitting about 25 or 30% attendance.
And because there's a few dollars coming his way at the job he's at now,
but there's an amazing career in his future.
And we've had these talks and we've turned him around quite a bit from that 20 to 30%.
And I think he's in one of his EV classes now.
He's about 80% attendance, which is we require attendance.
That's part of their work ethic and it's trying to turn that around.
Even the ones that have stopped out come back as an institution and as a program,
reach out to those people all the time.
Come on back, get back into the sequence and we'll get you through to the end.
Do you find that the shops that hired these individuals who are attending school,
even though they've paid for it and they've done so many days and hours,
do you have them to support you?
Do you sit down with an owner and says, look, this individual is going to be so much better
if you don't have a personal apprentice program here in your shop.
He's got to stay with us.
Right.
What we've done because of the need in the industry is we've revamped our program,
as you know, and we put in the maintenance specialist certificate,
which is one semester.
And so now they don't have to steal the student to have them work on the lubricant.
They're doing an internship part-time as they go through our program.
We work together with our advisory committee and our local shops to see what is your need.
Just like any place in the world, the good ones are going to get it.
And the ones that aren't doing it correctly are just not going to get it,
but they won't be around very long.
Our industry is not one where you can burn through employees.
It just doesn't work.
So I think I heard you say earlier, and this is going on at our local college that I'm on the advisory board.
We've got a lot more people interested in coming into, if you will, skill careers
and automotive being one of them.
It doesn't mean that they're naturally gifted to want to do this,
but there's a lot more that we can pick from.
And is that because there's so much discussion on the value and the power of skill careers?
You could make a lot of money if you put your heart in it.
Yeah, salaries have come way up, and some of the skill trades, they've always been there.
Respect, I think, is a big thing.
With young people today, and I don't ever like to qualify by age,
I hate when people say, this generation or that generation, you know, it's individuals.
It's a bunch of people.
But what we're finding, by and large, it's quality of life over dollars.
It's the environment they're working in and the respect that they're given by their employer
and by the industry that is starting to drive people into it.
And we're changing some mindsets.
My own son didn't go to college.
He decided to be an operating engineer, and I'm 100% fine with that.
Now, my daughter, she went to college, and our youngest son's at the University of Illinois.
They chose a traditional path.
But a high school counselor called me one day and said he wants to drop his transfer level math class.
And I said, okay, well, what's he need for graduation?
And they said, well, he's already met graduation requirements, but he'll need it for college next year.
I said, well, good thing he's not going.
So maybe he should just drop that class.
And the issue was, and this is what happens in a lot of areas, and this is not picking on this institution,
but their high school was set up to where the career and technical ed was at one end of the high school
and all the AP and higher level academic courses were at the other.
And the reason my son didn't want to take that class is because he was running a quarter mile
during passing periods to and from that class.
And he said, I don't need this.
Why am I running so far?
And so things are starting to change.
We're seeing more people in CTE, career and technical education.
But the one thing that's not changing is a shortage of qualified instructors to teach in the areas of career and technical education.
Yes.
And you just, again, a perfect time for me to challenge this thing when we said in the beginning,
anyone can teach, but being an educator takes work.
I know what you'd love to do post retirement is to figure out how you can support all of our technical colleges out there.
Listen, I know a lot of people that are teaching in college today that have come from the ranks.
They either retired or they says, you know what?
I just want to give, even if it's for three, even if it's part time, we call that in school adjunct educator.
And even if it's four, 10 hours a week, because in my heart, I want to do this,
even though you've got all the skills and the knowledge, all the basic electric and everything that's necessary and all the neat new cool stuff today doesn't mean you can transfer knowledge.
It doesn't mean.
And so what's your vision of how this could possibly work someday?
Is it a boot camp?
Is it online education to help these chairmans get their people up to speed?
Yeah, I think it's going to take all of it.
It's going to take a network of people.
They're willing to communicate with each other.
Best practices is always a good start, right?
We can do the seminars.
We can do the vision.
We can do the individual trainings.
We can do the online.
It's getting over the stigma as well of saying, hey, we need to teach you how to teach or we need to teach you how to recognize your student, how to see where they're at and how to get a sense of belonging or what are Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Because a floor technician that makes a transition into education like I did, those are all foreign concepts.
And then, you know, a dean of a department somewhere says, hey, you need to come to this training on how to hold hands and make people feel better.
We as an industry, we just don't embrace that like we should.
And so we need to deliver that to those educators in a respectful and meaningful way and not insult them by treating them any different.
Know your student, understand their classroom and what they need and deliver it to them.
Is it the people skills, empathy, self-awareness that's really critical to feel that transfer, to know that student?
You don't have to have empathy.
Empathy helps, certainly, but every facet can be useful.
Even analytical thinkers can look at it from a data standpoint.
I mean, there's millions of hours of research that's went into psychology on nonverbal communication.
And so even a critical thinker can look and say, hey, that person's got their arms crossed.
It's either cold in here or they're not open and listening to me.
Body language.
Right. And an empathetic person can say maybe there's something going on in that person's life that has them angry.
And it's not what I'm doing up here.
I admitted to a room full of educators in 30 years.
There's only been two students I have not been able to reach and teach everybody else I have.
And that's a lot of people.
And so it's certainly possible.
Some are more challenging the others.
And honestly, coming from the diagnostic side of automotive, that's more exciting than fixing any DTC that I ever did.
Because now I have a bigger challenge and it's got more variables.
There's no physics behind it that are going to tell me in absolute of how I'm going to reach this person.
With enough money and time, you can fix a car.
You really got to work to get to a person, to get through to them.
And one of the things that we just recently did an episode with Rena Runderbaum and Rachel Spencer on bringing personal life into work.
And years and years ago, Todd, people would say, you leave that at the door.
We got a business to run.
But today, there's so much going on in our worlds.
There's so many things going on with family and sickness and illness and chores.
And all the activities, I can't even imagine when we raised our kids.
It's 10 times worse.
But to your point, as that student comes in, I have a choice.
I'm either going to go here and make money or come here to be.
No, I'm going to go there and make money.
And or we didn't have, we got some problems at home.
I'm thinking of getting married or I am married and there's a problem or I have an apparent who just was diagnosed with something really bad.
There's so much baggage in our worlds today that really challenges an educator.
It truly does.
And everything's magnified.
Your life's not just your own.
It's social media.
It's the internet.
Things happen milliseconds today.
But you have to recognize those, acknowledge them and see what you can do to make the few hours you have with that person matter in the moment.
And sometimes the best thing you can do is say, hey, today's not the day.
You've got a lot going on.
I think you need to take some time for yourself.
And if you need something from me, that's get a hold of me.
But sitting in this room for the next five hours is not going to help you.
I could see that the steam's coming out of your ears.
You're not going to listen.
You're not going to get what we're saying.
We'll make it up later.
You go take care of whatever you need to take care of, if you can, or we'll get you the services that you need.
That five minute conversation and that's communication.
I teach that to my students.
It's not a soft skill.
It's a necessary skill.
If I'm not going to make it to work, I need to communicate that, right?
If I'm having a bad day, I need to let people know.
You know, what's wrong with telling people, hey, you know what?
I didn't sleep well last night.
So I'm a little grumpy.
So I'm going to apologize right now.
I'm going to do my best to not let it come out.
But here's where I'm at.
I love it.
That provides grace.
I can see you get in front of the room and says, listen, I didn't sleep good last night.
I'm a little grumpy.
And if I'm not looking you in the eye, there's a reason for it.
I've finished a lecture and apologized.
When my kids were little, I always joked my oldest son.
I think he slept an hour for the first 10 years of his life.
And so there was a day that I truly remember I was exhausted.
And I delivered a lecture and I barely moved.
The material was coming out in monotone.
It was horrible.
And we got to the end, the clock struck the end of class.
And I said, I apologize.
I said, I'm going to go home and make sure that this doesn't happen next time.
We're going to have a better class.
I said, I hope you guys got what you needed, but I was just not on my game today.
Wow.
So you were vulnerable and they probably respected you.
Wave big time for that.
Yeah, it was kind of interesting upbringing.
In high school, I worked in a restaurant and the owner of the restaurant was friends with a lot of high school teachers.
And so I saw them out socially, not just in the classroom.
As a young person, you have this idea that every educator goes home and reads books and studies in the evening.
They don't have any kind of life outside of the classroom.
And that's not true.
And so you give them a glimpse of that, especially now when I want my students to be future educators.
I mean, they need to know what it's all about.
Great aspiration for you looking at all of them.
They're out there.
I've got a graduate teaching at a local high school.
Actually, one of our GM program students is going to take my position when I retire.
We truly are growing our own.
That's industry-wide because that's where they got to come from.
You can't get into education at this time for the profit.
It's not a money game.
The quality of life is certainly there because of the hours that you work and other things to go with it.
But in career and technical education, we are educating people that will walk out the door and double our salary they want.
I've sat in my cubicle in my early part of my career, had a graduate come back all excited and said,
Hey, I got this job.
I'm going to be doing this and I'm going to, you know, someplace exotic and I'm going to make $150,000 my first year.
And I'm going, Dad is awesome.
I really think that's great.
We've done awesome things for you in your keep it up.
And then you look at your paycheck and go,
Well, maybe I should find out where you got the job at.
That's a hill that we're really struggling to overcome and at least in the community college market.
You're just so right.
This was a eye-opening episode to my listener.
I hope this affected you in a bunch of different ways.
And that is to get involved with continuing education,
but stop and realize that we need to learn as an industry that it takes more to being an educator.
And yeah, you could have a great class, all kind of great slides, wonderful case studies,
but it doesn't mean that you got through and, you know, I took a whole bunch of great notes.
You know, you've got to care.
You got to confirm and clarify.
And don't look at the VHS tape from 25 years ago and say, look at how far I've come.
You don't even want to look at it.
I mentioned to you not too long ago, I said, you know, I'm the imposter educator
because I imposter syndrome drove me my entire career and drives me today.
You know, if you've always had that thought in the back of your mind, I could have done better.
I am not doing it as good as I could.
I'm not making the wonderful presentation or I didn't have today wasn't as good as yesterday.
And tomorrow has got to be better.
Or, you know, early on in my career, I was waiting for the day when they walked in and said,
hey, you know, this just isn't for you.
Your people aren't getting that.
And it's like, and so you start to take it personal when students aren't learning
and you try to find new and creative ways to get them to learn.
Well, look, I'm putting people in touch with Todd that I know in the industry
from schooling and other areas and connecting them.
I want to keep involved into what you're doing.
So stay in touch. Let's have you back when you've got something turning and rolling
because I want to be able to share this with our industry
because there's an awful lot of people that I know that have been on this show
that are involved in education.
And I think, you know, once you listen to this,
realizing that the Todd and Karm show is going to keep you involved into what the hell is going on here
as we work, as you work your butt off teaching people that are educators
and that are trainers in our industry to be great educators.
Todd Fortier, a professor of program coordinator Illinois Central College
who's retiring soon and he's got all kinds of great stuff planned.
Glad to know you. Thanks for coming on the show, man.
Karm is all for advancing the professional automotive service industry.
Until next time.
Request an explanation for:
Request an Explanation
Heard something you'd like explained? We'll add it to this episode.
Sign in to request explanations for terms you heard.
Want to learn more?
Browse our glossary for plain-English explanations of automotive terms, jargon, and concepts.
Help improve this episode
See something that's not quite right? Our annotations are AI-generated and can sometimes miss the mark. Click the flag icon on any annotation to suggest a correction.
Report incorrect info
Suggest better explanations
Flag missing cars
More from Remarkable Results Radio Podcast
Motor Oil supply Crisis: Fact, Friction, and What Happens Next [THA 489]
Jun 12, 2026
From Data to Loyalty: How AI and Hospitality Are Redefining Shop Growth [THA 488]
Jun 5, 2026
Stop Hiring in Panic Mode: Build a Recruiting Pipeline for Your Shop [RR 1094]
Jun 2, 2026
When Personal Stress Walks Into the Shop: How Leaders Protect Performance [THA 487]
May 29, 2026