A Coffee with Cathy Dool from Hayworth Equipment Sales

Join us for a coffee and chat with Cathy Dool from Hayworth Equipment Sales. Cathy has been an entrepreneur since childhood; from selling sand to neighbours as a kid, rodeo competitions, working with MacEwan and much more! She is the jack of all trades for Hayworth Equipment and serves many roles in the company and is one of the founders of the Acheson Business Association. Listen to hear her inspiring story and if you're lucky you may get a coveted cookie or butter tart when you visit Hayworth!

Transcript

0:09

Well, good morning, everybody. Glad you joined us for another ABA Coffee In The Park. My name is Cam Milliken, and I am here with my co-host extraordinaire, Jennifer Herrick, the executive director of the Acheson Business Association. You got it correct today. I got it correct, Jennifer, I practiced. You did. All week, yeah, I said it like a hundred times. Well, that's good. Seems like writing in lines when I was in school. That's perfect. Yeah, how you doing? I'm good, how are you? I'm doing awesome. It's a great day. We're here at the Wall Coffee Roasters in beautiful downtown Acheson. That's right. So we're really excited. Hey, anything new you want to tell us or about our sponsors or anybody like that? Well, as always, I would love to give a shout out and a big thank you to our gold corporate sponsors, which include the MyShak group of companies, Genics and Parkland County. We are so thrilled to have these individuals supporting the ABA and we couldn't do what we do without them. And they are awesome. And you're right. We thank them very much for their support. Hey, anything else you want to tell us about? It's coming up with the Acheson Business Association. Well, maybe we'll leave that one to the end. Okay. Because I'm so excited for our guest today, Cam. Okay. Well, let's get right into it then. And our guest is Jennifer. Well, our guest today is, I will call her a legend. That's a good word. It's a good word. Do you like that word? I like that. That's a good word. Yeah, she's a legend. So our guest today is Cathy Dool, who was actually one of the founding members of the Acheson Business Association. That's right. And now this is from Cathy's mouth directly. I said, Cathy, what title do you want me to give you? And we are going to call her Jack of All trades at Hayworth Equipment. That's right. Because she does it all. Okay. So we'll say Jack of All trades, owner of Hayworth Equipment. Cathy, welcome. Welcome, Cathy. Good to have you here. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here. Ah, this is great. We're excited. We are very, I have to admit, we've been looking forward to this podcast. Because anytime we're with you, we always have a blast and it's just always fun. And so thank you for taking the time to join us today. So Cathy, we're going to start out really easy. Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up? Oh, wow. Okay. Taking me back. I was born in Jasper, Alberta. So I am a park animal, protected species. Just putting that out there. I admit folks. I've never heard that. And for those of you who aren't from this region and don't know about Jasper, Jasper is a national park here in Alberta. And yes, it's a protected park. So that's awesome. You're a protected species. I love it. So grew up in Hinton. Spent most of my early years there. And mom and dad had a trucking company, tire company and a cafe. Oh, so very early on knew I had to be entrepreneurial to keep up with them. Keep up with them, yeah, for sure. I remember some of my earlier tactics when we were younger, because dad was in gravel. And so us kids being entrepreneurial, decided that we would sell the sand in our sandbox to the neighbors. How old were you? Yes, how old? I think I was eight. Eight, and you started a sand business. Yeah, because the other kids couldn't get sand in their sandbox. I love it. It's just awesome. So like, did you just like go door to door and sell sand? Yeah, with our little wagon behind us, we had Tonka toys that we filled it up with. And mom kept going to dad, like, you need to bring more sand. And mom kept going, dad go, why? And, well, are the kids eating it? He said, no, they're selling it. They're selling the sands. He says, yeah, that sounds like my kids. Yeah. Well, awesome. So where did the sand selling lead you to? Well, it led me to, we got involved with horses, which was the start of my rodeo career. Okay, so we need to talk about this. Yes, we do. Tell us about your rodeo career. This is awesome. So when I was 10 years old, mum had already started riding horses. It had been a passion of hers. And I thought, well, this is kind of cool. I would like a horse. And dad said, well, you'll have to earn it. I thought, okay, now what can I do? So I became a dishwasher at 10 years old at Hinton Husky. I've eaten at the Hinton Husky. Were you washing dishes when I was there? That's pretty awesome, I think. I'd either washing dishes or waitressing because after six months, I moved in to waitressing. Sure. So I saved my money to buy my first saddle and my first bridle and money towards my first horse and started riding. And the first horse that I practiced on was a 25 year old stud. And I was a 10 year old girl. Wow. And I didn't understand when mares are in heat. Yeah. Studs react. I know. I don't know how many times I got dragged behind him on the farm floor. I think after about the fifth time, I realized what was going on. Right. Yeah. The birds and bees come really quick when you're around farm animals. No. Yeah, I got a story about that. But anyway, it's about you, not me. Yeah. And so that was sort of the start of the rodeo. You know, our family every weekend went to gymkhana's, went to rodeos, went to flat races. Anything that we could enter in. Sure. We entered in egg and spoon races on horses. Yeah. Sack races, you know, put the panties on the piggy. Yeah. Yeah. We did it all. And I think in about 1975, dad decided that had enough of the trucking company, enough of everything and we moved to Stony Plain. And he started Hayworth on the west end of Edmonton. Okay. 17707 Stony Plain Road. Really? Which doesn't even really exist today. 17707. Yeah. It was right across from the Sandman Inn. Okay. There was nothing there. Yeah. Nothing but a campsite and an old... Yeah. I think it's a hotel now, isn't it? Yeah. It's quality inn. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And so he moved us there from Hinton. We stayed in the motor home, seven of us for about five months while they started up Hayworth. And I wanted to still rodeo. So I got a job at the Mayfield Inn, waitressing, and that's how I paid for my gas, my horse trailer. Probably shouldn't say this, but I was 15 and driving. It's Alberta. It's okay. It's Alberta. It was a different time. Good point. So just for those who are hearing this and thinking it's cool to drive at 15, not cool. Okay. Just a different time. I did have adults with me. Right. Yeah. Well, that makes all the difference. That's it right there. Yeah. And got lucky. Did the Alberta Summer Games. Won silver. Wow. In rodeo. Yeah. Were you barrel racing? Yeah. And so we moved to Stony Plain. They opened up Hayworth, first consignment shop in Western Canada. And we continued rodeoing and everything else like that. Horses was, you know. Yeah. It's a hobby, but it's also full time work. Sure. Yeah. It's a lifestyle. It is a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle for sure. Yeah. So when we, you know, got to Stony Plain, we had cattle and chicken and cats and dogs and horses. We ranched. We farmed. I was like, oh my God, I'm a city girl from Hinton. Not anymore. Not anymore. So after that, I finished high school, rodeoed all the way through high school and started to look for a partner, found a partner, moved back to Hinton. That was a change. Yeah. And then realized I didn't like Hinton anymore, came back to Stony Plain and got a job at Grant MacEwan. Okay. So tell us about that, Cathy. What did you do at Grant MacEwan? Well, moving back, it was, I think, it was a while ago. And word processing had just taken over typewriters. Yeah. I thought, oh, I got to learn this because typewriters are dead. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And so I took a course at Grant MacEwan, finished it five days early. And the instructor says, well, you can't just leave. I can't give you your certificate. You got to do something while you're here. So she set me up with the people in the Community Public Relations Department. And so one of the girls phoned me and she says, hey, come down and have a talk for a coffee break, right? So the director of the Foundation, Terry Flanagan, was there. And he started asking me a question about who was in the hockey series. Of course, that was the early 80s, mid 80s. And of course, the Oilers were dynasty. So I knew everything. For sure. So about after five questions, he got up and he says, OK, you can start on Monday. I went, what? Didn't ask me a single thing, only asked me about the finals. You impressed him. You knew. That's awesome. You knew the hockey stuff. I knew stuff. So yeah, learned a hell of a lot there. Yeah. Continued to rodeo, continued to go all over Alberta and Western Canada. I actually went down in to the States, did the winter rodeos down there. Right. Learned a whole bunch of stuff that I liked and what I didn't like. And when I came back home, I thought, hmm, there's money in horses. As long as I'm selling them. Yeah. Not buying them. No, you're right. Yeah. And so got rid of the horses and got involved with quads. That took me a whole other direction. Cathy, I'm just going to stop right. You amaze me. It is just, I've known you now for a few years. And I know these stories come out from time to time. And then all of a sudden I didn't know the quad thing. Tell us about the quad thing. I'm curious now. Well, I got tired of feeding the horses, watering them, chasing after them, vet bills, feeding everything. Figured out the quads. Didn't need my attention. I didn't have to gas them up if I didn't want to. Didn't have to feed them. As long as they stayed in the garage. Little gas, I guess. But yeah, that's about it. As long as they were in the garage, I didn't have to worry about them escaping. So it was great. And what did you do with quads? Went all around Alberta. Really? Every back road, every crown land that we could go quadding on. Cool. All over Rocky Mountain. Yeah. My sister and I did the very first time we went out quadding. My parents had been into quadding, but it wasn't something that I thought about. So the very first time we went down to west of, south of Rocky and empty town. Okay. Yeah. And we went there with tents and a pickup and our quads. Wow. And it rained all weekend. Oh, no. Now, did that make it more fun or more challenging or less fun? I said to Arlene, I said, Arlene, my sister, I says, okay, if we're doing this, we're not doing it in a tent. Yeah. That next weekend, we went and bought a motorhome. I just love the way you think. I just love the way you think. I think that's fantastic. Okay. So now you're into quadding, you're working at MacEwan. What's going on at MacEwan? Like, what are you doing there? What do you? Well, I was really active in the building of City Centre Campus. That's right. I think you were pretty instrumental in putting that up, weren't you? Yeah. We used to, once we had all the plans done up, I used to do tours on bare land for two years to show people what it was going to be all about. I was the chairman of the grand opening. We started the Alumni Association. I was instrumental in starting the Alumni Association, instrumental in starting the foundation where we raised money for scholarships and whatnot. And what I'm starting to realize is that I have a lot of firsts in my life. And I think I get that from my parents because when they moved west in Edmonton, there was nothing there. Woolco was over the bridge. Woolco. There's a blast from the past right there. Our younger listeners are not going to have a clue what Woolco was. They're just going to go, what is a Woolco? But it'd be like a Walmart. Smaller, but like a Walmart. So it's now Mayfield Common and there's all kinds of businesses in between. But when we moved there, it was a wide open field. Cool. And then in 1986, we moved to Acheson. It wasn't Zone 3. It was called Ellis Park. So Hayworth moved to Acheson. And dad bought NASBs. And there was nothing here. Again, wide open spaces. And then when we moved in 2004 to where our present location was, there was nothing there. Husky had one gas pump. And we took down a farmhouse to build there. Is that right? So there's a lot of firsts in my life. I keep, I was thinking about it last night. I'm going, wow, mom and dad did lots of firsts. Yeah. I really got ingrained in me. So your family and Hayworth were really, when it comes to Acheson, the business park here now, you were pioneers. You were the first, some of the first. Yeah, dad was the first. And then when I got involved in 2000, yeah, there was a lot of brownouts here because it was power grid, right? Power grid. The infrastructure, it just wasn't set up. It was like farm because it was all farm. This is fascinating to me. I mean, Jennifer, you and I, we work here. We're here every day during the week and we see it how it is now. I had no idea about this. This is kind of fascinating. This is the history of Acheson. To see where Acheson, you've seen it firsthand and actually were instrumental in part of it. From that, where you started to where it is today. Yeah. As a young entrepreneur, just losing dad and getting involved in the family business. After years of being out on my own, left Grant MacEwan, started working with the company. So let's talk about that for a second. Okay. So you left Grant MacEwan because? I got involved with personal and professional coaching company based out of Seattle. Okay. It was all about teaching students how to be successful when they graduate. Okay. Because that wasn't happening. Yeah. As we started getting involved with that, it was like, well, forget students. What about employees? What about employers? How can we help them? So, spent probably the next five or six years just all over North America, going into companies, helping create their culture, create their business, setting goals for both the employees and the employers. Yeah. It was great. And that took you to where? Well, actually, I was going to stay on that path. Right. And it wasn't until dad got cancer and then passed in 2000. And one of the last things that he said to both my sister and I is, you need to come home. You need to help mom. While, she focuses on my health and we get better. And he never got better. He passed in March of 2000. So it was like, okay, that career is over now. I'm going to jump into this. So I had never wanted to be involved with Hayworth. Wasn't interested, liked what they did, knew that it supported our family. But it was like, okay, we'll be there to help mom. And I've grown to love it. And so I think some people know. Sure. Tell us a little what Hayworth does. I was going to say, tell us what Hayworth does. Well, Hayworth is a heavy truck and trailer dealership. So we sell new and used trailers and used trucks, the semis, anything that you can pull behind a semi-truck. A trailer wise, we sell it. And so we do parts, service, sales, rentals, financing. We do consignments. As I said, dad was one of the first consignment locations in Western Canada. Yeah. And so that's what we do. We continue to do it. We're going to be 40. We are 49 years old this year. That's incredible. Yeah. Second generation, although we've run it longer than mom and dad have run it. So I think we've sort of proven that we can do it. And as I was getting involved, I got involved with Parkland County, the economic development. Luke Paxton was the economic development officer. And he encouraged me to start the association, encouraged me to bang on doors and we needed more power out here. We needed signage. Worked with one of the counselors, Division 1 way back in the day, and decided the biggest problem was that our address was Spruce Grove. So how do we change that? So spent months and months getting that changed over to Acheson, and getting it recognized at least as whatever it is. Downtown Beautiful. That's what it is. And it's grown so much. I mean, when I got involved in 2000, I mean, who would have known? I mean, even three quarters of the businesses that are in Zone 3 weren't even here. Right. Oh, exactly. Zone 5 was non-existent, 7, 8, 6, 4, That's amazing. That's amazing. It is. I love learning the history about how Acheson came to be. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I say, we're here every day. We see it as it is now, and it's still growing. But to know that that's where it came from, and you were instrumental in that, I think. That's just pretty amazing to me. That's incredible. And you guys stuck out here. You stayed in Acheson. You didn't want to go anywhere. You moved a couple of times. Moved a couple of times to wide open spaces. Right. Right. Another first. We were the first in Zone 3, the first in Zone 2. So and you talked about the story of your dad passing and you and your sister taking over the business. What was that like? Like, what did you feel like at that time? Were you, was it this massive overwhelming feeling or was it what? How did that go? Like? I don't know if there was any feelings involved. Yeah. To be honest, I think it was, it had to be done. Yeah. Step up. Don't sit there complaining. Don't worry about it. Just mom needed help, working with family. There was five family members. So my mom, my brother, another sister and Arlene and I, who had been working together and had developed that relationship, hold back the onions, so to say, that we could actually work together. But working with three other siblings, or two other siblings and my mom, oh, trust me, there was days. That's another podcast. We could probably take a whole podcast and talk about sibling rivalry in business. Yeah, and it wasn't, I don't even know if it was rivalry. It was just different ideas. Sure. Wanting different, you know, to proceed different ways. So it was really learning about communication. I mean, today, even more so communication. I tell everybody, communicate, communicate, communicate. You know, if there's a problem, communicate. You know, communicate before there's a problem. So it's an ongoing thing continuously. And today, my brother, Gary, my sister Arlene and I run it and we're still communicating. And your mom's still around. I was going to say, tell us about your mom. Yeah, she's amazing. Oh, we love your mom. She's just the best. Her heart is still in Hayworth. I mean, her and dad started it back in seventy five. So, you know, she's been here the whole forty nine years. She has actually helped us transform all of our paper documents into digital. So we now have digital records well over ten years. And she did it all. She comes in one, one day a week now, brings cookies. We have customers stop just to pick up cookies and visit mom. What day does mom bring in cookies? Road trip. Guess what we're doing on Thursday. That's right. We're heading over to Hayworth. Every now and then, she'll treat everybody with her butter tarts. Her butter tarts are the best. We actually have customers phone in to say butter tarts are in the building. That's just great. That's fantastic. And we still serve, we're serving three generation companies now. That's amazing. Especially out in Hinton, you know, our old stomping ground. We have the third generation coming to us. So that's the cool part. It speaks volumes, right? Yeah, it really does. Yeah. Well, Cathy, we could spend hours and hours having this conversation. This is honestly the one time I wish the podcast went on for like an hour. We can do that because I just sense there's more stories. Yeah, so. But since we do have to wrap it up, because we are limited to our 30 minutes. That's right. We try to be diligent. We try to be diligent for our listeners. We do have a final piece, a question that we ask all of our guests. So Cathy, what's the best piece of advice you've received either personally or professionally that you carry with you to this day? I was lucky to be mentored by Dr. Grant MacEwan, who was the Alberta Solicitor General. Yes. When I first started at Grant MacEwan, he used to come in to the office, came up from Calgary at least once or twice a month. He always came to our office because we were public relations. We were the face of Grant MacEwan. He was very proud of that. And he always said to me, always leave the garden better than when you came in to it. And that has stuck with me over and over and over. That's good. And I carry it to this day. I say it to a lot of our new employees, just always leave it better than what you came to. Wow. That's fantastic. That really is. That's great advice. It is. And I think it can apply in so many areas of our lives, both personally and professionally. Absolutely. No matter what you're doing, just leave it better than what you came upon. Right. We're running out of time a little bit, but I'm curious what's next for Cathy. You know, I don't know. I think right now, we're continuing to see the market's changing, business is changing, the landscape is changing. Right. I think for me personally, it's, bought a lake lot, so spending more time out there, bought a boat, a pontoon boat. Pontoon boat. Party at Cathy's pontoon boat. So I think just learning to do both. You know, have that time for fun-ing and relaxation. And so that every day that I do come in to work, I'm rejuvenated because there's a lot of people who are not happy where they're at, and I'm choosing to be happy. Yeah. Oh, also great advice. Yeah. Fantastic. Really fantastic. Like I say, I think we could just go on and on and on. And I have to say, Cathy, you're one of my favorite people to talk to. You really are. Thank you. We share a little bit of a common bond in rodeo. And I love that. As a clown. I was the clown. I was a rodeo clown for a couple of years. See, I do remember. You do remember, yeah. I wasn't going to mention that other than we share a bit of a bond. But anyways. The bond is still there. Yeah. I think it's fantastic. And thank you for starting the ABA. Yes. Oh, thank you. And I mean that sincerely. I'm glad you sit still on our board as a member of Emeritus. And we're glad that you're there. And thank you for taking the time to do this today. I really appreciate it. We really appreciate it. We sure do. Yeah. I appreciate you guys because you guys are continuing exactly how I wanted to see the Association going. And so I'm so proud of where the Association is and your guys' involvement because it is where it is because of the people involved. Well, we yeah, it's a great organization for sure. If you're in Acheson, downtown, yeah, beautiful downtown, downtown Acheson, stop at the wall and pick up a coffee. But if you're if you work in Acheson or even do business in Acheson, you know, the ABA, check it out, check it out. There's a lot going on for now and into the future. We're excited about the direction of the Association. Yeah. Check out our website, achesonbusiness.com. Follow us on our LinkedIn, our Instagram. You're going to see exactly what we're doing. Tell us about what's coming up. We're excited about that. So nominations closed for the Business Awards, which are on September 28th. Record nominations have come in. I'm so excited. We're going to be trickling out this week on our social media who all the nominees are. So people need to follow to find that out. And we are having a Coffee In The Park, not the podcast, but a get together network event next Thursday, September 5th, here at the ABA parking lot in the Wall Coffee Roaster 27717 Acheson Road. Come by for some food trucks, some beverages, and just to connect with business and neighbors and friends. Yeah, it's going to be a lot of fun. And it's sort of the we're calling it the adult version of going back to school and getting everybody together again. Kids go back. They get to see all their friends. We're saying, hey, come and join us. Come see all your friends. That's right. Hang out. I think we're going to do a bit of a podcast there. I think we're talking about that. May interview you if you stop by. So come on by. It'll be a lot of fun. Well, thank you, everybody. It's been great. You know what? Remember, we always tell you, tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your enemies, tell everybody about this podcast. You can find it wherever you get your podcast. You can also find it at www.Achesonbusiness.com. If you don't know how to do that podcast thing, won't mention any names. Mike Myshak, but anyways, well just share it around. Absolutely. Until next week, thanks for listening. See you everybody. Bye.