Latest / Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam / A Coffee with Wes Wall, Co-Founder and CEO of Genics Inc.

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A Coffee with Wes Wall, Co-Founder and CEO of Genics Inc. · Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam

• 0:01
  Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of The Coffee In The Park.
• 0:05
  My name is Cam Milliken, and I am here with my co-host extraordinaire, Jennifer Herrick.
• 0:10
  Good morning, Jennifer.
• 0:11
  Good morning, Cam.
• 0:12
  How are you today?
• 0:13
  Well, I'm doing really good, except the reality is you're actually not here today because we are doing for the month of August the best of Coffee In The Park.
• 0:23
  We are because I'm taking some much-needed vacation.
• 0:27
  That's right.
• 0:28
  You are away on vacation.
• 0:30
  We thought we would bring some really great stories and that we did right here in beautiful downtown Acheson.
• 0:37
  At the Wall Coffee Roasters.
• 0:38
  That's right.
• 0:39
  We had some great stories as we lead up to our Acheson Business Association Gala, our Lifetime Achievement Award winners.
• 0:46
  Last week, you heard the story of Darlene Whittaker from Reliable Steel and Tube.
• 0:51
  Reliable Tube.
• 0:52
  It's one of those.
• 0:53
  And today, we have another amazing story.
• 0:56
  Wes Wall.
• 0:57
  Wes Wall.
• 0:58
  Not only is Wes one of the founders and owners of Genics, but Cam, he was initially one of the groups that started the Acheson Business Association.
• 1:08
  That's right.
• 1:09
  He was one of the original founders.
• 1:11
  And Wes has an amazing story.
• 1:13
  And so you won't want to miss it.
• 1:15
  So while Jennifer is away on vacation and I'm sitting in my office, not sure doing what, but anyways, hey, we want you to sit back.
• 1:23
  We want you to enjoy Wes Wall.
• 1:26
  Enjoy Wes Wall.
• 1:41
  Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to another edition of the ABA Coffee In The Park podcast.
• 1:49
  My name is Cam Milliken, and I am here with my co-host extraordinaire, Jennifer Herrick, the Executive Director of the Acheson Business Association.
• 1:59
  Hello, Jennifer.
• 1:59
  Hello, Cam, how are you today?
• 2:01
  Oh, I'm doing great.
• 2:03
  It's the Tuesday after a long weekend.
• 2:05
  And hey, it's a great day.
• 2:07
  It's a beautiful day outside.
• 2:08
  It is, it's a beautiful, I guess, fall day.
• 2:10
  Are we in to fall yet?
• 2:11
  No, it's still summer.
• 2:11
  Still summer?
• 2:12
  Okay.
• 2:12
  But it's a beautiful day outside and an exciting day to be doing a podcast.
• 2:17
  And Cam, as always, we are coming to our listeners from...
• 2:24
  The Wall Coffee Roasters in Beautiful Downtown Acheson.
• 2:30
  Okay, can I just tell a story about that?
• 2:32
  Yeah.
• 2:32
  Because people think, why do you call it Downtown Acheson?
• 2:34
  So one of our listeners yesterday, she texted me.
• 2:38
  She said, Cam, my mom, who's from out of town, listens to your podcast.
• 2:43
  And she came to visit me on the weekend, and she made me drive her through Beautiful Downtown Acheson.
• 2:50
  True story.
• 2:51
  She had to bring her to Beautiful Downtown Acheson.
• 2:53
  It's amazing.
• 2:54
  It is.
• 2:54
  So folks, if you got nothing to do and you want to have the best cup of coffee you're ever going to have, come to The Wall Coffee Roasters that's located in Beautiful Downtown Acheson.
• 3:03
  At 27717 Acheson Road.
• 3:05
  That's right.
• 3:06
  And so that being said, if you hear some noise in the background, it's because we do this podcast live right at The Wall Coffee Roasters, right?
• 3:14
  We do.
• 3:14
  And so you hear like the of the coffee thing and you hear people talking and you hear people drinking coffee.
• 3:20
  And so it's kind of cool.
• 3:21
  So that's what we're doing.
• 3:22
  So tell us a little bit about our sponsors and who they are.
• 3:25
  Well, as always, we would like to thank our gold corporate sponsors, which include the Myshak group of companies, Genics, and Parkland County.
• 3:33
  These individual businesses do so much for the Acheson Business Association, and we are very appreciative of all their support.
• 3:39
  Right on.
• 3:39
  And without them, we wouldn't be able to do what we do.
• 3:43
  So thank you very much.
• 3:44
  So, Jennifer, this is a great day.
• 3:46
  This is a great day.
• 3:47
  Tell us about our guest today.
• 3:49
  Well, Cam, our guest today, and you know him well.
• 3:53
  I know him very well.
• 3:54
  You do.
• 3:55
  Our guest today is Mr.
• 3:56
  Wes Wall, who is the CEO, co-founder of Genics.
• 4:00
  But, but people have heard us talk about the gala.
• 4:04
  Wes is this year's 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award winner.
• 4:09
  Awesome.
• 4:10
  2024 Lifetime Achievement Award.
• 4:11
  Wes, I just need to say right up front, full disclosure, Wes is also my boss.
• 4:16
  So I will try to be reserved because I need this job.
• 4:19
  I have mortgage payments and things like that.
• 4:21
  So yeah, so anyway, I've known Wes for probably 40 years, Wes, I guess.
• 4:27
  Anyway, it's about that.
• 4:29
  So it's a real, it is.
• 4:30
  It's a real privilege and a real honor to have you here today.
• 4:32
  Thank you for taking the time to be with us.
• 4:34
  Yes.
• 4:35
  So we're going to start off really easy as I tell all of our guests.
• 4:39
  Wes, tell us a little about yourself and where did you grow up?
• 4:44
  Certainly can do that prior to telling you that.
• 4:46
  I just want to say the reason it's a really good day is because Leon Dreisaitl signed with the Edmonton Oilers. And the people that argue about the amount of money need to park it.
• 5:00
  You pay your stars, they keep people here, people want to come and play here because they're here.
• 5:06
  So now we'll go on to my life.
• 5:07
  Right on.
• 5:07
  18 mil by the way.
• 5:09
  14.
• 5:09
  14 mil a year.
• 5:11
  Which, you know, I'd like to make 14. Well your boss is sitting right here. No, Okay? Alright. Anyway...
• 5:16
  The sad reality is the government takes over half of that, poor guy.
• 5:20
  Are you kidding me?
• 5:21
  I know he only walks away like six mil or something like that.
• 5:24
  So whatever.
• 5:25
  Anyway, tell us about yourself.
• 5:26
  Certainly can do that.
• 5:29
  I was born in Saskatchewan to two wonderful parents.
• 5:34
  My father was a Second World War veteran who came back, started farming and I never was born when they were on the farm.
• 5:41
  I was born in Saskatchewan after dad and mom had left the farm and dad had become a minister.
• 5:47
  And their first stint in ministry was in a small town and they moved to Kelvington.
• 5:53
  And then from there we went to Lloydminster.
• 5:55
  And my earliest memories were Lloydminster.
• 5:58
  That's where my earliest memories of going out were.
• 6:00
  So you were born, sorry, you were born in?
• 6:02
  Kelvington.
• 6:03
  Kelvington, Saskatchewan.
• 6:04
  Correct.
• 6:04
  So you're from Saskatchewan.
• 6:06
  I'm from Saskatchewan. Shout out! This is why we get along so well, Wes.
• 6:09
  Because you guys are both from Saskatchewan.
• 6:10
  You know what?
• 6:11
  The best people come from Saskatchewan, don't you agree, Wes?
• 6:13
  Do you guys still speak Saskatchewanese?
• 6:15
  I just want to know.
• 6:15
  No, no, just listen, just so you know, majority of Saskatchewanites came to help build Alberta.
• 6:20
  Absolutely, he's not wrong.
• 6:23
  Telling you that for free.
• 6:24
  I like that, that's good.
• 6:25
  All right, so sorry, keep going, yeah.
• 6:28
  Then from Lloydminster, we were there for nine years, then moved to the city of Drumheller, Dinosaur Valley, and those were wonderful memories in that city.
• 6:38
  That community embraced our family.
• 6:41
  We had huge friendships that were developed there, still to this day.
• 6:47
  Go back to Drumheller and there's a plethora of people to visit because they're just friends for life.
• 6:53
  So those were my earliest years and earliest memories.
• 6:57
  Lloydminster was a farm community that we served mostly.
• 7:00
  It became an oil town over time.
• 7:03
  But in the early years there, we were heavily based on it as an ag-based community.
• 7:08
  So in the church that we were at, we spent many weekends and evenings out on the farm.
• 7:15
  It was a natural for my dad because he'd grown up on the farm.
• 7:18
  So we got exposed to agriculture.
• 7:20
  And I think that probably formed part of my desire later on in life after Drumheller to go to U of A.
• 7:28
  And I was in the Department of Agriculture.
• 7:31
  So you're an aggie.
• 7:32
  I'm an aggie.
• 7:33
  So you left Drumheller.
• 7:34
  You graduated high school in Drum.
• 7:36
  Correct.
• 7:36
  And then you came to Edmonton.
• 7:38
  Came to U of A.
• 7:38
  Came to U of A.
• 7:39
  Yeah.
• 7:40
  What Drumheller did for me is I played hockey quite extensively, but suffered a really bad injury.
• 7:45
  Was out for a year and started watching the high school volleyball team in grade nine.
• 7:50
  In grade 10, I rehabbed and joined the team in grade 11.
• 7:55
  And our team was fortunate enough to have a fantastic coach, Ian Jones, and we were perennial provincial champions for many years.
• 8:04
  Pretty cool.
• 8:04
  That's awesome.
• 8:05
  In grade 11, we lost in the semifinals, which we shouldn't have.
• 8:08
  In grade 10, we won the provincials.
• 8:10
  And in grade 12, we repeated and won in my graduating year provincial finals.
• 8:14
  Fantastic.
• 8:15
  Cool.
• 8:16
  Yeah.
• 8:16
  So that was my early exposure.
• 8:18
  And then when it came to U of A, I started playing for the junior Bears.
• 8:22
  And in 1980, we went on to national finals as the Bears, and we won the national championship.
• 8:30
  So that was my passion for volleyball has been locked in ever since.
• 8:34
  So all the universities in Alberta, the Bears were number one.
• 8:37
  You guys won.
• 8:38
  Yeah.
• 8:38
  And the Bears have been perennial champions for many, many years.
• 8:42
  They repeat a lot of times.
• 8:43
  Or if they don't, they're always in the semis or the finals.
• 8:46
  They're a solid organization and so are the Pandas.
• 8:50
  Yeah, I was going to say, I know that you support the Pandas very heavily.
• 8:53
  I know that here at Genics, we have a bunch of stuff that's got Pandas all over it, and I think that's pretty cool.
• 8:58
  Yeah.
• 8:59
  So you won the National Championship.
• 9:01
  What year of university was that?
• 9:03
  So that was 1980.
• 9:04
  1980.
• 9:04
  And you were in your?
• 9:06
  I was in my- Third year, fourth year?
• 9:07
  Second year.
• 9:08
  Second year.
• 9:09
  Okay.
• 9:10
  Second year.
• 9:10
  Yeah.
• 9:11
  So why agriculture?
• 9:12
  Why did you become an Aggie?
• 9:14
  You know, two things that happened.
• 9:15
  I'm sure I had the influence from those early years of living in those small towns, being associated with agriculture and farm families that came to our churches.
• 9:25
  But when I came to U of A, I first enrolled in sciences, and then one of my best friends from Drumheller, his uncle, was heavily involved in agriculture.
• 9:35
  And he called up Jimmy.
• 9:36
  He said, you and Wes should go into this program called Plant Protection in California, and the US was called Integrated Pest Management.
• 9:45
  And so Jim and I were the first two graduates out of the Ag Department in Plant Protection.
• 9:50
  Wow.
• 9:50
  So we studied soils, chemicals, insects, and plant pathology, which ironically turned out to be exactly what Genics has been built on.
• 10:02
  It's all of that understanding and learning of all those combinations of chemicals, insects, pest control, all of those things have become instrumental in almost every product that's been developed here.
• 10:13
  Right.
• 10:14
  Wow.
• 10:15
  That's amazing.
• 10:15
  It is amazing.
• 10:16
  Yeah, pretty incredible.
• 10:17
  So Wes, you were doing that, you were playing volleyball, you were in a second year university.
• 10:24
  Now, I've heard through The Grape Vine that you started out doing a summer job and you were out testing poles.
• 10:32
  Correct.
• 10:32
  So I would go back to Drumheller in my first two years that I was in school.
• 10:37
  And my dad had gained a good reputation in that town in how he operated and ran the church, as far as the business community is concerned.
• 10:48
  The mayor of Drumheller lived across the back alley from us, and he happened to be also the superintendent of back then, Alberta Power, which today is known as Atco Electric.
• 10:57
  And he said to my dad, does your son need a summer job?
• 11:01
  And dad said, yeah.
• 11:02
  He said, okay, send him down.
• 11:04
  And so I went to Alberta Power, had the interview, and the interview didn't seem to go that well, but as I was leaving, I was passing by his office, and he said, so Wes, how'd it go?
• 11:15
  I said, well, he doesn't have any room.
• 11:17
  He said, no, he does have room.
• 11:19
  Go get a pair of work boots and gloves, show up at the office Monday morning, you have a job.
• 11:24
  Wow, that's amazing.
• 11:25
  So you better just briefly explain to people, because when you say testing power poles, most people would have no idea what that means.
• 11:33
  Tell us briefly, what is that?
• 11:34
  Certainly.
• 11:35
  So testing wood power poles involves sound testing with a hammer, and as you train your ear, you will figure out where there are hollow pockets and decay pockets are rot, and then you drill holes in the power pole at a certain prescribed method and determine the amount of decay that's there, and then you follow it up with a treatment.
• 11:55
  That's going to kill the decay and extend the life of the wood poles.
• 12:00
  Plus, you find the failures so that there aren't these failures that are going to cause power outages, because these power lines travel all over the province in different locations.
• 12:11
  So, the thing is, the pole decays or rots, it eventually is going to come down, take a line down with it, power goes out, costs a bunch load of money to fix it.
• 12:20
  Correct.
• 12:20
  Right.
• 12:21
  So, you are preventative in all that.
• 12:22
  Correct.
• 12:23
  Okay.
• 12:23
  So, got my training on the job, the first year I worked there, and the second year, then the opportunity came up where they said, Wes, you've worked for us, but we're going to contract this service out, and there's the guys in Peace River and Grand Prairie are retiring from doing that.
• 12:40
  Their older gentleman, so started a company in 1981, and went up there and started on the first contract testing utility poles in Grand Prairie and Peace River.
• 12:50
  Wow.
• 12:51
  That's incredible.
• 12:52
  It is.
• 12:53
  I didn't know all that.
• 12:54
  I've known you 40 years.
• 12:55
  I didn't know all that story, but that's amazing.
• 12:58
  I mean, and I remember, so we always tell this story.
• 13:00
  I remember way back when you first started, one day I went with you and Cal out into the field, just for something to do.
• 13:07
  I guess you thought I needed to see how you guys or what you guys did.
• 13:10
  And it's not easy work.
• 13:12
  Let me tell you, it's hard work.
• 13:14
  Like it's tough work going out there.
• 13:16
  It is.
• 13:17
  Yeah.
• 13:17
  It's not a romantic job.
• 13:19
  No, not at all.
• 13:19
  By any stretch of imagination.
• 13:22
  Requires a lot of manual labor.
• 13:23
  And so you say you went to university just to take a shovel and dig holes around a power pole and drill holes in them in the hot weather, day in and day out.
• 13:34
  But it's a very rewarding job because you can see your progress as you go through the day and when you drive back past that mile or two miles of line that you worked on and you've made progress, it's got satisfaction.
• 13:46
  Right.
• 13:47
  So you did that for your summer jobs.
• 13:49
  What did you do when you graduated university?
• 13:52
  So I'll just tell you this, prior to graduating and during university, there were some projects that needed emergency work done.
• 13:59
  So I went and would get permission from my professors and we'd leave for two to three weeks at a time, go test poles.
• 14:04
  Really?
• 14:05
  And yeah, and then come back and try and catch up.
• 14:07
  And that happened on two or three occasions.
• 14:09
  So what did your professors think of this?
• 14:12
  They were okay with it.
• 14:13
  Some of them were shocked.
• 14:14
  My entomology professor did not believe me that carpenter ants would create calories and live inside of wood utility poles, only trees and rotting wood.
• 14:23
  So we actually brought him back evidence of that.
• 14:25
  We actually did a presentation for our entomology class, Jim Calpas and myself.
• 14:30
  He went on to get his PhD in agriculture and worked with Ag Canada and Alberta Ag for years.
• 14:37
  And we did a presentation and proved that he was absolutely shocked.
• 14:40
  Wow.
• 14:40
  And so your question again was...
• 14:44
  Well, no, I just find it amazing that your profs would say, yeah, go spend two weeks out there.
• 14:50
  And you come back and I know where this is going.
• 14:54
  So I can now see kind of how this is all coming together.
• 14:57
  But I think that's pretty amazing.
• 14:58
  My profs never said, go take two weeks and do anything.
• 15:01
  Well, these professors, a lot of them in the Ag community, they had a lot of Ag students come in there.
• 15:08
  Just think about harvest time and the pressures that go on there.
• 15:12
  And then seeding time.
• 15:14
  I mean, I'll mind you that happens typically right after spring exams or final exams.
• 15:19
  But fall time could be pretty intense.
• 15:21
  So sometimes Ag students, they were very gracious with them.
• 15:25
  We had a very understanding dean and a lot of the faculty came out of the Ag network.
• 15:30
  So they had a good understanding for that.
• 15:33
  So there was more grace given by them than probably in another department.
• 15:36
  So you finished school.
• 15:38
  Yes.
• 15:38
  All done. YYup.
• 15:39
  Now what?
• 15:41
  So as I was finishing school, one confession I can make, I'd skip Botany Lab every Friday afternoon to go meet my now wife, but she was my girlfriend then.
• 15:53
  She went out to train her horse every Friday afternoon.
• 15:55
  She had a young horse.
• 15:57
  I still passed that course.
• 15:58
  I did fine.
• 16:00
  Anyway, full confession there.
• 16:02
  But our Ag department got tired.
• 16:03
  So much could be said.
• 16:04
  Yes, there we go.
• 16:07
  Our Ag department got tired of some of these external faculties that we would have courses with and internalized a lot of them.
• 16:15
  Because the value proposition wasn't there.
• 16:17
  So right after school, as I got out, the company was starting to grow.
• 16:23
  Instead of it being summer, we were doing, as I said, some projects in the fall.
• 16:26
  We then landed a project doing the city of Calgary's utility poles.
• 16:31
  We took over almost all of the at Atco electric system.
• 16:34
  So several regions.
• 16:36
  So we had Peace River, Grand Prairie, Bonneville, Drumheller, Lloydminster.
• 16:40
  So now it became more of a bigger entity, and a lot more work that was involved.
• 16:46
  But as we were doing that, and while I was in the last three years of school, I would always check with my profs and say, the chemicals that have been used historically are nasty.
• 16:56
  Like they're pretty corrosive, they're hard to deal with.
• 17:00
  And so we started on a development path back then.
• 17:03
  And literally after, so I want to say in 1989, so we started the company in 81, finished school in 85.
• 17:12
  From 85 to 89, we started looking at developing a new technology and new products.
• 17:16
  So while we were doing the physical test and treat contract, we then started to investigate IRAP programs.
• 17:25
  And you met Cam, Kashmir Gill, Yes, yeah.
• 17:28
  Who was with the National Research Council.
• 17:30
  We had breakfast with him a week or so ago, yeah.
• 17:32
  And he advocated very aggressively as we found out now, didn't know that back then, because he's retired, so he, you know, open disclosure, he advocated, they said, oh, we don't believe that you can make dissolvable glass.
• 17:45
  That's a preservative.
• 17:47
  And that was our first product, right?
• 17:48
  So he helped fund that.
• 17:50
  We funded it.
• 17:51
  IRAP funded it.
• 17:52
  Did the work at the Alberta Research Council and developed our first patented technology, which was called the CobraRod, which is dissolvable glass, wood preservative.
• 18:02
  That's as safe as safe can be from a user standpoint.
• 18:06
  So we could get away with not using those toxic nasty chemicals anymore.
• 18:11
  And Alberta Power back then adopted our technology.
• 18:15
  And they've been a real facilitator for us on trying new technologies or new initiatives or innovative approaches.
• 18:23
  And it's worked out extremely well for them.
• 18:26
  They have a very resilient pole plant, as we call it, or utility pole program that's very reliable and very economical.
• 18:35
  Yeah, that's amazing.
• 18:37
  It is amazing.
• 18:37
  It is.
• 18:38
  And I mean, I've had the pleasure of touring the plant here at Genics.
• 18:43
  And just to see them make it and to see the product is, it's fascinating.
• 18:48
  Yeah.
• 18:48
  I mean, you know, I came to work for you eight years ago.
• 18:52
  And but we've known each other.
• 18:53
  We've been best of friends for many years.
• 18:54
  But people, you drive by power poles every day.
• 18:58
  You just drive by them.
• 18:59
  You don't really think much of them, other than they're holding wires to provide power.
• 19:03
  But there's so much more that goes on.
• 19:05
  And you've explained a little bit about that.
• 19:07
  And then you decided to, you came up with the copper boron rod.
• 19:12
  And that goes into the pole and protects the pole from rot and decay and insects and all those kinds of things.
• 19:19
  And gives the pole years more, years more life, which means it saves the electrical company mounds of dollars because they don't have to replace poles as often because you're saving the poles.
• 19:32
  And again, I think it's one of those things where you just drive by them and you don't think anything of it.
• 19:36
  But your technology has been a game changer in the, I'm going to call it the energy industry.
• 19:42
  It really has.
• 19:43
  And you now sell around the world.
• 19:44
  Yes.
• 19:45
  Yes, we do.
• 19:46
  And you manufacture everything right here in Alberta, right here in Acheson.
• 19:50
  Yes, right here in Acheson.
• 19:51
  Right here in beautiful downtown Acheson.
• 19:53
  That's right.
• 19:54
  That's where the plant is.
• 19:55
  And it's amazing.
• 19:57
  It's absolutely amazing.
• 19:58
  And I just think it's incredible.
• 20:00
  And people, again, they would just never know.
• 20:02
  And it's wild.
• 20:04
  Anybody I've ever toured through the plant, so, you know, from time to time in my job here, I tour people through our plant, they just shake their head and go, I never knew.
• 20:12
  I just never knew.
• 20:13
  And this was all rattling around in your brain, you and some other people, but mostly yours.
• 20:18
  And you came up with this.
• 20:20
  Yeah, I hate to take credit for a lot of things that happened here because you get so much help from so many people that get things moved forward.
• 20:32
  A lot of times people like to take the credit to just themselves.
• 20:36
  It doesn't work that way.
• 20:37
  If they're really being truthful, you have an entire team that surrounds you, that supports you.
• 20:46
  I would be remiss to not say, if I wasn't married to the woman I was married to, none of this stuff would exist.
• 20:54
  She sacrificed.
• 20:56
  When you're an entrepreneur, it's not all a gravy train.
• 20:58
  No, it goes through roller coaster rides.
• 21:02
  And I remember our first ever oven that we built or kiln we built for manufacturing the glass.
• 21:09
  Got a call from the engineer and the oven basically melted and was destroyed.
• 21:16
  And it was a $600,000 touch.
• 21:18
  He said, you're probably gonna fire me.
• 21:21
  And I said, no, let's go find every clay pot oven we can in the city and we'll make them manually because we had an order from Ontario Hydro that we had to deliver in two weeks.
• 21:32
  And it was new technology.
• 21:34
  And so it tests your metal at times and it tests your finances at times.
• 21:41
  So my wife lived extremely economically and ran the household extremely well or we wouldn't be where we are.
• 21:51
  Absolutely not.
• 21:51
  Kim's an amazing lady.
• 21:53
  She really is.
• 21:54
  I'll just add this part too and then Jennifer will have a great question.
• 21:57
  But you were away for the whole week all summer long.
• 22:01
  You were away.
• 22:02
  You came home on weekends because that's when we always hung out on weekends.
• 22:05
  But you were gone all week, back out into the field after the weekend for like, well, from April till October, probably.
• 22:15
  Right.
• 22:15
  You were gone.
• 22:16
  Yeah.
• 22:16
  Usually, I get back in September because school, when kids were in school.
• 22:20
  But when they were younger, it was a little bit longer.
• 22:22
  But sometimes when we hit that September time, it was time to hunker down.
• 22:27
  As we grew, we were able to add some employees that could finish those things off.
• 22:31
  But in the early years, it was just my brother and myself.
• 22:35
  Ironically, he didn't start with me.
• 22:37
  He came along partway into the journey the first year.
• 22:40
  He had had an injury.
• 22:41
  He was doing framing and pouring basements.
• 22:47
  And tweaked his ankle.
• 22:48
  I said, why are you doing that?
• 22:49
  Why don't you come join me?
• 22:50
  So we formed the company the following year.
• 22:52
  Come do an easier job.
• 22:53
  Not.
• 22:55
  But yeah.
• 22:56
  Yeah.
• 22:56
  And I think you talked about the Cobra Rods.
• 23:02
  But you've done so much more.
• 23:03
  You've been instrumental, Wes, in doing so much more cool things.
• 23:10
  So many different research and development pieces.
• 23:14
  Talk a little bit about that and maybe a bit about the Fire Mesh product, because I think that is phenomenal.
• 23:20
  Fire Mesh is amazing.
• 23:21
  Yeah.
• 23:23
  Yeah, we've developed many different technologies.
• 23:25
  We'll hinge on the Fire Mesh.
• 23:27
  So working with utility poles, we used to paint a product on there.
• 23:32
  And the issue with wood that people don't realize is wood needs to breathe.
• 23:36
  If it doesn't breathe and you have a highly durable membrane or coating on it, if water gets in, water can't get out.
• 23:43
  And then it advances the decay.
• 23:45
  So we needed to have a breathable system.
• 23:48
  And in 2012, I looked at using a grill system and we could not come up with the right mixture to put on it or polymer to put on it at the beginning.
• 23:58
  And why?
• 24:00
  A lot of fire retardant technologies, they develop a lot of smoke.
• 24:05
  Smoke will kill before fire, because usually it's the smoke inhalation that gets people.
• 24:10
  So we not only wanted to have a class A fire retardant for flame spread, but we also wanted to have a low smoke.
• 24:16
  And it took years and years.
• 24:18
  And finally, we came across a guy in Europe that had a polymer that didn't produce as much smoke.
• 24:24
  And so we combined that with our technology.
• 24:28
  And we worked with a sister, I call them an alliance partner, they're a competitor, but also an alliance partner in Edmonton area that produces another polymer system for us.
• 24:39
  Combining the two gives us a fabulous result.
• 24:43
  And so the fire mesh technology, during the wildfires, we experimented in Fort McMurray, worked extremely well, we knew we had something, we filed patents, and then commercially started to produce that material in 2017-2018.
• 25:00
  And then last year during the massive wildfire issues, Atco Electric seen that there was a tremendous amount of success with the technology, and so they developed a full scale program.
• 25:13
  And here goes again the recognition, if you don't have a good alliance partner or a good trusted customer, you're not going to get anywhere.
• 25:22
  So that relationship with Atco has been huge.
• 25:25
  I thank them constantly for their relationship with us.
• 25:28
  So that technology has been adopted by California, all along the rest coast.
• 25:33
  I think we have now 25 utilities in Canada, Costa Rica, Australia, other jurisdictions are now buying that technology.
• 25:43
  That technology now has the ability to move into the Alberta Building Code system and be used in wildland urban interface and outside of cities for protecting houses, barns, you name it, from fire.
• 25:59
  And so it's just a matter of getting the regulatory people to recognize that and put it into the marketplace as a requirement.
• 26:10
  Then these people will lower their insurance premiums and they will have a very resilient wood structure that's going to be sustained from fire.
• 26:19
  So just let me explain because I know this for some people they're like trying to fathom all of this.
• 26:25
  So it starts out as a mesh that wraps around a power pole.
• 26:30
  And in the event of a forest fire coming through, obviously the fire destroys all the wood around it.
• 26:37
  But this mesh protects the pole, it saves the pole.
• 26:40
  So again, the utility company doesn't have to come in and replace a whole bunch of poles.
• 26:45
  The poles were saved by the mesh.
• 26:48
  And it has a very, very, very extensive high heat resistance and saves the pole.
• 26:54
  And now, as we move into, sorry, I say we, because I work with you on this, as we move into the construction industry, we're looking to do the same thing for housing.
• 27:02
  So that again, a fire comes through, the house can be protected, the roof is protected from burning by having the fire mesh on there.
• 27:10
  So it's an amazing product.
• 27:12
  And like you said, it's shipped all around the world.
• 27:15
  We've been to Australia, it goes to New Zealand, it goes to Fiji, down in California, all those fires you see down in California, fire mesh is being used in many of those districts, on their poles, those kinds of things.
• 27:30
  So it's an absolutely amazing product.
• 27:33
  You received your patent on it this year, which is amazing, absolutely amazing.
• 27:39
  Yeah, it's incredible.
• 27:40
  But you know what?
• 27:42
  Above all that, I know one thing about you that means more to you than anything else.
• 27:48
  You talked about Kim, but your family and your grandkids.
• 27:52
  How many grandkids do you have?
• 27:54
  So we presently have nine grandchildren and two more on the way this month.
• 27:58
  Two on the way.
• 27:58
  Yeah.
• 27:59
  And our grandchildren, my wife's and my grandchildren are more important than anything.
• 28:07
  And our relationship with them is extremely important.
• 28:12
  My wife puts a ton of energy into them.
• 28:15
  In fact, I think one of them was over today.
• 28:18
  We were with them yesterday, the day before, the day before that.
• 28:22
  So there's rarely a day goes by that we aren't involved with them.
• 28:25
  Or for those that live in the US, there's constant facetiming that goes on with them on a regular basis.
• 28:30
  And we try and get down and see them as much as possible.
• 28:32
  In fact, I wanted to avoid the gala because my granddaughter is the next morning.
• 28:42
  So I'm going to be taking the red eye out after the gala so I can get down there because that's critical.
• 28:49
  And you know I avoided interviewing someone of very high importance and gave it to one of our board members so I could be in Drumheller with her for her birthday last year.
• 28:59
  I know.
• 29:00
  No, I know.
• 29:02
  And we appreciate the fact that you're going to be there.
• 29:05
  But it's an honor well deserved for sure.
• 29:07
  But yeah, we're glad you're going to be there.
• 29:09
  We do.
• 29:10
  So again, like with so many of our guests, we can go on and on listening to your story because I think it's fascinating.
• 29:19
  And you've done such amazing things, Wes.
• 29:22
  And I know I so appreciate the fact that you at the ABA, you know, have office space here at Genics.
• 29:30
  It really means a lot.
• 29:31
  For those, I actually want to mention, Wes was also one of the founding members of the Acheson Business Association when we talked about, when we talked with Cathy Dool.
• 29:38
  Cathy Dool on last week.
• 29:40
  Yeah.
• 29:40
  And she and Wes were the founding members of the Acheson Business Association.
• 29:44
  Yeah.
• 29:44
  So pioneers.
• 29:45
  It's fantastic.
• 29:46
  It is.
• 29:47
  Yeah.
• 29:48
  So we do have a final question that we ask all of our guests.
• 29:51
  We don't let them know what that question is.
• 29:54
  So here we go.
• 29:56
  What's the best piece of advice you've been given, either personally or professionally, that you carry with you to this day, Wes?
• 30:04
  The best piece of advice I can give to anybody is very simple for me.
• 30:12
  I have a deep faith in Jesus Christ.
• 30:15
  Trust him with my life.
• 30:17
  He's the one who's given us insights on all of our innovation.
• 30:21
  It wasn't just thoughts in my brain.
• 30:24
  And I'm very thankful for that.
• 30:27
  That's been a guidepost for us from a business standpoint, from a personal standpoint, from a family standpoint.
• 30:35
  And that would be the advice I would give to people is adhere to your faith, because it's extremely important to you.
• 30:42
  It will carry you during the low times.
• 30:45
  It will show you great excitement and reward during the high times.
• 30:49
  But if you aren't grounded in that with all the craziness that goes on in the world, you'll lose sight and you'll lose your focus.
• 30:57
  And if your focus is based on that, then all the business stuff will fall into place.
• 31:03
  And the personal life will fall into place.
• 31:06
  So to me, that's extremely important.
• 31:08
  That would be the advice I'd give to anybody.
• 31:11
  They might not want to adhere to Christianity.
• 31:15
  And I won't debate them on that, but I just know what it means to me, how impactful it's been in my life.
• 31:22
  Growing up in the home I did, I watched and seen many things.
• 31:26
  And my dad and my mom lived a very good life in terms of values based lifestyle.
• 31:33
  And it's served me extremely well.
• 31:36
  And I was blessed to find a wife who was hardwired even more so than me in that area.
• 31:42
  And that served us extremely well.
• 31:44
  So that would be the advice I would give anybody if they were to ask.
• 31:51
  Well, you know what it is, it's an honor for me to sit here with you.
• 31:56
  We've known each other a very long time.
• 31:58
  You're one of my best friends.
• 32:00
  You're my boss.
• 32:01
  That combination seems to work pretty good.
• 32:03
  Some it doesn't, but this one seems to work pretty good.
• 32:07
  I knew your mom and dad very well, and they were a huge influence in my life.
• 32:13
  You're a huge influence in my life.
• 32:15
  I'm honored to have you as my friend.
• 32:17
  I'm honored to have traveled some roads with you.
• 32:20
  The good ones, some of the bad ones.
• 32:22
  But we've traveled them together.
• 32:26
  I just think it's amazing what you've done.
• 32:28
  I admire you.
• 32:29
  I look up to you.
• 32:30
  I just think you're awesome.
• 32:32
  I want to thank you for taking the time today.
• 32:36
  The Lifetime Achievement Award is well deserved, in my opinion.
• 32:40
  I know you kind of shake your head at that a little bit, but it is.
• 32:44
  Just for reference sake as well, Wes is the father of Michael, who owns the Wall Coffee Roasters.
• 32:53
  That's right.
• 32:53
  In the beautiful downtown Acheson.
• 32:55
  Yeah, right downtown Acheson is Michael, and Wes is Michael's dad.
• 33:01
  One other thing I want to say, if you ever get to see where we do this podcast, here in the Wall Coffee Roasters, we do it right in the corner.
• 33:09
  I'm sitting right now on some old church pews that came from one of your dad's churches.
• 33:15
  Drumheller.
• 33:15
  Drumheller, and it's just kind of cool and kind of unique.
• 33:19
  I wouldn't know they were giving those away, but they were selling them off.
• 33:22
  And my wife said, Wes, you better go down there and pick them up.
• 33:25
  Yeah, so we did.
• 33:26
  It's great.
• 33:26
  They are great.
• 33:27
  This is my second office right here, and I love sitting here.
• 33:30
  It's awesome.
• 33:30
  Thank you, Wes.
• 33:31
  Thank you, Wes.
• 33:32
  It's awesome.
• 33:33
  One last thing I could say before we go, and I just wanted to give a shout out to the ABA and thank them for all they do for all the businesses in the park for advocating for us, whether it's with the county or whether it's with the government, the provincial, federal, whatever it happens to be, and also thank the ABA for accommodating their space so that Bow Valley Credit Union could bring a bank to Acheson.
• 33:58
  And I think we're one of the few business parks, probably in Alberta, that has a bank in the industrial park.
• 34:05
  We have lots of good banks that support us as associate members, but this one actually physically resides here next door to Jennifer, which is fantastic.
• 34:14
  So I want to thank the ABA for accommodating.
• 34:16
  Well, Jennifer Herrick, extraordinare, executive director of the Acheson Business Association.
• 34:21
  It's awesome.
• 34:22
  Jennifer, tell us about some things.
• 34:24
  We got something cool coming up.
• 34:26
  Well, we've got a couple cool things coming up actually.
• 34:30
  You know, so this podcast, for those that will be listening, will be on a Thursday.
• 34:36
  And if you happen to turn it on at noon and you're in the area, why not stop by a real life Coffee In The Park, not the podcast, but a Coffee In The Park at the Acheson Business Association parking lot.
• 34:50
  Again, we are attached to the Wall Coffee Roasters at 2771 Acheson Road.
• 34:56
  We're going to be having some food trucks.
• 34:57
  That's right, two food trucks.
• 34:58
  Including one of our first podcast guest, Jan Michener.
• 35:02
  That's right.
• 35:03
  So come on down and grab some food and have a little bit of fun.
• 35:07
  Say hello to your friends and neighbors.
• 35:08
  We're calling it the Welcome Back From Summer.
• 35:11
  Maybe not for the students, but for the parents.
• 35:13
  Hey, welcome back.
• 35:14
  Yeah, come grab some food out of one of the food trucks.
• 35:16
  It'll be awesome.
• 35:17
  We are also having the awards gala, which Wes will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Awards, Saturday, September 28th.
• 35:26
  Limited tickets, so get your tickets today.
• 35:29
  I think it's going to be a great evening.
• 35:31
  Visit achesonbusiness.com to secure those tickets.
• 35:34
  And Cam, we have something else exciting that we want to share.
• 35:37
  That's right.
• 35:37
  This is our first ever we're doing this.
• 35:39
  This is our first ever.
• 35:40
  So, in light of the fact that we have reached over 10 episodes, this is number 11.
• 35:46
  Number 11.
• 35:46
  Number 11.
• 35:47
  And over a thousand downloads.
• 35:50
  Oh, well over.
• 35:50
  Well over a thousand downloads.
• 35:52
  Yeah, we're going to be running a contest.
• 35:54
  That's right.
• 35:55
  So, in order to participate in this contest, we would like you to like, follow and comment on your favorite episode on the Instagram page of ABA Coffee In The Park podcast.
• 36:12
  That's right.
• 36:12
  ABA Coffee In The Park podcast Instagram page.
• 36:17
  The winner will receive a wonderful prize package, including some of Michael Wall's wonderful roasted coffee.
• 36:26
  Yeah.
• 36:26
  And two coveted ABA podcast Coffee In The Park mugs.
• 36:33
  That's right.
• 36:34
  And those mugs, they're going fast.
• 36:36
  And I think people are putting them on Facebook Marketplace, selling for 10 times what they're worth.
• 36:41
  Not really.
• 36:41
  But one day, maybe, one day, maybe.
• 36:43
  Yeah.
• 36:43
  So you're going to get some coffee.
• 36:44
  You're going to get an ABA mug.
• 36:47
  And if you want to come down and pick it up in beautiful downtown Acheson, if you win, if not, we can send it to you.
• 36:53
  And so one more time, what do they have to do?
• 36:55
  They have to, they have to like, like, they have to follow, follow and comment on their favorite podcast episode on our ABA Coffee In The Park podcast Instagram.
• 37:05
  Right on.
• 37:05
  So there you have it, folks.
• 37:06
  And hopefully you'll be able to to do that.
• 37:09
  And you have a chance of winning some great coffee and some mugs.
• 37:12
  Hey, thanks everybody for listening today.
• 37:14
  Remember, tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell everybody about ABA Coffee In The Park.
• 37:18
  Wherever you get your podcasts, they drop every Thursday at noon.
• 37:22
  Subscribe so that you know it's always coming.
• 37:24
  Thanks everybody.
• 37:26
  See you next time.
• 37:26
  See you next week.
• 37:43
  Wes is such a strong supporter of Acheson community and just giving back.
• 37:50
  Yeah, and he's just an amazing guy.
• 37:52
  And I have to, full disclosure, I'm a little bit biased, cause he's also my boss, and he's one of my best friends.
• 37:59
  And I just love Wes, and it's amazing what he's done.
• 38:02
  Absolutely, so we hope you enjoyed re-listening, or if you listened for the first time to Wes's story.
• 38:08
  Yes, so thanks for listening everybody.
• 38:10
  Next week, we have an incredible guest in our Best Of series.
• 38:14
  It is Mr.
• 38:16
  Mike Myshak Sr.
• 38:17
  That's right, and what an incredible story that was.
• 38:20
  Absolutely.
• 38:22
  Yes, and Mike Myshak Sr.
• 38:24
  was also a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award.
• 38:26
  He was the first recipient.
• 38:27
  And it's an amazing story.
• 38:29
  So hey, make sure you tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your coworkers, tell your enemies.
• 38:32
  If you don't have any friends, make one, so you can tell them about the podcast.
• 38:37
  Thanks everybody, we hope to see you for the Best Of next week.
• 38:40
  Hope you're having a great summer.
• 38:41
  See you soon.