When Nathalie Brooks and her husband Chris started Brooks Heating & Air in 2009, they began with “a truck and a cell phone” and an ad in the local paper. Today, the Georgetown, Ontario–based company runs seven vehicles, employs a team of full-time staff, and has become a hometown mainstay — all while putting community-first values and representation for women in the trades at the center of its work.
From family roots to founding a business
Nathalie’s route into HVAC was almost inevitable, as family bloodlines run deep. “My grandfather had a company after the Second World War in Indonesia [servicing] hearths, fireplaces, and plumbing… then they moved to the Netherlands where they had a plumbing and heating company,” she explains, sketching the arc of a multigenerational HVAC lineage. After immigrating to Canada in 1980, Nathalie’s father worked in commercial HVAC, and later, Chris joined the trade too.
But despite growing up surrounded by the trade, Nathalie was never invited into it. “My father never suggested that I get into the trades. It was always, like, the boy, right? So that’s something that I think about when it comes to women in HVAC — it wasn’t even an option for me.”
Yet entrepreneurship had other plans. After a stint running a clothing shop, Nathalie and Chris — who had been working for a local residential company — took the leap together in 2009, founding Brooks Heating & Air. The catalyst was simple: "Chris came home one day… and he said, 'I hate this job'… I said, 'Why don't we start our own business?'" Now, their oldest son, Lucas, serves as Director of Operations at Brooks — a fourth-generation in HVAC, as Nathalie proudly puts it. The through-line from her grandfather's postwar shop in Indonesia to Lucas's role today speaks to the source of the company's sense of purpose.
Leadership shaped by family values
Nathalie’s leadership style is less corporate hierarchy and more family table. “We started this as a family, and we really feel like we’re still a family,” she says. That feeling isn't just internal — it shapes how Brooks treats its customers too. “I’m their mother sometimes… we treat our customers like family, too. We don’t just go and fix something and then never call you back.”
Customer service, accountability, and standing behind work are non-negotiables. “If you have an issue, we’re going to keep fixing it until we get it working.” In a small town where reputation travels fast, that approach has helped Brooks become one of the dominant providers in Georgetown.
Building representation: Women in HVAC-R Canada
Nathalie is a co-founder of Women in HVAC-R Canada — a group born from a simple question: “Why [are] there no women in this trade?” The answer, she found, was more cultural than physical. Trades had long been framed as grueling, muscle-first work — a men's domain by default. But the job has changed. "You don't need that much lifting. You need a lot more technical brain," she says. The organization started with phone calls to women already in the industry, and the enthusiasm was immediate.
The work is practical and people-first: mentoring, school visits, trade show presence, scholarships, and employer sponsorships. But Nathalie's favorite outreach tool is simpler than any of that — putting tools in the hands of high school girls at job fairs and letting them try cutting pipe or running a drill. "They get so excited that they want to take their little piece of pipe home," she says. That moment — a young woman discovering that tools can be for her — is exactly the kind of spark the organization is after.
The scale of the challenge is still significant. "It's still less than 5% of the industry that is women," Nathalie says, speaking to the North American picture. Women are making inroads in executive roles at major firms, but getting more women "on the tools" remains the harder, more urgent work.
The mission, she's careful to note, isn't about displacing anyone. "We need all genders. We need people in the trades." In an industry facing a serious labour shortage, expanding who sees themselves as welcome isn't just an equity issue — it's a practical one.
Philanthropy that’s hands-on and local
Giving back has always been part of how Brooks operates. “It’s always been part of what we do,” Nathalie says. The company tends to spread giving widely — they support many local teams and causes — and they step up when immediate needs arise.
She shares a concrete example that shows how trade skills and supplier relationships can make an outsized impact: “The food bank in Acton recently needed a water heater. Johnstone Supply gave us a free water heater and we donated the labor to put it in for them.”
Another favorite is "Hope in High Heels" — a fundraising walkathon where Brooks team members, including, as Nathalie puts it, "big, burly, tough guys," pull on oversized pink heels and parade through a downtown farmer's market to raise money for Halton Women's Place, a local women's shelter. "They all raised their own money," she says. "We also matched the donations." Those moments become company lore — and say something about the kind of workplace Brooks has become.
When asked how she'd encourage other trades businesses to get involved, Nathalie's answer is simple: be present. Sponsor the local team. Show up at the community event. Let people see you as a neighbor, not just a service call.
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Tech, AI, and ServiceTitan: scaling without losing the human touch
Nathalie is pragmatic about technology — she finds AI most useful as a daily triage tool. "AI now says, this email is about this… and then I can decide if it's something that I need to dig in deeper," she says. Brooks already uses automation for after-hours messaging and appointment booking, and is now implementing AI-enabled scheduling so members can self-book — freeing up staff time and improving response rates. She frames each of these as "solving a problem," particularly for urgent leads that would otherwise go cold over a weekend.
Nathalie also credits ServiceTitan for enabling growth. Before adopting ServiceTitan in 2021, Brooks ran on paper files, scanned forms, and manual payment entries. Since switching, she reports faster scaling and better customer experience. She points to measurable business gains too — steady annual growth and a big campaign win from Marketing Pro that generated $33,000 in incremental sales by re-engaging customers who had earlier received a quote.
Small town, big heart
Nathalie's combination of family continuity, operational rigor, community generosity, and movement-building points to a durable model for modern contractors: grow sustainably, invest in people, share the benefits.
The throughline across all of it is simple. Trades businesses don't only fix furnaces — they power the communities they serve, literally and figuratively. Her work with Women in HVAC-R Canada chips away at systemic barriers one mentorship and job fair at a time, while Brooks's community giving turns everyday trade work into something neighbors actually feel.
"We need the people. That's what it comes down to." For businesses and communities alike, that means recruiting, mentoring, and showing up — and it's what keeps local economies humming and neighborhoods warmer, safer, and more resilient.
Want to learn more about ServiceTitan’s Power the Nation initiative and the contractors making a difference across the country? Visit ServiceTitan’s Power the Nation home page.
