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Founder and President, Mary Crane and Associates
Mary Crane lobbied in Washington as a lawyer for the American Petroleum Institute and American Heart Association, prepared meals as a White House Chef and is now one of the foremost experts on Generation Y in the workplace. Mary’s enthusiasm and varied career path dually reflect her company culture of “Learn always. Teach when appropriate.” Be it fulfilling a childhood goal to attend law school, pursuing her lifelong interest in food and wine or launching Mary Crane and Associates, this business maven dreamed big. Mary has been featured on 60 Minutes, Fox Business News and ABC Radio. She has been quoted extensively in a variety of print and electronic media, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes.com, and Fortune.com.
As a child, Mary knew she wanted to be lawyer and ultimately attended George Washington University in Washington, DC to earn her degree. Being in the heart of the political world, Mary found herself in politics as an attorney and lobbyist for two non-profit organizations. Unfortunately, Mary discovered that lobbyists could invest years into something and never know if it would come to fruition. It was all-consuming work with a very long tail.
One night, Mary’s husband told her she rolled over in bed and said, “501(c)(3).” At that point, Mary knew it was time to find a new career. She moved from the nation’s capitol to Poughkeepsie, NY, home of the Culinary Institute of America. At age 33, Mary enrolled in the prestigious school, eventually graduating with honors.
While completing an externship at The Greenbriar in West Virginia, Mary met Walter Scheib, the man who would become an executive chef at the White House and hire her in 1994. Mary spent “two fun and fascinating years at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” before having an experience that changed her career course yet again. Walter’s brother-in-law frequently entertained clients. He needed someone to help him select the best restaurants for client entertaining, make appropriate menu choices, and transform these social events into business opportunities. Walter commented to her, “There’s a real job out there for someone like you.”
Inspired, within three months, Mary left her job at the White House, designed a curriculum and created her corporate identity, Mary Crane and Associates.
Mary used $10,000 out of her family’s savings to finance the start-up of her consulting business. She created her first program about basic business etiquette and called it The Rules of Engagement. Mary designed it to help young people successfully navigate a business dinner, networking event or other career function. Since Mary launched prior to the accessibility of the Internet, she found a book of lists and made cold calls to the top 100 law firms in the area. Within two months, she had her first booking.
Mary Crane and Associates now presents programs on a variety of business life issues, but the workshops that educate Generation Y employees about assimilating in today’s work environment and help managers understand how to best recruit, motivate and retain today’s newest workers have received the most attention.
Also known as the Millennials and born between 1980 – 2000, Generation Y was raised with what Mary calls a T-ball mentality. In T-ball, everyone swings until they get a hit and there are no outs, so no one fails. Generation Y members were rewarded with ribbons and trophies for simply showing up and participating in an activity. They have no concept of failure, or the skills to handle it. This is the mentality walking into businesses today among a perfect storm of Traditionalists, Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers.
Mary’s approach has struck a chord in the business world, evidenced by her firm’s exponential growth rate since day one. In fact, eighty to ninety percent of her programs are created because a client wants a specific workshop developed.
Mary’s ultimate vision for Mary Crane and Associates is to turn it into the Martha Stewart of the business world. Just as Martha looked at different core areas and created silos of expertise, found ways to cross market and was always selling the next book or product, Mary has her four content areas and plans growth through expansion methods. She strives to be known as a business life expert.
What we learned from Mary: “The best business advice I ever received came from former White House Executive Chef Walter Scheib who, while we were chopping vegetables, told me, ‘Mary, never believe your own press clippings.’ He told me that what’s said in the media doesn’t matter. Only the client’s opinion counts.”
Focus on Your Biz, Not Your Biz Plan
“My advice to female entrepreneurs is to create a great product and then invest your time in making sales calls, booking clients and growing your company. Don’t get bogged down in writing a business plan until you have a product that sells.”
They’re Hee-ere…
“Lately, more and more of my time has been spent with senior management who want to better understand the Millennials. At one conference, an audience member said, ‘It sounds like we have to transform ourselves into T-ball coaches versus drill sergeants. Won’t that take a lot of time?’ I said, ‘Exactly! You’ll need to coach them.’”
Don’t Look Back
“It was a huge leap to leave the practice of law and become a chef. When I told people that I was going to culinary school, I heard, ‘Wow’ followed by, ‘Well, you can always go back to being a lawyer.’ I remember thinking, ‘No way!’ I committed to my new career pursuit and never looked back. It was the same way when I went from being a chef to becoming a consultant. Never look back.”
This Featured Lady was profiled by Megan L. Reese, WORDrobe™ Stylist for Her Write Image in West Grove, PA.
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