Mentor Spotlight on Deanna McRae: From Mentee to Mentor

Being a mom is an incredibly challenging but rewarding job. Despite that, once your kids grow up, it’s very easy to feel a sudden void, now that they’ve become independent. This happens to many stay-at-home or part-time working parents who previously shaped their lives around raising their kids. Coming up with the next step could be quite confusing and overwhelming for someone in this position. Deanna McRae, a Futurpreneur Canada mentor, found herself in a similar situation and tells us her experience with letting her kids fly the coop, receiving mentoring from Futurpreneur and starting her own company. Today, Deanna can proudly say that she is a mentor to a young entrepreneur and is helping them achieve their dreams as well.

Deanna McRae found success in the Safety and Audit Processes Department at her good friends’ truck driving school. Once her dear friend announced her retirement, she was left not only wondering what her next step in her career path was, but also with a taste of the transport industry that she had grown to love. During this time, she was introduced to Futurpreneur. Starting her business with the support of Futurpreneur, gave her not only access to useful and encouraging entrepreneurial experts, but also helped build the confidence to start her own business.

In 1999, Deanna decided to start TRS Consulting Ltd., a safety audit consulting firm that serves commercial transporting companies in Canada and the United States. The company provides safety training for drivers, supervisors, office systems and procedures, log monitoring and fuel tax reporting. The company used to also provide bookkeeping, but with its great success in it’s the main services, they were able to drop it and focus mainly on consulting and auditing. “Without the help, I received from mentors at Futurpreneur, I would have never thought to take this road,” she says.

Since the launch of her company, Deanna has seen her fair share of challenges, failures, and successes.  The growth she has achieved as a business owner inspired her to give back to her community. Once a Futurpreneur herself, Deanna has now become a mentor to one of Futurpreneur’s entrepreneurs. “I am mentoring a young man who is full of anticipation and has great goals set out. His business plan was well thought out and I could see that he put a lot of work towards every detail,” Deanna says.  She believes that a great mentor is not a manager, but a useful individual that encourages when things don’t go according to plan, works with the mentee to find creative solutions to everyday problems and continuously reminds them that “when one door closes, it leaves opportunity for a better door to open”.

“Mentoring is about celebrating their successes and being an example that a future is possible in entrepreneurship,” Deanna says. “I want to remind our entrepreneur to make sure to have a balance work and home life, as hard as that may be”. Having felt the same support from her mentor, Deanna wanted to make sure she provided that type of support for her mentee.

Deanna started out her journey feeling a void from her “babies flying the coop”. Today, she is a strong business owner and dedicates her time and effort into shaping a young entrepreneur that is hoping to see the same success. Mentoring has given her the satisfaction of “passing the torch” by helping a young individual the same anxieties and worries she had when she was starting out.

Volunteering a few hours of your time each month can make a profound difference in a young person’s life. If you would like to be a Futurpreneur Mentor, click here.

Written By: Sara Pivato, Social Media and Content Intern, Futurpreneur Canada