Her Story
About Adrienne
Adrienne Bain serves as a chocolatier and head of production at a new local business in Williams Bay, Wisconsin. With roughly 10 years in food hospitality since beginning work at age 15 or 16 in a deli and coffee shop bakery, she brings expertise in cooking and pastry developed through extensive restaurant experience. Her background includes creating plated desserts for events and parties while taking on team leader and manager responsibilities such as training staff and organizing operations. Bain recently transitioned from restaurants to her current role, which she finds refreshing. She earned an associate degree in baking and pastry management and another in business management from Waukesha County Technical College after completing a high school culinary program that provided college credits and certifications including ServSafe manager, allergens, and alcohol serving, as well as Pro Start. She follows the Wisconsin Bakers Association and the Wisconsin Restaurant Association. Bain attributes her success to dedicating long hours early in her career without much work-life balance, which allowed significant personal and professional growth. She values work-life balance and takes pride in her work, advising others to care deeply about what they do and to speak up confidently, especially as women in a male-dominated industry.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Adrienne
01What do you attribute your success to?
I really put my nose to the grindstone in the very early years of my career. I really didn't have that work-life balance, but I feel like at the same time I had one of the best work experiences. I was working lots and lots of hours, putting in the sweat and the tears, but it was honestly so worth it because it was just one of my favorite jobs. I feel like I grew so much as a person during that point in my life and it completely changed me in my career and outside of my career as well.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best advice that I've gotten was kind of just a way of living but to just really care about what you're doing and be proud of what you're doing. It just shows and it helps you really be more confident in what you're doing. When you're promoting, to just be proud and believe what you're promoting to people, because you actually believe in it.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just don't be afraid to stick up for yourself or be honest. When I was really early in my career I was really too afraid to say anything ever and I feel like for a long period of time I wasn't able to speak up for myself in many situations. But I would notice other leaders and specifically I was lucky enough to have a lot of awesome female role models in my workplace that kind of just led by example so over time I built up my confidence and I was able to start speaking up for myself. Just hold your ground, like if you're feeling some type of way feel bad about saying how you feel.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Especially for women in the food industry it's hard to feel like you're being heard sometimes. There are some challenging people out there with very outdated mentalities and so learning to work with people like that and be heard is pretty challenging. But it really just helps you grow thicker skin and learn how to assert yourself. It's a seriously male-dominated industry so there's so many layers to it because the females in charge there's just way less of them.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
As much as I love my job a work-life balance has become really important to me. It's becoming a lot more common which is a little challenging in our industry but it's been attainable. You know I've switched jobs because of that reason and I was able to find it just you have to look for it. But also again just coming back to like believing in what you're doing and being proud of it.
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.