Adrianne Fekete, Founder, Star Quality, Private Investigations
When someone is as driven, passionate, and fiercely independent as Adrianne, owning a business is a natural career choice. Adrianne is one of the first women to venture into running fully licensed, private investigations and security businesses in Canada; and certainly, the lady with the longest tenure in the role to date. She has led her agency to success repeatedly as a straight-talking, transparent, and compassionate leader committed to ensuring safety and uncovering compelling evidence that reflects the truth. And, supporting individuals as they were forced to face it and the impact it brought into their life. In 2020, Star Quality Private Investigations was the proud receipt of the RBC Small Business of the Year Award. She credits this recognition to her dedication to helping others, her intense work ethic and her entire team.
Adrianne began her career as a Public Relations Specialist in the Music and Film Industry. She worked for the industry’s most creative professionals who quickly identified her broader scope of capabilities and guided her experience and success beyond public relations to executive protection. Rising quickly to the challenge resulted in her working alongside some of the most legendary celebrities; individuals like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bono, Samuel L. Jackson, and Colin Farrell to share a few. Adrianne’s potential as a savvy businesswoman and multi-talented force within the industry made her the ultimate choice to manage executive protection for two World Tours with The Rolling Stones, The 360 Tour with U2, Suicide Squad, Canadian Idol, The Molson Indy, WWE, the G8 and G20.
Her ever-present passion for helping others in their personal growth and achievement led to her certification by Anthony Robbins as a Life Coach. It is the combination of her background in public relations, executive protection and life coaching with her fearless mindset and business insight that culminated in Adrianne stepping into a male-dominated industry; and launching Star Quality Private Investigations.
Over the last two decades, Adrianne has been a pioneer within the private investigation industry, tackling the under-serviced and emotionally charged sector of clients facing child custody, divorce, infidelity and all other family law matters. She established successful investigation programs, surveillance protocols and case management procedures, ensuring business success and growth year over year since she launched her business. Her compassionate, relatable nature is evident through supporting all her clients with life coaching services. Optimizing the expertise and skills found within the law enforcement industry, Adrianne chose to focus on hiring former and retired detectives and executives from police departments across Canada for her investigative team. Not only did this ensure business success right out of the gate, but she was also able to expand her business quickly to include corporate fraud investigations, risk management and security sectors over the years.
Although often characterized as resilient, compassionate, and forthright, I find myself better reflected by two unwavering, ever-present partners in my life; lipstick and obstacles.
My first taste of business came at 10 years of age; running my own weekly neighbourhood events. This experience proved to be the first internal signal of my passion for the leadership role. My choice to follow this signal, regardless of what I heard from peers, guidance counsellors and general messaging about what my true place in the world should be, brought significant obstacles. Trusting myself served to guide me over pushbacks, put-downs and any other form of the many obstacles you will find littering the path through each stage of one’s business life. “I was one of the first girls to take auto mechanics in high school. But it was only when I put forth the question of why was it more important for me to know how to sew versus changing a tire. There was no answer other than “because that’s what girls should do”. I did understand why my gender “should” prevent me from doing anything I was passionate about.”
The dream for my future unfolded into my current role as one of the first, and definitely the longest female owners of a thriving private investigations and executive protection company, in Canada. The dream of my heart came true with each birth of my children. For me, being a mother and entrepreneur was always the life purpose that fueled me to succeed in all my endeavours.
Never Give Up – The Struggle Is Part Of The Story Share on X
Every morning, my first action is self-care. I lead with self-talk that is kind and full of grace, move through my morning routine to get ready; and then don my superhero trademark, lipstick, before unleashing myself on the work in front of me. But how did I build a ‘wake up and slay the day’ attitude?
My mother is my touchstone of success. She survived the Hungarian revolution and immigrated to Canada with the contents of a backpack. She didn’t speak English, had no money and had zero work experience. But what she did have was an outstanding work ethic and a “failure is not an option” motto which would later drive her to succeed. She role-modelled internal focus and solution building my entire life. Over the years, I have witnessed and learned from watching her suffer so much loss and manage so many hardships. Always with tremendous grace and a rockstar attitude.
Like my mother, there is a legacy of women throughout history whose success in business is directly tied to their personal resilience and commitment to themselves. Not in that ego-centric and cold-hearted manner. There is magic in how they handled the disruptions along their journey; through inner guidance while keeping their eye on their goals.
They remained committed to what they felt, or knew, in their gut. Call it women’s intuition, gut feeling or spidey-sense…they remain faithful to their soul. Society often lures us away from this simple source of self-guidance to external guidance filled with labels, and teachings from numerous messages; none that serve the power innately within a person to elevate themselves into a thriving individual.
Also, while learning the stories of women who blazed trails before me, a common approach materialized. They saw the obstacle, not the gender of the perpetrator who put the obstacle in front of them. This shift of perception in defining their next steps removes the societal aspects, reduces, or even removes, emotional response and permits a clear-minded, best practice approach to get to the set goals.
The work involved in living your business life by this playbook is challenging and motivating. Solution building is at the core of surpassing obstacles. In challenging moments, BREATHE through any initial reaction. Business neutral is the emotional power position to decision making and then use the adrenaline to fuel your focus. Take 5 percent of your time to identify and release the actual bulls**t in the situation, then focus 95 percent on defining the details for required solutions.
“Sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”
~Marilyn Monroe
This classic statement from Marilyn Monroe literally describes the obstacles people in entrepreneurial positions experience throughout their journey. Monroe’s “the glass is half full” outlook puts a positive narrative of accepting change as a way of the universe redirecting us. Many people attribute their success to this motto and share with others that change always happens for a reason even if you don’t see it right away.
There is a simple protocol I follow when I am in a “chaos co-ordinator” mindset. I do not get stuck in any one situation for longer than five minutes. I hold myself accountable to the 95/5 rule. Five percent on the obstacle, 95 percent on various solutions. Part of your success is innately being committed to the journey, regardless of the external impacts. Drawing on independence and internal confidence. While the amazing women before my time shattered glass ceilings, I strive to be one of the outstanding women that help rebuild these ceilings with a rainbow of coloured glass for all to walk on together, regardless of gender. I hope these efforts leave an updated playbook for others to navigate. There might also be the occasional curse word along the way, but that happens to all of us.
