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Melanie Spence - The Etiquette Authority
Helping You Achieve Your Personal Best
Beauty is often born out of adversity, and perhaps no one knows that better than Melanie Spence. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2003, she began to search her heart, reevaluating her purpose on earth and what her means would be for glorifying God. As Melanie went from breast cancer patient to survivor, she says, “There was life before treatment and there is life after.” For Melanie, this “after-life” includes a passion and vision for helping others become their best selves.

Melanie is the owner and operator of The Etiquette Authority, a full service company providing complete etiquette consulting services for both children and adults for social and professional settings including basic manners, formal dinner preparation, job interview preparation, customer service skills, professionalism-on-the-job, and an endless number of professional and social etiquette possibilities. She says, “In a global economy, people need every possible advantage, including etiquette. As someone who has interviewed countless potential employees, I have seen first-hand how a person can look great on paper but completely blow an interview.”

Stressing that her business is not just one of dos and don’ts, manners and rules, Melanie says, “It’s about finding and presenting your best self.” Melanie aims to help clients build character, image, and self confidence saying, “It’s not just about using the right fork – it is the quality of a person that’s important.”

Melanie tailors services to each client’s needs. Whether needing help in preparing for a formal dinner, wedding, a new social setting, business luncheon, or a job interview, Melanie helps clients to walk away equipped with the skills to remain at ease and able to focus on and enjoy the situation at hand. She says, “Being successful means being completely comfortable with you.”

“I could say that my business was started almost accidentally but I believe that it is a calling,” Melanie says. She began by holding classes in her home for Sunday school students which evolved over time into a passion to help people grow in a positive way, officially founding and naming her business The Etiquette Authority in 2007.

A daughter to a widowed mother with three children she says, “My Mom made sure that we knew our manners. She was a great teacher of those kinds of details. I can remember as a little girl one of my jobs at home was to set the table for dinner and I can remember her explaining to me how to do that, showing me to turn the knife blade inward toward the plate. Those details have always stuck with me. You know, the Bible commands us to train up a child in the way he should go and when he is older he will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6). Teaching, especially children, in this way is a perfect example of that.”

Melanie can be consulted for situational needs such as wedding events, prom, graduation and special occasions. “There is a protocol for just about everything we do. Even for sickness. Having gone through cancer treatment and, at times, having been sick and in bed for extended periods, I was so grateful for those who understood that there are times when a person cannot entertain visitors. People often call me to ask questions when they are in a situation and are not sure of the proper response. I do not claim to have all of the answers but I do have lots of resources in which to find the answers.” Melanie will also customize presentations, such as her Business Protocol presentation, for organizational meetings.

Melanie is an experienced and dedicated professional with many years of people management skills. She received formal etiquette training from Lydia Allison, owner of The Classy Kids Academy of Etiquette and Marketplace Manners in Starkville, Mississippi. Lydia Allison was featured on ABC’s Wife Swap where she had the task of “taming” three young boys in one week. Melanie said that Miss Lydia is very passionate about her students and she hopes to relay that same kind of passion to her students.

Melanie is also an authorized user of Dorothea Johnson’s programs - Modern Manners for Children and Tea and Etiquette. Mrs. Johnson is the founder of the Protocol School of Washington, the first school for etiquette and protocol training in this country. Melanie met and spoke with Mrs. Johnson last fall at the Southern Lady Celebration in Dallas, Texas. She said, “It was such a pleasure to get to hear Mrs. Johnson speak and then to have a conversation with her. This is the woman who has trained dignitaries and the U.S. Military; she was so gracious to give me ideas for my training.”

Call Melanie at 615-418-5878 or email etiquetteauthority@comcast.net. You may also visit her website at www.EtiquetteAuthority.net and she will soon have a blog. Melanie wants to be easily accessible for information and to answer questions. The Etiquette Authority is located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee; however, Melanie provides services throughout Middle Tennessee and travels for speaking engagements and presentations.