Tiffany Nielsen

Dining Etiquette, Business Etiquette and Children's Workshop

What Would Charlene Say? Part 3: Three Habits of Gracious Living

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Here’s Part 3 of the daily habit campaign! I’m confident you will find this one necessary for surviving our wobbly, unpredictable life!

Give Thanks. She never complained (at least out loud) to me about surgery or another round of chemo/radiation. She didn’t whine to the doctors, her nurses or the assistants. In fact, Charlene frequently expressed to her oncologist…

Learn to celebrate what's good in the world

What Would Charlene Say? Three Habits for Gracious Living!

“Thank you for taking care of me. I’ve learned so much and I am fascinated by the science and technology that help people like me”. And, if it weren’t for cancer, I wouldn’t know all you great people.”

Leave it to my dear mom (in-law) to be thankful for her situation while her entourage uncomfortably awaited the reading of CAT scans. Charlene Nielsen found the silver lining in everything and everyone.

To recap Charlene’s Three Habits for Gracious Living:
1. Get Dressed.
2. Smile.
3. Give Thanks.

Which habit would you like to see more people practice, and why?

If you please, post your thoughts in the comment section below. By posting, you are helping others benefit from your honest and respectful perspective.

“Give thanks for what is right in the world. Let God worry about the rest.”
 – Charlene Nielsen,  Author, Grandma, Mother and Premier Etiquettes’ Editor (in heaven)

Tiffany Nielsen, Founder and CEO of Premier Etiquette, is your favorite Etiquette Lady and Personal Stylist. She lives in Exeter, CA with her husband, David and travels nationwide representing ideas and strategies that help remedy social and business faux pas. You are invited to attend Tiffany’s upcoming program, Mother May I May 27 or 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. at Snappy Casual Consulting in Bakersfield or at Brandman University in Visalia, CA. The program cost is $34.00.

Please register for Bakersfield’s Mother May I, Etiquette and Style Class here: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/new-year-true-you-bakersfields-workshop-series-for-women-tickets-9943018837

© Tiffany Nielsen | Premier Etiquette. All Rights Reserved.

What Would Charlene Say? Part 2: Three Habits for Gracious Living

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It's Proper Etiquette to Smile

Make Smiling a Daily Habit for Gracious Living.

Here’s Part 2 of the daily habit campaign that you will find super easy to accomplish before the day is up! 

Fill yourself with happiness when people display this habit. Appreciation for your act of kindness and civility will not go unnoticed. Be well aware of those who don’t partake. The 2nd best daily habit is…..

Smile! Smiling doesn’t come easy to some folks, but it did for Charlene! She woke up with a smile, she slept with a smile. She made the miserable people smile even when they didn’t want to.  Smiling at those who annoyed or troubled her was also commonplace. “People, how hard is it to smile? Gosh”, says Charlene. It takes more muscles to frown than smile.

  1. Job interview etiquette tip: A person is required to smile.
  2. Customer service etiquette: Clients and colleagues like seeing smiles.
  3. When you are introduced to people, the proper etiquette is to smile and converse.
  4. Children who smile demonstrate their good manners.

Do you have your own technique for helping people smile? Is it a song and dance? A tug at the check? Please share your wisdom in the comment section below because it will make Charlene smile!

If you please, like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and register for our announcements so you don’t miss out on our fun events!

Happy Smiling!

Tiffany Nielsen, Founder and CEO of Premier Etiquette, is your favorite Etiquette Lady and Personal Stylist. She lives in Exeter, CA with her husband, David and travels nationwide representing ideas and strategies to help solve social and business faux pas. You can attend Tiffany’s upcoming program, Mother May I on May 27 and 28th from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. at Brandman University in Visalia, CA or in Bakersfield. The program cost is $34.00.

©Tiffany Nielsen | Premier Etiquette. All Rights Reserved.

 

What Would Charlene Say? Part 1: Three Habits for Gracious Living

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Family

Charlene Nielsen and her family. Gracious woman, editor and our #1 Fan at Premier Etiquette.

Charlene Nielsen, my beloved Mother-in-Law, Editor and Board Member here at Premier Etiquette, joined the angels in heaven on May 4, 2014 If I were to ask mom what we can do today to feel better about our situation, she’d recommend the following daily habits, which I would like to share with you over the next three days leading up to her celebration of life service.

Part 1

  1. Get Dressed. In spite of a bald head, pale skin and being at war with the gremlins (as we called them), mom got dressed every day. She styled her hair and wigs and she never left her house looking as if she just rolled out of bed.  “Get up, get dressed! You never know who you might meet!” says Charlene. I’d like to add that pajamas are made for bedtime, not for wearing out in public.

To quote mom…

“The hardest lesson to learn is self-discipline”
– Charlene Brooks Nielsen, Author, Editor and Woman of the Year.

Are you getting dressed each morning?  If not, are you open to learning about a few simply ways to transform into a habitual pro at dressing for your day? If the answer is “yes”, we should talk! 🙂

Tiffany Nielsen, Founder and CEO of Premier Etiquette, is your favorite Etiquette Lady and Personal Stylist. She lives in Exeter, CA with her husband, David and travels nationwide representing ideas and strategies to help solve social and business faux pas. You can attend Tiffany’s upcoming program, Mother May I on May 27 and 28th from 5:30 to 7:30 P.M. at Brandman University in Visalia, CA or in Bakersfield. The program cost is $34.00.

©Tiffany Nielsen | Premier Etiquette. All Rights Reserved.

Inspire Civility: Random Acts of Kindness

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Inspire Civil Behavior Everyday!

Inspire Civil Behavior Everyday!

Prior to launching my own company, I worked for other incredible businesses. My career was in sales and marketing which required me to travel at least three weeks out of the month. Once, while on a business trip in New Mexico, I received word that the company I was working for at the time was closing its doors and I was out of job.

I was sitting in an airport restaurant when the bad news came crashing down. As you can imagine, I was mad, scared, sad and numb all at the same time. To help calm my nerves and to get some sort of direction on how to deal with my suddenly difficult circumstances, I called a few trustworthy friends including my mother.

When the female server brought my bill, I plopped down my credit card without looking at the tab. I didn’t care what my meal cost; I just wanted to go home. With a twinkle in her eye, my server said, “There’s no charge today.”

“Huh, what?” I replied.

“The woman who was sitting at the next table overheard your conversations,” she explained.  “She felt you deserved a break and paid your bill.”

Up to this point, I had fought back the tears, but the flood gates opened.  Rather than crying over my job loss, I was overcome with gratitude for what is often referred to these days as a Random Act of Kindness.

I will never, ever forget the thoughtful stranger who helped me move forward with spirit and strength in order to overcome obstacles. I have paid for lunches for jobless friends in her honor and otherwise continued to gain a greater appreciation for civil behavior and what a positive impact it has on others.

Image Impact International is the proud sponsor of Global Civility Awareness Month which is officially featured in the month of May.  I have joined Image Impact International’s Civility Council team to help create positive civility messages, including the inspirational quote seen at the top of your page. Positive messages are supposed to stir-up positive memories, as this one did for me!

Do you recall a random act of kindness directed towards you? What was it and how have you paid it forward?   Tweet it, forward it, blog about it and most of all, talk about kindness and civility.  Help inspire civility by starting conversations that keep this tradition of caring for others alive and well. A little sprinkle of civility goes a long way.

 

Tiffany Nielsen, CEO of Premier Etiquette, is a public speaker, business etiquette and children’s manners consultant, and image stylist!

© 2013 Tiffany Nielsen. All Rights Reserved. www.tiffanynielsen.com

October is National Bullying Prevention Month

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The Power of CivilityBullying doesn’t have a place in our society or our home, and it serves no purpose. Yet, surveys indicate that bullying is forever present, especially amongst the youth. According to PACER.org, nearly one-third of all school-aged children are bullied each year – upwards of 13 million students.

As I always say, civility starts and ends with the individual. It also starts with groups of people uniting together such as PACER- Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights. In fact, these smart folks are behind the growing and popular “October is National Bullying Prevention Month”. Bravo!  In my opinion, teaching bullying prevention in schools is as critical as teaching math and science.

We personally can prompt change if we choose civility in every sticky situation. It takes work, peer involvement and a zero tolerance policy to end bullying.  One significant personal effort by Rachel Scott to reach out to students who were picked on by others or who were new at her school resulted in Rachel’s Challenge.  This series of student empowering programs and strategies for students and adults to combat bullying was inspired by the first student killed at Columbine High School in 1999.  Shortly before her death she wrote,

“I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”  – rachelschallege.org

I’m often reminded that bullies come in all walks of life. They can be the obvious punk who’s in your face or the seemingly intelligent adult who will verbally beat people down because of his or her own shortcomings. Bullies are not gender specific. They are from both sides of the tracks and just maybe they were bullied themselves. Sad.

The reason I left my corporate career to speak about consideration, respect and honesty and manners includes being personally bullied in the workplace and in high school. I’m a firm believer that the principles of etiquette are some of the several time tested compasses for stomping out bulling in the school yard, in the halls of government and in business.

PACER and Rachel’s Challenge offer inspiration and resources you can use to help ignite an anti-bullying program at home, school and elsewhere. Bullying happens, but we can stop it by educating ourselves on how to communicate, address it and end it, period.

Choose civility.