Chicago Sun-Times article features Modet and Etiquette Essentials

The Chicago Sun-Times recently ran a full page article on Ms. McGuire and Modet, Inc. discussing how to avoid the faux pas that can kill a business deal. 

Today's sometimes rude, crude, lowbrow culture proves to P.J. McGuire that her etiquette business is in desperate demand.

"I'm trying to change our society one person at a time," said McGuire, 28, who attended finishing school in her native Lima, Ohio.

McGuire remembers being raised in a "prim and proper atmosphere" by parents who grew up in Mississippi steeped in Southern manners.

"I ended up going to charm school twice," she said. "I started at age 5, but I was too young to get it. The second time, I was about 7."

McGuire's background opened her eyes to a business case: Rudeness costs businesses big money. That's why McGuire's startup company, Modet Inc. (www.modetinc.com) --shorthand for Modern Etiquette -- focuses on training young professionals how to succeed by knowing proper etiquette and protocol.

McGuire, who trained at the Protocol School of Washington, started her own company when she gave dining-etiquette seminars to fraternities and sororities while she was in college at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

McGuire majored in biological sciences but decided that a doctor's life wasn't for her. She worked as a salesperson for pharmaceutical and biotherapeutics firms, but she helped plan weddings and other events that required proper etiquette on the side.

After her side business started to take off, she planned her strategy and set off on her own.

"People often make etiquette faux pas because they were never taught the basics of etiquette and protocol," McGuire said. "I want to help young people achieve their life goals and help them avoid career-limiting moves."

McGuire has won contracts with companies that have lost major contracts because of an executive's faux pas. One Fortune 500 company failed to seal a deal with a Saudi company because the American salesman grabbed the hand of the potential client's wife. In Saudi society, a man outside of a woman's family is never to touch her.

"I don't want to hear more horror stories about employees who didn't know any better," McGuire said.

Fees for McGuire's workshops, which include customized workbooks and agendas, start at $1,000. McGuire prepares an analysis of each client's needs, and her presentations can run from one hour to eight hours.

McGuire uses software to simulate a game show to ensure that the workshops are interactive.

"We play Jeopardy to get people thinking. One of the categories is International Dining, and a question might be, 'In what country (South Korea) do you not lift up your rice bowl when you are eating?' We play a final wrap-up round at the end, and I give out prizes," she said.

McGuire is preparing a 90-minute online course that will cover a range of topics such as business etiquette, protocol rules, dining skills, working with interpreters and understanding other countries' rules of behavior.

The e-learning course will test learners with video scenarios and for help bringing it to the virtual space, she's turned to a software company run by a like-minded individual, Chicago-based Centrax Corp. (centrax.com), owned by African-American entrepreneur Edward Prentice III.

Prentice, 47, started Centrax 23 years ago as a radio commercial producer and evolved into producing training and marketing programs over video, CD-ROMs, the Web and now, on Second Life, a 3D virtual world where people create avatars to socialize, buy goods and create alternate realities using voice and text chat.

Centrax, with a staff of 29 and seven-figure revenues, creates custom e-learning and marketing programs for Fortune 500 companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Bank of America, BP-Amoco, Harley Davidson and Kraft Foods.

The company is developing an evacuation training program on Second Life, the online community that allows for social networking and interaction in a virtual environment, for two major Chicago hospitals so the staff can put their avatars through the paces of a virtual emergency.

"My business strategy includes partnering with people like P.J. who have compelling content that needs to be put on the Web," said Prentice, who serves on the boards of Concerned Christian Men, the Community Renewal Society, the Golden Apple Foundation and others in order to help non-profit groups who otherwise would have no access to the expertise.

Prentice expressed a sentiment that McGuire would endorse wholeheartedly: "I have been blessed. To whom much is given, much is required."