A Conversation with Pamela Eyring, Owner & Director of the Protocol School of Washington

MidlandsBiz: 
What’s your background?  Born and raised?  And how did you come to Columbia?

Pamela Eyring:
I was born in Ottawa, Ontario; my father was in the military and worked for the embassy there.  When he was transferred back to the U.S., we moved to Dayton, OH near Wright- Patterson Air Force Base.  Right out of high school, I took the civil service exam, enrolled in night school and went to work at Wright-Patterson as a civilian employee, eventually working my way up to Chief of Protocol; the only civilian Chief of Protocol in the military at that time.   My staff and I worked with all the four star generals handling all of their official visits, galas, meetings and ceremonies.  Lots of ceremonies!  Along the way, I met and married my husband Kurt who is a partner with Miller-Valentine Group and we transferred here with his company 3 years ago.

MidlandsBiz: 
And the Protocol School of Washington? 

Pamela Eyring:
As the Chief of Protocol at Wright-Pat, I attended the Protocol School of Washington originally as a student and came back to train my staff and officers over the years on what I had learned.  I also became a part-time instructor for the school flying of DC several times a year to lead classes.    Thirteen years after my initial class, when the founder Dorothea Johnson wanted to retire, I offered to buy the school.  I did my homework, got my small business administration loan and became an entrepreneur after 23 years in the government

MidlandsBiz: 
So you have a facility in Washington, DC?

Pamela Eyring:
We are virtual.  All our classes are held in Washington, DC, but we can deploy ourselves anywhere in the world.  For instance, my staff and I are going to Dubai in December to work with the government there and lead trainings.  Our administrative offices are here in Columbia.

MidlandsBiz: 
Briefly explain your business model for the School.

Pamela Eyring:
The Protocol School is 21 years old this year.  Originally the School was founded to train entrepreneurs and consultants the art and science behind business etiquette—such as business entertaining, dining skills, international protocol and how to succeed in the international arena.  You would come to the school for a 5 day class and learn everything from content to how to become a trainer yourself using our copyrighted materials. 

Today, people travel from all over the world to attend our courses.  About a third of our business is still the entrepreneur/consultant who wants to learn new skills and take them back to their business or community.  A third are corporate—companies like Boeing, General Dynamics, Prudential and academia who train with us and then go back and train within their companies.  And then about a third are government—agencies such as NASA, FBI, Navy, State, etc and the internationals from literally all over the world.

MidlandsBiz: 
And this is etiquette training?

Pamela Eyring:
Well, it’s more than being polite.  Our focus is business and business relationships and how to use etiquette and protocol as a business strategy.  We live in a highly competitive international world—and let’s face it, our people skills and relationship building skills go lacking at the expense of technology.   But people don’t do business and buy from computers and cell phones.  They buy from people.  Our most popular course is called Outclass the Competition.  People skills can very easily differentiate us in today’s world.

MidlandsBiz: 
Protocol has an international connotation.

Pamela Eyring:
Protocol is the science – the rules our society puts into play in order to create civility from chaos.  It is diplomacy and decorum.  Etiquette is the art of the science, or how we take those rules and make a person feel good about themselves.  It’s hospitality, handshakes, business cards, international customs and courtesies.  All countries have them.  And as you know – it could be very easy to blow a big deal by doing or saying the wrong thing to an international prospect or client. 

MidlandsBiz: 
Tell me about your growth plans.

Pamela Eyring:
Well, most importantly, we expect to become accredited by the end of this year.  That has been a lot of effort over the past year, but once it happens we will be the only accredited school of our kind.

Second – we have just launched our eLearning division.  These are our online, curriculum and learning objective based courses.  If you can imagine a company like Boeing that has 60,000 or more employees, it would be impossible to train them all and cost prohibitive.  But by using our online virtual training center, our courses can be deployed across their learning management system or via ours.  Everything can be tracked, from who registered, to completion of all course and scores from the online tests. 

MidlandsBiz: 
What are the top 3 takeaways from the eLearning that will differentiate someone?

Pamela Eyring:
Well, there are four.  In our Principles of Professionalism you learn four very important things.

One, business attire.  It sounds simple but so many people get it wrong.  And 85% of what people think about us is picked up in the first few seconds of meeting someone based on how we look!

Two, body language.  90% of what we say—we say non-verbally and we are constantly evaluating each other. 

Three- how to make an entrance and work a room; how to get into a group conversation and also as important—how to get out of one. 

And four—electronic communication.  As we said before, people become so reliant on technology that we forget how to leave a proper voicemail message, how to write an effective email, etc. 

MidlandsBiz: 
You have been doing some high profile interviews lately on networks such as CNN, CBS and FOX.  What’s going on?

Pamela Eyring:
Well, we began by getting a lot of attention for a program we call Business Boot Camp for the Jobless.  Essentially, how to use what we teach to get a job, keep your job or get promoted to a new job. 

But in last few weeks we have had several instances of the lack of civility going on in our society.  The incident with Congressman Wilson, Serena Williams and her outburst at the linesman at the US Open and then Kanye West at the VMA Awards.  So there seems to be a general let down in decorum and how we handle ourselves—and let me tell you—if we see this behavior going on at such high and public levels—imagine what’s going on in the office next door.  People are just stressed out, nervous and anxious in general.  And we tend to forget the rules of society when we get that way. 

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Code expires 12/31/09