Meet Lady Arabella Richardson, an Etiquette specialist and Lifestyle Entrepreneur.

Lady Arabella* grew up in the green and mellow heart of the British countryside near Cheltenham, where her African diplomat corps father and British fashion designer mother settled to raise their three daughters in a close-knit village.
“It fitted my father’s African philosophy of Ubuntu, that ‘I am because you are’ or ‘humanity towards others’, and my mother’s love of nature and creativity, which she’d pursued through fashion, art and travel before having us. These are now my passions,” she says.

After an idyllic rural childhood, her parents enrolled her in a venerable Ladies’ College, an independent girls’ school established in the 1850s, where she excelled in art and drama. She also developed early business savvy, creating exotic jewellery from beads her father brought back from his travels in Africa.

Encouraged by her sisters, who were active on social media, she grew her hobby into a flourishing online business. But wanting to take it a step further, with outlets in London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, Lagos, and other fashion capitals, she enrolled in business courses.

These taught her the basics of management, law, and ethics, and she was already more than confident about crossing cultures, yet she felt something was still missing. “I wanted a little more polish in communicating comfortably, clearly and compellingly in different settings, in closing deals firmly but in the spirit of ubuntu, and in using the right implements at business meals, whether dining on foie gras, fugu or spicy fried grasshoppers.”

That’s when Arabella enrolled with The British School of Excellence (TBSOE) for The Polished Professional course, followed later by Train the Trainer. Today, she implements those skills in promoting her fashion lines and empowering others through the training sessions she runs.

“My goal in life is bringing happiness to individuals, homes and institutions through equipping them with the tools to build confidence to achieve success through improved social synchronicity,” she says.

Now, she is doing that on The British School of Excellence platforms like this one.

* While Lady Arabella is fictitious, she is based on real and highly successful graduates of TBSOE, especially Etienying Akpanusong (pictured), who studied mechanical engineering at the University of Uyo, Nigeria, before becoming an entrepreneur. Today, she is a life and corporate coach, author (My Etiquette and I, Amazon), and founder of Etiquette Africa, a non-profit organisation whose goal is “to promote civility across the continent of Africa”. 

Etiquette Africa initiative is a non-profit organisation whose goal is to promote civility across the continent of Africa. https://etiquette.africa/