The Confidence Within: Why I Teach Modern Etiquette
Why Confidence Became My Calling
I arrived in Australia from Northern China in the mid-1960s as a three-year-old with a name no one could pronounce: Klavdia Vassilevna Karmanchuk. By age eight, I was already changing it, desperately trying to fit into a culture that felt foreign in every way.
That feeling of not quite belonging followed me for decades. No matter how well I dressed or how carefully I observed the rules, something always felt just slightly off. I was constantly watching, learning, adapting, trying to decode the unspoken expectations around me.
It wasn’t until my mid-twenties, after opening my first fashion boutique, that something shifted. Working in the fashion industry surrounded me with creative, multicultural people where difference was celebrated, not hidden. But the real revelation came later.
I discovered I felt just as confident in a simple white tee as I did in designer labels. The difference wasn’t what I wore – it was how I carried myself, how I connected with others, and the genuine confidence I’d finally built from within.
After decades of styling people from diverse backgrounds, I realised something profound. Most people weren’t held back by their wardrobe choices or lack of polish. They were held back by not knowing the unspoken rules – the social codes, the etiquette expectations, the ways to navigate unfamiliar situations with ease.
Research shows that 85% of career and life success comes from soft skills like communication and interpersonal abilities. Yet most of us are never formally taught these essential skills.
That’s when I knew this was the work I needed to do.
