Let’s play a little game. Let’s pretend you were selected to plan a major event. (For high school, think Prom. For College, think Graduation Ceremony. For adults, think wedding.) As you begin to think about all of the details, your adrenaline (or anxiety) is probably starting to bubble to the surface. (if not, clearly you’ve never been responsible for a major event) After months and months of preparation you are about two weeks from the event date. But your brain is fried. You are just done. You cannot make one more decision. So you hire an event coordinator… let’s use me, as an example. Brilliant Choice! Just one problem. There is not a whole lot left for me to do because you’ve already selected the venue, color scheme, the table linens, the menu, and the entertainment. So basically my job is to manage a crisis if necessary.
This is exactly what happens when you hire a coach one or two weeks before your pageant. You’ve, hopefully, already selected your attire, your talent, and your platform. So my job is boiled down to polishing. If your talent song is too hard, well, sorry. You’ve already turned in your paper work. Oh! Paperwork, hope it was top notch and had zero mistakes because there is nothing I can do with it now. See what I mean?
Side note: if you haven’t selected an evening gown, opening number, swimsuit and talent dress and your pageant is in two weeks, it’s time to start thinking about a different pageant.
So it is at this point that I would like to introduce you to the concept of reverse engineering. If your goal is to compete at Miss Florida (I’ll use this as an example because I live in Florida), that’s in June. So you’ll need to go thru the preliminary list and decide which preliminary pageant (or 3) you’d be eligible for.
This is when you should call your coach (hopefully me). I will help you select your attire and make sure you have plenty of time for alterations. I will help you select a talent that is appropriate for your skill level. I will begin the interview training process, trust me, this is a process. And let’s not even talk about the fitness plan. There are no crash diets in my world but there is a lot of grilled chicken. All of this is laid out for the entire pageant season so that you do not spend two solid weeks so stressed out that your hair starts falling out or you forget to eat (which makes your clothes not fit. And I’ll tell ya, lunch is way cheaper then altering that gown again.)
To sum it up, if you want to be a winner, you have to think like a winner. No one wins the Super Bowl on a whim. Strategy, consistency and proper coaching from the beginning.