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Do I need a pageant coach?
What can a pageant coach do for me?
When is the best time for me to start working with a pageant coach?
How do I find and choose a pageant coach?
Had I known the answers to these four questions before I entered my first professional beauty pageant, I would have saved precious time and money. Because I had been experiencing all the success I wanted in local and festival pageants, imagine the shock I received when I made the jump into the big time pageant scene using only the skills I had developed on my own for the lower levels of pageantry. It’s a pretty hard pill to swallow going from winning every pageant you enter to not making the top ten.
I vividly remember the numb feeling I had walking off the stage after the top ten had been announced and I wasn’t one of them. What did I do wrong? What could I have changed? I did everything I knew right. It didn’t make sense to me. Moments after the pageant, I received valuable insight that helped answer the questions that were running through my mind.
My roommate won the title that year. When I congratulated her, she hugged me and told me I needed to work with her pageant coach for next year’s pageant. Pageant coach? What on earth is a pageant coach? No one had told me there were people who helped get you ready for a pageant. Why would I even need someone like that anyway, after all, it’s a pageant. How hard could it be?
Well, apparently I was missing some information because there I stood, having spent all this money and didn’t even make the first cut after I had already won four titles before this pageant. A month after that pageant, I started working with Willa, my pageant coach. For me, it was the key that unlocked the door to all the opportunities and benefits possible in pageantry.
To answer do I need a pageant coach, I would ask, are you getting the results you want?
If you’re completely happy with the results and experience you’re having in pageantry, no you don’t need help. But if you’re not getting what you want from the process, then a qualified professional may be able to help you reach your goals. Sometimes tweaking just one or two things can have dramatic results. Don’t get hung up on the label “pageant coach”. Everyone has help and support from people to learn skills that will help them succeed. You just need to figure out what you want and how to find the right people to help you.
What can a pageant coach do for me?
A great pageant coach can partner with you to help clarify the results you want, identify what makes you unique, create and implement detailed steps on how to reach your goals, hold you accountable to your action plan, help you break through blocks that are standing in your way, and support you in an objective, nonjudgmental way that brings out your best qualities. The result is a pageant experience that is less stressful, more enjoyable and you walk away from the event with no regrets. Areas that a coach can help you refine are wardrobe selection, hair, makeup, walking, posing, paperwork prep, onstage introductions, interview, budgeting, planning, checklists, mental preparation and more.
At this point, I need to share a very important piece of information with you. Everyone has an opinion and all kinds of advice on what you “should “do. Some people will offer it even when they’re not asked. Be selective about whom to listen to. Ultimately, the only opinion that matters is yours. After talking and working with different people, you need to trust your inner feelings and do what is best for you. If you allow yourself to be talked into wearing, saying or doing something that doesn’t feel right to you, you won’t feel confident and that will be evident to everyone.
When is the best time to start working with a pageant coach?
Ideally, six months to a year before your first pageant. After that, three to six months is a good rule of thumb. Why? It may take you a year to raise the money necessary to do the pageant. Plus, certain skills take longer to develop. Great communication and interview skills cannot be mastered a few days before the pageant. The same thing goes for learning how to walk and pose in 4” heels. If there is swimsuit competition, time is on your side in getting fit. Simply put, transforming your body and mind takes time.
How do I find and choose a pageant coach?
You can find pageant coaches through referrals or on the internet. There are many people who call themselves pageant coaches so take your time to ask questions and do your research. Some specialize in just hair, makeup and wardrobe while others are runway modeling experts. Talk with them. Find out how diversified their abilities and experiences are within the pageant world. Trust your feelings and ask yourself if they are a good fit for what you want.
How much time or help each person needs is different. Typically, children up to the age of 10 or so will spend most of their time learning how to walk, speak and model. Although interview time is kept to a minimum, the foundation is being laid at this age. Using proper and respectful language should be encouraged by the parents in the child’s day to day life.
Feeling completely safe and comfortable at all times with your coach is a necessity. The secret is in finding the right fit.
Beyond The Pageant
One of my favorite parts of pageantry was working with my coach. The self discovery and personal growth I experienced in getting ready for the pageant was exhilarating. I was in my best physical shape, intellectually stimulated and spiritually aware of my inner purpose. I was not dependent on my coach or her “advice”. As a matter of fact, she never gave me advice. Instead, it was a partnership in which I felt safe to explore and discover what truly made me special and different from everyone else. That was my experience, and that is the environment I have created as well for those I choose to work with. The pageant is just the beginning, not the end, of the journey.
I received my life coach training through iPEC because I wanted to be able to coach people in a way that would enable them to have lasting results in their lives long after the pageant. After all, to discover who we are and how we can apply our talents to every aspect of our life is a wonderful blessing.
By Rhonda Shappert
November 4, 2009 07:21
