From Top 10 to the crown: 10 ways to prepare to win

It's easy to have faith in yourself and have discipline when you're a winner, when you're number one. What you got to have is faith and discipline when you're not a winner. - Vince Lombardi

Photo credit: Amanda Lauren Photography

Faith and discipline - two of the many lessons I've learned in my journey through pageantry. These lessons were years in the making for me before the crown was placed on my head, years of growth before it was "my year."

I competed in five pageants before I won Mrs. Virginia. Yet, the most amount of skill, determination, and self-discipline happened in the year of preparation leading up to my win. I wholeheartedly believe that this is why I won when I did. Because when it was my year, I was ready.

Many contestants have asked me what I did to prepare the year of my win, so I've compiled a list of 10 key steps I took from when I placed in the top 10 at Mrs. Virginia in 2018, to when I won in 2019. Keep in mind, these are simply recommendations. We all have our own journeys and I do not claim to have the silver bullet to winning. I simply hope to provide some key steps that you can take in your journey to catapult you to your next win.

1. Give it to God. I began my year of preparation by giving this big dream of mine to God. I created a vision board which included a photo of a crowning moment of a Mrs. winner whose journey I have followed for years. After years of trying to win on my own, I gave it to God and I began envisioning what my crowning moment would look and feel like if God allowed that dream to become my reality. This step in preparation is difficult because it takes us out of the driver seat and allows God to mold and shape us into the woman He created us to be. The moment you recognize the journey, the title, the crown is not about you - that's when you've truly won.

If we are open to it, if we can embrace the journey and trust the process, God will do amazing things through us.

2. Hire a winning pageant coach and get to work. Most importantly, hire a professional who will be honest and candid with you. Find one who can see your potential and polish you up. I do not recommend a friend or family member as your coach, even if they know their stuff. You can absolutely ask for their input, but I highly recommend a professional.

I recommend working with only one coach at a time. I know many pageant girls who have worked with multiple coaches at a time and it sent them on an emotional rollercoaster full of conflicting advice. Pick a coach and strategy and just stick to it!

There are many pageant coaches out there. Hire one who has had success (ie. countless winners) in your division and preferably in your pageant system. Do not hire the first coach you find. Do your research. Look at how many winners they've had and what contestants are saying about their experience with them. Have they won a pageant themselves? Have they coached national winners? What is their social media presence like? What do they charge, and what type of coaching will that get you?

I once had a bad experience with a pageant coach who completely killed my confidence. It took me months of rebuilding my confidence and researching coaches before I found the right coach for me. Doing my research was so important after that experience that I didn't start working with my (now forever) coach until 3 months before I competed at Mrs. Virginia. The lesson? Just a couple months with the right coach will far exceed any amount of time with the wrong one. (Shoutout to a truly phenomenal coach, Chris Franz!)

3. Hire a personal trainer, and get going on your fitness journey. Preparing for a pageant doesn't mean you have to starve yourself or spend five hours a day doing cardio. Hiring a trainer will keep you focused, on track, and can take you farther and faster in your fitness goals than you could get on your own.

Though not a necessity, I highly recommend working with a trainer who has coached pageant or fitness competitors. My personal trainer doesn't even live in the same state as me, but she is a fitness competitor herself and she has coached other fitness competitors and pageant women. She knows her stuff. Since she lives in another state, all of our coaching was over the phone, text, and on an app. I followed the workouts and macros she set for me, we had weekly check-ins and she tracked how my body was responding to the workouts and nutrition, then she adjusted accordingly along the way. Most importantly, she outlined exactly what I needed to eat the week of the pageant, and specifically in the 48 hour countdown before showtime. This was crucial. Find yourself a personal trainer like this and you will not regret it. (Shoutout to my personal trainer Tiffany Nguyen! You can follow her on insta @_tiffanynguyen)

If you really want to win, you've got to get your head in the game and make practice a priority.

4. Keep your head in the pageant game and develop your confidence. If you were an Olympic athlete you would practice every single day to master your sport. Professional athletes don't train on the side, it is their life. Though pageants are different, they are a sport in their own rite. The judges are looking for the contestant that is that most ready - ready to go to nationals, and ready for an entire year as the titleholder. They are not just looking for beauty, they want to choose the woman who knows herself, who has confidence to make appearances in the community, build partnerships, and work well with pageant sponsors. They want a woman who can carry herself in a room full of people she doesn't know. All of this takes practice.

If you really want to win, you've got to get your head in the game and make practice a priority. Listen to pageant podcasts and audiobooks, read books on confidence and professional development, read blogs from pageant winners, watch YouTube channels of former national titleholders. Be open to learning and improving and you will gain so much, not just in pageants, but in life. Pair those lessons with what you are working on with your coach and you will be lightyears ahead of many pageant contestants out there. Stay tuned for a blog post going more in depth on this topic.

5. Get feedback on your walk and PRACTICE. I cringe just thinking about my on stage presence and walk in the first pageant I competed in. Over the years I began improving my walk by watching youtube videos and getting input from others. After I placed in the top 10 at Mrs. Virginia I knew I still had a lot of work to do, so I hired the official walking coach of the Miss Universe Organization, Lu Sierra. I did an in-person session with her and it was worth every penny. She saw the smallest things I was doing in my walk that I never noticed before. She showed me how to improve, taught me the right poses for my body type and in just one hour took my walk to the next level.

Do not practice your walk over and over again on your own without input from a coach first. Send videos of your walk to your coach, or work on it in person with them if possible. They can give you candid feedback on your posture, arm swings, and poses. Make those changes and practice them until they come natural to you and you'll master a winning walk. One hour with Lu Sierra did way more for my walk than hours of practicing on my own. Use a coach to help you work smarter, not harder ladies!

6. Prepare your wardrobe and dress like a winner. Ask yourself, "If I won this pageant last year, how would I dress this year as the current titleholder?" From the moment you arrive at your pageant, you want to look like the winner from tip to toe. The judges want a women who already carries herself like a winner, not a woman who has potential to one day look and act like a winner. When you win, you become the titleholder right then, not a week or a month later. You don't have time to waste figuring out what to wear and how to hold yourself once you win, you've got to already be the winner before you arrive.

Research your pageant system to get outfit ideas from past winners. Some pageant systems are more conservative while others are more fashion forward. Whatever pageant system you are a part of, own it. This doesn't mean you need to change who you are to win, but it does mean you need to carry yourself with confidence, and there's nothing quite like a winning wardrobe to add to your confidence pageant weekend.

In my years of pageantry I have done and seen it all during rehearsals. Avoid the temptation to wear yoga pants and tennis shoes and opt to wear a comfortable jumpsuit or cocktail dress instead. Show up hair and makeup ready instead of with makeup half done and your hair in curlers. If you're worried about your feet hurting from wearing heels all weekend, pack a cute and comfortable pair of wedges or flats in your bag to wear to and from rehearsals.

Not only are the photographers and videographers snapping photos and video all weekend for the website and social media, but sometimes Directors allow the judges to sit in on rehearsals without telling the contestants. All this to say, always be on point and you'll be glad you were.

7. Hire a winning pageant hair and makeup artist (or take lessons). This one is difficult to implement because the best hair and makeup artists are often booked up before you have the chance to reach out to them. If you decide to hire someone, do your research and find a hair and makeup artist that past titleholders in your system used when they won. This will give you incredible insight into the hair and makeup looks that win in your system.

If you decide to do your own hair and makeup, I recommend getting lessons from a pageant hair and makeup artist months before the pageant so you have plenty of time to master your look. If you win, you will have a year of photoshoots and appearances, so having the skill to do your own hair and makeup will save you so much money. However, having an artist do your hair and makeup pageant weekend will save you stress and energy. Both are great options, so it's completely personal preference.

8. Interview is key, paperwork is important, and a winning headshot is the cherry on top. This is a step that I didn't put much stake into until my winning year. The Mrs. America system weighs interview as 50% of your overall score, so this is where I put the majority of my focus. My coach and I worked on interview for hours in the months leading up to my win. If the judges don't like you in interview, they're not going to look for you on stage. It doesn't matter how good your on stage presence is. If they really connect with you in the interview room, they may give you more grace in the on-stage portion if you have a slip up. This doesn't mean you shouldn't be a rockstar on stage and score high in every category, it just means that interview is THAT important.

Paperwork is crucial. Do not neglect your paperwork! Whether it's an entire packet you fill out for your director, or a one page bio for the judges, use it to your advantage. If there's something you want to ensure the judges know about you, put it on your paperwork in a creative an intriguing way that makes the judges want to ask about it. If there's a hobby or activity you don't want to spend your interview time talking about, don't put it on your paperwork. If you are in the Mrs. America system, the judges are only going to ask questions from your bio sheet. Make your paperwork strong, allow it to stand out, and make them look forward to interviewing you!

Don't neglect the importance of your headshot especially if it goes on your judges bio sheet. If you have a coach, get input from them on what to wear, how to have your hair and makeup done, etc. Do your research on photographers and their portfolio. Who have the past winners used? What did their headshots look like (i.e. are their headshots more natural, glitz and glam, or a mix of both?). Your headshot will likely go on the website prior to the pageant, it will go in the program book, and it may even go on your judges bio sheet. This is the very first impression the judges will have of you before you even walk into the interview room. Hire a photographer that knows what they're doing and can pull your personality through your photo. You don't need to win the photogenic award, but you do want the judges to look forward to their interview with you, and this is how you get them there.

9. Envision your win to see and feel it - In the months leading up to Mrs. Virginia I envisioned my win almost nightly. I listened to episode 008 from one of my favorite podcasts, Win A Pageant, "Envisioning your win" to get me started. Envisioning your win is crucial to ensuring not only that you can see your win, but feel it too. If you don't actually believe that you have what it takes to win, if you can't see it, then how can you expect the judges to? You must have the confidence to see and feel that you have what it takes to win before you can ever expect anyone else to.

10. Develop your platform, and own your story - Set out to make a difference in the lives of others who are going through the very situations, circumstances, or even tragedies that you have - this is exactly what a platform is all about! Pageants are such a unique way to help others and make a difference in our world in a big way. Own your story and trust that the more open you are about it, the more people you can help. You'll be surprised at how much healing you will find for yourself in the process.

Develop partnerships in the community with organizations whose missions align with yours, and you will be amazed at the opportunities that open because of it. Owning your story requires vulnerability, but God did not give you a spirit of fear. You must trust that He will give you the strength to share your story. Your openness to allow God to use your story will inspire, encourage, and empower others through their times of trial and difficulty in an incredible way.

"Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created." - Esther 4:14

Embrace the journey. Each of the steps I took to prepare for my win helped build my support team. I did not become a winner overnight or on my own. One month before winning Mrs. Virginia I faced a miscarriage. Then, two weeks before the pageant I lost my mom to breast cancer. When life happened, I had a team around me who kept me on track and encouraged me not to give up. I had invested too much into my team to give up or back out when life got hard. Not giving up required the very kind of dedication and strength that only comes from God.

If we are open to it, if we can embrace the journey and trust the process, God will do amazing things through us. When it's your year to win and when that crown is placed on your head you must trust that Gods timing is perfect and He knows exactly what He's doing.

Who you are matters. Your message matters. God created you with a unique purpose. Perhaps this is the moment for which you have been created.

God-centered women - may we know them, may we raise them, may we be them.

Shine on queen,

Lisa