Competing in Pageants when you are OVER 40--- A Great Place to Blossom!

Competing in Pageants when you are OVER 40---
A Great Place to Blossom!

by Trinity Nicole Miller, Elite Petite Ms Texas 
Today's International/American Woman Pageant

My first experience with pageants was in Wyoming.  I was selected as “Mrs. Cheyenne America” and this was the beginning of my personal quest for the crown… In my opinion, the pageant was lots of fun and I had performed my best as I had no idea what I was doing, I simply wanted to be able to raise more money for my charities and this was an awesome avenue to accomplish that goal.  After the pageant one of my competitors mentioned to me that I was “too old to be there and they were not sure why I had bothered showing up”.  I knew why I was there.  I had successfully raised money for a local animal shelter using my title and decided this was the way I wanted to help my charities.  What in the world does age have to do with that?

In the last 10 years, I have competed in a lot of different systems.  I have met some of the most intelligent, charitable and successful career oriented women in the country. 

The over 40 pageant woman in the 21^st century is not what she used to be. Today, she owns her business or is at the top of management and works as a spokeswoman or chairperson for some of the finest charities in the country.  Many of these women even have their own non profit organizations.  These beautiful and intelligent women are in politics, entertainment, business, legal, military, medical… and most are at the top of their field. 

Participating in pageants after age 40 has greatly helped my business life.  I decided if I was going to do this, I was going to give it my best.  I looked for pageant coaching online and found many great free resources as well as things I could order. I watched videos of previous pageants, listened to workshops about how to speak better, learned how to ace the pageant interview, developed better stage presence, did lots of interview skills work, …and much more!  Adding these tools made my business presentations better and helped me to communicate to my clients and potential clients in a more effective manner.  This of course produced more sales and more happy clients.

In my charity world, I am now able to use the skills I learn from competing in pageants on a larger scale to make me a better and more effective volunteer. I found skills that I never knew I had and starting doing things I had never tried with a new enthusiasm.   All of the time I am discovering things about myself that I never knew and I am finally becoming the woman I have always wanted to be.  Competing in the Ms Civic” division  I learned how to scrapbook an entire year of charity events!  Now I want to scrapbook every year and it is an amazing tool to show potential donors. 

Being a national beauty queen (and even as a  state queen) I find that I am able to get through doors and get to decision makers much faster than before.  It is much easier to solicit donations and get support for events with my crown.    So get out there and WIN your title ladies!  It will bring out talents and skills you never knew you had!

Find Your Perfect Pageant System and Start Winning

Find Your Perfect Pageant System
and Start Winning

by Trinity Nicole Miller, Elite Petite Ms Texas
Today's International/American Woman Pageant

When first starting competing in pageants, I had no idea that each system had a different purpose.  Yes, I said “Purpose”.  Women who compete in the Miss America and Miss USA system seem to gravitate toward TV careers, Galaxy and International winners seem to gravitate toward a modeling career and then there is Today's American Woman Pageants, (Voted "Top 10 Ms Pageant for 2015" by The Pageant Planet) ..an  "ALL inclusive pageant of ALL women of ALL ages ALL sizes ALL abilities using the crown to shine a light on what is important to us!"  

This will be my 11th year competing in pageants.  I have competed TONS of systems in my career.  Pageants have been a blessing and sometimes a curse.  I have come up with some things to look for when deciding on a pageant system to help weed out incompatible systems and find the right one for you.

Finding the perfect pageant system is easy with a little targeted research.   

To begin, go to the website of the pageant you are interested in applying to.  Look for a pageant overview or summary.  It should give you an idea if you need to read on or move ahead in your research.  It is important to find a system that matches your talents, skills and goals. I advise reading the entire website and looking over everything you find.  This is a large investment in time and money and you want to find the best one for you. If you don’t find enough information on the website, e-mail the director and ask question…LOTS of questions!

Specifically, check out the areas of competition and the criteria for each one.  Take care to look into each area of competition and see what each one asks for.  Do they have a ‘Swimsuit’ category?  Are you comfortable with that or would you rather compete in ‘Glamwear’ or’ Aerobic Wear’?   Also look at the percentages of each category.  I tend to do better when interview counts 50%, as it is the area of competition I enjoy the most and excel at.  Specifically, find a system where your strengths are scored high and then work on the rest.

Rules & regulations are a very important thing to carefully look over.  There are residence requirements, age, marital status, and many times much more.  Read the agreement very carefully and be sure that you are in compliance with each one, or you could lose your crown if you win. For instance, many systems frown on posting questionable photos on the internet or not making required appearances.  Be careful to be sure you can fulfill all of the system requirements before applying.

Finally, contact former contestants that did not win and see what they thought about the pageant.  They will give you a better overall picture of the system and the people involved.  One thing to look for, do they have a high return rate?  If so, you can bet there is a good reason for it!  You could also contact former queens and see how their reign went.  Many will be happy to give a great referral or will steer you in a better direction.

It may take some time to find the system where you simply "fit" so Don't Give Up! There are LOTS of pageant systems for a variety of different goals.... so go do your homework and find your perfect pageant!

Check out www.todaysamericanwoman.com    My personal favorite!

Successfully Promoting Your Pageant Title with Online Marketing Tools

Successfully Promoting Your Pageant Title with Online Marketing Tools… 

by Trinity Nicole Miller

Promoting your title is tantamount to a successful reign.  Whether you are a City, State or National Queen, is is crucial to get yourself as well as your platform and pageant system information to as many people as possible.  

Today, marketing online is a fantastic way to quickly get your message to a large audience. Following are several avenues that a pageant queen can use to market a title and the majority of them are FREE. 

A Personal Website- There are many avenues to get a personal website.  You can hire a web design company like my company, Nicole Miller Marketing, or use many of the free sites that are available.  The bottom line is, the more PR you have out there, the more sponsors and supporters you can reach.  Be sure to list your sponsors, supporters and causes!

Google+ -  Show the world who you are and what you’re passionate about. Choose a beautiful cover photo, share some fun facts, or even add some bragging rights. With the Google+ Circles, it is easy to share the right things with the right people, just like in real life. 

With the Hangout feature, you can 'video hangout' and make free video calls with up to 10 people.  A great example of this is PageantLive.   The show revolves around the pageant industry – preparations for fashion, talent or whatever topic presents itself surrounding the industry. The host and guests log onto Google+ Hangout where up to 10 people can participate at the same time from the comfort of their homes. All you need is a computer(desktop or laptop) that has a webcam and internet connection. I have personally been on this show several times and it has been a great tool for me to use to show potential sponsors what I am about!  https://plus.google.com/

A Blog- A blog is a personal diary ---A daily pulpit--- A collaborative space--- A political soapbox.--- A breaking-news outlet.  Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules. In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write anything you want and post photos on an ongoing basis. Your new information shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new. Your visitors can comment on it or link to it or email you. I use  the free Google Blogger....Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others.  You can use this as a integral part of your title marketing campaign! Connecting your blog to Google+ is a great way to attract new readers, as well as build lasting relationships with your followers. For example, you can easily share your posts in the Google+ stream, as well as enable blog visitors to recommend your information in a single click.   http://www.blogger.com/home

Facebook-  Most people have a Facebook account these days.  This is probably the best way to get your message to lots of people in a very short amount of time.   Facebook has over one billion active users and a January  Compete.com study ranked Facebook as the most used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users.  Obviously, this is a wonderful tool for promotion! You can create a 'celebrity page' in seconds and start your promotional campaign right away!  http://www.facebook.com

Pinterest- Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard... the goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting.  My personal Pinterest is called 'Marketing your Pageant Title' and I 'pin' photos of things that I do to market myself.  With millions of new pins added every week, there is no telling who will find me and help me with my causes!  http://pinterest.com/

Fabulously 40- This is totally cool!  Fabulously40 was created for every woman 40 and beyond, who is ready to celebrate this exciting stage of her life. It is a fantastic social network of women 40 and over.  I think this is a great place to not only promote my title but hang out with other women like me and get some good 'soul food'!!  http://fabulously40.com

Finally,  my friend Tamika Hall, International Radio Host of the Tamika Hall Show has a great avenue for business cards and autograph cards...  Pageant Paperie & Gifts--http://www.zazzle.com/pageantmarketing  -- Tamika created Pageant Paperie so that pageant queens could easily design their own beautiful materials. She has done the hard work for you by designing great templates, all you have to do it drop your headshot/pictures in the appropriate places, enter your information, and voila...your marketing materials are done! All of her materials are produced and shipped within 24-48 hours!  This is great because the designs are beautiful and professional without spending alot of time and money on them!!!   http://www.zazzle.com/pageantmarketing

I was also a special guest on her international radio show several times and it truly helped my platform as well as my business to promote in that avenue.

These are only a few of the places you can use to promote your title!  Using the Google search engine, you can find LOTS more and start promoting yourself!  You CAN NOT promote yourself too much, but be careful when promoting.  Always consider where you are promoting and what you put out there about yourself.  For instance, steer clear of places that may be questionable regarding your reputation.  Once you put something that could be viewed an 'inappropriate', you can’t take it back! Judges are always watching you whether you know it or not, so be careful and have FUN promoting your pageant title!