Pageant Paperwork: The Secret to Controlling Your Interview

Each week, I publish a new mini-course answering real questions from paid subscribers. Join to get your questions featured, unlock priority DMs through the Substack app, and get tailored help — all for a fraction of the cost of private coaching.

---

Look familiar?

Let me start with this: if you think you’re struggling in pageant interviews because you’re shy, that might not be the real problem.

Now don’t get me wrong — some people do get nervous, and yes, mindset matters. But if you’ve ever walked out of an interview thinking, “That wasn’t me,” or, “Why did they ask about literally everything except what I care about?”, you’re not broken. You’ve just never been shown how this game really works.

I had a Substack subscriber recently (shout out to Carly) who told me she felt like she’d shown her true personality at the local level, but when it came to state… crickets. She got shy. The judges kept asking her about sorority life. And the more they did, the more shut down she became.

So I asked the obvious question: “Did you mention sorority stuff in your paperwork?”

She had.

You're not shy — you're boxed in

Here’s the thing: judges don’t randomly pluck questions out of the air. They’re busy. They’re tired. They’re probably under-caffeinated. And most of the time, they don’t deep dive your socials, your website, or your entire life story.

What they do read? Your paperwork. And what’s in that paperwork becomes the framework of your interview.

Which means, if you put something in there — even if it’s just to fill space, or because you thought it looked impressive — you’ve basically given them permission to ask about it.

So when Carly wrote about her executive roles in her sorority, she unknowingly handed the judges a big, shiny conversation topic. And then sat there wondering why they wouldn’t stop talking about it.