you the

By J.J. Smith

You Be the Judge Preparing for your interview question can be even more important than wearing the right gown or swimsuit, but it all comes down to the confidence you have in yourself

The competition you have prepared for has finally ar- rived. You have exercised and you’ve worked out parts of your body that you had forgotten you had. You’ve stuck to your eating plan and dieted the correct way. You’ve been to the gym more than anytime in your entire life, and done everything humanly possible to look your best.

You feel great about how the judges and the world will see you in swimsuit. Your evening gown is glorious. It reflects everything about your personality and truly allows the judges to see you, and not just the dress. When you look into the mirror, you feel the only thing missing is the crown, but not so fast—you also have ahead of you what many people believe is the most important aspect of competition. Looming ahead is the portion of the event that can make or break it for any competitor depending on her performance. It is the final frontier that separates the winner from those left standing. The sometimes overlooked, yet most crucial part of the entire pageant—the interview or call back.

Dreaded by some and welcomed by others, depending on one’s skills and confidence level among other factors, the interview portion of any competition is nevertheless an integral part of the process used by judges to determine the eventual winner. You have invested in yourself physically to look your very best. You have invested monetarily to purchase the finest wardrobe so you will feel your very best. So how much have you invested in yourself mentally so that what you say and what you convey to the judges’ panel leaves them with the belief that you are the best choice?

Let’s say that as the pageant has progressed through the preliminary swimsuit and evening gown stages, you are feeling great about your performance and can taste victory ahead. You have noticed that the pageant is not a cakewalk as you pretty much know who your main competition is, but you are not really worried. Your confidence level is soaring. Your swimsuit presentation really

J.J. Smith has written the feature stories that Pageantry magazine readers have enjoyed through the years, including the Miss Universe, Miss USA, Miss Teen USA, Miss America and Miss World pageants— as well as an array of other pageant systems. As an experienced pageant judge, J.J. has been invited to judge on the local, state, national and international levels. To prepare for competition, many pageant winners have benefited and confirmed their success from utilizing the techniques provided by “WinnerViews,” the pageant preparation business that J.J. founded. His expertise offers “winning interview techniques from a judge’s perspective” and is unique in that it gives the participants positive and constructive feedback on their interview skills from an experienced pageant judge’s viewpoint. With WinnerViews, your interview is “evaluated, then elevated.” For the record, Texas-born J.J. has coached many winners of the coveted Miss Texas USA title including three Miss USA winners as well as a Miss Universe. For his rare accomplishments and insight, J.J. is considered by many to be the best pageant interview coach in the nation. J.J. is also the recipient of many acting and public-speaking awards, including the prestigious Veterans of Foreign Wars “Voice of Democracy” national scholarship award, which was chosen from among more than 200 entries and contributed to his selection in being named a Moody Scholar.

rocked the house and your evening gown was beyond compare. Even your interview outfit is cutting edge and unlike anything anyone else is wearing. Your presentation was superb and you feel secure that your biggest rival is a distant second. Perhaps the two of you are paired together in the same group and you feel and look great as you begin your interview, ready to put the finishing touch-es on your march to the title. It seems to you that the other contestants are fighting to see who comes in second.

You give a perfect introduction, keeping the attention on yourself, making a great first impression. You breeze through the first icebreaker questions that come from your own paperwork. Then a judge with a particular agenda asks, “Do you believe President Obama should send additional troops to Afghanistan? Why or why not?” You flash that radiant smile of yours and then realize