Kari Volen of Pageant Coaching and Designs shares her top strategies for competing in Pageantry!

Pageantry is so much more than being pretty! It is about being beautiful, inside and out...AND knowing how to strategize, focus, market and brand yourself!
We will focus on why Kari loves helping others, especially customizing those pageant goals! Kari will share her TOP strategies for being interactive on social media as a competitor. 

About Kari:

Kari Volen has been involved in pageantry for over 20 years as a competitor, director, choreographer, judge and pageant coach! She began competing in the Teen USA and Miss America aystems as a teen and young adult and went on to become Mrs. California 2013 where she placed in the Top 6 at the Mrs. America Pageant. Founder of Pageant Coaching & Designs, Kari loves helping pageant contestants to build the confidence to reach their goals both on the stage and in life. Experienced in virtually every system, Kari is proud to have had countless winners both internationally and nationally. Voted the #1 Pageant Coach by the Pageant Planet for both 2018 and 2019 - Kari is honored to work with clients nationwide both virtually and in person. Although she focuses on total preparation, her areas of expertise include: walking/modeling, marketing and branding in interview, and creating strong platforms and social media strategies.

How to reach Kari and work with her!
website - pageantcoachinganddesigns.org

Instagram - @pageantcoachinganddesigns

Facebook

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Hi everyone. And welcome to beauty call podcast. I'm Janice, McWane your host. I hope that everyone is doing well and staying safe and at home. And I hope that you're enjoying all of the episodes that I'm bringing you on. Faith, love, beauty, health, fitness, and that you are taking this time to take care of you and those that you love. It's important for us to stay hopeful, to stay faith based and to believe that it's all going to get better because it is so take time to take care of yourself. It's time to double down on that health and wellness. Get some rest, make sure that you're exercising, but make sure you

Speaker 2: 0:45

Social distancing. I love you all. Enjoy this episode when you need advice on view, where you're going to call beautiful with journey smack with journeys is easy and loves to have casual yet informative positions on sex. Beauty, love fashion, worklife balance diet fitness, nutrition relationship in life's ups and downs. Join the beauty cold podcast and learning side secrets to true beauty.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Hi everyone. Welcome to be to call podcast. I'm Janice McQueen. Your host today's guest is Carrie Volin, and she has been involved in pageantry for over 20 years. Not only as a competitor, a director choreographer judge, but also as a very well known pageant coach. She began competing in the team USA and miss America systems as a teen and young adult, and went onto become mrs. California, 2013, where she plays top six at the mrs America pageant. She's the founder of pageant coaching and designs, and loves helping contestants to build their confidence, reaching their goals, both onstage and in life experienced in virtually every system. Carrie is proud to have had countless winners, both internationally and nationally. Carrie was voted number one pageant coach by the pageant planet for both 2018 and 2019. And she is honored to work with clients nationwide, both virtually and in person. And although she focuses on total preparation, her ideas and areas of expertise include walking, modeling, marketing, branding, and interview, and creating strong platforms and social media strategies. And today we are going to talk with Carrie about that main expertise that she has. I will be hosting a new podcast very soon called the pageant podcast. And this is an entree to that because I do want to highlight that pageantry is about beauty on the inside as well as beauty on the outside and what it takes to be successful in pageantry. So I'm really excited to share with you Carrie Bolen and her story and her expertise. So welcome to the show, Carrie, how are you? I'm doing wonderful. I'm excited to be here. I am so excited to have you. I've known for quite some time now. And just thank you are the most beautiful sweetest, kindest woman out there and just loves seeing you not only compete on stage and winning the crown, but just so proud of the business that you have built as a coach. And we're going to of course talk about that. But of course not for me talking about you, I would love for you to share with our listeners a little bit about you and what you're doing.

Speaker 3: 3:27

Of course, how you're holding up now in the pandemic. Yeah. Does it, this is definitely an unprecedented time. And a lot of people don't know that in addition to my coaching business, I actually work full time in the senior housing industry as a marketing and sales director. And so obviously with everything going on with seniors, being an at risk population, that side of my life is pretty crazy right now. And then surprisingly with coaching, or maybe not so surprisingly with everything going on, a lot of pageants have been moved or rescheduled. And so this is normally my busiest time of year for coaching. And it's, it's slowed down a bit, but I'm definitely still busy and helping people achieve their goals in terms of pageantry. And so I'm just blessed to be healthy and happy right now and happy to share with you and your listeners today.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Oh, that's great. And it definitely has changed for all of us. What's going on right now in pageantry has been definitely postponed or in some cases I know people have canceled or they have like a virtual pageant.

Speaker 3: 4:28

It just really sort of cool. And you think about it, right? It's like, I think it's very cool.

Speaker 1: 4:33

I love that idea of a virtual pageant. It just keeps you connected. And maybe that's something that will, you know, more pageants will, will do to have that, like to get people connected during the year when they're not having that get together pageant. But yeah, it's, it's such a shift in what you do and you know, even though we sort of call it a side hustle, cause I, I coached too. It's, it's really your passion. That is your true, true passion. So let's talk about your passion. Let's talk about first sort of how you got started in pageantry.

Speaker 3: 5:03

Yeah. So back in high school, I had a friend who's, who's still a good friend to this day and she was miss Oregon teen USA. And I remember I had gone to her competition that she won at to watch her. And that kind of just sparked something in me like, gosh, this looks really fun. I want to do it. So the next year I tried my first pageant, which was miss Oregon, teen USA. And I was second runner up. And after that, as I'm sure anyone involved in Patrick Trinos, it's pretty addicting and I got hooked. And so that's kind of how we started. I competed primarily in the miss America system and have kind of come full circle now with my coaching business. I'm actually the official coach for the miss America, miss California America, and helped prepare their winners for miss America. So that's kind of fun, but I ended up becoming mrs. California in 2013 and that's where I kind of met. You was in the mrs. Pageant circuit when you were a director and ended up doing a lot of different things in pageantry, directing, producing, and then eventually came into coaching. Oh, that's great. And it's, it's fun to see all sides of it, isn't it? Yeah, it's interesting. And I think it gives me a good perspective as a coach because you know, I've been behind the judging table. I've been on stage. I put the competitions together. So I think I have a pretty well rounded vision of what being a title holder entails. That's right. And also like as a director and you know, I've been a director too, is when you see like paperwork come in and you see how the girls develop over time, whether they're working with the coach or not, you're really do sort of see everything. And that gives you that added advantage when you are helping a client prepare for their pageant because you know, the ins and the outs of all of it, you know, from being a competitor and a judge. And of course I have to ask you go to this beautiful woman and you're so accomplished. So do you ever plan to get back up on that stage again and compete? That's funny. I get asked that quite frequently. And in fact recently I inquired about a dress and someone was like, Oh, where are you competing? I don't currently have any plans to compete, but I'm sure that will happen sometime in the future. I think I probably have a baby or two on the horizon. I'm not pregnant by the way, but in my future before I compete again, right. Well, you can have it all right. You can do it all. And what's so great is you don't have to be, I mean, really you can compete for a long, long time and pageantry. It's really not designed to have any kind of expiration date, so to speak, which is, which is great for the competitor is great for the coach is great for the director is great all around just to elevate people. So you went from competitor, you've been a director, you have been a choreographer, you've been a judge. You've done it all. So now you're that pageant coach. So tell us about your business. Tell us about Patrick coaching and designs. Yeah. So a little bit about kind of how I segwayed into that. I, after I aged out of the miss America system, I got involved as a volunteer with some of the local pageants. And from that I kind of found that I had a knack for helping to mentor contestants and I found what was most helpful to them was sharing a lot of the mistakes that I made and things that I wish I would have known and things I wish people had would have told me, or been honest with me when I was competing. So I could kind of prevent them from having to have that learn by experience time and kind of fast forward a little bit to being successful sooner. And so that's kind of what got me interested in coaching. And like you said, it, it kind of started as a side hustle that, that blew up, you know, the past two years, 2018 and 2019, I was actually voted the pageant planets I'm number one pageant coach, which was super crazy and really cool and such an honor. But yeah, I work with clients all over the nation for pretty much every major pageant system. I sort of, like you mentioned before, and more of that marketing and branding coming from a marketing background and also working with people on how to use their personal experiences and qualities to differentiate themselves in the interview process and on their paperwork and help make them stand out. And then also working with clients on platform development. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 9:14

Right. And I think that's so important now and, you know, whatever the pageant calls it, you know, the platform development, having a mission, having a reason, having a cause, having a why

Speaker 3: 9:24

Is so important in

Speaker 1: 9:27

Competing today so that you stand out and you are unique. And I was, it's a funny that you mentioned that organically because I was going to ask,

Speaker 3: 9:33

So, you know, because you've worked with so many different, you know, you with every kind of pageant system, you work with so many walks of life, you work with every different age division. What has been sort of your takeaway as, you know, as a coach and also as a competitor of how it diff it differentiates between different age divisions, how do you, how do you balance that in terms of coaching? I know a lot of times parents, especially of younger clients will be concerned. You know, if I'm coaching multiple people for the same pageant for the same age division. And for me, at least coaching is really such a personal thing that, you know, among age divisions or the same age division, my coaching style, it truly is customized to each person. And so it's, it's never really been an issue because what might be a strength for someone isn't for someone. But I would say the biggest advice or thing that I work with clients on really is having that competitor mentality. And that's something that, you know, I struggled with when I was competing initially, was, was that being distracted by your competition or focusing on other people or doubting your abilities to me is the biggest hindrance and people meeting their pageant goals and being successful. And so my clients, you know, are pretty familiar with me saying whether you think you can or can't you're right. So a lot of what I do is also helping people get in that right. Competitive mindset and that transcends all age divisions and as important, you know, with whatever you're doing, even in life, if you don't believe in yourself, you're not going to be able to accomplish your goals. That is true.

Speaker 1: 11:04

So when did you sort of have that aha moment as a competitor? What helped elevate you to?

Speaker 3: 11:09

Yeah, so I kind of remember a lot of my early coach, early competing days were kind of about me trying to be what I thought I was supposed to be, who I thought people wanted me to be saying what I thought the judges wanted to hear. And anyone who knows me knows I'm a very quirky kind of gregarious, maybe a little odd, sometimes just fun. And I kind of filtered all of that out when I was competing and didn't want people to see that side. Cause I thought somehow that made me less intelligent or people weren't going to perceive me as being a serious competitor. And I remember after kind of a series of losses in the miss America system, I remember going into an interview and I kind of just was in a different mood that day. And I was like, I'm just going to be myself. I'm just gonna, you know, let it all out and see what happens. And if they don't like me, they don't like me and it's not meant to be. And I remember having so much fun in the interview and just really being authentic to who I was. And I walked out and I actually cried because I thought it went terribly because it didn't feel like any of the previous interviews that I had had because, because I truly let who I was shine through. I thought, Oh my gosh, this is really scary. They probably didn't like me. And I ended up winning interview in that pageant. I honestly don't remember whether or not I won that pageant, but I remember winning interview. And that was kind of my aha moment of like, Oh my gosh, like who I am is okay to share with the world. And people actually liked that. And then moving forward, that was kind of my secret sauce to success was just, it sounds so simple, but being yourself, not being afraid, you know, of, of what people think of you. And I think people respect and connect with that authenticity and that vulnerability. Yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:51

That is so true and well said. And you know, what, what advice would you give? Let's say someone who's just starting out and they don't think that they're pageant material and they want to, to enter it up into a pageant and their expectations are, they really don't have any expectations.

Speaker 3: 13:09

What advice would you give them? I mean, I think it's good not to have expectations, but I think there's a difference between knowing your worth and value and believing that you could win and like going in and expecting to win or expecting to place. I think those are two different things, but I think definitely doing research and finding a system that fits them. You know, some people are very talented and so certain systems like maybe the miss America system would be great for them. Some people are all about, you know, platform and their community involvement. And so maybe something like the international pageant system. So I think it's important to be in the right seat on the bus and to be in the right place. I think that would help a new competitor to have the best opportunity to be successful. And if they don't know what to research or have time to research, you know, even reaching out to a coach, whether that be you, me, somebody else, and kind of just let them do an introductory session to get to know the person. And then maybe the coach could recommend a system that might be a good fit for them.

Speaker 1: 14:09

Yeah. I liked that a lot. I think that's important because you know, people don't always think that they need a coach and I've, I've talked with girls who, or directors that they, you, they say, Oh, you don't need a coach, but you really sort of do to sort of even bounce ideas off of that person at least to start out with. And then just like with coaching and with a pageant, you know, it sometimes fit, sometimes it doesn't, but it's just, it's so important to have that help along the way. I like you did not know exactly like my, I made a lot of mistakes in other words at the beginning of when I started competing

Speaker 3: 14:44

And, and it wasn't until I was sort of really

Speaker 1: 14:48

Real and authentic to myself that I was like, Hey, I can, I can some stuff in. So, and then it, that bug does bite you. So it's so great that you identify that you point that out to people, right.

Speaker 3: 14:58

You're very real about it is your style. Very cause you, you know, I know, I know you and I know

Speaker 1: 15:05

Your, your quirkiness and I love that about you. I love seeing that part of you. I absolutely love that part of you. I think that I am quirky as well. And I think that's a beautiful thing. But when you are coaching, is your style very direct or do you sort of tippy toe around you direct?

Speaker 3: 15:22

So that kind of relates a little bit to what you were just talking about with needing to have someone to bounce ideas off. That was something I didn't really have when I was competing. And I think a lot of people rely on like their mother as kind of their pseudo coach. And I can tell you from personal experience that does not work well. One year I just said, and my mom was all about that told me how great I looked. And now she like looks at pictures and it was like, Oh, remember when you dyed your hair red, you looked so terrible. And I'm like, that would have been good. It good for me to know that it wasn't flattering for me. And so as a coach, I'm definitely very direct, very honest, because I think that was something I found lacking in the pageant world was people were always very positive, which I appreciated, but they weren't really giving me critical feedback to help me improve. It was like, you're doing great. Keep going. You have a lot of potential, but having someone point out little things like wardrobe, maybe that could have been different or just think styling wise down to, you know, my hair that could have been different. I think that being honest is the best way to help people move forward. And I think my clients appreciate that because they know if I tell them I like something, I actually like it. And if I tell them I don't like something it's coming from a place of love and wanting the best from them. And so I think people take that better. And I would say that, you know, you don't need a coach, but you need someone who can be honest with you and can help you move forward. And oftentimes I find that parents are not the right person for that because especially with younger clients, you know, they don't really take well to having their, their mom maybe criticized their walk or their interview skills. And so I think having a coach to kind of take that place, takes the pressure off of the parents and the client, and kind of helps people to maintain that positive relationship too.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Yeah. It is important to have someone that's objective that can really look at you and tell you with, like you said, with love that something may not be working well for you. And that is hard. I mean, I, I get, think about it. Like, you know,

Speaker 3: 17:21

Anyone listening, like if you text your friend,

Speaker 1: 17:23

You text your family and you ask them their opinion. They're always going to say it looks so beautiful. That's so wonderful. You're great. And of course you are, but you also need to have someone to take that, that diamond in the rough and Polish it and make it stage worthy or make it pageant. W you know, not words, that's the wrong word, but to get into that next level. So great way of putting it, Carrie, I love, I love your and love how you, you sort of break it down and you stay very focused and very direct, but it does come across extremely loving and honest. And that's so important. Now, one of the things I know you do everything you work with every age group, you work in person, you work virtually, especially now we have to work virtually probably through different like Skype and zoom, but your main focus because you are a marketing expert at your day job. And this is of course your, of your business. You're a marketing and branding expert, and you help women create strong platforms and a social media strategy and presence. Can you give us like maybe your top? Let's say three. I love three. I love doing everything in three. So top three strategies for what you recommend.

Speaker 3: 18:36

So I think one is, is finding, being specific and finding your unique experiences or qualities, and then being able to relate in interview to the judges and why that matters. So for example, with myself being a marketing and public relations professional, if I was competing, I would definitely talk to the judges about how, you know, I have that experience. This is something I do on a daily basis and how I would apply that experience and skill to benefiting the pageant system as a title holder. So that would be number one. Number two, I think, is finding the right platform. I think a lot of times, again, that could be something pic people select for a lot of reasons, but I think if you don't pick something that you're truly passionate about and connect with, it's never going to come across. I think people connect with vulnerability, people connect with realness and stories and people don't necessarily just connect with facts. And so if I just pick a platform that I maybe have some loose connection to, because it feels comfortable, but there's something maybe really deep down that I'm more passionate about. Maybe it's, you know, for me, I I've had a few different platforms over the years, but I struggled with an eating disorder when I was in high school. And that was something for a long time. I avoided as my platform because I was afraid people would look at me differently. But again, I think that's where the power is, is sharing your weakness and people connect to that. So finding something you're truly passionate about, and then I think with social media, and it's been really cool to actually see this during this whole stay at home order is people are having to get more creative. And in the past, basically the typical social media strategy was like, I'm a title holder. I'm just going to post pictures of myself at appearances or events, and that's really boring. And that really doesn't grant you. And so I always work with clients on how can you create an interactive social media where you're interacting with your fans, the public, and how can you build your followers through interactive things like live videos or challenges, things like that that get people to not just be a passive viewer of your page, but to actually build that connection with you. And so that would be something I would say would be another suggestion for people. Oh, that's amazing. That is so

Speaker 1: 20:49

Point. And it's amazing how pageantry has changed over the years and even in just a short period of time, but I just, you see the evolution of pageantry over the, like you've been involved with it for 20 years and I, a little bit longer than that, cause I

Speaker 3: 21:03

I'm quite a bit older than you, but we've seen that evolution and keeping up with what's happening and keeping your, your, your finger on the pulse of what's going on is something that I think is important. That's exactly what you do

Speaker 1: 21:18

And help also with, with the, the competitors to be able to be current and everything that they're doing. So is there anything else that you'd like to share with our listeners today about your, you know, yourself or how are you holding up with everything going on in the pandemic?

Speaker 3: 21:36

You know, I'm doing well. I think, you know, like, like you mentioned, things have changed. I definitely transitioned to more the zoom meetings and FaceTime where typically I do a lot of in person at my studio in Braya California. But I think like you mentioned something that I think is new, that I'm really interested in seeing how it evolves is this whole virtual pageant thing. And I've actually helped prepare a couple of clients recently for those. And it's so interesting, just even something like, and you know this, cause I think you have experienced in television. Oh, you do have experience in television is that you have to be telegenic and that's something in an actual onstage pageant. You never think about, you want to have personality and you want to be interesting to watch on stage, but it's, you know, watching clients practice on zoom, you really have to take everything up a notch and make everything bigger to have like the facials and the personality translate from the computer screen to your audience. And that was something I never really knew about or expected since this is totally new to the pageant industry. And so I'm interested just to see if these virtual pageants continue, how that will kind of evolve and shape how we change or how I change preparing people for competition.

Speaker 1: 22:47

Yeah. Great point. Yeah. I it's definitely be, it's so different being on stage than being sort of, I call it intimate. It's very intimate when you're doing anything on camera and the connectivity that you have is so, so different.

Speaker 3: 23:02

It's like act well, it is act. I mean, it is the same as acting because if you're doing it for you're stage actor or your TV film actor,

Speaker 1: 23:09

That is a different discipline, it's a different way of communicating and you need to have that knowledge of both. So that's great that you offer those services as well. How

Speaker 3: 23:22

Can people reach you and contact you and work with you? Yeah, so people can find me on Instagram at pageant coaching and designs also on Facebook at pageant coaching and designs. And my website is pageant coaching and designs.org.

Speaker 1: 23:38

Okay, great. Carrie, what, well, I just want a pleasure speaking with you again and hopefully we'll be able to see each other and person again. So once this is all hopefully done very, very soon and we can all be together again. So thank you so much. Have a wonderful day. I really appreciate you be well,

Speaker 2: 24:03

Thanks so much for listening. I hope that you enjoyed this episode and if so, please go to your favorite podcast and subscribe. Make sure if you're on Apple that you subscribe, rate and review me on iTunes. And I would love your feedback@anytimeyoucouldreachouttomeonjanicemcqueen.com and contact me or join my newsletter and give me the feedback of different subjects and topics that you would like to hear, or if you would like to be a guest on my show. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great day.