Sash & Soul

#63 Can AI Help You Win a Pageant? Let’s Talk About It.

• Raeanna Johnson

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AI in pageants? Yep, we're going there. Before you picture robots on stage or chatbots writing your paperwork, take a breath, because this conversation is all about authenticity meets innovation.

In this episode, we're diving into how you can use tools like ChatGPT to actually enhance your prep, not replace it. From organizing your thoughts for paperwork and brainstorming interview questions, to refining your speaking points and saving time on research, AI can be a huge asset when you know how to use it mindfully.

But here's the thing: no piece of technology can tell your story the way you can. That's why I'm breaking down how to use AI without losing your voice, your values, or your "why."

We'll talk about the mindset behind using tech with purpose, where to draw boundaries, and how to make sure your prep stays grounded in your own authenticity. Because at the end of the day, AI might help you polish your words, but only you can give them meaning.

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Socials: @sashandsoul | @fearlesslyauthenticcoach | @raeannajohnson
Websites: www.fearlesslyauthentic.com | www.sashandsoul.com
Email: info@fearlesslyauthenticcoach.com

If you’re looking for more than just surface-level prep and you’re ready to prepare with strategy, support, and confidence that actually lasts, I’d love to be part of your process.

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Raeanna:

Hello, what's up you guys? Welcome back to Sash and Soul. I um I spent some time really trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about today, and I was struggling with it. And full disclosure, I actually recorded an entire episode about overthinking. And when I got to the end of it, I was like, eh, I don't know, maybe I was overthinking it, but I didn't like it. And it just wasn't feeling like where my vibe was at this week. Because I mean, honestly, like I'm not, I'm not feeling super deep this week. Now, I did, I have had some like really good deep conversations with clients, but it's hard when you're sitting here like talking. Well, I'm talking to all of you, but I'm in my room by myself, talking what feels like talking to myself. So it like it's just a very, very different feel when you're like bouncing ideas off of another person and like vibing with that energy versus like bringing the energy. And so this week I'm just not really in a particularly like super thoughtful space on my own. I'm just I'm kind of tired. It's getting colder, it's getting darker earlier in the day, and I'm usually hit with like a little bit of that seasonal affective disorder. Um, and it kind of tends to hit me a little bit earlier on. So I'm thinking that might be part of what's going on with me. Like we actually turned the heat on for the first time this week, and um, so just kind of trying to trying to get by this week. I've got sweaters out and big fluffy socks, and I'm drinking tea, and I'm like, all right, we're shifting. We are officially shifting. So, anywho, long story short, I scrapped my original plan to talk with you about overthinking because I don't really feel like my brain is thinking at that level right now. And I decided to just do like a quick, kind of random episode about AI. I was just like sitting here kind of messing around with Chat GPT, of course, because you know, anyone that knows me knows that I really enjoy having conversations with ChatGPT, asking questions and doing deep dives into things and having it ask me like thoughtful, um, thought-provoking questions as well. And I'm not as bad as my husband, I will tell you. I think I made the mistake of getting my husband AJ into Chat GPT, and now he tends to use it for everything, which obviously I understand you guys. I know like environmentally we should probably be more mindful about how often we're using AI because it's using up a whole lot of energy and natural resources. So, like I get that. That's my caveat. Don't come at me for it. I'm I'm fully aware of all of that going on too. So, all of that said, I decided let's just do a conversation today about AI and pageant preparation and how to use AI as a tool in your pageant preparation. I, as a coach, am very much on the page of work smarter, not harder. And if there's a tool that you can use to save you time and to elevate your output of the work that you're doing, I say go for it, as long as it's not taking over your own intuition or your creativity. Because AI isn't here to replace your intuition or to replace a coach or a mentor or your own creativity. It's really here to enhance them. So when you use AI mindfully, AI can save time. It can reduce your stress and it can help you refine your message. And if you use it well, which is what I'm going to be talking about today, you can keep your authenticity intact as well. So I have, you know, a whole mess of clients from across the country, various different pageant systems right now. And when we're working on paperwork, my number one thing for them is you do the draft, or you know, we do like all of our prep work. We I have like bullet points and questions that I ask them and prompts that I ask them to get like all the thoughts and all the brainstorming out there. And then I have them do a draft based off of like a general outline that I tend to give if it's a service initiative essay or something like that. I have kind of an overview outline. And it's really important to me that they write it out first because then I can plug it into Chat GPT and say, analyze my client's voice. And it's really, really fun to read through the analytics that Chat GPT pulls of the voice tone and the storytelling style and the approach that my clients take in their own writing. And then I take it a step further and make sure that AI is using that same tone and voice, but elevated in whatever way that we want it to be to help edit the draft. Um, and we really break it down into chunks. And I'll I'll be honest with you, there's more often than not, you know, I'll be working in a Google Doc with my client and I'll plug some prompts into ChatGPT and I'll, you know, pull over the draft from Chat GPT. And we will nitpick through that to make sure that it still sounds like my client, that it doesn't sound like AI, that it doesn't sound like somebody else wrote it for her. Because that's really important, you guys. Like your paperwork should sound like you. The judges are gonna be reading this. And then if you're talking like a completely different person than what your paperwork sounds like, it's noticeable, right? Like it needs to be your work. We just want to use AI as a tool to refine and make sure that it flows really nicely and that we're getting the points across that we really want to put out there. So um, I know that it kind of sounds crazy, and I'm sure this is controversial. I'm sure there are directors out there, there are judges out there that are like, absolutely not, AI should not be used. But unfortunately, I think we're in an era now where it's gonna be impossible to control and very, very difficult to detect if AI is being used. So um I would just consider that for yourself of like, okay, how can I potentially use this to up-level me uh without it making me sound like a completely different person? Or honestly, like I know it kind of feels like cheating, but that's that's what I want to talk about today. So that when you are using AI as a tool, if you choose to use AI as a tool, you're not using it to do the job for you and do the work for you, but just as an assistant to help you put out the best that you can put out. So let's talk about what AI can do for your pageant prep. So AI is like like I treat AI as a digital assistant. It helps organize my ideas so that I can focus on the heart of the work that I'm doing. So, like I said earlier, like I use ChatGPT to help me come up with deeper ideas or to get my thoughts organized, um, to work on content. And I train AI very mindfully in my voice because that's really important to me. So, and I don't use it for everything, I promise you I don't. Um, but uh it is it is like an assistant for me. So that is one way that you can use AI. It's like this digital assistant that can help you organize your idea or your ideas. So, for example, polishing your paperwork, um, using it to get rid of any like overused words to help you make sure that your transitions are really clear, uh, to make sure that you're clear and concise, that it flows really nicely. Um, but you have to be really specific about your prompts when you're using AI. And we're gonna get into that today, too. You can also use it for interview practice. And this is something that I do because my brain is like all over the place with different um resumes, different fact sheets, different service initiatives that I have to keep in mind that when I'm jumping from one client to the next, it's it is really hard for me to like come up with new questions off the cuff. And by the end of the day, my brain is fried. So I use it as a tool to help me generate deeper mock interview questions that I can work on then with my clients. So for you, you can use it for your own interview practice by giving it a prompt to generate mock questions based on your platform, based on current events, based off of your fact sheet or resume. But again, be very specific about what you're looking for. Like I put in prompts like Um, my client Alyssa is competing for Miss Heart of the Valley, and here is, you know, using the outline of her resume below, using her essay below on her on her initiative, and using things that are going on in the world right now and basic questions about leadership or whatever else. Like I just like plug in a whole bunch of stuff for for what I want the questions to be revolving around. And I say, make a list of practice interview questions for Alyssa. And it'll generate like 50 questions for me. And oftentimes I will just copy paste those into an email to my clients to review later, too, so they can do some more in-depth thinking about those topics and questions as well. So it's a really great tool for interview practice. My caveat always, and maybe you've heard me say this before, is that you should not use practice interview questions to rehearse your answers. Because your interview, if it if you've been rehearsing these answers, you're gonna sound rehearsed in your interview. And you wanna sound real and authentic. So don't use interview practice questions as a way to rehearse your answers. Don't overthink it, right? Like use it as a tool to dig deeper about yourself and to better understand yourself and your own perspectives. Um, the other thing that you can use AI for is crafting a speech or like specifically drafting outlines for maybe you have to put together a talent intro, or maybe you need your um, it can help you generate ideas for an opening statement or a closing statement in your interview, or literally like a full speech outline. But again, you have to be very specific about the information that you're providing AI so that it is actually spitting out an outline that makes sense for you. So give it as much information as you possibly can. Um, and then you need to analyze and look over that outline to make sure that it makes sense for you and start editing it um on your own to tweak it for your purposes. And then finally, and this is one of my favorite ways to use AI, is for time management. I use AI to create my schedules, I use AI to create my own personal journaling prompts, I use, I use AI to create my own personal journaling prompts, I use it for coming up with like my business game plan for the next 30, 60, 90 days, which is something that I have my clients work on for themselves as well. Usually it looks like, all right, I'm gonna plug in like here are my list of goals, here are the projects that I know that I need to get done. And then I'll give it a prompt of like, you know, within the scope of having 20 hours of coaching calls in the week, put together a 30, 60, 90 day plan for me to get all of these goals done. And so again, like your prompt maybe may look really different from mine, but be specific about what you're asking it to do. And if it's not popping out exactly what you're looking for, you gotta go back to the drawing board and make sure that you are being really refined in your prompts. So remember, in all of this, AI, ChatGPT, is going to give you structure, but you are gonna put the heart and soul into it. You're gonna put the passion, you're gonna put the personality. AI is a robot, it doesn't have personality. You do. You're the one that has to put that in. So the quality of what you get out is gonna depend on the clarity of what you put in, just like anything else in your life. All right, so I'm sure as you're listening to me, you're thinking, man, but like, wouldn't I sound fake or wouldn't I sound scripted? And I understand, like, that is a very real fear, and that's absolutely something that we want to avoid. Keeping in mind, this podcast is called Sash and Soul. It's about the soul underneath the sash. And my coaching program is fearlessly authentic. So we never want to sound fake or scripted. So you have to use AI as a starting point, not as your final draft. You have to refine it through your tone, your story, and your lived experience. The things that you would talk about in interview, the things that make up who you are as a person, those all need to be visible and coherent in whatever Chat GPT puts out for you. So that's why it's really important for you to comb through it, just like I do with all of my clients to make sure that it does sound like you, that it makes sense for you. Like literally, I every single time I'm going through paperwork with clients and we're analyzing something that chat has spit back out, we are changing specific words because my client will say, I would never say that word. Great. Let's change it to something that does sound more like you. So when I say comb through, I'm literally talking word for word. Using AI effectively means that you have to learn to say, well, that's not me. When something sounds too polished or really detached or like a word that you don't typically use. You have to add your personality back in. So if you haven't adequately taught your chat GPT or your AI tool your voice, and that takes a lot of work. I'm still doing it. Literally, I was doing that yesterday where I was plugging in, like, here's some transcripts of my Sash and Soul episodes, analyze and learn my voice. And it was spitting out like the analytics of what it came up with, of my story tone and all of that stuff. And so it takes a while to adequately train AI to speak as if it's you. And even then, you can't fully trust it. So you have to always comb back through to make sure that you're adding your own personality back in, adding your humor, your emotion, your quirks, and your perspective. And that's why I think honestly, I mean, other than like writing paperwork, if you're using it to help you draft a speech or draft a podcast episode or an intro or a closing for interview, having it come up with an outline rather than an actual script is always better because you're going to add your personality using the prompts that that outline is giving you. So I might use AI to brainstorm like bullet points for a talk or brainstorm bullet points for a podcast episode, but then I'm gonna speak it or rewrite it in my Rayana voice, conversational, real, a little bit sarcastic when it fits in, right? Like that's very me. So I'm not using AI to speak for me. I'm just using it to elevate me and my voice. So now that we've really like when I've beaten that horse of, you know, really making sure that it sounds like you, here are some healthy boundaries that you can keep in mind with artificial intelligence. 100% avoid over-reliance. Remember that AI is a tool, it is not a crutch. It should not be everything that you're using all the time because here's what's gonna happen. If you're using it all the time and AI is quite literally speaking for you and putting out all of your written content for you, you are going to lose sight of what you're actually saying, and there's gonna be a disconnect from what you're putting out there for other people to view and what's actually in your head and in your heart. So use it as a tool, use it to elevate you, use it to help you get more creative and get more clarity, but don't lean on it completely. Don't let it dull your intuition or your creativity. There is nothing in technology that can replace your intuition. There is absolutely nothing in technology that can replace your creativity or your passion, your heart, your soul. And truly, that is what will set you apart from other people is when you show up authentically in that space in exactly who you are. And so you have to make sure that you're protecting that even from AI. So don't let it get robotic. Make sure that your creativity is still fully intact. Protect your own originality, right? So you should never really be copying and pasting your full paperwork from AI. It should always be you using it as um to help you with your edits, right? Like you may have it completely rewrite your paper, but you need to go word for word and make sure that it makes sense compared to your original paper and be adjusting as you go. Um also be mindful of privacy, okay? You don't want to be inputting your personal data or any proprietary material onto AI. Just like anything else online, um, don't trust that it's 100% safe, especially with AI. AI is taking everything that you're putting in and it's learning from those things. So protect your information, make sure that you're not putting too much into it. That really doesn't need to be um to be put out there online. So just like you wouldn't let me as your coach tell you exactly what to say word for word, which I wouldn't do, or any other person should not be telling you exactly what to say word for word and correcting like an answer that you just had for your interview. You shouldn't be letting AI do that either. So this is more of a partnership, it's not dependence. So AI is your partner in putting out really great content, it is not doing everything for you. So let's dive into some of my favorite prompts for chat. So here are a few like actual prompts that I use in Chat GPT that you might want to that you might want to try. So this one is a very vague, like this is where we get started, right? 10 practice interview questions for a contestant with the platform um owning your worth. I just made that up. And you know, then maybe I would plug in the paperwork as well so it has a lot more um background information on it so that it can actually pull practice questions from that actual essay. And again, you can take it steps further. Um, this contestant is competing for a local title in Miss America in Louisiana, and that can be helpful too, because maybe there's something more specific to the state of Louisiana or something more specific to the Miss America organization that chat might pull for interview questions. The next prompt summarize this paragraph in my voice, but make it sound confident, conversational, and warm. So sometimes I will actually say, like, use my voice, you know, now that I've taught in my voice, or like I'll have like, you know, the the paragraph is my writing. So keep my voice. And I'll say that too, like, keep the same voice and tone from this, but elevate the confidence and the warmth and add more clarity in what I'm trying to accomplish, what my goal is. So I'll get really, really specific in that way of exactly what I want in the output. Um create a motion motivational affirmation list for a woman competing in pageants. Sometimes I'll do that too, because like sometimes it just helps my mind get moving on, like getting creative about different types of affirmations and where to kind of spin perspectives in terms of how we talk to ourselves. So you can do that for yourself as well. Like, write a list of affirmations that I can tell myself every day that will help me elevate my confidence and my sense of self. So you want to tweak your prompts to get results that actually sound human, that actually sound like you, and things that you're actually gonna be able to use. So let's end with this idea that AI isn't the future. As much as we keep hearing it is, that AI is gonna take over, that AI is becoming more and more human, that AI is developing a mind of its own. Yeah, like there's a lot of fears about that. I'm sure there's gonna be so much research and so much uh conversation about AI and its impact on the world coming out. But at the end of the day, AI isn't really the future you are. And AI as a tool is only as powerful as the person using it. So be really mindful about how you're using AI and make sure that it's elevating what you're putting out there. Remember that authenticity is always more powerful than automation. Your personal growth is gonna come from reflection and doing that deep work, not from shortcuts. And remember that tools will always evolve. Will there will always be more technology that will help us do things faster, do things more effectively, do things more efficiently. But your own self-awareness is always going to be timeless. And that's always going to be the epitome of your success is how self-aware you are of areas that you need to improve and areas that you are a rock star. So AI can help you polish your words, but you're the one that gives them meaning. So make sure that you own that. All right. So key takeaways from today as we wrap up: use AI to simplify, but not replace your prep. Always, always filter AI's output through your own authenticity. Protect your originality. Remember that your voice is your competitive edge. And let technology help you show up as more of yourself, not less or not as a robotic version. Right? Hey, let me know how you've been using AI in your prep. DM me on Instagram at Sash and Soul. And like, I'd love to hear what's been working for you and what are some of the areas that you're like, nope, like that's been flagged. My director doesn't like that. Like, give me the rundown of what's actually going on out there with your directors and in your preparation and in competition when it comes to AI and if it's helpful or hurting, because I'm always looking to learn. So share that with me. Next week, I'm really excited. I have a special guest coming next week. We are gonna be joined by Elena Wilson. She is Miss Kansas Volunteer 2026, and we are gonna be talking all things runner up club and personal development and service initiatives and doing the most with what you have and turning heartbreak into passion. And it is truly like such a beautiful conversation. You don't want to miss it. So keep that in mind. That'll be out next Friday. Um, and until then, stay well. Take care of yourselves. Uh, take it easy, find that balance, and we'll talk to you then. Bye.

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Raeanna Johnson

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