We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Elizabeth Marnoch a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Elizabeth, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I started Canadian National Miss as an accumulation of all the positive experiences I have had at competitions I have participated in over the last 13 years. The pageant industry is small and I find that it at times lacks innovation, there are a lot of competitions that offer similar experiences. While I wanted to stay true to the classic format of pageants in Canada, I also wanted to have some competitive advantage against some of the other pageants in the country. This thought process is what I used to create an environment that everyone was familiar with enough to enter but different enough from what they are used to that it would separate the experience from others they have had in the past.

Once I figured out the rough idea for the competition, it was important to establish Canadian National Miss as a legitimate option for Canadian pageant contestants. I had to ensure that there would be numbers as the pageant industry is fully internally funded. This means that contestants end up paying large fees to enter these pageants because they are essentially covering the cost of the entire event. This includes venue, staging, lighting, prize packages, etc. This led me to carefully assess what the entry fee for my competition would be. I landed on a number that I estimated would cover my costs completely if I had a minimum of 20 contestants enter. As this was my first year running the pageant I did not know what to expect and that meant putting myself financially on the line if I did not reach my ideal number of participants.

Social Media and Digital Assets were what I spent the most time on. With my background and degree in Communication, Media, and Film, this was something I was comfortable with and I knew I could bring in a strong presence online to attract new contestants to join the competition. I ended up claiming all the handles on various social media platforms right when I developed the name and logo. From there I launched the pageant with a handbook full of all the essential information that any contestant would want to know. This allowed me to get signs up immediately.

This entire process took roughly 4 months to develop and present to the public.

Elizabeth, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started competing in pageants when I was 10 years old. Since then, I have won national titles and have competed in various International competitions representing Canada. This industry has always been more to me than just a glamourous hobby. It has provided me an outlet to express myself, learn important interview skills, meet thousands of people from all over the world, and most importantly has taught me how to set goals and work hard to achieve them.

Since being a competitor myself I have branched off to the business side of the industry not only as a National Director of the Canadian National Miss Pageant, but I am also as a pageant Hair and Makeup artist under my brand “Elizabeth Marnoch Artistry”. So pageantry has consumed my life in more ways than one. It has given me a social outlet as well as a business opportunity and that is very special to me.

What I love most about being a pageant director is I get to see all the behind-the-scenes work that each contestant does to prepare themselves. At Canadian National Miss all the contestants are required to have a “platform” that they speak about in their personal interview as well as their on-stage personal introduction speech. These platforms span topics like mental health, poverty, racial equality and so much more. The contestants are encouraged to share a message that is important to them and spread awareness about the topic they choose. It is inspiring to see these topics discussed and celebrated under a brand of my own. I take no credit for the amazing work these women do, but I am thankful that the competition I created pushes them to advocate for such important things. Outside of community work, I love to see the confidence and friendships that come out of Canadian National Miss. The world has a stereotype that believes women who compete in pageantry are selfish and vain, but seeing the true support and love that fills each competition makes me proud to be the owner of something that inspires real female empowerment.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Being successful in this industry heavily relies on having a good reputation in the space. I had spent 13 years competing in pageants before stepping into the business aspect of the industry. I always did my best to leave a good first impression, support my peers in their projects, and keep in touch with them through social media years later. Many of these contacts that I made when I was 16/17 years old have been some of my biggest supporters with my pageant and that would not have been the case if I didn’t take the time to appreciate them when I didn’t need a favor.

My contestants have told me that many of them chose to compete in my competition because they trusted me to run a fun and fair event. Being only 21 at the time I felt a lot of pressure to prove myself to every woman who invested their time and money into this event. I needed to come across as older and more mature than my age signified if I wanted any chance of having contestants return the next year.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Having a strong social media presence was essential to the success of the event. Pageant entry fees in Canada can cost anywhere from ($500-$3500) and this means you have to make the competition look like it is worth it online. Many of the competing pageants in Canada are franchises, meaning they bought the license to host the Canadian pageant that will send a winner to the International Competition. The owner of the pageant brand is the one at the top of the International level. For myself, I chose to create a pageant from scratch and I built it from the ground up. This allowed me total freedom to make the rules and events of the pageant whatever I wanted. This was a competitive advantage for me as many other competitions have strict rules and regulations from the International office to follow.

With my degree in Communication, Media and Film I knew I had the skills set to properly market my competition even though it had never happened before. I used many resources on various platforms to stay at the forefront of contestants’ minds. I hosted an Instagram live session on our account so I could conduct personal Q&A sessions, I put out lots of polls in our stories to gauge what people were liking and also what concerns they had about entering. Adding these personal touches to our social accounts let potential delegates trust that one, the competition was real, and two, that I was very proactive about making changes in the competition according to needs and wants.

When it comes to developing a strong following our strategy was to follow people in the industry currently. Luckily since I had a strong network of friends who compete and produce pageants this was easier for me. I then branched out and started to follow people who I thought may be interested in pageants even though they have never competed, I followed women who were in similar hobbies like modeling and dance and they are more likely to be comfortable with participating in a pageant. There is a fine line between following and mass messaging. My goal in following these women was to let them see that the competition exists. They have the choice to follow us back or DM us with any questions they may have. Some pageants choose to directly cold message potential delegates and while I think this form of marketing can work, it was not the model I chose to represent CNM.

My advice to people who are just starting their own social media for their own business is to find out what you want most from it. Is it sales, is it visibility, is it to build your reputation? Once you have a clear idea about why you are using social media, it becomes easier to figure out what tools and tactics you can use to achieve that goal.

Contact Info:

• Website: canadiannationalmiss.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/canadiannationalmisspageant/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CanadianNationalMiss

Image Credits
Scott Dion Brown