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Do you know what it takes to walk into a room of the most gorgeous women you have ever seen and to hold your own and to not shrink into yourself? That my friends takes practice. What does it really look like to build your dream life while you're living in? One day I'm on stage singing with Hugh Jackman at 36 weeks pregnant. Just trying not to give birth in Oklahoma. And the next I'm having real conversations about love, loss, career pivots, and becoming someone I didn't even know I could be because this show isn't just about Broadway. It's about the moments that change you, the risks you take, the dreams you almost talk yourself out of, the strength you don't realize you have, until life asks you to use it. If you've ever felt like you're in between chapters or stepping into something new, you're not alone. You're just in started. This is the Salisha Show where Broadway meets culture and your real life becomes the main event. Hello, what's up? What's the deal? What's the 4-1-1? This is the Salisha Show and I'm your host, Salisha Thomas, recording at the beautiful Gotham Studios, Gotham production studios here in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. I love you. I love you, baby. I love you. And thank you to the Gotham Network for having the Salisha Show on the roster. We love it here. Also thank you to Carla, Metafit, Mid of Mind, my editor, you rock, and I hope your pregnancy is going so well, girl. So I want to let you in on a little secret. I have been training for Miss USA. And here's the secret. I might not actually run for Miss USA. That's the secret. Well, maybe is that is that the secret part? Here's the secret. I have found that in preparing for I know if you're listening to this, you might not be a pageant type of person. You might be because I like to interview a lot of pageant girlies on here, mostly Broadway girlies, but also pageant girlies. I met my favorite Miss America interviewing on this show, Carissa Cameron, who is now Carissa Cameron Jackson. She came on black hair in the big leagues during the pandemic. And since becoming Miss America in 2010, she started her own business, wedding planning, and was my wedding planner for my dream wedding here in New York City. She doesn't even live in New York City. And she planned my dream wedding and took the train up and it was just so amazing. I have met some great people, Chessley, Chris, rest in peace. Such a goddess. She was our Miss USA 2019 is no longer with us, but will forever be one of my favorite Miss USA's what I love about a pageant. Okay, you can say there's a lot of things wrong with a pageant, but what I love about a pageant is whenever I'm preparing for a pageant, it puts me on my A game. When I'm getting a little rough around the edges, it's time to prepare for a pageant. With that said, I'd been aged out of most pageants for quite some time. It's been a decade since I was Miss California in the world America system. It's been a decade. It's been a long time since the last time I ran. With that said, Miss USA has lifted all of their requirements. You can be married, divorced, you can have children, you can be pregnant. That used to be, and there's also no age requirement. All of those used to be confinements where you couldn't run if you were over a certain age, if you've been married, if you had kids, you're out of the game. But now that's not the case, and I got a front row seat into watching one of my best friends, prepare for and compete for Miss USA, and she killed the game, she killed it, she killed it, and made history while doing it. Watching her was so inspiring, but also a reminder that when I run for a pageant, I know what's going on in the world. I am not a stranger to the gym. I remember what it feels like to say no to eating ice cream every night. I still indulge, I still live my life, but I have more discipline when there is a competition on my calendar. I show up for my workouts. Right now, I am taking walking classes with various teachers. I am taking talking classes with a queen's conversation. Jimmy is amazing, and even though I interview for a living, it's different being interviewed in a competition. It is one of my favorite things if somebody is interviewing me for their podcast or their show. I love that. But for whatever reason, when I'm in a competition, an interview feels, I don't know, more pressure, higher stakes, even though it's something that I do naturally. Well, taking classes, it's like taking voice lessons. It's like taking dance classes. It just keeps your skills sharp, and also it feels great. This might not be the case for everybody, but it feels great to have an outside eye critiquing something that I do all the time and to see what they see. I might not have any other situation where I would notice certain things. If I just am in the habit and the pattern of doing it over and over and over again, and there might be things that rub people the wrong way, and I never knew why I'm just saying, and having a coach can identify those things. And so my secret ingredient for winning at life, especially in the world of entertainment, is if I am prepared to take the stage at Miss USA, I am prepared to walk into this audition to be a leading lady on Broadway. I am prepared to take the stage next to, I don't know, Hugh Jackman. I am prepared for a lot of different things because those girls at the Miss USA stage, they're making it look easy, they're making it look like, oh, here's a beauty pageant thing. No, the work that goes in to making it look easy is so vast and so exponential. It is not easy. It's not easy. It takes practice to have the confidence to walk on stage in a swim suit. I get it if that is not your thing, but if you can practice having that kind of confidence, you can do anything. There are people who have killer bodies who don't want to put on a swimsuit and parade around in front of people, because it's uncomfortable. But if you can find a way for it to not be uncomfortable, but instead for it to be a superpower to be confident, nobody can make you feel bad about yourself. Nobody can make you feel subconscious because you've done the work. You're practicing. Do you know what it takes? That my friends takes practice and it can be very difficult if you have not practiced it. Walking into a room with other women who are killing the game and not negative self talking yourself. But instead saying to yourself, this is what I bring to this room. I belong here. I deserve to be in every room I walk into. Is a superpower. I had a photo shoot the other day. And when I walked in the reigning title holders for two states that I was very familiar with from watching on my screen, they were mid photo shoot. And when I say mid photo shoot, y'all, we're talking, this girl is on this big box in front of this gigantic Florida ceiling window with the fans hitting her. There's a person in the middle of the floor. There's a person on either side of her holding her dress so that it, like, is bellowing in the breeze. And her hair is like this. I walked in and I could hear the angels were singing while she was standing there like, like, just giving life to the camera. I had walked in with no makeup on because I was going to get in glam there. I didn't have my wig on. I didn't have my clothes on. I was like in baggy clothes. And basically, I looked homeless and I'm looking at this goddess. And my first thought was, okay. I almost wanted to run out of the room. That was my first instinct. like, what am I doing here? And then I took a couple more steps into the room and I thought to myself, "Salisha Thomas." You just had a baby six months ago and you look damn good for just having a child six months ago. Your face is about to get so beat and it's pretty without the makeup. Well, you have one of your favorite makeup artists in the room. You're about to be your own beauty queen. You know how to do that? You belong in this room. That person is so beautiful, but that does not take away from what you bring to this room, the energy that you are bringing into this situation. Of course you belong here. Do not ruin or waste this moment by comparing yourself to anybody else that you see in here. It takes work. It takes work. You have to do the personal work. You have to do the mental work so that you can stand on your own two feet and fly. That's what I love about a pageant. It's a continual exercise in believing in yourself. And how can you be kind instead of insecure? It's so easy to be so insecure when you're surrounded by people that feel like competition or who on paper are your literal competition. But can you be kind? Okay, I know, yes, I've won a couple of pageants in the past, but I lost more pageants than I can even count. But one thing that I'm so proud of, that back in my college days when I was running in pageants all the time and losing all the time, I walked away being misconduct more than seven times. Do you know what that means? It means that all of your fellow contestants voted for you for being the person who they liked the most out of all the contestants. So even though I didn't always walk away with the title, I walked away with friends and the respect of my peers and relationships. Listen, people might tell you something different, but if you're talking to me, I'm going to tell you that relationships are the name of the game and you can never go wrong with making new friends. You never know. You never know where that will lead, but making genuine connections. That's the name of the game, folks. So, with that said, walking prep, talking prep, photo shoots, workouts with my trainer, I'm doing all of these things. To prepare for Miss USA, will I actually run? Time will tell. Maybe I will. Maybe I won't. I would say we'll never know, but you might. Until next time, thank you for tuning in, and I will see you next week on The Salacious Show.