Speaker 1: 0:31

My name is Jeanne Ann Roberts, my title is Mrs DC America 2020, and I have just written my first book. It's Never Too Late to Find your Crown. I would say I don't have a specific business. What I would like to do with my book, though, is I would like to inspire millions that it's not too late and failure is not final, and you know it would be great Like I would be open to you know, speaking and going around the country to motivate people, and my book is actually for ages 13 to 93. So it's a wholesome book. It's a wholesome book, but it's also a raw, in that I'm telling my story, my life story, which I feel God really put it on my heart to write this story, from all my heartache to winning the crown of Mrs DC America in 2020. That is incredible.

Speaker 2: 1:34

I'd like to ask you what inspired you to write this book. I know you have like all these hopes and aspirations, like with where you want to take this, but what made you say you know what? I'm going to put my thoughts onto paper, I'm going to write this book. So what was that?

Speaker 1: 1:47

Well, first off, I do believe that God has been, has been writing the story from the time I was five years old to now I'm 59. But I wrote the book at 50. No, no, the book just came out. What am I talking about? So, yeah, so from five really started.

Speaker 1: 2:08

When I was five, I didn't get that hug from my mom and I, you know, I didn't realize at the time it wasn't that my mom didn't love me, she just had the world on her shoulders. I mean, she was only like she had me at the age of 24 and I actually had my kids at the age of 41 and 43. So I was much more mature and ready for that. You know, to be a mom. But you know, at the time when you're five years old, you don't understand when you're going to school and you don't get that hug. And then also, my mom had, you know, my, my sister, who's 11 months older than me, and my other sister was four years younger, so she had three of us and my dad was a traveling salesman. But that's where it really began, where I felt like a lot of like a lot of heartache, you know. Yeah, Sorry.

Speaker 2: 3:15

And. I'm such an ugly crier and I cried You're so beautiful, oh my God Thank you, um.

Speaker 1: 3:20

So you know, I at the age of 17,. Um, there was a pageant and I never thought about being in a pageant. But my sister had been in the pageant the year before and she's 11 months older than me, Like I had I just stated and she had won Miss Magnolia fair and my mom actually had competed for that pageant. So the pageant has been around for a very long time and I said, well, I want to run. And my mom was very hesitant about me running because at the time I thought maybe she didn't think I was pretty, but it wasn't, no, it was really that she was worried Well, what if I didn't win? And she just didn't. She was trying to protect me, but I felt like I was pretty enough and I was like I'm not. I didn't feel like I was as beautiful as my sister. My sister always had this long, glamorous hair and I always had really short hair and I was always perming my hair so it just never would grow. But I just thought I love everything fashion, I love everything beauty, and I was a major at and I took dance and so I signed up for it and it was just like that I won and I was like look at that, this is easy when you're so beautiful. Yeah, you are so beautiful, oh, you're so sweet, oh my gosh, you're so kind.

Speaker 1: 4:47

So what happened was at 18, there was another pageant. It was called Miss Mingo County and my sister, wendy, had also been in that pageant. Now, she did not win that pageant. She came in first, runner up, I think. But I was just like okay, I won the one pageant, I can do this again. And so this one was a lot more difficult because it had you to have a talent. And so my granny, she helped, she made a costume for me, but at the time Sylvester Stallone and Rocky was the number one movie, and I had her build a boxing rink and a life-size dummy, and she also made my red silk boxing shorts and my gloves. So not my gloves, I'm sorry, I bought those but they matched Gotcha.

Speaker 1: 5:39

Yeah, yeah, and really, you know I didn't realize that this was going to be. Here I go again, I'm going to cry. This was going to be the story of my life, like, from tragedy to triumph. You know that like, oh, I know a lot of people have had much more tragedies than me, like you. You know, feeling not loved um is such, as you know, compared to other people's stories. Now that I'm grown and I've lived life, you know, I feel like I'm really blessed, you know, and my mom really, in the end, does love me. She just, you know, I didn't, I couldn't, it was just, she's not super nurturing, she's a tough woman, she was. She was a deputy sheriff and my grandfather was a sheriff. So if that tells you anything, she was probably the very first deputy woman ever.

Speaker 2: 6:32

Had a lot to prove right.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Yeah, but um, so, needless to say, um, not needless to say. But then I ended up winning that pageant and I was like, okay, this is really easy, I, I've got this, I'm um. So then I went to the state pageant and I wasn't prepared for it. I, it was completely different, it was beauty and brain. So there wasn't actual talent there was. It was more like, um, you know, your education, your GPA was part of the scoring, of the scoring, and I was good, I mean, I, I had like a, you know, I would say I had a B plus average, um, but it wasn't good enough. It wasn't good enough and I also.

Speaker 1: 7:19

The stage was so big and I was so overwhelmed. It was from such a small town and I couldn't even smile because I was so nervous and so I didn't place. And you know, my mom was. So when I saw her face, it was like another moment where I felt like, you know, I disappointed my mom and see, here we go again. You're making me like something about you, or so has to have a sweet, kind face. Oh my.

Speaker 2: 7:48

God, it makes me want to like just cry Well. I just want to hug you, but I can't just be like hug know.

Speaker 1: 7:54

No, but um. So at that moment, we never talked about pageantry again for like 36 years, and what I want to tell everybody out there that's listening is that God sees your buried dreams and that even when you've forgotten your dreams, god hasn't forgotten them. And so, 36 years later, not even trying to be in a pageant, not even realizing that I could be in a pageant, the state director contacted me and said I want you to run for Mrs DC America. You're going to be the next Mrs DC America. And I'm like what I said? I think I might be too old. And she said no, you're a classic beauty. And I just went for it.

Speaker 1: 8:43

And I competed against women 30 years younger than me and there was one girl that her mom was my age and all the girls, all the ladies, were, um, in the workforce. I was a state, I had been a stay-at-home mom for 12 years and a lot of people I feel, and a lot of people I feel and nobody said this to my face but I think that being a mom is there's no value in that, but being a mom, I don't know why I'm so emotional, but it's like you can do 20 things at once and I had been preparing for this moment my whole life and here you are now through everything beautiful and stronger than ever.

Speaker 2: 9:31

You have this book. Not everybody writes a book, but you did. That's an accomplishment in itself, and you're a mom like and look at, look at all that you're doing. You're gorgeous, you're beautiful, you're so talented and I'm so grateful that you're here telling us your journey. I'd like to ask you what have been? I know you've told me a little bit about your challenges that you've gone through, but what has been a challenge that you could share with us, that you had to kind of overcome, and what you've learned from that challenge?

Speaker 1: 9:59

I would say I was so afraid to speak Like and I hate to go back to my mom, because my mom really is the reason, she's the one that really inspired me to greatness but she was always told to be, you know, you be quiet, you stay in the corner. You don't have an opinion because you know, back in the in her day, like women were not in the workforce, women were not CEOs of companies, they were, they were supposed to just be quiet, you know, in her generation. And so I was really raised like that and that when I had to get up at Mrs America and I had to speak, it was like, okay, I have to do this. You know, this is like. You know, I'm representing the heartbeat of the world.

Speaker 1: 10:51

Yes, you know Washington DC, and it was really amazing after I wasn't prepared for that speech, I didn't even know I had to get up and speak. Other states knew about it. I don't know what happened, but I wasn't told and I wasn't prepared. But God prepared me and knew about it. I don't know what happened, but I wasn't told and I wasn't prepared, but God prepared me and knew about it and I was ready. And after we all were finished with that, a lot of the competitors came up to me and said You're such an amazing speaker. Look at that, I know such an amazing speaker. And I look at that, I know and I thought I, you know. It was just I never thought that God uses people. You know that that you least expect to like share his. You know, share his whatever. He wants you to share his goodness and and help people, inspire people to greatness and that he did, because look at you, look where you are in the book.

Speaker 2: 11:50

I also want to ask you about the singles in the city, dc.

Speaker 1: 11:57

Talk to me a little bit about that and what it entails. Okay, Well, it was in 2021, I think, or 22, that God put it on my heart to do a single show, because there's really the marriage has where people just aren't valuing marriage. And, um, I just I think marriage, God created marriage and he wants that and he wants us to glorify it. And so I wrote, I just wrote my own production and I got all the single people. So I did it just like I took it back to the seventies and I had three single girls, three single guys, and then I had the person that was the bachelor. He was blindfolded, so he had to pick the person, not being able to see her, but just by her personality and the questions she answered. So I would have the girls. Each would ask the bachelor question and he would ask them a question and then he picked from the you know those the answers and then the same with the men.

Speaker 1: 13:07

They had to do the same thing for the bachelorette and I will say I mean it was a great success. But it was a success in the fact that I felt like it really showed the value of marriage. I actually had a designer, irina Chibanu. She's a custom wedding gown designer and she gave a certificate to both the bachelor and the bachelorette, a five-year certificate, whoever they picked, and if they ended up getting married that she would make the gown for them.

Speaker 1: 13:43

That's so fun your custom own wedding dress Every girl's dream, and I also had a jeweler there, and so if one of them were to get married, he was also going to sponsor the ring. The engagement ring yes.

Speaker 2: 14:00

You get it all here, don't you, my goodness?

Speaker 1: 14:02

So, um, nobody fell in love. I'm going to be honest, like the bachelor, that he he picked the girl. I felt like they were the perfect match, but I just feel like it was the timing wasn't right. And I'm going to tell you cause they're really young, they were really young, they were in their twenties and I feel like they're still. I still believe they're going to get married. Right, I feel like it's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 14:27

If it's meant to be, it'll be right, it'll come back to it and then the bachelorette and her the guy that she chose.

Speaker 1: 14:35

They just they weren't right. You know what I mean.

Speaker 2: 14:37

I'm just saying they weren't the right.

Speaker 1: 14:39

Yeah, but I'm going to tell you, like when I come back on the show, like in five years from now or whatever, um, I hope I have um a really good, good news to write some good updates on the city, but I am, you know, thinking to do it again. I've had lots of requests to do singles in the city. Are you single? I'm actually married, oh shoot.

Speaker 2: 15:01

Okay, because I was going to be like you would be a really good candidate. Oh, my goodness, a candidate the bachelorette, you'd be a great bachelorette. Let me ask my husband, that's so cute, aw. Well, I'd like to ask for the show. Where can people watch it, or?

Speaker 1: 15:11

where is it? Well, it wasn't. I do have a Singles in the City Instagram page and I do have clips from it for anybody that wants to check it out. Yeah, I think. I want to check that out and see, like, how it went down. Yeah, and if anybody is wanting to be a Bachelor or Bachelorette, if they want to contact me on the Instagram the Singles in the City, they can do that and then you know, we can see if we can get another show going.

Speaker 2: 15:38

Right and then get a custom dress. Find love and custom jewelry.

Speaker 1: 15:41

Yes, yes.

Speaker 2: 15:44

And now for your book. Where can people find this book? Is it going to be on your website or where?

Speaker 1: 15:48

Okay, right now I actually don't have a website yet, but I am going to be working on that. Um, it is on Amazon and you can also get it on walmartcom and you can get it on barnesandnoblecom. Also, you can get it in the link in my bio on my Instagram page, which is jeanneannroberts.

Speaker 2: 16:10

Love it. Is there anything, perhaps, that I have not touched on that you want the world to know? Whether it's about yourself, whether it's about your family, your book, anything, you have the floor.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Okay, well, I wanted to say something about my chapter college years that another, like my sister, because we were so close in age, we did like we were together throughout my whole book. You'll see she's like my best friend and but we also were very competitive because we there was a lot of things we competed together, you know for because we also were very competitive, because we there was a lot of things we competed together, you know for cause we were so close in age and we were both um. We went to WVU, West Virginia university, and there was um a calendar tryout for the West Virginia calendar and she was, uh, I was a freshman, she was a sophomore and we both tried out and my sister, she ended up getting picked out of 500 applicants, her and 11 other girls for the calendar. I did not get chosen and it was.

Speaker 1: 17:15

So you know, I'd already just lost that state title, like the year before, and I really felt like failure was final. I mean, I thought it was final, but then I was really like, oh my gosh, failure is so final here. I know it can be tough, yeah, and you know. But also, looking back on that, I realized that you know God's timing like he has different times for us to. You know, be the winner, like, get that promotion. You know, get engaged, like. But I was going to say that you know, what happened was 18 years later, I ended up winning the crown of Mrs DC America 2020. And what I want to tell everyone out there is that what I've learned from all of my life is that destiny, destiny truly belongs to the underdogs and that if you don't give up and you persevere. Give up and you persevere, that you will succeed and you will. You will get your wildest dreams If you just believe and and and you have a passion and you have, you know, just a dream. That's what I wanted to say.

Speaker 2: 18:35

Thank you so much I love that. This is so uplifting. I need to hear this. And then I wanted to ask if you have a final statement I didn't know if this one, you know if it'll lead into that but if you have a final statement that you want to share with the audience, just as a farewell.

Speaker 1: 18:49

Okay, my final statement would be it's never too late to find your crown. That's my final statement. I love it and I really hope that everybody that is looking for that dream and they really need that push to get there will get my book, because I truly believe God anointed this book to reach people, because, in a hopeless world, I want to give people hope.

Speaker 2: 19:19

I love that. Very well said. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and for bringing your beautiful stories, your beautiful self here. We really appreciate it so much.

Speaker 1: 19:27

Thank you. Thank you for having me and I just love Alamon Studio. I wanted to say that during 2020, I got a picture with my family and it's on my wall when you walk in the in my house. It's so beautiful and I really recommend anybody that's looking to get family pictures or individual headshots yeah, headshots for business. You need to promote their business. Um, this is really a fabulous photography studio.

Speaker 2: 19:59

Thank you so much. What an honor that you have us on your wall. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1: 20:03

I do.