We recently connected with Coco Johari and have shared our conversation below.
Coco, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
In my opinion, life is about taking risk and I truly believe you miss 100 % of the opportunities that may be for you by not taking that risk. I’m very adventurous, outgoing and sometimes I tend to live life on the edge. I was born in a small town in Michigan called Niles. Although it was a small, quiet town to live and raise a family, I felt like I want to experience more and wanted my children to be able to live out their dreams so I decided to make a change that in the long run could better their future. My son wants to be a software engineer, my oldest daughter wants to be an entertainer and attend a HBCU and my youngest daughter is an artist. I have a young son who is Autistic who needs a lot of care. Wanting better for my children came with some challenging times to start our journey. As a domestic violence survivor, I decided to leave our hometown area and move to Atlanta, GA .I dumped my whole entire house besides what we could fit in my truck at the time, and drove about 12 hours straight, with rest breaks of course, and left with no home to go. I stayed in an Air bnb until a shelter was available. At this point in my life, I felt like I was at my lowest point and prayed for guidance and direction. Slowly but surely, I was able to find work and a home for my children and I. Working a 9-5 was cool but definitely not my dream job. I’m a firm believer in doing what you love for work so it doesn’t feel like a task, it feels like a passion. While browsing online, I found an ad looking for content creators. I applied and kinda forgot about it until I got the message back saying they wanted me to come in for an interview. This turned out to be one of the best interviews I had and they actually like me lol. Fast forward 8 months and I’m still blessed to have the opportunity to be a Creative Director with Avant-Garde Ent, which is a record label based out of Atlanta, GA. I enjoy showing my creative side and having the opportunity to support the artists and capture all the great moments on camera. I enjoy networking and by networking it brought more opportunities for me. Looking back, if I had not taken that risk to leave with nothing, I wouldn’t of gain everything I didn’t know I needed in my life.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Coco Johari and I’m from the Midwest. I was born in Niles, Michigan but lived across the states. My father was a Marine in Military so we moved around a lot when I was younger and lived on a military base in Oceanside, California. We had a strict household so I’m pretty disciplined myself when it comes doing things in life and I’m always looking for a challenge. I am a mother of four amazing children that i simply cannot do life without. My first love was for Makeup and Esthetics. I am a self taught MUA and currently working on my Esthetics license. I started off by watching YouTube videos and of course, staring at myself in the mirror for countless hours practicing just to take a picture and wipe it all off to start again. I love to do make up and make the girlies feel even more beautiful and enhance their natural beauty. Im definitely a girls girl. I’m also a Creative Director and enjoy capturing all moments from shows and events to share with everyone. I recently started modeling which has been a super fun experience, I enjoy meeting the designers and having the opportunity to wear some really cool clothes on a runway. While on my journey I’ve found a true passion for what I do and helping others.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative director is that fact that I can be my true, fun, creative self and I get opportunity to work with so many other creative people, artists, business owners, models, designers and so much more. I enjoy capturing the exciting, thrilling moments at shows and events and behind the scenes. For me this goes beyond just capturing content, I’m capturing memories and life changing moments that we can go back and look back on years from now and still feel the same excitement as if we were their still their living in the moment.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My passion for my creative journey has opened more goals for me. I would love to open my own creative studio to make film do and do content and I also want to have my own spa to provide all esthetics services.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Cocojohari
