Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shai Mackk. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Shai, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

A year ago I made the jump to become a full time model. It was definitely a leap of faith because in the modeling industry, it’s hard to really get the jobs you want if you’re working a regular job. Similar to 9-5’s, professional shoots happen during the week and sometimes you find out about them the day before so you wouldn’t have enough time to call off. When I initially made the jump, it was really hard for the first 3 months. I didn’t really book anything and I wasn’t making enough money so I started DoorDashing to supplement my income. I cried a lot from being frustrated and I was getting impatient but things switched for me pretty quickly after that and I started booking jobs that paid enough for me to be self-sufficient. There’s nothing really I could have done differently to speed up the process because it’s really up to casting to decide to book me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Becoming a model was never something I pictured for myself growing up. I was darker skinned and I was chubby so I never thought that would be an option for me. I always watched America’s Next Top Model and I thought it’d be something fun to do but I never really saw girls that looked like me so I told myself that wasn’t something I could actually do. When I got to college, I started really getting into makeup and taking pictures so when I moved back home, I had a few photographers that wanted to collaborate with me and that’s where my modeling journey started. I want to continue to show little black girls that they are good enough to pursue what makes them happy. Confidence is all about the internal dialogue you have and if you’re constantly repeating negative thoughts, it’s easy to create self-doubt, especially when it’s been heard externally.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A plan b is a plan to fail. I always thought having a back up plan was a way to have something to fall back on in case the initial plan doesn’t work but after reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, I learned that by having a plan b, it’s banking on your actual plan to not work out. By not having that back-up plan, it pushes you to throw everything you have into plan A to ensure that it does not fail.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Having the freedom to explore whatever I want. Not having a 9-5 allows me to have the time to do what I want with it which gives me the opportunity to try new things or just spend my time doing whatever I feel like doing. It really helps with my mental health as well to allow myself to rest when I need to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stormmanagement-la.com/women/shai-mackk/5104/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaimackk/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@shai.mackk?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Image Credits
@giannasnapped, @tokich_photography, @mr_dadams, @rafaeltaveirap, @trueklassiq