We recently connected with Shari Mocheit and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Shari thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
Graduating college I really only had one goal in mind, and that was to make a full-time living as a performer. I never wanted to be famous or a rich celebrity or anything along those lines, but I love to perform and I feel so grateful that for the last 20 years I have been able to do just that. Making people feel something, smile, forget their troubles for a while, or experience our connection and humanity is so important to me. Whether it’s singing at a concert, performing in a theatre or musical production, doing film, TV, or commercial work, or directing a show I do my best to put everything I have into every project and I think the people who work with me and experience that can feel my passion for what I do.
Shari, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I was actually horrifically shy as a child. I always wanted to do theatre but felt I was too scared, shy, ugly, and not talented enough to even try. I used to stop myself before even trying. I finally auditioned for my first play at age 14 and I have not looked back since. My first paid gig/professional performance work started when I was 18 and I have been working full-time in the entertainment industry for the past twenty years now. I feel blessed, grateful, and overall empowered knowing that with enough determination, training, and perseverance anything is possible. I hope to inspire others in whatever field they wish to pursue. Never take no for an answer, seek guidance from people you admire, work on yourself until you can trust yourself and your knowledge and abilities, and most importantly never, never, never give up.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I want to spread God’s love, joy, and light. There are enough people complaining about everything wrong with the world. I still believe that even though the whiners are loud, there is far more good than bad in the world if you just learn to pay attention and see the beauty that’s all around us.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
There was a major director in the Chicago theatre scene who I really respected and had auditioned for on multiple occasions. She had called me back multiple times, but never cast me, so when I saw that she was holding and audition workshop I jumped at the chance to learn from her. I mostly wanted to know why she wasn’t hiring me because I really wanted to work with her and be in one of her incredible productions. I went first because I was so nervous and I just wanted to get it over with so I could learn from others and observe the rest of the workshop. I was mentally prepared for her to tear apart my acting, singing, outfit, hair, song choices, everything, etc. but the one thing I did not expect or plan for is exactly what she laid into me for. I will never forget her reaction to my mock audition. She said “Shari, you’ve got the goods. But you’re the problem.” I was shocked and definitely caught off guard. “What?? I always try to be so friendly and polite to everyone how was I the problem?” I thought to myself. I felt that conceit was a huge turn off so I over compensated by being super meek and mild, to which she so brilliantly stated “Meek and mild goes in the B pile.” That made so much sense to me. If you don’t exude confidence in yourself no one else is going to have confidence in you either. This is a lesson I still carry with me today and that one sentence literally changed the trajectory of my entire career.
Contact Info:
- Website: sharimocheit.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharimocheit/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShariMocheit/
- Twitter: twitter.com/sharimocheit
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/salserashari
- Other: TikTok: @glamdork Snapchat: @sharimocheit
Image Credits
Steven Kowalski, Alex Minkin, Color Impact, Nate Knaebel