Begina Cox with an interview with Yvette Noel-Schure. On passions, family and friendships, working with Prince and Beyoncé, what she learned from David Bowie, and how she made a conscious choice to live a joyful life despite serious challenges and loss.
PHOTO BY ITAYSHA JORDAN, © YVETTE NOEL-SCHURE, USED WITH PERMISSION
Yvette and I met over Teams on a quiet July morning in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, in Summer 2021. After we both confirmed that we can hear each other, she apologised for welcoming me on her terrace and not the inside of her house, as her entire family was still sleeping. In New Jersey everyone was about to wake up and get busy with their first cup of coffee. Here were I was, in Oxford, people were already thinking about finishing their work and collecting their children from school. We were both so far away from each other, separated by the ocean, but strongly connected because of the experience of living through the pandemic and also, what I felt, a true alignment of our outlooks on life. Despite looking at each other through the screens of our computers, we still felt very intimate, like we were sitting side by side.
Yvette Noel-Schure has been known for working with many music icons, including Beyoncé, Mariah Carey and Prince. After serving as a Black Beat magazine editor, Yvette worked as a publicist at Columbia Records where she met Destiny’s Child. Her long friendship and partnership with Beyoncé lasts to this day where at her own Schure Media Group, along with her husband, David, she manages the publicity profiles of Beyoncé herself and other music stars, and talented newcomers. But this is not the only thing she does for life. She is a true music guru, a member of the Recording Academy, a press strategist behind launches of IVY PARK, and one of the Gucci Changemakers.
Meeting Yvette was like meeting an old friend, never forgotten colleague, a family member that you always wanted to have, a person that you could relate to straight away. She is an incredible force of nature. After I met her for the first time, I felt that there’s nothing in life that I can’t overcome and can’t achieve. She is truly empowering.
Our conversation started effortlessly…
Yvette: I feel I come from the people who can’t waste any time. From people who saw value in every moment, and that each and every moment needed to always be purposeful, intentional, and selfless. Certainly, purposeful for what you wanted to achieve, and intentional so you do it with passion but, also simultaneously remembering that every moment is an opportunity to help another human being. And I learnt that every single day by watching my grandparents and my nuclear family putting all these qualities together. To help others, to go one step further in solidifying their place in society. Even in moments of stillness they needed to be intentional.
For example, while I knew that my grandfather worked all the time, I also knew that when he rested it was also equally very important. I remember seeing him sitting, on his own special chair that no one else could sit in, often by the radio listening to a cricket match. And it wouldn’t take us — the kids — a long time to join him. We would all gather at his feet listening to the cricket [laughing]. Even though we used to watch cricket matches in our village, and cricket in itself wasn’t anything too unusual to us, listening to the matches with Papa was a true gathering. He really didn’t have to encourage us nor explain anything, as when Papa was switching on the radio every one of us knew what that meant. It was a signal for us that he was relaxing and we should relax too. We would listen to his stories about Sir Garry Sobers and other cricketers, and then we would stick around after the cricket game to listen to the commentary, and then this would turn to the news. And it was all radio.
I don’t know if that was that clear when I was eight, nine, or ten years old, but now looking back at the people who raised me, I know that what they were doing was investing in me. They were giving me experiences that were meaningful.
I come from the people who can’t waste any time.
Nowadays, we are thinking that the most valuable experiences are: getting on the plane, enjoying different scenery, different culinary delights, and listening to different accents around the world, trying to pick up the languages, etcetera. And what now would be described as a limited perspective - spending time in our small home in Grenada, listening to cricket on the radio, going to the church together – my Papa perceived as a thing of beauty. We would go to the beach on a Sunday after mass; how much I cherished that. My grandfather knew every tree along the way, he had a story about everything, and he would point that out.
As an adult I appreciate now that every moment back then used to be either a teachable moment or a learning moment. You either teach somebody something or you are learning from them. This is a two-way street. You can’t choose to only be a teacher. That would horrible, as you need to learn something, too. And my grandfather was able to tell us so much about the world around us, but he also listened to our limited commentary back, especially mine, as I was the talkative one. [Laughing]
But again, intention, intention, intention. My grandfather was an incredible force in my life. He represented stability, he was able to do it all with pride — raise his children, then us, his grandchildren, and run his own business.
Begina: This reminds me of someone here! [Laughing]
Yvette: [Laughing]
But it is funny though, you know, as this helped me to realise that you don’t have to talk too much to children. You should talk to your children, for sure…
Begina: …but you should lead by example.
Yvette: Exactly. Sometimes parents have to talk at kids, that’s true, but there is so many things they can just naturally pick up through observation.
Begina: While speaking, you touched on something I first wanted to ask you about. A question about the substance of Yvette: who is Yvette and when did Yvette begin?
Yvette: The definition of Yvette Noel-Schure is that she is an incredibly proud Caribbean woman, Grenadian to the bone, 200% Grenadian, as far back as I can tell, everybody in my family was born in Grenada. We are a mixed family – you can find all the shades of Black in my family, and all the complexities of Black culture, and diversity within Black, which is amazing. We have indigenous people who come from my grandmother being a Carib mixed with other ethnicities. Obviously, the African side was brought to the Caribbean. My family were descendants of mixed marriages, way, way back. I saw all these complexities growing up and they shaped me. But as I look back, I think I had many beginnings. I believe I had many starts to who I am. I believe that my life started truly not at birth but when I was around six or seven years old as that was the time I truly realised in which family I was born into. And it was like: ‘yes! I hit the jackpot!’ [laughing].
Members of my family were so complex and loud sometimes, but also very quiet sometimes, and they went from one extreme to another, and they were really smart people, and very talkative but, then also the opposite - some very quiet ones, and those who wanted to shine, and those who said ‘shush’. And I liked that harmony and balance. I loved that the elders were celebrated, that we were a big family, which meant that the relationship with your cousin was as important as the relationship with your sister and your brother, that the relationship with your mum and dad was as important as the relationship with your grandparents, and your aunts.
And then I was born again at 14 when I came to America. Reluctantly, as I didn’t want to leave my grandparents. I really loved my relationship with them. I craved a relationship with my parents because they had already been in America for a little while, but I really loved my relationship with my grandparents. I’d seen myself staying in Grenada and becoming a little helper to my grandfather and his shop. I was always purchasing stock for his store, he gave me such authority as a kid. [Laughing] Which also resulted in me asking a lot of questions to the elders of the island who weren’t so stern in correcting me as in teaching me, which was really endearing.
And then I was completely reborn at 17 when I met the love of my life, David Schure, who I am still happily married to, even though he drives me nuts [laughing]. I do love him very much.
Begina: [Laughing] I know what you mean!
Yvette: [Smiling] I know I drive him nuts too… And then I think I was reincarnated when I met the members of Destiny’s Child. There was a new world that opened up to me that I didn’t know before. First of all, I discovered a city in Texas called Houston that I didn’t know much about. I’ve heard about Dallas [laughing] because I watched that show [smiling]…
Begina: I remember that show! [Laughing]
Yvette: Meeting them, and they were from Houston, I realised that Houston has an entirely different culture than Dallas or any other city in the state of Texas. Of course, there are lots of similarities but learning about that and meeting the Knowles family changed my life. They opened up the world of travel to me. With Density’s Child, that dream I had as a Caribbean immigrant, who wanted to see different parts of the world, came true. Before that I travelled as a journalist but I really travelled with Density’s Child. And then obviously with Beyoncé on tours. And then I think something magical, like real baptism happened to me when I left Sony Music in 2010. It was the one thing I feared leaving, I feared being fired or quitting. I feared changing what I’ve known for so many years. Eventually, I’d worked there for 17 years. But I felt that tide was shifting, and that feeling scared me. At the time I didn’t know the answer to questions appearing – the tide started shifting because I am outgrowing that place? Or, is it shifting because they are outgrowing me? Will they come one day telling me to leave? Do I run before they tell me that? Because I am a girl who has so much pride and just did not want to be embarrassed [laughing]. Is that day coming? And I created this scenario in my head that I no longer needed to be there.
Growth makes you feel unfitting, growth makes you ill, you start thinking all these scenarios why you don’t belong. Because you don’t. You don’t anymore.
Begina: Where did these thoughts and feelings come from? Do you remember?
Yvette: I think it’s was growth. When you look back you understand it. When you are in it, you don’t. When you are in an ocean you wouldn’t be thinking about drowning, I’d be thinking of myself on a shore. But sometimes in the middle of it you are not thinking about that. Right? So, in the middle of it I was all confused, full of convoluted ideas, but looking back I realise that it was growth. Growth makes you feel unfitting, growth makes you ill, you start thinking all these scenarios why you don’t belong. Because you don’t. You don’t. You don’t anymore.
And I think this is the scariest thing I did. Leaving Sony Music in 2010. The bravest thing was also leaving Sony Music in 2010. The scariest thing was saying to my husband, yes let’s open up a business. For a long time, I was like ‘no way!’. You know I was so happy getting a pay cheque every two weeks, who would want to do an invoice for a pay cheque? Who would choose literally auditioning for your job every time you get a new client. I wasn’t to be that girl who chose that. I was to be that girl that got very complacent in a job for a long time and went to the ATM to check my balance and it kept. Going. Up! [laughing and clapping rhythmically to each word]. But that wasn’t going to be my fate. So, I took that step. I’ve reborn when I realised we’ve had a business, and completely reborn when I left Sony and turned 50 the next year. And wow, that was, like ‘woooaahh! What is happening?!’. I truly started living.
The latest rebirth came in 2017. I truly believe it is the most significant rebirth I’ve ever had. It was a year after losing my mother. For one year after she passed away, I stood still. For one year I didn’t exercise. I feel like I barely ate. I ate things to keep my body going but my mind was completely not present. I felt like I lost my mother, I lost my best friend, my first child. I felt like she was all these things for me, as she needed my help for such a long time. I was so young when I started taking care of her. It was a role that I cherished. She was never really physically sick; her issues were always mental. But one day she got an infection being in the nursing home.
I think as one is getting older that the one’s celebration of youth shifts and they start slowly giving up. When she got an infection, it spread very quickly. It was devastating for me because David and I prided ourselves for taking such good care of her. And I was thinking about our options, that she could stay with us, even though I wouldn’t be realistically able to manage it because I was travelling so much, and she needed administering medications etcetera. We lost her in 2016, and alongside her death I lost two other people that sustained me, musically.
Some things in life move you and help create in your mind a safe place that you retreat to. David Bowie’s music created for me that type of place. He was my safe space.
That same year David Bowie died. David was someone I met once but that meeting was enough, as he had such an effect on me. His passing affected me tremendously. I loved David Bowie since I was 14 years old, or even younger. I’d first heard of him back home in Grenada (on a British program), and then when I came to America he presented himself as Ziggy Stardust.
There are some things in life that move you and help you create in your mind a safe place that you retrieve to. David Bowie’s music created for me that type of place. He was my safe space. So, when he died in January, 2016, I found his death be very difficult for me to process. All that happened when I was working with Prince. I was shattered as Prince died shortly after Bowie, in April, and then my mother died in May. David’s death was just a beginning, and started a year of mourning for me.
Some people can’t understand why one would mourn a famous person that you do not really know, but one of the most memorable conversations I’ve ever had, I had with David. He lived up and surpassed my expectations of who he would be all this time in my head. He created that safe space in my head I could always escape to. That meeting was unimaginable. Who knew that that weird Grenadian girl will meet David Bowie face to face. And he took so much time to talk with me, and validated that being weird was OK [crying] and being other was OK. Of course, when he passed away I was analysing why am I acting that way, why I am so moved by it, but then I realised that for me he was more than a person. He was a feeling I created when I was 14. That precious feeling that I could escape to whenever I needed to, being able to immerse myself in his songs. David Bowie allowed me to be free and dance. And this is exactly why I am dancing in my closet today.
I saw the humanity in Beyoncé during that tour. She and her mom, the crew and the staff emotionally nursed me back to life.
Getting to know Prince so well and the fact that he came to me, and wanted to work with me after all that time I worked with him at Sony, was very validating for me. And then losing him so suddenly. It was during that time when I was trying to convince him to do more publicity. Persuading him to do the cover of Keyboard Magazine was the last conversation we’ve had. That cover never happened.
I feel justified in saying that after my mom died, three weeks after Prince, I felt like 2016 was cursed. Then the Formation World Tour gave me that opportunity to put the grief to the back burner, except when I went back to my hotel, and I was by myself. It was tough to not think about all the losses.
Begina: Yvette, it may be possible that we met without even knowing because my sister and I went to Wembley Stadium in London for the Formation World Tour concert. [Laughing] Beyoncé’s tour was 2016’s way of trying to rehabilitate itself. That day made my life!
Yvette: [Laughing] It made my life! It cured me. I saw the humanity in Beyoncé during that tour. Her tribute to Prince every single night, how she treated me, how she understood my grief, how she understood I needed time away from the tour [crying]. She and her mom, the crew and the staff literally emotionally nursed me back to life.
And then another rebirth happened when I went to New Zealand, in 2017. Meeting people that I know now. The artist Teeks and his family, Taryn, who I used to work with at Sony, and her wife, Sasha. These folks will be in my heart forever because they continued my healing. They added to my healing and so much to my life.
But my real ‘woah, wow I can live out load’ rebirth came when I got a tattoo for my mum in New Zealand. I felt my mother’s presence in New Zealand, in 2017, so, I decided to go back there, and a beautiful Maori woman called Tyler Jade gave me a permanent ink on my back, a true tribute to my mom. I told Tyler the story about my mom and she then, inspired by my stories, created something that would represent me and my mum. Later I had another tattoo done in South Africa and one in Grenada. I am looking forward to the world opening up again so I can go back to New Zealand, and ask Tyler to finish my back, and then I will be done. But it is all in tribute to my mom. Of course, also to my husband and my children, by my mum is always the centre because she was our universe, too.
I am limitless, but the world doesn’t see me as limitless. So, until the world does, I have to work to break down barriers and to prove that I am limitless every single day.
Begina: It is amazing what you are saying, as I am thinking about the title of this project — Limitless — and about how many rebirths you’ve had, it feels like there is no place for ‘death’ here, no end, no limit. You are constantly reincarnating, and you are talking about the growth and deep waters. So, do you perceive yourself as a limitless person? Are you limitless?
Yvette: Yeah, well, I am limitless, but the world doesn’t see me as limitless. So, until the world does, I have to work to break down barriers and to prove that I am limitless every single day. As a Black woman, as an immigrant woman, as a Grenadian woman, living in America, people don’t see me as limitless, they want to limit me. The world wants to limit me. Therefore, every day I work through it, breaking down those barriers.
I might be at an age that I am more aware of what my battles are. But, it is not OK for a girl half my age to feel that she needs to stop. Therefore, I will continue pushing and creating opportunities for others, whether within my company or outside through very robust mentoring projects I am a part of. And now through your project.
The ladder doesn’t serve you when you are at the top, you have to throw it back down so someone else can climb. Lift as you climb. Lift as you climb.
I really believe we are all limitless, and I really take that seriously. Think about a mountain. Are the climbers ever satisfied when they reach the top, or they want to find another mountain to climb? That’s what life is, you set goals, you reach these goals, and then that adrenaline pushes you further, to feel the need to find yet another goal. I am particularly gearing towards supporting immigrants, empowering women, inspiring the next generations of scholars, taking part in mentorships, finding time to speak to people. All these things make me feel like I can fly. Every time I reach the heights, I am throwing the ladder down! The ladder doesn’t serve you when you are at the top, you have to throw it back down so someone else can climb. Lift as you climb. Lift as you climb.
That is my takeaway from every great speaker I listen to, but also from everyone I truly admire. It is not because they got financial rewards, but because how many people they have helped. That to me is a true form of success, that to me what makes you limitless. Because you see beyond your own goals to make sure that someone else can prosper.
And you know what, another simple answer would be that I am not done yet, so of course I am limitless! [laughing]. Because I am not done! Until I am ultimately finished. But even then, I am not done. I believe the physical theme disappears in death but the relationship you have with life and the feeling of love towards people doesn’t end. Being so inspired by the spirit of my ancestors, I trust there is something greater than the flesh that keeps us going. We ought to then take care of our body and equally should take care of our mind, and soul. Or should it be in plural? As it is like a whole bunch of us here! [laughing] You know you see me as one person, but I come to represent thousands.
Begina: That is truly inspiring! You told me about this for the first time some time ago — there is one physical Yvette, but she represents that small Grenadian Yvette, an immigrant Yvette, a successful publicist Yvette, a woman, a Black woman. I am more than what people see or make of me. I remember you said it and that stuck with me so much that I’ve been quoting you so many times!
Yvette: [laughing] I love it!
Begina: I took it so personally. What you said transformed my outlook on myself. Opened up my world of perception of myself. You made me feel unapologetic about my roots, which I felt really uncomfortable with, especially as an immigrant in the aftermath of the UK’s ‘Brexit’ referendum in 2016. Like you said in our previous conversations, coming to America exposed your different accent, you felt judged by others. Unfitting. I felt the same about my accent, and what made me different, and I felt the difference was holding me back.
Yvette: And that difference is your superpower.
Begina: Yes, and you helped me to see it that way. And I am smiling right now because one of the reasons I even think of side projects in my life is that I believe that the ultimate value of human beings is to help themselves and others. That’s it! And this conversation with you today makes me so happy as I feel like you are attaching yourself to my own fingerprint.
Yvette: [Laughing with joy] That’s good, that’s awesome. That’s really good.
Begina: Let’s come back to when you left Sony Music and started your own business. Can you share with me how you were working through that pleasant discomfort? I can assume that it was exciting to face that change.
Yvette: Oh! It was more than discomfort, it was like you are on a rollercoaster! And I hate rollercoasters. It was terrifying. My belly was hurting, my fingers were shaking. It was just the most disturbing feeling in the world. I have built such a comfort level being in that job for seventeen years that I could not see past that job. I couldn’t understand how to describe myself other than ‘this is Yvette Noel-Schure from Sony Music’. First time I made a call and I had to say ‘I am calling from Schure Media’, as it was Schure Media at the time, now it is Schure Media Group, I mumbled. I almost felt like I needed to see a therapist in that moment. I was afraid of success on my own terms. What would that even mean?! I haven’t sat down to write it all up, I couldn’t define it. But then realisation came - you supposed to define as you go! As you define it in the moment! And I thought, I didn’t know that! I assumed there was a rule book I needed to play by. Boy, that’s a lot of pressure, that’s scary, I immediately thought. Am I cut out to be a leader, or am I to be the best follower in the world? There is nothing wrong in being the best follower in the world! Am I in the audience or am I on a stage? Because I want to be on a stage! But I also want to be the best spectator in the world I could be, because that is my role, too. A purpose of mine is to support, so what am I doing? And then I realised I can step out on my own and still be the best spectator.
I had to ask that question. This is a lot, but is it enough? I am full. Or am I eating the same thing every day being full without being fulfilled?
Begina: When was that shift, when did you decide to go deep? What did you do first?
Yvette: I talked to myself. See, I am a good talker. I knew I had to go to my strengths. I knew that I can make a great speech, I can convince people, as for years I was convincing people to take a chance on young artists that they never heard of, right? Now, I needed to turn it on myself, to pitch myself, convince myself. [Laughing]. It was a process.
I think that my husband thought I was going crazy, as I had these conversations out loud — ‘you can do it!’ [laughing] But, I also just kept making excuses and finding the reasons why I should stay at Sony Music. And the reasons were good ones; Destiny’s Child were about to do another album, there was going to be a Beyoncé solo album, there was going to be 2008’s Sasha Fierce, Michelle Williams’ album, Kelly Rowland’s album, Adele was about to show up, John Legend, there were lots and lots of reasons work wise that I was so excited about. And actually, frankly I would be jealous of someone else doing that so I was like, I am not going anywhere! [Laughing]. And then finally I had to ask that question. This is a lot, but is it enough? I am full. Or am I eating the same thing every day being full without being fulfilled?
I kept asking myself that. I needed a conversation with me, a conversation with God so He can show me what else I can do. I had to bow down to the ancestors. I would be recalling seeing my dad, looking at him suffering of the results of a stroke. The stroke happened when I was 20. I was a young girl. And here I was an adult with three children trying to figure out what I am doing, and not having my father’s voice to have that conversation with me. And I remember sitting at his feet and crawling onto his bed at the hospital and hugging him, saying to him ‘what have I done, (crying), have I let you down? Daddy, I had such a good job, why did I leave?’. And then as I was telling him this, I got another message from another place from somebody saying ‘you’re going to do it for him’. And that was the answer. I didn’t leave Sony Music because I didn’t love Sony. I loved Sony! I loved people at Sony Music, and I’ve learnt so much from them. I would bow down every day for that seventeen years Sony gave me, but in that moment, I realised that I want to leave Sony so I can care for my dad before he passes away, and so that I can find truly what I am made of.
Because my motivation was selfish. My motivation was for me. I wanted a car, I wanted to buy a house, that’s why I wanted to work, I wanted to travel, that’s why I wanted to work hard. I wanted to look like all the successful girls in the music business, I wanted to wear black suits, Gucci shoes, I wanted to have nice bags. Selfish, selfish, rude, disgusting. I needed to change and live for my purpose, which was to empower others. And then I’ve got all the things put on that paper. I needed to leave, because these shoes wouldn’t make me walk any differently. That bag didn’t make me powerful. It didn’t. If anything, it allowed me to be weaker because it was big and I kept putting things in it and it was becoming too heavy to carry [Laughing]. And when I left I was able to see my father more.
Because when I was at Sony I was really busy. And I was so afraid that I wouldn’t get to him on time and he wouldn’t die in my arms. I didn’t want that. But that time I had with him, I left Sony in March 2010 and he died in December 2010, was precious. I could visit him, talk to him, to ask him the hard questions about his ways as a young man, about what he did to hurt my mum, but to say that despite that I still loved him. He also had time to tell me who he was. Explain why some things happened in his marriage with my mum. I know he loved us so. It is very hard for a Caribbean man to sit and pour his heart out to his daughter. But we had that moment. And that last time I crawled onto his bed and hugged my dad I knew this was going to be the last time I would see him. But I was at peace as I knew I had that priceless time with him. And I know how proud he is of me, and I know, no matter what I decided to do, my father would be clapping [claps].
Years later, in 2019, I was getting an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from a college that I had done so much work with. It was Saint Peter’s University in Jersey City, New Jersey. I spent a decade speaking to their communication students, future journalists. It was a college full of immigrants; immigrants of every kind - from Europe, from America, the Caribbean, Africa. And there I was in May of 2019, not only receiving an honorary doctorate for all the work I done with them, but being the commencement speaker at the graduation. And while giving the speech I had a moment when I lost my train of thought. I lost my footing, just for a moment, for seconds, but it felt like a lifetime to me. I was looking at the audience, and then I drifted because I saw my dad was sitting among the public. I saw him as plain as I am seeing you, and he was clapping and saying ‘that’s my daughter!’. [Smiling and clapping]
And yet, there is joy.
So, am I limitless? I have to be. Because my mother’s work was not done. My dad’s work was unfinished. My grandmother’s work was incomplete, my grandfather’s work was incomplete. My young brother who died at 21 in a car accident, his work was unfinished. My 35-year-old brother’s work who also died in an accident was unfinished. My 4-month-old grandniece and 4-year-old grandnephew [cries] who were killed by their mother, their lives and their work were unfinished. Am I limitless? I have to be for them.
When people see my posts on social media, seeing me smiling and dancing in my closet they may think ‘how dare you are happy, how dare you have joy in your life!’. They don’t even know the sorrows I have witnessed. They don’t even know what my family has been through. And yet, there is joy. Because can I really live in moments of sorrow, grief, and sadness every single day? If I did, I’d have joined my ancestors way too quickly. And I am not ready for that, not yet. Before my time comes, I have to finish what my parents started. What they didn’t get a chance to do. What physical illness denied my father. And what mental illness denied my mother. And so, every day I wake up and the first thing I see are photos of my parents and my grandparents and photos of my niece and nephew, the youngest victims of murder I knew. I just think their lives were worthy, valuable, and meaningful, and they had so much more life to go. Even my mother at 84. So, until I leave, I’m going to work to finish it for them.
That’s why I work, that’s why I feel limitless, that’s why I feel empowered. That’s why I feel it is necessary to do things that build bricks for others to climb on. It’s important. It is no longer about the Gucci shoes, although they are fabulous [laughing], and I have roof over my head, and we sent my children to college, yes, that was a goal. That’s what motives me, that’s why I am waking up in the morning.
Begina: [Deep breath] I have nothing to add, Yvette.
Yvette: [Laughing]
Begina: You covered so many wonderful things that I wanted to ask you about, and it just went so naturally; the role of joy, the influence of your ancestors, their role, and how it makes you feel. There are so many people out there that feel so uncomfortable with that level of joy, but as you said, they don’t understand what’s underneath, and what the joy is giving you.
Yvette: I chose joy. I mean I probably would have more people loving me if I chose to be miserable and shady. I am sure I’d have more followers if I decided to be the gossip girl. I am sure they are waiting for me to be that person who turns on their clients, but it’s never going to happen. Never.
There’s been tons and tons of situations where I wish the outcome were different, and I was hurt. But what I love is that I can count my enemies on one hand, and have fingers left over. So that’s a good thing! I think in this world there are probably only three people that can’t stand me, and I am fine with that.
Begina: I am definitely not one of them! [laughing]
Yvette: [laughing] But I’ve forgave them. And I am so sorry for them as they are losing out on that good Yvette Noel-Schure energy! Ah! Terrible for them. [laughing] I’m the pill they need. I’m the honest, happy pill they need, and they are so missing out, but that’s OK.
Begina: Yvette, so what are you up to know? What will be your next rebirth?
Yvette: I have dedicated myself to living the rest of my life with health as a priority. It has been like that since I was 20 when my father had a stroke. So, my next journey is to understand my body at this age, and to understand that my body can do what I want it to do. Priorities are: health, my scholarship fund, deciding where I want to live when I retire. I will probably never retire though. I am always going to find something to do.
Begina: I can’t imagine you not having something to do! That is just unimaginable.
Yvette: [Laughing] When I retire from publicity I will enter the world of academia, for sure. I hope I could teach somewhere as a visiting professor. But, somewhere where they would pay me [laughing]. You got to figure out how to live too, you know! Yeah, these are my priorities.
Also, simultaneously, the most important thing for me right now is to pray for the world to do the right thing. I am dumfounded by Covid-19. And how despite us knowing more about it there are still so many of us who are hard-headed and selfish. This is the only way I can put it, selfish. As now is the time that we all should be selfless and really care about others.
So that’s a significant thing for me, to be more verbal about it. I’m going to do my best to convince people about the importance of getting vaccinated, and if one decides to not be vaccinated, for whatever reason, to please cover up by wearing a mask around people, and think of it as protecting yourself as well.
And then the other important thing is the countdown to November, which is going to be my 60th birthday. I hope to celebrate this occasion in Grenada. If not, then I will have to celebrate it in the middle of winter, on my lawn in New Jersey. I will bring Grenada to my lawn in November.
Begina: I can imagine you are capable of this!
Yvette: [laughing] I will figure it out how to have banana and coconut trees on this lawn and some white sand from our incredible Grenadian beaches.
I want to be conscious that little things add or subtract to people’s lives and we have the power to add or subtract to people’s lives. I want to be in the plus column. I don’t want to be the nice girl. I rather be a kind girl because when you are kind you think about others, when you are nice you only think about yourself. When you are kind, you are giving without thinking. And serving others is what it is all about. It makes me happier to see you smile than for my old big grin to always be here, because I know I can’t help it! [Laughing] But if I make you smile, I’m like ‘yes!’, that’s true success.
Begina: You are doing it all the time!
Yvette: I just want to live loudly, productively, healthy, selflessly, culturally proud, in love, and playing tennis until my last day.
Yvette celebrated her 60th birthday surrounded by her friends and family in Grenada. Happy Birthday, Yvette! I wish you all that, and so much more. Your joy is contagious. I hope it will be the cause of the next global pandemic.