Family and Faith Magazine Issue 9, Summer Edition | Page 8

SPECIAL FEATURE / ARTISTE

“

...I wanted mentors who
would pour into my life...

”

Family and Faith Magazine: Many women
have 1 or 2 insecurities. Do you have any? If
yes, how have sought to overcome?
Samantha: Wow this is a biggie. I have many
insecurities, several of them I have addressed
but this is one that occasionally comes back
to haunt me – it’s the one about my beauty.
I recently cut my hair and the way I grew up
“a woman’s hair is her beauty” so cutting my
hair to centimeters from my scalp was a scary
process for me. It was an act of necessity but in
that moment, I started to think about my beauty
and get concerned about the shape of my face
and whether people would want to relate to me
with no hair. The size and darkness of my beady
eyes, the shape of my nose and the color of my
skin came into question. References of beauty
that I didn’t think of had come to the surface.
So to overcome it, I reached out to some of
my friends who had done something similar
and asked them some of the hard questions.
I asked them what motivated them to make
the move, how they felt about it and I shared
my fears with them. These supportive women
from around the world walked me through it
and were the first ones to see what I looked like
with no hair when I made the transition.

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Family and Faith Magazine: Do you have
spiritual mentors that help to keep you focused
on God's calling for your life? If yes, share how
those relationships empower you today.
Samantha: You know if you had asked me this
question a year ago I would probably have said
no, I have no mentors. This was such a sore topic
with me and God, I wanted mentors who would
pour into my life and instead I found myself
flailing all by myself, I thought. However I
learned that I needed an enhancement in my
awareness level to see those around me who
in direct and indirect ways have mentored me.
I’ll try to share that in a single sentence about
each of them:
• Elector Pearson – my pastor in Barbados is
the first official life coach I ever had.
He helped me expose several of my
limiting beliefs
• Sonia Preddie – my high school teacher
and mentor who was the first person to
believe in me academically and spiritually.
To this day we still have meaningful
conversations (not often enough though)
• Everton and Jillian Thomas – they believed
in my ability to sing and minister even
before I did and gave me platforms to share
my gift. They helped me hone the talent
both on and off the stage.
• Grace Silvera – I worked with her as one
of the first highly influential women in the

corporate world who was willing to openly
live and share her faith. She found subtle
and direct ways to mentor me professionally.
• Sam Vassel – he is my Big Bro, this
guy keeps me grounded and helped me to
understand that God loved me not for what
I could do with the talent He gave me but
that God loved me in an unconditional way.
As a person given to performance this was a
hard concept to wrap my mind around.
• Oral McCook, this guy gave me wings to
fly and grow within his organization. He let
me learn and grow and refine the creative
and management processes in myself.
• Bobby Allen – he is one of my newest
mentors. He helps me with emotional
intelligence and awareness of who I am.
He is helping me create guard rails for my
ministry. He keeps me in check.
There are many other relationships like these;
with some persons I schedule weekly or
bi-weekly calls to ensure I stay on track and
meet my goals, yet there are others I speak to
only once a year. Regardless of how little we
connect there are invaluable people in my life
who love, support and believe in me, even
when I can’t do it for myself.
To get more of Samantha’s inspirational story
and to learn more about her music visit our
website www.familyandfaithmagazine.com.