Simone Stewart – Uniquely blessed

AFTER getting married and trying unsuccessfully to have a baby for five years, Simone Stewart received a prophecy that she would bear a son and she should name him Samuel. Surely enough, before the end of that year, she was pregnant and it was a boy. Becoming a mother not only filled her with joy and pride that she had not known before, but it also motivated her to tap into her potential for greatness and seek out things that she was passionate about. Samuel is now 13 years old, and Stewart has grown to become an author, banker, talk show host, public speaker, minister and businesswoman.

“Becoming a mom enhanced my passion,” Stewart told All Woman last week, as we continue to celebrate our children in Child Month. “Everything took on new meaning to me. My desire to be successful and impactful intensified. The drive to become a professional, and wanting to earn more to be able to provide for my family, increased. Out of seeking additional income, I came into the realities of my passion.”

Prior to parenthood, Stewart had been a good employee at Scotiabank Jamaica, where she has worked since leaving high school. As the fourth of six siblings from a single-parent household, Stewart was not afforded the opportunity to pursue tertiary studies immediately after graduation, despite having excellent passes.

“After leaving Herbert Morrison Technical High School, I wanted to go to college to study and become an executive secretary, because I always wanted to work in corporate. But when I attempted to do so, my mother said, ‘Go look for work, because your other siblings need to go school.’ In her mind, me wanting to continue an education immediately just wasn’t something that was feasible,” Stewart remembered.

She started working as a teller in the Sam Sharpe Square branch that year, and two years later she transferred to a branch in the Corporate Area, where she worked while she pursued higher education. She soon obtained her bachelor’s degree and met and fell in love with her husband of 18 years. After removing one of her ovaries because of a dermoid cyst in early adulthood, Stewart was delighted to finally become a mother in 2008, and embraced the experience with open arms.

“At the time I wasn’t so deeply involved in what I am doing now, in terms of the drive that I have,” she reflected. “When I had Samuel I had to slow down, for sure, because this was a new phase of my life, and nothing can truly prepare you to be a parent until you are one. No amount of books prepared me or my husband for it.”

But with time and experience Stewart learned the ropes, and decided that she wanted to do and become more.

“I put myself out there. That meant moving from a customer service rep to being a personal banker. Then I moved from personal banking into business banking. Then I moved out of that into operations. In time, I got to spearhead two new units that the bank had started, and I currently lead a team within the retail banking team,” she said.

Not only did she eventually have another child, a daughter, six years after her first, but Stewart also obtained a postgraduate degree. She soon realised that though she and her husband could provide a comfortable enough life for their children, she wanted to do more not just for herself, but for others as well.

“The bank is limited, and I had other passions outside of banking. I started looking around to see what else I could do that did not conflict with the bank, but everything I thought about doing required start-up funding. I asked the Lord what else I could do that didn’t require a huge investment right away, and I remember God saying ‘I gave you a voice’, and there I began as a speaker and an author.”

Her first book God’s Daily Portion was a compilation of the daily devotionals that she had been writing and broadcasting to friends and family on WhatsApp. She has written and published 13 more books since then, and has hosted workshops guiding aspiring authors to publishing their own books. One of her books, her memoir entitled Uniquely Me, became a bestseller.

“And from that came my TV programme, the Uniquely Me Talk Show,” she shared. “I started recognising that there are women in Jamaica with so many stories that need to be told. Women are doing so much, and at the same time we are enduring so much.”

The talk show, which features touching and inspirational interviews with several Jamaican women, was aired on Mercy and Truth Ministries TV for some time before Stewart decided to broadcast it exclusively on YouTube.

Stewart admits that being a wife, mothering two children, producing weekly episodes of her show, writing new literature to publish, and managing a full-time managerial job can be a challenge, but it is one she takes pleasure in doing.

“I use every spare moment that I have, and that includes my bathroom moments,” she said, giggling. “I have a tablet, phone and laptop, and I always have at least one of them with me. I’m always working, because I think my craft can always be improved.”

She also does it all so that she can be a good example for her children, and to let her light shine so that others may see her good work and glorify God.

“I’m trying to leave a legacy,“ she said. “I want to set the stage for other women. I want to create a platform for women who have stories that nobody knows about. Uniquely Me is uniquely you. Every woman represents another cross-section of women going through the same things — abuse, childhood trauma, and many other tough situations — and they are overcoming them. I have no training in media, yet I am using my talent for good. I think it’s a chance to help people to realise that God has invested so much in us, and we must do something with the gifts that God has given to us.”