Yvette Noel – Schure

Grenadian Making Waves

Ask anyone to name the most powerful woman in music right now, and it won’t take them very long to say, “Beyoncé.” But there’s another woman who’s helped buoy the singer to superstardom: Her publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure.

Yvette who hails from the parish of St Andrew in Grenada, is proud of her roots and is a daughter of the soil. She’s been married for almost 40 years, and have three children, a son and two daughters.

Yvette grew up as a newspaper delivery girl, a gig she loved so much she used to take a red marker and correct errors on her neighbors’ papers. That love of words eventually led to a career in journalism as an editor at the teen music magazine Black Beat. Her passion for the clients she was writing about propelled her to a job representing them as a publicist for Columbia Records, where she eventually became the publicist for a certain girl group.

The respected industry veteran is known for her work with Beyoncé, Prince, John Legend, and many others. “Yvette Noel-Schure is the most relevant PR professional within the music and entertainment industry today. Her passion and dedication to the artists she represents makes her an example to other colleagues and for future generations of industry professionals.

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But Noel-Schure’s career wasn’t always glamour and touring with music’s biggest superstar. At one point, the mother of three hit an obstacle so rough, she never would’ve dreamed she’d end up where she is now. She opened up about how she overcame her giant setback

“So, you started out as a music journalist at Black Beat. How did you go from there to publicity?”

I had been an editor at Black Beat for nine years when I called a gentleman named Larry Jenkins, who was the head of publicity at Sony Music’s Columbia Records. I reached out because I was angry, I hadn’t received the Mariah Carey album to review. Well, it turned out there was something quite passionate about the way I spoke to him, because out of nowhere he asked me, “Do you want to be a publicist?” I had no interest. But eventually after getting me that Mariah album to review he convinced me to come talk to him. He hired me on the spot, and I spent the next 17 years working at Sony. My first client? Mariah Carey. One day I was asking for her album to do a review, and a week later, I was her publicist. It’s still hard for me to believe, but that’s the way life can work.

“What’s your day-to-day day at work like?”

For Beyoncé, as my client, I do all of her music press, all of her philanthropic press—basically I’m a part of anything that she touches, so every day is different! For instance, when she and her husband Jay-Z were giving away scholarships to young students while on tour this summer, I was traveling all over the world with them but also working with his team to prepare a press release and announce their partnership. As a publicist, your job is basically to ensure your clients get as much exposure as possible.

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“Whenever I interview successful women about their career trajectory, I notice there’s a common narrative: They always have one setback, but later, they end up being grateful for it. What was your moment?”

I can’t say her name, but after I had been a loyal, hard worker at Columbia Records for 17 years, there was a woman who came in to run the department. And she was brilliant just not brilliant with people. She judged me really,really, harshly. She was terrible to me, to be honest. Everything I did, she criticized. She changed me from being this grown, confident woman in a power suit someone that had worked with Mariah Carey and Destiny’s Child and the rising solo star that was Beyoncé into someone who doubted herself every single second of the day. It was the first time in my career I thought negatively about myself, to the point where I was often in tears and not sleeping.

You never really know your strength until you have some adversity.

Finally, I woke up one day and thought, “How am I allowing this one person to do this to me?” I realized I couldn’t continue like that, and the only way I was going to survive in one piece is if I left. And then I really thought I was a failure. I felt complete embarrassment and humiliation that one person had the power to push me out of a place where I’d been thriving for so long. But I could not take it anymore. I had to go.

I’ll admit that after leaving, I did fall apart. But then, girl…I got up. And my stride got longer. I realized my whole career; I had just been taking baby steps. But now, I could sprint. The person who I thought was putting me down made me stronger without even knowing. And today, I’m so grateful for her. Because if I had stayed there at Sony no shade to Sony, because it’s an incredible company but I would’ve never left and started my own company with my name on it, never built my own legacy, never learned my own power.

The person who I thought was putting me down made me stronger.

The whole situation forced me to go outside my comfort zone and create something on my own. To do that, I had to learn so much that I had never done before, from the creative side to the finances. But that woman was the kick in the ego I needed to start Schure Media. You never really know your strength until you have some adversity.

“That is so, so real. Would you say that kind of negative encounter is something you’ve experienced with other women in your industry?”

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Can I be honest with you and tell you that in my entire career, there’s only been 1 or maybe 2 women that were not uplifting and supportive. And, she also taught me to be a kinder person to everybody else. I learned from her that fear and meanness are not how you motivate people.

And she also taught me that you have to look out for your own. I didn’t want to be the girl that left and climbed up the ladder and never took anyone with her. So now I always try to lift up other young Black women to create a tribe that will become bigger and better, and supportive.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WztLolJh5bk