Barbara Ellington, Lifestyle Editor

Former Miss Jamaica Universe Raquel Wright (right) had a great time meeting Susan Taylor at the Women's Leadership Initiative dinner at Jamaica Pegasus hotel on Thursday, November 30. - Colin Hamilton/Freelance Photographer

She's a well sought after speaker and after listening to her on Thursday night, more people understand why. Susan L. Taylor, editorial director for Essence magazine tells it like it is.

A daughter of the Caribbean, she was the keynote speaker at the Women's Leadership Initiative's (WLI), fund-raising dinner and awards ceremony. Citations read by former Gleaner editor-in-chief Wyvolyn Gager and communications consultant Marcia Erskine extolled the attributes of volunteer award recipients Hon. R. Danny Williams and Mrs. Beryl Ashley Steiner. But what the large audience left with, were the encouraging words from Ms. Taylor.

Earlier in the week we spoke with Ms. Taylor who owned her own cosmetics company prior to the start of her journey with Essence magazine. Since then both have become synonymous with each other. She has had a remarkable career with her own company Niquai Cosmetics even having a Jamaican launch before she went to Essence. As she tells it, there was no pressure because she did not need the job, she had no journalism training, neither had she even gone to college at the time. Essence needed someone with her skills and she gave it a try.

"Essence really needed a beauty editor because women with journalism degrees were not interested anything as mundane as beauty. It was the height of the black power movement but I delivered one article, then a second and readers responded, so they offered me the position of beauty editor. That post led to fashion and beauty editor, then editor-in-chief, then editorial director, so I gave myself this position," she told Flair.

The rest is a 35-year history that has seen the magazine's growth in popularity and Ms. Taylor at the pinnacle and a point in her life, where she is ready to use the vast reservoir of expertise and opportunity to give back to the world's most vulnerable - children.

The statuesque Ms. Taylor told Flair that the team at the magazine is capable and can guide now the process. Each issue of Essence takes three months to produce and there are up to four issues in planning at the same time. February's issue is being finalised and April is being planned as well as May's; one issues moves into production as one is closing.

She strikes the balance between a fast-paced career and family life (she is married), by making time to pamper herself when things become overwhelming and she finds herself stressed out. "I simply get a massage and regroup because life is a long distance race, there are problems everywhere that we have to attend to our own personal needs. If we are not fit we cannot focus so I try to take care of me so that I can really give back to others."

Power Within

At the WLI dinner billed 'Essence of A Woman' Ms. Taylor, author of the In the Spirit series of motivational books, abandoned her script and told last Thursday night's audience that she wrote about spirituality for people to understand their power and ability to find happiness and peace.

"Our power is within us; we are all created with an aspect of God in us so we have no need to try to be like our heroes or anyone else," she said.

As Ms. Taylor revealed statistics showing the extent to which children - particularly boys are falling through society's tracks, she urged politicians and other officials to fix the schools and teach children about their history because it's the uneducated young men who usually commit crimes.

But she did not stop there; she used the opportunity to urge the leaders of the region to do what's in their power to fix Haiti, the poorest nation within the CARICOM.

"It is not necessary to allow children to suffer when we have the power and can utilise it and see how much better things can be; keep your eyes on the prize because the prize is our children," Ms. Taylor told the packed Jamaican Pegasus ballroom.

Pearls of wisdom ...

She left many pearls of wisdom to the predominantly female audience who hung on her every word. For example, during the first 45 minutes of your day:

Wake early and take a morning ritual of taking the first 45 minutes of each day.

Smile constantly.

Exercise to recharge the body.

Look at the sky and mountains and give thanks for the day to recharge the spirit.

Stress can prevent us from doing all we can do so we should first give to self before being able to give to others.