We had a great pleasure of interviewing a mighty woman of God – Shanie Salmon-Godfrey. She is a pastor, prophetess, author, business owner, teacher, and many other things. Pastor Shanie is from Jamaica but lives in South Florida. Pastor Shanie is a 15-time bestselling author and five of those times, she was number 1 best seller; five was international.
Now this is amazing work that she’s done and accomplished as an author. Prophetess Shanie is also an entrepreneur, Pastor, professor, T.V show host, a Radio host, podcaster, and a blogger.
We asked Pastor Shanie to tell us about her testimony and here is what she said:
“I got saved at a very young age of 19. It wasn’t easy for me because my family members were not believers and they did not want me to be saved, so l had to go through a lot of ups and downs especially with my mother because she did not want me to get saved. l always had a heart for people; l always wanted to help people across the world. I wanted to teach them how to do business, teach them different skills that they need to improve their lives instead of just donating. I wanted to teach them how to be resourceful and self-reliant.”
Pastor Shanie has had many businesses from picking tomato seed when she was five years old to owning her own medical Center. She said this:
“l have had every business under the sun. l was building my ministry at the same time even when l worked a circular job. I built my ministry while building my business, going to school and working a full-time job. Sometimes, l was working two full-time jobs and building my ministry and going to school and l have a family! A husband and a son; with all of these, it was not easy but it was necessary.”
I asked Pastor Shanie to tell us about her businesses and this is what she said:
“Shanie Salmon Enterprise is one of my businesses, l do have multiple but Shanie Salmon Enterprise. Under this, we have Elevation global group and Legacy consulting firm.”
We asked her what made her want to start a business and here is what she said:
“Because l wanted to treat people better than l was treated in my job. I was sick, had issues and all but my boss didn’t want to give me a day off. So seeing all these, l said people need to be treated better than this. I said l will have a business where people will be treated well and not like a robot, you can’t be sick and then l will tell you to come to work or you are fired. All these were what l experienced and l wanted a place where people are treated with respect and dignity and that is why l started my own company.”
We asked Pastor Shanie what the process was starting a business, and she gave us some very wise words:
“Planning, planning, planning. Before you start a business you have to plan, make research and if you want detailed steps buy my book titled “The Entrepreneur Mindset”. It talks about the different processes we go through. Starting a business is more psychological than physical; wherever your mind goes, your body goes especially if you are an employee or a business owner. I have learnt how to do both, l have worked for close to 25 years doing both. How you do the two is completely different; it is like night and day and for you to be successful in any of them you have to know both. Hence, it is mental and physical.”
“I always recommend people to start their own business because of financial freedom and God’s word said that your gift will make a way for you. I did well when l worked in corporate America; sometimes, l just want to quit and go back there and make money without all the stress and drama that comes from owning a business. Your “WHY” is what is going to keep your doors opening and keep you going because you don’t pay yourself how you should, l have not paid myself since l started my business because l have to sow my paycheck back into my business to make sure that l keep the doors open for the people that need me the most. So l will always recommend starting a business because it is what God asked you to do. Many just want to start a business because they want to make more money, or because they don’t want to work for someone. They don’t want someone to tell them what to do and they are never successful because they are not doing it for the right reason, it is not what they are anointed to do; they don’t have the grace to do that.”
“There are many who are working and they are way better than some business owners; they have time and money. I think every employee should start a business so that they can learn how to be better employees because l was always good at what l do but not always great at it until l started my business. When l started it, l learnt how to be better with the company finance, budget, time, clients etc. I understood that if my attitude takes the client out the door, it is going to cost the company money and that is my paycheck. If l waste the copy paper, office supplies that the company have put a lot of money into that it is going to hurt the bottom line which my paycheck. So, when you have your own business, you will learn to respect others businesses. If you respect others, it will come back to your business; it is reaping what you sow.”
“It is biblical, so don’t direct others and wonder while people are disrespecting you, hey you know, you are reaping what you sowed. Again, God is the greatest investor, are you making money to put it in the kingdom of God, is it to change lives or is it just about You? What are you planning and doing with the resources you have? And that is what makes the difference, so start a business and plan what you are going to do with it. Even people who don’t know God understands giving. They have to work on their mind, their mindset because business is physical and psychological and you have to prepare your mind to start the business. That is why you have people that quit even before they got started because they are listening to what people are saying. They tell them that they are not good enough, smart, and talented, not Gifted and they find every reason to beat themselves up instead of saying: l may not have all the talent, gift or skill but l will work on it and this is my plan to work on it.”
“So, work on your mind even before you write a business plan and know for certain what you are going to do whether people support you or not. If no one supports you, you have to support yourself; it is the vision which God gave you. So make up your mind, if your family or circle don’t support you, ask yourself if you still want to do and work on your plans and go for it because your plan should have all you need on it, every single details.”
We asked pastor Shanie to tell us about her ministry, and she said:
“I have Break Free International ministry, that is my NGO but l also have Shanie Salmon Ministry because l do a lot of speaking engagements across the world where l will speak at conferences, workshops – wherever l am needed. If it is a hospital visit whatever it is, l am there. I just wanted to serve so that is Break Free International ministry. We have been educating people especially women across the world in Nigeria, Jamaica and Pakistan just for them to be self-sufficient because it is different type of world.”
“So we have to teach those women how to be all that God called them to be and be godly leaders. This is not just ministry but for them to be in it for the right reason, their heart in the right place and they know how to use what is in their hands, what God has given to them and how to take that gift and turn it into profit so that they can sow into their own ministry. Some of them in Pakistan are feeding children, hundreds of orphans that they feed and l come alongside them just to teach them how to use their resources even when it is limited to do what the Lord has called them to do.”
We asked Prophetess Shanie what kind of miracles has she seen and here is what she said:
“Oh my goodness, the Lord never ceases to amaze me even this very week. I see miracles every single day and just grateful that the Lord show himself like that to me, even in our own ministry. We had this woman of God come on the line on Wednesday night and in prayer the Holy Ghost started to deal with a lot of different things going – health wise, depression and all the things that she was going through and on that line the Lord delivered her instantly and she didn’t have to see a doctor for depression or be on pills for depression.”
“The week before, we were in prayer and all of this in Bible study and this is to show you how God shows up. In Bible study the Lord do deliverance the same way as if it was Sunday praise and worship service. This woman of God started to intercede on behalf of her husband and we prayed for about 3 and half hours, praying for a lot of different people and didn’t understand why. Then fast forward to the next day and he ended up in the hospital and he died and was brought back to life. This is because the Lord kept saying that night that he shall live and not die. That very night, he died but they brought him back so quickly and he was unconscious for over 2 hours before EMS actually showed up because with Covid nobody was showing up.”
“The police wasn’t showing up, ambulance wasn’t showing up but the Lord always shows up no matter what. We had already interceded and prayed for him and then the next morning and they almost let him out that night but you know his blood pressure was high and low; he wasn’t even in the hospital up to 24hours. Think about it, the Lord is still bringing the dead back to life and l am just in awe and excited to see the work of the Lord.”
“Even on Tuesday l got a text message that said “pray for me, my son is in the hospital” and the Holy Ghost interrupted me to stop right there and pray right away and l did that. The Holy Ghost told me what to tell the mother, what was going on with the child and lo and behold a few hours later she called me back and said “you know they are sending my baby home” and it was as the Holy Ghost said! I am just so excited to see the work of God. It is about seeing people heal, set free, deliver and that is it; whether l am writing a book, it is to see them heal, set free and delivered whether it’s my team – no matter what role they play it is always to see them heal, set free, delivered whether it is physical, healing or mental or education or financial, it all comes back to see them heal, set free and delivered because deliverance is not just about sinners saved by grace. The Lord said that l came that you might have life and have it more abundantly, that means that we will also see deliverance in our finance where we shall not suffer lack; if we are struggling in our mind, we will see deliverance in our mind; in our family, if we want to have children, we will see deliverance there.”
We asked Prophetess Shanie what advice would you like to give the younger ministers, and here is her advice,
“Walk in faith, hope, love, peace, and the word of God and the spirit of God. This is because when we all got saved, either young by age or entrance into the kingdom, we all start off from the same place; drinking milk and eating meat. It is not by age because God is a God of time and owns time. You can have an 85 year old physically but 2-year old spiritually and vice versa. Hence, we all go through the same process of growth. The physical age doesn’t matter, so many people ask how old are you because you look more mature than your age, l tell them l am ‘Holy Ghost old’ because the Spirit of God is older than time and the spirit will lead me to all truth. So it doesn’t matter how old l am, the spirit of God will give me the wisdom l need to function. So, first is to nurture the spirit of God and be serious with God in spirit and in truth, not playing both sides of the fence; when you do this, God will reveal himself to you.”
“So we should stop looking at the physical human being whether or not they like you because we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers. We are fighting a spiritual warfare and must stop looking at the faces of physical human being. This will help us to be more mature, you would not be tied down by poverty, depression, and anxiety. Ministry is exciting and seeing the by-product of ministry such as businesses, families, and the church makes it even more interesting. These by-products are as the result of our conversation with the Lord. For example, it takes a special kind of person to live with me, my husband knows this and if you are somebody who likes to sleep you will have problem with me. The life we live behind closed doors is what people see in public. God said he is going to reward what we do in silence, openly and that has been my testimony.”
“I am the kind of person who will yell at you at the public and yell at you in the secret. If we become authentic, then ministry and school will become easy. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be time when you will get frustrated, but it is going to be easy because you know that all things are going to fall in place. He said you are going to be blessed and there will be no room to contain it and this simply means that you have the blessing; you are going to have a business, job and be in school but you don’t have time enough in your schedule to keep up with it. So, we are going to be blessed when we spend time with the Lord. Spend time with the Lord; develop yourself spiritually and naturally because he said that my people perish because of lack of knowledge. You have to have the knowledge of making money, keeping a home and a good husband.”
“You are going to be broke if you don’t have the knowledge of making money and you are going to be single if you don’t have the knowledge of keeping a home. All knowledge comes from the Lord, spending time with the Lord. As a business owner, if you don’t know how to be a godly leader you can’t lead. I tell people l read a lot and they tell me “oh you are so wise.” I am not wise; it is God that gives me wisdom. I bring issues to him and ask what l should do and he tells me want l should do. If it requires spiritual warfare, he tells me what to do and now just like Solomon; people think you are a genius.”
“Wisdom comes from the Lord, understanding comes from the Lord but knowledge you have to get by yourself and that comes by reading books, talking with godly leaders. Find people who are successful at what you want, confirm that they are living according to the word of God and the Lord is using them mightily and then you reach out to them. Many people come to me and ask that l mentor them and l genuinely love to mentor but l don’t have time to mentor! Again – no room enough to contain. So at this point, just like some leaders, l give the permission for these people to shadow me; watch what l do and see how l do things. Love how l write? Read my books. Love how l run my business? Then watch how l do things. You want to know how to lead? Find a leader you admire and watch how they treat their staff, watch their life.”
“Life changes, time changes, and the more you change the more you have to keep getting better. The more you grow, the more the things around you grow. People would always try to figure out how you do it because you are a life time learner; you got the wisdom, you gained the knowledge and God gave you the understanding, so you learn how to apply that.”
The last question we asked Prophetess Shanie if she tried to run from the call at first and this was her answer:
“Yes. Sometimes l still try, like where am l going to run to. You can’t outrun God, so it’s better you say yes. I try to run because l love being behind the scenes and got scared when God said l was going to be public. I was an introvert and a very shy person; l love being home and minding my own business – that is just my personality. So when he told me speaking, teaching, preaching, l felt no way! That is not going to happen. I remember my first few days as a professor, l told God l would just going to keep driving in my car so that l can get off the hook but God used me teaching in my 9-5 corporate job to develop my skills as a preacher and a Pastor. I learnt everything l needed to learn, dealing with people fighting and gossiping in my classroom and all of the drama that we see in ministry. I had to teach them the right thing and what they should know, just like in ministry where l teach the right word. So all of that together, put me where l am today.” I pray this bless you like it did me.
