Jessica Smith: Raising the Bar and Lifting People Up

August 2019 Consultant of the Month

Jessica Smith is a certified professional leadership coach and marketing consultant with 17 years of corporate and startup experience. Colleagues say she is adept at connecting the dots and developing valuable solutions. In a corporate environment, she can quickly navigate information and orchestrate cross-functional teams. When coaching one-on-one, she asks powerful questions to identify skills, mindsets, and behaviors to help people achieve their goals.

Currently, Jessica is consulting with Intuit, helping them with the strategy and launch of a new Quickbooks Desktop Enterprise product. In addition, she works with BetterUp, a leadership coaching agency, and has her own business coaching professionals on career paths or leadership development. Jessica taps into her broad experience to provide value in any aspect of marketing, whether it’s content strategy, digital marketing, business strategy, operations, or analytics.

Finding Her Professional Sweet Spot

While she can thoughtfully and efficiently nail a marketing plan down, Jessica’s true passion emerged as a manager of people. She was fascinated by identifying skills and assets that helped people be successful in their roles. She observed that they were happy and motivated if their work tied into a long-term plan.

With a master’s degree in counseling psychology, Jessica says there are many crossover skills that apply to coaching. To draw out what’s inside of people, she uses active listening, empathy, intuition, and asks the tough questions. One client has “witnessed the magic” in coaching and mentoring sessions.

Jessica started consulting which gave her the time and space to connect with her passion. After studying with the Coaches Training Institute, she was officially certified in coaching. Jessica continues to pursue the next level of certification.

Harnessing Energy to Inspire Others

Finding meaningful work and balance has been essential for Jessica, who is raising two young kids. When Jessica is away from them, she knows her activities really need to “fill her up.” This gives her energy and inspiration for when she is with them.

When not cheering on her kids at sports, Jessica and her family love playing with their dog, going to the beach, or camping. Her hidden talents include drawing and painting. Projects have included producing greeting cards and a new logo for her business. If that’s not enough, Jessica has organized a hip hop class for fellow moms, and enjoys running, yoga, and pilates.

Given her positive energy, experience, and fulfillment in her own life, it’s no wonder that Jessica is an encouraging presence to others and an asset to any team.