Influential Woman · Public Speaking

Jessica (Jessica Malmstedt) Lynne

Inspirational Safety Speaker, Self-employed

Cottage Grove, OR

2Awards received

Connect with Jessica

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Community college in Illinois

Her Story

About Jessica

I'm the owner of Intention Driven Living, a company I founded after a 12-year career in the energy industry with a large pipeline company where I worked as a safety professional doing emergency response coordination with first responders and partnering agencies. My public speaking career really began after a distracted driving accident I caused on March 2, 2015, when I looked away for just 1.59 seconds to connect my Bluetooth device while driving home with my daughter in the passenger seat. I missed a stop sign, and we were double T-boned on a rural highway. Everyone survived, thank God, but it could have been so much worse. I was cited and given 200 hours of community service, and I developed a PowerPoint presentation to share my story. The judge was so moved by it that he approved it for my community service and encouraged me to keep doing it even after my service was complete. Now I speak to construction companies, utility companies, transportation and fleet companies, schools, and all kinds of organizations. My presentation has evolved beyond just distracted driving into something much bigger about intentional living and being present in everything we do, in our relationships, in our work, and in our daily lives. I've coordinated major events like the Oregon Utility Safety Summit that drew over 500 attendees, and I've received awards for my emergency response coordination work. It's been rough and raw building this business, I've bled financially to get it going, but I'm passionate about helping others learn from my mistake.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Jessica

01What do you attribute your success to?

I attribute my success to my dad, 100%. He's always pushed me to keep improving and be better. Even when I do a really good job, he continuously pushes me for the next thing, always improving. In different aspects of my life, I've felt like I wasn't good enough, and even now, every time I speak, I walk out of there thinking, oh God, what if they didn't like it? What if I charged too much? But I think that's truly the core of me, and that's what drives me to be better and be better for the people in my life, the people that I speak to, that I want to help. I would absolutely attribute all of that, my work ethic, my discipline, and everything to my father.

02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?

Always be open to constructive criticism. Don't take it personally, and take what you've learned and apply it, and improve. That's the best career advice I've ever received.

03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

The biggest challenge is that it's not a consistent paycheck. It's hard because every day you're trying to be creative and continue to find opportunities. Everything is always an opportunity. I could be driving down the road and see contractors out doing traffic control for whatever, an electrical company, and I will turn around on my way to the gym in running shoes and run up and make a connection, shake hands, and say hey, this is what I do. You have to put yourself out there and see every situation as an opportunity if you make it one.

04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?

Transparency is most important to me. Just being raw and living wide open and purposefully. To show up, to show up in my relationships, in my work, in my life. Presence, I think. Just presence and valuing the people and relationships in my life. That's what matters most to me.

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