Her Story
About Jessica
Jessica Rosenberg is a business leader, customer experience executive, and Co-Owner and Chief Experience Officer of Forward Thinkers, a marketing, digital strategy, and consulting company she leads alongside her husband in Colorado. With more than 20 years of hands-on experience spanning operations, sales, logistics, business development, customer experience, and digital strategy, Jessica has built her career by learning businesses from the inside out.
Her path to executive leadership has been anything but traditional. Rather than following a conventional college-to-corporate career trajectory, Jessica built her expertise through real-world experience, taking on increasingly complex leadership roles across multiple industries and learning firsthand how people, customers, and businesses operate.
Jessica began her leadership career in the restaurant industry in Austin, Texas, before spending more than a decade in catering and commissary operations. She went on to lead teams of more than 50 employees and oversee operations supporting 250 micro-markets across Texas, developing deep experience in operational efficiency, food safety, cost management, team leadership, and customer service. Her career later expanded into logistics, automated retail, sales, account management, and customer success, where she continued building a reputation for strengthening relationships, solving operational challenges, and identifying practical opportunities for growth.
Today, Jessica brings those experiences together at Forward Thinkers, where she helps connect customer experience, operations, digital strategy, automation, sales, and business growth. Her perspective is shaped not only by understanding strategy, but by having spent much of her career responsible for actually executing it.
At the center of Jessica’s leadership philosophy is a belief that people and relationships matter just as much as results. She values accountability, curiosity, adaptability, and surrounding herself with people who bring different strengths and expertise to the table. She believes strong leadership is not about having every answer, but about being willing to listen, learn, take responsibility, and create an environment where people can do their best work.
Jessica is especially passionate about encouraging women whose careers do not fit a traditional mold. Her own journey taught her that experience is an education, that there is no single path to leadership, and that an unconventional background can become a powerful advantage when you learn how to use it.
Outside of her professional work, Jessica values family, community, and supporting causes that have made a meaningful difference in people’s lives, including Planned Parenthood.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Jessica
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to my willingness to learn, adapt, and figure things out, even when I didn't have the traditional background or credentials for the opportunity in front of me. My career has taken me through food service, operations, logistics, automated retail, sales, customer experience, and now digital strategy and marketing. Each experience taught me something different about people, customers, and how businesses actually operate.
I have never been afraid to ask questions, surround myself with people who know more than I do, or admit when I need to learn something. That curiosity, combined with a strong work ethic and genuinely caring about the people I work with, has probably been the biggest contributor to my success
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is that there is no single path to success. I did not take the traditional educational or career path into executive leadership, and for a long time I thought that meant I had something to prove.
What I eventually realized is that experience is an education too. Leading teams, running operations, building customer relationships, selling, solving problems, failing, adapting, and starting over have taught me things I could never have learned from one traditional path.
My career has taught me to trust what I bring to the table and never disqualify myself from an opportunity simply because my path looks different from someone else's.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Don’t wait until you check every box before you believe you belong in the room. Be curious, ask questions, take opportunities that stretch you, and never be afraid to surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Some of the most valuable lessons in my career came from saying yes to opportunities I wasn’t completely sure I was ready for and then doing the work to figure it out. Your career does not have to look like anyone else’s to be successful. Trust what you bring to the table, stay willing to learn, and don’t disqualify yourself before someone else even has the opportunity to consider you.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges and opportunities in digital marketing right now is AI. The technology is moving incredibly fast, and businesses are under pressure to adopt it simply because everyone is talking about it. But using AI and using AI well are two very different things.
I believe the real opportunity is learning how to use technology to make people better at what they do, not to remove the human element from the work. Marketing still requires judgment, creativity, relationships, empathy, and an understanding of the customer that technology alone cannot replace. The companies that will succeed are the ones that learn how to combine the speed and intelligence of new technology with real human experience and accountability.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
People, integrity, accountability, and relationships are at the center of both my work and personal life. I believe how you treat people matters just as much as the results you produce. In business, that means doing what you say you are going to do, being honest when something isn't working, taking accountability when you get something wrong, and genuinely caring about the people behind the work.
I also believe success means very little if it comes at the expense of the people or relationships that matter most. My perspective on that has evolved throughout my career and life. Today, I care much more about building something meaningful and sustainable, creating an environment where people feel valued, and making sure there is still room for family and life outside of work.
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