Dr. Jessica D. Schloemp, Featured By Influential Women, Redefines Leadership Through Purpose, Empowerment, And Growth
Lincolnton, North Carolina – Dr. Jessica D. Schloemp is building a leadership philosophy rooted not simply in professional achievement, but in something she considers far more meaningful: satisfaction. As a seasoned operations executive, leadership strategist, organizational transformation leader, and Founder and Principal Consultant of Revive and Rise Coaching and Consulting, Jessica has spent nearly 15 years developing systems, strengthening teams, and helping organizations create environments where people and performance can thrive together.
Today, Jessica serves as Vice President of Operations at Financial Independence Group, where she leads enterprise-wide operational strategy, acquisition integration, and performance optimization initiatives. Her work is centered on creating scalable systems, improving operational efficiency, developing leadership capability, and transforming organizational culture into a foundation for retention, engagement, and sustainable growth.
Her approach to leadership has been shaped by an extensive career in financial services, a commitment to lifelong learning, and a deeply personal evolution in how she defines success.
For Jessica, the distinction between success and satisfaction is essential.
She attributes much of her growth to her focus on “satisfaction over success,” an idea that has become a guiding principle in both her professional and personal life. Rather than measuring herself by external recognition or by what others believe she should accomplish, Jessica focuses on being financially, spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically comfortable with who she is.
“I don’t really care what other people think I am successful in or what their opinion is of me,” she explains. “It’s more about being satisfied with myself and continuing to grow within myself.”
That philosophy has allowed Jessica to approach her career with greater intention and authenticity. It also influenced her decision to pursue her doctorate in strategic leadership. While completing such an advanced degree could certainly strengthen a professional résumé, that was not her primary motivation.
Jessica pursued the doctorate because she wanted to do it for herself.
She encountered plenty of skepticism along the way, including people within her own company who questioned how the degree would directly benefit her current position. Jessica, however, viewed leadership as something that extends far beyond a job title or specific role. Leadership is everywhere, she believes, and the process of learning and developing as a leader has value regardless of one’s immediate professional responsibilities.
Her educational journey reflects that commitment to continuous growth. Jessica earned her Bachelor of Arts in Business/Corporate Communications from Youngstown State University, where she began her academic career as a basketball scholarship recipient. She subsequently earned an MBA in Business Administration and Management from Franklin University before completing a doctorate in Strategic Leadership at Regent University.
Her professional development has continued alongside her formal education, including training in Storytelling to Influence Leadership and Decision Makers, Subtle Shifts in Thinking for Tremendous Resilience, Becoming an Impactful and Influential Leader, Leadership Foundations, and New Manager Foundations. She is also a member of Connected, a UK-based networking group supporting fractional advisory work.
From Operations Foundations to Enterprise Leadership
Jessica’s career in financial services began at Nationwide Financial, where she spent approximately six years developing a strong operational foundation across multiple areas, including 1035 exchanges, case management, internal sales and service, and relationship management.
The experience gave her something she considers invaluable: a comprehensive understanding of how different parts of a business work together.
By working across both operational and client-facing functions, Jessica learned to view organizations from multiple perspectives. She developed an appreciation for the infrastructure required to make a business function effectively while also understanding the importance of delivering meaningful experiences to clients and stakeholders.
Her next career opportunity came in an unexpected setting.
While standing in a lunch line, Jessica was recruited for a wholesaling position at Cincinnati Financial. Her initial response was to decline. However, the conversation did not end there. After a six-month recruitment process, she ultimately accepted the opportunity, supporting two regions in Ohio.
The position eventually led Jessica to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she expanded her leadership experience and continued building her career in financial services.
Years later, another unexpected opportunity would become one of the defining chapters of her career.
At Financial Independence Group, Jessica stepped into a critical leadership gap after the operations function had gone more than a year without direct leadership. Initially, she declined a recruiter outreach for the role. But after interviewing with the Chief Operating Officer, Jessica recognized the opportunity to make a meaningful difference and accepted the position with a clear mandate for transformation.
Over the past five years, she has led a comprehensive cultural and operational turnaround.
Jessica rebuilt systems, improved efficiency, and helped move the organization away from a reactive, task-oriented mindset toward a culture emphasizing ownership, innovation, accountability, and engagement.
Her leadership has also centered heavily on people.
Jessica currently leads a team of 34 women and is deeply committed to advocating for their development, amplifying their voices, and creating opportunities for them to contribute meaningfully. She consistently reminds her team that their contributions have played a direct role in her own success.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here, so why wouldn’t that be my priority?” she says.
That belief informs the way Jessica leads. She gives credit generously, advocates for ideas, and ensures that the voices of her team are heard—not only by her direct leadership but throughout the organization, including at the executive level.
Leadership Without a Cookie-Cutter Approach
One of the most important lessons Jessica has learned throughout her career is that leadership cannot be reduced to a single formula.
She believes people should be encouraged to lead authentically rather than being forced into predetermined leadership styles.
“Leadership is not cookie cutter,” Jessica says. “It is about allowing people to be authentically themselves and nurturing their given nature.”
Her own career reflects that philosophy. Jessica’s path was not perfectly linear, nor did every opportunity initially appear to be the right fit. Some opportunities required her to take a leap, reconsider an initial decision, or move beyond her comfort zone.
That experience informs the advice she gives to young women entering financial services and operations.
Jessica encourages women to learn every part of the business, including positions that may initially seem small or unrelated to their long-term goals. Those experiences, she believes, often become the foundation for stronger leadership later.
She also encourages women to say yes to opportunities that stretch them.
Growth does not always arrive in a comfortable package. Sometimes the opportunities that create the greatest professional development are the ones that initially seem unexpected or intimidating.
At the same time, Jessica emphasizes the importance of advocating not only for oneself but also for others.
Strong leadership, in her view, is not simply about individual achievement. It is about creating space for others to contribute, develop, and succeed.
Redefining Success Through Personal Growth
Jessica’s understanding of success has evolved considerably throughout her life.
When she was younger, she was highly externally motivated. Hearing people tell her that she could not accomplish certain things often fueled her determination to prove them wrong.
In her late 20s, however, her perspective shifted.
Instead of living according to external expectations, Jessica began focusing on becoming the best version of herself. She became more intentional about where she invested her energy, what she wanted to learn, and how she wanted to grow.
Becoming a mother created another significant shift.
With two young daughters, Jessica increasingly considers the example she is setting for them. Leadership became more than a professional concept. It became an opportunity to demonstrate through her own life what is possible.
She thinks about how she can influence her daughters, what they will see in her, and how she can show them everything life has to offer.
That perspective has strengthened her commitment to authenticity, growth, and intentionality.
Creating Cultures Where People and Performance Can Coexist
Jessica believes the financial services and operations industry is currently facing an important challenge: organizations must balance increasing expectations for efficiency, scalability, and performance with the need to create healthy, people-centered cultures.
Technology and business demands continue to evolve rapidly, but Jessica believes organizations cannot lose sight of the people responsible for delivering results.
She sees a significant opportunity to redefine leadership by moving away from reactive management and toward intentional, transparent, empowering approaches.
Healthy cultures are not separate from business performance, she believes. They can become a foundation for it.
This philosophy is particularly relevant as Jessica navigates her own professional and personal growth as a wife and mother while continuing to advance in her executive career and preparing to launch Revive and Rise Coaching and Consulting.
Her consulting and coaching venture represents a natural extension of the work she has already been doing throughout her career: helping leaders and organizations build stronger systems, healthier cultures, and more empowered teams.
Jessica’s goal is to help create environments where high performance and real life do not have to compete with one another.
A Commitment to Sharpening the Sword
Continuous learning remains one of Jessica’s most important personal values.
Whether listening to podcasts, reading articles, pursuing additional professional development, or considering future credentials such as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, she is consistently looking for ways to become a better leader.
She describes this process as “sharpening her sword”—continually developing herself so that she can show up more effectively for the people who depend on her.
For Jessica, learning is not about collecting credentials. It is about becoming more capable of serving others.
Her leadership philosophy is built around three central values: continuous learning and growth, empowerment, and intentionality.
These values shape the way she approaches her team, her organization, her family, and her own development.
After completing her doctorate, Jessica’s understanding of fulfillment became even clearer. She recognized that professional accomplishments alone could not define what mattered most to her. Instead, she wanted to be intentional about building a life that felt aligned internally.
That is why satisfaction remains at the heart of her philosophy.
Looking Ahead
As Jessica continues her executive career and prepares to expand Revive and Rise Coaching and Consulting, she is entering a new chapter defined by the same principles that have guided her transformation work throughout her career.
She wants to help leaders recognize that operational excellence and human-centered leadership do not have to exist in opposition. Organizations can pursue strong performance while also developing people, creating meaningful opportunities, and building cultures where employees feel heard and valued.
Her career demonstrates the impact that intentional leadership can have when combined with operational expertise, resilience, and a genuine commitment to others.
For Jessica, leadership is ultimately about influence—not authority.
It is about how leaders show up, how they develop others, how they respond to challenges, and what they leave behind in the people they have had the opportunity to influence.
Whether she is leading an enterprise-wide transformation, advocating for one of her team members, pursuing another opportunity to learn, or setting an example for her daughters, Jessica continues to measure her journey by the same standard.
Not simply success.
Satisfaction.
And for her, satisfaction means knowing that she is growing, learning, empowering others, and becoming the best version of herself along the way.
Learn More about Dr. Jessica Schloemp:
Through her Influential Women profile, https://influentialwomen.com/connect/jessica-schloemp or through her website, https://www.reviveandriseconsulting.com/
Influential Women
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