Thursday, May 18, 2011:  With sweaty palms and shaky knees, I delivered the third consecutive keynote speech for The Empowered Woman Success Summit.  Thanks for all of you in the audience who pulled for me (and let me be Justin Bieber for 10 seconds). 

Friday, June 11th, 2010: “Unleash Your Inner Badass.” In front of an audience of 200, Jessica talks about her real goal. AND…the response was WILD.

Today I get on a plane headed for a conflict zone the Middle East.  For the next 9 days I’ll be on a video shoot with the International Rescue Committee to produce a series of training videos that will help this organization rebuild healthy classrooms and learning environments in 22 of the most devastated places on planet earth.

Chances are I’ll return unscathed.  However, the slight possibility of being kidnapped or abducted has heightened my desire to do one thing I simply have to do before I die:  Give a TED talk.

So, while I should have been packing this morning, I instead recorded my first ever TED talk (which I spontaneously wrote on my iPhone last night while sitting at TEDxMIA).  It’s raw, rough, my head is cut off and the printer starts running in the middle. It’s not perfect.  Perfection wasn’t the point.  You can watch my 5 minute video below.

It’s doubtful that any of you are headed into a danger zone where your life is at risk this week.  THAT is a shame. Because sometimes that kind of fear and alertness snap you out of the day to day grind and forces you to spend time on what’s IMPORTANT and what will let your light shine out onto the world.

What’s one idea you have that you have to share before you die?  ‘
Will you share it today?