Profile of Lynn Armstrong, Founder of ZÖE
February 1, 2016, Lynn Armstrong walked into the shoe business to create the ultimate shoe shopping experience under the brand name, ZÖE. "Originally I got into this business to work with my daughter who is a Canadian fashion designer. I wanted to co-create a space with her to showcase her work and the work of other emerging and established Canadian designers. So that's what I did, and that's what ZÖE is all about."
Lynn Armstrong is a Canadian story teller turned entrepreneur with a penchant for shoes. She began her career working as a journalist and then moved into the corporate world of communications, policy, governance and leadership. Over the years, she says that shoes have been her super power.
"When I walked into a board room, I knew that the walk mattered."
In 2011, she left the corporate realm and joined the entrepreneurial world, founding the company Lynear Thinking Strategy and Communications Ltd., which focuses on helping her customers get to where they are going.
Lynn took over the magazine brand, SKY Magazine, as owner and publisher in 2012. She wrote, developed, and published the quarterly magazine which focused on telling the stories of independent business owners - many of which were retail until 2016 when she moved it into the digital world. In 2014, Lynn published her first book, "How to be a Pink Flamingo in a Brown Duck Pond", which is a metaphorical tale about the corporate world.
Prior to her entrepreneurial life, Lynn's career began as a journalist at the Regina Leader Post, after graduating from the School of Journalism at the University of Regina in 1996. With 2 small children and husband in university, Lynn started her first communications role at Farm Credit Canada, where she became known for her expertise in annual reporting. Winning several communications industry awards in annual reporting and corporate planning awards, Lynn developed an appreciation for the importance of corporate planning and reporting, a skill that carried her into leadership roles in the credit union system, and the Saskatchewan government. She could see that if people could see the future, they would be able to build meaningful careers that would enrich their lives.
As the owner of ZÖE, Lynn meets and greets her guests, many of whom are professional and emerging professional women. Lynn's ZÖE is in its 7th year of business, continuing to redefine retail in her own way while continuing to write stories about who we are what we do.
IRL Location: 2120 Broad Street, Regina, Saskatchewan
Professional website: www.lynearthinking.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/zoeconcept_shop