Alumni Business Owner Profile

Some of us keep on learning long after we walk out of the classroom. After earning two degrees at the U of R (BA’94 (Campion), BAJC ’96), Lynn Armstrong has been on a continuous rinse-and-repeat cycle of learning and mastering a wide variety of things, her sense of self included.

For young adults, attending university can be a pivotal time of life, helping us to understand the world and ourselves. Like many alumni, Lynn’s experience at the U of R helped her see who she was.

“Learning is my favourite thing to do, and I loved university. I felt free to think, to imagine, to be. If I hadn’t gone to the U of R, I know I wouldn’t be who I am today.” 

She began her studies at Campion and studied English but was in pursuit of Journalism. “I wanted to be a writer—writing is the core of everything for me; Journalism allows you to be a writer.”

As she pursued her passion for writing, Lynn married a fellow U of R student, Mervin Armstrong (CA ’95, BEng ‘98), and soon found herself juggling classes with a relationship and two little kids, all the while earning money to pay for her education—even taking a job driving a school bus.

“There was no way I was going to quit,” she says in retrospect, “If I want to do something, I do it.”

By 1996, Lynn had two U of R degrees and entered the professional world. And so began this alumna’s boundless and widely varied career following her own path.

She follows the mantra, “do good things and good things happen”, and maintains high personal expectations for success. This mindset, combined with her communications abilities, business sense, and a photographic memory to boot, has served her well.

She has a weighty resume. Currently, she owns and operates two businesses (Lynear Thinking Strategy & Communications Consulting Ltd., and retail business line, ZÖE Shoes + Objects), the latter recently expanded to accommodate an in-house yoga studio; she is a business analyst supporting digital transformation in the MB healthcare sector, is a “relentless entrepreneur”, a journalist, an award winning writer, and has earned the Award of Excellence in Communication four years in row from the International Association of Business Communicators.

Lynn transitioned from journalism to business organically.  “I naturally speak the language of business,” she says, explaining that “journalism is about how people describe their experience about what is happening, and often there is limited understanding about the why.  Understanding the policy and business of decisions tells us why things are happening. “I am always curious about how policy decisions shape our experiences as people.” 

Having been invited to the table where decisions are made, Lynn finds fulfillment in understanding the logic in the decisions behind policy. Seeing business through a journalistic lens, she wanted to tell the story of business to help people understand it. Her channel? The corporate plan. Her business writing earned her the Auditor General's Award for Excellence in Annual Reporting for her work on corporate plans for Farm Credit Canada.

Lynn isn’t a person who has hobbies; she sees everything as a job, so when she volunteered for a local nonprofit in the 2010s, her heart went into her work. While working in corporate services at Casino Regina, she met former Saskatchewan Roughrider, George Reed, HDR ’81, who also worked at the casino. She helped him with his communication portfolio and community relations and also took an interest in Reed’s namesake charity foundation (now the George Reed Legacy Fund). She took on the “job” of volunteering to write and develop the organization’s corporate plan before becoming a board member and corporate secretary.

Ever learning, Lynn observed and grew from knowing George Reed. “He gave 150% of everything he did—he made me a better person.”

Between consulting, business, writing, family, and volunteering, Lynn miraculously finds the time and energy to run a retail space in Regina's Cathedral neighbourhood. ZÖE Shoes + Objects on Robinson Street is a lovely little shop full of beautiful shoes, clothing, and other interesting pieces.  She walked into the shoe business in February 2016, admittedly knowing very little about retail as a business.

She envisioned a business that could provide a beautiful experience with high-quality products and service, and customer intimacy in both the brick and mortar and online world, launching the new brand “ZÖE” in March 2016 with a commitment to representing Canadian designers as its first priority.  In March 2017, ZÖE made its debut on the runway of Saskatchewan Fashion Week, featuring Canadian designers and high-quality footwear from around the world.

“I have a special place for people who make things,” she says, adding that her daughter is a clothing designer. “ZÖE Shoes + Objects promotes homegrown Canadian designers— many of whom are women. The pieces may be more expensive, but they’re more interesting.”

But below the beautiful and interesting things is the business and the risk management. Lynn seems to continuously weigh possibilities and exercises her ever expanding entrepreneurial spirit.

Her future plans are, not surprisingly, varied and far reaching. Among other things, she’s in the process of opening Inspiraré, her aforementioned in-house yoga studio as part of the ZÖE Concept in May 2025, offering a variety of movement and yoga classes for private groups and individuals. She wrote her first book in 2014 and may one day write another: “How to be a Pink Flamingo in a Brown Duck Pond” about what she’s learned in business and in life.

With all that goes on in her life, what is refreshing is Lynn’s capacity for humility and her ability to learn from her mistakes. Identifying resilience as her greatest strength, she says, “I can pick myself up off the floor every time.”