Who We Are

Growing up with three sisters, each no more than a few years apart, leadership through collaboration was a quickly learned way of life. As kids, we would work together to identify the skills and talents we each had as we wrote songs, produced plays and took discovery hikes around our rural Iowa home. Our summers were spent on an island on Lake of the Woods in Nestor Falls, Ontario, Canada, where without the modern conveniences of indoor restrooms and televisions, we were constantly teaching and learning from each other as we swam, fished and passed the time through creative play. From a young age, my dad taught us classic strategy games, such as cribbage, backgammon, chess, and card games.  While I didn’t realize it at the time, and it likely was more about his competitive spirit than an intentional lesson, Dad gave us the gift of never “letting us win”.  We had to do that on our own. This developed a habit of strategic thinking that has served me well throughout my life.

As we grew older, my sisters and I remained close, using each other as sounding boards and thought partners as we worked through the woes and joys of adulthood, knowing that we were never going it alone.  These close-knit relationships early on in life shaped the way I networked and made friends throughout my high school and college years, instilling in me an excitement for collaboration and a passion for helping others achieve their goals. 

There was always an expectation in our family that we would work.  My first “official” job (with tax withholdings and all) was at age 15 when I worked in the Iowa “field of dreams” as a corn detasseler.  Following a day in the fields I would go to work as a server at the local Country Club.  This routine continued for approximately five years, until I moved from my small Iowa town to continue pursuing my college degree in Mankato, Minnesota.  When I was hired to work at Walt Disney World shortly thereafter, they cited the hard work ethic as a primary reason they recruited in the Midwest, stating “anyone who can detassel corn for five summers will do just fine with us at Disney.”  

My five-year career with Walt Disney World Company reinforced my eagerness to foster meaningful connections, both personally and professionally. I lived and worked with young adults from all over the world, people who remain some of my closest friends to this day.  Even now, some thirty-five years later we still help each other professionally and serve as mentors to each other’s children as they grow and enter the workforce. Resulting from my tenure at Disney, the “pixie dust” of possibility and creativity still flow through my veins and the commitment to excellence in all I do has served me throughout my career. Disney also instilled in me a passion for travel and tourism and for the next 30 years after leaving Disney, my life was dedicated to the promotion and development of destinations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  

It amazes me how thirty years can pass in the blink of an eye.  Having established myself as a leader in destination management, raising a family including two successful adult children and continuing to invest in my lifelong learning pursuits, 2020 became the year to start a new chapter.  Thus, I made the move to Tucson, Arizona, and officially started an executive coaching and destination consulting practice that I had been dreaming of and preparing for for years, ​Linda John Consulting. ​ I now offer a variety of professional training and human resource development services, including team development and organizational rebuilding initiatives utilizing the Integrative Enneagram. Today, I work as diligently to help my clients meet their growth potential as I did all those summers in the corn field - the only difference is the kinds of ears that are listening.