Linda Hoffner

Lauren

Linda, thank you so much for joining today. I'm so excited — you have such a warm, light energy and such a kind heart. I met you through an organization we were raising funds for, and I love that you're willing to share your time and resources with others. I wanted to get to know you better, so I'm really grateful you accepted this invite. Can you start by telling us what your day job is and what it means?

Linda

Thank you so much for having me — and for reaching out. I'm honored to be here and to have connected with you the way we did.

I feel like I'm still defining what my job is, honestly — it's ever-changing and evolving. But on paper, I'm the General Manager of The Spring District, a mixed-use development in the BelRed neighborhood of Bellevue. I handle the daily operations of about 1.6 million square feet of mixed-use office space and a 36-acre park that runs through the center of it all. I've been here almost five and a half years now, and it was a role I came into that wasn't clearly defined — which I personally loved. I'm someone who thrives in the gray area. The ask wasn't "do this exact job." It was: let's figure out what makes this community thrive, and how we bring it to life.

Today I manage a team of ten — a mix of admin support and on-site engineering — and we handle third-party operations for assets we've sold off as well as maintaining the properties we still own, all while working to build a genuine sense of community. No two days look the same.

Lauren

That's your day job — but I'd love to give you the space to talk about all the other things you do too.

Linda

Because my role here is so undefined, it gave me the opportunity to be out in the community more than most. When The Spring District was coming online, it had been this topic of conversation throughout Bellevue for years — and once it was actually here, the question became, now what? Keeping the energy alive required me to show up, connect, and support broader initiatives throughout the city and region that personally resonated with me.

I also arrived here in December 2020 right in the middle of my year of service as Mrs. Washington America. I'd previously been Mrs. Bellevue, and through that experience I'd already gotten deeply connected to nonprofits and community work — especially meaningful during the pandemic, which was my year of reign. That passion carried right into my work here, where I was trying to build community in a brand-new place that had never had one before.

Through a two-year adaptive leadership program called Leadership Eastside, I connected with so many people doing meaningful work in this region — including Astral Partners, where I serve on the board, and Rainier Athletes, a youth mentorship program for fifth through twelfth graders in the Bellevue School District. Those connections gave me a sense of purpose that I think can sometimes get lost in your day-to-day career, especially when there isn't a direct line between your job and giving back. I found a way to marry the two — and it's been the best of both worlds.

I also want to mention CREW — the Commercial Real Estate Women's Network. One of the first things I wanted to do when I arrived here was get involved, and now I'm President-Elect. That investment in myself, being encouraged to invest in myself, has genuinely been a game-changer.

Lauren

Can you back up and talk about how you decided what you wanted to do? Did you have a sense of direction early on — walk me through high school to now.

Linda

I think I'm still figuring out what I want to be when I grow up. I was always jealous of the kids who had a clear answer — "I'm going to law school," "I'm going to be a doctor." That was never me. I ended up at UW getting a communications degree because it felt broad enough to keep my options open. Real estate wasn't really discussed as a career path at the time — it was something you fell into, which is exactly how it happened for me.

After school, I went into TV ad sales — putting infomercials on air, tracking how the juicer did today. Not exactly bucket-filling work. I eventually moved down to Tucson, Arizona, trying to pivot into broadcasting in a smaller market. In the middle of that, I got divorced. I had married young and had my first child young, and suddenly I needed to move back to Washington and find something stable enough to support being a single mom.

A college friend who worked at Wright Runstad & Company mentioned they needed someone at a front desk in Bellevue. This was 2008 — not a great time in real estate — but property management has always been stable. It's a slow-and-steady-wins-the-race kind of career, not as flashy as brokerage or asset management, but the trajectory is real. I started at the bottom and spent the next several years working through the system — getting remarried, having a second child, redefining myself through motherhood round two, and finding a company that actually supported all of who I was. When the call came to return to Wright Runstad, I knew that's where I was supposed to be.

Lauren

You touched on so much there. Can we talk about how the system can better support women — and specifically single mothers, who are asked to redefine themselves personally and professionally at the same time? What has your company done well, and what do you think the industry still needs to improve?

Linda

I'll start with where I struggled. I was fortunate to have local family nearby — my whole experience would have looked dramatically different without that. But even with that support, pre-COVID the property management world expected you there eight to five. And as anyone with kids knows, school hours don't support that — especially when you're a single parent and paying for wraparound childcare isn't easy. I remember asking early on if I could come in at nine so I could do school drop-off without extra out-of-pocket costs, and the answer was: nope, eight to five. That was years ago, but it stuck with me. Our industry has always been a little behind the times on this, which is part of why there aren't more women in it. It isn't built around where people actually are in their life cycle.

The second moment that really hit me was after my second maternity leave. I had been on the cusp of a promotion before I left, and when I came back, the conversation was — "why don't you just settle into being a mom for now? Don't worry about advancing your career." I was genuinely pissed off. That is not your decision to make for me. If I was ready before I had my son, I'm still ready. I left that company within six to nine months because they had decided what I was capable of instead of letting me drive that bus. And I know so many women have felt exactly that.

Meanwhile, my current husband is also in the industry. He became a new dad too. None of those conversations were ever had with him. I was working twice as hard to prove myself while he advanced without anyone questioning whether fatherhood might be a distraction.

On the flip side, where I am now, I've tried to build the environment I wish had existed for me. Everyone on my team has hours that work for their lives. Kids come into the office on random school days off — my son does it regularly, and the team loves it and puts him to work. One of our engineers is a single dad whose daughter plays softball; he comes in early so he can leave in time for her games. We went from a rigid eight-to-five to having someone on site from six in the morning to six at night, and we did it by letting people choose. The coverage is actually better. The team is happier. There's no downside.

The resistance to this kind of change is really what's keeping working moms in 2026 still having the same conversations. When you actually map out what flexibility looks like, it almost always works. People just don't want to do that mapping because it requires letting go of "how it's always been done."

Lauren

What would you tell your younger self?

Linda

I would want to hug her and say: I see you. I think as young women we crave being seen — not in a dramatic way, but just being genuinely accepted for who we are. And in my life, there weren't many moments early on where someone said, "I believe in you. I see what you're capable of. How can I help you thrive?" It took a very long time for me to be able to say that to myself.

The more we hear those words — whether from others or from our own inner voice — the more we start to believe them. Positive self-talk, and having people around you who say "I have your back" — that can genuinely change the trajectory of a life. It's a big part of what drew me back to Wright Runstad: I felt seen. Not like a number. And the last five and a half years have transformed my career because of that feeling of being accepted, supported, and given the freedom to explore what leadership actually means for me.

I also had some unsupportive female bosses along the way — women who competed rather than mentored, who turned the ladder into a tug-of-war instead of helping others climb. That's painful and unfortunately common. So when I think about mentorship now, what drives me is wanting to say "I see you" to women much earlier in their career — so they don't spend 20 years grinding and wondering if any of it matters.

And the other thing I'd tell my younger self is: learn to self-advocate. Women aren't taught that well, especially in commercial real estate. How do you make people aware of what you're doing and what you want without feeling like you're bragging? That confidence took me too long to find, and I want women to find it earlier so they aren't burned out by the time the opportunities finally come.

Lauren

Do you have any practical tools or advice for how to advocate for yourself in a way that actually lands?

Linda

LinkedIn, genuinely. It was one of the most powerful things I ever did for my career. I didn't have a marketing background, but I started sharing what I was working on — big projects, initiatives, things I wanted people to see. And I noticed that when I'd walk into meetings, people would say, "Oh my gosh, Linda, you're doing that?" and I'd realize: people are actually reading this. When my superiors — and their superiors — could see what I was doing, it gave me the confidence to then talk about it in one-on-ones. Writing it first felt a lot less scary than saying it out loud.

Getting involved in CREW helped too. Giving elevator pitches at lunches, advocating for an organization, learning how to tell a story on behalf of a committee — I realized those skills transfer directly to telling your own story. It's the same muscle, just turned inward. And once you get comfortable enough with who you are, sharing your story gets easier. You don't need a huge network — you just need a few people who genuinely see and believe in you. That's enough to give you the confidence to start.

I've also shifted how I run one-on-ones with my manager. I come in with updates — not just about the team, but about what I specifically have been working on and contributing. So when I eventually needed to make a case for adding a team member, it was no surprise to him. He'd been hearing all of it for months. That groundwork is everything.

Lauren

Any final thoughts for the young women coming up in the industry?

Linda

You get out what you put in. There's a tendency in younger generations to expect advancement at a pace that isn't always tied to what's actually been demonstrated. So I always say: know the scope of your own job, and the job above you — and start doing the work of that next level before you have the title. When you've already been showing up as that person, you're a much easier case to make when the opportunity opens up.

I say the same thing to pageant contestants I mentor on the interview process. If you aren't already doing the work of Mrs. Washington, you won't be considered for that job. Show up as if you're already there — humbly and with real investment — and it will pay dividends.

Relationships matter too. Commercial real estate is a relationship industry at its core. When you invest in the people around you — not transactionally, but genuinely — you build trust, safety, and the kind of reputation that opens doors. Put in the work with people, and you'll get it back.

And at the end of the day, I've stopped thinking so much about what title I want to hold. I think more about what I want people to say about me at my retirement party. That's the shift. It's less about position and more about how you made people feel and what you actually built. I think we're all — even at this stage — still figuring out what that little girl inside of us really wants to be. And that's okay. Time is going to pass anyway. Better to spend it working toward something you actually care about.