Tom Leegstra

Tom Leegstra is an author, coach, and motivational speaker who is obsessed with travel, adventure, and personal transformation. Through his own journeys, he has come to believe that the best and fastest way to become a better person is by throwing yourself into new adventures. Tom grew up in Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and he has been fortunate to visit more than forty-three countries. His passion for travel and different cultures started at a young age. Growing up in a hub full of different cultures and being privileged to travel from an early age, he got to experience the magic of different cultures and people and to develop a deep appreciation for them. Some of Tom’s first memories of travel date back to when he was five or six years old. While his parents had never traveled far or had the means to travel when they grew up, they made sure Tom had plenty of experiences to fuel his passion for traveling at a very young age. Trips to exotic Spain and visiting bungalows in a park called Linda Vista are still strongly engraved in Tom’s memory. During these visits, he experienced the pure joy of spending time with his family and his friend’s family in a place far, far away. He still remembers the older streets and the white houses with orange tiles on the roofs. That feeling has never escaped him, and he wanted it to continue. He had dreams of moving to Spain later in his life. While that did not come true exactly the way he had envisioned it, it did partly come true when he had the opportunity to move to Arizona in 2011. With a nice warm climate, streets lined with palm trees, Hispanic-influenced housing, and a large Spanish-speaking population, Arizona fit that image from his memory. After relocating to the United States, more than three thousand miles from his hometown, Tom became equally obsessed with helping others transform their lives through the power of coaching; hence, an additional obsession was born, and a few years later, the concept of coaching people on transformation through travel was born. Tom is certified in life coaching and hypnotherapy, and if there were such thing, he would be a certified traveler and lover of cultures, too. Tom’s mission is to share his passion for travel with as many people as possible so they, too, can develop this magic appreciation of all the great wonders and the diversity this incredible world has to offer. Altogether, Tom has visited forty-three countries. When he is not traveling around the world, he is busy being an author, motivational speaker, and certified life coach and hypnotherapist. Tom currently resides in Portland, Oregon, in the United States, with his wonderful wife Kim. You can visit him at TomLeegstra.com.