The Lesley Hawkins Podcast
Anchored by the question, "What’s one pivotal moment in your life?",
Lesley hosts candid, personal conversations that reveal the turning points that shape who we are.
With her signature empathy, wit, and warmth, Lesley creates space for guests to open up, sparking insights that challenge assumptions, stir reflection, and ignite growth.
Each episode blends honest stories, surprising insights, and moments of laughter, leaving listeners feeling inspired, seen, and more deeply connected to the human experience.
Episodes
36 episodes
Emily O'Brien - From Prison to Popcorn: The Story Behind Comeback Snacks
Our guest was a business owner. Driven, entrepreneurial, building her own social media company. Then she met a client and what started as a business relationship led to a vacation in the Caribbean. But when she returned to Canada, she was arres...
Rachel Barbaro - Listening to Your Inner Voice
From the outside, our guest was living the life. A beautiful family, a career as an executive in the public sector with upward momentum. She had the kind of résumé that screamed success, prestige, power.But something was off. A persisten...
Stephen Clements - When the Family Business Is More Than Business
His father opened a sports store in Toronto, and from an early age, the family business wasn't just where he worked, but where he grew up.But not everything built with love is easy to sustain. So he walked away, not from the work, but to...
Keeley Simpson - Turning Personal Experience Into Sound Financial Advice for Women
When our guest was in university, her family faced two crises at the same time. Her mother, a business owner, fell seriously ill. And without proper financial planning in place, a health crisis quickly became a financial one too.That exp...
Sonia Houle - A Brutal Diagnosis at 28 Changed Everything
At 28 years old, our guest received a diagnosis that stopped her life in its tracks. Breast cancer. And with it, medically induced menopause that no one her age expects to navigate.So she did what many high-achievers do when life becomes...
Leisse Wilcox - Nothing Will be Enough for You, Until You are Enough for You!
She built her dream life. A beautiful home. Three gorgeous daughters. A marriage that checked all the boxes. But inside, something didn’t fit.There was a quiet whisper she couldn’t ignore. A growing realization that nothing would ever b...
Farhan Lalji - From one hard conversation to a Hall of Fame career
Sometimes the path you’re meant to follow starts in the most unlikely place. For today’s guest, it began on Christmas Day, watching football games on TV while the rest of the world celebrated the holiday. That quiet tradition sparked a love for...
Chris Seney - Never Give Up!
At 37 years old, life was moving exactly as planned. A growing real estate business, his first child on the way, the future was bright.Until the diagnosis. What followed was a year defined by radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, and plenty ...
Evanka Osmak - Grief Changed Me
With a degree in civil engineering, she was set for a future of stability and success, and yet her passion lay elsewhere. So she returned to school to learn the world of sports broadcasting, and has since become a leader in the space, appearing...
Renee Lindo - Unlocking Women's Confidence Through Style
She was successful with a big sales role in the pharmaceutical industry. She had climbed the mountain and enjoyed all the perks that came with it, but something felt off. The view from the top wasn’t what she thought it would be.So she m...
Kevin Collins - My Journey with Easter Seals
From a young age, our guest understood what it meant to be seen through a label. Born with cerebral palsy, he could have allowed the diagnosis to define the boundaries of his life. Instead, he chose something different. At just eigh...
Pam Shainhouse - Learning How To Live Again
There are moments in life that redefine you. And for our guest today, two such moments changed everything about her and her life. Diagnosed with a bone disorder at just five years old, her disability shaped her identity, her persona...
David McPherson - Sobriety Gave Me My Life Back
It started as a few harmless pints in high school, but for our guest today, one early habit slowly became part of his identity. It shaped how he showed up, how he coped. Until one mistake changed his course. A moment that forced him...
Kate Stewart - From side project to meaningful impact
Some pivotal moments only reveal themselves in hindsight.For our guest today, what once felt like a career sidebar slowly revealed itself as something much bigger, a calling rooted in service, impact, and meaning.It began with tea...
Lindsay Knowlton - Leaning into fear and discomfort
For our guest today, two pivotal moments reshaped everything, one professional, one deeply personal, and both were sparked by the same choice: to lean into fear and discomfort and say “yes” to opportunity. The first began in ...
Dr Amanda Tobe - When Passion Becomes The Compass
Maternity leave created a pause; a moment to reassess, to ask a hard question “what do I actually want my life to feel like at the end of the day?”What started as a passion project, just five hours a week, became a process of ca...
Carli Yim - "You Can’t Pour From an Empty Cup"
For a long time, our guest’s identity was tied to one thing: performance in sport.Then a shoulder injury changed everything. What followed wasn’t just physical pain, but the mental and emotional toll of losing the role that defined who s...
Kim Magnus - Finding a Love for People First Leadership
A 2023 study by the Workforce Institute at UKG found that leaders have as much impact on an employee’s mental health as their spouse or partner. Let that sink in for a moment.For our guest today, leadership became personal early in her c...
Jordie Dunlop - A Near-Death Experience That Brought Values in Focus
Sometimes life doesn’t whisper that something needs to change, it stops you cold. Our guest was returning from a routine business trip when everything unraveled. What started as feeling unwell quickly became a hospital visit, a scar...
Tara Talbot - A Five-Year Rollercoaster
Life-altering change doesn’t always come in a single pivotal moment. For our guest, it was a long five-year period that changed everything.It began with the end of a marriage. Then came a parent’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and the long, emot...
Jennifer Hawkins - The power of fitness and mindset to survive Stage 3 colon cancer
On the outside, she was doing everything right. A healthy lifestyle, fitness at the core of how she managed stress and showed up every day.Then her body started sending signals she couldn’t ignore. What began as stomach issues turned int...
Lesley Hawkins - What Season One Taught Us
As the year comes to a close, I’ve been reflecting on the conversations that shaped Season One of this podcast. These episodes were about the moments that change us, the questions that force clarity, and the courage to choose a different path.<...
Geoff Tait - "Better Hit Another": The Founders Mindset
He built an apparel business from the ground up. The business was booming, new partners joined the venture, and success felt endless. He was on top of the world.Until the partnership collapsed. Everything fell apart and the business shut...
Jocelyn Pepe - Recovering from a traumatic brain Injury
Managing the emotional toll of a tough divorce with three young children, led today’s guest to turn to triathlons, to cope. Then a horrific bicycle accident changed everything. A traumatic head injury forced her to stop, slow down, ...
Rachel Mielke - Building a brand with purpose and impact.
She built a jewelry brand from passion and purpose.But the business began to stall. Then a cancer diagnosis, followed quickly by the arrival of a global pandemic. Everything changed.What began as a moment of crisis bec...