The Lesley Hawkins Podcast

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 of uncertainty. While fighting for his health, he was also running his business. And somehow, in the middle of it all, he had the best year of his real estate car...

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 every evening as co-host of Sportsnet Central.  After years of covering hockey, she made an unexpected move at 41: lacing up her own hockey skates, joining...

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 made the decision to walk away and start again from scratch in a completely different world. The world of fashion, style, and identity. What followed wasn’t just a...

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 eight years old, he became involved with Easter Seals, an organization dedicated to supporting children and youth with disabilities in carving their own paths. What began...

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 personal limitation. Until one person challenged that narrative and it has led her to work advocating for those who are often excluded from society. Her story took a tragic t...

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 to confront the gap between who he was and who he wanted to be. That moment set him on a long, uncomfortable journey to reclaim his life. This is a conversation about...

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 teaching children with cancer how to waterski. And what followed was a realization that helping others wasn’t a side project, it was the work. She went on to combine her l...

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 a Starbucks, talking to a friend and a stranger nearby who couldn’t help but listen, gave an unexpected offer to help. What started as a single golf clinic became a passion...

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 career rediscovery, of listening inward. Passion became her internal compass, a way to evaluate decisions, block out the noise, and recognize a true “whole-body yes.” Today...

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 she was. She struggled to find new ways to contribute to her team, while quietly battling negative self-talk and a growing sense of isolation that lasted years. On...

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 career. She started as a micromanager, focused on telling her team what to do, how to do it, and when. But experiencing the mental and physical toll of working und...

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 scary diagnosis, and emergency surgery.   Three weeks in the ICU. Three months of recovery at home. During that stillness, everything came into focus. What matters. What d...

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, emotional journey of caregiving.  In the midst of it all, she sensed something wasn’t right with her own health, and by advocating for answers, discovered a rare form...

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 into a diagnosis of C-difficile, a highly contagious intestinal virus, and weeks spent in and out of the hospital, including Christmas Day. And then an alarming disc...

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. This season, you heard from athletes, founders, and leaders who shared what happens behind the scenes through loss, reinvention, and self-belief. Today is a...

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 down.  But his story doesn’t end there.  He got back up and decided to start a business in an industry that was teeming with competition. But surrounded by a com...

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, and focus on one thing at a time. Suddenly, every aspect of her life — raising her kids, managing her business, and simply moving through each day — became a challenge...

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 became a powerful reset. A chance to move closer to family, refocus on what truly mattered, and rebuild with intention. While others closed their doors, she doubled down. And in doin...

You’re an entrepreneur dedicated to helping leaders on their professional journey.  You join a coaching group to sharpen your skills. At the same time, you are navigating the dating world, hoping to find a life partner. Then, within months of each other, your personal and professional worlds come crashing down. Betrayal of confidentiality. Emotional abuse.  You have to relearn how to trust your in...

He built his life around the game of hockey. Living the life of a true bachelor.  Then everything changed.  Marriage. A family. A new set of responsibilities. As a broadcaster, he traveled across North America chasing breaking stories, always ready to jump on a flight at a moment’s notice. A bag always packed at the front door. Balancing life on the road with life at home, he discovered that true...

Sometimes, you see the writing on the wall.  The business is moving in the wrong direction.  Life is too busy; you’re being pulled in too many directions at once. For our guest today, the decision was clear – step away from their career to become a full-time caregiver for aging parents. Along the way, learning how to navigate the complexities of our healthcare system, finding strategic allies, and...

Walking away from corporate life is never easy.  Our guest made that leap. Choosing to start a business of their own.  But the early days were anything but certain.  Four months of questioning: Am I doing the right thing?   A lack of confidence, and the constant search for direction. What followed was a journey of finding a niche, being intentional with time, and choosing the right people to work...

What if your job required you to be outside every single day?  And the more successful you were, the more sun exposure you got. And then one day, it all comes crashing down with three dreaded words: ‘You have cancer.’ Not just anywhere—but on the one place that is your identity, your brand, on your face. This is the story of our guest’s journey through 9 facial reconstructive surgeries to rid him...

Imagine this: You do everything right.  You play by the rules.  You travel across the continent, competing in every event, collecting the points you need.  And then, when it should all pay off, your association makes a subjective decision, and you don’t make the team for a worldwide event being hosted in your home country. What would you do? Walk away? Accept it? Not this athlete. She took it to c...

Imagine being adopted and deciding to search for your birth parents. You order a DNA test kit from 23andMe.  It sits on your desk for two months.  Every day, you stare at the box and wonder: What will it mean if I send this in? One afternoon, you finally do. And everything changes. What felt like a long shot, suddenly turns into a reunion with your birth father, and an entire extended family you n...