The Brand is Female

What does it take to become the first? In this bonus live episode of The Brand is Female, Eva Hartling sits down with Dr. Gina Cody, engineer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, Chancellor of Concordia University, and the first woman in Canada to earn a PhD in Building Engineering. Recorded live at the Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, this conversation traces Dr. Cody's remarkable...

Purpose and profit are often framed as competing priorities. But what if the most successful businesses are built by refusing to choose between them? Recorded live in Vancouver last week during The Brand is Female Conversations Series, this episode brings together two leaders who are redefining what entrepreneurship can accomplish. Carla Guerrera, Founder and CEO of Purpose Driven Development, is...

In one of our favourite episodes of the season, Eva Hartling speaks with Chantel Chapman, founder of the Trauma of Money Institute , to explore the deeper forces that shape our relationship with money. After starting her career in finance and working as a financial literacy educator, Chantel realized that knowledge alone doesn’t always translate into healthy financial behaviour. Her work now sits...

What does it really take to scale a food brand when your standards make everything harder? In this re-aired episode, Eva sits down with Tara and Megan, the founders behind Canadian functional food company Rawcology. What started in a family kitchen with a dehydrator and a mission to remove inflammatory ingredients from everyday snacks has grown into a nationally distributed brand now carried by re...

What does it take to break into one of the most closed, traditional industries in the world—and do it on your own terms? In this episode, host Eva Hartling sits down with Erica Bianchini, co-founder and creative director of Ecksand, to unpack how she built a fine jewelry brand from scratch—without legacy, without outside investment, and without compromising on values. What started in Montreal as a...

At a time when women’s sports are reaching new heights, Canada’s women’s rugby program is emerging as one of the most compelling stories in the game. In this episode, Eva Hartling sits down with Jocelyn Barrieau, head coach of Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team, to explore the evolution of the sport — from limited opportunities to Olympic podiums and World Cup finals. Together, they unpack what it...

Former NASA rocket scientist, entrepreneur, and citizen astronaut Aisha Bowe has built a career defined by bold decisions—and even bolder execution. She’s also, as you’ll hear, not opposed to naming a few favourite [fictional] aliens along the way. From discovering her passion for math in community college to working at NASA, founding two companies, raising venture capital in a system where fewer...

Sherry Holmes grew up on construction sites with her dad, Mike Holmes — one of Canada's most recognized names in the trades. But becoming a builder in her own right wasn't a given. In fact, she fought it for years. In this episode, Sherry opens up about the winding road that led her to construction, including a brain tumour diagnosis at 19 that changed her perspective on everything, the moment she...

Dr. Nathalie Gabra is an otolaryngologist, head and neck surgeon, and Dermapure practitioner who brings a deeply medical lens to aesthetic medicine.  But before the treatments and the protocols, she grew up watching her father and grandfather operate, and knew from a young age that surgery was her path. That foundation shapes everything about how she practices today. In this episode, airing o...

Mélanie Joly has held some of the most demanding roles in Canadian federal politics — from Minister of Canadian Heritage to Minister of Foreign Affairs to her current role as Minister of Industry. But before any of that, she was a 34-year-old who founded her own political party and ran for mayor of Montreal. That gutsy move set the tone for everything that followed. In this episode, we talk about...

This week’s episode is exceptionally airing in French! ….. Sophie Larivière-Mantha voulait programmer des robots — et c'est un stage de cégep qui l'a redirigée vers le génie. Depuis, elle n'a jamais programmé un seul robot professionnellement… mais elle dirige aujourd'hui l'Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec, une institution de 77 000 membres dont la mission fondamentale est la protection du public. D...

Patrizia Libralato is the founder and Executive Director of the Toronto Biennial of Art — Canada's first and only international art biennial. What started as a bold idea in 2014 has grown into a free, 90-day contemporary art event that draws audiences from across the country and puts Canadian artists on the world map. In this episode, Patrizia shares what it really took to build cultural infrastru...

In recognition of Women’s Month, Eva Hartling speaks with Chantel Chapman, founder of the Trauma of Money Institute , to explore the deeper forces that shape our relationship with money. After starting her career in finance and working as a financial literacy educator, Chantel realized that knowledge alone doesn’t always translate into healthy financial behaviour. Her work now sits at the intersec...

What does it really take to scale a food brand when your standards make everything harder? In this episode, Eva sits down with Tara and Megan, the founders behind Canadian functional food company Rawcology. What started in a family kitchen with a dehydrator and a mission to remove inflammatory ingredients from everyday snacks has grown into a nationally distributed brand now carried by retailers i...

Canada is facing a women’s health crisis: three in four women over 40 experience menopausal symptoms that disrupt their daily lives — yet access to care is inconsistent, fragmented, and often out of reach. In this episode of The Brand is Female, originally recorded during World Menopause Month, Eva Hartling speaks with Dr. Michelle Jacobson, a leading OBGYN who decided to take her expertise beyond...

Hi! Eva here. This episode is a little different. In the first part, I take you behind the scenes of my work and share what has always driven me — an obsession with precision when it comes to messaging, thought leadership, and reputation. I talk about why I’m launching Hartling Communications as a sister agency to The Brand is Female, and why this isn’t a pivot, but a clarification....

This conversation originally aired on Women Are Players Too, where it quickly became our most popular episode of the season. Recorded at the end of the Northern Super League’s inaugural season, this episode captures a defining moment for women’s professional sports in Canada, when the scale of what had been built was coming clearly into focus. This episode features a conversation with Lara Murphy,...

This is part 2 of last week’s conversation. To kick off the year, host Eva Hartling sits down with Sophie Boulanger — founder and former CEO of BonLook; advisor and investor — for a season-opening conversation about what retail transformation really means in 2026. Because this is not the year for surface-level change. Brands will either evolve at the core… or fall behind. In this episode, Sophie s...

To kick off the first episode of the year, host Eva Hartling sits down with Sophie Boulanger — founder and former CEO of BonLook; advisor and investor — for a season-opening conversation about what retail transformation really means in 2026. Because this is not the year for surface-level change. Brands will either evolve at the core… or fall behind. In this episode, Sophie shares the lessons behin...

What does it really take to help women entrepreneurs scale in Canada — and where are we still falling short? In this episode, Eva Hartling sits down with Julie Dimitri, National Manager, Women in Enterprise at TD, for an in-depth conversation on the realities women founders face when navigating financing, growth, and long-term sustainability. Drawing on TD’s recent research with the Women Entrepre...

In this special live episode recorded at the Poppy Barley boutique in Calgary, host Eva Hartling sits down with co-founder Kendall Barber for an unfiltered conversation about building — and sustaining — one of Canada’s most beloved women-founded footwear brands. Kendall shares the real story behind Poppy Barley’s 13-year journey, from the early days of selling custom boots and dreaming in wildly o...

For more than a decade, best friends and business partners Dani Kagan and Victoria Marshman have been building community and empowering women through entrepreneurship. From their early days as co-founders of City MOGULS and Stratus Events — connecting thousands of entrepreneurs and raising over $250,000 for Canadian charities — to launching Mave & Chez, the women-founded sl...

En collaboration avec Gestion FÉRIQUE, nous présentons une édition spéciale de la série « Les femmes ont du génie », enregistrée en direct à Montréal devant public. Animée par Eva Hartling, cette table ronde réunit quatre ingénieures d’exception : Hélène Brisebois, ingénieure associée, vice-présidente et chargée de projet chez SDK, experte reconnue en ingénierie structurale Suzanne Demeules, assoc...

Scientifique et entrepreneure, Selwa Rafi, Ph. D. est la fondatrice et cheffe de la direction de KEPLR Intelligence, une entreprise montréalaise spécialisée en science des données et en intelligence artificielle appliquée à la compréhension du comportement humain dans des environnements complexes — de l’aviation à l’aérospatiale. Dans cet épisode, Selwa revient sur son parcours exce...

Maud Cohen est la première femme à diriger Polytechnique Montréal depuis sa création en 1873 — une étape marquante pour le milieu universitaire et de l’ingénierie au Québec. Forte d’un parcours ancré dans l’innovation, la rigueur et le leadership humain, Maud a dirigé plusieurs grandes organisations, dont la Fondation CHU Sainte-Justine et l’Ordre des ingénieurs du Québec. Dans cet épisode, elle r...