The Lesley Hawkins Podcast

Our guest walked into an event with his buddies not expecting much, but what he heard from the stage stopped him in his tracks. A talk about masculinity, and what it means to be a man in today's world. The reaction from the crowd around him caught him completely off guard.

So he walked up to the speaker afterwards, introduced himself, and that conversation opened a door he hadn't known was there. One that would lead him to examine his own beliefs, his own identity, and his own mental health struggles.

Join us as we explore masculinity, mental health, and what becomes possible when a man is willing to look inward and speak honestly about what he finds.

#pivotalmoment #masculinity #youthmentalhealth #mensmentalhealth

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Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

For years, our guest had been collecting symptoms. Each one sparking a visit to a specialist. Each one treated in isolation, and nobody ever connected the dots.

Then came a critical presentation to the executive team, when many of the symptoms reared their ugly head – sweating profusely, brain fog, anxiety. She knew the material, she was fully prepared, but her mind went blank.

That became the tipping point for her to figure out what was happening in her own body. 

Now she is using everything she went through to break down the barriers around a conversation that affects more than half the population, and one that is long overdue.

Join us as we explore perimenopause, the symptoms too many women are navigating alone, and why it's time to start talking about it openly and honestly.

#pivotalmoment #menopause #menovate

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Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

Our guest was hosting a baby shower for her daughter-in-law when her husband fell ill and was rushed to hospital. Once he was home and on the mend, they decided a quiet weekend away was just what they both needed. 

She headed upstairs to pack a bag, but dropped her makeup kit, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a hospital bed surrounded by the faces of people she loved but couldn't name. The words she wanted to say simply wouldn't come.

What followed was a long and deeply personal journey back to health. Relearning how to speak, how to grocery shop, how to drive, how to do the everyday things that most of us take for granted.

Join us as we explore a story of resilience, determination, and the strength it takes to rebuild your life one small step at a time.

#pivotalmoment #stroke 

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Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

At 9 years old, our guest was performing as a cartoon character on a local radio show, a small beginning that planted a very big seed.

Like most Canadian kids, he dreamed of playing hockey in the NHL, but he was also drawn to the excitement and entertainment of the game brought to you by the announcers.

So he started at the local hockey arena, playing music and making announcements. Small, unglamorous, but essential.

It sprouted a career built the same way an NHL player builds theirs: through the minor leagues, through the OHL, the AHL. Saying yes to every opportunity, and learning something from every single one.

Join us as we explore what it truly takes to turn a childhood passion into a career at the highest level, and why true grit will always outwork talent alone.

#pivotalmoment #hockey #NHL

Send us Fan Mail

Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

Our guest never finished high school, so at 18, she walked into the corporate world and decided that was where she would build her future.

What followed was twenty-five years with the same company. Evolving, growing and building 5 distinct careers under one roof.

Then came an opportunity that would test everything she thought she knew about leadership. A new role in a new city with a team that wasn't responding, no matter what she tried.

So she stopped looking outward and started looking inward.

A single line she heard from a movie reframed everything.

What she built from that moment of honest self-reflection became a framework for leadership that she now shares as a coach, a consultant, and an author.

Join us as we explore what it truly means to lead, and why the most important leadership journey you will ever take is the one that starts with yourself.

#pivotalmoment #impact #leadership 

Send us Fan Mail

Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

Some seasons of life ask more of us than we ever thought we could give.

For our guest, grief didn't arrive once. It arrived in waves, each one before she had fully caught her breath from the last. Within the span of a single year, she lost both her mother and her newborn baby girl.

There are no words adequate for that kind of loss. And she would be the first to tell you that the path through it was anything but straight.

But she found her way. And now she shares that journey openly as a grief coach.

This is a conversation about the walk-through unimaginable loss, and how it's still possible to find your way back to yourself.

#pivotalmoment #grief

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Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

For twenty-one years, our guest was a special education teacher, advocating for those whose voices were too often overlooked. It was work rooted in purpose, patience, and a deep belief in human dignity.

Then her parents began to age, and she stepped into a new role as caregiver.

When her father moved from a retirement home to a long-term care facility, she went looking for adaptive clothing that would allow him to dress with ease and maintain his dignity. What she found was poor quality, ill-fitting, and far below what he deserved.

So, rather than make-due or complain about it, she built something better.

Join us as we explore a story of passion, purpose, and why the most meaningful businesses are often born from love.

#pivotalmoment #adaptive #agingwithdignity

Send us Fan Mail

Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

Our guest had what most people spend their lives working toward: a thriving business, a loving marriage, two young boys, good health. Every box checked but one question kept creeping in: Is that all there is?

A single exercise in a book provided him the answer. Over months, he built his personal mission statement – it’s not about money, ambition, or assets, but instead about his impact on others. The statement has become his guide, his quiet reminder of who he wants to be. Not only is that note from 30 years ago still in his wallet, but he continues to read it at the start of every single month to check on his progress.

Join us as we explore what becomes possible when you stop drifting and start living with purpose.

#pivotalmoment #livewithpurpose #missionstatement

Send us Fan Mail

Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

For twenty-five years, our guest stayed quiet. Not because he had nothing to say, but because saying it came at a cost most of us will never understand.

He stuttered. And for a long time, silence felt safer than the alternative.

So he made a change. He left Lebanon for Montreal, searching for a breakthrough, a new version of himself. An "aha" moment that would make everything click.

What he found was not one defining moment, but a series of small micro moments of courage that, one by one, began to add up.

He signed up to speak at a toastmaster in university. Then the debate club. Then the comedy stage. Each one harder than the last. Each one proof that he was capable of more than silence.

Today our guest is a global keynote speaker, stand up comedian, and author, and a shining example of what becomes possible when you stop waiting for the breakthrough and start creating it.

#pivotalmoment #stutter #resilience

Send us Fan Mail

Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca

Most of us have had a hard season. But for our guest, eight months of his life brought a convergence of personal and professional challenges that would have broken most people.

And for a time, it did. He collapsed under the weight of the strain. His tank was empty in every way possible – physically, emotionally, mentally. 

He had to find a way back to himself, to understand what really matters. It wasn't quick, nor was it linear. But what he discovered on that road back would shape his next chapter of helping others do the same work. The deep, honest, often uncomfortable work of truly knowing yourself.

Join us as we explore what it takes to rebuild from the inside out, and why the moment everything falls apart might be the most important moment of your life.

#pivotalmoment #rebuild

Send us Fan Mail

Lesley Hawkins is a keynote speaker, leadership developer, and storyteller who believes that our most defining moments are rarely the ones we plan for. 

 Drawing on years of experience leading, guiding, and mentoring teams, Lesley brings authenticity, curiosity, and genuine warmth to every conversation, creating space for guests to share the stories they don’t always get to tell. 

 One question. One turning point. One powerful story. 

 To learn more about Lesley visit www.lesleyhawkins.ca / www.marsley.ca