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 love of rock climbing with her desire to create access and belonging, ultimately building the Canadian Adaptive Climbing Society.

This is a conversation about curating a career with intention, recognizing purpose when it shows up, and choosing meaningful impact over a conventional path.

#pivotalmoment #adaptive #climbing

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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 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 project, designed to help more women say “yes” to golf. Today, that idea has grown into a company that has impacted the lives of more than 30,000 women.

The second turning point was far more personal.

This is a conversation about trusting yourself, leaning into discomfort, and making decisions through one simple filter: not wanting to live with regret.

#pivotalmoment #golf

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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

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, she helps others do the same. This is a conversation about choosing alignment, recognizing energy shifts, and finding peace.

#pivotalmoment #passion

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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 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 the outside, she wore the mask so many of us recognize: I have to be happy, because that’s what people expect of me. On the inside, however it was a very different story.

The turning point came when she finally opened up to friends and family, allowing their words of encouragement to challenge the voice in her own head. Slowly, her inner dialogue began to change.

Today, she’s found purpose in coaching female youth sports. Not just teaching skills, but building a philosophy rooted in work ethic, accountability, being a great teammate, and becoming a good human.

This is a conversation about identity, honesty, and what can emerge when we stop pretending we’re fine and start rebuilding from the inside out, by letting the outside in.

#pivotalmoment #leadership #myfluffybunny

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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

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 under a poor leader forced her to pause and take a hard look at how leadership truly shows up in people’s lives.

What followed was a values-led shift: new industries, moving around the continent with her family in tow, investing in her own learning, and redefining how she shows up as a leader. 

Today, she shares her lessons through her book Unleashed to help others lead with intention, empowerment, and influence.

This is a conversation about leadership, values, and becoming the leader you wish had.

#pivotalmoment #leadership #glimmers

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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

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 doesn’t.

 This episode is about the kind of wake-up call that no one asks for, but how choosing to live by your values can become a compass for every decision that follows.

#pivotalmoment #sepsis #values

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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

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 of breast cancer.

Not long after, her father passed away, a loss that took a deep physical, mental, and emotional toll.

Then, during a quiet moment at the family cottage, her body sent another signal. A strange sensation, a feeling that couldn’t be ignored. What she thought was a panic attack turned out to be SCAD, a rare type of heart attack.

This is a story about listening to your body, about the power of community, and finding unexpected gifts in life’s hardest pivots.

#alzheimers #breastcancer #heartattack #loss #community #selfadvocacy

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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

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 discovery: an 8 cm cancerous tumour in her colon.

Everything moved fast after that. Immediate surgery and preventative chemotherapy.

But through it all, her commitment to movement and mindset became her anchor. Walking up stairs, lifting light weights just days after returning home, focusing on what she could do instead of what she couldn’t.

This is a story about the power of discipline, perspective, and a positive mindset, and how the habits we build before crisis can carry us through the hardest moments of our lives.

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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

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 moment to say thank you, highlight some of the standout moments from the season, and share the three biggest takeaways that kept showing up across every story.

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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

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 community that believed in him, he slowly took his small idea into a multi-million-dollar brand that’s now sold across Canada.

 This episode is about determination, reinvention, and believing in yourself enough to risk it all.

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