Season 1

Cindy Crowe, Elder, Lodgekeeper, Author, is a band member of the Opwaaganisiniing (Red Rock Indian Band) located an hour east of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Since 1994, Cindy has been bridging gaps between Indigenous and non-Indige...

Lynette Mader was raised in rural Middlesex County. She got her career start with a job as public relations manager for Turkey Farmers of Canada in Mississauga and from there, took a marketing job at what was then, Cold Sprin...

Kelly Snowdon is 28 year old competitive athlete turned entrepreneur from Moncton, New Brunswick. Kelly has competed in 5 Canadian Ringette Championships, the Canada Winter Games in Halifax in 2011 and was a part of 3 season...

Therese Van Es is an enthusiastic, dynamic rural entrepreneur in the worlds of both business and food! About business… Therese is the President and Chief People Leader of Ladder HR Solutions, Inc. She is a Human Resources Exe...

Selena Strong is the founder of Selena Strong Fitness and she has over 15 years of Exercise & Fascial Stretch Therapy experience, and she has never stopped learning and improving. This is a mentality that she tries to pass on...

Chelsea Major is a Master's of Science student in the School of Environmental Design and Rural Development at the University of Guelph. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Geography, Environment, and Geomatic and a Bachelor ...

Zeleen Virani worked in the banking industry for over 20 years, most recently in Retail Branch Management and Operational Risk roles where she was often part of making the decisions on whether or not rural women entrepreneurs...

If you are a person immigrating to Canada wanting to live your best life in one of the most beautiful places in our country then you have to meet Lindsay Rubeniuk. Lindsay is passionate about developing a skilled workforce, g...

Members of the Rural Ontario Community of Queer Youth Mabe Kyle Maker of poetry, pottery, and photography who loves being creative. Adventurer who calls many places home across borderlines. Builder of communities who enjoys b...

Emma Hull is a transformational Life Coach, Facilitator, Yoga Teacher, and Reiki Healer. A natural leader, Emma thrives on seeing others flourish. She is gifted at inspiring people to be their favourite version of themselves ...

Melissa Mackey is an international best-selling author, speaker on the topics of Business Growth, Travel & Transformation. She is an independent mom on a mission. She is the CEO of Travel Chicks & Founder of Ignite Me Now. Me...

Bruce County, Ontario based artist Heather Lynne Travis is known for her bold use of colour in her large scale, and often whimsical, abstracts. A lifelong artist selling mainly to family and friends, Heather has been exhibiti...

In town hall style, and from some of our most engaging guests, we created a community space of vulnerability to hear authentic challenges faced by women-identifying and non-binary entrepreneurs in rural Canada. Our goal is to...

* 'Explicit Content' = cursing* Erica Marchand is the founder of Bear and Fox Apparel based in Embro, Ontario which is in Oxford County. The brand is named after Erica’s children and they are one of the many reasons why …

Jessie Thomas is the creator and owner of Farm Girl Fitness ; a small group training facility with a focus on Fresh Air Fitness. Farm Girl Fitness was established in the summer of 2020 to help provide people a safe …

Serena Viola is currently completing her Masters in Capacity Development and Extension at the University of Guelph. She completed her undergrad at the University of Toronto in Political Science and Diaspora & Transnational St...

Lourdes Still is the creative behind Masagana Flower Farm & Studio , a small-scale flower farm dye studio near La Broquerie, Manitoba. In this immigrant, Filipina-lead small business, Lourdes puts a priority on sustainable gr...

Sierra Lathlin is the founder and owner of Barkery Dog Treats . She is a 24-year old Indigenous female from Opaskwayak Cree Nation but she currently lives and handcrafts all her pet treats in Gimli, Manitoba, where she also h...

While a war rages in the Ukraine, a few states in the US have waged war on the lives of trans and gender diverse people. Although President Joe Biden has stepped in, there is still a troubling anti-trans sentiment that …

Cheryl Haskett has had a diverse career with a start in tourism, then supporting a family run construction company. After her divorce she diverged completely into a career spanning 14 years in training and development in mul...

Shawna Perry is the owner of Little Black Dress, a women's high end consignment boutique located in Summerside, Prince Edward Island. Shawna grew up in a rural community in PEI. In her early twenties she travelled as much as ...

I have often found it challenging to find statistics, not just about rural women entrepreneurs but also the intersection of further marginalized groups. The Women’s Enterprise Organizations of Canada or WEOC, is spearheading ...

The 2nd annual StrikeUp Digital Conference for Women Entrepreneurs is coming up next month. I’m joined by two of the many dynamic speakers that will be presenting at the event. Both of these women are in rural or remote Canad...

Sascha Boulet Devost is the CEO of Capture Therapeutics (& PhysioFirst ). She started these practices with one purpose: to offer accessible healthcare for all. Her goal is to provide rural communities with accessibility to an...

Shayna Jones is a multi-disciplinary professional spoken word artist, specializing in the traditional oral storytelling of African and Afro-Diasporic Folklore. As an award-winning actor and emerging poet and playwright, Shayn...

When I put out a call for folks to suggest someone as a guest on the podcast, Stella Sehn’s name came forward. And as luck would have it, Stella was speaking at an Alberta Women’s Entrepreneur Event the following day …

In 2017, after fifteen years as a geologist and senior leadership professional in the Energy Industry, Kiersten Mohr embarked on the most significant challenge of her life: gender transition. Gender transition was life-changi...

THE EQUAL FUTURES NETWORK is a national initiative through the Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health or CanWaCH and it connects national, regional, community and grassroots organizations, agencies and projects ...

Heather Taylor is a fourth-year student at the University of Ottawa with a Major in Honour's English and a Minor in Public Administration. She is a Co-Founder of Rural and Ready, alongside her two other Co-Founders, Kayla Han...

Susan Wagner-White lives in rural Eastern Ontario and is a pointillism artist. Pointillism, if you’re not familiar with it, (I wasn’t) is a painting technique using tiny, distinct dots of colour, sometimes in layers, creating...

Heather Hallgrimson is the Business Development Lead for Co-operatives First, a nonprofit organization that supports groups in creating co-operative businesses in rural and First Nations communities in Western Canada. Her pas...

Justine Anderson says she is a folk herbalist, soap maker, artist, writer, flower sniffer, garden and cat care-taker, astrologer and tarot card reader. She owns and operates Wildflower Co. Botanicals in rural Newfoundland in...

Season Kirkwood calls herself a bit of a nomad. She spent much of her adult life, living in different cities and towns, working in different sectors to develop her entrepreneurial passions. She worked for the City of Winnipeg...

Lucy Sloan is the Founder of Lil Steps Wellness Farm , an animal-assisted therapy facility in Manitoba. She and her staff work with children, youth, and adults experiencing mental health difficulties including anxiety, depres...

Ashley O’Neil is a wildland firefighter in British Columbia. She says they had a helluva season in 2021. But not only was Ashley fighting fires, running into the flames as others were running out, but she has been growing her...

Shivani Dhamija moved to rural Nova Scotia to be with her partner. Armed with a degree in Public Relations from Fanshawe College, she was shocked when she couldn’t find a job. She was very determined though and took jobs wher...

A trigger warning: This episode makes indirect reference to domestic violence (13:30) and there is a brief reference to the discovery of thousands of children’s remains at some of Canada’s residential schools (15:40). This ma...

This year Terrena Rizzoli celebrates 10 years as an accomplished Indigenous business owner and denturist at Rizzoli Denture and Implant clinic. Not bad for someone who says she was an ‘okay’ student and that she felt she had ...