It all began with a need to have honest, authentic, engaging conversations between female professionals juggling demanding careers alongside their personal lives. This safe space where women could feel empowered and inspired through shared experiences, without fear of judgement or stigmatization, resulted in the launch of The Honest Talk podcast in 2020.
“So many women feel that they are alone in their journeys. We wanted to start a community that broke down these walls of isolation, encouraging women to share their challenges through mutual communication and camaraderie,” shares Catherine Clark, co-founder of The Honest Talk, adding that the podcast is a space for women to feel seen and heard about the issues that matter to them and to support and motivate other women to lead better, healthier, happier lives.
Originally planned as a live event series, the COVID pandemic forced The Honest Talk to pivot to a podcast instead. Featuring women from all walks of life – cultural leaders, entrepreneurs, politicians, authors, Olympians, journalists and celebrities, the podcast is jointly hosted by Catherine Clark, a renowned emcee, broadcaster and founder of communications consultancy firm, Catherine Clark Communications and Jennifer Stewart, President and Founder of Syntax Strategic, one of Ottawa’s leading full-service agencies. The duo hit upon the idea of The Honest Talk in their very first meeting.
“All of us think that the woman next to us is doing so much better than we are because she has it all together. The truth is nobody has it all together. We really need to shed the fallacy that someone can single-handedly do it all, without support. Therefore, we created this platform for conversations that were far more honest than how women were being portrayed,” reveals Jennifer Stewart, co-founder of The Honest Talk.
In 2023, the Ottawa-based duo launched The Honest Talk website. Providing yet another outlet for women to connect, share and learn, the website features women-centric global news stories, curated content, in-depth articles and a bi-weekly newsletter spanning business, culture, politics, health, financial advice, and parenthood. Readers are also encouraged to contribute first-person essays based on personal experiences.
ABOVE: Catherine Clark and Jennifer Stewart (right) at a United Way East Ontario event held at the Rideau Club in spring 2023, supporting initiatives to empower women in the community. (Photo: Caroline Phillips)
Apart from the co-founders, the team includes full-time editor Lisa Thibodeau and partnership manager Mikka Zeisig. However, Clark and Stewart still personally book guests themselves.
“While initially we approached women professionals that Jen or I knew personally, over the years, we have hosted a number of renowned Canadian and international guests, thanks to the reputation that the podcast has acquired,” remarks Clark. The bi-weekly podcast, which is recognized amongst the Top 20 Canadian Women Podcasts, has had 85 guests to date, including Kathleen Wynne, former Premier of Ontario, Kelly Haston, Commander of NASA’s Mars simulation project, Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s first female Ambassador to the United States, Michelle O’Bonsawin, Canada’s first Indigenous Supreme Court Justice, Adrienne Clarkson, the 26th Governor General of Canada, mental health advocate Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, bestselling Canadian-British author and journalist Elizabeth Renzetti and two-time Olympian Lisa Weagle.
Each episode, with a run time of 20-22 minutes, features milestones that prominent women leaders have achieved, alongside challenges they have overcome on their journeys, emphasizing female resilience that upends the status quo. Guests are also asked to share advice about career advancement, risk-taking and work-life balance.“We really try to focus on topics that inspire and empower our listeners, with takeaways that they can implement in their own lives,” Clark avers.
The podcast has over 37,000 listeners aged 25 to 70 across Canada, the U.S., and Northern Europe. It is available through The Honest Talk website as well as on podcast platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podtail, iHeart, Listen Notes, TuneIn and Podcast Republic.
ABOVE: Jennifer Stewart and Catherine Clark (right) take the stage to open the inaugural Women’s Summit at Rogers Centre in 2024. (Photo: Lindsey Gibeau)
Last year, Stewart and Clark launched The Women’s Summit, an annual event that brings together influential women from across the country to engage in meaningful conversations about the issues that shape their daily lives. Speakers at the event aim to tackle difficult conversations, delve into taboo topics, and champion women’s issues and empowerment, with the aim of inspiring, leading, and building stronger networks. The Summit also presents The Honest Talk Leadership Award, honouring one outstanding woman who has made a significant contribution in her field and community and embodies the spirit of innovation, resilience, and authenticity. This year, the event will be held on October 24 at The Brookstreet Hotel in Ottawa.
Despite running purely on the basis of word of mouth with no formal advertising, The Honest Talk has achieved widespread acclaim. On the secret of their success, Clark says, “At the outset, Jen and I are authentic people who are willing to share the ups and downs of our own experiences. And then we host a unique cross-section of women with diverse perspectives and backgrounds for the podcast. We also reach out to women on a variety of different platforms – the podcast, the website that is updated daily, the newsletter, as well as The Women’s Summit.”
Stewart and Clark also regularly speak at various events, as part of the professional speaking services offered by The Honest Talk.
While the duo have faced numerous challenges from finding funding partners in the early days to balancing their own careers and family lives alongside The Honest Talk, they both admit this is a labour of love and a passion project that they firmly believe in because they’ve seen firsthand the positive impact that it has had on women who have interacted with the platform.
On the experience of running The Honest Talk, Stewart says, “Catherine and I work so well together. In a lot of ways, we share a foundation that’s very similar in our values and our integrity, even though we’re very different people. It has been a challenging, yet deeply cathartic experience and probably one of the most rewarding things I’ve done professionally.”
One particular podcast episode that stands out for Stewart is a conversation with former Canadian politician Jane Philpott. “When we asked her if it was hard to leave government, she shared about losing a child and said nothing is hard after that because you’ve gone through the hardest thing.”
Clark talks about a podcast conversation with Kelly Haston, Commander of NASA’s Mars simulation project, who spent 378 days inside a 3D-printed habitat that mimicked life on Mars. “What was so incredible about her story was that she quit school and left home at 15 and didn’t return to complete her education until her early 20s. She then went on to obtain a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree and a PhD and ended up commanding a Mars analog mission for NASA. That, to me, was the epitome of what The Honest Talk is all about; this idea that no path is linear, no choice is a failure and there is always the possibility of moving forward again in your life.”
ABOVE: Catherine Clark interviews sleep expert Jamie Contarini (right) on strategies to help women improve their health through better sleep at the inaugural Women’s Summit, held at the Rogers Centre (formerly the Shaw Centre) in 2024. (Photo: Lindsey Gibeau)
Clark and Stewart aim to expand The Honest Talk from a national platform to North America’s biggest community for women. They also aim to bring in a wider variety of inspirational, visionary women on the podcast. Taking The Women’s Summit beyond Ottawa to other Canadian cities is also on the horizon. In the near term, smaller events in different parts of the country are in the works, deemed to provide multiple touchpoints and broader reach to women across the board.
To learn more, visit https://www.thehonesttalk.ca/. You can also connect via Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or X.
