I have been watching Dr. Leslie Hewitt from afar for years, admiring the way she leads and the way she lifts people up around her. She is the president of the California Chiropractic Association, the founder of The WOW Talks, and one of the most natural collaborators I have ever encountered. When she walks into a room, she is already thinking about how to connect, collaborate, and celebrate everyone in it.
I wanted her on this podcast because leadership is something I think about a lot, and women in leadership is a conversation our profession needs to be having more openly. Leslie has a lot to say on the subject, and she says it beautifully.
She Was Two Years Old With a Cape
Leslie's leadership story starts so early it almost sounds like a parable. She was two years old, white-haired and glowing, according to her dad, who said he could spot her from down the street by the light of her hair. She had rallied all the neighborhood children, sent them home to get towels, and had them all wearing capes around their necks so they could be superheroes together.
Her dad came out to bring her in for dinner, looked at the scene, and said: you're bossy.
She was two years old. And something inside her, even at two, said: that is wrong information.
She did not have the word leadership yet. She did not have the framework to argue back. But she had an inner knowing that what her dad was seeing was not bossiness. It was something else. And she filed that away.
Years later, as an adult, she was able to go back to her dad and name it: that was bad imprinting. I am not bossy. I am a leader. Her dad passed away five years before this conversation, but she said it with warmth: he died knowing his daughter was a leader.
I told her that story hit close to home. I was always told I was nosy. And I eventually converted that into curiosity, because what I am is interested. Deeply interested in people and what makes them thrive. That is not a flaw. That is a gift. And the earlier we can help young girls understand the difference, the better.
Connect. Collaborate. Celebrate.
Leslie has three words she carries into every room: connect, collaborate, celebrate. When she meets someone, her intention is that those three things happen between them. Every conversation, every committee, every event. It is not a strategy. It is just who she is.
That is exactly the energy I have tried to build in Orange County through the California Chiropractic Association. When I became the district president in 2014, I had only been in practice about five years. But I knew what was needed: collaboration. Not competition.
There are four million people in Orange County who need chiropractic care. Whether you practice Cox distraction or activator or Blair, we are not competing for the same patients. We are all trying to help people who need us. When we raise each other up, the bar rises for the whole profession. When we collaborate and refer to one another, everybody wins, most of all the patients.
Leslie has modeled that philosophy at the state level in ways that have changed the tone of the CCA. And I am grateful to be in her orbit.
What Her Mother Taught Her
Leslie's mother was her first model of a capable, independent, strong woman. She skipped two grades in school. She played on a baseball team long before women's sports were normalized. She decorated her home beautifully and never once gossiped. She was a working mother who moved through the world with grace and kept good friendships.
Leslie said something about her mother that I want to hold onto: I've never heard my mother gossip. What a thing to be able to say. And what a thing to model for a daughter. The women we surround ourselves with shape how we see ourselves. Leslie chose wisely from the beginning, because her mother set the standard.
Her undergraduate degree is in psychology, driven by a fascination with what shapes human behavior. Combine that with a doctorate in chiropractic and decades of leadership experience, and you have someone who understands people at a structural and relational level simultaneously. That is a rare combination.
On Picking the Right Partner
One of the threads in this conversation that I want to highlight is the importance of choosing the right life partner if you want to lead at a high level.
Leslie's husband Roy is her champion. He gives her space to do the work. He picks up the load at home so she can show up fully in her professional life. And she has learned, over time, how to speak his language: the love of service, the desire to be the hero. When she frames a need as an opportunity for him to step in and make something happen, he does. And it actually brings them closer.
My friend Tracy Hazard wrote an article about exactly this: the right partner does not diminish your ambition. They amplify it. My husband Michael is home with our girls while I record this podcast on a Saturday morning. That is not a small thing. That is partnership. That is someone who understands that what I do matters and who holds the space so I can do it.
To the women out there building something significant: the partner question matters. You do not have to choose between ambition and a full personal life, but you do need someone beside you who genuinely wants both for you.
Collaboration Over Competition
I want to close with something Leslie said that I think every chiropractor in California, and honestly every chiropractor anywhere, needs to hear.
Our profession is stronger when we support each other. Not just our own technique, not just our own philosophy, but the whole field. When one of us wins, when a patient gets better, when a community learns what chiropractic can do, we all win. The pie does not get smaller when we share it. It gets bigger.
Leslie has spent years building that culture at the state association level. I have tried to build it in Orange County. And I think the more of us who lead from that place, the more the profession grows and the more patients find their way to the care they need.
Find Dr. Leslie Hewitt
Dr. Leslie Hewitt can be found at thewowtalks.com, where she leads events and programming for women in leadership. Her practice website is anatomypower.com. And if you are looking for a chiropractor anywhere in California, the CCA directory at calchiro.org is a great place to start.
She is a connector, a collaborator, and a celebrator. And if you ever get to be in a room with her, you will feel all three within the first five minutes.
Listen to the full conversation with Dr. Leslie Hewitt on the Well Connected Podcast: Live Your Life in Alignment. Available wherever you get your podcasts.
Find Dr. Hewitt at thewowtalks.com or anatomypower.com. Find a chiropractor in California at calchiro.org.
