Are you feeling a lack of connection or community in this season of life? The women over 50 who are most alive have one thing in common, and it’s not a morning routine or a business strategy. It’s each other. In this edition of Design Your Life, Your Way, I dive into the essential need for deep, authentic connection for women in midlife.
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This solo episode is for the woman who feels something is missing from her life. Not achievements, but a true sense of belonging. I share the personal story behind the creation of the Soulful Women’s Network: how a “kick in the gut” moment led me to build a space where spiritually minded women can mastermind, grow, and thrive together. We talk honestly about why community isn’t a luxury but a lifeline, and how to find — or create — the kind of sisterhood that actually holds you.
Key topics covered include:
- The Importance of Community After 50: Why we need to move past loneliness and find our “people” to navigate transition, grief, and growth.
- The Origin Story: How I navigated the shift from local in-person networking to building my own unique, soul-centered community.
- How to Build Your Own Group: Practical advice on determining your end goal, choosing your platform (Facebook, Meetup, etc.), and enlisting help.
- Designing Your Own Path: Why it’s okay if an existing community isn’t the right fit and how to take the “bull by the horns” to create what you need.
- Light Language Activation: I close the episode with a channeled light language transmission intended to help you release what no longer serves you and align with your soul’s highest good.
Whether you are looking for a community to join or feeling called to start your own, this episode provides actionable insights on how to foster the sisterhood you deserve.
Resources & links mentioned:
- Search for the Soulful Women’s Network by name on Facebook or visit bit.ly/soulnetwork to see if our community is right for you
- Related episode: Breaking Free from Loneliness: Community After 50
- Community platforms mentioned: Facebook Groups, Meetup, Skool, Heartbeat
- Book a 30-minute private Light Language session with Gloria Grace: tidycal.com/gloria3/single-light-language-session
Design Your Life, Your Way – next steps:
- Get my free Personal Power Archetype Quiz to start designing your next chapter: bit.ly/PersonalPowerQuiz
- If this episode spoke to you, leave us a review.
- Follow/subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode.
- Share this with a friend who’s been feeling disconnected or lonely in this season of life.
- Connect with me on LinkedIn @GloriaGraceRand to continue the conversation about midlife, meaning, and living on purpose.
TRANSCRIPT – Why Women Over 50 Need Community to Thrive
Namaste. Do you know what many women in their 50s and 60s who have designed their life their way have in common? They stopped doing things alone. They found their people a community of women who understand that this season of life is really ripe for possibilities and they know how to hold space for one another through these crazy transitions we go through, through self doubt, through grief, and through growth. So that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. And specifically what I created the Soulful Women’s Network to be, to be this place where space spiritually minded women over 50 come together to connect, to grow, and especially to thrive.
Not despite of their age and experiences, but because of them. Now, I did talk a little bit about this group in a past episode. It was actually called Breaking Free from loneliness, community after 50. So I encourage you, if you haven’t listened to that one or watched it on wherever you watch the podcast, we’re on YouTube and it may even be on new reality TV. Now you can, you can watch it there.
But today I thought that I wanted to really go into more detail about Soulful Women’s Network. And my intention, my hope is that you’ll consider joining it. And if it’s not what’s right for you, that’s fine too. And maybe it’ll inspire you to create your own group because again, we need community and, and not all communities are right for every person. So if you want to join mine, yay, I would love to have you join it.
But if not, that’s okay too because you may find, like I did, that you may find that you’re called to start your own group. And I think that’s just as amazing. So let me tell you, let me tell you a story right now. So you know, if you got a cup of tea or. I’m a tea drinker, so I always say cup of tea.
But if you’re a coffee drinker, you can have coffee. And let me, let me, let me tell you a little story about, about how this, how this idea came from. And it’s going back a couple of years. So for those of you who are regular listeners or watchers of this show, you know that I have, I separated from my husband in 2022 and when I did that, I moved to Melbourne, Florida. And so it’s a lovely, lovely community.
Finding Authentic Community: The Women’s Prosperity Network
And I was so excited about. One of the reasons I was, I’ll say one of the reasons I, I, I chose this location was because it would be closer, it would be a much closer drive for me to attend meetings of the Women’s Prosperity Network, which was an organization and I’m still a member of, but I’ve been a member of this organization for years and years and years now, probably. Oh my gosh, let’s see, 10 years, 12 years, I don’t know, it’s, it’s been a long time. And one of the reasons I joined that group in particular was because they, we would have meetings at a local restaurant and we would get together and mastermind. It was a place for really, what they talk about is to be real, where you can be real, you know, not put on a phony front like a lot of people, a lot of networking, business networking groups.
I would say in particular, sometimes when you go to them, it’s like everybody’s just putting on this real, you know, front about, oh, business is great and you know, and then they want to be able to enroll you in their business, etc. Etc. Well, what attracted me to WPN is the fact that we could be real and say, you know, hey, this, I got this issue going on with me and my business. Can you maybe, can you give me some ideas on how to fix it? And we would brainstorm.
I love masterminding. And that was what really attracted me to it. Now, of course, in 2020, as we all know, the world shut down and a lot of organizations, a lot of networking groups had to pivot for those who were meeting in person and start meeting online. And so that’s what Women’s Prosperity Network did. They started having more.
I think they were already doing some meetings online, but they really embraced it and, and, and went, you know, full fledged because we couldn’t meet in person anymore.
But by 2022, you know, things were opening up again and there was a local group that I had and actually I was, I belonged to the Orlando chapter and so I would go to meetings there, but I also would occasionally drive for an hour to come to the Brevard chapter because I knew some of the women who regularly attended that one and they were lovely women, they had become friends and I liked the atmosphere over there. It’s, it’s nice to be able to go to different chapters of an organization where, you know, that meet in different areas because then you get to meet new people. So, and, and, and there was a really good energy at the Brevard Chamber or chamber. Not the chamber, the chapter, the chapter. And so I was like, yes, this is great.
Midlife Disappointment and the Loss of In-Person Connection
Now I’m moving, I’m moving to Melbourne. I’ll be able to, as it turned out, drive like less than 10 minutes from the location of where, where they were having their meetings. I was like so psyched about it. Just one problem.
The organization WPN Women’s Prosperity Network decided that they didn’t want to have any more in person chapter meetings. They wanted to move everything online and so they decided to close down all of the local chapters and so my lovely Brevard chapter would be no more and we weren’t going to be able to meet in person.
Talk about a kick in the pants. A kick in the gut. It was so. I was so disappointed. I really was.
I was just so disappointed because, you know, this was, this was, you know, I wouldn’t have to drive an hour anymore, you know, and I would get to see people in person. And as much as Zoom was so great for helping to keep us connected to people and enable us to connect with people all over the country, all over the world, I mean, was wonderful. I mean, and, and in effect in 2020 is when I, I started the end of 2019, but definitely in 2020 I started my Live Love Engage podcast. So which you can find old episodes of that. And so it was great.
I loved being able to connect with people, but I wanted to see people in person again. I wanted to give my friends a hug. You know, we, hugs are so. There are scientific studies have shown that hugging someone is really good for your physical health as well as your mental health, frankly. So I was disappointed, needless to say, that they weren’t going to be meeting in person anymore.
Meditation, Inner Wisdom, and the Birth of Soulful Women’s Network
So what did I do? Well, I, I didn’t automatically come up with this idea to, to create my own network.
What I did do though was continue some of my spiritual practices that I have developed over the years and, and, and the one that I’ve been doing the longest is meditating. And so I. Every morning, that is my non negotiable part of my routine now. Journaling comes and goes, going for a walk, comes and goes. Sometimes I don’t do it in the morning and I will do it in the afternoon, but I make it a point to devote part, a part of my morning before I really get involved in working to meditating.
Even if it’s 10 minutes, I’d like to do at least a half an hour, but even if it’s 10 minutes.
So one morning after this had happened, probably a couple of months later, I suppose I don’t remember exactly. I do, I do know when I officially started the group. So, so sometime I would say probably over the summer of 2022 after I had moved here.
I was meditating and an idea popped in my head. And as, as often happens when I’m meditating, that’s, that’s how I got, how I came up with the idea to write a book about love, which became my best selling book, Live Love Engage.
An idea came to me that why don’t I just start my own networking group where we could meet in person? And the idea came to call it the Soulful Women’s Network. And I thought, oh, that’s a really cool name. So after I finished my meditation, I decided to go online and see if there was a Soulful Women’s network out there already because I thought that was a really good name for group and surely there must be some, some group out there. I mean, I put soulfulwomensnetwork.com in and didn’t get anything.
And, and so I just did a regular Google search and I think I found there was one, one group in, I don’t know, Texas or something, but I don’t, I don’t think they were even. They weren’t current. I think they had called themselves that. They had some past meetings, but it didn’t seem like they were active. And since then I also checked that the domain was available.
I said, you know what, I’m taking that as a sign from the universe that perhaps this is an opportunity. And so I went ahead and bought the domain and then I started talking to people about it. You know, does this sound like a good idea? You know, would you, would you attend meetings?
So I did what a lot of people do is I started off with a free Facebook group, which is how, what you can take advantage of. In fact, I’ll have the link to that in the show notes. And for those of you watching this show right now, you’ll be able to see I’ve got the link for it right there. But you can go to Facebook directly and just search for Soulful Women’s Network and you’ll be able to see it. So it’s a free public group that you can join and.
Oh, I just remembered. I, I forgot I saw something in my notifications on Facebook this morning that someone wanted to join and I need to go back in and get her information and let her into the group.
How the Soulful Women’s Network Works: In-Person and Online Meetings
So, yeah, so I decided, yeah, so I started the, the Facebook group and then I decided to. You know, my whole point was, was that I wanted to be able to have us start having meetings. And so, so we started meeting for lunch once a month. And so that was working out. But Then there were some people that didn’t live in the area here in Florida and I wanted to be able to have them come.
So I thought so for a while what we were doing is we were, I think I was doing every other month possibly or we were meeting twice, twice a quarter in person and then once a quarter online. And so that was that, that worked for a while. And now what I’m doing, I’m experimenting because that’s, that’s what you do when you, when you do things, you do things for a while and, and then you experiment. And so now what I’m doing right now is having one meeting in person on the second Thursday of the month and then another one online the fourth Thursday of the month. So this way I can accommodate local people as well as folks who are not in the area or who for whatever reason maybe just can’t attend the in person one.
You know, they may live in the area but they’re busy that day. And you know, life happens, we get busy and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Masterminding, Sisterhood, and the Power of Women Supporting Women
So that’s been great. And I really enjoy being able to get together and we, we spend some time. I, I always start our meetings a daily word from, from Unity, a daily word message and related to the topic of the, our discussion for that month. And then, and then we, you know, talk about the reading and then we do some master, I do some share some information about whatever our topic is and then we do some masterminding. And that’s what I think is so wonderful about, about it is.
And then I know I’ve had people say, is that they love being able to come together and help each other, you know, because that’s what we get to do. If someone has a challenge, we’re able to brainstorm ways to help them to solve that challenge. So it’s, I think it’s, I think it’s, it’s a great way. And that’s why I say that’s why I love the power of community. You know, any type of group that you can join that brings people together that share a common bond.
I don’t know what I was starting to say there. I guess I was. Oh yeah, I was putting share and common together. So I was saying shaman. But that’s a different, that’s a different entity altogether.
But yeah, it’s, I think it’s really great to be able to do that, to be able to come together with people. And I have. Originally the Soulful Women’s Network was open to any, any woman of any age that was my, that was my intention. But, but I’ve realized that the people who are coming to the group and myself as well, we’re over 50. So I decided, you know what, let’s just declare it.
So it is the Soulful Women’s Network for women over 50. And that’s, that’s what it’s for. So it, the, the Facebook group in is a great place for you to get some guidance on, you know, how to dismantle self doubt, how to cope with things that, you know, different challenges that women over 50 face. And, and I, you know, occasionally I’ll share like clips from this podcast into the group when we deal with something specific about that. And it’s also a place where we share inspiration to help you to really build a legacy that reflects your inner strength.
And we really do believe in the power of sisterhood, to expand our impact in the world, to help each other to rise so that we can all shine together. So let me think, what else do I want to tell you about this? I, I guess the point here, like I said, is whether you do decide to check out the, the Soulful Women’s Network. I hope you will because as I said, it’s, it’s a, it’s open to, you know, women over 50. I do have some questions that you have to answer, even though it’s a public group, but you still need to answer the questions.
And, and it is for women only, of course. So, you know, I hope you’ll come and check it out and see if it is something that you think would be beneficial to you. And if it, if it is, great. And then I hope you’ll even come join us for our, our monthly meetings because that’s, that’s really where the magic happens is if you’re, if you’ve been a member of a Facebook group or you’ve been an administrator of your own, you know, it can be challenging sometimes to get interaction and, and just to keep up with putting content out there, but it is, it is a labor, labor of love that I, that I do. And, and we do have a few members that will share their own stuff in there, which I always encourage.
You know, I want, I’d love to see the participation in the group. So I hope that you will consider that. And as I said, perhaps you might, if this isn’t for you, maybe you might want to consider starting your own group. Think about and, and I guess what I would encourage you to do if you are going to do this is figure out what you want out of the group?
Is it a place where you just want to be able to come together and socialize? Is it. Is it a group where you want to be able to teach something?
Is it a group that you want to use to be able to grow your business? Is it just a social group? It’s important for you to figure out what your goal is first before you go to the trouble of creating a group that’s so important. I really highly encourage you to do that. So figure out what is your end goal and then figure out who.
How to Start Your Own Women’s Community Group After 50
Who do you want to attract to that group? And if you know some people already who you think would be great members of the group, talk to them about it, reach out to them, you know, send them a text, maybe pick up the phone old school and call them and ask them and say, hey, I’m thinking about starting a group to do xyz. What do you think? Would you, would you attend this group? Would you come to meetings?
Would you participate in. In a Facebook group or maybe a group on some other platform? You know, there are plenty of other platforms out there these days. I know school. I see people creating groups on there.
And that’s spelled S K O O L just by the way, if you’re not familiar with that one, you know, you could even just create a. I was a member of a group a few years ago where it was. I don’t even think she had a Facebook group. We just. She would do meetup events and it was, it was designed for like women over 50 as a social group. And so she would just create a.
Create an event on meetup and invite people to it. And so that’s another way that you can do because you can actually then create a group on meetup for a particular event.
So I hope you’ll help. You’ll consider it today and think about, like I said, think about mine group, but definitely consider either joining someone else’s group. Of course, you don’t have to go to the trouble of creating one if there are some groups in your area. Maybe you’re feeling like you’re. You need a community and you, you want to be able to connect with people who have similar interests as you or similar profession as you.
There. There are all sorts of different groups out there. And in fact, you can go onto any of these platforms I talked about. You can go on to Meet Book. Meet Book.
I love when I put words together. My brain is thinking too fast. Meetup or Facebook or skool is another one. I know there’s. I feel like I’m missing Some.
Something. Well, there’s some other. Other people. Other platforms that people use, like I’m. I’m in a couple on Heartbeat. That’s another one where you might find a community. So there’s lots of different places out there. So number one, I guess, for you, for you, if you’re going to, if you want to look at joining a group is to again, think of what, what are you missing in your life right now that, That a group might be able to fill. Where. Is it something where you want to be able to nurture a talent of yours, or is it something you just want to.
Maybe you’re single and you want to meet some other singles or maybe you want to meet with other. With other working moms or what have you. I mean, I, I used to belong to a wonderful group called Mothers and More. When, When I first moved from Miami to Orlando and I, I left my friends behind. I, I needed to find other people to be able to talk with.
Mothers and More: A Template for Meaningful Women’s Community
You know, I didn’t, I didn’t want to just sit at home alone, especially since I worked from home. I needed to be able to find some other groups. And I, I did join some business groups, but I wanted to be with people to talk about, to be more social. And so Mothers and More was a fabulous group that I connected with. And we, you know, we held.
We would have sometimes some meetings where it was. Speakers would come in and, and talk to us about, you know, something relevant or we would also have. Where we would have Mom’s Night out, where we’d go to a restaurant and, you know, kind of talk about what’s going on in our lives and, you know, enjoy a cocktail or what have you. And then once a year we would do Mom’s Weekend out, which was really great. I went to a couple of those.
And I know one year we took the train to Savannah and spent a weekend in Savannah, Georgia. That was awesome. We even went camping one time. It was very cool. Yeah, I miss Mothers and More.
That organization isn’t around anymore, but it’s making me wonder if I want to morph my Soulful Women’s Network a lot that way. I need you. I need. I’m going to need to think about this and maybe see if there’s some elements of Soulful Women’s Network that I want to put or of Mothers and More that I want to put into Soulful Women’s Network. There we go.
Stay tuned. We’ll see. But I really did enjoy that group. So. Yeah.
Yeah, think about what, what do you need what’s missing from your life right now that a group might be able to help you fill and then do some searching and see if you can find it. And then, as I said, if you can’t. If you can’t find a group that has what you want, then. Then you might want to consider starting your own. Because sometimes that’s what we have to do.
You know, you got to take. Take the bull by the horns.
Just do it. You know, you can make it work. I would advise if you can enlist a. Enlist a friend to help you, that’s even better because then the load is shared and you’re not. Everything isn’t just falling on your shoulders.
So, yeah, if you’ve got. If you’ve got a good friend out there who you might want to enlist in this. In this endeavor, I highly recommend that. So, yeah. Okay, cool.
Light Language Healing Transmission: Releasing What No Longer Serves You
All right. I’m gonna do one other thing before we close out the show today is to do what is one of my favorite things that I. It’s a practice, a spiritual practice that I share, and it’s one that I’d love to share when I do solo episodes. And. And we will have a guest next week, by the way.
I need to remember. I wanna. I wanna talk about that. Yeah, I was gonna say remind me like you’re going to be able to do that, but anyway, so, yeah, I’m gonna do. I want to share with you a light language message today.
And light language is. Is a spiritual modality. It’s a. It’s a channeling. I choose con. Messages, messages from the heart, which is my. My tagline, but messages from. From other realms, from other dimensions that are intended for your soul and your heart to understand, not necessarily your wonderful logical brain that we have. So I invite you to. When I do, When I’m. When I’m sharing this with. With you on the podcast, but also when I share it with clients, is to set an intention today that the message you are going to hear shortly will be something that will be to help you perhaps release whatever you need to release that doesn’t serve you anymore or to inspire you, or just whatever’s on your heart. Just ask that whatever you’re going to hear today will be ultimately for your soul’s highest good and the highest good of all. And that’s the intention I’m going to set. So as I always remind you on the podcast when I’m sharing, this is.
If you are listening to the podcast while you’re driving, pause this. Come back to it when you can be Somewhere where you can be still and quiet. No, no other people around talking. Maybe put some headphones in and so you really are able to be not disturbed so you can really concentrate and just allow the, whatever comes through. Because it, it could be I may be speaking, I may be singing. I never quite know what’s going to come through. So you can, yeah. So I’m, I’m trusting that you have paused the podcast and now you’re, you’re going to be, you’re present and grounded and might want to take a deep breath and let it out. Oh, that feels good. Let’s do that again.
One more in breath.
Yeah, that, that works for me too. All right. Okay, let’s see what comes through today. That’ll be for your and my soul’s highest good and the highest good of all.
[Light language audio transmission]
Closing: Private Light Language Sessions and Living Boldly on Purpose
I hope you received that with the love that was intended for you. And yeah, I really, I, I, I would love to hear from you if you ever have any, you know, if you’d like to comment or you want to. Yeah. Reach out and let me know what you think about anything about the podcast, but especially if you, if you are interested in the light language because I really, I love sharing it and I love to be able to also do one on ones with people. So if you ever wanted to consider having a private session with me, I would love to offer that to you.
Well, there is a cost for it, but it’s, it’s, it’s a really great way to be able to, to work on something that is unique to you. Because, you know, when I’m sharing it in the podcast right now, it’s, it’s sort of a general thing, but when I work one on one with a client, I can, you know, we, can we talk about, we do this over zoom and we’ll talk about, you know, specifically what’s going on in your life right now that you need some support with. And then, then I can, you know, really ask for that divine guidance to, to help you. So if you ever feel called to that, let me know. You can go.
You can find information about it on my website. Go to gloriarand.com I’ll, I’ll also have a link to where you could schedule a 30 minute session with me. I’ll put that in the show notes as well. So, yeah, so I think, I think this is going to do it for today. So I really do thank you for listening or watching and I really hope that today’s show has inspired you to live boldly and on purpose.
