From New Age to R.A.D.I.A.N.T. Faith: Healing, Community & Abundant Living

Hello there fearfully and wonderfully made human. It's me Diana from Through the Valley Therapy and Transform Mine Consulting and Coaching and I'm so glad you're here. Today's guest is someone who immediately caught my attention the first day we met. I was at a women's leadership network gathering when I struck up a conversation with Lori and within minutes she shared a vision God had placed on her heart.

A Christ-centered women's wellness community called the Radiant Women's Collective. When she explained the meaning behind radiant rooted in Christ, abundant living, discipleship and devotion, inspired wellness, active faith, nurturing community, and transformation together, I knew this was something worth leaning into. I later attended one of the gatherings myself and the atmosphere was warm, grounded, and full of genuine connection.

Lori has created something that feels intentional and deeply needed and today I'm honored to introduce her to you. Lori has been a trusted South Florida realtor since 2015 and previously spent years in fitness, massage therapy, and health coaching. That whole person background shows up in how she leads, how she serves, and how she sees people.

She's also been following Jesus for more than 20 years and that faith continues to anchor the work she's doing now. We're about to explore the heart behind the Radiant Women's Collective and the journey that brought her here. Lori Bergman, thank you for being on the show.

Oh, hi Diana. I'm so excited.

And don't be surprised if I shed a tear or two. Could be.

yeah. You know how that happens, right?

It's all good because, you know, we need we need people to understand that shedding tears is okay. Yeah. As long as we don't drown in them. Right.

I think I remember those days, too. Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. And so let's talk about what inspired you to launch the Radiant Women's Collective and everything you've lived through. Like tell me who you are.

You know, I I've always wanted to do something for women and as a a fitness trainer, massage therapist, and health coach years ago before I got into real estate full-time, I always wanted to have like a women's fitness gym or spa or something and, you know, that was long before I knew Jesus.

And in February of this year, and this was really pretty remarkable. I was like, thank you, Lord. Like I hear people talk about um hearing from the Lord and that he would give them like a book to write and I was like, what is that?

Like I want that, you know? And and I realized that he he's the Lord speaks to each of us differently and in our own time whenever he feels it's ready. So in February of this month I was having coffee with a friend and just like you and I are having a conversation now, I heard him say to me these exact words, you need to start a women's health and wellness networking group.

And I knew it had to be faith-based because I didn't make that up. So to be Jesus-centered. And so then I start thinking about what do I do and how do I do this and um you know, in real estate they like to say don't be a secret agent.

Which is don't sit in your office, don't sit at home. You need to get out and network and you need to meet people. Real estate is a people business as is almost everything we do, right? Yeah. So I realized that I really had not been out meeting people and networking for way too long a time.

And I talked to a a friend of mine who I had recently reconnected and that was that's like a whole other God story. I was a mutual friend and she didn't know I I knew this gal and I didn't know that she knew this gal and I still had this gal in my my contacts with her maiden name from years ago.

And I connected with her and she started giving me all of these places to start networking. I started meeting a lot of women and in a Christian professional group that I'm a member of in Boca Oh.

talking to somebody Mhm. and she said, Lori, just do it. Like like, you know, so many of us are perfectionists or we want to do it right. And I was like, I don't know what I was waiting for, but she was like, Lori, just do it.

It doesn't matter if one person shows up, that will be your first one. Right. So I did and I have somebody else new who we met through a mutual friend and she knew a lot of people and she helped with the list that we first put together to send out invitations.

And anyway, we had 12 people at the first meeting and that was great.

Wow. Wow. Lori, well, to me what I'm I'm hearing and I would I've been there, too, and I think that's that's the situation where some people just get stuck and I call it analysis paralysis.

Like you start analyzing, but I know the difference for me when I had when I push forward in something, it's because I'm being still and I want people that are listening that don't know or don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ because if you say I heard from the Lord and then people are like, oh, they're hearing voices.

Right. It's it's it's a thing where where when you are so in tune and you are in prayer and being still because it is a personal relationship and the only way you can have a relationship with even us, right? Is to put effort in it, right?

It's not just about going to church on Sunday and the rest of the week forgetting about it. It is sitting I I know for me it was sitting daily and then you hear and it's not an audible voice that's coming from the sky where it's like it's like, Lori, you're going to do that.

No, right? Right? It's just having that understanding where when you're being really still and asking for the creator of the universe who made us all, every living thing, you do it's like you feel it. It's like it's the Holy Spirit within us and I mean this is how I moved along with the poetry books and everything and and and it's like what Noah, you know, probably felt back in the day when he's building this huge ark and everybody's going, this dude's crazy.

Right? Or Abraham. Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, that's even oh, you just gave me goosebumps on that one. You know, that that's picture Jesus. Right. And so it's it's you took that step forward in faith because that you overcame the fear because what you were just talking about is the fear that paralyzes us all.

Yeah. It does. Like, oh, what if what are they going to think or what are they that, you know, and we're talking about other what other human beings that and and you're sitting there by yourself going, okay. And you had the choice, Lori, to either move forward, which I'm glad you did cuz if you didn't, I would have never gone and or met you or Right.

Right? You had that choice. We all do. We all have the choice. Yeah. To move forward in in fear. Right? To me that would be facing everything and rising instead of listening to the false evidence appearing real. Right. Take over fear as we see it so many times.

Yeah. Tell me how how it how Okay, so from that first time when you said, I don't want because I know for me it's about months and months of of me like I hate to say rebelling or or I'm wrestling, you know, like Jacob wrestling or I'm more like uh uh oh my gosh, I forgot.

Jonah. Like I'm like, uh yeah, no, I'm out.

Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's such a funny thing, Jonah. When I first became a Christian, I was doing some things and I remember I was working and I was in real estate at the time. I only did that for a short period, but I was so angry because I realized that there was like no place I could hide from God.

Like nowhere. And I remember leaving the office and taking a walk and I was like angry because it was like I was hiding something and then it just became so aware to me, you cannot hide from the creator. He knows you inside and out, upside and down.

And I was like, oh, okay. And I've also been the type of person, Diana, that I've always been relatively obedient. Not in everything I've done, but I've tried to be that good girl. Mhm. So Yeah, and that's a hard place, too, cuz I deal with a lot of good girls that you know, as a therapist, they come to me because they were raised a certain way and they believe, you know, and they are now struggling with their faith.

Mhm. Right? And and if they grew up in a in a church or in a high-controlling religion or whatever it is or they're searching for faith, it's it's, you know, to me I'm like every human that comes across my path, I do a lot of praying because not I'm not a fit for everybody, but I do want to help them find a fit for them.

And um that being said, with your faith, because it's 20 years ago, that's about the time I became a Christian, too, in 2000. Oh, no, sorry, 25 years ago for me. It was 2000. It was September of 2000 when And then and the funny thing is, Lori, I knew who Jesus was all my life, because I was raised Catholic with Santa Maria.

Right?

told me that. Yeah.

Yeah, and so you know, you know, like in your brain. And then you're always looking I I mean, for me it's like I was looking outside, like oh, yeah, they call themselves a Christian. Look at the way they're behaving. And that's the thing.

It's like so many people look look on the outside of like any the words that are people are saying, and then they get disappointed by by human beings. I don't care if it's a like I said at the meeting, wolves in sheep's clothing.

Yeah. Or another human or within your own family. For you, I want to know about your story about how you did the 180. How what was it What happened like that you said, you know what, from this point on, I will forever ever follow Jesus Christ.

Uh it was not that easy. It was not that It was not that sentence at all. Um so I grew up Jewish. And we know that Yeshua is missing from the Hebrew scriptures, as I I like to call them, especially if I'm talking to another Jewish person, not the Old Testament.

They don't like that so much. I think. And um you know, I was always searching and spent about 15 years in New Age. And I I knew people who came from a similar background as you. Uh with Santa Maria. And you know, I was involved in all kinds of things.

Um God has like wiped my memory out of a lot of them, but um Wicca, Tarot, um mediums, which God is very clear about when he right? And in the Old Testament about don't go to mediums. And And I've I've seen it, and I I know that the the the world of demons, the spiritual world as in Ephesians 6, as you know, we don't fight against flesh and blood, but against the principalities in the heavenly places.

And so um it it took me a while, but uh God brought somebody into my life who showed me Christ. And it was kind of like when I finally got it well I should step back, because um a friend of mine and his wife, he was a massage therapist, and so he and I had met at some of the monthly massage meetings we used to go to.

And his wife, they had been married for a long time, and she grew up Jewish, and she had been a Christian for many, many years. And he grew up in the Pentecostal church. Oh, wow. And so you know I think she was probably like the only Jewish believer I knew back then when I first became a Christian or was um investigating, I should say.

And there was um a group of women uh what was it called? Women Women of Faith, maybe? Um Oh my goodness, yes, they would travel around the country, right? Oh, yeah, that's That was the thing back in the 1900s. Right. Well, this was after that.

This was This was in the early 2000s.

Yeah, Women of Faith. Yeah. So she invited me to go. It was out at the whatever the big center out in Sunrise. Yeah. I don't know whose name is on it this year. Right. But um I went there with she and a couple of her friends, and I I remember, you know, they were sharing scripture and singing and worshipping and and and at one point, one of them said and this is like, you know, the huge stadium.

Yeah, that was your eyes and say a prayer. And close your eyes, and then she said everybody to repeat what she said. And it was a prayer, and then she told everybody to open their eyes. And she said, well, if you just recited that, you've just believed in Christ.

Well I know that's not exactly how it works right now.

But I was freaked out, like, what do you mean? Oh, that's not, you know, this whole big So when we left, my friend, her name is Amy um we talked, and she gave me the name of a rabbi who was Messianic or a Jewish rabbi that believed that Jesus is the Messiah.

And I called him up like the next day. He answered. He talked to me for We were on the phone, I don't know, half an hour, 40 minutes. And I hung up the phone, and at that point my life was not so great.

And um I hung up the phone, and I said, well I guess if this Jewish rabbi can believe that Jesus is the Messiah I'll give it a shot, and if it doesn't work, I'll just go back to doing what I've been doing, cuz what I've been doing is pretty rotten.

And that's really what happened. And then um so I'll I'll be transparent. The the guy who I met, who led me to Christ was married and a Christian. And so you kind of think that's like an oxymoron. Mm. But you know, not all of us are all the time obedient, and um Well well, I want to stop you right there, Lori.

If you really, really read the word of God, and you understand all the humans that are in the word, come on. Look at David.

I mean, we could we could also list more and more, right? I mean, Paul. I mean, you know, Saul from I mean, there's so many situations. And this is why if people would understand the word and read it in context, and understand like, you know, it's good to have a pastor.

It is, a shepherd. It is. You know, we need pastors and shepherds, but to understand the word of God and really read it in the fullness of context that every book points to Christ. That's right. Every book. And to really understand he came to this world to show us the way.

He is the prince of peace, the wonderful counselor, the great physician. And and I know you know, like people that don't believe, that's fine. Like to me, like I have a lot of friends and family that don't believe at all, and that's okay, because to me, the Bible's a mirror to my soul.

Like I'm going to do what I can to be a vessel for Christ, the best I can. It's not perfection. I That's the beauty, right, Lori? He took away the perfection. I'm like free to be me. That's right. That's right. And and all we can do is the best that we can do is to be obedient to what his word tells us to do.

Yeah. Even when it's really hard and our flesh, our ego gets in the way, cuz I'm you know, like this morning I snapped at my poor husband, but I've gone to a place now where it's like, I'm so sorry. Like it's two forgiving This is how we're together.

It's two very forgiving people that love Christ at this time, you know, and we're respectful to each other, cuz not every relationship is perfect, either, and and that's the thing. So okay, I'm sorry. See, I go on rabbit holes. I told you, Lori.

It's okay. So back to Okay. you know, this this Jewish rabbi, which I love it, because Jesus is a Jewish rabbi. And Yeah. And you walking and understanding, and it isn't a magical woof thing. It is, I bet you, because it took me a long time.

Listen, it took me a long time to quit smoking pot, quit watching porn, quit Do you see what I mean? Quit doing this, quit doing that, and everything, even though I was going to church, living on as like hell on Saturdays, and then Sunday morning sitting there with that hangover.

Like it isn't It's It's understanding that that he's got so much grace for us. And thank God that he does. Because if people knew what was behind that they would say, and I it's it's a real pet peeve of mine, well, she's not saved.

If she's doing X Y Z or she's not doing X Y Z, she's not saved. That's legalism. It is Legalism is correct. And it's just such a pet peeve of mine, because Jesus says better check the log in your eye before you check somebody else's.

There is no way that we know a person's heart. We don't know that We don't know what anybody else is struggling with. We don't know that just because they're having an affair with a married woman or a married man, or because they're watching porn, or whatever the situation is, we don't know that they're not saved and going to heaven.

We don't know that they don't have a relationship with Jesus, but maybe it's not exactly where it needs to be yet. And God is working on them, because he loves us, right? And he disciplines us after so much patience. Yes. So yeah, so you know, for me I ended up going to um a big church in Fort Lauderdale.

And because this guy who I was seeing on the side, he was married Wow. told me to go find this guy and his wife. And I found them at church. And they befriended me, and I, you know, hung out with them and started to know all of their friends and it was such a blessing because every Wednesday before church, I was a fitness trainer at that time.

I had my own business, so my hours were my own. So, every Wednesday afternoon before church, I would meet Danny DeLuca and Henry Wasserman and we would meet at the grill and we'd have a cup of coffee and I would learn the Bible through them, with them.

Wow. Cuz all of all of the new age things that I had learned, um they would show me where Satan had counterfeited it Mhm. so that I'd like maybe you'd read it in the Old Testament, but then you'd see the revelation of it in the New Testament and you'd see that maybe the words of a particular verse were twisted Right.

or something, so that, you know, I began to see that wow, maybe this was written by Moses, but those verses showed up in the New Testament, which is what? 1,500, 2,000 years later. They didn't know each other, the two authors of those book books.

And so, when I started to see like there was no way that the authors of these books could have known what the other one said. It had to be God inspired. Yeah. That I was I believed. And so, you know, some people say, well, I got saved on December 16th.

I don't know when I got saved. I just know that I'm going to heaven right now cuz I believe Jesus died for our sins. He hung on a cross. He was buried for 3 days. He rose again and he's now seated at the right hand of God the Father.

If you believe that, you're going to heaven. Mhm. And if someone's still watching porn and they believe that, God's going to work on them. Well, he's sovereign. So, what what happens is I think so many humans they want control or it's the fear that they have or they want to to know like this is exactly how it works.

So, it's a very they narrow it down and try to put God in a box and I'm just like you can't do that. Like you know, this is why we have what? 40,000 denominations out there of Christianity? It's it's really

for real? I'm pretty sure that's what I read. I'm not, you know, Jack could have lied to me, but

who knows? But it's thousands and thousands of denominations out there if you really think about and think about why they get developed because all of a sudden a person's getting mad or whatever, we're going to start our own. We're going to start our own.

I mean, or and to me, I really don't know. I honestly, I don't know and I'm okay to say I don't know because I'm not God and I will never claim to be God. Right. So, like so so with the new age, because I dabbled in that, too.

Like after, let me see, I dabbled in it probably from high school on until I was saved, honestly. Because Santa Maria, it would people understand, it's kind of like new age mixed with voodoo, mixed with Catholicism. That's and it's a Caribbean and it's not, you know, like

[gasps]

it wasn't where I I want to I always want to make crystal clear. It wasn't where my grandma was like sacrifice it wasn't sacrificing animals or anything like that. It's it's kind of like there's a I don't want to say a spectrum, but there's a spectrum in like new age, right?

You're either hardcore in it and you're in Wicca and you're doing the tarot cards and you're in the the astrology and crystals and you're cleaning your crystals at every full moon and

etc. etc. Yeah. Or or you're just like, oh, I just have this crystal, you know? It's the same with the Christianity in a way where you're either so into it and you become, you know, you're a theologian and you're in it and you went to school and have a doctorate in divinity or you just go to church every Sunday.

Yeah, there's, like you said, all different Yeah. all different levels on the spectrum. So, with the new age, I realized, too, working with people that are still in it or they come out of it or me understanding how and why I decided, you know, it's a choice and God just said, you know, stay in the word.

Please just stay in the word. Um even though people will come in and look at my office or place or the way I dress or, you know, you're are you new age? Or they assume, they make an assumption because I have rocks in my office and I'm like, um this is this is the beauty of your brain, how it works.

You either choose to look at this and think it's new age and got all these magical powers or you see it and say, wow, Lord, you made something awesome. Yeah. So, tell me about your walk with that for a little bit. With the new age.

Like not not to go deep into it, but just for people to understand like

[snorts]

why why do you feel people are so attracted to that stuff? Because it's a feel good thing. Like I remember when I first became a Christian, pastor that I studied under, like I don't even know if you can find the word feel or feeling in the Bible.

Like I don't even know if it's there a half a dozen times. Now, we're both going to go look it up after, but if it's there, it's it's so infrequent. Mhm.

You know, because God is about truth. Mhm. And he's about obedience and he, of course, he's love and he's sovereign and he's justice and all those things. We know, omnipotent, omnipotent, and omniscient. So, you know, we know that. But it's just um it's a feel good kind of thing.

It's like a high. Like you don't need a drug. Sometimes you just go into these places. I remember, you know, you go into the new age place and it's just a high. Like it's like you know, that what they say, high vibration, low vibration.

But it is I think the intention of the heart, like you were saying earlier. It's the intention of the heart. Yeah, we're energetic beings. I try to explain that scientifically. We are and God made God is energy. Like he is love. It's an energy.

But when we start focusing that that energy becomes the idol, that's the problem. When we start idolizing these things and and God says there shall not be any idols, you know, before me. Right. And yeah, I remember so one of the things that I did is we would go to mediums and it was cool.

We're going to see an entity. That's what it was called. Mhm. So, you know, when I became a Christian, um uh a friend of mine had said, when you start throwing away your crystals and your idols of whatever Greek you know, mythological things and uh cassettes and books and whatever, you're going to be attacked.

Yeah. And like I didn't really know what that was, but I was. I I would I um I needed to have two hips replaced. That was 20 years ago and I had to sleep with a pillow under my left leg because it was so painful before I had the surgery.

I'm sorry. Thought I'd turn that off. That's okay. Um and so one night I was sleeping and I was sleeping on my back with a pillow under my leg and literally I was woken up to what felt like somebody was standing over my bed with a knife Oh my God. sword stuck into my hip.

And it was painful. I mean, it was real. You know, like it wasn't a dream that I was making up and it it's, you know, something along those lines happened once or twice two other one or two other times. And then like going to see these mediums, you know, you'd have this one person and they were like they were going to tell like your future or tell your past and you could ask them questions like seeing a psychic or tarot or tea leaves or whatever.

But this person would be sitting in front of the whole group Yeah. and when they were praying for this, what I now know is a demon, to come into them, you could see their physical appearance change.

Change. You could hear their voice Yes.

change. Yeah. And it was eerie. Like I get the chills now.

Yeah, when you because you know what it is now. But when you're in it, yeah, when you're Yeah. Exactly. Lori, listen, I know my grandma was a medium. So, that's why it's like yeah. So, it's like yeah. And it is because you don't know and I've seen it.

I've seen young people I go, oh, I went and got, you know, I went to see a psychic and stuff like that. And some of it is charlatan stuff and snake oil. Some of it. Some of it. Some of it is not. Some of it all of a sudden it comes and gives you and then the person's like, oh my goodness, they know I'm I'm trying to find my dead relative.

I'm trying to, you know, um find out the future and when you're so I think this is why Jesus talks about that in in the word where he's like, why are you worried about tomorrow? We have enough worries today. That's right. Like be present in this present moment right now because you're missing this moment right now when you're so when you're so worried about the future, that's anxiety.

And when you're so and when you're stuck in the past, that's depression. Right. And that's a sin. And sometimes we need help with that, right? Some people do need help and then, you know, like for me, um I struggled with depression from the time I was in high school.

Mhm. And so, I understand. And there's um I was on antidepressants one time. I hated them. I I hated they made me feel. I was like I I was happy all the time, but I could feel like it was a fake happiness. And I couldn't get up in the morning, so I was always late.

Finally, I got off them and years later, I met a doctor who did some uh hair analysis and some other testing came to find that I was deficient in a specific and he gave me a supplement and I have been taking that ever since and I'm sure you experience this with some of your patients who go on any medication when they when they're doing well, they feel like they could stop cuz you know

Yes, and that's the most dangerous thing. Let me tell you it's the most dangerous thing to do, Lori, because they don't under Yeah. Yeah, so I stopped, but again, it wasn't a medication, but I could seriously when I really paid attention, I could notice a difference when I went off them.

So, now I'm on them and I I don't get off them because I know the difference. And then yet you know, I'm not I don't have every day that's happy and joyful and Well, when where does it what why do people I think it's because of our culture, but no, we have to teach people.

We have to understand. This is why the book of Ecclesiastes is my favorite book of the Bible. People are like, you are what? I'm like, no, because it just shows that we're just dust in the wind, like vapor. We're a vapor here and now and it's okay to have all these emo God made that emotion wheel, all right, all of them, but it's not for us to to be That's what makes us human.

If we're happy all the time that's not healthy. It's not healthy to just stay in that ecstatic That would be manic. Right. Yeah. And and to talk about anxiety and depression because to me as a therapist, I want the the listener to really understand because I know that Lori did say that it it it could be a sin.

It is We need to understand sin is rebelling against God, but depression and anxiety are symptoms, symptoms of your body is trying to talk to you. A disease is a dis-ease. Your body and your brain is trying to talk to you and it's uncomfortable.

So, as a therapist, I try to help you get comfortable in the uncomfortable so we can get to the root cause. Right. The root cause can be a sin. The root cause can be that you're you're rebelling against God without you even knowing that that's what you're doing because you might be sitting up all night watching something you shouldn't be watching and now you're feeling depressed because it goes in the subconscious.

It could be that, you know, you're not eating right and you're eating McDonald's every single day and your body's meant to have really good nutritious foods. It's like trying to understand what's going on in your system and being connected with the creator of the universe.

And when you're not connected in a healthy way then it's going to come out in so many different ways that you're not feeling well. Yeah. You know, so so let's get to your radiant you know, you said the the radiant Yeah, the R stands for rooted in Christ, right?

And then the A is for abundant living. Let's talk about this little bit. I want to understand your whole the whole radiant collective and you know, where do you see it going and what's it mean? Um you know I don't have a perfect forward vision yet.

I'm praying about it. Um waiting to see where the Lord would have it. Um A long time ago, probably probably close to 20 years ago, God had put homelessness on my heart. And that once I started volunteering uh with feeding meals to homeless um homelessness women who are homeless has really been on my heart.

And there's really no place for women who are not drug or alcohol addicted to go. And if they have a child or children. And so, I've connected with some people actually one of them or two of them today who are really, really passionate about it.

And so, I have a sense that God is going to I I feel like he's going to move me to partner with somebody for something around homelessness for women. Wow. Um I'm not sure yet but you know there's so much need Yes. out there.

And we we don't usually get it from our politicians. We know, we usually get it from the church or from people who are very generous and they have a passion for it as well. Right. Um So, for right now um women who are coming are sharing um very authentically.

It's a a place where I want people to feel comfortable and confident that everything will remain confidential. Mhm. Um some women have shared some things about themselves that they have never shared before. Um and so, it's just a very supportive group and um actually, now that you're mentioning it, I'm just remembering I I asked for somebody who would like to be a speaker at the at the the December meeting.

Yeah. Have anybody yet. And I want to next year in January start something where we all get together for an outing together. So, um you know so I'm working on that and Well, you had a great speaker, the one that just spoke at that Yeah, Alana.

She it was really good. It was really interesting and that Is that how you see it going? Like every month they'll be a speaker of health and wellness or something like that? Like what is the actual I mean I I named what radiant means, r a d i a n t, but to me you you said it like it was a wellness community that's like holistic and that's what that to me I was like, oh yeah, and and all faith-based.

And the women that were there, they're from all different businesses. So, to me it was more like a networking opportunity, but more deep than just sitting there, oh here's your business card, you know, we it was it was organized. So, what happens with it gets more than because an intimate confidential group like that's you have to be small.

What's going to, you know, like if it gets bigger, you're going to put them in different groups and stuff?

We might. I love it. about it, you know, we might. Um we were the first first meeting was 12, the second meeting was six and our last meeting we were 12 again. Mhm. Just 12 apostles. A friend of mine said that to me.

Said, that's 12 apostles. I'm like, okay, well, let's let's just see where that goes. So um you know, already thinking about those kinds of things. I mean, the the location is great. The guys who own the restaurant don't charge us, so everybody just comes and orders their breakfast.

It was awesome. It was all natural, healthy fare. I loved that. Organic, they have vegetarian and vegan and they're really very accommodating. It's I'll do a plug if that's okay. It's called

Yeah. Gourmet Garden Cafe and it's in Fort Lauderdale on Federal Highway. Yes. It's great. Yes, please do. Do a plug. Those guys were amazing and the food was tasty and the prices weren't way expensive either. And it's a really good location to have a meeting.

Yeah, Cypress Creek and Federal Highway. Mhm. Yeah, so it's easy for people to, you know, get off at Cypress Creek if they're coming from north or south and um So, yeah, it's you know, it's an opportunity for people to network and I I think a lot of the women are networking.

And yet that's not the focus. Mhm. Okay. It's really not the focus. I I don't I don't really want it to be. There's enough networking groups out there, you know, I really want to keep it um something that's really heart-centered and heartfelt where where we can support each other and help each other, but it doesn't necessarily have to be um you know, let me have your business card you know, to send you a referral.

It's great if that happens, for sure. So So, what's the difference? Um I think the opportunity to share more here personally than you would expose yourself in a strictly professional environment. You know, like some of the things that we're talking about there that we've that women have shared there, they would not share a just a professional group.

Right. You know, whether it's cancer or whether it's uh a husband or a divorce or kids or, you know, um I'm looking for work, which people would certainly share um at a networking group looking for support with that, but it's just it's different and and people know that everybody is a believer in Christ.

Yeah. And so, I think that that holds it together in a different way also. Right. Yeah. It does. And it And you know, this is the beauty of starting something new because you don't I want to encourage the listener that you don't have to have it all planned out.

You don't have to have, you know, the three because people go in and they're like, "Oh, my business plan. You have to have 3 years, 5 years, 10 years." I know like to get investors and and and stuff like that, right? And so, a lot of us women that are business women, and that's the training or that's what you hear or what you see on social media.

What I love about you, Lori, is like you're like, "Yeah, social media me Yeah, whatever." And this goes to show And And me, too. Wait. Wait.

I have social media, but I'm not I want to I want to encourage the younger generation, Lori, because you and I, being where we are, where we come from and since from the 1900s, that the next generation, Gen Z and millennial, and what I see with the younger They're searching for women that, you know, is going are are going to help them and encourage them.

And I know I'm trying to think of This is why I'm slowing down cuz there is a Bible verse where it says like, "You want, you know, the older women to help the younger women and stuff like that." Oh, yeah. Um I'm thinking it's in Timothy.

I think you're right. But But my point being is that this authenticity and understanding, I see it in the younger generations wanting it because they have been given so much fake-ness. Like I Like younger people can see AI and and and fake-ness so quickly now, more than us, because we weren't raised like that.

We were raised like in the analog age.

I mean, we have a little digital knowing, but but that right there, I think as AI keeps progressing to a point where it is, like people are scared. Let me tell you. Like I listen to a lot. I research a lot as well.

Um The Diary of CEO just had a podcast episode with a AI professional that is like And I'm listen you know, 2 hours in, I'm like, "Oh my goodness. I could see it." You know, I use it. I I learn from it. I But the younger people that are raised in it, see, we weren't raised in these things.

So, we still have a grounding. And not saying that younger people don't, but a lot of them are behind these screens 24/7. The anxiety and depression is through the roof, Lori. Through the roof for the youngins. And I want to help if they're listening now where they're like, "Yeah, I'm trying to find authenticity now."

COVID did a number on these young kids. Yeah. Okay, when they had a shut down during college and elementary school, they can't make eye contact. The social anxiety that I'm I'm working with clients to try to get them baby steps on like, "Okay, this week you're going to go outside the house and, you know, go to and and go to an art class or something, right?"

Just to get them out to connect with humans because they think they're so interconnected. The The gaming. The Right? So, you hear right, Lori? So, to me, your movement that God's given you, this radiant, you know, staying ground you know, the whole abundant living, discipleship and devotion, inspired wellness, active faith, nurturing community, and transformation together.

That's exactly what society's missing right now. Mhm. Yeah, so I don't know. We might be more than 12 people, Diane. We'll need to break up into smaller groups if that's the way it would be, you know. But this is the beauty of walking by faith and not by sight.

Yep. For sure. Because if you start walking by sight, I mean, you have to have a little bit of planning, but not to the point where the you know, you're so overwhelmed because God called you to do this. Just like he called me to do this, this whole podcasting.

I'm sitting there going, "Wait, you're you're This episode is 101 episode." I never thought I would get to this place, and I'm still going, "All right, Lord, when can I quit?" No, I'm just kidding.

And you keep finding amazing people to be on your podcast. It's great. Well, everyone has a story. Yep. And if I I, you know, I pray about who comes on because to me, whoever's listening, if it if it helps one person, that's all that matters.

That's right. So, I think I could sit here and talk to you for a long time, but that's usually my case with my with those that I bring in, all the guests. So, I just want to know if someone's listening right now and is carrying deep pain, shame, or still feels trapped in a victim mindset, what truth about God's heart and and healing would you want them to hold on to today?

He loves you. And he wants you to turn to him. I haven't done that enough. But recently, I'm desiring that relationship with him because I know that it's real. And even though we can't touch him, I know that we will when we get to heaven, right?

And he loves you more than anybody on the planet. And that has been coming more and more to me in the last 6 or 8 months or year. And it's really important for people to understand that. It's not He's not some fake god.

He is, like you keep repeating, the creator of the universe. And he knows you, how many hairs are on your head. And he knows how many I'm going to lose tomorrow, which I don't want to do anymore. Oh, I can hear you. But he loves you so much, and I spent so much of my life as a victim until I realized that I didn't have to anymore.

Exactly. And sometimes that's what it takes. Sometimes, you know, they say you don't know what you don't know. So, like if you don't know something, maybe you don't know the right questions to ask because you don't know. But when you know, it opens a whole 'nother door.

It opens a light. It gives you a pathway to make a connection. And the best thing you can do is pick up the Bible. Yeah. Pray before you read it. Yes. That he gives you the knowledge and the wisdom. Yeah, just start somewhere.

Yep. Just start somewhere. I mean, the I think this is why I start start with Psalm 139. From the beginning to the end of that Psalm 139 is amazing, and you will realize who you are in Christ and how you can pray. I mean, Psalm 1 the ending 23 and 24, "Search my heart and know my anxious thoughts."

That's my prayer daily. So, when I was a new Christian, I was in the gym working out, and one morning, a guy came up to me. I never saw him before. I never saw him after. And he was clearly a Christian. He came up to me, and he said, "The Lord told me to tell you you should go home and read Psalm 138 and 139."

Oh. I had never read them before. It might have been, you know, first year I was a Christian. Wow. And I was pretty blown away. Yeah. Yeah, it blows you away when you Yeah, Psalms are amazing. So, I would start there or the book of John.

I mean, there's a I can't tell you. Listen, listener, if you've never cracked open a Bible, I can't tell you because it's a living word. So, just go and open it and say, "Lord, if you're real," because that's something I mean, if you really exist, tell me where to start.

And you'll be surprised. Anyway, Lori, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate you sharing your story and this Radiant Women's Collective and see where it goes. I mean, it's in the beginning stages. I'm excited for you and um and being a part of it.

Um All right. Well, listener, thank you for being here. If you've lasted with us this long, and do not forget to trust in the Lord, guard your heart, and renew your mind. Bye. And now for the disclaimer to make sure you understand that you are responsible for you.

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