How Weak Ties Helped Me Redesign My Career After Maternity & Manifest a Soul-Led Life I Love
In this blog I share how discovering how “weak ties” helped me build a new career after redundancy , manifest a soul-led business, and unlock purpose using spiritual intelligence.
If you’re a mum searching for what’s next after maternity leave…
If you’re craving purpose but feeling stuck in survival mode…
If you’re quietly wondering, “Is it too late to create a life that actually lights me up?”
This story is for you.
Because the biggest shift in my life recently didn’t come from confidence, clarity, or even a five-year plan.
It came from something far smaller — yet far more powerful:
Weak ties. Stanford researchers say Weak Ties are the secret ingredient to career change, personal transformation, and manifesting a new life.
And I can confidently say:
They’re the reason I’m here, building a soul-led business, empowering women, and creating retreats with the author and one of the UK’s leading voices in Women, Wellbeing and Work: Giselle Goodwin.
So, What Are Weak Ties
and Why Do They Matter for Career Change After Maternity and or Redundancy (because unfortunately we know they often come hand in hand and if this is you, Please contact Pregnant and Screwed)
Stanford professor Mark Granovetter calls them weak ties — the people you barely know, speak to once, or encounter through social media, a podcast, or a friend-of-a-friend.
These aren’t your colleagues, your best friends, or your inner circle.
They’re your “loose connections” and according to decades of research, they’re the ones most likely to change your life.
Granovetter explains it beautifully:
“Your weak ties connect you to networks that are outside of your own circle. They give you information and ideas that you otherwise would not have gotten.”
This is exactly why weak ties matter so much for women navigating:
career change after maternity
returning to work with a new identity
manifesting a new purpose
redefining ambition
stepping out of matrescence and into emergence (read my blog on What is Spiritual Intelligence for more on Emergence)
Weak ties pull us out of the bubble.
They connect us to fresh ideas.
And they help us see ourselves differently.
🦋 The Moment I Realised My Corporate Network Couldn't Take Me Where I Was Going
Leaving the corporate world this summer of 2025 felt like shedding a skin.
I’d spent years nurturing my “strong ties” the colleagues, clients, and teams who knew me inside out.
But after becoming a mum? I wasn’t the same woman anymore.
My ambitions had shifted.
My values had changed.
And the version of me they knew… wasn’t the version I was becoming. In fact the women I am unbecoming as I shed the expectations and old stories and rediscover the ME underneath.
So when I started my podcast, almost as an act of rebellion, a way to feel alive again and use my voice and get dirty in the arena, I didn’t know I was about to change my entire life.
But I did.
Because the women I interviewed weren’t part of my “network.”
They only knew this new version of me:
✨ The mum craving freedom for herself and all the mums feeling trapped in systems not deigned for them
✨ The fierce woman building her brand
✨ The creative soul with power, here to remind mums that their dreams did leave them in the delivery room
✨ The thought leader weaving spiritual intelligence and neuroscience so women can identify and achieve goals that works for them
And those loose ties didn’t just support me….they expanded me.
🎙️ How a Podcast Became My Portal Into a New Career and a Soul-Led Business
A year ago, I thought about starting a podcast.
Today, because of it, I have:
• Coaching clients I'd never have met in my corporate life
• Mentors who reflected back my potential and possibility
• Collaborations that nourished something deep in my soul
• The beginnings of an incredible business aligned to my values: offering retreats for women who want to reimagine ambition and live a purpose-led life and hosting soul goal parties globally and locally.
All from loose ties.
From conversations I almost didn’t have.
From messages I almost didn’t send.
From showing up imperfectly, vulnerably, honestly.
These weak ties didn’t just help my career grow.
They helped me take action and design a life I didn’t even know I was allowed to want.
🔮 Manifesting a New Life After Motherhood (The Part No One Tells You)
You know I am a BIG manifester. Something I’d lost about myself in the early years of motherhood, but a practice which served me incredibly well in the past. I manifested my husband, my job at Virgin Atlantic, my dream year of pack packing around the world…but since making more weak ties through my podcast i have discovered that manifesting isn’t just about vision boards and affirmations — though yes, these are a big part of it.
It’s about:
✨ Inner alignment (spiritual intelligence)
✨ Understanding your brain’s wiring (neuroscience)
✨ Acting with integrity, purpose, and courage
✨ Following the small nudges toward joy and possibility
Weak ties amplify this process.
They introduce you to:
new worlds
new thinking
new opportunities
new versions of yourself
It’s like the universe saying:
“Here. Here’s your next breadcrumb. Follow it.”
✨ Key Takeaways for Mums Searching for a New Path
Here’s what I want every mum to know:
1. Your old network reflects who you were, not who you’re becoming.
Weak ties reflect your evolution.
2. You don’t need a five-year plan , you need one brave nudge.
Loose ties are often the nudge.
3. Manifesting works when you take aligned action.
Small conversations create big shifts.
4. Your next opportunity will likely come from someone you barely know.
That’s the beauty of weak ties.
5. Motherhood didn’t clip your wings , it gave you new ones.
And weak ties help you learn to fly with them.
🦩 Final Thought: Your Next Chapter Is Already Looking for You
If you’re in that post-maternity, identity-shifting, what-now chapter…
If you’re craving freedom, purpose, joy, and flow…
If you’re ready to stop surviving and start manifesting a life that feels Flocking Fabulous…
Then listen to the nudges.
Follow the loose ties.
Say yes to the conversations.
And trust that the universe is already sending the right people your way.
I’m living proof.
If this blog inspired you, you’ll love the podcast Mamas Flight Path. In just 10 mins every Thursday and Sunday you’ll hear some insights and lessons I’m learning long on my path as I growing my Spiritual Intelligence amongst the motherhood chaos! I also read A LOT of books so I’m always sharing nuggets of knowledge.
Come and join the Flamboyance !
As always, sending love and kindness you way babe,
Love
Jools xx