The Joy-Led Business Creation Collective
A community of mission-led women business owners unleashing their creative power for these times
Earlier this year I offered a 90-minute workshop: Joy-Led Business Creation. Perhaps you were there.
Women arrived tired of being told ‘this is the way you must grow your business.’ But beneath that, there was a deep desire to create. To contribute. To bring their work forward in ways that feel alive and meaningful, to both them and the people they’re here to serve.
That session, and the conversations that followed, has inspired a new realisation as I steward this Joy-Led work:
It wants to live inside a community of practice. A space where women join hands and support one another as they unleash their creative power in their business lives.
An ongoing container, sustainably priced, that honours the spaciousness many of us crave, as we keep moving, evolving and creating in service of the missions we’re on.
A space that offers a powerful structure, within community, rather than another ‘programme.’
This is your invitation to be part of it.
Why I am following the call to create this…
We‘re part of an industry that tells us: You need the right niche. The right messaging. The right funnel. The right expert. And if you just invest in the next programme, the next formula, the next system…Then things will finally work.
But it rarely works that way. I know that. You know that. That’s why I’m writing this, and you’re here reading it.
I also know our resistance to this bullshit extractive cycle is divine data. It’s our highest, wisest, minxiest, sovereign self – our inner Goddess, Queen, Sage and Diva all rolled into one.
She knows there’s another way to be in this business of taking our transformational work out into the world, and she’d be right.
A way that honours our creative power, and leadership, rather than subjugating it to some external authority.
The Joy-Led™ Business Creation Cycle
The way out of the extractive cycle the coaching industry perpetuates, involves structure.
Not the ultimate blueprint, five-step hack, this-is-the-only-way-to-do-it kind of structure.
But the best kind. The liberating kind. The kind that’s like a trellis around which our highest work can bloom! The kind that invites us to trust, expand and embody our creative power as women in service of the work we're here to do. That’s what The Joy-Led Business Creation Cycle provides.
It’s led to private clients I adore, corporate gigs that make my heart sing, and a thriving community of women with whom sharing my work feels like coming home.
The Joy-Led Business Creation Cycle holds us as we bring our work into the world. It supports us understand where we are in the creative process, where we might be stuck, how we can meet resistance head on and dance through it with more grace and ease. Its six stages provide a map, that we’re always on as Joy-Led business owners. Sometimes in sequence, sometimes not:
Commune – choosing to create from soul/intuition/higher guidance/what we sense is needed, even if no one is asking for it directly
Witness – being seen and heard by trusted companions as our ideas and work begin to take form
Create – bringing new offerings, experiences and ideas to life. Giving our ideas shape and context that lands with our people
Invite / Offer – sharing what is emerging and welcoming people into it, before we feel entirely ‘ready’
Lead / Embody – holding space for others through the work we are here to do in ways that make us feel more alive
Become – allowing the creative process to shape who we are as leaders and changemakers, again and again
Holding it all, at the centre, is our life-force, our joy, our sense of aliveness. Sometimes known as Eros.
Yes, Eros.
Rather than overriding ourselves and adhering to rigid strategies, this cycle invites us to dance with the natural creative process. It invites us to honour our divinity and humanness along the way.
We create offerings that feel more alive, more authentic, and more deeply aligned with our people and the bigger mission we’re here to serve.
We’re able to invite people into those offerings from a place of deep joy. We have that feeling: this is is what I’m here for.
The work our soul is calling us to do lands with relevance and resonance, in ways people can and can’t logically explain.
We feel more and more alive as us and our work can meet people, right where they are, and support them create the transformation they seek in the context of their lives and work.
The Joy-Led™ Business Creation Cycle
You can watch three short videos which bring to life Joy-Led Business Creation here, excerpted from the introductory workshop I offered in January:
The Collective: how it will work
The Joy-Led Business Creation Collective will be an evolving community offering. The women who step in at this stage will help shape the culture, rhythm and spirit of what this Collective becomes.
The heartbeat will be small circles of women, where we gather regularly to work The Joy-Led Business Creation Cycle.
To begin with, the Collective will consist of one circle of up to eight women.
Yes – we will start small. My experience tells me that the best things in life (and business) often do.
Each month we will gather for:
1) Two Facilitated Group Calls (90 minutes):
These sessions will be guided by me and will support you to embody the Joy-Led Business Creation Cycle as you bring forward your beautiful work and grow your business. The format will mainly be ‘Love seat’ sessions where members bring real challenges or creative edges to the group.
You might bring:
• a workshop idea you want to develop
• messaging or copy you’d like witnessing or feedback on
• a proposal you’re preparing for a meaningful opportunity
• a visibility edge you’re navigating
• an offering you’re preparing to launch
Everyone will benefit when you bring live topics to our calls. Together, we will witness one another, offer encouragement, feedback, wisdom and intuition. We will support one another grow the businesses we truly want to create by creating the conditions for our flourishing to become inevitable.
2) A Peer-Led Group Call (90-minutes)
Once each month the group will gather without my facilitation.
Using simple structures I will introduce, members will support one another through coaching, witnessing and shared reflection as you continue to work the cycle.
This allows leadership to be shared and cultivated within the group. We have enough gurus. We need more leadership from the field. From us.
You will also be paired with a buddy to support your journey.
3) Optional Coaching Exchange
This part I love! (and it’s optional). If you love it too, you will have the opportunity to contribute one coaching session per month to our coaching pool, and receive one in return from another member of the Collective – much like a babysitting co-op.
These exchanges will take place between members. My role will be to facilitate the structure that supports them.
This structure allows us to support one another’s expansion more deeply, drawing on the incredible skills we have to co-create transformation. This is a powerful part of the design, because it transforms the exchange into something intentional and generative – a genuine exchange of value between practitioners who each bring their own wisdom and experience.
The suggestion is that you’ll work in three-month cycles with one coach, then switch (but we will decide this collectively).
4) Member-led spaces
As the Collective evolves and grows, members will be encouraged to create additional spaces together.
These might include:
• co-working sessions
• morning practices
• creative experiments
• collaborative projects
The intention is that this becomes a living community, not simply a set of scheduled calls.
We’ll stay in touch via WhatsApp to begin with – and in time this may move to a different community platform.
Occasional one-to-one support
From time to time I may open up a small number of one-to-one sessions for members of the Collective.
These will be offered on a pay-as-you-go basis and bookable session-by-session via Calendly.
This allows members who feel they would benefit from deeper individual exploration at certain moments in their journey to access that support, while keeping the Collective as the primary space where our work unfolds together.
Availability of these sessions will depend on my wider commitments and capacity.
What becomes possible through this practice
Over time, working with The Joy-Led Business Creation Cycle, in community, creates powerful shifts:
• Evolving our work in ways that feel creatively liberating and deeply fulfilling
• Discovering new offerings through experimentation and obtaining live feedback from clients
• Gaining clarity about the people and mission we are here to serve
• Healing ‘visibility wounds’ by sharing what genuinely helps others, and being compassionate with ourselves as we do
• Unapologetically embodying the truth of who we are as leaders
• Feeling less alone on our entrepreneurial journey
Perhaps most importantly:
We begin to experience ourselves not just as business owners, but as the powerful creators we are.
We have a lived experience of what we can bring into form and the impact we can make, without outsourcing our creative power to any external expert, guru or gatekeeper.
Yes please ✨
Who this collective is for
This space is for women who:
• are already doing transformational work in the world — whether as a coach, facilitator, practitioner or leader
• bring either recognised training or significant experience to that work
• sense they are here to serve a higher mission, even if they don’t have words for it yet
• are tired of formulaic business advice, and committed to stepping into their own creative power
• long to contribute more fully and freely, but hold themselves back
• want to feel more creatively alive and less alone on their journey - and resonate with the idea that ‘together we rise.’
It’s also likely they have:
• invested in programmes that didn’t deliver what they hoped
• a push-pull relationship with visibility
• a desire to lead in ways that are more embodied and authentic
It is not for women who:
• are looking for someone else to do the work for them
• want easy answers and quick-fixes
• are wanting a guarantee of a particular outcome
Becoming a founding member
To begin with, the Collective will open with one founding circle of eight women and we will begin our work together in April.
Monthly membership for the inaugural, founding circle will be £175 per month + UK VAT (if applicable), payable monthly.
My intention with this pricing is to offer something that feels spacious and sustainable, rather than replicating the extractive pattern I often notice in the coaching industry, where expensive, intensive programmes can place unnecessary pressure on our creative process.
Membership will include:
• Two group calls facilitated by Claire each month
• One peer-led practice call
• The opportunity to participate in the coaching exchange
• Buddy partnerships
• Access to the Collective community space (via WhatsApp)
Logistics such as the day of the week and time for the group calls will be set in collaboration with the founding members. Time-zones will be a major factor in deciding this. Once the collective forms, call dates will be made available 6 months in advance.
Calls will be on the same day, and at the same time each week, with one or two weeks with no calls each month. Calls will be recorded, though members are encouraged to join live to contribute and receive all they wish to.
The invitation is to join for a minimum of six months, allowing time for the practice to unfold and the relationships within the group to deepen.
As the Collective grows, additional circles will open, though the price may be slightly higher.
If you feel called to join us…
UPDATE as at 5th April 2026: The inaugural circle commences on 16th April 2026, and is now full. Hooray!
If you’d like to be part of the next circle, which I anticipate opening up in the summer or autumn, please book a call with me. I will be co-creating the day of the week/time for our group calls, and when we’ll begin, with the women who want to be part of it.
If we already know each other, it may mean simply swapping emails! If we don’t, our call will help us to double-check that this is a good fit for where you are in your journey. You can book that here.
I look forward to hearing your reflections and questions!
As I think about the powerful work that will be birthed into existence through this Collective I’m doing a little celebratory dance!
Our light is needed now more than ever.
The invitation and opportunity is for us to offer it with joy, abundance and deep care in ways that nourish others, ourselves, and the ecosystems we are part of.
With love, and in creative power,
Claire ✨
About Claire
Claire Mackinnon is a transformational coach, creative catalyst, and women’s leadership guide devoted to supporting women to step into their creative power – so they can bring forward the change only they can make.
Before founding her business in 2015, Claire spent 15 years leading large-scale organisational transformation across financial services and the social impact sector – including senior roles at Barclays and as Director of HR for one of the UK’s largest social housing mergers.
An ICF PCC-certified coach with more than 2,000 hours of coaching and facilitation experience, she has supported hundreds of leaders across industries including technology, retail, professional services, and education – as well as an ever-growing community of mission-led women entrepreneurs.
Claire is the founder of The Joy-Led Creativity Collective, a community of women leaders and changemakers stepping into their creative power and reclaiming their voices, and creator of The Joy-Led Visibility Salon, a pioneering programme for women business owners ready to make their work visible in life-giving, soul-led ways.
She's currently completing her debut memoir, Finding Aphrodite: One Woman’s Dance from Shame to Aliveness, through which she hopes to spark a wider cultural conversation about women’s creative power – and the urgent need for leadership rooted in aliveness, truth, and joy.
Claire's website is currently undergoing a refresh, but you can join her email community here to be kept up to date about her offerings and community events.
Praise for Claire’s work with mission-led business owners and The Joy-Led Business Creation Cycle…
“The Joy-Led Visibility Salon has been transformative for me and my business. It’s helped me share my work in ways that feel genuinely enjoyable and service-led, rather than forced or formulaic. Within the first three months it led directly to three new long-term one-to-one clients as well as referrals, recommendations and people signalling they’ll want to work with me when the time is right for them.
My workshop was richer and more impactful than anything I would have created on my own, and I feel genuinely excited about applying the approach I learned to design and lead new workshops and experiences in the years to come! What Claire teaches is both deeply creative and incredibly practical. If you want a tangible, sustainable way to grow your business without selling your soul, I couldn’t recommend the Salon more highly.” Elaine Atkinson, Coach and Founder, In Wonder Coaching.
“Before the Salon I was overwhelmed by all the ‘expert advice’ about how I should grow my business. The Salon helped me trust myself again – creatively, intuitively and joyfully.
I designed and led a workshop that both me and my participants loved, created new offerings with far more spaciousness, and have already welcomed new one-to-one clients as a result.
The structure Claire provides is supportive, never restrictive. The whole experience woke something up in me. If the invitation speaks to you, say yes – you won’t regret it.” Sharon Maddy-Patel, Coach and Founder, Wild Ambition
“At the risk of sounding like a total fan girl, I will share that I *cannot* say enough good things about The Joy-Led Visibility Salon. It was nothing short of transformative.
The Salon wasn't just about creating a new workshop – although I indeed did that. More broadly, it led me uncover the deeper body of work I’m actually here to do in this world and that has made a HUGE difference in how I feel, how I carry myself, and what's possible for me from here on out. This is priceless! And I'm seeing my own business miracles – big and small – crop up now like mushrooms after the rain. So grateful. 🙏
And not at Claire's request, but of my own volition, I'll share that I'm happy to chat 1:1 with anyone who's considering signing up. I believe so strongly in this work.” Vanessa Baker-Rodriguez, Coach and Founder, Bravely Aligned