The Joy-Led Creativity Collective
A movement of women reclaiming our voices and stepping into our creative power with aliveness and joy – becoming ever more radiant, sovereign, irrepressible forces for change in our lives, work, and leadership
Thank you for being here. I’m Claire, the founder of this Collective of wondrous women. If you’ve found your way here we’ve likely met somewhere online, or at one of my taster events. Or perhaps we’re meeting for the very first time.
Whichever it is, this invitation is for you if you know – deep in your heart, deep in your body (even if it terrifies you slightly) – that you’re here for more. Not ‘more’ as in the monolithic march of more for more’s sake. Oh no!
More depth. More vibrancy. More unapologetic, joy-fuelled, imperfect motion into what makes you feel utterly alive.
Your more might actually be about claiming less.
Less obligation. Less conforming. Less shrinking. Less numbness. Less of your precious life-force poured into what you know you’ve outgrown.
This invitation is for you even if you don’t yet know what you want more or less of.
Who are we?
We are women committed to joining hands in this great adventure – where we dance past perfectionism, and fear and doubt (that our culture perpetuates in so many ways) – and let delight itself be our rebellion!
We are here to allow the magic of who we are, our inner knowing, our full-spectrum humanity, our undeniable power – to be unearthed like divine treasure, flowing through our fingertips into everything we touch
We are women who know that we’re meant to walk through our everyday lives as Goddesses: whole, here for a reason, embodying our deep truth and expressing it vibrantly and fully in all that we do
We are women who know that tending to our life-force, our creativity, our joy – is fuel, it is medicine, it is part of how we rise
Every word we write, every truth we speak, is an act of reclamation – of ourselves, and of what’s possible.
As the world becomes more isolated, more distracted, more anxious, more despairing – the need for us to be fully in our creative power feels ever more urgent.
What I want for you, for us, for all women who resonate with the words above:
I want to write poems alongside you. Even if you haven’t written a poem since school. Or ever. But the possibility of knowing yourself ever more deeply – uncovering, excavating, expressing, to feel joy (and many other emotions) – is a possibility you can’t ignore.
I want for you to read what you’ve written aloud to the other women gathering to do this beautiful work. For you to feel words you never dreamed you’d speak aloud vibrate in your throat.
I want for you to know what it is to be deeply listened to. Deeply seen. I want for you to know what your words have touched in us. For that to remind you of your wholeness, your wonder, your brilliance, your power.
I want this for you because as we hold one another in this way, our most alive, world-changing ideas emerge. It sources us to voice them – and bring them into reality, even though our knees may be shaking.
I want this for you because the world needs women’s creative power, unleashed.
I want for all women to feel the joy of allowing their creative power to inhabit their whole being. Nothing is broken.
If it feels as if something is broken, or you've been told that it is, it's because systems of extraction depend on us thinking we're broken.
They benefit when we're not in touch with our creative power. Women in touch with their creative power are not controllable.
It’s time for a different kind of world – one where our creative power gushes like an unstoppable, magical, life-giving river into every corner of our communities, organisations, governments and cities.
What you’ll receive as a member:
If you’re reading this, it’s likely you’ve been to one of my taster events – so I won’t explain the writing and sharing practice at the heart of this collective. You’ve experienced it!
This is an evolving community offering, with three beautiful elements to support us stepping ever more fully into our creative power. Here they are!
1) The Main Course: The Writing Circles
The main course of this delicious offering is a monthly, 90-minute experiential gathering over Zoom – a portal to everything I describe above.
There’s a choice of two sessions each month, one will always fall at 9am UK, the other at 6.30pm UK (which is usually 10.30am Pacific). This means we can join hands across oceans. Hooray!
The dates for the next 4 months are always available here, so they can live in your diary. What a powerful structure to hold your ever expanding creative power!
Whether you make it live, or not, you’ll receive the prompts we use, which are lovingly crafted by yours truly each month (begone fear of the blank page!)
The sessions will also be recorded and one will be shared within our community each month so you can follow along if you don’t make it live.
Sometimes the sharing/witnessing will be done in smaller breakout groups. Sometimes we’ll gather as a whole. The form may shift – the depth of this practice will not.
Held by the structure of the prompts, and the promise of no critique – just divine presence from one another – you’ll experience the wonder of ‘not trying to write well’ and all that opens.
2) A decadent buffet of foods you might never have tried!
This part of the offering is an unashamedly exuberant joy-led experiment! 😍
Each month you will be invited to at least one additional pop-up event – each one designed to ignite and expand our creative power and connect us more deeply with one another and the change we’re here to usher in.
A permission slip – for me and for you – to try new things, all in service of our creative expression, and expanding life-force!
What do I have in mind? Guided practices, workshops, guest speakers/teachers, co-working time, and even a Joy-Led dance club. Yes! Connecting with the delicious wisdom that lives in our bodies! Perhaps another spoken word show! We had our first one in March 26 and it was wondrous!
Days and times will vary each month, so that women in different time-zones can join live. And if you can’t make it live, my vision is that you might gather with other members and work with the recording together!
If our writing circles are the main course, this is a delicious bonus smorgasbord of foods you might never have never tried. Yum!
3) Snacks to nibble on – our online shared space
Staying connected between our live gatherings allows the power of this work to radiate into our lives and work more fully. Our shared online space is a place where beautiful collaborations, connections, and (creative) breakthroughs can emerge in abundance!
Imagine sharing a challenge you’re facing and being met with deep listening and presence, rather than quick fixes or platitudes.
Imagine celebrating a breakthrough – and the circle of women around you amplifying the joy and aliveness you feel. Imagine the insight, the connection, the shifts, the energy that could flow from that – rippling out into your everyday life.
This currently lives in a private Facebook group (and may evolve over time).
Joining the Collective
Membership is £33 per month, and the invitation is to stay for a minimum of 6 months.
There’s no formal contract – just a shared trust in your yes.
When you wish to leave the collective, I simply ask for one month’s notice.
Once you join, you’ll receive a welcome email within a day or two with all the details you need to join the monthly writing circles, pop-up events and online community space (this process will soon be automated, but for now it’s hand-made!)
If you have any questions at all, do reach out at support@clairemackinnon.com, and our community manager, Sharon, will be happy to help you!
Thank you for being here. As I imagine all the glorious ways the creative power of this collective will flow into the world, I feel deeply inspired.
It is a joy and honour to steward its continued expansion.
With love, and in creative power,
Claire ✨
P.S. There are currently a few places open in the more intimate circles where this collective began – small groups of no more than six women, gathering consistently in this work.
If you feel called to explore that level of depth, you’re welcome to email me at claire@clairemackinnon.com and I’ll share more, including the practical details.
“When I write here, I am often surprised by the vigor, the clarity, the urgency of my voice and my creative vision. Afterwards, I notice I have a new sense of centeredness in myself: My truth, my voice, my vision. I'm better able to discern what I want and don't...And I'm able to invite others into magical, connected, rich experiences like this one.
My capacity is greater, and my intuition takes a front seat.
When I listen to other women's words, I feel recognition, affirmation, power, drama, care, fire, wildness, loss, joy, the whole spectrum of all of life right here precious in our hands. I know that we are united, unstoppable, healers, truth-speakers, and wise women. The world needs us.
The world needs this. It is holy and sacred and rare. The circle is here to light a new path forward. In the midst of all the disconnection and insanity, the circle teaches us to speak, to listen, to find and hold with reverence the deep truth of our being, that we are interconnected.”
“What often surprises me is what actually lands on the page. It's like a release valve for things I didn't know I needed to express or could not have otherwise found the words.
Afterwards, what remains is a sense that I've been safely held by the broad, strong, and divinely feminine arms of the collective group. I carry that along with me for days. It’s one of the very few places I show up as myself and feel both seen and heard.
Since joining the circle, my sense of myself as a creative being has been excavated from the depths.
I believe The Circle is here to bring us closer to our real selves, to build our sense of belonging to ourselves and to a bigger community of women. It feels like one of those untold things that pass down through the generations of women that we've just somehow lost connection with.”
“As we stand together, hand in hand, we may feel like just one circle in a world of increasing darkness, but our circle is known. Its power is held and felt. And the only thing that's asked of us is to allow ourselves to be lit up and radiate that light to others.”
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.