Interested in developing a similar circle in your area but not sure where to begin? This starter kit will guide you through the first steps of bringing together a group of creative women sharing ideas, encouraging one another, and turning those ideas into action.
How to create your own group:
- Talk with other people. Find other creatives in your area. The friend of a friend could be a good match.
- Define the purpose. Decide what the circle exists to do. For Ladies with Ideas, the purpose could be to encourage women to turn creative ideas into concrete projects through community, accountability, and constructive feedback.
- Choose a name.
Use Ladies with Ideas Creative Circle, perhaps followed by the location: Ladies with Ideas Creative Circle — Miami, or Ladies with Ideas Creative Circle — Oxford.
- Find a small founding circle. Begin with perhaps 4–8 women. A small group is better. They do not need to work in the same creative field. A writer, painter, entrepreneur, musician, researcher, photographer, gardener, or community organizer could all contribute different perspectives.
- Choose a regular meeting schedule. Once a month is probably ideal. It provides enough accountability without turning the circle into another obligation.
- Choose welcoming meeting places. Libraries, bookstores, coffee shops, restaurants, community centers, museums, or members’ homes can all work. Changing locations occasionally could even become part of the experience.
- Give each meeting a simple structure. Spend the first few minutes catching up, then let each woman briefly explain what she has been working on, what progress she has made, and where she is stuck. The group can then offer ideas, encouragement, or feedback.
- Ask every member to choose one next step.
Nobody needs to finish a major project before the next meeting. Each woman simply identifies one realistic action she wants to complete before the circle meets again.
- Record those commitments.
Someone can keep a simple notebook or shared document listing each member’s project and next step. At the next meeting, begin by asking, “How did it go?” The purpose is accountability, not judgment.
- Celebrate progress, not just finished projects.
Finishing a manuscript deserves celebration, but so does writing the first page, contacting a gallery, registering a business name, taking a class, making the first sketch, or finally beginning something that has been postponed for years.
- Invite new members gradually. Encourage current members to invite women who genuinely share the spirit of the circle. Keeping the group reasonably small will help preserve trust and allow everyone time to speak.
- Let different kinds of creativity mix.
Avoid turning the circle into only a writers’ group or only an artists’ group. One of the most interesting aspects of Ladies with Ideas could be precisely that different creative disciplines influence one another.
- Create a local coordinator.
If circles begin forming elsewhere, each location could have one woman who organizes meetings and protects the basic philosophy of Ladies with Ideas without controlling everyone’s projects.
- Preserve the central philosophy as the movement grows.
The heart of the circle should remain very simple: ideas deserve a chance to become something. Women come together not merely to talk about what they would like to create, but to encourage one another to take the next step.
- Occasionally organize videoconferences or retreats to meet members of other circles and celebrate wins.