If a goal of yours is to read more books this year and connect with like minded creatives you may want to consider starting or joining a book club for creative entrepreneurs.
Back in February a friend of mine and I started a new meetup in our area called Creative Collective. As artists, we wanted a way to bring together, support and network with other local creatives. We knew there must be more of us out there feeling the same way.
Our first in-person meetup was a success and we thought we were really onto something! Shortly afterwards however, Corona hit and everyone was in lockdown mode!
We wanted a way to still keep things going so we decided to start a book club for the members. I LOVE to read!! While not everyone in the group decided to participate it’s been a great experience so I thought I’d share what’s working in case you want to also start your own.
What To Read
Since our group has a wide variety of creatives – painters, writers, photographers and other creators we kept it narrow yet wide at the same time Narrow and focused in the sense that we wanted the books to be focused on creativity – growing our creative practices. No romance novels or other fiction books. We keep it wide by reading books about creativity in general and not specifically about a particular genre like painting or photography, etc.
Create Smaller Groups
While we put the offer out to our entire group, only about 5 people attend our meetings regularly and it’s actually worked out great. It becomes more intimate and gives each person a chance to talk about their insights and ah-ha moments while still being mindful of everyone’s time.
Consistency is Key
Staying consistent by meeting every week or every other week has allowed us to not only read multiple books but also create deeper bonds and friendships with one another. To keep it simple and consistent our calls are on the same day of the week, same start time. Our calls last between 1-1/12 hours.
How much to read?
The length and type of book will determine how much to read and how often to meet. For example we started with The Artist’s Way. An amazing book for creatives! The book is broken down into 12 chapters and each chapter has journaling and tasks at the end. Instead of reading the whole book at once, we read one chapter at a time and discussed what we learned through both the reading and written exercises. This was really powerful! Other books like Show Your Work were much shorter and quicker reads so we were able to discuss the whole book in it’s entirety on one call.
Virtual or In Person?
Online or in person – that’s the question! The benefit to doing it online is you can expand your reach beyond your neighborhood and you don’t need to spend extra time going to and from the meeting. On the flip side the benefit of keeping it local is not having to coordinate different time zones. While the weather cooperates, you can consider doing an in-person social distanced, masks-on meeting if you’re craving real live face to face time. The virtual local meetups have worked out really well for us so far!
How To Meet Virtually
Since this started right at the time of Corona, we’ve held our meetings virtually via Zoom and it’s worked out really well. You’ll have to upgrade from a free account if you go the Zoom route to allow for more people to join.
Other free options include Google Meet, FaceTime Group Chat and Instagram Messenger Rooms. I haven’t used any of these for our book club but I think it’s definitely worth trying out if you don’t need Zoom for other reasons.
There are certain books I feel work well for book clubs and others are best read on your own. Here are some recommendations…
These are the books we read so far…
- The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron – HIGHLY recommend!
- Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon – Very good, quick read, actionable
- Show Your Work by Austin Kleon – Very good, quick read, actionable
- Keep Going by Austin Kleon – Not as good as his first 2 – not great for a book club
- Creative Calling by Chase Jarvis – HIGHLY recommend!
Other Books We Want To Read
- Find Your Creative Voice by Lisa Congdon
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
For Entrepreneurs in General – All great books!
- You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero
- Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
- Worthy by Nancy Levin
- The Compound Effect By Darren Hardy
- The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
- She Means Business by Carrie Green
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Let me know if you have any questions about starting and running a book club or about any of the books listed. Do you have any books you’ve read and loved that I should suggest to my book club? Let me know!
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