We Inspire Me

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You know how creative people like to have others around them? Well actually how most people like to have some type of support system? We Inspire Me: Cultivate your Creative Crew to Work, Play and Make by Andrea Pippins is all about reaching out to the people in your life now, or those that you cultivate, in order to help you work, play and make.

Although this book focuses on building your CREATIVE community, the lessons contained within the pages are for anyone who just wants to expand the number of people in their lives.
About the Author:

Andrea Pippins is a designer, illustrator, educator, and author currently residing in Stockholm, Sweden.

What Do You Get?

Andrea Poppins brings together stories, essays, illustrations, advice and tips related to the importance of building and nurturing one’s creative community. It is important to surround yourself with people that want to see you excel and thrive. This is not a how to book, this is a tips and suggestions books with stories to inspire you to make connections with those around you.

As you turn the pages you will notice the bright and colourful designs. You’ll find a mingling of pinks, browns, yellows, and blues. The title pages are clearly delineated with a write up telling you what’s important in this section.

Each individual who tells a story is enabled to do so with interesting fonts and important lessons.

Lessons span topics such as sharing stories about dealing with mental illness, to how to find people with common interests, different formats to bring people together, how to celebrate each other’s creativity and more.

I was talking with Lisa the other day and she was telling me about different groups that she is part of. Her accountability groups and mentoring groups and such like. Some she paid to be part of, and others she chose to start. And I have to admit, as an introvert, trying to figure out how to start a group and be able to chat with different people about ideas is difficult, even if it is on-line. It’s so easy to get lost in the conversation whether it’s in person or on-line. I don’t quite get how one does it. Books like these help.

I don’t think a tribe of one or two is what this book is calling for though eh? A tribe implies more than just one or two. I can see the advantage of having a variety of people with differing skills as part of your group, and how it is vital to inspiring one’s own creativity. We can inspire each other.

This book talks about that though, how an introvert who prefers stick to the quiet things, can push past that to attend events that lead to friendships. It’s good to do that eh? To take that risk and try it something new out.

Some of the ideas I ran into:

Wine Tasting, Team sports, paint night, go out for brunch with at least four people, throw an event that YOU would be interested in, bring a business card to a meeting (maybe 5-7) and make a goal of passing them out before the night is through and you can start a neighbourhood project… perhaps you need a new park or art centre? Who knows the people you will meet along the way. Might be your new best friend or just the person you need to inspire you to greater heights in your life. You just never know if you don’t take the chance.