Inspired_Conversations-20250527

Air Date - 27 May 2025

What if instead of living in a world ruled by hustle and fear, we chose joy first? Join me in a fascinating exploration of color, joy, meaning, and marketing with my guest, J. Nichole Smith, a branding and color psychology expert on a mission to co-create a joy-first world. We’ll deep-dive into the science of joy and color psychology as we explore some practical ways to prioritize joy in your life.

About the Guest:

J. Nichole Smith, known as Nic, hosts the Joy First podcast and is the founder of Joy First creative agency, which offers joy makeovers to humans and brands. An expert in marketing, design, and color psychology, Nic has spent nearly 20 years helping people create lives and brands that centre joy. Her work has been featured in USA Today, Real Simple, and Condé Nast Traveler, and she has won numerous awards, including the prestigious European Product Design Gold award. Nic’s passion is to activate more joy, color, and positive impact in the lives and businesses of everyone she meets. Learn more at https://joyfirstworld.com/.

Social Media:

Website: https://joyfirstworld.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joyfirstworld/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jnicholesmith

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jnichole/

#JNicholeSmith #InspiredConversations #LindaJoy #Women #SelfHelp #Mindfulness #Lifestyle #Interviews

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Grab a cup of tea or a glass of wine
and tune in for Inspired Conversations with publisher Linda Joy
on Tuesdays at two pm Eastern. Linda creates sacred space
for leading female luminaries, empowering authors, part centered female entrepreneurs,
coaches and tailers. A soulful venue where guests openly share

(00:23):
the fears and obstacles they've overcome, wisdom and lessons learned,
and the personal journey that led them to the transformational
work they do in the world. Inspired Conversations to empower
you on your path to authentic, soulful living.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Welcome to Inspired Conversations. I'm your host, Linda Joy, mindset
elevation coach, publisher of the beloved Aspire magazine since two
thousand and six, and I'm excited to share a big
announcement that the Room is a true I have stepped
back into producing Live Today, inspirational event for women and

(01:06):
it's coming Apull eleventh and twelfth, twenty twenty six to Quinsy, Massachusetts.
It is the Inspired Life Woman's Weekend of love, light
and laughter. Fifty vendors, pamper room, fifty workshops, and so
much more. If you want those details and to get

(01:26):
notified as things unfold, please go to Inspired lifeevent dot com.
So today we're going to be talking about one of
my favorite topics because it's.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
Related to joy, and I am so excited.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Because with me today is Jade Nicole Smith, also known
as Nick So. She is the host of the joy
First podcast Doesn't the Name Just Pull You In? And
founder of Joy First Creative Agency, which offer is joy
makeover to humans and brands. She's an expert in marketing,

(02:04):
design and color psychology and has spent nearly twenty years
helping people create lives and brands that center on joy.
Her work's been featured in USA Today, Real Simple, Condeast Traveler,
and she's won numerous awards, including the prestigious European Product
Design Gold Award. As you'll discover, Nick's passion is to

(02:27):
activate more joy, color and positive impact in the lives
and businesses of everyone she meets. You can learn more
at joyfirstworld dot com.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Nick.

Speaker 4 (02:38):
Welcome, Thank you, what a wonderful introduction. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Well, you know, we.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Were chatting prior to recording Ladies, and I said to Nick,
I go, oh my god, this is going to be
such a fun conversation one. I'm a creative and I'm
a visionary, so color has always been important to me.
I was one of those people thirty five years ago
that had color analysis done, and yeah, things have changed

(03:06):
in mophs so much since then. But I love ther
mission because one of your statements was, what if instead
of living in a world ruled by hustle and fear,
we chose joy first? And that really just I was like, Yes,
this is what all my brains are about. So I
always love to ask my clients like, there's usually a

(03:28):
personal story that led them to the work they're doing.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Is that the case for you?

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Was there a moment when you knew this is who
you are and what you want to do?

Speaker 4 (03:39):
Yeah, I would say, like many of our stories, it's
a culmination of moments. And when I, you know, do
work around purpose or brand and I look back, I
always sort of describe it as like the bread crumbs,
and the bread crumbs for me are so obvious when
you look back, But when I was on my journey,

(04:01):
the obvious thing wasn't joy. I started my career in
the pet industry, and so as a photographer and a
graphic designer, I was building brands and doing photography for
pet owners and pet businesses. And what I didn't realize
at that time was this seed of joy centered branding,

(04:21):
joy centered marketing, being able to kind of sell the
good life rather than just, you know, use fear tactics
to sell. I didn't understand how unique and special that was.
I didn't understand what a gift it was and what
a joy it was to be in a market where
there was just so much love and there was so
much happiness. And I had this service business, but I

(04:43):
also started, with some co founders a lifestyle brand. So
we started a T shirt sort of gift apparel company
in two thousand and six, and what we realized really
really quickly was we weren't selling stuff. What we were
selling was the way it feels to be with your dog.
And an early twenty something, this was such an incredible
lesson that I definitely carried with me as I expanded

(05:05):
into working with a lot of hospitality and coaches and
online businesses thereafter. But I would say the biggest seed
was planted probably when I was a college dropout who
adopted a great dan and and found myself in the
pet industry.

Speaker 2 (05:19):
Oh that's funny. So so your pet led you to
your path?

Speaker 4 (05:25):
She absolutely did. Yeah, I knew I loved animals, and
I thought I was going to have to be a
veterinarian because I had that same story that so many
of us get, you know, sold when we're young, that
we don't want to be a starving artist. So I
wanted to work with animals, but I didn't want to
be poor. So I thought I would need to be
a veterinarian. And I had the luck and joy of
working at a vet clinic from about eighth grade through

(05:47):
my senior year in high school, and think thanks to
that vet. You know. She sat me down and I
had started to take pictures of the animals in the
clinic where I worked, and she was saying, you know,
you're not going to have time for fotography and in
ved school. And I was like, oh sure, I will,
you know, in between you know, my electives and stuff.
And she was like, no, all your electives they are

(06:08):
going to be math and science. And it really struck
me that I didn't even really like math and science
that much. I was about to step into this whole
career based on something I didn't really enjoy and having
the lived experience of working at the clinic, I also
understood the day to day of that life, and it's
really challenging. And I got I luckily got to avoid
that whole first career before I even started and really

(06:31):
decided I was going to make a go of it,
you know, as a photographer and as a designer. And
I'm forever grateful for that.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Yeah. You know what that tells me too, Nick, because
you had a strong intuition even at a young age, right,
because you didn't get caught up in the shoulds and
haf to is a fallow on a path that really
wasn't designed for how you're wired. Do you feel that today.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
Yeah, one hundred percent. You know, I was lucky. I
did have supportive family and lots of entrepreneurs in my family,
and also I had a few of those little gorgeous
sort of signs. And I don't know if you believe
in coincidences, but I don't. And so one of the
things that happened at the same time is I took
one of those college aptitude tests that you know we

(07:12):
took back in the day, and the only career that
matched up for me was photographer and I was like, well,
there you go.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
WHOA. So, so your beginning years was all photography and
it went from pets into other industries, and then did
you bring your graphic design skills into that work also?

Speaker 4 (07:32):
Yeah, So when I went to I ended up going
to art school, and I ended up having to drop
out because I just couldn't afford it anymore. So I
decided to start my business. And so in art school,
there is no photography degree at the school I was at,
so I was in a design degree, which what allowed
me to kind of dive into photography as well. And

(07:55):
so I just started and I started, yeah, doing photography
and graphic design straight uay way, which led me to
having a lot more of an edge into the commercial
world instead of just the private client world, which ended
up being a tremendous gift. So I grew a tremendous
amount of clout and credibility in that space over about
a decade where I worked with you know, major multinational corporations,

(08:18):
and I was in every magazine and speaking at trade
shows and you know, building up our multimillion dollar lifestyle
brand as well at the same time as doing this
wonderful creative work. So it was a really incredible ride,
and I was so grateful for it. But then in
twenty twelve, I met this guy and he happened to
be British living in London, and I happened to be

(08:39):
living in la and one of us was going to
have to move, so it ended up being me, and
that started a whole new stage of the journey.

Speaker 2 (08:47):
I always loved himing about women's stories because I always
believe in many ways we're being led to our path
as long as we can stay present and listen. And
then we'll look at you today. You're a branding in
color psychology expert on a mission to co create a
joy first world. And today we're going to go to
our first break in a few minutes, but we're going

(09:08):
to be talking about diving into the science of joy
and call of psychology in practical ways to prioritize joy
in your life. And as I shared at the beginning,
this is one of my favorite topics. And I love
that you found your path so young, Like you said,
you didn't have to go through that first career like,

(09:29):
oh my god, what did I do?

Speaker 3 (09:31):
That's a major Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:34):
I feel really grateful for that, And also I think
That's part of what has led me to this Joy
work is that I have taken these joy first decisions
since the very beginning in my life, and they were
big and scary and probably ill advised in many cases,
but it has turned out to be one of the
things that has led me to where I am, and

(09:54):
also one of the things I've supported my clients with
over the years that has made such a big impact
for them.

Speaker 2 (09:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
I think of the rippled effect too.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
You're working with companies and individuals and the ripple effect
when they tap into joy and their brands express joy
and their messaging and the whole thing, there's a ripple effect.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
Yeah. We should definitely dive into that next.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
Oh yeah, because I'm all about the ripple effect. Girl.
So we're going to take a quick break, my friends,
and we'll be back in a moment. I'm with Jane
Nicole Smith known as Nick. You can learn more at
joyfirstworld dot com. We'll be back in.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
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Speaker 2 (12:44):
Welcome back and listening to inspired conversations. I am so
happy that you're circling up with myself. In my special
guest Jane Nicole Smith, host of the Joy First podcast
and founder of Joy First Creative Agency. So right before
we went on break, I was talking about like I
could energetically see this ripple effect because you followed joy

(13:08):
First and made those initial decisions way back and now
here you are bringing everything that you know, as you
know a branding and color psychology expert into the work
with clients. It has to create a ripple effect like
your Joy First methodology or I guess you would say

(13:28):
your framework and everything you do it just continues to
ripple out. Have you found that to be true in
your client's work?

Speaker 4 (13:37):
Absolutely? And that's one of the things I cherish so
much about working with what I call joy centered you
could call it heartled or purpose driven brands and businesses,
again mostly women in my world as well. And what's
amazing about that is there are no shortage of entrepreneurs
or big hearted people who want to make a positive
difference in the world. And I think there is something

(13:59):
incredibly magical about when you can align, like we were
talking about before we started recording, when you can align
that you know, getting paid for good work with that
incredible purpose and finding that you know, reason for waking
up in the morning that gets you so excited and inspired.
It's such a mystical, magical combination because you do you

(14:20):
are able to create that ripple effect, but you also
are able to you know, avoid burnout and you know,
maintain your health and your relationships and you know, not
get sucked into that hustle culture that can be so
toxic when especially you know, you quit a job to
start a business and then think that you know it's
going to be all smooth sailing and you find out
actually it's really hard and like the biggest personal growth

(14:42):
journey of your life. So I definitely see that ripple effect,
and it's really interesting. I know we'll dive deeper into color,
but just being more intentional with color in your own
life is one of those things that creates a tremendous
ripple effect of joy in particular, and that is something
I continue to be surprised about with our clients because

(15:03):
I've been doing that work for a lot less time
than the branding, and I'm in such more intimate conversations
with the people having these experiences around making intentional choices
around color and how it absolutely transforms their life, their
self image, how you how they bring themselves to the world,
and how people react to them. And that does create

(15:24):
what we call upward spirals, which is, you know, this
contagious joy that people can't help catching when they're around you,
when you walk into the room, when they're sat at
the table, or you know, in the same space. It
is contagious and that is so exciting and beautiful to me.

Speaker 2 (15:41):
T really is, and I love how you explain that too.
And one of the things is everyone in my circle
I call them where we embrace intentional businesses, so you
speak in my language, we have soul led spirit led heart, scented.
Most of us are spiritual entrepreneurs, coaches and more, and

(16:03):
we're so tired of the hustle and grind. Like I
started the feminine model back for branding, for messaging, sorry
way back twenty years ago, because I got caught up
in that hustle and grind, and I remember, it cost
me my joy, It cost me my authentic.

Speaker 3 (16:19):
Voice in my business.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
Right, we lose ourselves in the hustle and grind or
trying to fit into a branding, marketing or messaging model
that's really the antithesis of who each of us are.
Have you found that with your clients that come to you,
whether corporate, all these more intimate personal clients that they're like,

(16:42):
I've kind of forgotten why I started this business. I've
lost my spark.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
Yeah, I definitely do see that. And you know, it's
really interesting because we've had so many experiences with our
clients where they've had that first career, you know, the
corporate career that they didn't really want. I end up
working with a lot of creatives who you know, we're
lawyers or accountants, and now they're starting a photography business
because they felt the same way I did. But they

(17:09):
had different circumstances that led them into a career they
didn't really want, but you know, felt like the responsible
thing to do. I burned out before I was thirty
because of the circumstances that I was facing when I
was young. And I think, you know, once you go
through that, you sort of learn that it's just it's
just not worth it, right. I think the other thing

(17:30):
that feels very true for me in particular right now
is I really feel like in the world we are
facing a tremendous joy crisis, and I think I'm being
called to, you know, bring this mission to the front
and be louder about it because we really really need
it right now. And I think of every single person

(17:52):
I've talked to in the last probably eighteen months, there's
a solid head dotting agreement to that, to what we're
experiencing in the world right now, which and feel really
dark and really heavy. And I truly believe that joy
is our resistance and our medicine and our ability to
you know, continue to live a life that fulfills us

(18:14):
while all this stuff we don't have control over is
going on. Yeah, So I think, you know, it's complicated,
and when you get into the marketing. Obviously, I'm not
a psychologist, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a therapist.
So my angle on joy is really as this marketing insider.
And you know, when I moved to the UK, I
was able to do a master's degree in marketing and

(18:37):
it was so eye opening because my first decade of
entrepreneurship was self taught, self led, and then I did
the official, you know, high level school and I was
just like, wow, the way they teach marketing, the way
agencies and multinationals are doing marketing is so gross, and
it's so fear based. And so you know, really understanding

(18:59):
the the power of fear the way we are sold
to and what we are sold and why we buy
it really does encourage you to well me anyway, and
the people in my circle, I imagine in your circle too.
It you become really resistant to that and you want
to find a better way. And so one of the
things I've always advocated for is how to sell with joy,

(19:21):
with love instead of you know, as you say, getting
sucked into a lot of those very masculine, war based,
fear driven tactics that do work. They work really really well.
I'm not saying they don't. But for most of the
people I work, they're just they're just not aligned, and
they struggle to ever embrace marketing because they don't want
to do it that way and and they're waiting for

(19:44):
someone to show them a different way.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
Oh my god, this is such a This is the
conversation I have, like so many times as my clients.
I it's that masculine, manipulative model, like let's pokem in
the pain, right, yeah, and where the feminine model that
teacher is all about.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Let's show them possibility.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
Absolutely, let's show them what's on the other side of
this transformation that the client is, you know, putting in
front of them. And for me, because I was caught
up because I didn't know any better, I'm self taught too.
I was a welfare mom and got off welfare back
and got end of early nineties and opened my first
business and kept that for ten years, grew it substantially,

(20:24):
and then went on the spiritual path and started aspired
almost twenty years ago. But in that time, because I
was self taught, you know, you kind of look around like, okay,
this is what others are doing. Now I'm going to
learn and I'll use that model and what happened because
I didn't trust myself at that time because of my background.

(20:47):
I believe now and that this happens to many entrepreneurs.
They see what others are doing and think it's meant
for them without tapping into their own divine essence voice
truth and I. I didn't have that language then, Nick,
But I see now that when I lost my authentic voice,
when I lost the joy in that other business, it

(21:10):
was because I was trying to be.

Speaker 3 (21:13):
Or fit in to what I wasn't. It's not how
I'm wired.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
I'm here for joy, love, inspiration, spreading inspiration.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
And once I got that, everything shifted.

Speaker 2 (21:26):
So you must do a lot with your clients about authenticity, right,
because that's the key I think to really connecting with people.
Does that come up in your work helping them uncover
their authentic voice?

Speaker 4 (21:41):
It does in its own roundabout way. I would say
the center for me has been more around purpose, and
the way that finding an authentic voice has shown up
has really been through a PROCESSY called wy finding, which
is using a combination basically getting all the mess out
of your head and putting it into language and then
being able to organize that language something that starts to
create ideal clients product offering methodology, because I really feel like,

(22:09):
while I don't really subscribe to like everyone's here for
one purpose and you have to find and go out
and find that one purpose or your life is a
is a waste, you know, I feel like that's so
it puts people into such high levels of anxiety. I
think we can have a lot of different reasons that
we're here and purposes that we can follow. But I
do feel like, and it sounds like you're totally on

(22:31):
the same page that you know our early developmental experiences,
that pain in particular often does shape in us a
passion for a certain person or a certain situation that
we are really passionate about helping serving. And what I
have seen in my clients because I work with a
lot of really really high level clients who are you know,

(22:52):
now operating seven and eight figure businesses. And there comes
a time where and it sounds like this might be
reflective of your journey as well, where you start your
business in that proving mode, right, it's fear driven. You've
got to prove something to someone or everyone, yourself, your parents,
Like the professor who said you couldn't do it, whoever,
And that proving energy is really fear driven, but it's

(23:15):
also very powerful. So a lot of people can get
you know, build a lot of success that way, and
then you get that emptiness at the top where either
you are really bored of your business or it doesn't
resonate with you or you I've had good clients with
the like I'm just ready to shut it all down,
making you know, millions and millions every year because they're
looking for something else because the proving is done right,

(23:37):
They've ticked every single box they can tick. And that's
where purpose starts to become really really important, because they're
looking for something deeper. They're looking for something more meaningful
and to your point, authentic to them right, authentic to
their voice, authentic to their passion, authentic to what they
feel they can stand up and shout about and the
ways that they want to serve. And so I definitely

(23:58):
I call it the what now moment, And you know,
people come at it in different ways at different times,
but I think when you're in that what now movement,
that's a time and a place to double down on
what I would describe as purpose and that's my route
to that authenticity. And then the other route is we
use a lot of psychology, personality types, and archetypes in

(24:19):
our brand, and sometimes I've found for people who do
feel especially stuck in that question around who am I
and what's it all about? What's it all for? That
existential crisis can be so paralyzing that sometimes having a
framework like archetypes, like personality types can be really helpful
to just build a structure that you can lean on
that feels like you and fill that gap with something

(24:41):
where you can be you know, what we describe as
psychologically consistent, where you can find language and emotional resonance
that you can speak to that does resonate with you,
it resonates with your audience and allows you to be very,
very consistent without having to have it all figured out.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
I love that, and I love how you lead with
the purpose, because for me, that is authenticity.

Speaker 3 (25:06):
You just come at it from purpose first.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
But for me it's the same in regard to I
figure out my purpose, and everything I went through in
my early years was to prepare me for everything I'm
doing now.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
For the last twenty.

Speaker 2 (25:20):
Years, it's like, oh, I see now and I work
with women right, women on the path of self discovery
or women spiritual entrepreneurs, and that's my purpose. My way
of doing it may differ because I have five media brands,
it may differ, but my purpose is only one thing,

(25:40):
and that's to inspire, empower and support women and live
in a more intentional and aligned life, basically living from
the inside out instead of the outside in, which is
we might be using different language, but it sounds like
that's what you're talking about too, is helping people bring
their branding and marketing to a place that draws them

(26:01):
in instead of pushes them away with that fear based marketing.
Would that be accurate?

Speaker 4 (26:06):
Yeah, yeah, I think we are speaking the same language.
And there's so many routes.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
You know.

Speaker 4 (26:11):
I'm writing a book right now called Joy First, Surprise, Surprise.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 4 (26:17):
A big part of that book is to create this invitation,
to invite everyone into the Joy first Revolution, and everyone's
got a voice, and everyone's got a path, and everyone's
got a community to bring to this sort of I
was not sure about the word revolution at first because
it felt possibly a little bit violent, but I think
it is revolutionary. It is unbelievably you know, surprisingly radical

(26:40):
to talk about putting joy first and to use that
as a tool to create massive change. So yeah, I
want to invite everyone on that that Joy first revolution,
and whatever your gifts, whatever your authentic voice is, I
think now is the time.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
It is definitely the time. That's why after a big,
decade long hiatus, I'm bringing back that two day event
that I spoke about, because we need to gather, we
need to be in a circle of joy and love
inspiration piece, and that's my way of adding to that world.
And I love I love the word revolution, but I
understand but something I wrote it down as you were speaking.

(27:16):
I'm like, I can see it being part of the
cover and you highlight the word love in there, which
is spelled backwards of course, and I've seen that done,
and then it reminds people that we're on a revolution
to love and joy. So we're going to take our
next break, Nick, and we'll be back in the moment.
We're going to talk to some more ladies about color
psychology and so much more. So stay with us and

(27:39):
you can learn more about everything that Nick is bringing
to the world at joyfirstworld dot com. And don't worry
everything We'll be in the show notes too.

Speaker 5 (27:49):
We'll be right back the best of the holistic, spiritual
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Speaker 2 (29:54):
You're listening to inspired conversations. Thanks for circling up with
us today. Joining me with me, I should say, is
je Nicole Smith from joyfirstworld dot com. She's the host
of the joy First podcast the upcoming book by the
same name. I founder of the joy First Creative Agency.

(30:14):
So let's talk about color psychology, because is color psychology
different from color analysis? I think it's deeper than color analysis.

Speaker 4 (30:27):
Correct, Yeah, so it is a different thing. But I
would say they're like cousins.

Speaker 2 (30:34):
I just wanted to ask because I think we've all
heard that phrase color analysis for decades.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
So let's go back. What is color psychology?

Speaker 4 (30:45):
Well, if you really simplify it, color psychology is really
just about the ways that color impacts our behavior and
what happens in our body when we perceive color.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
And then so in the reason, search and everything, every
color has a different has a way of touching people
energetically as well as visually.

Speaker 4 (31:10):
Yeah, so just you know, color is light, and I
find the science of color actually really boring, so I
won't dive into it. But basically, color is light. So
without light, you don't have any color, which you know
because in the dark there's no color, and so obviously
we perceive light. We perceive color through our eyes, and
then there is a process by which our mind and

(31:31):
our body and our nervous system reacts to that stimuli.
And one of the most fascinating facts I learned when
I started learning about color like a decade ago, was
that it is the number two most powerful thing that
we perceive as human beings. The first one is motion.
So you can imagine if out of the corner of
your eye you see something moving. That's going to be

(31:51):
the most alerting for your system, right, It's gonna be like, oh,
that's moving, I better look at it and find out
if it's a snake or a spider or my kid,
you know, danger or not. But color is second only
to movement in terms of our able, our ability to interpretate,
of our ability to interpret danger, you know, fertile ground

(32:14):
for planting, being able to read people in their facial expressions,
and you know, things like blushing. So it's a really
powerful part of our world. And I think, I just
it's amazing to me that we're never taught about it,
given how impactful it is in our environment and our
wardrobe and our offices, and so at a baseline, color

(32:37):
psychology is you know, when we say psychology, we mean
this is an unconscious process, which means it is basically
true for pretty much all humans around the globe. I'm
right now digging into more research around you know, neurodivergence
and what this means if you're not neurotypical, which I'm not.

(32:57):
But if we talk about this sort of average normal
human brain, whether you live in China or America, it's
gonna have the same impact on us and the basis
is there are psychological primary colors, just like there are
primaries that we were taught in school, and they are
very similar. So there's red, yellow, blue, and in psychology

(33:19):
there's also green is a primary and red impacts us physically,
blue impacts us mentally, yellow impacts us emotionally, and green
is sort of this RESTful, peaceful balance to space where
we kind of get relaxed from the stimuli.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Oh, I love that. As soon as you said green
being RESTful, I have like a sage in my office,
So I wanted that piece of experience. So I have
a question. Let's go back to color analysis, because I
can remember way way back when I'm aging myself doing
the I think it was called four Seasons, it was like, oh, yeah,

(34:00):
I'm a winter.

Speaker 4 (34:01):
Uh huh.

Speaker 2 (34:02):
So is there any truth to this four seasons the
theory behind color there is?

Speaker 4 (34:10):
Yeah, okay, So again trying to oversimplify it basically, you know,
and I think this probably is also speaking your language.
But like when we look at the world, we see
lots of patterns, right, we see things repeated over and
over again, and so if you think about the way
light works in a day, you know, we have dawn morning, noon, afternoon,

(34:31):
evening night, and the way light works in a year
in the seasons spring, summer, autumn, winter. You see a
pattern there that that dawn in the morning is much
like spring, and the mid day is much like summer,
and then we have that late afternoon golden glow is
much like autumn, and then we have that night that

(34:52):
s darkness and is much like winter. So these patterns repeat,
and the theory goes that the patterns repeat in us
as well, that we reflect these same patterns and systems.
And so if you were to break all people down
into four groups, these groups would be based on really

(35:13):
basic union psychology, So you're looking at an axis of introversion, extraversion,
and intensity basically, so it's kind of the same stuff
that MBTI is built on, but just really really oversimplifying
breaking people down into four groups. Color can also be
broken down into four groups, and those would be colors
that are reflective of those seasons that you described. These

(35:36):
you know, warm light colors are like spring, these cold
blue based colors are like winter. And what the research
has found is that there is an incredibly statistically relevant
correlation between the preferences of one group and one color group,
So winter people have a tendency to prefer winter colors,

(35:56):
if that makes sense. And so when you look at
THECCE of it, what we see is that if we
are so obviously for me coming from branding, if I
look at this from a branding standpoint, if I want
to create a brand that has a more predictable impact
on a website or on product packaging, I the way

(36:18):
I do it is I would give it a personality type.
Are they a spring type, a summer type of you know,
winter type? And what does that mean about the colors
we should be using and the colors we should not
be using in order to create a harmonious environment. And
the thing that I think is really interesting, if you
go and look on Google at color psychology, you'll find

(36:40):
one of a thousand infographics with you know, logos of
companies saying blue is trust and red is you know, desire,
and yellow is happiness or whatever those things are true.
There is a half truth in that. But the conversation
that you don't see as much in color psychology is
this conversation around the personality type and these groups of

(37:01):
color and the harmonious environment that that group creates versus
a blue, for example, from a different group, or a
green from a different group, Because when you're looking those infographics,
it doesn't say what blue are we talking about? Are
we talking about sky blue? Are we talking about navy blue?
Are we talking about cobalt blue? They're very different blues

(37:21):
and they have a very different impact on us. Is
it soothing? Is it stimulating? How can we say this
means trust if we don't even know what blue we're
talking about. So I think the basis of color psychology
is really interesting. The world I work in is called
applied color psychology, which is the crossover between all that
behavior stuff we talked about and these personality types, which

(37:42):
I would say there is a really strong correlation with
the color analysis you mentioned. Now these days there's a
lot of different color analysis. There's a twelve group and
a sixteen group and a twenty seven group analysis where
these seasons are broken down further. But I think there
is a lot of truth in all of them, and
in the four seasons in particular. However, the caveat I

(38:05):
will say is, as I've looked more deeply into several
of these sort of color analysis programs, I find that
there's a they don't all operate within what this sort
of science would designate as those color groups. There's a
lot of made up color groups, I guess. So there
is a lot of truth in it, and I think
it does bring people a lot of joy. This is

(38:26):
definitely something we explore in our work. But for me,
we can't just have the conversation around aesthetic. It can't
just be based on our skin tone and what we
look like and our hair color. We have to also
bring in the conversation around personality. How do we feel,
how do we want to be perceived, how do we
feel most self expressed? Because oftentimes there isn't a perfect

(38:46):
match between the group that the color analysis person told
me I was in and the way I want to
express myself in the world. So there has to be
a meeting of the two and finding ways that we
can create color harmony so that we get the benefits
of that without having to leave our authentic personality behind.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
I love this because before we go the next break,
it just reminded me, here's a question for you, and
we have like a minute for this one. Can someone
I don't like the word out grow outgrown? Out grow
colors because if it's based on the energy we want
to perceive personally in our business. The reason I asked
that is about I don't know, fifteen years ago, my

(39:31):
brand colors were all the upper chakra colors. I don't
know why I was drawn to that, but the cobalt blue,
the deep purple, the fuchia, and I loved it until
one day. You know, you don't often visit your own
website because you're so busy with everyone else's, right, Yeah,
I went there, Nick, and all of a sudden, it
was such a visceral like, this is not me. It

(39:54):
was as if I had outgrown or evolved. Have you
ever has a had?

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Absolutely? Yeah, And there's a lot of reasons that would happen.
So I would say, you know, you know, if we're
talking about brand versus our esthetic, what do we look
like versus our personality type, all of those things are changing, right.
And while I would say there are some things that
are fairly set in, you know, for me when I

(40:21):
do the WI finding, there are a few of those
things that are unlikely to change. For people, there's you know,
when we work with archetypes, there are one or two
archetypes that are unlikely to move, while the third is
totally movable depending on what we're selling or where we're
living or you know, we are creatures of change, right,
So I think that is definitely true. I think what
would be really interesting is to think about, for especially

(40:44):
for your listeners who maybe have had this experience, is
as you dive into it, maybe doing some journaling on it.
Was it the fact that all of a sudden it
felt too bright and you wanted it more subdued. Was
it all of a sudden it felt too cold and
you wanted it warmer? Because there's so many different levels
on which we sort of look at and analyze color,

(41:06):
and so many you know, decisions we can make about
how to proceed in a way that feels more authentic
for us based on whatever that too muchness is. So
for me, you know, thinking about the personality types, if
you if you go to my website, you can take
a quiz where you can find your personality type. And

(41:26):
I actually it is based on those seasons, but I
don't call I don't use the language around the seasons
because I find it quite confusing. For example, the colors
that are in summer don't often resonate with people as
what they think of when they think of summer, those
are more generally spring colors, and so I have created
my own names which are Sunshine, Seaside, Fireside, and Starshine,

(41:50):
and those are more evocative names that sort of sound
and feel like those color groups and those personality types.
You know, the energy of those typepes would actually come across.
And what I have found is that we are often
very heavily in one type with a strong secondary type,
which influences whether the colors are lighter, dark or warmer

(42:13):
or cooler, brighter or less contrasty. But it influences a
lot of other things, especially when we're talking about brand
or home decor or our wardrobe. Things like texture, things
like shape, things like you know, lightness or shininess are
all part of our preferences within those personality types. And
once you can zero in on the type and the

(42:34):
combination of types, and it gives you a really strong
roadmap for how you can move forward to create spaces,
to create brands, to create a wardrobe, to create any
kind of environment that involves color that feels deeply, deeply aligned.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
I'd love this deep conversation, and I want to invite everyone.
If you're interested in taking the quiz, go to joyfirstworld
dot com and you will find it in the navigator.
We're going to take another quick break and come back
for our last segment. We'll be back in a moment,
my friends with Jane Nicole Smith. You can learn more

(43:09):
at joyfirstworld dot com.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
Be right back the best of the holistic, spiritual and
conscious world Ome Times Radio IOWMFM.

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Speaker 2 (45:26):
Welcome back listening to inspired conversations. I am loving this
conversation about color, joy psychology and how colors affect does
so the last segment, I'm really curious, what's a joy makeover?
I think so, I know some people in my life

(45:46):
that need one.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
Thank you for asking. Yeah. So, as I evolved as
a creative, you know, it's been really interesting for me
on my journey because, as you've heard, I started as
this you know, serial scrappy entrepreneur and then sort of
up leveled into seeing a lot of success and credibility
in what I was doing, moving countries, starting again doing

(46:10):
it in the UK, and you know, along with the
conversations we've had about burnout and not wanting to sacrifice
lifestyle in order to have the freedom of running your
own business, I think there there are a lot of
problematic codes and programs in our culture, which I'm sure
you must talk about all the time in terms of
you know, what capitalism drives us to. Even things like

(46:33):
you know, sexism and racism have have such a strong
impact on our life and in particular our beliefs around
what were allowed, what is acceptable behavior, et cetera. And
so what I discovered over the years through my work,
you know, in photography. You know, I've photographed a lot
of animals, but I've also photographed a lot of people

(46:54):
and in particular women, And it's so interesting. You know,
when you have a skill as a photographer that people
just trust you and relax around you immediately. You know
you are able to see and then reflect back to
them their own beauty in a way they've maybe never
even seen before. And so there was always some enchantment

(47:16):
and curiosity I had with that sort of giving people
this moment of beauty of themselves that maybe they'd never
seen before. So that was probably where the seeds of
the makeover were planted. But the other thing is that
as I got older and wiser, my twenty year anniversary
and business is in July, I you know, have really
doubled down and zeroed in on the impact I want

(47:38):
to have in the world. My bigger purpose, and that
has for a long time was all about freedom and
fulfillment for entrepreneurs, but it has really refined itself in
this conversation around joy, because I feel like it is
something we so often do not allow ourselves because it
feels impractical. We feel we have to earn it and
we don't. It is a birthright, and it's also, by

(48:00):
the way, a hack for success. It's also a lot
of other things. It's great for longevity. It's obviously great
for relationships, it's great for parenting, it's great for your
physical health. So as I went through my journey, I
sort of came to this realization that joy is the thing.
I think joy is the thing we need most. I
think it is something I have been uniquely created as

(48:22):
a human being to help people pursue through a lot
of different very practical avenues like color, like you know,
financial freedom, through entrepreneurship, and it is something that at
this time we need to come together on not only
for our individual selves, but to find, you know, community,

(48:45):
to find to get organized, and to feed each other's joy.
And so the thing I believe is that if we
can fill ourselves up, just ourselves up with joy, we
are so much less susceptible to the And if we're
less susceptible to the fear, we don't make as many
fear based decisions in how we vote, in how we

(49:07):
treat people, in how we run our businesses, in how
we you know, everything, and it affects our kids, and
it affects our partners, and it affects our teams, and
it affects our bosses and the person we bought ice
cream from. You know it It is, as we discussed earlier,
so so contagious that if you can just fill yourself
up with joy, it's enough. And so bringing it full

(49:29):
circle to the Joy makeover, you know, we really focus on,
you know, color for women, so bringing color into your
own life through your wardrobe, your home, and your brand
of course, and for brands, businesses of all sizes, you know,
little tiny businesses, multi national corporations. How to use color
as a tool for joy. How to bring your audience joy,

(49:52):
how to bring your team joy, how to create joyful spaces,
how to be in this joy revolution. Because a it
works better for all the business metrics, be it works
better for all the people metrics, and it's the right
thing to do. So Joy makeovers for us are helping
people and brands transition into a place where they are

(50:13):
making more decisions based on joy, and in particular using
color as one easy starting point for that because it
helps fuel the contagion of joy for everyone around.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Them speaking my language, girl, because it does. It is contagious.
I love that word, right. Joy has its own frequency,
its own energy, and I talk a lot about energy
and frequency. People feel it before you ever say a word, yeah,
you know, And so I always say, like, that's an energy.

(50:47):
Joy has an energy, Fear has an energy. And do
you ever walk into a place and you always know
that one that has that joyful leescence, You're just magnetically
drawn to them. It's the same as in business, isn't it.

Speaker 4 (51:00):
Absolutely? And the way I think about joy, I've done
a lot of research on it over the last several
years now, and I think it's on a spectrum of energy,
because I think there's kind of two extreme sides of joy.
On the one hand, we have that sort of not
quite ecstatic, but sort of electric, jump up and down,

(51:22):
joyful joy that we often will associate with joy. And
on the other side of the spectrum, we have this deep, peaceful, knowing,
this contentment side of joy. And when you talk to
people about joy and what it means to them, you'll
get a lot of different answers. But a lot of
people will talk about spirituality or their relationship with God.
And for them there's this like trust faith in knowing

(51:43):
that is inseparable from joy, and that's a much more calm, abiding,
constant kind of joy rather than this sort of electric, spontaneous,
you know, sort of more ecstatic type of joy. And
I think both are true and everything in between. Another
way that I really like to think about joy, And

(52:04):
this just blew my mind when I realized it is
that back to color psychology. We talked about the psychological
primaries and how yellow, for example, is emotionally stimulating. So
if you look at happiness, happiness is yellow, and we
struggle to be happy. We struggle to be anything but happy,
and when we're not anything else, we struggle to be happy.

(52:26):
So we can't really be happy and sad or happy
and angry at the same time. And it's an emotional experience, happiness,
and it's complicated, right, because it's fleeting, and we tend
to think, well, if we haven't figured everything out, if
we're not quote unquote happy in our whole life, then
how can we be happy?

Speaker 2 (52:43):
Right?

Speaker 4 (52:44):
But joy is a different experience and the color of
joy is orange, and so of course orange is made
up of red and yellow. So we have yellow, we
have the happiness piece, that emotional piece, but it's also
red and red is physical impacts us physically, and so
when I think about the difference between happiness and joy,

(53:04):
you'll see a lot of definitions around, like joy is
happiness with more meaning, because when you dive into the research,
that's how scientists like to define joy with you know
this this meaning. But for me, there's also this physical
element that I think is really important and that can
be a very soothing or a very stimulating experience. So
if you think about the spectrum of like a really light,

(53:28):
soft orange, you know, Sherberty orange, all the way into
like a bright electric you know orange orange, that I
think can kind of describe what we're talking about in
this frequency, which of course color is a frequency too, right,
light is a frequency, and so it makes sense that
it has an energy. And for me, that energy is

(53:48):
on a is on a spectrum.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
And I get it completely because I'm on the ladder
of what you described just the grounded connection. So as
you described that second when nection to source peaceful, I
was like, that's been my journey through joy and that's
what I embody now inside internally, which is so important.

(54:12):
Before we come to a close, I want to invite
everyone again to please visit joyfirstworld dot com. Learn more
about the work Nick is doing in the world, whether
you're an ahead of an organization, an entrepreneur, as well
as for yourself. Check out the personality quiz and everything
else she has there. It is so it will pull

(54:35):
you right in, my friends. So if you want more
joy in your life or to call more into your business,
please visit Nick at Joy first world dot com. This
has been such a joyful conversation. Nick. I'm so glad
that you were able to join me today and share
so much of your wisdom and insights. So I appreciate you,

(54:57):
my friend.

Speaker 4 (54:58):
Thanks for having me, Linda. I could literally talk about
this all day and all night, so anytime.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Well, I'm so grateful and until next time, my friends.
As always, choose love, choose joy, Choose happiness. Blessings everyone.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
Thanks for listening to inspired conversations with publisher Linda Joy.
Join our Sacred Space every Tuesday at two pm Eastern
and meet leading female visionaries, empowering authors, heart centered female entrepreneurs,
coaches and healers. Inspired Conversations with Linda Joy is a
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(55:39):
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led them to the transformational work they do in the world.
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