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Our Mission
To co-create a Joy First World by activating more joy and colour in the lives and businesses of everyone we meet.
Our proprietary step-by-step method for building psychologically consistent brands has led to some serious wow impact like:
🍋Passive income product sales doubling literally overnight after rebrand + new website launch (with higher pricing), and tripling within months of launch.
🍋 Founders feeling brave enough to:
- show up and get visible
- leave abusive relationships
- come out as queer
- find and use their voice
- leave the city behind & buy the farm or beach house they’ve always dreamed of.
🍋 Immediately attracting and converting more aligned clients, happy to pay premium prices
“Nichole is a tremendous asset to any organization she is a part of...”
Nichole possess a unique combination of creative skill, entrepreneurial passion and marketing savvy. These talents have developed her into a unique thought leader who can bridge traditional strategies with innovative, out-of-the-box thinking. Here at P.L.A.Y. she has literally crafted our brand from the ground up -creating our logo and style guide, designing and photographing our products, creating some of our most successful slogans and campaigns and generally shaping our brand voice to be authentic and unique while resonating with our target market. Nichole is a tremendous asset to any organization she is a part of.
Will Chen, Founder P.L.A.Y. | B Corporation, Inc 5000
Meet Nic
The Mind-Reading Marketing Magician you’ve been searching for…
My name is J.Nichole Smith (you can call me Nic) I am the founder of Joy First, a creative agency where we specialize in joy makeovers for both humans and brands. As an expert in design and colour psychology, I’ve spent nearly 20 years as a creative consultant, helping people create joy first lives and feel-good brands. My work has been featured in USA Today, LA TImes, Real Simple, and Condé Nast Traveler. I’ve won numerous awards, including a ‘30 under 30’, and a prestigious European Product Design Gold award.
My personal mission is to help co-create a joy first world, by activating more joy and colour in the lives and businesses of everyone I meet… will you be my next glow-up?
Let’s see what our clients have to say…
“I could not believe how much value Nichole packed into the branding package”
I could not believe how much value Nichole packed into the branding package. Before Nic my brand was kind of a collection of loose threads in my head and she turned it into one coherent, beautiful package. I was not expecting so many elements to be crystalised together – everything from colors to the deeper ‘why’ behind the brand.
I’ve referenced my brand package over and over again to guide my decisions on copy, design and direction.
Laura Roeder, Founder Paperbell & MeetEdgar
“Nic’s really, really good at what she does...”
If you don't already know, Nic’s really, really good at what she does. The Whyfinding was a very unique process that helped me get really clear on what aspects of my work and which of the things I’m competent at also bring me the most joy. I am someone who has a lot of different passions and ideas, I've started businesses in different spaces and there are a lot of things that I can do but what you Nic really provided in the Whyfinding experience was guidance and a space to drop into my deeper truth and my highest joy… From that place it became really clear that the ‘futurist’ and ‘visionary’ parts of me feel like my highest expression. The dropping into what does a ‘Futurist Visionary’ brand look like and feel like, that was so much fun to have you co-create with me.
Natalie MacNeil, NatalieMacNeil.com
If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a serial entrepreneur, working mum, and consultant to companies of all sizes…
It’s that despite the lies you’ve been sold, your success will not come from how perfect you are, how hard you work, or how bad you want it… in business and in life, the definitive factor in your success is going to hinge on your communication.
Your happiness, prosperity and opportunity is going to boil down to how often and consistently you can have a more predictable impact on those around you. In business, your first impression with your prospective clients or customers is what matters most.
Online you’ve got about 7-8 seconds, in person you’ve got about 90 seconds to build the kind of instant trust, credibility and likability that can lead to next-steps and purchases.
It’s time to upgrade your communication.
Yes messaging and copy are critical, but you know what works even faster than words? Colour and imagery. Yup. The most important language in business is probably one you’ve not been taught about.
This is where we come in: We are experts in getting you and your brand from ‘good enough’ to first impressions that dazzle.
Immersive, evocative experiences that create powerful desire in seconds.
We do things differently
While ‘traditional’ brand strategy or creative processes you might have experienced before probably centered around logos and long, drawn-out, unnecessarily complex processes, that’s not us. Our unconventional Whyfinding sessions and branding methodology allows us to get right to the heart of what matters straight away and build a brand that creates more predictable results. All of this centers around helping you answer one question:
How do you need to make people feel?
All decision-making is made emotionally, and your brand’s primary job is to create an emotional experience. Helping you do this with wicked efficiency, in a way that feels deeply aligned, is where we really shine.
WHAT PREVIOUS CLIENTS ARE SAYING...
We specialize in supporting successful business owners who are in need of a an ‘expert’s expert’ to help them clarify and communicate their vision, and then refresh, re-invent, or a level-up their visual brand:
The Joy First lives and brands of our clients are changing the world...
The work we do doesn’t just create more profit, wealth and influence (it does) but because of who we do it for… it’s fueling powerful global movements of positive impact. THIS is what we’re in it for.
Who is helping humans quantum shift into a world of infinite receiving
"It was truly profound!
I had my whyfinding session with Nichole and it was truly profound. Using her unique tool kit we were able to tune-in and get to the exact essence of my business and my core message in no time at all.
Now I also have a totally fantastic way to describe who I am and what I stand for it was a truly amazing session.
Suzy Ashworth, suzyashworth.com
Who is here to help one million women become financially resilient...
Who is helping to cure the world’s busy brain and support women in STEM...
You’re in the right place
The most common bit of feedback we get from our clients, is that the investment they've made in our services is the best investment they've ever made in their business. Shall we explore what that can look like for you?
Whyfinding™
Spend a half-day 1-on-1 with Nic (in-person or virtually) supported by her simple and profoundly transformative ‘Whymapping’ exercise, exploring your expertise, beliefs, skills, differentiation and ‘niche within your niche’. Walk away with powerfully clear and aligned positioning and messaging.
Brand in a Week
Book in for one of our limited edition ‘Brand in a Week’ experiences. Get Nic’s genius all to yourself for 7 days straight while she creates an entire brand personality, visual identity, website home page and other activations. A complete start-to-finish brand or rebrand will be created in just one week.
Product launches, Book projects, Corporate Rebrands and more… If you’re in need of a cutting-edge Creative Consultant who can bring 20 years of experience + the unfair advantage of Applied Colour Pyschology to the temporary combined-role of Creative Director, Brand Manager, Senior Strategist, Product Developer and Art Director all-in-one - you’ve found your unicorn.
Super Bloom®
Super Bloom® is our complete 'done-with-you' brand & business makeover experience. This 'joy makeover' for your business and brand is an experience curated to help you transform not just your brand purpose and profitability, but your whole state of being (from the inside-out).
This program takes you step-by-step access through my proprietary Colour Brand® method that we use with our 1:1 clients, and helps you pivot your business into a truly purpose-led brand.
Say goodbye to confusion, indecision, and a painfully long creative process...
Upgrading your positioning, visual brand and marketing strategy does not need to be an overcomplicated, drawn-out or painful process. We’ve unlocked the secret to building powerful, psychologically consistent brands that spark instant desire, without all that unnecessary time, energy & opportunity cost. Let’s get it done fast, and with kind of joy, alignment and ‘wow-factor’ you’ve probably never even dared to dream of.
SUPPORTING FREEDOM
We support a variety of organizations that help humans (and animals) survive & thrive as their whole ‘weird and wonderful’ selves.
Let’s Get you a Joy First Brand
What a joy makeover really comes down to is the right kind of change.
The kind where you feel propelled forward each day, instead of dragging yourself along.
If you’ve gotten this far on this page, it’s because there’s part of you that knows you need a powerful change in your life, business, brand or image. If you’re drawn to the ideas here it’s probably because you don’t have any interest in, or time to faff about with people or agencies who don’t fully see you, your vision, or the powerful success you’ve already created. And if you're like a lot of our clients, you’re probably worried about breaking what’s already working.
When you choose us, our primary focus straight away is getting an accurate picture of where you’re at, and using 20+ years of brand-building experience and marketing savvy PLUS the science of applied colour psychology to help us make informed decisions about the incredible places you could go.
Let us take the wonder, worry, uncertainty, and complexity out of the steps between whatever you’re presenting now… and the first impression your work is worthy of.
It can happen in as little as one week’s time!
A total joy makeover for your brand or business doesn’t have to be slow or complicated or hard - but to make it happen, you have to take the first step. Get in touch and let’s see if we’re a good fit to work together. No high-pressure sales. No gross bro-marketing tactics. We’ll simply provide you with solid strategic advice and some viable next steps. What you do next, is up to you…
