This episode kicks off a 6-part series exploring each category of the Joy First Audit. Today (live from sunny Morocco ooh la la) we’re diving into Vitality: energy, hormones, time scarcity, and breaking up with optimization. I share my own (not great) score and what I’m changing right now as a result.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/bkehOyf-oxw

Join us on Substack and take the audit: https://substack.com/@joyfirstworld

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Some episodes arrive perfectly lit, well-rested, and uninterrupted.

This was not one of them.

This one arrived after bedtime, dinner, swimming lessons, forgotten groceries, a squeaky dog toy, and that low-level anxiety of juggling what work needs and what everybody else needs.

Which, actually is the perfect place to talk about baselines and audits.

I just audited my entire life using the same framework my clients and I have used for over a decade (with a few updates and upgrades) and I got my 'joy number' or Joy First Pulse (JFP): 75/100.

In this episode, I break down:

• The 6 categories I measured (and my scores in each)
• Why I created the Joy First Audit
• What I'm doing about my lowest scores (spoiler: I've already re-started HRT conversations, and am vlogging the process)
• How you can take the audit yourself (including a custom GPT to help you action it)
• Why I'm launching on Substack and what that means

This is the baseline. The messy starting point. The "where I actually am" before the experiments begin.

If you're brilliant at your work but struggling with adulting or self-care or 'balance'... this one's for us.

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After three years of podcasting about joy, colour, and business, I'm doing something different.

Something scarier.

I've spent two decades teaching entrepreneurs how to build brands that create desire, joy, and transformation. But as I've sat down to write this Joy First book, it feels like I've really been tested. It's been a really challenging 18 months and I've been asking myself, who the heck am I to share this work? But on reflection I feel like my experience with testing, and imperfectly embodying these joy first principles and practices is the way joy REALLY looks. Joy isn't just aspirational, sometimes it's actual survival.

So, in this season, in an aim to continue to define share the real face of what 'joy first' actually means, 'm becoming my own guinea pig. Over the next six months, I'm auditing six key areas of my life, vitality, relationships, work, creativity, all of it, and documenting what happens when a someone who has obsessively built shiny, perfect 'afters' (but who feels perpetually like a 'before') attempts to really explore what the 'joy of the journey' actually looks like.

This season isn't about teaching you how to be joyful. It's about what joy really looks like for a 44-year-old woman dealing with perimenopause, anxiety, weight loss, two kids, marriage and a couple businesses.

To explore this 'Joy First Experiment' we're going back to our bi-weekly schedule on the public feed, with deeper, more vulnerable conversations happening over on the new Joy Journal Substack (link below).

If you've been stuck in the messy middle, that gap between who you are and who you're becoming, pull up a chair.

Let's get honest about what the real work of becoming the person you need to be to live the life you actually want actually looks like.

Welcome to Season 4.

LINKS:

• Join the Joy Journal on Substack: https://joyfirstworld.substack.com/
• Follow on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joyfirstworld
• Take the Joy First Pulse audit [coming next episode]

• The real story behind the Joy First podcast (and the four iterations that came before it)

• What I’m intentionally shifting this towards (and why)

• What it has felt like to leave a niche where I had authority, ease, and security

• Why joy is not shiny, aspirational, or performative (it’s gritty and lived)

• What I've watched become the most powerful joy tool, ever

• What my emotional intelligence profile revealed that helped fuel this journey

• What’s coming next...

This season is about pulling back the curtain.

Not because I have it figured out.

But because joy lives in the trenches, not in the shiny 'after' photo

.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re great at building a life that looks good from the outside but feels disconnected on the inside…

If you’re in a season of change, confusion, or quiet unraveling…

If you’re tired of optimizing for other people's opinions and ready to feel like you again (or the first time ever)

You’re in the right place.

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In this special New Years episode, Nic's mom is visiting from Seattle (complete with sourdough starter and yoga mat) and her wisdom bombs inspire this special end-of-the-year episode that may just close that loop that's been making you so uncomfortable all year.

You'll discover:

• What a 12-year-old with a handpan and 30 videos on instagram has to teach you about social media
• The ai-unfriendly paradox that took Nic 14 hours locked in a hotel room to solve
• The feels Necker Island's version of "luxury" has that most 'luxury hotels' do not
• The assumption Nic made about her book that almost killed the entire project
• Why most brands you admire refuse to pick a side
• What Richard Rohr says we must accept or we'll never love anything correctly
• The real reason your brand doesn't feel like it fits
• What one thing might be your competitive advantage as we enter the AI age
• PLUS 5 journaling questions to help you integrate the thinking and lessons in this episode

Fair warning: This episode will make you question every "either/or" decision you've ever made in your brand. And that's kind of the point.

New year, whole you. Not new you.

Ready to stop flattening yourself to fit one-dimensional definitions of success? Press play.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Citrus Program (AI copilots for the Colour Brand® method): https://go.joyfirstworld.com/citrus
• Brand in a Week: book a call with Nic: https://go.joyfirstworld.com/branding
• Strong Ground by Brené Brown
• Built to Last by Jim Collins
• 
  

Take action:

• Grab the 5 reflection questions on the website: https://joyfirstworld.com/blogs/joy-first-podcast/new-year-whole-you

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The lives we've been encouraged to build, rooted in consumption, achievement, and constant productivity, keep pushing us further from what actually creates lasting joy.

But decades of research tells us plenty, we know what makes humans thrive.

We've known for years.

Why haven't we been encouraged to prioritize what makes us happier? Well, because it's not really in any corporate best-interests for us to be joy-fuelled and loved-up. (Spoiler: joyful people are harder to control and sell things to.)

In this Christmas Eve episode, I'm sharing the 10 Joy Codes I've discovered and distilled for my upcoming book 'Joy First', These the research-backed sources of joy that are fundamental to human thriving. Think of them as the building blocks of a life that actually feels good to live (and that allows you that life in a healthy body and mind for longer!)

Plus, I reveal my simple joy goal for 2026 (complete with phone alarm and daily ritual that takes less than 2 minutes). Want to play along? I'm creating a space for us to share in the New Year...

Because choosing joy first isn't selfish: It's liberation work. And we're all in it together!

What you'll discover:

• The 10 Joy Codes backed by decades of research
• The Harvard Study that will change how you think about success
• The correlation between joy and longevity
• My ridiculously simple 2026 joy goal (and how to create your own)

This is your permission slip to move closer to what actually matters to both you and our collective well-being in 2026 and beyond.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you seen how the internet just lost its mind when photos surfaced of what the house from 'Home Alone' looks like now? (spoiler: it's monochrome)

Turns out, the systematic draining of colour from our world is not an accident. It's not just "modern minimalism." And it's definitely not sophisticated.

It's colonialism. It's capitalism. It's white supremacy with a Pottery Barn catalog.

In this episode, I'm tracing 200+ years of history to show you exactly how we got here—from Protestant "godliness" to HGTV's greige obsession—and why choosing color is actually an act of resistance.

We'll Explore:

• Why grey has ZERO positive psychological benefits (and what it has to do with white)
• The shocking study that proved our world is losing colour
• How colourlessness became a tool of oppression
• 3 practical ways to bring colour, joy and back into your life

Spoiler: Your fear of painting that accent wall? Tune-in to hear what you may have internalized (that you never asked for).

Ready to join the rebellion?

Listen now. Share this episode. Then paint that wall.

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What if you don't need a bigger audience, or a bigger budget... but deeper resonance?

In this episode, we're talking about why "trying to be everywhere" might be killing your impact, the psychology behind what makes brands instantly magnetic, and how to stand out without burning yourself out in the process.

If you're tired of the content hamster wheel and ready for marketing that actually feels good (and works better), this one's for you.

• Why the "shout louder" approach creates diminishing returns (and what to do instead)
• The neurological difference between content that interrupts vs. content that resonates
• Five specific tactics for creating deeper connection without burning out
• The consistency vs. frequency shift that changes everything
• How to audit your marketing to see if you're resonating or just reaching

Ready to stop shouting and start resonating?

Join Founders' Circle: our community of joy first founders who are learning to practiec marketing in a way that feels good and works for the long-term. With weekly co-working, monthly Q&A calls and planning sessions, private podcast, and our 2026 goal setting session coming up on December 18th.

Learn more: https://go.joyfirstworld.com/jffc

Looking for a rebrand?

We are the home of psychologically consistent, emotionally resonate rebrands, for founders at all stages with all budgets:

Learn more: https://go.joyfirstworld.com/branding

This Wild Idea:

https://www.instagram.com/thiswildidea/

Podcast with Paige:

https://joyfirstworld.com/blogs/joy-first-podcast/paige-brunton-focus

Thai Insurance Ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaWA2GbcnJU

Tara Lynn & Co.

Website; taralynnandco.com/

Fb post: https://www.facebook.com/taralynnandco/posts/pfbid02y6iW2pWFKwUFNkV7Y7WbM9cSZzJaJFbJk9vi7Bi3Ggg5i4qi4i1j9G3vzasVsovel

The Antarctic Experience:

antarcticexperience.com

Trader Joes Newsletter:

traderjoes.com/home/ff

Glorious Gravel:

https://gloriousgravel.com/

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