I was going to be a veterinarian: I'd get to work with animals, I'd make a decent living, and I'd never have to be the broke, starving artist everyone warned me about. Then my boss at the vet clinic looked at some photographs I'd taken at the clinic and asked me one question that blew the whole plan out of the water.

This is the first in a 10-part series where I walk back through the biggest joy first decisions of my life, the ones that felt a little (or a lot) reckless at the time, and look at how they actually turned out. This one is about choosing passion and creativity over the responsible plan, dropping out of art school the same day I brought home a Great Dane puppy, and building a career in a risky field that didn't really exist yet.

In this episode:

- Why the "starving artist" fear runs so much deeper than money

- The moment I realized what I wanted and what I'd planned were two different things

- How a tiny, tightly niched photography business taught me everything about branding

- The joy lesson under it all: joy is not an indulgence, it's information

Come and go deeper on Substack at Joy First World, https://joyfirstworld.substack.com/ and take the Joy First Audit to find your current joy pulse... and maybe get a nudge in the next right direction for more joy in your life.

And if this one lands, for you I'd love a review. Help us help new listeners find us.

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

Schools shut, there were heat warnings and travel bans in London, and my garden office turned into a sauna.

So instead of the day I had planned, I let the day become something else, and somewhere between a slow coffee with my father-in-law, a grocery shop where my brain refused to cooperate, a garden picnic, and water fight with the kids, and a barefoot evening watering the plants, I realised the whole day had been one big joy first experiment.

This one is recorded late, off the cuff, and a bit un-edited (you get to see exactly how last-minute this show sometimes is). But showing you all of it felt like the honest thing and very in the spirit of what this season is all about: what joy actually looks like in the messy middle. Not the pretty, pre-planned, beautifully spacious version we put on a pedestal.

In this episode:

• Why joy first living is a series of small choices (not one grand cinematic gesture)
• The "judgey clipboard lady" in your head, and what changes when she takes the day off
• Why entrepreneurs never seem to get the free passes everyone else does
• How to keep a commitment without letting time-scarcity turn you into a jerk
• Integrating joy into the chores and the to-do list, rather than treating it as separate

Take the Joy FIrst Audit Substack: https://joyfirstworld.substack.com/t/joy-first-audit

If this show gives you something, a review on Apple Podcasts helps more people find it. And come and find me on YouTube, where these episodes go up as videos too: https://www.youtube.com/@JoyFirstWorld/videos

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

I wanted a cut flower garden for three years and did absolutely nothing about it, until I asked myself the question I've been putting to my clients for over a decade: what would be easy? ( £80 and 2 pre-treated wood 'build-your-own' kits later, I had one.)

This is the first of the Season 4 joy experiments, and it's a big one: choosing ease and joy on purpose, and why that's a better engine than discipline.

In this episode:

• The two questions that change the energy you bring to just about everything, and why that energy is so important.

• The dog-training science behind my dislike of the word discipline, drawn from years working with Victoria Stilwell

• The honest caveat about joy vs comfort

• Why frameworks make better scaffolding than gospel, and the human design insight (with Jazze Jervis) that reorganised how I work

• Real "what would be easy" decisions, from the flat-pack flower beds to where values complicate convenience

LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• WATCH ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/FZgvz4V7Vfs
• How and why I ditched discipline: https://www.instagram.com/p/DZMyoCCsyN-/
• Forbes article | Comfort & Joy: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nelldebevoise/2026/06/09/comfort-and-joy-are-not-what-you-think/
• Find your colour personality type (the quiz): https://go.jnicholesmith.com/quiz
• Go deeper with us on Substack @joyfirstworld: https://joyfirstworld.substack.com
• Free Summer Alignment Sessions on alignment: https://go.joyfirstworld.com/summer
• Our Joy First Founders' Circle community: https://go.joyfirstworld.com/jffc
• Jazze's free 'Find your Human Design' tool: https://www.jazzejervis.com.au/generate-your-chart-nic

If this resonated, subscribe and leave a review. It helps more people find their way to a bit more joy.

With love, xx Nic

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