The Important Influence of Positive Psychology in a Pandemic

For regular readers of the Julius blog, you know how important mental health is to the team at Julius, which is why we are excited to have Danielle Reardon of The Well-Intended share her advice for professionals in the industry. For more from Julius about mental health, see our #Tools2Thrive blog post, and Episode 4 of the Julius Profiles podcast. If you want to hear more from Danielle Reardon and how she navigated from ad exec to wellness expert, listen to Episode 15 of the Julius Profiles podcast.

COVID-19 has required many influencers and marketing professionals to shift business strategies, consider a new tone-of-voice, and carve out creative headspace while simultaneously balancing multiple areas of focus and unrelenting demands. Although influencers might share a pristine, curated world, they too have children that need homeschooling, spouses to co-work at home with, and are confined to social restrictions. Professional influencers and influence marketers find themselves in a tough juggling act. On a similar front, although nimbleness is not entirely foreign, marketers are challenged with an ever-developing global phenomenon that has never been seen before and must react and plan accordingly.

In light of these challenges, one particular skill that can benefit both work and personal aspects of our evolved modus operandi is positive psychology. As the world is mired by consistent messages of fear and negativity, finding its juxtaposition creates both whitespace for the messenger–an influencer, brand, or otherwise–and a reprieve for its audience that is desperately looking for hope and affirmation. This ubiquitous concept may be the difference between professionals who will pivot and prosper versus those who will wallow and wilt.

Benefitting the influencer, brand, and their audiences, positive emotions can help improve creativity, open-mindedness, receptivity, resiliency, connection, health, and strategic thinking. It’s more than simply conveying happiness–it’s about being true to ourselves or our brand–a trait of most successful influencers. The idea is supported in research by Dr. Barbara Frederickson, who noted that when professionals embody traits like gratitude, love, playfulness, curiosity, and adventure, they can better create an “upward spiral.” To that end, when seeking new inspiration, collaborating with partners, or simply dealing with the imperative but mundane, this approach can unlock new thinking and opportunity, better-enable creativity, help solve problems, and sow the seeds of necessary evolution.

As marketers, when it comes to briefing influencers, coming up with plans, or even working through tedious paperwork, this approach can better enable sustained creativity, problem-solving, and evolution–it can translate to more effective leaders and supportive team members as well. At a time of too much inherent darkness and division, “FUD advertising” (fear uncertainty and death - “do this, or else”) is not likely to gain market share or influence. Meanwhile, the “we’re with you” message has also hit saturation. What’s welcome and not overdone right now is brightness and positivity.

For influencers that are constantly on the hunt for inspiration, consistently practicing positive behavior as previously mentioned will help fuel ideation and innovation. The influencer space is more competitive than ever and finding success can be challenging, but keeping this in mind will help creators move past obstacles and overcome hurdles. It will enable more compelling and clutter-busting content with thankful audiences ready and receptive to these authentic, lighthearted, or perhaps, compassionate messages.

Influencers and marketers–both tasked with shifting the hearts and minds of target audiences–can move towards brainstorming and activating a commitment to positive psychology with some exploration of the questions below. Let this be a guide to strategic evolution, more relevant creative output, and ultimately, measurable success:

How are you focusing on the new, interesting, and exciting possibilities abound in your business?
How will you consider the traits of positive emotions in your content tone and manner - internally and externally facing?
How are you embracing change in efforts to cultivate new meaning and fresh thinking?
How are you using any new found-time as an individual to develop additional areas of mastery?

A bright-side of this shared-experience is the opportunity to invest in enhanced business and personal well-being. Through this practice of mental wellness, influencers and influencer marketing practitioners may find a renewed spirit and purpose–ready to take on the dynamic social media world with tenacity coupled with positivity and sustainability. It will be the differentiating factor for measurable success in the next chapter, campaign, or content. This reset opportunity is truly fertile ground for the creation of inspiring creative and refreshed audience behaviors. Enjoy the journey!

Danielle is the founder of The Well-Intended® and is an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach that specializes in Executive Wellness. As a former Senior Executive in the Marketing and Advertising Industry, she’s passionate about improving employees’ quality of life through improved mental and physical well-being and knows first-hand how great an impact it can have both personally and professionally. If you’d like to learn more about how The Well-Intended can help your organization – be it a webinar, speaking engagement, or one-on-one coaching – please email danielle@thewellintended.com.