The Power of a Smile

If you follow this blog regularly then you likely know far too much about me:  Where I was married and how many animals I have, I'm a terrible poet ... and play write, my favorite TV show,  favorite coffee, and even what I drive.  Most of all, I pray that you can see how important marketing is to me.

You've probably also picked up that I'm runner.  It's my stress relief and the source of many of my best ideas.  Last week, while on a 10-miler, I discovered something really cool.  Well, a few things, really.  Have you ever noticed that runners are rarely smiling?!?!  Seriously, we usually look like we're on some sort of death-march against our will.  On this particular morning, I had the same look.  I was tired and slow and everything was aching.  But I know to never give up in the first mile.  When mile number  one of a 10-miler sucks, then you start to do some darn quick self-reflexion.  And I noticed that I wasn't smiling (well, duh!).  So I tried a bizarre idea ... I made myself smile.  Simply turned that frown upside down.  It was a beautiful day.  I was doing what I love.  I got to see hot women in spandex... well, I had reasons to smile.

Here's the cool part.  After a while of the glass-half-full method of running, I started running faster ... and easier ... and the smile got bigger.

Here's the REALLY cool part.
When other runners see a fellow death-marcher smiling, they look at you like you forgot your running shorts.  It's odd ... jarring.  But after the initial shock passes, they usually return the smile.  Now, I'm not sure, but I would swear that, when they smiled back, they sped up too.

Could it be true ... the most important muscles on my run are in my cheeks?!?!

While it sounds crazy, it may not be.  I found an article siting the 15 Health Benefits of Smiling.  And I believe every single one of them:

• Lower heart rate
• Reduce stress
• Better mood
• Increase productivity
• Encourage trust
• Produce empathy
• Avoid regret
• Kill pain
• Increase attention
• Contagious 
• Build attraction
• Earn success
• Look younger
• Longevity
• Boost immune system

Many of these benefits will help professionally too.  Increase productivity, encourage trust, make the smile contagious, increase attention, earn success.  Maybe the fastest thing that we can do to make sure our companies thrive is focus on hiring optimistic people and dedicate ourselves to making sure they are happy at work.

The power of the smile is obvious when its face-to-face, but you can hear it over the phone too.  It's not just a look, but a mindset.  An ingrained philosophy.

There is ALWAYS a positive ROI on a smile ... give it a try.

We bring these marketing philosophies to credit unions and community banks nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too. Contact us to see how.

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