B. Light Podcast

October is the last real window before the holiday season takes over and demands everything you have. Most women don’t reset in Q4. They white-knuckle through October, November, and December — and collapse in January calling it a fresh start. But you’re not starting fresh. You’re starting exhausted. This episode is your invitation to do something different this year. We’re walking through a practi...

Most high-capacity women can answer “what do you do” in their sleep. Fewer can answer “who are you” — and mean it. When your identity is fused to your role, rest feels like erasure. Slowing down feels like disappearing. And the quiet question underneath everything — who am I when nothing needs me? — can feel terrifying. Take away the title. Take away the role. Take away what you do for everyone el...

In 2020, RaKya Leigh got tired of hearing the same story: kids are falling behind, and parents don’t know what to do. So instead of adding to the discourse, she and her co-founder and husband, Deon, did something about it. They started HUMBLE Tutoring, short for Helping Unstoppable Minorities Become Leaders in Education. A three-time Georgia State graduate, RaKya built HUMBLE around a bigger goal...

I need to be honest with you about something. For a long time I thought I had boundaries. I’d say things like “I don’t work weekends” or “I’m not available after 6” — and I genuinely believed them. What I didn’t realize until later was that a boundary you don’t actually hold isn’t a boundary. It’s a preference. And the people around us learn very quickly which ones we mean and which ones we don’t....

Your calendar is lying to you. And you built the lie yourself. Most of our calendars are aspirational documents — planned for who we wish we were, not who we actually are in this season. The gap between the calendar and real life is exactly where burnout lives. In this episode, we’re naming the lies our calendars tell — back-to-back meetings with no breathing room, scheduling hard tasks at our low...

Today we have our first podcast guest of the season! Elysha Johnson is the founder of Open Tabs, a holistic operations consultancy for ambitious founders who are outwardly successful and inwardly depleted. With over a decade of experience as an executive assistant and operations leader inside founder-led businesses, Elysha has spent years inside the chaos she now helps clients escape — watching ca...

Here’s a question I’ve been sitting with. How much of your exhaustion right now is actually about the volume of what you’re doing — and how much of it is about the mismatch between the season you’re in and the season you’re planning for? Because I’ve noticed something. The most overwhelmed women I work with aren’t always the ones doing the most. They’re often the ones trying to produce at a builde...

Grab your planner for this one. Over the last four episodes we’ve been naming what’s breaking down. Today we talk about what to build instead. My signature R.E.S.T. Framework is the foundation of everything I do — and I’ve never broken it down this completely in a single conversation before. We go letter by letter: Restore, Energize, Sustain, Track. Not as theory. As a practical map you can start...

I want to ask you something. When is the last time you genuinely rested — not because you’d earned it, not because you’d finally finished everything on your list, not because you were so depleted you had no other choice — but because you had built it in? For most of us, that question lands differently than we’d like it to. We’ve been conditioned to treat rest as a prize. Something that waits at th...

There’s a woman I keep meeting. She shows up in my workshops, in my DMs, in conversations with friends over dinner. She’s the one everyone calls first. The one who delivers, every time, without complaint. The one who holds things together so well that nobody ever thinks to ask if she’s okay — because she always seems to be. She is not okay. Not in a crisis way. But in a quietly depleted, slightly...

I used to have a complicated relationship with my to-do list. It was long. It was color-coded. It was completely disconnected from my actual capacity. And checking things off of it felt productive right up until the moment I realized I was exhausted and couldn’t name a single thing I’d accomplished that actually mattered to me. Sound familiar? Here’s what I’ve come to understand: most of us aren’t...

In this episode, I’m introducing the concept that sits at the center of everything I do: the difference between discipline and rhythm. Discipline can help you push through. Rhythm is what helps you sustain your life and work consistently. Unfortunately, a lot of high-capacity women are living in a cycle of push, produce, crash, recover, repeat and normalizing it as just being busy. We’re changing...

If you’ve been here before — welcome back. If you’re new — I’m so glad you found your way in. This is the B. Light Podcast, and this season, we’re doing something different. I’m Brieanna Lightfoot Smith — leadership and wellbeing strategist, speaker, entrepreneur, wife, and mom of four. For the last few years, I’ve been quietly doing the work of building a life that doesn’t require me to override...

Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 (NLT) The Lord will work out His plans for my life for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don’t abandon me for you made me. Psalm 138:8 (NLT) For God’s gifts and his call can never be withdrawn. Romans 11:29 (NLT) I’ve been a writer since I was 6 years old. My first book was The Cloud Factory — ins...

The South often gets a bad rap about how we handle winter weather but what I think is important for other regions of the nation to understand is where northerners and midwesterners (Hey Mizzou crew) are accustomed to navigating snow and ice storms - for us down in the South these happen on an annual or maybe bi-annual basis. As a result, we don’t spend a ton of funds investing in snow plows and sa...

Whatever you do, do it enthusiastically as unto the Lord and not unto men, knowing you will receive a reward from your father in Heaven. Colossians 3:23 My daughter is in the phase of life where everything is meant to be opened. Cabinets. Drawers. Bags. Possibilities 😂. If it can be grabbed, she’s going exploring. Last week, her grandfather sent us a big batch of snacks which he tends to do every...

June made one full year since I closed down my company Brands by Brie and while it did not feel good, I’m better for it. I’m learning how to walk into a room not with fancy titles or accolades but leading with what I’m passionate about as a person. Many times when we’re called to close the door on something we deemed as a success, it can lead us to go through some sort of existential crisis. * Wha...

Showing up is typically easy when you're seeing results. But what about the days when progress feels painfully slow, motivation is low, and you're questioning your purpose? In this episode of my Dear Future Me series, I’m diving deep into what it really looks like to keep showing up even when the growth you're hoping for isn’t happening as quickly (or clearly) as you'd like. Whether you're pursuin...

From influencers, to politicians and regular folks just like me, many of us are in a period of transition and depending on your headspace it feels a little daunting. The thought of starting over or filling in the gap between where we are and where we want to be can seem like a heavy lift, but in today’s video my goal is to provide a perspective shift. Transition is a natural part of life and it in...

You’re going to need a soft place to sit when I tell you this friend…life is out here whooping a lot of our tails BUT that’s not an excuse to get out of alignment. Over the past 2 months I’ve been fighting my way through postpartum depression and anxiety and while I hoped to wait until I felt 100% to get back on assignment I had to recognize time waits for nobody. I don’t know anyone who wakes up...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit blightbulbmoments.substack.com Reflection is an incredible gift but only when you use what you learn to create a new plan of action. In part 2 of my Dear Future Me series I’m sharing my 2025 vision board and reflections on why I haven’t achieved some of the goals I set before now and how I plan to move differently. I’m also discussing a...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit blightbulbmoments.substack.com Starting over again often has a negative connotation but what happens when you choose to start over again after much success. At the age of 33, I've found myself asking this question after shutting down a business I thought I'd have forever in order to pursue my full purpose. I believe everything I've expe...

This week we’re continuing our conversation around monetization and I’m super excited to share my top 3 product suggestions for the entrepreneur who is just getting started. In today’s episode I’ll be breaking down not only which products I recommend but the pros and cons of each product and how much you can charge for them. As you prepare to tune in I want you to remember this - done is better th...

Getting paid for your passion doesn’t has to be as hard as you think but it does require intentionality. Many of you listening to this aren’t being paid for your passion yet because you: * Aren’t clear what your passion is, * Haven’t communicated your passion to others OR * You haven’t created a process for people to pay you! The process can be anything from a checkout button to a link for an invo...

Not everyone is launching businesses with trust funds or a big inheritance. I get that friend! That’s why it’s important to get strappy and be intentional about the business expenses you’re accumulating. On today’s episode of the podcast I’m sharing my framework for planning business expenses. Ultimately it breaks down to Essentials, Opportunities and Aspirations. If you’re looking to build a busi...