Welcome back to another guest episode of Just and Joyful! On this week’s guest appearance, Kristin is joined by Brandeis (Brandi) Johnson, a Style Alignment Strategist and the founder of Brandeis Nicole, a bespoke style and image consulting firm for high-impact women navigating growth, visibility, and reinvention, to talk about getting dressed again after experiencing a mental health emergency. 

When we get dressed in the morning, most of us aren’t thinking about how our choices highlight the state of our mental health. However, Brandi says the two are much more intertwined than we imagine. In this episode, she breaks down just how much of an impact clothes (and all of our conditioning around what we wear) has on how we show up to ourselves and the world through the various seasons of our lives. Tune in for more on: 

• How style differs from fashion, plus ways to untangle our personal style from industry fashion (and why this shift is critical) 
• Ways our relationship to style changes throughout different seasons of our lives
• Why it’s not frivolous or foolish to care about how we look and how to break down this belief 
• How to start seeing style as a tool we can leverage to our benefit instead of viewing it as a moral judgment  
• Why Brandi thinks there’s nothing more dangerous than a woman who feels herself 

To learn more about Brandi, explore her links below. 

Brandi’s Website: https://www.brandeisnicole.com

Brandi’s Instagram: https://instagram.com/brandeisnicole

Brandi’s Free Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/styleforsmartcookies

Brandi’s Podcast:

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/undeniable-style/id1889658203
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5NXoCbY3fJWMOoXineHDyK?si=06uiDtXUQWOucQv2_XKCYw 

Signup for Brandi’s email:
https://brandeisnicole.kit.com/email

Brandi’s Free 3-Day Style Challenge (kicking off May 20):
https://brandeisnicole.kit.com/538293ed3f

This week’s bonus episode brings another behind-the-scenes look at Kristin’s musical journey to celebrate the release of her first album! Available to stream on April 17, LIGHT THROUGH Part 1 tells the story of the last several years of Kristin’s life as she has reached for music to help process through her mental health emergency and begin healing from that trauma. Tune in to hear more about: 

• Kristin’s musical journey through the years, from singing karaoke as a kid to writing and recording her first record as an adult  
• How time and distance have reframed the way Kristin views a critical moment of heartbreaking rejection from early on in her musical journey 
• Why Kristin chose a non-traditional path for her music + a real look at what it takes to create an album without a label 
• The story behind the divine download moment that inspired the album name LIGHT THROUGH 
• What kind of musical journey to expect from part 1 of the album + Kristin’s hope for what listeners take away from the songs

You can stream LIGHT THROUGH Part 1 on April 1, anywhere you listen to your favorite artists. You can also learn more about the music by visiting Kristin’s website at https://kristincarversmith.com/music/. 

If you haven’t had a chance to tune in to the Just and Joyful podcast yet, this is one episode you can’t miss.

Today, Kristin is joined by the venerable Cece Jones-Davis, an award-winning faith leader, public speaker, human rights advocate AND singer/songwriter. She’s perhaps most known for her work in founding and leading the Justice for Julius campaign, which aimed and succeeded at saving a man from death row. She’s been named one of Change.org’s Changemakers of the Year, and today she’s reflecting on all that work with Kristin, sharing some stories and insights never before told in public. Listen in for more on:

• How Cece and others built a movement to save Julius Jones from death row
• How anyone can start a movement to help on an issue they care about 
• Evidence for why people are stronger than systems 
• What Cece’s mental health looked like during and after the Justice for Julius campaign
• How overwhelm can become inaction–and what you can do instead
• Cece’s advice to other activists and advocates on staying well and not losing themselves in the work 
• Whether joy is really possible in advocacy work

You can learn more about Cece Jones-Davis on her website at https://cecejonesdavis.com/ or follow her on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/cecejonesdavis/. 

Welcome to another guest episode! In this conversation, Kristin is joined by Ali Rutowski, an experiential therapist, maker and at-home herbalist with a passion for movement, art and the natural world, to return to the basics of mental health. Tune in for a conversation on:

• How to identify a mental health crisis
• Warning signs that can lead to a crisis
• How to talk to a loved one about warning signs 
• What crisis care is and how to advocate for yourself 
• Ways to tend to our mental health with simple daily practices 
• What a personal care routine is and how to design one

Explore Ali's shop here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MaisiuwithHeart

We’re back with another short, bonus episode for you! In today’s episode, Kristin and Angelina are diving back into the world of words to dissect how the practice of journaling has benefited them both in their mental health journey. Tune in for thoughts on: 

• How journaling aids processing and healing for Kristin and Angelina
• Ways that a perspective shift can release the pressure to perform on the page 
• Questions to ask before you take something from the private page and share it publicly 
• Why everyone is a writer and has permission to approach the page

Welcome to our very first guest episode! Today, Kristin is exploring who gets to need help with Sara Stanizai, a licensed marriage and family therapist and business coach who founded Prospect Therapy to create a queer- and trans-affirming practice that focuses specifically on serving first-generation American and immigrant communities.

Tune in to the episode for more on: 

• Sara’s personal experience with mental health and the signs that finally alerted her to needing help
• Why you can’t deep breathe your way out of oppression, plus how to build a resistance plan that actually works
• How compassion fatigue has been misused (and even weaponized), what it really is, and how to accurately name the exhaustion we feel navigating the world 

For more on Sara’s clinical and professional work, you can find her at www.prospecttherapy.com or on Instagram @prospecttherapy. You can also explore the compassion fatigue workshop she offers to help professionals navigate burnout and sift through Prospect Therapy’s team of licensed therapists who are currently accepting clients for both therapy and coaching.

The Just and Joyful podcast will release episodes featuring conversations with a variety of experts every other week. In the weeks in between our guest episodes, like this one, we’ll occasionally share shorter conversations to give you behind-the-scenes access to other exciting work going on or to invite you to participate in a gut check after heavy episodes. 

This week’s bonus episode features an exclusive look at Kristin’s brand new single, BLOOM, set to release on 3/13/26. Tune in to hear the story behind the song, get a peak at Kristin’s songwriting process, and hear a little sample from the actual song!

Welcome to the first episode of Just and Joyful w/ Kristin Carver Smith, a podcast created to provide an honest, nuanced look at mental health and all the ways it impacts our lives, work and play. 

In this episode, Kristin will be reading, for the very first time, the essay she wrote last year while processing a mental health emergency she survived in 2024. You’ll also get to hear Kristin’s heart for the podcast, what conversations we have planned for the season, and why it’s all happening now.

Follow Kristin and Just & Joyful on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/justandjoyfulofficial/

https://www.instagram.com/kristincarversmith

Hello and welcome to Just and Joyful with Kristin Carver Smith. I’m your host, Kristin or KCS as people often call me. You may know me as the CEO and founder of The New Fashioned Co or as someone who spent the last decade helping clients develop business strategies, communications plans and publicity campaigns that produced winning results.  

You may also have noticed that I’ve been away from the public for a while. Well, I’m ready not only to return but also to tell you about why I was gone. This return will look different from how I’ve shown up before; it will be an embodied and holistic return. Through Just and Joyful, I want to introduce you to my full self—all the other sides of me that were too often dimmed while I kept busy with starting and running my business. I want to introduce you to my artist self—the writer, singer and performer that have always been within me but haven’t gotten as much room to breathe. Most importantly, I want to introduce you to the human self who has both struggled and succeeded through it all. 

The journey of Just and Joyful will center largely on mental health—my mental health experience as well as the ones of others I bring on the show. We’ll cover everything from the basics of mental wellbeing to more niche topics like how mental health manifests itself in our style, guided by guests who are experts in their fields, including licensed and credentialed mental health practitioners.  

But before we begin, I want to make one thing clear. I am not creating this podcast with the intent of offering answers or solutions to any mental health struggle. Although experts will join our conversations, I’m not an expert—just a human like you with a story to share. My hope in sharing mine is that you’ll feel less alone in yours. Perhaps you’ll even be able to give yourself permission to get curious about it all. The only thing I do know for sure is that healing is possible. Let’s discover it together.