Be Light Compression Founder April Pullins Shares How Running Ignites Creativity

Stuck at home during the pandemic, April Pullins got outside for a run.

It wasn’t something she did.

But between navigating a marriage that was on the rocks, recently welcoming a surprise third child to the family, and the uncertainty the pandemic created, she needed to do something.

“I really feel like God had allowed running to come into my life because he knew that this was going to come to a head, and I needed a way to deal with it,” April explains. “It became a way for me to process grief, for me to deal with stress.”

After that first run, she joined running groups on Facebook, started connecting with other Atlanta-area runners, and learned about races she could train for — the Chicago Marathon, the London Marathon.

She posted about her runs on Instagram for accountability. To look cute and bring some light to her day and to others, she started wearing tube socks she had tie-dyed.

It was during her miles that April began to think more creatively, and a business idea took form: a compression sock company.

‘I Call Myself the Chief Energy Officer’

Sketching out the designs for each of her brightly colored compression socks, the sign language interpreter and teacher began a new side venture. April launched Be Light Compression in March 2022.

She immersed herself in mastermind courses and business groups to learn the ropes of being an entrepreneur. April figured out how to navigate overseas manufacturing and set up an e-commerce website. Her basement turned into a product warehouse, where her youngest often helps her package orders.

“In the beginning, it was a lot of anxiousness, and hurry up and get these to the marketplace,” April admits.

She quickly found that her compression socks sell best when she involves her community of customers in the process. Today, she takes a more deliberate approach to make sure there’s interest in each design before moving forward with its production.

Leaning Into Empowering Others

Be Light’s socks often feature empowering messages, such as ‘She Is Strong,’ ‘Go Girl,’ ‘Shine Bright, and ‘Choose Joy Today.’

“I feel like when women find my socks, they wear them as a reminder,” April shares.

Building a business that brings light to others through what we wear, and seeing the community it has created, inspired April to pursue another opportunity for connection.

In January, she launched a program called Ignite 5. Starting with an in-person, Atlanta-based group of walkers and an online community without geographical boundaries, April hopes the benefits she’s experienced from being part of a community are experienced by her peers.

“With this community, it’s to help midlife women to find that spark again, to reignite it,” April explains. “My goal is to have a collective of women who feel like family and who don’t feel embarrassed to start moving. I think when you start moving, that movement will ignite them in so many different ways. It’ll ignite business ideas. It’ll ignite writing.”

Below, April explains how sharing her running journey on Instagram led to a business idea, the story behind the name Be Light Compression, and the other ways running has transformed her life.

How did your running journey spark a business idea?

April Pullins: When I started running, I realized that I needed someone to hold me accountable …. I remember, I was on the porch that day. It was a really cold day in February, and I was like: ‘Okay, guys, I’m filming this, and the next 90 days, it’s going to be different. I am putting myself out here because I feel in my soul that something’s going to change, and just inviting you all to join the journey.’

I did not know that I was going to be an endurance runner, that I was going to stick with it. I didn’t know what was going to happen in my marriage. I didn’t know what’s going to happen to my finances. I just knew that I needed to do something, and I needed everybody to see.

I just wanted to be cute. So, I grabbed some outfits, and then I realized, ‘Oh, let me put some tube socks on, because I thought they were kind of cute.’ And then I said, ‘Oh, maybe I could tie-dye them.’ So I would tie-dye them, match my outfit, and I would take a picture post, just really for people to find me, to say, ‘Oh, she did what she said she was going to do today.’

As I was going through that journey and learning how to run and asking questions and seeing different companies pop up, I saw PRO Compression, and I actually wanted to become one of their affiliates…[but] nobody responded. Then I heard God say, ‘Do your own thing. Bring your own socks to the marketplace.’

Why compression socks, and what goes into your design process?

April Pullins: I could have done regular socks, cute socks…[but] I realized that people actually do benefit from wearing compression socks …. There are [compression sock] companies that are very, very tight and very hard to get on. When I was first getting out in the marketplace and asking people questions and seeing what they liked, a lot of people [had] a really hard time putting these socks on. So, I knew I didn’t want that.

There’s different levels to compression, so our compression socks are right in the middle. They’re moderate. They’re 15 to 20 [millimeters of mercury (mmHg)], so they give you just enough so that you get the blood flow and the benefits of wearing compression socks, but they’re not super tight.

What I’m learning in business is, you have to listen to your customers. In the beginning, I don’t know if I understood that, because I didn’t have any customers. So, I’m like, ‘Okay, I think this is what people like.’ And no, they tell you exactly what they like.

I will sketch out a design. I’ll put it out in my community, on Instagram and Facebook, and say, ‘Hey guys, how do you like these? What do you think about these?’

What’s the message behind the name Be Light Compression?

April Pullins: The very first time that we decided on the name of the company, it was Be Light. It comes from a scripture in the Bible that talks about being the city that sits on a hill, in Matthew 5:14-16. The odd thing was, when I was going through the process of paperwork, because online people knew me as the ‘crazy sock lady,’ because I wear all these crazy socks, I thought I needed to make my company match that. So, a last-minute decision, I filed my paperwork under The Crazy Brand.

About six months in, I felt so convicted, and I ended up sending out a letter to the IRS saying, ‘I need to change my name.’ I felt like God was like, ‘You know that’s not what I told you.’ To be a light, to be a beacon of hope, and to be that city that sits on a hill.

Our compression socks are not tan, they’re not black. They’re not the regular ones that you get from Walmart. They are neon pink. They’re yellow. Anytime that you see them, you’re going to see somebody shining bright. You’re going to see some affirming words on them. That’s Be Light.

What lessons have you learned through your experiences in running and running a business?

April Pullins: Running teaches you how to endure, how to keep pushing forward …. It’s definitely taught me to not be a perfectionist, to not be a people pleaser. I am a recovering people pleaser. It’s taught me to stretch and to be okay with, I like to say ‘failing forward,’ but really, there’s no failure. It’s only lessons.

It’s been the transformation of my mindset. It’s been the transformation of me in business …. Being a runner and running through grief and running through problems, it allows you to process things.

There are some days where I’m overwhelmed, and I have to take a pause and breathe. I’ve found, also during this process, that I deal with anxiety. And that was something that I would have never admitted to. As a Christian woman, in a Black home, that was very shameful …. Coming to terms with it’s okay to have anxiety…running has helped me so much.

I built a whole sock company out on the pavement. And that, I think, is the biggest transformational part of running for me. The marathons are great. I’m going to continue to run other marathons. But to be able to be transformed from someone who is an employee to a business owner, and then scaling a business, I think that’s pretty huge.

Follow @BeLightCompression on Instagram.

“Our compression socks are not tan, they’re not black. They’re not the regular ones that you get from Walmart. They are neon pink. They’re yellow. Anytime that you see them, you’re going to see somebody shining bright. You’re going to see some affirming words on them. That’s Be Light.” – April Pullins