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The Bright Side podcast, a daily female-focused positivity podcast from Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine, debuted on iHeartRadio on Monday (March 25) featuring Witherspoon herself as a special guest.
The first episode encompasses second acts, new beginnings, positivity, entrepreneurship, and so much more! Hosts Danielle Robay and Simone Boyce take the floor to outline the ideals of happiness and discuss how optimism increases as you age depending on the lens you choose to view life through.
Witherspoon got the idea to create Hello Sunshine, a media company that produces women-centered films and TV series', after reading a script that shed a bad light on the female lead. The entrepreneur illustrated the moment she realized something needed to change, and detailed what it's like to be a woman working in Hollywood.
"I started noticing that there were less and less opportunities for women to star in movies and I started seeing that the amount of scripts were drifting and diminishing. I remember thinking 'something has got to be better.' I read this one script that was so, so bad and so offensive and it had two female leads kind of fighting over the same guy and the guy was kind of a goofball and I thought this is so bad and it had all these boob jokes in it and things, and I was like that's not funny."
The "Legally Blonde" standout proceeded to call her agent who informed her that "every woman in Hollywood" wanted that part. She spoke with executives in the industry who had no plan to flip the script and fix a failing system, so she decided to do it herself and re-write the rules with female representation and her daughter as her guiding light.
"What is the world I want to have my daughter walk through? I want my daughter to feel inspired."
Hello Sunshine was also fueled by the idea that "women are the heroes of their own stories. Women save themselves." Throughout history, women have had to overcome large feats, and these are the stories that Witherspoon wants to relay to the world.
"Women are finally coming into our power as consumers as makers and we hold a lot of power that we don't even know."
At first, Witherspoon had no idea how to run her own company, but she made it her mission to change the landscape. She didn't make any profit the first three years and a lot of hard work and rejection went on behind the scenes. The actress, now the "biggest producer in the world of women's stories," described this work as her "purpose come to life" and praised the "learning bumps in the road" that propelled her company's success.
So, what goes into creating a successful business from the ground up as a woman?
Witherspoon contributes the growth of her business to three factors: determination, time, and a team who believed in and supported her ideas. She spoke on the "second chapter" of her career offering the anecdote: "I think we all as human being are trying to figure out the 'why' of life. You're always looking for a deeper meaning. Once you really ground into a purpose and work towards your dreams, your vision will come to life."
Witherspoon derived a lot of inspiration from her mother and grandmother. She urged listeners to appreciate how lucky we are to grow up in a generation with rights because our grandmothers did not have the opportunities we have today.
Shifting from entrepreneurship to motherhood, the "Sweet Home Alabama" star discussed what it was like to be a young mom and how this set the foundation for her entire personality.
"It's pivotal, the fact that I was a young mom. It's such a foundational piece of who I am. When I was 23 years old I had my daughter and I wasn't expecting to be a mom at 23. It was a decision that I made with my partner at the time and it just changed me so profoundly. I didn't like who I was very much at the time. I was super competitive as I was trying to get jobs. I had this scarcity mindset that if another girl got the job that there was going to be less for me."
So she started reading books that Oprah Winfrey recommended on self-love, self-help, and positivity. She doted on one novel in particular titled, "Soul Stories" by Gary Zukav. It was through these stories that she gained a strong sense of abundance that shifted her mindset.
All of this to say, Witherspoon just wanted to become a good example for her daughter. "I wanted her to look at me and think 'my mom is a role model.'" And so, she became the change she wanted to see in the world driven by newfound ambition and love for her children.
The actress closed by sharing how important it is to set a light tone in life by addressing yourself and others in a joyful manner. The icon stressed how valuable it is to allow yourself to feel seen and acknowledged and give that to others in return. It's ok to give yourself time and space to breathe! Witherspoon suggested walking in nature and taking "eight minutes" to talk to friends when you feel yourself drifting into a negative routine.
For more "culture conversation and inspiration" from Monday to Friday, check out The Bright Side podcast on iHeartRadio!