March 25, 2024 • 46 mins
Reese Witherspoon joins the first episode of The Bright Side to talk about second acts and new beginnings. She talks with the hosts about founding her company, what she’s learned about entrepreneurship, and how she stays positive when shit is hitting the fan. Plus, hosts Danielle Robay and Simone Boyce talk about the state of happiness.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
What's up, Sunny d It's Monday, March twenty fifth. I'm
Simone Boys and.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome to the very first episode of the bright Side,
a brand new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. We're here
to bring you a daily dose of culture, conversation, and
inspiration Monday through Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's so real, this is happening, Danielle. You know what,
I've told a few people that I was working on
this show, and I can't tell you how many people
were like, we need this right now, We need a
show like this right now, you.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Day right, Yes, completely.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I've always been someone who fights for good news, even
though I've covered a lot of hard news in my
career as a journalist for over a decade now, and
you're often meeting folks when they're at their lowest point
in their lives, and you're asking for permission to tell
their stories. But I mean, listen, the work of truth
tellers is more important than ever before. But we also
need storyteller who remind us that joy is a superpower,
(01:03):
that it's a form of resistance, which is why we're
so excited to bring you this show. Danielle. You're a
reporter too, and we've actually worked at a few of
the same places.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
This is such a funny story because I've done hard news,
I've done entertainment news, and we had the first We
had the same first job, but not at the same time,
so we missed each other. But we've had a lot
of mutual friends who have over the years said, you know,
you should really meet Simone, or you should meet Danielle.
I feel like you guys would like each other, and
we just never did.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I know. Okay, shout out to Jocelyn. She is one
of those friends that Danielle is talking about who was
trying to connect us for the longest time. And then
we both got selected to be hosts of this show,
and it was just it feels kismet, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It does feel kismet.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
And it felt like the universe like if we weren't
going to make plans because we're both like busy girls,
if we weren't going to make it happen, the universe
was So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So you're going to get to see our bright side
bestie story play out in real time on this show.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, Okay, I have my cappuccino with a splash of
almond milk. Ready you have your oat milk ice latte.
Are you ready to get into it? Let's go So
you always remember your first your first kiss, your first concert,
your first pet. It's our first show today, so we
wanted to bring it in with a conversation worth remembering.
Our guest today shines so bright, and she's harnessed all
(02:26):
of that artistry and sparkle and glow to illuminate women's stories.
From her iconic roles to her powerhouse production work, she's
dedicated to making things that make girls excited to be women.
Reese Witherspoon is here with us.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We could have talked to Reese for hours. We cannot
wait for you to hear our conversation. But first, Sunny d,
let's catch up.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Simm what happened this weekend? I missed you.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I missed you too. Okay, So, my son turned four
this weekend. We had a birthday party for him. And
every time one of my kids has a birthday, I
just get so sentimental and also I feel myself grieving
the passage of time. I am coming out of this
period of motherhood that has been so challenging. Damn, I
(03:12):
don't want to cry on my first show. Crying on
first show.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Wait, this is wild because you don't cry.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I know I never cry.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
This is good to know your kids make you cry.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
And now everybody's going to think I cry all the
time because it's our first show and I'm crying. But
I'm actually not crying yet.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I am coming out of a period of motherhood that
has been really challenging. My kids are seventeen months apart.
They're both toddlers, and it's just been really grueling. Lots
of defiance and pushback and just every day feels like
this intense struggle. But I feel like the bright side
has just opened up for me recently, and I feel
(03:45):
like I'm in this beautiful sweet spot of motherhood where
I am relishing every moment and savoring every moment and
grateful for everything. And there's nothing like a birthday a
milestone to remind you of all the good parts of parenting.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That was really sweet.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I'm glad you're celebrating, because it's hard when every day
feels like a fight.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah. Planning birthday parties for kids these days, it's kind
of wild because a lot of people really go overboard. Now,
I just saw this post online about reminiscing about parties
from the eighties and nineties, and moms were talking about
what makes those parties or what made those parties so
good at the time, and it was so funny to
see how simple they were. It was like, we had
(04:26):
a jug of fruit punch, and we ordered some dominoes
and we had a grand old time.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I had like a dance party.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And nowadays I look on social media and there's like
Brandon Chella and it's.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Like a huge concert. It's like balloon arches and everything. Right,
I'm all about simplifying it because you have to reduce
your stress as the party planner, as the host, because
if you don't, then you don't get to actually soak
up the time with your kids. And it's all about
it's all about the idea of a party rather than
the human that you're supposed to be celebrating. So I
(04:57):
really tried to just strip everything down. We had a
cute little birthday for him. I met a movie theater.
All his little friends came. This was his first time
in a big kid movie theater and my son loves movies.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
What'd you guys see Shrek. Oh that's so fun. Yeah,
that is such a good memory for him.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, even if it's just memory and photos, it's very cute.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I think he loved it. I think he had a
great time. Danielle, how was your weekend?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
My weekend was good. I was on an airplane. I
flew to Atlanta for my very first time. I've been
into the airport but never outside.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Get out. You've never been to Atlanta before?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Never? Wow, and I've always wanted to go.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I went to interview a real life Disney princess get out, yep.
I interviewed Hallie Bailey and a bunch of influencers Jackie, Aina,
Kelly You, Keeley cat Wells.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
This is so cool.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It was for Airy Fest and Airy stopped filtering their
photos ten years ago, which I love.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, and so it was all about being a real girl,
a real woman.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Amazing. Did you filter your photos from the event? Thank
you for asking. So, I'm actually so curious how you
feel about this. I used to filter photos.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It was fun, especially if I wasn't wearing makeup. I'm like,
this is saves me time. And then I started noticing
that I didn't like my real face anymore. I would
like see photos of my real face and not feel good,
And so I made the choice to stop filtering photos
because I was like, I want to love my real face,
but I do believe in beauty autonomy, so whatever works
for you.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, I don't really use photo filters. I think that
it's kind of jarring for me. I think in the
same way that you're saying you didn't recognize your own face.
It just I don't know, it doesn't look like me.
I will admit, though I don't know if I should
admit this on the show. We might have to cut
this out. The one thing that I do to my
photos is I whiten my teeth.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
If is that a face tune thing.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It's a face tune thing. Yeah, if my teeth are
looking really you.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Have white teeth, and you like have white teeth.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm actually getting them whiten today. I'm kind of obsessed
with white teeth. But I don't do anything else. I
don't do the airbrushing or anything. But yeah, I mean,
if it makes you feel good, do you do you boo?
All right? We are a podcast that centers joy, so
what's the state of joy in the world today. Well,
Gallup recently released it's twenty twenty four World Happiness Report,
and this year it illuminated some findings on happiness in
(07:18):
different stages of life. Get this, Danielle, Young Americans are
actually less happy than older Americans. Yeah, duh, that doesn't
surprise you.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Not at all. It's tough out here for young Americans.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
All right, So here are the details. Americans under thirty
are feeling worse about their lives, but Americans over sixty
are feeling the opposite. Also, the United States of America
has fallen out of the top twenty for the first
time since the World Happiness Report was first published in
twenty twelve, which is driven by this large drop in
the well being of Americans under thirty that we've been
(07:54):
talking about. So that's interesting that you say it's not
surprising that America under thirty are feeling less than happy.
I feel like there's a lot to be happy about
when you're a young person.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
That's a good point. There is a lot to be
happy about. But I actually have a theory on this.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Tell me.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
One thing you'll learn is that I have a lot
of theories. Some founded, some unfounded. I call this the
discrepancy theory. So there was a Harvard psychologist, There is one.
There is a Harvard psychologist named Stephen Pinker. He wrote
this book called Enlightenment Now, and he said that we
may be inundated with horrific stories of school shootings and
natural disasters, but studies show that it's actually the best
(08:33):
time ever to be alive. And so the overwhelming evidence
is that we're richer, healthier, better fed, better educated, and
even more humane. Like not to bore you with stats,
but the global average IQ rises three points every decade.
Private prejudice is declining, which is great, especially with youth
growth of education and literacy, which is always a flagship
(08:54):
of human progress.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
But here's where it gets interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
At the same time, our phone have inundated us with information,
news about each other, about the state of the world,
and I think it's too much for the human brain
to handle, and we're more lonely. We have this like
high communication low connection feeling, and I think it's the
discrepancy that's making us depressed.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We're supposed to be so happy and yet we're not.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I also think that there's a lot of pressure as
a young person right now. Like I talk to some
parents or even kids who are like in high school,
they feel so much pressure from their parents, from the school,
from themselves to like get into a great college, and
it's so much harder now than it used to be.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Just think, there's like a lot the word is pressure. Really.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I also think that this points to the fact that
age brings wisdom and perhaps more contentment.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yo, I think you're onto something.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah. I just think as you get older, like we've
all heard it, you know, as you get older, you
have less fs to give about issues in your life,
and you care less about what people think. And I
find that that's so true in my life. I actually
I'm thirty six, so I'm not part of that under
thirty group anymore. But I actually am happy. I'm very
(10:11):
happy with my life. I don't consider myself to be
like miserable, and I hear a lot of people talking
about being miserable, and I want to be empathetic to that.
But I also think there's so much to celebrate and
so much to be happy about. I think we've lost
sight of the art of contentment and cultivating contentment in
our lives.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Because we're always new now next, exactly, I think you
hit on something with gaining more wisdom, because I actually
I want to bring the bright side to this. I
do think that there's an antidote, and it's intergenerational relationships.
People who are a lot older wide in the aperture
and show you that you're living in this tiny, narrow
band of time.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And so I think to be.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
With people who are in their eighties or seventies shows
you the breath of what happens in ten, twenty thirty
years and actually increases our optimism totally.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I think we have to get off the hedonic treadmill.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
The hedonic treadmill is this idea that positive life events
will greatly impact your happiness level. So like, if I
just get that job, if I just get into a relationship,
if I just move to that place, then I'm going
to finally be happy. I think the joy is in
the journey, it's not about the destination.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I'm so glad I get to sit across from you.
You have such a beautiful vocabulary.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Thank you. I feel the same about you. Up next,
Reese Witherspoon takes us back to her early days as
an entrepreneur, at Hello Sunshine and the moment that her
work matched up with her life's purpose.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
That's after the break.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Stay with us, Welcome back to the bright Side. We're
talking second acts and new beginnings with the One, the Only,
Reese Witherspoon.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
She's an award winning actor and producer. She's a hugely
successful entrepreneur. She's been called the High Priestess of book publishing,
and she's an executive producer of this very show.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Hi Priestess is probably the best title ever. Eight years ago,
resounded the media company Hello Sunshine with the purpose of
changing the narrative for women. She set out to put
women at the front and center of her productions, and
she's done just that with shows like The Morning Show,
Daisy Jones and The Six Big Little Lies and so
many more.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Reese is here to tell us about what motivated her
to take charge nearly a decade ago, and what she's
learned about perseverance, longevity, and joy along the way. Reese Witherspoon,
Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Hi guys, I'm so happy to be on the podcast,
the first podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
The very first episode, very first to the bright Side.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Let's start this party.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Let's get it started people, let's go ahead, come on,
what have we been waiting for? Were so grateful to
be working with you on this project. And since today
is the very first episode of the bright Side, we
thought we should talk about the reason why we're all here,
which is Hello Sunshine, the company that you founded back
in twenty sixteen. But I think to give our bright
(13:15):
Side besties the full origin story, you got to take
us back to twenty ten, twenty eleven, because you had
been acting for about twenty years at that point, and
you've talked about how the scripts that were coming in
were just so flat, so how bleak was it to
be a woman in Hollywood at that time. Reading those scripts.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
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 was drifting and diminishing, and
they weren't really showing the full spectrum of what women's
lives were at the time. And I just happened to
start reading scripts that were just offensive, and I just thought,
(14:00):
something has got to be better. I remember 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.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
And though I thought this was so bad and I
had like all these kind of boob jokes in it
and things. I was like, that's not funny.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And I called my agent and they were like, every
woman in Hollywood wants these two parts. Oh yeah, And
I thought, this isn't good. This isn't good enough for me,
and it's not good enough for my colleagues, the other
women that I'm so close with in our business. But also,
this is not something I want my daughter to see.
And that was a big thing for me too. A
(14:42):
lot of what motivates me in this world is like,
what is the world I want to have my daughter
walk through.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I feel like that's what Hello Sunshine has become like.
You are doing everything to try and pass the torch,
and you were working in a system that wasn't working
for you. I've heard you talk about rewriting the rules,
which I think is such a beautiful way of phrasing it.
What did you see exactly in the industry that you
were like, I need to change this, this has got
(15:09):
to change.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, it wasn't just that the scripts were bad. So
then if you if you go look at a problem, right,
you have to go back to the root of what
why does that problem keep happening?
Speaker 5 (15:17):
So for me, that was like, Okay, now I need
to do.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Research, like why are these the best that Hollywood has
to offer? So I went around to each studio and
I started to meet with executives and said, you know,
what are you developing with a female lead? And all
of the studios except for when they said, we're not
developing anything.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
So I went, Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Instead of sitting here and complaining about the problem, because
that wasn't acceptable, I decided to do something about the
problem because women, you know, we're always part of the
solution and you can admire problems, but like, what are
you doing to change things? So I started thinking, well,
if I started funding development of female led and female
(15:56):
written stories, you know, why wouldn't I want to be
in them? And why would my friends want to do them?
And I just took a big leap. I put my
own money into the company. I really didn't know how
to run a company like this. I did it for
three years and to a lot of success, but didn't
make any profit.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
So I had to retool too.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
I had to like figure out a business plan that
was going to work to make this successful because it
was my mission to change the landscape for women's storytelling.
I just I had to learn the bumps in the
road to become successful at it.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So you take that leap of courage and faith to
start this company and start creating women centered films and
TV shows. But how did you know that all of this,
that Hello Sunshine, would be possible when so many people
around you were telling you that it was impossible.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Well, I always have been a little bit of a contrarian.
So if somebody was like, something can't be done, I'm.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Like, oh, really, I'll figure out a way to do it. Yeah,
here are my earrings.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Okay, exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
No, I just don't like I don't like no, and
I don't like that's just how it is, because it
doesn't have to be the way it is. But it
does take determination, it takes a lot of time, and
I couldn't do it by myself. So a big part
of this was like trying to recruit people towards my
idea and trying to find the right team to support
that idea. And that's when I met Sarah Hardin, who's
(17:21):
our CEO and together. She would take my ideas and
turn them into a business plan. She'd be like, Okay,
these are the kind of people we have to hire
to support that idea, and this is how we're going
to actually make that happen. But I think you need
those kinds of different types of personalities in order to
make a creative business successful.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I want to hear more about those early days, because
you said you're not making money at first. What was
the moment when you thought we really have something here.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Well, the first three years I was just buying books
and then turning them into movies and TV shows, so
that was like gone Girl Wild and then Big Little Life,
and we were making money, but we're just breaking even.
So I was able to pay the employees and for
the space, but I wasn't making a profit. That was
going to be able to make it so that the
(18:10):
business made sense. You know, I didn't want to do
I didn't want to take money from people and then
not return the money. And then I also I wanted
to make sure that this was a great idea because
I knew there was value in storytelling for women. So
early days were like, I mean, the first office space
I had had like a leaky air conditioning machine that
(18:32):
would drip on my desk.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
This is so relatable recently, love it.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
And it was two rooms and the sister was in
the room room, and I split the two desks in
one tiny little room and that's where me and my
executive sat and we had one assistant.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
That was the beginning.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
What did you think would be the hardest part of
building your own production company and what was the hardest part?
In reality?
Speaker 4 (18:56):
What I thought was going to be the biggest problem
was fine material, But that wasn't hard at all. There's
so many amazing books and there was so many great ideas.
I think the hardest part was getting funding because you
had to convince people that the idea was going to
make the money they you know, people don't want to
invest money unless they're going to get a multiple on
(19:17):
their investment. And so I went around to a lot
of people and had a lot of cross arms and
closed doors, so just convincing people that the idea is
valuable and then also that you're going to work hard
to execute on it. But they you know, there's a
lot of vetting that was done on me. A lot
of people called my former people who had hired me
(19:37):
to do different movies, and I benefited from the fact
that I'd been super professional for twenty years, so it
was really a second chapter career for me, and I
had to really dig in.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
And y'all, I've.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Never worked so hard in my whole life, just being
like so tired all the time, because one year, I
made three television shows in a year, and then I
was also doing all the executive work behind the scenes
and doing Resu's book club and doing all the social media,
and it was a lot, but I was like that
it was so fun because I was working with like
minded people and we were all working in one direction.
(20:11):
And also, I don't know, it's just like my purpose
in life matched up with my work, you know. And
I've always had a great job and I love making movies,
but it was like my purpose came to life, which is,
you know, centering women in storytelling, and then it was like, oh.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Then it was just became so fun to go to
work every day.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I love talking about purpose because I think it changes
your life once you really ground down into a purpose
and also something that's outside of yourself. And I know
that your grandparents really instilled in you the importance of
having a sense of purpose from a young age. So
can you just tell us about that a little bit
more like, how do you view your purpose during that
chapter of your career when you were primarily a performer,
(20:54):
and then how did it shift for you once you
started this company.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Purpose is so important. I think we all as human
beings are trying to figure out the why of our life.
And even if you've had success as a mom or
success as a business person, you're always looking for a
deeper meaning. So for me, it goes back to my
childhood growing up with my grandma, who was a teacher,
(21:19):
and she just loved books and was always encouraging me
to read, taught me to read, and she would do
all the voices when I was little, and it just
ignited in me a passion for learning and reading and
it made stories come to life for me because she
was so imaginative and such a great teacher.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
And my grandfather was just service service, service. He was
in the military.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
He was just about the Boys and Girls Club of Nashville,
and he was always doing something every day to serve
his community, and it gave him great purpose. He woke
up every day with this feeling of people need me.
I am wanted, I am valued, So I'm kind of
a blend of the two of them. My grandfather was
super extroverted and my grandmother was very introverted, but they
(22:05):
raised me because my parents were both working all the
time in the military, and so I really felt their
influence as I walked through the world. And I also,
I think it's important to say too, all of our
grandmothers walked through the world in a way where they
didn't have the opportunities we have. They weren't allowed to
have credit cards, they couldn't have alone on a small business.
(22:28):
So I think about that every time I've like accomplished
something or made a big move in business, I always
think about the women that came before me that I
am standing on their shoulders, and how lucky we are
to be in this this time, at this time, on
this planet, in this place.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
It's really fortunate.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Well, you're now the biggest producer in the world of
women's stories. How have you seen the industry change since starting? Hello, Sunshine,
The business has really changed.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
When I started in twenty eleven, we only had a
few studios and they were buying really from movies and
television was a very siloed off business. Since then, with
the emergence of streaming, there's so many more options, there's
so many more buyers. You're seeing more female screenwriters, you're
seeing more female directors.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Still not enough, but you're seeing a lot more.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Representation too across you know, women of color, women who
are differently abled, and I think you're getting better storytelling.
And also there's this thing too that you could hide from.
Before there was social media, before there was streaming, they
would say, well, the audience doesn't like that, and the
audience was sort of this. We're like, where is the
(23:44):
audience and who are they? But now you can push
a button on Instagram or you know, Facebook and find
out exactly who the audience is. And they do like
women's storytelling. And if you go on Netflix and you
go into a meeting with them, I'm like, oh, yeah,
women are our best customers because they mark it too.
They'll if they love something, and you know this about
(24:04):
our girlfriends. It's like, oh my god, have you seen
this show?
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Have you watched that? Have you tried this lip bomb?
Have you? They will sell your products for you.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
So if you get a woman who's a fan of something,
or she understands the purpose behind something and she.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Gets excited about it. It's so good, it's so great.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So women are finally coming into their power as consumers,
as makers, and you know, we hold a lot of
control and power that we don't even know.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Reese, you brought up friendships, and I know that your
friendships are so dear to you and so important to you.
When I think about my friendships with women, I also
think about how they've been cheerleaders for me professionally. So
how have your female friendships impacted the way that you
show up in the work that you do?
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Oh wow, I mean it's so critical. I don't need
I couldn't. Yeah, there's times where I couldn't even get
out of bed and my girlfriends would come over to
my house, like when I was going through a bad
break app or it have like a really disappointing day
as a parent, or day week or you know, divorce,
or it doesn't matter. My friends, I don't have a lot.
(25:12):
I'm like quality over quantity.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
But that's the only way to be right, I mean,
especially as you get older. I think I think.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
So, But I mean everybody has different You see girls
that have so many friends and I'm like, and they
manage it somehow, It's just not my personality type.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Well, you are running an empire, So I mean, I
am so lucky.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
I have the best friends in the world. They just
show up for me during hard times and it's mutual.
I always say to my kids too, to have a
good friend, you have to be a good friend. I
also think about it in terms of like a bank account.
Each friendship is a bank account and it's and you
need to review every year. Are there more deposits than
there are withdraws totally or vice versa. There should be
(25:55):
a balance there, like what are you putting into their
life and what are they taking?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Like that we're actually having a friendship coach on an
upcoming episode, and it was such an eye opening conversation.
One of the main things that she said that women
look for in friendships is that reciprocity that you just
talked about. Is making sure that I'm pouring into you
you're pouring into me.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
And if you're sitting with somebody who's or how about
these people who call you and talk about their problems
all the time, but then like someone goes on with
you and they're nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Right now, or no, down with those people. If so,
don't ask a question about your life. That's a big
one for me too. If they only talk about themselves
and don't ask a question about you and what's going
on with you?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah, I mean, that's just what's that narcissism?
Speaker 5 (26:41):
That's just I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
There's so many different names, we name so many things now,
but it's just like not okay, how about just that
not okay person?
Speaker 5 (26:50):
They can't show up for me, like bye, we're done.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I know that for every win, there's five or ten
losses that nobody sees.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Tell me about some the hard stuff.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Was there a time that sticks out to you where
something really didn't go as planned?
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:06):
I mean definitely after Big Little Lies won all these
awards and it was such a successful show, and then
going to meet the account and then the account was like,
you know, you can cover the employee's salaries and you
can cover the rent, but there's literally nothing left over
to hire, to grow, to expand.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And I thought, okay, I worked that hard.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I identified this material, we did so well, it won
eight Emmys.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
What is going on?
Speaker 4 (27:34):
And that's when I had to go, Okay, I'm not
doing this right. I gotta step back from it. Sometimes
you need to step away and look at things from
a different perspective.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
And that's when I brought in.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
People to help me build a business plan because I
didn't go to business school, Like I don't you know
people say ROI and DTC and ibadah, and I was like, I.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
I don't we're seeing right now like they talk about
it like you're supposed to know, and I didn't know.
And Sarah Harden came into my life and was so
patient with me. And I also think it's important to
ask questions and not feel stupid. And it's also an
intimidation factor. If you walk in and you're trying to
build a business and you're like new, people are trying
to intimidate you by using a bunch of acronyms that
(28:19):
you don't understand. So if you have the courage to say,
I'm so sorry, do you mind explaining exactly what you
mean by that. Sarah was always so patient with me
and she helped me learn And it was about like
a year and a half of going to Sarah Harden's
business school.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
That's the way more fun than a college campus.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
It was in line with that I think about girls
trying and failing because I think we let little boys fail,
which no, are you most thankful for?
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Oh gosh, so many As my friend says, you know,
rejection is God's protection, and it's so true time you
feel so devastated. So it was probably a lot of
times where I was trying to raise money for the
business and they said no, which was probably you know,
a lot, but I only needed one yes, and I
(29:12):
got the one yes, and that started the ball rolling.
And I'll be forever grateful to those people for taking
a chance on me. But I looked them in the
eye and I said, you will not regret it. I
will give you a return on your investment, or I'll
just I'll fall over try.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
You won't see me not hustling to make it happen.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
So because everything doesn't always work out perfectly, but you know,
I know that I will always try my hardest. So
that was like a big no in my life. That
affected me and also employees.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
That you've got to have this. You've got to get
that person or it's not going to work out. Yeah,
it's Okay.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
If they take another job or you end up not
working with them, it's okay. It's really you're going to
do better things, or different things, or something else is
meant for you.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Reese, I get really fired up when I talk about
the intersection of ambition and motherhood. So can we go
there for just a brief second? Yes, Before Hello Sunshine,
before the book Club, before all the Emmys. You were
a mother first. You became a mother at a very
young age, in your early twenties. How did motherhood at
such an early age prepare your heart for the work
(30:22):
that you're doing now.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It's pivotal the fact that I was a young mom.
It's such a foundational piece of who I am because
when I was twenty three years old.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
I had my daughter and.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I wasn't expecting to be a mom at twenty three.
It was a decision that I made with my partner
at the time, and it just changed me so profoundly,
and I didn't like who I was very much. I
was looking in the mirror at that point and who
I had walked through the world as I was super competitive.
(30:56):
I was an actress for hire at the time, and
I was trying so hard to get jobs, and I
had this scarcity mindset that if another girl got the job,
that's going to be less for me. And I started
reading so many books. I watched Oprah so much, and
I started instead of just watching Oprah going Okay, I'm
gonna read the books that she recommends on self love,
self help, positivity. And I read so many books, like
(31:21):
one that was really important for me, with Soul Stories
by Gary Zukoff. It was all about having integrity as
a human. And part of that book is about having
a abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset, because when you
live in the fear of scarcity, you believe there isn't
enough for everyone. But when you live in abundance and
(31:41):
you go now, there's more for me and there's more
for her, I am so.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
Happy she got that job.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I am so happy she is doing well because you
know what, that's going to create abundance for me, It's
going to create abundance for other women.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
So that was just one little.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Mindset shift that happened for me when I was about
twenty three or twenty four, and that was about me
trying to change who I was for my daughter, because
I wanted to be more of an example of someone
I wanted her to want to be. I wanted her
to look at me and think, my mom's a role model.
And I wasn't a role model before that. I wasn't
(32:15):
demonstrating values that I would want my daughter to model.
And then I was able once I got that foundation
under me, and I was like, Okay, my behavior is
going to be the kind of behavior I want her
to model. Okay, now that I've got that, I'm going
to take that into my work world. I'm going to
have the behavior in my work world that I want
her to model. And I was like, hold on, if
I did that, well, maybe I can kick it up
a notch and do it as a bigger business modeling
(32:36):
the kind of things I want to see in the world. So,
really becoming a mom at a young age was everything
for me because I had enough money, I was financially prepared,
I had a very stable relationship. I had really good
parents who are protect you know, protecting me and helping me.
So I want to say that's not the perfect choice
for everybody, but it was the right thing for me.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
There's just one thing I want to say about that.
I think it's so important for young women to hear that,
because so often we hear that motherhood is going to
be the death of our career, and it's just it's
just simply not true. I mean, there are so many
incredible examples of ambitious lites.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Yes, I think so too, and I think we worry
as women's like I'm none enough in my career. But
I will say with a caveat right, you know, if
you're in a good place, there's no perfect time about
having a baby. I also there's no perfect time, like
what's the day that you want your entire life to change?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Right?
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Is that like a Tuesday at three o'clock or is
that like a Saturday at ten am. Your whole life
is going to change, and it's going to be about
another human being in the world and raising that human
to the best of your ability. There's no good time, right,
but there is timing. That's like, I feel stable in
my career. I feel stable, I have enough money, I
(33:49):
have a good supportive network around me, whether there's a
partner there or not a partner there, there's a network
of help because you do need a lot of help,
but it isn't prohibitive. I found it as motivating because
I wanted my daughter to feel inspired. And also my
mom worked, so I feel like if your mom worked,
(34:09):
I don't know, do y' all think that? Because I
feel like my mom was the example. I was always
going to be like my mom. And my mom was
a nurse, and so I watched her go to work
and then she come home tell me all the stories
of all the babies she took care of all day,
and I.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
Was like, Oh, I want to walk, I want to like,
I want to have a job with purpose.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Is that what those spaces of joy are for you? Like? Why?
Speaker 3 (34:28):
I feel like the sets you create, the experiences, the
shows they center around joy.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Why is that important for you?
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Well, first of all, I think it's important to set
a tone, Like the way you start things and the
way that you end things is really important. The sort
of rituals around work. You come in and you say
hello to everybody, like Carrie Washington taught me such a
big lesson on our show Little Fires. Everywhere every morning
she goes Happy Monday everybody. It just set a tone
that and I've never seen anybody do that before, but
(34:59):
it was almost like it reminded me of being in
school and the teacher said hello to each kid, but
everybody felt seen and acknowledged or hope everybody had a
great weekend. Let's have a great week. And then at
the end of the day, thank you so much everybody
for a great day. Made such a difference. And as
a leader, I thought that is such a valuable skill
that she just shared with all of us. But for me,
(35:21):
I'm always the person who's like, how can I insert
a little joy into today? So whether that's like bringing
cookies that I brought, or telling everybody joke or trying
to find a way to bring humor into a really
difficult situation, or light you know, sometimes I just say
a lightness. Let's bring a lightness into this because all
(35:42):
is not lost where we're real.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Smart people, We're going to figure it out. That can
just really change any work environment.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Sugar is my form of joy as well, Reese. I
want to circle back to something that you just said.
I mean, we've talked a lot about the hard times
today and how it's not all suns at the top.
So how do you find the bright side when everything
is going wrong?
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Well, I take time and space to just breathe, put
away the phone, I walk outside in nature, or I
get with my dog, I snunckle my dog, or I
pet my dog. That's a very relaxing form of therapy
for me. Or I talk to my girlfriends four hundred
and sixty seven billion times a day. So I'll say
I learned on Simon Sinok's podcast that friends only need
(36:28):
eight minutes eight minutes of your time. So we now
have a code where I just text eight minutes and
then find eight minutes somewhere. They'll say, Okay, in two hours,
I have eight minutes. And you really only need eight
minutes to process something difficult or challenging. So doing that,
that's like a little well I stole it from Simon.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I'm stealing it from you.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's okay, But women like to share great things, so
we just proved it.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Okay, we have one last question for you.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
That's it. Unless we talk today.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We could talk forever, Reese, We'll do this again soon, Okay.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Narrative plays such a huge role in your life. We
mentioned that Hello, Sunshine's goal or one of them, is
to change the narrative for women, and I think that
you've really been a force in telling your own story
as well. And I used to read your book Whiskey
in a teacup, and I know that you come from
a long story and a story of women. Your grandmother
(37:25):
was a school teacher and she taught you how to read.
What does it mean to be Dorothy Draper's granddaughter?
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Well, I learned from my grandmother a long time ago
that women are the heroes of their own stories. And
I think we all have a story in our lives
of a woman who's overcome incredible aughts, whether it's your aunt,
your sister, your grandma, who either overcame a financial or
personal disaster to make her way in the world or
(37:53):
become the woman she wanted to be.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
So that is.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
A big, big part of rewriting the narrative women in media,
because women ultimately save themselves. And I think we all
grew up with a lot of stories that partners were
coming to save the day, or romance would make you
a whole just not true. So it's a really big
piece of why we pick the books we pick, why
(38:18):
we make the TV shows we make, the movies we make.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
There's always at the end a woman who saves herself.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Thank you for your time, Rees.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Thank you so much. Rees, thank you.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Well, I just want to say, you guys, I am
so excited about this podcast The bright Side. You guys
are giving people a chance to shine a light on
their lives, shine a light on a little advice that
they want to share, and that's what we need, you know.
Thank you for taking the light and now you're taking
it with you and you're going to shine it all
over the world. And it makes me really happy.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
We're really honored. Yeah, that's the word. Thank you for
sharing it with us.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Honor privilege. I never imagined that I would get the
chance to carry this honor and help you a part
of this legacy. So it's truly an honor.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
Well, thank you. I feel it.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
I feel it off of y'all, and I see the
joy that you're having with each other.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
We are this is my brightside, Bessie right here. Reese
Witherspoon is an award winning actor, producer, and the founder
of Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
We'll be back with more after the break. So that
was a big first interview, the Queen Bee of the Besties.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Oh my gosh, Reese, I'm still not over it. She
is such a personal hero of mine for so many reasons.
But I'll give you one big one. Through the work
that she does to honor female authorship, she is reminding
the world that women contain multitudes and that we need
to tell our stories, that our stories need to be told.
(39:53):
I know how it feels to have to hide your multitudes,
and I'm so grateful that I'm at a place and
that I'm in this space where I don't feel like
I have to hide my multitudes anymore. Reath shines a
light on unseen creatives.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
I think that's probably why so much of the language
around Hello, Sunshine and the bright Side is about shining
a light.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I think that's super intuitive of you.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I liked when she talked about her early years too,
because I felt really aligned with it. When I moved
to La, all I wanted to do was be a
TV host. I just wanted to interview people, and I
was so hungry that I was really just kind of
like self involved, not self involved, but I was trying
(40:38):
to find success for myself. That I didn't realize that
you missed the richness of life when it's all about
what you get instead about what you give, and that
comes with the abundance mindset. And I did so much
of the similar work that she was talking about. I
read so for two years I was reading books and
listening to podcasts and Oprah and Gary zukop and try
(41:00):
to find that light.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah. I think shifting to that idea of what is
for you won't miss you is something that's been so
helpful to me. Because have you ever gotten a job
by being competitive? No, it doesn't exactly work that way.
I think anytime we're trying to force something into submission,
that's when we're out of alignment.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
I think you learn that with experience, though, Like I
couldn't have told twenty two year old Danielle that, could
you have?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
I probably would have been so insecure that I wouldn't
have listened or wouldn't have known how to incorporate that advice.
I think on the subject of competition, though, I'm curious
if you agree or disagree, Like competition is not even
it's not really a thing that goes away, Like you're
always going to be surrounded by people who are really
smart or really talented in your field, and I think
you have to learn how to navigate it and recognize
(41:52):
that you can gain something from it, that you can
learn something from the people that you're around, and also
that you never want to be the smartest person in
any room, right, You always want to be working with
people who are challenging you and sharpening you. So yeah,
my perspective on competition has changed a lot as I've
gotten older.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
I want to bring up one more thing about what
Rees said, because she said that the hardest part about
building Hello Sunshine was finding money that people would not
invest in her, and I was shocked to hear that.
I look at her as a person who is just
so investable, like, you know, like she's a doer. She's
(42:31):
of course she has integrity. Of Course she's going to
complete the task. Of course she's going to make it
like she's going to try with all her might. And
that's what you want when you're investing in an entrepreneur.
I just was kind of shocked, were you so?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
I listened to her talk about this in an interview
with Regina King, and I also was shocked to hear
her talking about how hard it was to get people
to believe in her as a producer and to build
up that credibility. But if you think back to that
time right before she made Gone Girl and Wild and
Big little lies. This concept of this multi hyphenate producer,
(43:02):
performer and a female who was doing that was really
unheard of at that time. Like, there weren't many women
who were doing that in the way that she's doing
it now.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
I just don't think they were taken seriously.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Right, right, they weren't. Yeah, And so I mean it
just shows you how much has changed and how much
Hello Sunshine and Reese have been a part of that change,
have been drivers of that change. Because imagine if Hollywood
and the arts community just kept on moving in the
direction that it was going before, Like we would be
in a completely different universe right now, lacking all these
(43:37):
rich stories about women.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
She said something about how like if someone says no,
that she's like, all right, let me rewrite the rules.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, let me.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
I love that energy so much. I think that the
world is in need of leaders so badly. Social movements
need leaders, companies need leaders, like we are all looking
for leadership, and I think she provides that so well.
I heard something the other day that no means next option.
I no, and I think she lives by that. She's like, no,
(44:07):
all right, I'm moving on to the next one. I'll
figure it out. So I think if I take anything
from today, it's next option. Go be fired up, go
into the world and try and give it your all.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
I love that, and I also I love hearing her
talk about her contrarian spirit and that's something you have. Oh,
I totally have a contrarian spirit. I definitely relate to that.
And she's talked a lot about how she was this
really high spirited, imaginative little girl. And I think it's
a great reminder for all the parents out there that
if your child has that strong will that can make
(44:42):
your life kind of a headache in the early years,
that is not necessarily a bad thing, that that could
be the sign of a natural born leader under your roof.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
Before we wrap day one, Simone and I want to
leave you with a little spark of joy to take
with you through your day.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Here's something that stood out to both of us from
our conversation with Reese. Be the hero of your own
story today and every day. Well that's it for us today.
Tomorrow on the show, we have the Goddess of gatherings,
Pria Parker. She's an expert on how to create meaningful
get togethers, and she'll help us set an attention for
this gathering The bright Side.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
All right, bright Side besties, we want to hear from you,
And when I say want, we are dying to hear
from you. Which parts of Reese's story resonated with you
the most? Send us your answers are even better of
voice memo at Hello at the bright sidepodcast dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
We love to hear those beautiful voices. Listen and subscribe
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts so you never miss an episode.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
And if you love today's episode, share it with someone
you love. It really helps people discover the show.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
You can find me Simone Voice at Simone Voice.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
And you can find me daniel Robe at Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
R O b A.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Y See you tomorrow. M
Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
What's up, Sunny d It's Monday, March twenty fifth. I'm
Simone Boys and.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
I'm Danielle Robe.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Welcome to the very first episode of the bright Side,
a brand new daily podcast from Hello Sunshine. We're here
to bring you a daily dose of culture, conversation, and
inspiration Monday through Friday.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's so real, this is happening, Danielle. You know what,
I've told a few people that I was working on
this show, and I can't tell you how many people
were like, we need this right now, We need a
show like this right now, you.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
Day right, Yes, completely.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
I've always been someone who fights for good news, even
though I've covered a lot of hard news in my
career as a journalist for over a decade now, and
you're often meeting folks when they're at their lowest point
in their lives, and you're asking for permission to tell
their stories. But I mean, listen, the work of truth
tellers is more important than ever before. But we also
need storyteller who remind us that joy is a superpower,
(01:03):
that it's a form of resistance, which is why we're
so excited to bring you this show. Danielle. You're a
reporter too, and we've actually worked at a few of
the same places.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
This is such a funny story because I've done hard news,
I've done entertainment news, and we had the first We
had the same first job, but not at the same time,
so we missed each other. But we've had a lot
of mutual friends who have over the years said, you know,
you should really meet Simone, or you should meet Danielle.
I feel like you guys would like each other, and
we just never did.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
I know. Okay, shout out to Jocelyn. She is one
of those friends that Danielle is talking about who was
trying to connect us for the longest time. And then
we both got selected to be hosts of this show,
and it was just it feels kismet, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
It does feel kismet.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
And it felt like the universe like if we weren't
going to make plans because we're both like busy girls,
if we weren't going to make it happen, the universe
was So it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
So you're going to get to see our bright side
bestie story play out in real time on this show.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Oh I love that.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah, Okay, I have my cappuccino with a splash of
almond milk. Ready you have your oat milk ice latte.
Are you ready to get into it? Let's go So
you always remember your first your first kiss, your first concert,
your first pet. It's our first show today, so we
wanted to bring it in with a conversation worth remembering.
Our guest today shines so bright, and she's harnessed all
(02:26):
of that artistry and sparkle and glow to illuminate women's stories.
From her iconic roles to her powerhouse production work, she's
dedicated to making things that make girls excited to be women.
Reese Witherspoon is here with us.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
We could have talked to Reese for hours. We cannot
wait for you to hear our conversation. But first, Sunny d,
let's catch up.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Simm what happened this weekend? I missed you.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
I missed you too. Okay, So, my son turned four
this weekend. We had a birthday party for him. And
every time one of my kids has a birthday, I
just get so sentimental and also I feel myself grieving
the passage of time. I am coming out of this
period of motherhood that has been so challenging. Damn, I
(03:12):
don't want to cry on my first show. Crying on
first show.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Wait, this is wild because you don't cry.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I know I never cry.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
This is good to know your kids make you cry.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
And now everybody's going to think I cry all the
time because it's our first show and I'm crying. But
I'm actually not crying yet.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I am coming out of a period of motherhood that
has been really challenging. My kids are seventeen months apart.
They're both toddlers, and it's just been really grueling. Lots
of defiance and pushback and just every day feels like
this intense struggle. But I feel like the bright side
has just opened up for me recently, and I feel
(03:45):
like I'm in this beautiful sweet spot of motherhood where
I am relishing every moment and savoring every moment and
grateful for everything. And there's nothing like a birthday a
milestone to remind you of all the good parts of parenting.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
That was really sweet.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I'm glad you're celebrating, because it's hard when every day
feels like a fight.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Yeah. Planning birthday parties for kids these days, it's kind
of wild because a lot of people really go overboard. Now,
I just saw this post online about reminiscing about parties
from the eighties and nineties, and moms were talking about
what makes those parties or what made those parties so
good at the time, and it was so funny to
see how simple they were. It was like, we had
(04:26):
a jug of fruit punch, and we ordered some dominoes
and we had a grand old time.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I had like a dance party.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
And nowadays I look on social media and there's like
Brandon Chella and it's.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Like a huge concert. It's like balloon arches and everything. Right,
I'm all about simplifying it because you have to reduce
your stress as the party planner, as the host, because
if you don't, then you don't get to actually soak
up the time with your kids. And it's all about
it's all about the idea of a party rather than
the human that you're supposed to be celebrating. So I
(04:57):
really tried to just strip everything down. We had a
cute little birthday for him. I met a movie theater.
All his little friends came. This was his first time
in a big kid movie theater and my son loves movies.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
What'd you guys see Shrek. Oh that's so fun. Yeah,
that is such a good memory for him.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, even if it's just memory and photos, it's very cute.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
I think he loved it. I think he had a
great time. Danielle, how was your weekend?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
My weekend was good. I was on an airplane. I
flew to Atlanta for my very first time. I've been
into the airport but never outside.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Get out. You've never been to Atlanta before?
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Never? Wow, and I've always wanted to go.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
I went to interview a real life Disney princess get out, yep.
I interviewed Hallie Bailey and a bunch of influencers Jackie, Aina,
Kelly You, Keeley cat Wells.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
This is so cool.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
It was really fun.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
It was for Airy Fest and Airy stopped filtering their
photos ten years ago, which I love.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Yeah, and so it was all about being a real girl,
a real woman.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Amazing. Did you filter your photos from the event? Thank
you for asking. So, I'm actually so curious how you
feel about this. I used to filter photos.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I loved it.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
It was fun, especially if I wasn't wearing makeup. I'm like,
this is saves me time. And then I started noticing
that I didn't like my real face anymore. I would
like see photos of my real face and not feel good,
And so I made the choice to stop filtering photos
because I was like, I want to love my real face,
but I do believe in beauty autonomy, so whatever works
for you.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
Yeah, I don't really use photo filters. I think that
it's kind of jarring for me. I think in the
same way that you're saying you didn't recognize your own face.
It just I don't know, it doesn't look like me.
I will admit, though I don't know if I should
admit this on the show. We might have to cut
this out. The one thing that I do to my
photos is I whiten my teeth.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
If is that a face tune thing.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
It's a face tune thing. Yeah, if my teeth are
looking really you.
Speaker 1 (06:52):
Have white teeth, and you like have white teeth.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm actually getting them whiten today. I'm kind of obsessed
with white teeth. But I don't do anything else. I
don't do the airbrushing or anything. But yeah, I mean,
if it makes you feel good, do you do you boo?
All right? We are a podcast that centers joy, so
what's the state of joy in the world today. Well,
Gallup recently released it's twenty twenty four World Happiness Report,
and this year it illuminated some findings on happiness in
(07:18):
different stages of life. Get this, Danielle, Young Americans are
actually less happy than older Americans. Yeah, duh, that doesn't
surprise you.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Not at all. It's tough out here for young Americans.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
All right, So here are the details. Americans under thirty
are feeling worse about their lives, but Americans over sixty
are feeling the opposite. Also, the United States of America
has fallen out of the top twenty for the first
time since the World Happiness Report was first published in
twenty twelve, which is driven by this large drop in
the well being of Americans under thirty that we've been
(07:54):
talking about. So that's interesting that you say it's not
surprising that America under thirty are feeling less than happy.
I feel like there's a lot to be happy about
when you're a young person.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
That's a good point. There is a lot to be
happy about. But I actually have a theory on this.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Tell me.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
One thing you'll learn is that I have a lot
of theories. Some founded, some unfounded. I call this the
discrepancy theory. So there was a Harvard psychologist, There is one.
There is a Harvard psychologist named Stephen Pinker. He wrote
this book called Enlightenment Now, and he said that we
may be inundated with horrific stories of school shootings and
natural disasters, but studies show that it's actually the best
(08:33):
time ever to be alive. And so the overwhelming evidence
is that we're richer, healthier, better fed, better educated, and
even more humane. Like not to bore you with stats,
but the global average IQ rises three points every decade.
Private prejudice is declining, which is great, especially with youth
growth of education and literacy, which is always a flagship
(08:54):
of human progress.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
But here's where it gets interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
At the same time, our phone have inundated us with information,
news about each other, about the state of the world,
and I think it's too much for the human brain
to handle, and we're more lonely. We have this like
high communication low connection feeling, and I think it's the
discrepancy that's making us depressed.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
We're supposed to be so happy and yet we're not.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
I also think that there's a lot of pressure as
a young person right now. Like I talk to some
parents or even kids who are like in high school,
they feel so much pressure from their parents, from the school,
from themselves to like get into a great college, and
it's so much harder now than it used to be.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Just think, there's like a lot the word is pressure. Really.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I also think that this points to the fact that
age brings wisdom and perhaps more contentment.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
Yo, I think you're onto something.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Yeah. I just think as you get older, like we've
all heard it, you know, as you get older, you
have less fs to give about issues in your life,
and you care less about what people think. And I
find that that's so true in my life. I actually
I'm thirty six, so I'm not part of that under
thirty group anymore. But I actually am happy. I'm very
(10:11):
happy with my life. I don't consider myself to be
like miserable, and I hear a lot of people talking
about being miserable, and I want to be empathetic to that.
But I also think there's so much to celebrate and
so much to be happy about. I think we've lost
sight of the art of contentment and cultivating contentment in
our lives.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
Because we're always new now next, exactly, I think you
hit on something with gaining more wisdom, because I actually
I want to bring the bright side to this. I
do think that there's an antidote, and it's intergenerational relationships.
People who are a lot older wide in the aperture
and show you that you're living in this tiny, narrow
band of time.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
And so I think to be.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
With people who are in their eighties or seventies shows
you the breath of what happens in ten, twenty thirty
years and actually increases our optimism totally.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
I think we have to get off the hedonic treadmill.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
What does that mean?
Speaker 2 (11:06):
The hedonic treadmill is this idea that positive life events
will greatly impact your happiness level. So like, if I
just get that job, if I just get into a relationship,
if I just move to that place, then I'm going
to finally be happy. I think the joy is in
the journey, it's not about the destination.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
I'm so glad I get to sit across from you.
You have such a beautiful vocabulary.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Thank you. I feel the same about you. Up next,
Reese Witherspoon takes us back to her early days as
an entrepreneur, at Hello Sunshine and the moment that her
work matched up with her life's purpose.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
That's after the break.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Stay with us, Welcome back to the bright Side. We're
talking second acts and new beginnings with the One, the Only,
Reese Witherspoon.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
She's an award winning actor and producer. She's a hugely
successful entrepreneur. She's been called the High Priestess of book publishing,
and she's an executive producer of this very show.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Hi Priestess is probably the best title ever. Eight years ago,
resounded the media company Hello Sunshine with the purpose of
changing the narrative for women. She set out to put
women at the front and center of her productions, and
she's done just that with shows like The Morning Show,
Daisy Jones and The Six Big Little Lies and so
many more.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Reese is here to tell us about what motivated her
to take charge nearly a decade ago, and what she's
learned about perseverance, longevity, and joy along the way. Reese Witherspoon,
Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Hi guys, I'm so happy to be on the podcast,
the first podcast.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
The very first episode, very first to the bright Side.
Speaker 5 (12:52):
Let's start this party.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Let's get it started people, let's go ahead, come on,
what have we been waiting for? Were so grateful to
be working with you on this project. And since today
is the very first episode of the bright Side, we
thought we should talk about the reason why we're all here,
which is Hello Sunshine, the company that you founded back
in twenty sixteen. But I think to give our bright
(13:15):
Side besties the full origin story, you got to take
us back to twenty ten, twenty eleven, because you had
been acting for about twenty years at that point, and
you've talked about how the scripts that were coming in
were just so flat, so how bleak was it to
be a woman in Hollywood at that time. Reading those scripts.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
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 was drifting and diminishing, and
they weren't really showing the full spectrum of what women's
lives were at the time. And I just happened to
start reading scripts that were just offensive, and I just thought,
(14:00):
something has got to be better. I remember 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.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
And though I thought this was so bad and I
had like all these kind of boob jokes in it
and things. I was like, that's not funny.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
And I called my agent and they were like, every
woman in Hollywood wants these two parts. Oh yeah, And
I thought, this isn't good. This isn't good enough for me,
and it's not good enough for my colleagues, the other
women that I'm so close with in our business. But also,
this is not something I want my daughter to see.
And that was a big thing for me too. A
(14:42):
lot of what motivates me in this world is like,
what is the world I want to have my daughter
walk through.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
I feel like that's what Hello Sunshine has become like.
You are doing everything to try and pass the torch,
and you were working in a system that wasn't working
for you. I've heard you talk about rewriting the rules,
which I think is such a beautiful way of phrasing it.
What did you see exactly in the industry that you
were like, I need to change this, this has got
(15:09):
to change.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, it wasn't just that the scripts were bad. So
then if you if you go look at a problem, right,
you have to go back to the root of what
why does that problem keep happening?
Speaker 5 (15:17):
So for me, that was like, Okay, now I need
to do.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
Research, like why are these the best that Hollywood has
to offer? So I went around to each studio and
I started to meet with executives and said, you know,
what are you developing with a female lead? And all
of the studios except for when they said, we're not
developing anything.
Speaker 5 (15:35):
So I went, Okay.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
Instead of sitting here and complaining about the problem, because
that wasn't acceptable, I decided to do something about the
problem because women, you know, we're always part of the
solution and you can admire problems, but like, what are
you doing to change things? So I started thinking, well,
if I started funding development of female led and female
(15:56):
written stories, you know, why wouldn't I want to be
in them? And why would my friends want to do them?
And I just took a big leap. I put my
own money into the company. I really didn't know how
to run a company like this. I did it for
three years and to a lot of success, but didn't
make any profit.
Speaker 5 (16:13):
So I had to retool too.
Speaker 4 (16:15):
I had to like figure out a business plan that
was going to work to make this successful because it
was my mission to change the landscape for women's storytelling.
I just I had to learn the bumps in the
road to become successful at it.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
So you take that leap of courage and faith to
start this company and start creating women centered films and
TV shows. But how did you know that all of this,
that Hello Sunshine, would be possible when so many people
around you were telling you that it was impossible.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Well, I always have been a little bit of a contrarian.
So if somebody was like, something can't be done, I'm.
Speaker 5 (16:52):
Like, oh, really, I'll figure out a way to do it. Yeah,
here are my earrings.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
Okay, exactly.
Speaker 4 (17:00):
No, I just don't like I don't like no, and
I don't like that's just how it is, because it
doesn't have to be the way it is. But it
does take determination, it takes a lot of time, and
I couldn't do it by myself. So a big part
of this was like trying to recruit people towards my
idea and trying to find the right team to support
that idea. And that's when I met Sarah Hardin, who's
(17:21):
our CEO and together. She would take my ideas and
turn them into a business plan. She'd be like, Okay,
these are the kind of people we have to hire
to support that idea, and this is how we're going
to actually make that happen. But I think you need
those kinds of different types of personalities in order to
make a creative business successful.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
I want to hear more about those early days, because
you said you're not making money at first. What was
the moment when you thought we really have something here.
Speaker 4 (17:50):
Well, the first three years I was just buying books
and then turning them into movies and TV shows, so
that was like gone Girl Wild and then Big Little Life,
and we were making money, but we're just breaking even.
So I was able to pay the employees and for
the space, but I wasn't making a profit. That was
going to be able to make it so that the
(18:10):
business made sense. You know, I didn't want to do
I didn't want to take money from people and then
not return the money. And then I also I wanted
to make sure that this was a great idea because
I knew there was value in storytelling for women. So
early days were like, I mean, the first office space
I had had like a leaky air conditioning machine that
(18:32):
would drip on my desk.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
This is so relatable recently, love it.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
And it was two rooms and the sister was in
the room room, and I split the two desks in
one tiny little room and that's where me and my
executive sat and we had one assistant.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
That was the beginning.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
What did you think would be the hardest part of
building your own production company and what was the hardest part?
In reality?
Speaker 4 (18:56):
What I thought was going to be the biggest problem
was fine material, But that wasn't hard at all. There's
so many amazing books and there was so many great ideas.
I think the hardest part was getting funding because you
had to convince people that the idea was going to
make the money they you know, people don't want to
invest money unless they're going to get a multiple on
(19:17):
their investment. And so I went around to a lot
of people and had a lot of cross arms and
closed doors, so just convincing people that the idea is
valuable and then also that you're going to work hard
to execute on it. But they you know, there's a
lot of vetting that was done on me. A lot
of people called my former people who had hired me
(19:37):
to do different movies, and I benefited from the fact
that I'd been super professional for twenty years, so it
was really a second chapter career for me, and I
had to really dig in.
Speaker 5 (19:48):
And y'all, I've.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
Never worked so hard in my whole life, just being
like so tired all the time, because one year, I
made three television shows in a year, and then I
was also doing all the executive work behind the scenes
and doing Resu's book club and doing all the social media,
and it was a lot, but I was like that
it was so fun because I was working with like
minded people and we were all working in one direction.
(20:11):
And also, I don't know, it's just like my purpose
in life matched up with my work, you know. And
I've always had a great job and I love making movies,
but it was like my purpose came to life, which is,
you know, centering women in storytelling, and then it was like, oh.
Speaker 5 (20:29):
Then it was just became so fun to go to
work every day.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I love talking about purpose because I think it changes
your life once you really ground down into a purpose
and also something that's outside of yourself. And I know
that your grandparents really instilled in you the importance of
having a sense of purpose from a young age. So
can you just tell us about that a little bit
more like, how do you view your purpose during that
chapter of your career when you were primarily a performer,
(20:54):
and then how did it shift for you once you
started this company.
Speaker 4 (20:58):
Purpose is so important. I think we all as human
beings are trying to figure out the why of our life.
And even if you've had success as a mom or
success as a business person, you're always looking for a
deeper meaning. So for me, it goes back to my
childhood growing up with my grandma, who was a teacher,
(21:19):
and she just loved books and was always encouraging me
to read, taught me to read, and she would do
all the voices when I was little, and it just
ignited in me a passion for learning and reading and
it made stories come to life for me because she
was so imaginative and such a great teacher.
Speaker 5 (21:38):
And my grandfather was just service service, service. He was
in the military.
Speaker 4 (21:42):
He was just about the Boys and Girls Club of Nashville,
and he was always doing something every day to serve
his community, and it gave him great purpose. He woke
up every day with this feeling of people need me.
I am wanted, I am valued, So I'm kind of
a blend of the two of them. My grandfather was
super extroverted and my grandmother was very introverted, but they
(22:05):
raised me because my parents were both working all the
time in the military, and so I really felt their
influence as I walked through the world. And I also,
I think it's important to say too, all of our
grandmothers walked through the world in a way where they
didn't have the opportunities we have. They weren't allowed to
have credit cards, they couldn't have alone on a small business.
(22:28):
So I think about that every time I've like accomplished
something or made a big move in business, I always
think about the women that came before me that I
am standing on their shoulders, and how lucky we are
to be in this this time, at this time, on
this planet, in this place.
Speaker 5 (22:49):
It's really fortunate.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Well, you're now the biggest producer in the world of
women's stories. How have you seen the industry change since starting? Hello, Sunshine,
The business has really changed.
Speaker 4 (23:00):
When I started in twenty eleven, we only had a
few studios and they were buying really from movies and
television was a very siloed off business. Since then, with
the emergence of streaming, there's so many more options, there's
so many more buyers. You're seeing more female screenwriters, you're
seeing more female directors.
Speaker 5 (23:18):
Still not enough, but you're seeing a lot more.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Representation too across you know, women of color, women who
are differently abled, and I think you're getting better storytelling.
And also there's this thing too that you could hide from.
Before there was social media, before there was streaming, they
would say, well, the audience doesn't like that, and the
audience was sort of this. We're like, where is the
(23:44):
audience and who are they? But now you can push
a button on Instagram or you know, Facebook and find
out exactly who the audience is. And they do like
women's storytelling. And if you go on Netflix and you
go into a meeting with them, I'm like, oh, yeah,
women are our best customers because they mark it too.
They'll if they love something, and you know this about
(24:04):
our girlfriends. It's like, oh my god, have you seen
this show?
Speaker 5 (24:06):
Have you watched that? Have you tried this lip bomb?
Have you? They will sell your products for you.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
So if you get a woman who's a fan of something,
or she understands the purpose behind something and she.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Gets excited about it. It's so good, it's so great.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
So women are finally coming into their power as consumers,
as makers, and you know, we hold a lot of
control and power that we don't even know.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Reese, you brought up friendships, and I know that your
friendships are so dear to you and so important to you.
When I think about my friendships with women, I also
think about how they've been cheerleaders for me professionally. So
how have your female friendships impacted the way that you
show up in the work that you do?
Speaker 4 (24:48):
Oh wow, I mean it's so critical. I don't need
I couldn't. Yeah, there's times where I couldn't even get
out of bed and my girlfriends would come over to
my house, like when I was going through a bad
break app or it have like a really disappointing day
as a parent, or day week or you know, divorce,
or it doesn't matter. My friends, I don't have a lot.
(25:12):
I'm like quality over quantity.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
But that's the only way to be right, I mean,
especially as you get older. I think I think.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
So, But I mean everybody has different You see girls
that have so many friends and I'm like, and they
manage it somehow, It's just not my personality type.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Well, you are running an empire, So I mean, I
am so lucky.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
I have the best friends in the world. They just
show up for me during hard times and it's mutual.
I always say to my kids too, to have a
good friend, you have to be a good friend. I
also think about it in terms of like a bank account.
Each friendship is a bank account and it's and you
need to review every year. Are there more deposits than
there are withdraws totally or vice versa. There should be
(25:55):
a balance there, like what are you putting into their
life and what are they taking?
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Like that we're actually having a friendship coach on an
upcoming episode, and it was such an eye opening conversation.
One of the main things that she said that women
look for in friendships is that reciprocity that you just
talked about. Is making sure that I'm pouring into you
you're pouring into me.
Speaker 5 (26:15):
Yeah, I think so.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
And if you're sitting with somebody who's or how about
these people who call you and talk about their problems
all the time, but then like someone goes on with
you and they're nowhere to be found.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Right now, or no, down with those people. If so,
don't ask a question about your life. That's a big
one for me too. If they only talk about themselves
and don't ask a question about you and what's going
on with you?
Speaker 4 (26:36):
Yeah, I mean, that's just what's that narcissism?
Speaker 5 (26:41):
That's just I don't even know.
Speaker 4 (26:43):
There's so many different names, we name so many things now,
but it's just like not okay, how about just that
not okay person?
Speaker 5 (26:50):
They can't show up for me, like bye, we're done.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
I know that for every win, there's five or ten
losses that nobody sees.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Tell me about some the hard stuff.
Speaker 3 (27:01):
Was there a time that sticks out to you where
something really didn't go as planned?
Speaker 5 (27:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (27:06):
I mean definitely after Big Little Lies won all these
awards and it was such a successful show, and then
going to meet the account and then the account was like,
you know, you can cover the employee's salaries and you
can cover the rent, but there's literally nothing left over
to hire, to grow, to expand.
Speaker 5 (27:25):
And I thought, okay, I worked that hard.
Speaker 4 (27:28):
I identified this material, we did so well, it won
eight Emmys.
Speaker 5 (27:33):
What is going on?
Speaker 4 (27:34):
And that's when I had to go, Okay, I'm not
doing this right. I gotta step back from it. Sometimes
you need to step away and look at things from
a different perspective.
Speaker 5 (27:44):
And that's when I brought in.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
People to help me build a business plan because I
didn't go to business school, Like I don't you know
people say ROI and DTC and ibadah, and I was like, I.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
Don't know what you're talking about.
Speaker 4 (27:57):
I don't we're seeing right now like they talk about
it like you're supposed to know, and I didn't know.
And Sarah Harden came into my life and was so
patient with me. And I also think it's important to
ask questions and not feel stupid. And it's also an
intimidation factor. If you walk in and you're trying to
build a business and you're like new, people are trying
to intimidate you by using a bunch of acronyms that
(28:19):
you don't understand. So if you have the courage to say,
I'm so sorry, do you mind explaining exactly what you
mean by that. Sarah was always so patient with me
and she helped me learn And it was about like
a year and a half of going to Sarah Harden's
business school.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
That's the way more fun than a college campus.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
It was in line with that I think about girls
trying and failing because I think we let little boys fail,
which no, are you most thankful for?
Speaker 4 (28:52):
Oh gosh, so many As my friend says, you know,
rejection is God's protection, and it's so true time you
feel so devastated. So it was probably a lot of
times where I was trying to raise money for the
business and they said no, which was probably you know,
a lot, but I only needed one yes, and I
(29:12):
got the one yes, and that started the ball rolling.
And I'll be forever grateful to those people for taking
a chance on me. But I looked them in the
eye and I said, you will not regret it. I
will give you a return on your investment, or I'll
just I'll fall over try.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
You won't see me not hustling to make it happen.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
So because everything doesn't always work out perfectly, but you know,
I know that I will always try my hardest. So
that was like a big no in my life. That
affected me and also employees.
Speaker 5 (29:44):
That you've got to have this. You've got to get
that person or it's not going to work out. Yeah,
it's Okay.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
If they take another job or you end up not
working with them, it's okay. It's really you're going to
do better things, or different things, or something else is
meant for you.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
Reese, I get really fired up when I talk about
the intersection of ambition and motherhood. So can we go
there for just a brief second? Yes, Before Hello Sunshine,
before the book Club, before all the Emmys. You were
a mother first. You became a mother at a very
young age, in your early twenties. How did motherhood at
such an early age prepare your heart for the work
(30:22):
that you're doing now.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
It's pivotal the fact that I was a young mom.
It's such a foundational piece of who I am because
when I was twenty three years old.
Speaker 5 (30:32):
I had my daughter and.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
I wasn't expecting to be a mom at twenty three.
It was a decision that I made with my partner
at the time, and it just changed me so profoundly,
and I didn't like who I was very much. I
was looking in the mirror at that point and who
I had walked through the world as I was super competitive.
(30:56):
I was an actress for hire at the time, and
I was trying so hard to get jobs, and I
had this scarcity mindset that if another girl got the job,
that's going to be less for me. And I started
reading so many books. I watched Oprah so much, and
I started instead of just watching Oprah going Okay, I'm
gonna read the books that she recommends on self love,
self help, positivity. And I read so many books, like
(31:21):
one that was really important for me, with Soul Stories
by Gary Zukoff. It was all about having integrity as
a human. And part of that book is about having
a abundance mindset, not a scarcity mindset, because when you
live in the fear of scarcity, you believe there isn't
enough for everyone. But when you live in abundance and
(31:41):
you go now, there's more for me and there's more
for her, I am so.
Speaker 5 (31:44):
Happy she got that job.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
I am so happy she is doing well because you
know what, that's going to create abundance for me, It's
going to create abundance for other women.
Speaker 5 (31:53):
So that was just one little.
Speaker 4 (31:55):
Mindset shift that happened for me when I was about
twenty three or twenty four, and that was about me
trying to change who I was for my daughter, because
I wanted to be more of an example of someone
I wanted her to want to be. I wanted her
to look at me and think, my mom's a role model.
And I wasn't a role model before that. I wasn't
(32:15):
demonstrating values that I would want my daughter to model.
And then I was able once I got that foundation
under me, and I was like, Okay, my behavior is
going to be the kind of behavior I want her
to model. Okay, now that I've got that, I'm going
to take that into my work world. I'm going to
have the behavior in my work world that I want
her to model. And I was like, hold on, if
I did that, well, maybe I can kick it up
a notch and do it as a bigger business modeling
(32:36):
the kind of things I want to see in the world. So,
really becoming a mom at a young age was everything
for me because I had enough money, I was financially prepared,
I had a very stable relationship. I had really good
parents who are protect you know, protecting me and helping me.
So I want to say that's not the perfect choice
for everybody, but it was the right thing for me.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
There's just one thing I want to say about that.
I think it's so important for young women to hear that,
because so often we hear that motherhood is going to
be the death of our career, and it's just it's
just simply not true. I mean, there are so many
incredible examples of ambitious lites.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Yes, I think so too, and I think we worry
as women's like I'm none enough in my career. But
I will say with a caveat right, you know, if
you're in a good place, there's no perfect time about
having a baby. I also there's no perfect time, like
what's the day that you want your entire life to change?
Speaker 2 (33:27):
Right?
Speaker 4 (33:28):
Is that like a Tuesday at three o'clock or is
that like a Saturday at ten am. Your whole life
is going to change, and it's going to be about
another human being in the world and raising that human
to the best of your ability. There's no good time, right,
but there is timing. That's like, I feel stable in
my career. I feel stable, I have enough money, I
(33:49):
have a good supportive network around me, whether there's a
partner there or not a partner there, there's a network
of help because you do need a lot of help,
but it isn't prohibitive. I found it as motivating because
I wanted my daughter to feel inspired. And also my
mom worked, so I feel like if your mom worked,
(34:09):
I don't know, do y' all think that? Because I
feel like my mom was the example. I was always
going to be like my mom. And my mom was
a nurse, and so I watched her go to work
and then she come home tell me all the stories
of all the babies she took care of all day,
and I.
Speaker 5 (34:21):
Was like, Oh, I want to walk, I want to like,
I want to have a job with purpose.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
Is that what those spaces of joy are for you? Like? Why?
Speaker 3 (34:28):
I feel like the sets you create, the experiences, the
shows they center around joy.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
Why is that important for you?
Speaker 4 (34:38):
Well, first of all, I think it's important to set
a tone, Like the way you start things and the
way that you end things is really important. The sort
of rituals around work. You come in and you say
hello to everybody, like Carrie Washington taught me such a
big lesson on our show Little Fires. Everywhere every morning
she goes Happy Monday everybody. It just set a tone
that and I've never seen anybody do that before, but
(34:59):
it was almost like it reminded me of being in
school and the teacher said hello to each kid, but
everybody felt seen and acknowledged or hope everybody had a
great weekend. Let's have a great week. And then at
the end of the day, thank you so much everybody
for a great day. Made such a difference. And as
a leader, I thought that is such a valuable skill
that she just shared with all of us. But for me,
(35:21):
I'm always the person who's like, how can I insert
a little joy into today? So whether that's like bringing
cookies that I brought, or telling everybody joke or trying
to find a way to bring humor into a really
difficult situation, or light you know, sometimes I just say
a lightness. Let's bring a lightness into this because all
(35:42):
is not lost where we're real.
Speaker 5 (35:45):
Smart people, We're going to figure it out. That can
just really change any work environment.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
Sugar is my form of joy as well, Reese. I
want to circle back to something that you just said.
I mean, we've talked a lot about the hard times
today and how it's not all suns at the top.
So how do you find the bright side when everything
is going wrong?
Speaker 4 (36:05):
Well, I take time and space to just breathe, put
away the phone, I walk outside in nature, or I
get with my dog, I snunckle my dog, or I
pet my dog. That's a very relaxing form of therapy
for me. Or I talk to my girlfriends four hundred
and sixty seven billion times a day. So I'll say
I learned on Simon Sinok's podcast that friends only need
(36:28):
eight minutes eight minutes of your time. So we now
have a code where I just text eight minutes and
then find eight minutes somewhere. They'll say, Okay, in two hours,
I have eight minutes. And you really only need eight
minutes to process something difficult or challenging. So doing that,
that's like a little well I stole it from Simon.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
I'm stealing it from you.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
That's okay, But women like to share great things, so
we just proved it.
Speaker 1 (36:55):
Okay, we have one last question for you.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
That's it. Unless we talk today.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
We could talk forever, Reese, We'll do this again soon, Okay.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
Narrative plays such a huge role in your life. We
mentioned that Hello, Sunshine's goal or one of them, is
to change the narrative for women, and I think that
you've really been a force in telling your own story
as well. And I used to read your book Whiskey
in a teacup, and I know that you come from
a long story and a story of women. Your grandmother
(37:25):
was a school teacher and she taught you how to read.
What does it mean to be Dorothy Draper's granddaughter?
Speaker 4 (37:32):
Well, I learned from my grandmother a long time ago
that women are the heroes of their own stories. And
I think we all have a story in our lives
of a woman who's overcome incredible aughts, whether it's your aunt,
your sister, your grandma, who either overcame a financial or
personal disaster to make her way in the world or
(37:53):
become the woman she wanted to be.
Speaker 5 (37:55):
So that is.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
A big, big part of rewriting the narrative women in media,
because women ultimately save themselves. And I think we all
grew up with a lot of stories that partners were
coming to save the day, or romance would make you
a whole just not true. So it's a really big
piece of why we pick the books we pick, why
(38:18):
we make the TV shows we make, the movies we make.
Speaker 5 (38:21):
There's always at the end a woman who saves herself.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Thank you for your time, Rees.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Thank you so much. Rees, thank you.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Well, I just want to say, you guys, I am
so excited about this podcast The bright Side. You guys
are giving people a chance to shine a light on
their lives, shine a light on a little advice that
they want to share, and that's what we need, you know.
Thank you for taking the light and now you're taking
it with you and you're going to shine it all
over the world. And it makes me really happy.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
We're really honored. Yeah, that's the word. Thank you for
sharing it with us.
Speaker 2 (38:52):
Honor privilege. I never imagined that I would get the
chance to carry this honor and help you a part
of this legacy. So it's truly an honor.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
Well, thank you. I feel it.
Speaker 4 (39:02):
I feel it off of y'all, and I see the
joy that you're having with each other.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
We are this is my brightside, Bessie right here. Reese
Witherspoon is an award winning actor, producer, and the founder
of Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
We'll be back with more after the break. So that
was a big first interview, the Queen Bee of the Besties.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
Oh my gosh, Reese, I'm still not over it. She
is such a personal hero of mine for so many reasons.
But I'll give you one big one. Through the work
that she does to honor female authorship, she is reminding
the world that women contain multitudes and that we need
to tell our stories, that our stories need to be told.
(39:53):
I know how it feels to have to hide your multitudes,
and I'm so grateful that I'm at a place and
that I'm in this space where I don't feel like
I have to hide my multitudes anymore. Reath shines a
light on unseen creatives.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
I think that's probably why so much of the language
around Hello, Sunshine and the bright Side is about shining
a light.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
I think that's super intuitive of you.
Speaker 3 (40:16):
I liked when she talked about her early years too,
because I felt really aligned with it. When I moved
to La, all I wanted to do was be a
TV host. I just wanted to interview people, and I
was so hungry that I was really just kind of
like self involved, not self involved, but I was trying
(40:38):
to find success for myself. That I didn't realize that
you missed the richness of life when it's all about
what you get instead about what you give, and that
comes with the abundance mindset. And I did so much
of the similar work that she was talking about. I
read so for two years I was reading books and
listening to podcasts and Oprah and Gary zukop and try
(41:00):
to find that light.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah. I think shifting to that idea of what is
for you won't miss you is something that's been so
helpful to me. Because have you ever gotten a job
by being competitive? No, it doesn't exactly work that way.
I think anytime we're trying to force something into submission,
that's when we're out of alignment.
Speaker 1 (41:23):
Hmm.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
I think you learn that with experience, though, Like I
couldn't have told twenty two year old Danielle that, could
you have?
Speaker 2 (41:29):
I probably would have been so insecure that I wouldn't
have listened or wouldn't have known how to incorporate that advice.
I think on the subject of competition, though, I'm curious
if you agree or disagree, Like competition is not even
it's not really a thing that goes away, Like you're
always going to be surrounded by people who are really
smart or really talented in your field, and I think
you have to learn how to navigate it and recognize
(41:52):
that you can gain something from it, that you can
learn something from the people that you're around, and also
that you never want to be the smartest person in
any room, right, You always want to be working with
people who are challenging you and sharpening you. So yeah,
my perspective on competition has changed a lot as I've
gotten older.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
I want to bring up one more thing about what
Rees said, because she said that the hardest part about
building Hello Sunshine was finding money that people would not
invest in her, and I was shocked to hear that.
I look at her as a person who is just
so investable, like, you know, like she's a doer. She's
(42:31):
of course she has integrity. Of Course she's going to
complete the task. Of course she's going to make it
like she's going to try with all her might. And
that's what you want when you're investing in an entrepreneur.
I just was kind of shocked, were you so?
Speaker 2 (42:42):
I listened to her talk about this in an interview
with Regina King, and I also was shocked to hear
her talking about how hard it was to get people
to believe in her as a producer and to build
up that credibility. But if you think back to that
time right before she made Gone Girl and Wild and
Big little lies. This concept of this multi hyphenate producer,
(43:02):
performer and a female who was doing that was really
unheard of at that time. Like, there weren't many women
who were doing that in the way that she's doing
it now.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
I just don't think they were taken seriously.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Right, right, they weren't. Yeah, And so I mean it
just shows you how much has changed and how much
Hello Sunshine and Reese have been a part of that change,
have been drivers of that change. Because imagine if Hollywood
and the arts community just kept on moving in the
direction that it was going before, Like we would be
in a completely different universe right now, lacking all these
(43:37):
rich stories about women.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
She said something about how like if someone says no,
that she's like, all right, let me rewrite the rules.
Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, let me.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
I love that energy so much. I think that the
world is in need of leaders so badly. Social movements
need leaders, companies need leaders, like we are all looking
for leadership, and I think she provides that so well.
I heard something the other day that no means next option.
I no, and I think she lives by that. She's like, no,
(44:07):
all right, I'm moving on to the next one. I'll
figure it out. So I think if I take anything
from today, it's next option. Go be fired up, go
into the world and try and give it your all.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
I love that, and I also I love hearing her
talk about her contrarian spirit and that's something you have. Oh,
I totally have a contrarian spirit. I definitely relate to that.
And she's talked a lot about how she was this
really high spirited, imaginative little girl. And I think it's
a great reminder for all the parents out there that
if your child has that strong will that can make
(44:42):
your life kind of a headache in the early years,
that is not necessarily a bad thing, that that could
be the sign of a natural born leader under your roof.
Speaker 3 (44:54):
Before we wrap day one, Simone and I want to
leave you with a little spark of joy to take
with you through your day.
Speaker 2 (45:01):
Here's something that stood out to both of us from
our conversation with Reese. Be the hero of your own
story today and every day. Well that's it for us today.
Tomorrow on the show, we have the Goddess of gatherings,
Pria Parker. She's an expert on how to create meaningful
get togethers, and she'll help us set an attention for
this gathering The bright Side.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
All right, bright Side besties, we want to hear from you,
And when I say want, we are dying to hear
from you. Which parts of Reese's story resonated with you
the most? Send us your answers are even better of
voice memo at Hello at the bright sidepodcast dot com.
Speaker 2 (45:41):
We love to hear those beautiful voices. Listen and subscribe
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts so you never miss an episode.
Speaker 3 (45:50):
And if you love today's episode, share it with someone
you love. It really helps people discover the show.
Speaker 2 (45:55):
You can find me Simone Voice at Simone Voice.
Speaker 3 (45:58):
And you can find me daniel Robe at Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
R O b A.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Y See you tomorrow. M
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