Aussie Sarah Harden built Reese Witherspoon's media empire. Here's the career advice she swears by.

I'll be completely honest with you, when I was preparing to interview Sarah Harden, the Australian CEO leading Hello Sunshine, I was slightly intimidated. This is the woman who helped create the production powerhouse that gave us Big Little Lies, Morning Wars — and basically every show that's made me ugly cry, laugh, scream and recommend to all my friends.

I was expecting to meet someone who'd be all business and intimidatingly polished.

Instead, what I got was someone who was genuinely warm, incredibly smart, and actually invested in seeing other women succeed. Her career is fascinating and lucky for us, she doesn't gatekeep anything.

Here are the best pieces of career advice she gave me.

WATCH: A snippet of my full interview with Sarah Harden on the BIZ podcast. Post continues below.

Find the gap.

Sarah Harden and Reese Witherspoon didn't just stumble into Hello Sunshine because they thought it would be nice to tell women's stories (although, obviously, that's important too). They spotted a business opportunity so massive, Harden describes it as something "you could drive a truck through."

Women make 70 per cent of household purchasing decisions, yet for decades, our movies and TV shows have been centred around male protagonists. Make it make sense? You literally can't.

Harden came at this from a business background, having built brands in what she calls "the male comedy gaming space," and she'd been wondering for years where the women-centred equivalent was.

So, when she met Witherspoon, who'd been hearing "we've got our one movie already with the woman" from studios, they both knew they'd found something huge.

"It didn't make sense to us," Harden explained during our chat. "Women are the economic decision makers in their households and they hold a lot of economic power, and it didn't make sense to have this massive structural gap."

So they decided to fix it. And by fix it, I mean build a company that's now worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

It's more than just representation.

Something that stuck with me long after our conversation ended is that Harden wasn't just talking about putting more women on screen and calling it a day.

"Representation without authentic authorship is thin, it's not authentic, and it's not a winning strategy," she told me, and honestly, I wanted to write that down and stick it on my wall.

What she means is that it's not enough to just stick women in your content if the people actually creating and controlling that content are still predominantly male. You need women behind the scenes too — as writers, directors, producers, and yes, CEOs.

Listen to the full interview with Sarah Harden on the BIZ podcast. Post continues below.

Chase the uncomfortable.

When we got into Harden's career trajectory, I had to resist the urge to take notes. She went from consulting in Melbourne, to Harvard Business School, to building tech companies, to running one of the most successful female-focused media companies in the world.

The interesting thing is that she didn't plan it all out from the beginning. Each move was just "the next step." And the moves that really accelerated everything were the ones that made her deeply uncomfortable.

She described it as "doing a video game where you get through a level and all of a sudden you're in a different world." Taking that first consulting job at Boston Consulting Group, moving to the US for business school with just two suitcases — these were the moments that completely opened up new possibilities she didn't even know existed.

"Be prepared to stretch and take yourself out of a comfort zone... there is just incredible learning and growth in that."

My absolute favourite piece of advice from Harden is about shifting your mindset from judgment to curiosity. Instead of asking yourself "Am I ready? Can I do it?", try asking "What would need to be true for me to do this?"

It's such a small shift, but it completely changes how you approach opportunities. Instead of immediately disqualifying yourself, you start problem-solving.

Harden and the Hello Sunshine team aren't content to just dominate TV and film. They've recently partnered with Treasury Wine Estates to launch Drop of Sunshine wines, a partnership that slots in perfectly with their brand mission.

They're speaking to 150 million women a week across social media, and they noticed this behaviour pattern: women get together, convene in each other's homes, drink wine, talk about books, and connect over shared experiences. So why not create a wine that celebrates that?

Success: Defined.

What I loved most about talking to Harden was how she defines success now. It's not just about building a big company (although she's obviously smashed that). It's about creating the next generation of leaders.

She wants Hello Sunshine employees to go off and start their own companies solving women's problems. She wants to prove that women's stories aren't just culturally important — they're financially valuable too.

"We're in the show, not tell business," she said. "We just got to go show that stories matter and that they have worth and not just cultural worth, but they have financial worth as well."

Sarah Harden has built something that's changing how women see themselves on screen and how the industry sees women as consumers and creators. And she's not afraid to share the learnings along the way.

If you want more from Emily Vernem, you can follow her on Instagram @emilyvernem.

Feature image: Getty.