Welcome to let it be easy with Susie Moore.

Today's episode is brought to you by Morgan Freeman.

Well, not more. Today's episode is brought to you by Morgan Freeman.

Well, not Morgan Freeman himself, unfortunately.

But it's a story that I heard on Oprah's master class years ago,

that I've always remembered it's really stuck with me

because it's all about the power of declaring who you are. We sometimes hide from who we are, don't we? Or secretly inside will go, you know,

I'm an aspiring writer or I'm an aspiring artist or I'm an aspiring actor and we don't really say it to anyone else because we haven't even really stated it out loud to ourselves. And Morgan Freeman in this interview clip

talks about how he stated it at the beginning of his career, which allowed him to become the actor that he is.

So he was a young man figuring life out,

and he was encouraged by the Employment Office

to seek work as a clerk or typist. And when he went into the

employment office one morning he said to the lady at the employment office, I

can't seek out work as a clerk or typist because I am an actor.

And he said he'll always remember her name. He said her name was Mrs Lipton and she had red hair and she took his book and

stamped it and gave him six months. She gave him six months to make it a reality.

And he says now, how sweet, he said, Mrs Lipton, if you're alive, I am an actor.

You know, it's very powerful what follows those words,

I am.

What are you saying about yourself? Are you saying I am unfit, I am in debt, I am figuring

out my life but I'm on the wrong track, I am... What? What feels in the blank after I am in your life in your mind right now?

You know, a couple of friends of mine, a married couple, they were having some marriage trouble because she's a fine artist and she came from a tech background like me and her husband wasn't completely supportive of it.

...