Super U Podcast | 7 Super Tips with Reese Witherspoon
Reese Witherspoon, an American actress, producer, and entrepreneur, gives us advice on the importance of ambition and giving it your all. All to which lead to her extreme success.
5x #1 Bestselling Author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman has performed in over 55 countries and reached over 50 million people this past decade. He was voted the 2nd Most Likable Author in the World behind Harry Potter’s J.K. Rowling.
Need a sneak peek? Below are the main takeaways from the episode.
Super U Podcast | 7 Super Tips with Reese Witherspoon:
[2:18] Tip #1
“If you’re in politics, the media, the tech industry, working as an entrepreneur or a teacher, or a construction worker, or a caregiver, you know the problems we are all facing. And I urge each one of you to ask yourself, what do we do now? That’s a big question. What is it in your life that you think you cannot accomplish? Or what is it that people have said that you cannot do? Wouldn’t it feel really good to prove them all wrong, because I believe ambition is not a dirty word. It’s just believing in yourself and your abilities. Imagine this, what would happen if we were all brave enough to believe in our own ability to be a little bit more ambitious? I think the world would change.”
[5:31] Tip #2
“I know I want to be an actor since the time I was about seven years old. And it didn’t make any sense because I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, and my dad was a doctor and my mom was a nurse. And I just, I don’t know, I just I ended up telling my mom I really wanted to be an actress. And my neighbor had a flower shop and they did a commercial demonstrate. And then they asked me to be in it. And that was it. I was like, I gotta do this. And as a little kid from the time I was seven years old, every Saturday I would go for four hours of acting class every Saturday. Whoa, and I loved it. I just loved it until the point where all the kids graduated and went on to other stuff and I started doing adult acting classes and then I was in the commercial classes and then I loved like the hair and makeup classes and just everything I just couldn’t get enough.”
[9:04] Tip #3
“My parents insisted that I got to college. So I applied to Stanford, I couldn’t believe I got in because I didn’t get in anywhere else. I got to Stanford and I met the woman who read my essay, and she was like, “I read your essay. I like you.” I was like, “thank you.” No other option, but I dropped out. I mean, it was really expensive. And I was making more money making movies than to pay my tuition. And I was either going to accumulate all these student loans and bills or start a career that I knew I loved and I wasn’t sure. You know, the first year I was like, I don’t know, maybe I’ll go into pre-med or something. But then I auditioned for a movie with that Robert Benton directed the director Kramer vs. Kramer and it was a movie with Paul Newman. Yeah, it was called Twilight. Right, which is, you know, now Twilight is something else. And Gene Hackman and I were around… Yeah, Gene Hackman and Susan’s random were my parents and it was like a three-scene role. But it was such a huge opportunity. It really got the momentum going for me in the business because Robert Ben helped. He called Gary Ross and then he put me in Pleasantville. And then Gary Ross called Alexander Payne and he put me in The Election so it was like kind of momentum.”
[11:09] Tip #4
“I got pregnant when I was 22 years old. And I didn’t know how to balance work and motherhood and we just you just do it. You know, I didn’t know if I was gonna have steady work to I wasn’t popular like I made movies. But I hadn’t, you know, established myself as someone who could demand that it shoot close to my kids’ school or, you know, I didn’t have any real power leverage within my industry. So I think it was just like every other mom trying to figure it out and dad out there and partner and grandparent who’s raising a child. There’s a lot of, first of all, compromise. You take the food out of your mouth and close off your back the sleep out of your life. But every bit of it, every bit of that sacrifice is truly worth it. Because you feel like that’s what makes me wake up on a Sunday is it’s not movies are my job. It’s my kids.”
[14:12] Tip #5
“My grandmother was a huge influence on my life. Her name is Dorothy Draper. Hence the name Draper James and she was from Cookeville, Tennessee and she just she was just always put together she looked beautiful and she didn’t always she didn’t have a lot of money. She didn’t spend a lot of money but she always pulled herself together you know whether it was her bag or her belt or she just always believe that you put your best face to the world and when you present yourself to the world in a way that you feel confident the world sees you as confident and I learned a lot from her.”
[15:47] Tip #6
“I’ve been in the movie business for 20 years. So I knew how to make them. I started realizing like, I know how to do all this, why am I not doing it? And then, like, probably five years ago, I read one of the worst scripts I’ve ever read in my entire life. And it was so bad. And the women’s part was so bad opposite this male comedian. And I was like, I called my agent, I said, I’m not doing this piece of crap. And he said, “Every actress in Hollywood wants this part. And I thought, if every actress in Hollywood wants this part, I need to start making movies, because this is not worth women’s talent. And so that’s when I self-funded the company and started buying.”
[19:45] Tip #7
“Examples of marvelous women like these have taught me really important things about female leadership, that it’s not about ego or getting to the top. It’s about creating a community of people who are extraordinary in what they do and working together towards a common goal. So that’s what I love about my company, Hello, sunshine. Everybody at this company shares leadership responsibility. And together we keep the trains running on time producing brings me incredible joy. And the bell really told for me this year as an actress to get to shoot three of the most fulfilling projects of my career, surrounded by incredible men and women all telling stories with women at the center, not just being the best friend, and I got to experience it with the likes of my extraordinary pal and partner and the very tall person, Nicole Kidman. People like my real-life friend, Jennifer Aniston, and the phenomenally spoken and gracious-hearted Kerry Washington.”
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Connect with Reese Witherspoon:
Instagram: @reesewitherspoon
Twitter: @ReeseW
Website: https://hello-sunshine.com/book-club/
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The Super U Podcast is hosted by #1 bestselling author and Motivational Speaker Erik Qualman.
