The School of Greatness

893 Sara Blakely: SPANX CEO on Writing Your Billion Dollar Story

Dec 25, 2019

Sara Blakely, founder of SPANX and the youngest self-made female billionaire in America, shares her inspiring journey of turning struggles into success. She recounts her years of selling fax machines and the numerous rejections she faced before launching SPANX. The conversation touches on mentorship from Richard Branson, the challenges of balancing motherhood with entrepreneurship, and the importance of resilience. Blakely emphasizes that embracing failure is essential for growth and encourages others to share their unique stories on the path to greatness.

01:07:01

Creator website

Episode guests

Sara Blakely

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

Three Life Lessons: Experience, Smile, Be Kind

00:36

Intro

2min

The Inspiring Journey of a Self-Made Billionaire

2min

Empowering Entrepreneurship: The SPANX Story

8min

From Idea to Icon: The SPANX Journey

12min

Revolutionizing Health Supplements and the Journey of Product Development

4min

From Skepticism to Success: The Leggings Journey

7min

Innovating Comfort: The Story Behind Men's Spanx Underwear

3min

Navigating Entrepreneurial Triumphs and Trials

8min

Creativity and Community in Motherhood

7min

10.

Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, and Life Lessons

17min

11.

Embracing Failure and Pursuing Greatness

6min

NOTHING SHOULD STAND IN THE WAY OF YOUR STORY. We've had some pretty amazing women on The School of Greatness. I've learned a lot from each of them. In fact, I learn a lot from all the women around me (almost my whole team is women). Today's guest is no exception. Male, female, old, young - we could all learn from this incredible businessperson. Not only is she the youngest self-made female billionaire in America (wow, right??), she is also the mother of four young kids, the wife of another podcast guest, Jesse Itzler, and the founder and CEO of the massively popular women's apparel brand SPANX. In this episode, I got to sit with and learn from a legend among entrepreneurs: Sara Blakely. During this interview, I kept finding out new things to admire Sara for. She struggled a lot in school (me too!). She sold fax machines door to door FOR 7 YEARS before she had the idea for Spanx. She was rejected by every manufacturing company she took her idea to. But she didn't let any of that stop her. Sara's hustle and can-do attitude is just one thing I learned about her in this interview. We dive into dealing with grief, how to scale companies the right way, what it's like to be mentored by Richard Branson, and much more. Welcome to an inspiring interview with a powerhouse in Episode 893.
Some Questions I Ask:
How did you meet your husband Jesse? (30:12)
How do you stay so grounded and calm with everything you have going on? (32:00)
What did you learn from being mentored by Richard Branson? (44:47)
What is more challenging for you – running a billion-dollar brand or being a mom? (49:46)
In This Episode You Will Learn:
What happened in Sara’s life to prepare her for entrepreneurship before she had her big idea (7:12)
The list of possible product names Sara considered before she decided on Spanx (11:46)
The hardest part of getting her company off the ground (15:55)
How Sara guerrilla-marketed her first order of Spanx in Neiman Marcus (20:01)
Why being kind to yourself is so important (32:15)
How Sara got Warren Buffet to paint his belly for her new book (36:32)
What grief and loss can teach us (43:01)
Plus much more…
If you enjoyed this episode, check out the video, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/893 and follow at instagram.com/lewishowes

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