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

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 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 893 with Sarah Blakely, the inspirational CEO and founder of the billion-dollar brand Spanx.

• 0:11Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:36Lewis Howes?

  George Bernard Shaw said, "Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." And Maya Angelou said, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

• 0:51Lewis Howes?

  Have you been creating yourself lately? Have you been discovering who you are by taking the actions every day and failing over and over again to create something beautiful that's from within and put it out into the world? Have you been sharing those gifts that only you have with the world? Or have you been bearing an agony of a story inside of you that you haven't let out yet because you've been too afraid to share it with others? This is an opportunity for you. We're at the start of a new year and a new decade coming up. And this is your opportunity to really hear a story from someone who overcame some challenges,

• 1:36Lewis Howes?

  didn't hit success right away after school, didn't go off and become this massive hit within the first five years, but experienced failure, failure, failure, until she finally reached inside the story that was inside of her and said, "I'm going to share this with the world." And this journey led her to an incredible discovery about who she is. And she created something magical for the world. And if you don't know who Sarah Blakely is, she's the founder and owner of the shapewear brand Spanx, which sells undergarments, leggings, swimwear, and maternity wear in 65 countries.

• 2:15Lewis Howes?

  In 2012, Sarah was named the world's youngest self-made female billionaire by Forbes Magazine and one of Time's 100 Most Influential People.

• 2:28Lewis Howes?

  In 2006, she established the Sarah Blakely Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has donated millions to charities around the world, focusing on charities that empower underserved women and girls. And since 2015, she has been a co-owner of the Atlanta Howes basketball team, along with billionaire Tony Wrestler, and has appeared as a guest shark on Shark Tank. She does so many inspiring things for people around the world. She's one of the most positive individuals I've met, got the biggest smile, biggest heart, and I'm so excited for you to hear her in this episode. And in this interview, we talk about Sarah's relentless entrepreneurial mindset and spirit,

• 3:11Lewis Howes?

  and why she was ready for her big idea when it came. Talk about the challenges of getting her company off the ground, and the lessons she learned the hard way. This was before social media, before all these opportunities. She had to start selling one product to one person. How Sarah brilliantly guerrilla marketed her first order in Spanx and Neiman Marcus. Why being kind to yourself is so important, especially with all the comparison and judgment and different things that are happening online these days, why it's so important to be kind to yourself, and what grief and loss can teach us. I'm so excited for you to listen to this, consume it, and apply the wisdom and information

• 3:56Lewis Howes?

  that Sarah shares throughout this episode. If you have a girlfriend who's starting a business, or someone who's got a side business, or someone who wants to be an entrepreneur, text them this link right now. Do them a favor. Spread the message forward. Be a hero in their life by sharing this inspiration with them. This is a story that is so powerful, that can help transform so many people's lives. So, if you have a girlfriend, if you know a female who's launching a business, send them this episode. LewisHowes.com/893.

• 4:29Lewis Howes?

  Because this will help empower them to believe in themselves and overcome the challenges that they're going to be faced for many years to come. And if you're a guy listening, I'm telling you, when I talk to Sarah's husband, Jesse Itzler, who's a good buddy of mine, he was a brilliant entrepreneur and businessman. I go, who's the smartest entrepreneur you know? And without a hesitation, he says, my wife, Sarah, I lean on her for so much feedback, wisdom. She is so talented when it comes to business, marketing, brand, design, all these different things. She's so smart, so gifted. So I don't care who you are, man, woman, any human being out there, you should be listening to this.

• 5:10Lewis Howes?

  If you're looking to take on any big dream in your life, whether it be a business or putting an idea out into the world. So make sure to share this with any friends, but girlfriends, I'd love for you to connect and text each other and just held each other accountable, help each other up, support one another. That's what this is about. And Sarah's story here is just so powerful and I want you to get access to this. And without further ado, let's dive into this episode with the one and only, the inspirational, Sarah Blakely.

• 5:44Lewis Howes?

  All right. Well, welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. We have a living legend in the house, Sarah Blakely. Thank you so much for being here. Absolutely. I really appreciate it. I'm so excited to be here. I'm so pumped. I feel like I should take your order. Take my order. What do you want? I always want a milkshake. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Vanilla chocolate, whatever. Yeah, whatever. I am down. I'm so glad you're here. It wasn't even six months ago when your husband was sitting right there. Yes. And we got to have a good conversation. He said amazing things about you and I was like, you know, one day I want to have her on as well. And luckily you have the book, you're here. Yes. And we were able to make it happen. Your incredible publicist is so amazing, so beautiful, who's just on top of everything. Set it up for me.

• 6:29Lewis Howes?

  So thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this happen. And it's so good to connect. Yeah, thanks. Yeah. And you are the founder of Spanx, which has blown up. It's like one of the biggest companies in the world, it seems like now, right? And you're

• 6:46Sara Blakely?

  There's a lot of butts.

• 6:47Lewis Howes?

  Right?

• 6:48Sara Blakely?

  There's a lot of butts out there.

• 6:49Lewis Howes?

  And I know you've shared how it all started, but for those that don't know, Spanx, can you share how it all started? So we have an understanding of what it is and how you got into it.

• 6:58Sara Blakely?

  Absolutely. It actually started with my own butt because I couldn't figure out what to wear under white pants. And I'm sure you've had this problem when you're getting dressed.

• 7:06Lewis Howes?

  All the time.

• 7:08Sara Blakely?

  So what ended up happening was there was, you know, our undergarment options were no good. There was underwear that left a panty line and then there was the girdle that was way too thick and heavy. And so then they came out with the thong, which just put underwear exactly where we've been trying to get it out of. That did not help at all.

• 7:26Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:26Sara Blakely?

  And so Spanx was born out of just being a frustrated consumer. I wanted to wear my clothes. I wanted a smooth canvas. I didn't want to see lines or any kind of

• 7:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 7:35Sara Blakely?

  things going on underneath. So by taking the hosiery material, which was meant to be seen on the leg, until Spanx sort of looked at it with a different lens and said, no, no, no, I want the hosiery material to actually be what I create the undergarment out of. And it was wild trying to convince the hosiery manufacturers to help me make this product with that in mind. Because for so many years, they'd been using the material to be seen on the leg.

• 8:00Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 8:01Sara Blakely?

  And I said, no, it's just, it's the perfect material to create the perfect canvas for women under our clothes. And it opened up my wardrobe. It opened up so many other women's wardrobe. We could start wearing colors we didn't feel comfortable wearing. And the models get airbrushed. We get Spanx.

• 8:16Lewis Howes?

  There you go. There you go. I love it. And when was this? What year was this?

• 8:20Sara Blakely?

  This was in, well, I cut the feet out of my pantyhose in 1998.

• 8:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:27Sara Blakely?

  Yes, I was 27.

• 8:29Lewis Howes?

  Am I doing my math right?

• 8:29Sara Blakely?

  Yes, I was 27. And then I spent the next two years getting it made. I worked at night and on the weekends on the idea. While I was selling fax machines door to door. And then the company was launched in 2000 when I was 29.

• 8:44Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:45Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 8:45Lewis Howes?

  Selling fax machines door to door. Where were you living?

• 8:48Sara Blakely?

  In Clearwater, Florida.

• 8:49Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 8:50Sara Blakely?

  Where I grew up.

• 8:51Lewis Howes?

  Fax machines.

• 8:51Sara Blakely?

  On Clearwater Beach.

• 8:52Lewis Howes?

  Are there even fax machines anymore around?

• 8:54Sara Blakely?

  No. I mean, thank God I'm not still doing that. I don't know what would have happened. There are no more fax machines.

• 8:59Lewis Howes?

  Just like no one watches the movie Airplane anymore?

• 9:02Sara Blakely?

  I cannot believe, I need to know, is he the only one on the planet who's not seen the movie Airplane? I was quoting Airplane, he's literally put the headset on, I'm like, Stryker, you're too low. You're too low. And you just stared at me like, what is she talking about? That's okay.

• 9:17Lewis Howes?

  So, how long were you selling the fax machines?

• 9:19Sara Blakely?

  I sold the fax machine sort of door for seven years.

• 9:21Lewis Howes?

  Seven years?

• 9:22Sara Blakely?

  Yes, I know. And before that, I wanted to be a lawyer, but I failed the LSAT, not once, but twice. And

• 9:29Lewis Howes?

  You wanted to be a lawyer, that was your dream?

• 9:30Sara Blakely?

  I wanted to be a lawyer. I was like, I'm gonna be a lawyer. My dad was a trial attorney. I used to watch him in court when I was a little girl. And I'm a terrible test taker. And so

• 9:39Lewis Howes?

  I am the worst.

• 9:41Sara Blakely?

  Are you the worst test taker?

• 9:42Lewis Howes?

  I was in the bottom four of my grade, my class, all through high school, because I could not take tests. And I always felt like the dumbest kid in the world.

• 9:50Sara Blakely?

  Isn't that, doesn't that suck? I mean, it's

• 9:53Lewis Howes?

  It was like the most insecure feeling.

• 9:55Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 9:55Lewis Howes?

  And we ranked, we had rankings on our grade cards. So I knew exactly how dumb I was. Always in the bottom four, it was miserable.

• 10:02Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 10:03Lewis Howes?

  Test taking, why is this so hard, test taking?

• 10:04Sara Blakely?

  I don't know. I have trouble reading and comprehending.

• 10:07Lewis Howes?

  Me too.

• 10:08Sara Blakely?

  I really do.

• 10:09Lewis Howes?

  I

• 10:09Sara Blakely?

  Like, I, those SRAs, are you too young for SRAs?

• 10:12Lewis Howes?

  What's SRAs stand for?

• 10:13Sara Blakely?

  Okay, forget it. Oh my gosh. I don't know. But everybody in school, I used to have to take the SRAs. And I would read the paragraph and be, I remember vividly reading it and halfway through, I'd be like, remember what I'm reading, remember what I'm reading, remember what I'm reading. And I looked at those four questions at the bottom and be like, I don't know what I read. So I'd go back up and start over again.

• 10:33Lewis Howes?

  You're speaking, this is my life.

• 10:34Sara Blakely?

  Really?

• 10:35Lewis Howes?

  And I would just like, make stuff up constantly. Whenever I had to comprehend, I would just read the same page over and over and I'd be daydreaming so much that I couldn't remember it as well.

• 10:43Sara Blakely?

  I either made stuff up or I sat next to Christina.

• 10:46Lewis Howes?

  And just cheated?

• 10:47Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, she was so smart.

• 10:48Lewis Howes?

  I was the king.

• 10:49Sara Blakely?

  My best friend growing up. She ended up going to Dartmouth and was like valedictorian or something. I'm like, I'll just sit next to Christina.

• 10:55Lewis Howes?

  Did you have Scantrons? Do you remember that? No, I'm a, okay, see?

• 10:59Sara Blakely?

  You're a little bit of a hack.

• 11:01Sara Blakely?

  We were doing things with a number two pencil and bubbles.

• 11:04Lewis Howes?

  I did that too, yes.

• 11:04Sara Blakely?

  It's a Scantron.

• 11:05Lewis Howes?

  The Scantron is like multiple choice. It's like a long sheet with a multiple choice, all multiple choice. Did you have that? Multiple choice, we had to fill in the bubbles?

• 11:14Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 11:14Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, okay, that's Scantron.

• 11:15Sara Blakely?

  And when you skipped a bubble? And then time's almost out and you realize you've just done all the wrong bubbles on the whole page? And you're like, no!

• 11:24Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, but I'm on the same page.

• 11:26Sara Blakely?

  You're bringing up a lot of, I'm remembering all this.

• 11:28Lewis Howes?

  I used to cheat because I couldn't comprehend, so I would have incredible vision. I would be like this, but I could see through and like see all this.

• 11:36Sara Blakely?

  You would sit like that, that's a dead giveaway. Like any kid in the class like this, just you knew that they were cheating.

• 11:42Lewis Howes?

  No one ever caught me, so.

• 11:43Sara Blakely?

  All right.

• 11:43Lewis Howes?

  It's how I got through school was cheating. I could not have made it through class without it.

• 11:48Sara Blakely?

  Christina.

• 11:49Lewis Howes?

  You had your girl, that's hilarious. So you were a cheater as well.

• 11:51Sara Blakely?

  Well, I'm just saying Christina sat next to me, okay?

• 11:54Lewis Howes?

  You were an innovator.

• 11:55Sara Blakely?

  I was being resourceful.

• 11:57Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, I like it.

• 11:58Sara Blakely?

  I was being really resourceful, but.

• 12:00Lewis Howes?

  So you wanted to be a lawyer, but it didn't work out?

• 12:02Sara Blakely?

  I wanted to be a lawyer, I filled the LSAT not once, twice. So then instead of going to law school, I drove to Disney World and tried out to be goofy. But you have to be 5'8".

• 12:10Lewis Howes?

  And you're 5'6".

• 12:11Sara Blakely?

  And I'm 5'6".

• 12:12Lewis Howes?

  So you didn't wear heels?

• 12:13Sara Blakely?

  No, I didn't wear heels. I didn't wear heels, and so I was the height of a chipmunk.

• 12:19Lewis Howes?

  Oh, so you got the chipmunk?

• 12:21Sara Blakely?

  I got the chipmunk part, but I didn't end up doing it. I put people on rides in a brown polyester spacesuit at the World of Motion and Horizons at Apcot.

• 12:29Lewis Howes?

  Apcot Center.

• 12:30Sara Blakely?

  And I would see people that I hadn't seen in a while and.

• 12:33Lewis Howes?

  Come through.

• 12:34Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I'm walking on the movie sidewalk, putting people on rides, and they'd go, hey, Blakely, is that you? Didn't you graduate from college? And my big Mickey Mouse ear said Sarah Blakely, and I'd be like, yes, get on the ride.

• 12:44Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 12:45Sara Blakely?

  But that's what I did, and then I sold fax machines door to door for seven years. Seven years.

• 12:50Lewis Howes?

  Did you wake up every morning and say, this is my dream to sell fax machines door to door? Were you thinking?

• 12:55Sara Blakely?

  No.

• 12:56Lewis Howes?

  What am I doing in my life?

• 12:57Sara Blakely?

  Exactly, so what happened was, a lot of people think that Spanx started when I cut the feet out of my pantyhose, but actually it started long before that. It started when I was selling fax machines door to door and getting my car, business card ripped up in my face, being escorted out of buildings all day, every day, that I woke up one day and just thought. I'm in the wrong movie. Like, how did this happen? This is not my life.

• 13:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:19Sara Blakely?

  Cut scene, director, like, call the producer. And I got out a piece of paper and I wrote down, what am I good at? And the only thing in the good column was sales. And I thought, okay, what am I gonna do with that? And I ended up writing in my journal, I'm going to invent a product and sell it to millions of people that will make them feel good. And then I asked the universe for an idea, and I was very specific. And it took two years. And I only cut the feet out of my pantyhose one time. And I was not gonna squander any idea the universe gave me because I had really asked for it. And then the minute I cut the feet out, I started trying to make it. I started looking up manufacturers on the internet.

• 13:58Lewis Howes?

  This was before Alibaba, wasn't it?

• 14:01Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 14:02Lewis Howes?

  Because I did this about eight years ago and I used Alibaba for something. And it was easy to find like a manufacturer in China and

• 14:08Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 14:08Lewis Howes?

  test different things. But how did you find a manufacturer at that time?

• 14:11Sara Blakely?

  A website called Thomas Registry

• 14:13Lewis Howes?

  Oh.

• 14:13Sara Blakely?

  dot com. And it lists all the manufacturers in the country based on category. And that's when I found out that a lot of hosiery and undergarments were being made in North Carolina.

• 14:23Lewis Howes?

  Oh, really?

• 14:23Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 14:24Lewis Howes?

  Oh, so you got a local?

• 14:25Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 14:25Lewis Howes?

  I'm in the US, yeah.

• 14:26Sara Blakely?

  So I called and called and no one would take my call and they'd either hang up on me or say they weren't interested. So I took a week off of work and drove around in person.

• 14:36Lewis Howes?

  And just showed up and

• 14:37Sara Blakely?

  I just showed up.

• 14:38Lewis Howes?

  Hey, I wanna create a sample.

• 14:39Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 14:40Lewis Howes?

  Because if they weren't gonna get a big order for something, they're probably like, what's, I gotta do a little sample for you.

• 14:44Sara Blakely?

  Right.

• 14:45Lewis Howes?

  Right, yeah.

• 14:45Sara Blakely?

  I showed up with my lucky red backpack from college, it's always with me.

• 14:49Lewis Howes?

  You still have it?

• 14:50Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, of course. And

• 14:51Lewis Howes?

  You didn't bring it here. Come on.

• 14:53Sara Blakely?

  It's with me, it's with me in LA.

• 14:55Lewis Howes?

  Is it?

• 14:55Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 14:56Lewis Howes?

  Oh, wow.

• 14:56Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. So, um, anyway, I went into the manufacturing plants and they asked me the same three questions. And you are, let's say, Sarah Blakely? And you're with?

• 15:07Lewis Howes?

  Uh, myself.

• 15:08Sara Blakely?

  Sarah Blakely? And you're financially backed by? And I was like, Sarah Blakely? So you can imagine how those went. It was like, well, have a nice day, honey, and good luck. And, um, about, you know, a few weeks after I made all those rounds, I got a call from a guy in North Carolina who had took pity on me and said, Sarah, I've decided to make your crazy idea. I'm gonna ask him why I had the change of heart. He said, I have three daughters. Yeah, so he ran the idea by them. And they're like, Dad, that sounds interesting. You gotta give that girl a chance.

• 15:39Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. So he called you back. You didn't follow up with these people?

• 15:43Sara Blakely?

  Oh, yeah, I was following up, but to no avail.

• 15:45Lewis Howes?

  But he followed up and said,

• 15:47Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 15:47Lewis Howes?

  We'll give it a shot.

• 15:48Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 15:48Lewis Howes?

  We'll make this. So what was the next step? Was he just making a sample for you or testing different models or sizes or?

• 15:54Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, so it just set up to make the garment. While I was making it with his manufacturing plant, I was also wanting to patent the idea and I was also trying to come up with the name for the invention. So I was doing those three things simultaneously, driving up on the weekends and working with Ted in the back of the manufacturing plant that I'd become very close with and

• 16:15Lewis Howes?

  Driving to North Carolina from Florida.

• 16:17Sara Blakely?

  No, from Atlanta. I was living in Atlanta at the time.

• 16:19Lewis Howes?

  What's that about? Eight hour drive, six hour drive?

• 16:21Sara Blakely?

  Um, about four and a half, five. Yeah, it's not bad. And so anyway, um, Ted, Ted became my buddy and I went to get it patented, but all the patent lawyers wanted between three and $5,000 and I had $5,000 set aside to do this.

• 16:37Lewis Howes?

  That's it, yeah.

• 16:38Sara Blakely?

  So I wrote my own patent. I went to Barnes and Noble.

• 16:41Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 16:41Sara Blakely?

  And I bought a book called Patents and Trademarks and I wrote the patent and then I called one of the patent lawyers that was the nicest to me and said, please, please, please, will you write the claims over the weekend for a discounted price? I've done all the other rest of the patent.

• 16:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, the legwork you'd done.

• 16:57Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 16:58Lewis Howes?

  You just kind of needed to button it up and

• 16:59Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, you needed to do the legal part. And so he did. He actually admitted to me that when I came to visit him, he thought I'd been sent by Candid Camera. Which, let me put it in your words.

• 17:08Lewis Howes?

  I know Candid Camera. I know.

• 17:10Sara Blakely?

  He thought he was being punked.

• 17:11Lewis Howes?

  Of course, of course. Wow.

• 17:14Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, he thought he was being punked, okay? And he thought

• 17:18Lewis Howes?

  Where's Ashton? Where's Ashton?

• 17:19Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, exactly. He thought that his friends were playing a joke on him.

• 17:23Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 17:24Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, he goes,

• 17:24Lewis Howes?

  Who's this girl?

• 17:25Sara Blakely?

  Sarah, I mean, like, you're not the typical person who walks in the door saying, I've got a product and I want to patent it. So anyway, he did that. Then at the same time, I'm trying to think of the name. I had horrible names written on scrap pieces of paper all over the place in my apartment, in my car, in rental cars on the back of like Avis agreements. And you want to hear how bad the runner up name to Spanx was?

• 17:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:47Sara Blakely?

  Open Toad Delilah's.

• 17:49Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 17:49Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 17:50Lewis Howes?

  I cannot believe that was even an option.

• 17:52Sara Blakely?

  It was, it was a runner. I'm like, how bad is that?

• 17:54Lewis Howes?

  Open Toad Delilah?

• 17:55Sara Blakely?

  I so wouldn't be sitting here with you right now if I named it that.

• 17:58Lewis Howes?

  That is the horrible, yeah.

• 17:59Sara Blakely?

  It's so bad.

• 18:01Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:01Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. So anyway, okay.

• 18:03Lewis Howes?

  What does Spanx stand for?

• 18:04Sara Blakely?

  Well, it's all about the butt. It makes your mind wander a little bit. Nobody ever forgets it. I had no money to advertise. It was risky. It was fun. At the time, listen, now it's become a household name. But when I first invented it, I would call people and say, hi, I'm Sarah from Spanx's and they would hang up.

• 18:19Lewis Howes?

  Right. So it was probably like a porn.

• 18:20Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, they thought I was pranking them. I'm called, I'm like, no, really? I'm Sarah and my company really is called Spanx's. And I had department stores across the country that wouldn't sell it. They thought it was too risque of a name. Yep. And my mom sent her whole lunch into the wrong website when I first started. I was like, Mom, it's with an X. It's super important. It's with an X. So yeah, anyway. I ended up buying the word Spanx's from a man who said he was holding out from the porn industry. Funny enough that you say that.

• 18:51Lewis Howes?

  I bet, yeah.

• 18:52Sara Blakely?

  I paid.

• 18:52Lewis Howes?

  Spanx's with an X.

• 18:54Sara Blakely?

  I paid money for that. But anyway, yes. So.

• 18:58Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 18:59Sara Blakely?

  Named it Spanx's. It came to me because I narrowed down my thinking. I knew that Kodak and Coca-Cola were the two most recognized names in the world at the time. And I thought, what do they have in common? I like to think about words and phrases a lot. They both had a strong K sound in them. And the man that created Kodak liked the K sound so much, he took a K and put it in the beginning and the end of the word and played with letters in the alphabet. So, and I also had a bunch of friends who did stand-up comedy and it's this weird trade secret among comedians that the K sound will make your audience laugh. So I put all that together and I'm like, okay, I want my product name to have the K sound in it for good luck. And literally Spanx's came across my dashboard in my car in my mind and I pulled off the side of the road. I wrote it down. I went home that night. I typed it in my computer for a hundred and fifty dollars with my credit card.

• 19:44Sara Blakely?

  And at the last second, I back spaced the K and the S and put in an X and hit send.

• 19:48Lewis Howes?

  So it was accident? Kind of with the X.

• 19:51Sara Blakely?

  I know I.

• 19:52Lewis Howes?

  You backspaced, gotcha.

• 19:53Sara Blakely?

  I backspaced because I stared at it for a while and I had done research that made up words do better for product than real words. And they're easier to trademark.

• 19:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:00Sara Blakely?

  So then, then I had the name and I had the, the, the, um, patent in the works. Got my prototype and my patent lawyer said, Sarah, I need to know what's in this garment in order to write the patent. I said, okay, no problem. We'll call Ted. So I get Ted on the phone. I'm like, Ted, can you talk to?

• 20:19Lewis Howes?

  Manufacturer.

• 20:20Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, like in the back, in the back. I'm like, Ted, can you talk to my patent lawyer? He's like, yeah. So we're all talking and he goes, I go, can you tell him what's in it? He's like, yeah, well, it's 70% nylon and 30% lacquer. And I'm like, all right. And so I'm taking notes, my patent lawyer's taking notes and that night I could not sleep. I'm up all night and the next morning I wake up, I'm like, how is there lacquer in this product?

• 20:43Lewis Howes?

  What is lacquer? Just so I'm aware.

• 20:45Sara Blakely?

  It's like paint thinner or something. So I called.

• 20:48Lewis Howes?

  30% paint thinner?

• 20:49Sara Blakely?

  So I called Ted, I go, Ted, can you spell lacquer? He's like, yeah, L Y C R A. I'm like, oh my God, Lycra.

• 20:59Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah, yeah. I was like.

• 21:01Sara Blakely?

  Got it. Do an all change on lacquer immediately.

• 21:04Lewis Howes?

  All change.

• 21:05Sara Blakely?

  My patent lawyer was laughing. He's like, you know how fast you would have gotten a patent if you, um,

• 21:10Lewis Howes?

  With paint?

• 21:11Sara Blakely?

  Tried to make this out of paint thinner. He's like, they would be like, sure.

• 21:15Lewis Howes?

  So was it challenging to get it? Did you get it the first try?

• 21:17Sara Blakely?

  The patent? I did.

• 21:18Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Usually it takes a few turns, doesn't it?

• 21:20Sara Blakely?

  I got the patent the first try and I got the, um, trademark name Spanx.

• 21:26Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 21:26Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 21:27Lewis Howes?

  So it didn't seem like there was that many challenges. Once you submitted it or whatever, you kind of got the things you needed in place. You got the, the orders in. Was, was there a lot of challenges after that? Once you got the patent, the trademark?

• 21:39Sara Blakely?

  That was a really hard part. It's just, I heard the word no for two years. Yeah. All the manufacturers, nobody thought it was a good idea.

• 21:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 21:46Sara Blakely?

  And, um, and also when you're just yourself trying to break into an industry, like you mentioned, the manufacturers, it's not really in their best interest to slow down machines or try to give a girl with a couple of grand a chance.

• 21:59Lewis Howes?

  Unless you're gonna give them a bunch of money for a big order of something. It's like, what's the point?

• 22:01Sara Blakely?

  Right. So that was the hard part. And then once I had it, I cold called Neiman Marcus. And that was the first account I called on.

• 22:09Lewis Howes?

  Did you get it?

• 22:10Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 22:11Lewis Howes?

  Well, you were great at sales.

• 22:12Sara Blakely?

  Well, listen.

• 22:13Lewis Howes?

  Sell it.

• 22:13Sara Blakely?

  I was so excited. It was my moment. I flew to Dallas. I called them and said, if you give me 10 minutes of your time, I'll come and meet with you. And she said, all right.

• 22:21Lewis Howes?

  This is a buyer?

• 22:22Sara Blakely?

  Yep, the buyer. I first called the Atlanta store. They're like, girl, um, we can't help you. We have a buying office. I'm like, well, where is that? Give me their number.

• 22:30Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 22:30Sara Blakely?

  And um, I went in and halfway through my pitch, I could tell I was losing her. So I said, you know what? Will you please come to the bathroom with me? And she was like so buttoned up. I mean, Neiman Marcus, like her pen matched her belt that matched her shoes. And she was like, what?

• 22:45Lewis Howes?

  Like, what am I gonna do in the bathroom?

• 22:47Sara Blakely?

  I was like, just call me to the bathroom and show you my own panty line. And I went in the stall with Spanx and my pants and without it in my pants. And she was like, oh, I totally get it. It's awesome. And I'm going to put it in seven stores.

• 22:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 22:59Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 23:00Lewis Howes?

  Oh man, just like that?

• 23:01Sara Blakely?

  Just like that. It was so unbelievable. I was so nervous. And then of course I had to call Sam. I'm like, Sam, in the rental car on the way back to, to um, to the airport, I called the owner of the manufacturing plant. I'm like, Sam, Sam, it's Sarah. I need more. I just landed Neiman Marcus. And he's like, what? He was in shock. He goes, Sarah, I thought you were going to give away his birthday presents for like years. And I said, no, Neiman Marcus just bought it and I need more. And he patched me through to Ted. He goes, okay, you need to talk to Ted.

• 23:28Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 23:29Sara Blakely?

  So Ted comes back in.

• 23:30Lewis Howes?

  Uh huh.

• 23:30Sara Blakely?

  He's on the phone. And I go, Ted, I need more. And he goes, I go, I just landed Neiman Marcus. He goes, well, that's great. What you can do about the crotches?

• 23:39Lewis Howes?

  Crotches?

• 23:39Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, exactly. That's what I said. I go, what? Don't they come with crotches? We've been making them with crotches. He goes, well, yeah, but we only got one crotch machine. It's being used by somebody else.

• 23:49Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 23:49Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 23:50Lewis Howes?

  So what do you do then?

• 23:51Sara Blakely?

  So I just landed Neiman Marcus and I have no crotches.

• 23:53Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh. You got a hole in your crotches?

• 23:56Sara Blakely?

  I don't know where to go for a crotch. Do you, I mean, like,

• 23:59Lewis Howes?

  I don't know.

• 23:59Sara Blakely?

  Where do you go? I actually looked in the Yellow Pages.

• 24:02Lewis Howes?

  Crotch making machines?

• 24:03Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I just, I looked up crotch.

• 24:05Lewis Howes?

  Machine.

• 24:06Sara Blakely?

  I looked up crotch.

• 24:07Lewis Howes?

  I don't even know how you spell crotch.

• 24:08Sara Blakely?

  Okay, listen, this is what I learned. I'm gonna teach you something. Okay, so I didn't know this.

• 24:13Lewis Howes?

  What's Yellow Pages again?

• 24:14Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, oh my god.

• 24:15Lewis Howes?

  I'm just kidding.

• 24:16Sara Blakely?

  It's a big book. It's yellow. It's what we used to look things up. Hilarious. Um, and what's Instagram?

• 24:22Lewis Howes?

  You just got on it.

• 24:24Sara Blakely?

  Okay, I just joined it seven days ago. Alright, so, um, where was, oh, crotch.

• 24:29Lewis Howes?

  Yes, crotch machine, looked it up.

• 24:31Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, so, anyway, in the Yellow Pages, it's not under crotch. So I learned there's a fancy word for crotch named gusset.

• 24:37Lewis Howes?

  Gusset?

• 24:37Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 24:38Lewis Howes?

  What?

• 24:38Sara Blakely?

  Gusset.

• 24:39Lewis Howes?

  Never heard that word.

• 24:41Sara Blakely?

  So, I started calling gusset companies. They were like FedExing me crotches from all over. My roommate would come home and be like, "You got another crotch in the mail." And then I ended up finding a man by the name of Gene Bobo that worked for a crotch company just twenty minutes north of where I lived in Atlanta, and he saved the day. And they made the crotches, and then I could deliver Neiman Marcus.

• 25:01Lewis Howes?

  So you had the leggings, they made the crotches, and then you sewed them together? Is that's how it works?

• 25:04Sara Blakely?

  Yes, apparently, yes.

• 25:06Lewis Howes?

  Gotcha. Okay. So then you had enough, how many did you print the first time?

• 25:11Sara Blakely?

  Um, three thousand.

• 25:12Lewis Howes?

  Three thousand?

• 25:13Sara Blakely?

  Three thousand pair of the first Spanx.

• 25:15Lewis Howes?

  One, one, uh, SKU, right?

• 25:17Sara Blakely?

  Yes, one SKU. Twenty dollars, one SKU.

• 25:20Lewis Howes?

  Three sizes or?

• 25:21Sara Blakely?

  Hmm, like four.

• 25:22Lewis Howes?

  Four sizes?

• 25:23Sara Blakely?

  Four sizes, yeah. And...

• 25:24Lewis Howes?

  Three thousand of them?

• 25:25Sara Blakely?

  Yes, and that's what Neiman's ordered. And then I sent them to the, they sent them to the seven stores. I had no packing and shipping department, so the semi trucks were pulling up to my apartment in Atlanta, and I was shipping them myself to Neiman's.

• 25:38Lewis Howes?

  This is amazing.

• 25:39Sara Blakely?

  And, um, then I called every friend I had in those seven cities, like people I hadn't talked to in twenty years.

• 25:45Lewis Howes?

  So, hey, go buy shoesies, go make, yeah, take your girlfriends there.

• 25:48Sara Blakely?

  Hi, Christina, remember me? I used to sit next to you all the time in grade school. Will you please go buy this product called Spanx? I literally called them and I said, "And I'll mail you a check." So I paid all my friends and friends of friends to go buy the product.

• 26:02Lewis Howes?

  That is brilliant, actually, to get some movement.

• 26:03Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I said, "Go in." I said, I gave him a whole script. I'm like, "Go in and say, 'I've been looking for this all my life. I can't believe it's here.'" And create all this excitement.

• 26:11Lewis Howes?

  This is amazing.

• 26:11Sara Blakely?

  And then, of course, a week later, the Neiman, I talked to the Neiman's buyer, and she's like, "Sarah, we are blowing out." I'm like, "You don't say."

• 26:18Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 26:18Sara Blakely?

  Meanwhile, I was buying them all, yeah.

• 26:20Lewis Howes?

  Brilliant.

• 26:21Sara Blakely?

  You have to.

• 26:22Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 26:23Sara Blakely?

  You have to, you have to ensure your own success.

• 26:26Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 26:26Sara Blakely?

  So then, once I started running out of money, Oprah called and put it on as her favorite product of the year.

• 26:31Lewis Howes?

  How long was that for? Until, the time was in Neiman Marcus to Oprah calling?

• 26:37Sara Blakely?

  Like, a month.

• 26:38Lewis Howes?

  It just happened that quick?

• 26:39Sara Blakely?

  A month or a month and a half.

• 26:40Lewis Howes?

  How did she even hear about it in a month and a half?

• 26:42Sara Blakely?

  I sent it to her in a gift basket. And her, Andre, who dresses her, put it in her dressing room and she put them on and has basically worn them every day since.

• 26:50Lewis Howes?

  Shut up.

• 26:51Sara Blakely?

  I'm not kidding, it was so unbelievable, I had no money to advertise. In the back of my apartment, I was selling fax machines like a month before that. But I have to say, I was working every night and on the weekends for two years quietly trying to get this made.

• 27:04Lewis Howes?

  Building this thing, yeah.

• 27:05Sara Blakely?

  Building it, yeah.

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  Did you have a relationship at this time?

• 27:08Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 27:09Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 27:09Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. My boyfriend at the time quit his job as a healthcare consultant because he started helping me ship the Spanx out all night, every night.

• 27:17Lewis Howes?

  So he was fully in support and?

• 27:19Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 27:19Lewis Howes?

  He was like, do your thing.

• 27:20Sara Blakely?

  He came on board and was on board for like, the first, maybe six years of the company, six to seven years.

• 27:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 27:25Sara Blakely?

  He was amazing help.

• 27:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow, um, okay, so if you would have not, if you would have not had Oprah bring this on TV?

• 27:34Sara Blakely?

  I just have to ask you, did you know what Spanx were before I came on here, to be honest?

• 27:37Lewis Howes?

  My assistant is wearing them today.

• 27:38Sara Blakely?

  Alright, okay, good.

• 27:40Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 27:40Sara Blakely?

  You know I make man Spanx.

• 27:42Lewis Howes?

  Well, I heard you, I read that you used to have like a men's line now.

• 27:45Sara Blakely?

  I do, I have a small cult following for this product.

• 27:49Lewis Howes?

  I've never bought that, I mean, what is it, what are the man's, what are the manx?

• 27:53Sara Blakely?

  The manx, okay, so, it's an under, all it is is a man's undershirt. And I just saw that my husband and my brother and my dad had the same undershirt since it came out. So I researched it, because I think it's interesting, things that never change.

• 28:05Lewis Howes?

  Like a white Hanes undershirt?

• 28:06Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, the man's undershirt came out in 1918, not one thing has changed about it.

• 28:11Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 28:11Sara Blakely?

  So I was like, oh.

• 28:12Lewis Howes?

  It's not comfortable, that's why I don't wear it.

• 28:13Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, and it stretches out, so I, I said, let me put a little bit of Lycra in it, I'll make it the same cotton undershirt guys are used to, but I'll make it not stretch out as easy, be a little tapered in at the waist, so it looks better under, yeah.

• 28:25Lewis Howes?

  I'm not gonna get it. I'll go buy them. I'll go to Neiman Marcus.

• 28:26Sara Blakely?

  And then I got men's Spanx underwear that are amazing. They're just comfortable.

• 28:31Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 28:31Sara Blakely?

  We rein- we reinvented the pouch, okay? So.

• 28:35Lewis Howes?

  I'll try them out.

• 28:35Sara Blakely?

  I'm just gonna say, the only thing, the only thing I can say is the-

• 28:38Lewis Howes?

  Tell me what to get, I'll get it and I'll test it.

• 28:39Sara Blakely?

  The men that have wore it, wore it, told me it keeps the family together.

• 28:44Lewis Howes?

  Oh, hey, I will try it. So, I wanna go get it.

• 28:47Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 28:48Lewis Howes?

  What store is you in now? You're in every store?

• 28:50Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 28:50Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 28:51Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 28:51Lewis Howes?

  The men's store?

• 28:52Sara Blakely?

  Spanx, spanx.com, but you have to spell it with an X, or you're gonna get a real treat, people.

• 28:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, exactly. This is amazing. So would you have, um, where would you be, uh, if Oprah didn't pick it up within the first couple of months? Like if you had a year of trying to do this on your own, do you think you'd have got other press, or you'd have got the money to build it?

• 29:10Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I do. I do, cuz I was so determined. I mean, what, as soon as I got the order, I was so committed.

• 29:14Lewis Howes?

  You weren't just interested in seeing if this worked, you were committed and doing whatever it takes.

• 29:18Sara Blakely?

  I was in it to win it. You have to remember, right? I was selling fax machines, sorted or being-

• 29:22Lewis Howes?

  Seven years.

• 29:22Sara Blakely?

  Thrown out of buildings. I had no option in my mind. I was like, I am scripting a new life for myself and-

• 29:30Lewis Howes?

  Was this movie about you that came out a year ago?

• 29:32Sara Blakely?

  Joy?

• 29:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, is that about you?

• 29:34Sara Blakely?

  My dad called me, goes, Sarah, I just saw a movie. It's basically your life, except for the dysfunctional family part.

• 29:38Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, right.

• 29:39Sara Blakely?

  I was like, yeah, right dad, okay, sure. Yeah, but I could really relate to her.

• 29:44Lewis Howes?

  I'm sure it was like-

• 29:45Sara Blakely?

  All the hustle and, yeah.

• 29:46Lewis Howes?

  That's crazy.

• 29:47Sara Blakely?

  But when I got Neiman Marcus, I think a lot of people think that's when you've arrived.

• 29:50Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 29:50Sara Blakely?

  That's when I double timed. I mean, I, I got, um, on a plane and was gone for two years straight. And I went to every department store in the country that sold Spanx, every Neiman, Saks, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's. And I would go before the store opened and do an all-store rally and tell them what my product was, explain it to them, do a demo, give out free product, and then stand there in the department for, you know, eight hours a day and tell customers what it was. Cuz I didn't have any money averages. I was selling it for them. But what I didn't realize I was doing was I was building a sales force, not on my payroll, because all these people started to become so-

• 30:28Lewis Howes?

  Ambassadors.

• 30:28Sara Blakely?

  Ambassadors. And they were rooting for me and they loved the product. And so, that was a really important part of the formula. And then I had learned what my next products were gonna be, because I was standing right there with customers and all these-

• 30:41Lewis Howes?

  And they'd say what they need, what the challenge is. I can't do this, blah, blah, blah.

• 30:44Sara Blakely?

  They told me what they wanted.

• 30:45Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 30:46Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 30:47Lewis Howes?

  This is unbelievable. You were like, willing to do whatever it takes, above and beyond.

• 30:51Sara Blakely?

  Totally.

• 30:52Lewis Howes?

  So when Oprah had you on, or she didn't have you on, she had the product on, you didn't go on, right?

• 30:56Sara Blakely?

  I didn't go on, but they called and they said, Sarah, it's her favorite product of the thing. She doesn't have people on this, but she loves that you're taking on this billion dollar industry and she wants to film you. And kind of just show a little bit of B-roll. So they landed in my Atlanta and came to my apartment and they had all this official stuff. And they go, we discussed on the plane, we want to film you in your headquarters.

• 31:17Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh, headquarters like my living room.

• 31:20Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I'm like, you're here. I don't, you know, and then they wanted to film me having a staff meeting and I had no staff. So I called Connie.

• 31:28Lewis Howes?

  You go to the factory and you're like, call up Sam and.

• 31:31Sara Blakely?

  I know, listen, I called Connie that I had met at mailboxes, etc., because she'd been FedExing pantyhose for me. And she left work and came with three other friends of mine and that was my staff meeting on the Oprah show.

• 31:42Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. What did the sales do after that?

• 31:45Sara Blakely?

  It was amazing. I mean, I went from, you know, when I saw somebody order that wasn't my mom's friend. I was dancing around my apartment and then to all of a sudden 30,000 orders. Like it was just.

• 31:56Lewis Howes?

  Was this online at the time?

• 31:57Sara Blakely?

  Yes, it was on spangst.com.

• 31:59Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 32:00Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 32:01Lewis Howes?

  30,000 came in and how, what type of, uh, time?

• 32:03Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, um, pretty quickly.

• 32:05Lewis Howes?

  Like a week?

• 32:06Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 32:07Lewis Howes?

  30,000 orders.

• 32:08Sara Blakely?

  In a week or two. Yeah, it was crazy. I was up all night, every night, shipping. I had friends coming over, helping me pack and ship them. And this is how clueless I was. I was sending everybody's product in regular mail. So then I started getting all these emails and phone calls from people going, my product never showed up and I didn't have any way to track it. I was like, oh, okay. I guess they're supposed to be tracking with this. So.

• 32:32Lewis Howes?

  That X and everything else. Yeah, wow.

• 32:34Sara Blakely?

  So then I, you know, that's how I did the whole thing. I stumbled through it. I always tell people, what you don't know can be your greatest asset if you let it because it ensures you're going to do it differently.

• 32:44Lewis Howes?

  Absolutely.

• 32:44Sara Blakely?

  And when I landed Neiman Marcus, all these people came up to me and said, I have been doing this for seven years, 10 years, five years. How did you land Neiman Marcus? And I said, I called them. And they just looked at me and I was like, why? What do you do? They're like, well, I go to trade shows and I set up my booth and I'm waiting for the Neiman Marcus buyer to come by. And we've been doing it every year for seven years. I didn't even know there were trade shows.

• 33:07Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:08Sara Blakely?

  So sometimes just not knowing how it's supposed to be done, you have to have the courage though, to, to say, even though I wasn't trained in this, because a lot of people think, well, I didn't go to school for this. So how could I possibly know? But you know, it's inside of you.

• 33:23Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. And you were willing to be creative and, and risk, you know, failure in a, in a way that most people aren't. You put yourself out there in a major way and you said, hey, come to the bathroom with me.

• 33:33Sara Blakely?

  Right.

• 33:33Lewis Howes?

  And I'm not going to do anything weird.

• 33:37Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing. It's incredible story.

• 33:39Sara Blakely?

  My dad used to encourage me to fail. So at the dinner table, growing up, he would ask my brother and me what we failed at that week.

• 33:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:47Sara Blakely?

  And if we didn't have something to tell him, he'd be disappointed. And I vividly remember being a little girl and saying, I tried out for this, dad, and I was horrible. And he would high five me. He'd go, way to go.

• 33:58Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:58Sara Blakely?

  So he was reframing my definition of failure. So failure for me became about not trying, not the outcome.

• 34:06Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest lesson he taught you? Was that it?

• 34:08Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, for sure.

• 34:10Lewis Howes?

  And what about your mom? What's the biggest lesson she taught you?

• 34:12Sara Blakely?

  My mom is so supportive. She's the most lovely, sweetest person I've ever met in my life. And she's an artist and she's super creative. So I like to think and hope that she passed on a little bit of the creative side. To me.

• 34:24Lewis Howes?

  Who would you say is more influential to you?

• 34:27Sara Blakely?

  Oh, both.

• 34:28Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:28Sara Blakely?

  It was such a balance.

• 34:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:30Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. I got really, a really good, my family's very supportive.

• 34:34Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing. So, you know, some people I hear about when they get these big orders or a lot of press for something, they're not set up or ready to take it on. And it actually kills the company because they don't have the funds to buy the product or the goods.

• 34:47Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 34:47Lewis Howes?

  But for you, that didn't happen. You were, you were set up, you were good to go or?

• 34:51Sara Blakely?

  Well, it was close. I mean, I was in my apartment and I had $5,000 that I'd started it with. So, and I stayed self-funded from the start. I still own a hundred percent of Spanx. I never borrowed any money or went outside of.

• 35:05Lewis Howes?

  And how many employees do you have now?

• 35:07Sara Blakely?

  Over, over 200.

• 35:08Lewis Howes?

  200.

• 35:09Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 35:09Lewis Howes?

  And based in Atlanta or New York? Based in Atlanta. It's amazing. It's unbelievable. Now you have Jesse who was in here before.

• 35:17Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 35:18Lewis Howes?

  How long you guys been married now?

• 35:19Sara Blakely?

  Eight years.

• 35:20Lewis Howes?

  Eight years.

• 35:20Sara Blakely?

  Mm-hmm.

• 35:21Lewis Howes?

  And when was Spanx started? What year?

• 35:23Sara Blakely?

  Two thousand.

• 35:24Lewis Howes?

  Two thousand, okay.

• 35:25Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, we actually started our companies at the same time. We didn't know each other. He started Marquee Jet in two thousand.

• 35:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:31Sara Blakely?

  And I started Spanx.

• 35:32Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 35:33Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 35:33Lewis Howes?

  And you met eight years after, because it's been sixteen years since you started, right? So, eight years into Spanx, you met.

• 35:40Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 35:41Lewis Howes?

  And how did, um, that, you know, how did you know that you guys were gonna be married and start this life? Because you were in another relationship before, it sounded like, correct?

• 35:49Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 35:50Lewis Howes?

  So how did, how did it come about?

• 35:52Sara Blakely?

  Well, I was a customer of his and our sales rep kept saying, "You have to meet the owner and founder of this company."

• 35:59Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 35:59Sara Blakely?

  And they kept inviting me to things and I couldn't go. And then she said, "We have a poker tournament in Vegas that you have to attend." And it's a customer appreciation. So I went and that's where we met, in Vegas. So I like to say that. I met my husband in Vegas.

• 36:12Lewis Howes?

  Oh, uh, all right. And, uh, you guys just hit it off and you just knew right then, or?

• 36:18Sara Blakely?

  I pretty much knew right away.

• 36:19Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 36:20Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 36:20Lewis Howes?

  Okay. And were you out of, uh, the relationship before then, or were you transitioning, or was it kinda, it was fading?

• 36:27Sara Blakely?

  He might, my boyfriend at the time was supposed to be with me.

• 36:29Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 36:30Sara Blakely?

  And he got sick at the last minute.

• 36:32Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 36:33Sara Blakely?

  And didn't come on the trip.

• 36:34Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 36:35Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. And so my friend Julie came in with me instead. And then I just had a feeling when I met Jesse, I was like, "Wow, this guy." I just felt something, like, that, that he would somehow end up in my life. And we stayed in touch casually.

• 36:49Lewis Howes?

  As friends, yeah, yeah.

• 36:50Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, for the next like six months. And then when that relationship stopped.

• 36:55Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:56Sara Blakely?

  Jesse called.

• 36:57Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 36:58Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 36:58Lewis Howes?

  You kinda heard about it, okay. Gotcha. Amazing. And now you guys have, you have four kids together, right?

• 37:04Sara Blakely?

  Uh, yes, all under the age of seven.

• 37:06Lewis Howes?

  This is amazing.

• 37:07Sara Blakely?

  Three in diapers right now. I'm like, "Whoa, what's my name? What's going on?"

• 37:11Lewis Howes?

  I don't understand how you're able to, and you, and you said a, you know, a joke before, you're like, "If you ask me how to balance it, I'm not gonna be able to give you a good answer." But how do you, how do you like, you're, you seem so graceful right now. You're so clear and lovely.

• 37:25Sara Blakely?

  Thank you.

• 37:26Lewis Howes?

  And friendly and happy and joyful when you have this, you know, however big your company is, to, uh, four kids, a husband, to traveling around. You've got a book coming out right now, we're gonna talk about. You've got, working on multiple products, different things all the time. I don't understand how you're this calm and lovely, lovely and amazing.

• 37:45Sara Blakely?

  Well, thank you. I, you know, the work-life balance thing is I am a work in progress. That's my, I don't have any wonderful advice to dispense.

• 37:54Lewis Howes?

  Is that what you say?

• 37:54Sara Blakely?

  I wish that I did, but I don't. But I will say the one thing that I feel like has helped me the most is to be kind to myself. So I realized that as a mother, I, when I became a mom, I spent a lot of mental energy beating myself up, like feeling so guilty. And when I was working, I was beating myself up that I wasn't with the kids and mentally and when I was with the kids, I was beating myself up with that. So I think a lot of mothers were our own worst enemy. And when I really stopped and said, I don't know how to juggle all this. Some days I feel like I'm doing it right. And some days I feel like I just want to cry. I, at least I made that change and it was a huge change for me. I just catch

• 38:36Sara Blakely?

  myself when I start doing that to myself and I just, I change it to kindness and forgiveness.

• 38:41Lewis Howes?

  As opposed to beating yourself up?

• 38:42Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I'm just like, okay, it's all right.

• 38:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 38:45Sara Blakely?

  And, um, and then that, that helps me stay more present also.

• 38:50Lewis Howes?

  Is there a woman or a mother that you really admire that you see that is doing it gracefully as well? That is a good model for you or?

• 38:59Sara Blakely?

  Um, well.

• 39:00Lewis Howes?

  Any of your friends or moms out there?

• 39:03Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. Um, I think any, any working mom. I mean, when I see working moms, any mom, really, honestly, stay at home moms. I mean, it's like, it's a full-time job, no matter how you slice it. It's really impressive. I think women are really incredible.

• 39:19Lewis Howes?

  You are.

• 39:19Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 39:20Lewis Howes?

  I don't know how you guys do it.

• 39:20Sara Blakely?

  I like to hire moms because I know that they are unbelievable at multitasking and getting multiple things done.

• 39:27Lewis Howes?

  Most of my team is women.

• 39:28Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 39:28Lewis Howes?

  One guy on my team and the rest are women.

• 39:30Sara Blakely?

  Smart, smart man.

• 39:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. You guys are extremely talented, so.

• 39:33Sara Blakely?

  Thank you.

• 39:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, this is amazing.

• 39:35Sara Blakely?

  I agree.

• 39:35Lewis Howes?

  And, and what is the book? You've been working on a book for seven years. You said seven years, right?

• 39:40Sara Blakely?

  I did, it's true.

• 39:41Lewis Howes?

  You took a photo seven years ago?

• 39:43Sara Blakely?

  Seven and a half years ago.

• 39:44Lewis Howes?

  And what's the book called?

• 39:46Sara Blakely?

  It's called The Belly Art Project and I'm super excited about it. It started with my own pregnant belly. Three days before I delivered my son, I woke up in the middle of the night and just thought, oh my God, my body is amazing that it can do this, like the state that my body's in and what women's bodies can do. So I saw my belly as a canvas and thought, I want to do something artistic with my body in this moment in time. It may never be like this again. And so I wanted to turn my belly into objects. And I wrote down, three in the morning, watermelon, beach ball, basketball, Mr. Potato Head, and went back to bed. And the next day, a friend came over and painted my belly these objects. I ran around Atlanta and posed in different environments and gave them to my husband as a gift. And that's when he said, you gotta do more with this idea.

• 40:30Sara Blakely?

  And seven and a half years later, and over a hundred more women and bellies from around the world that all painted different fun objects, the book is out now.

• 40:40Lewis Howes?

  It's out.

• 40:41Sara Blakely?

  It's out.

• 40:41Lewis Howes?

  Go get the book.

• 40:42Sara Blakely?

  Because it takes so long. I mean, think about it, but it's not like I can do a casting call for nine month pregnant women. I was stalking them in airports, nail salons, other people's weddings.

• 40:51Lewis Howes?

  Finding them and then...

• 40:52Sara Blakely?

  Finding them. I'd read about them in the press and then start calling them and say, please, would you be in this book? And then each woman that you photograph, I'm like, okay, now we have nine women. I can't do a book with nine. All right, let's find a 10th. Then I'd be 10, I'd be like, we need another one, you know? And so, when was it enough? And we have one man in the book who painted his belly. And I bet for all the money, you couldn't guess who the man is.

• 41:14Lewis Howes?

  Is it a celebrity?

• 41:15Sara Blakely?

  Yes, he's famous. He's the only man in the book with his belly painted.

• 41:20Lewis Howes?

  Hmm. Does he play a sport?

• 41:24Sara Blakely?

  No. He's over 80.

• 41:28Lewis Howes?

  Larry King?

• 41:29Sara Blakely?

  No, that's a good guess.

• 41:30Lewis Howes?

  He's been on the show, that's why I thought Larry King. But, uh, over 80, Stan Lee?

• 41:35Sara Blakely?

  No.

• 41:36Lewis Howes?

  I don't know who's over 80 that's a famous dude. I don't know.

• 41:40Sara Blakely?

  The most unlikely person, maybe, that you could guess, his name starts with a W.

• 41:45Lewis Howes?

  Wes Welker.

• 41:47Sara Blakely?

  Who's that?

• 41:49Lewis Howes?

  Wes Welker? No, Les Welker is what I'm thinking. Who's the guy who owns Victoria's Secret?

• 41:53Sara Blakely?

  Oh, Les Wexner?

• 41:55Lewis Howes?

  Les Wexner. I had the football player.

• 41:56Sara Blakely?

  You totally botched that. I'm glad I said, who is that?

• 42:00Lewis Howes?

  I had the football player. Wes Welker is the football player.

• 42:02Sara Blakely?

  All right, all right.

• 42:03Lewis Howes?

  But I'm from Columbus where Victoria's Secret and Limited is at.

• 42:06Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 42:06Lewis Howes?

  So that's what I'm thinking of.

• 42:07Sara Blakely?

  All right.

• 42:07Lewis Howes?

  Les Wexner, right?

• 42:09Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 42:10Lewis Howes?

  I don't know. Who is it?

• 42:10Sara Blakely?

  Warren Buffett.

• 42:11Lewis Howes?

  Warren Buffett? No way. You got him to do it?

• 42:14Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 42:14Lewis Howes?

  You painted his belly?

• 42:15Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 42:16Lewis Howes?

  That's worth buying the book just for that.

• 42:17Sara Blakely?

  I know. You have to see it. He's such an amazing trooper. He's so generous with his spirit and everything. And he sat next to me at a lunch and I said, he said, what are you up to? And I said, here are the pictures. And he laughed for a minute straight and said, I want to be in the book.

• 42:31Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 42:32Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 42:32Lewis Howes?

  He paint, what is the painted?

• 42:33Sara Blakely?

  So we were on a plane to Omaha to paint Warren Buffett's belly. We were freaking out. I was so nervous and so excited. And then we were all rehearsing, like, how do you ask Warren to take his clothes off? Like, do you ease into it? Do you say, hey, do you make small talk? And he came in and he was just such a good sport.

• 42:48Lewis Howes?

  His shirt off?

• 42:49Sara Blakely?

  Took his dress shirt off and said, he chose the yo-yo. So we painted a yo-yo on his belly.

• 42:54Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing.

• 42:54Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 42:55Lewis Howes?

  And what's the one?

• 42:55Sara Blakely?

  All for the cause. So 100% of the book proceeds goes to Every Mother Counts and gives back to Christie Turlington's Foundation. She's doing amazing work. My foundation's about empowering women, but this creative idea felt much more in line with pregnancy and childbirth. So I wanted to gift the money to a foundation that was much more like on the ground, knowing exactly how to make a difference for maternal health.

• 43:18Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 43:19Sara Blakely?

  And, you know, every two minutes, a woman dies in childbirth.

• 43:24Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 43:25Sara Blakely?

  On the planet. So this book hopefully will help make childbirth safe for women everywhere.

• 43:31Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 43:31Sara Blakely?

  So you gotta get the book. It's a beautiful coffee table book, or it's a cool shower gift. I'm hoping, I also sell a belly painting kit. And I'm hoping.

• 43:39Lewis Howes?

  You can buy your own.

• 43:39Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I'm hoping women will do it at showers. Like, paint the, paint the girl's belly at the shower.

• 43:44Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 43:45Sara Blakely?

  You know, have fun with it. Post your pictures. Belly Art Project.

• 43:48Lewis Howes?

  BellyArtProject.com or dot org?

• 43:50Sara Blakely?

  Dot org.

• 43:51Lewis Howes?

  Dot org.

• 43:51Sara Blakely?

  And you can get the big limited edition book, the coffee table book at spanx.com.

• 43:55Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 43:55Sara Blakely?

  You can also get the belly painting kit at spanx.com. And the smaller book that's $29.99 is at Amazon and Barnes and Noble and everywhere.

• 44:04Lewis Howes?

  Belly Art Project. Yeah, that's awesome. I'm excited. Make sure you guys pick it up.

• 44:08Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 44:08Lewis Howes?

  What's the thing you are most proud of that a lot of people maybe don't know about you?

• 44:13Sara Blakely?

  Um.

• 44:17Sara Blakely?

  What a good daughter and granddaughter I've been. Like, it's always been such a priority to me to take really good care of my mom and my grandma and be close. And, you know, I, I think just, you said what people don't know about me, so I was trying to think about it, but I'm most proud of the fact that, um, that I was able to, to achieve this in a really, um, kind way, you know? That I can look at myself in the mirror and just, I am where I am and I feel really good about it, really good about myself. I didn't feel like I had to compromise. You know, when I first started Spanx, I was at a cocktail party and three guys came up to me and they said, Sarah, we heard you just started your, a, a business and invented something. And I said, yes.

• 45:03Sara Blakely?

  And they go, you know, business is war. And I just looked at them and, and, and then one guy, you know, pat me on the back and he said, yeah, I hope you're up for it. I hope you're ready for war.

• 45:13Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 45:14Sara Blakely?

  And I went home that night in my apartment and I sat down on the floor and I literally started crying. And I remember thinking, I don't want to go to war. Like, why does it have to be war? I want to go about this in a completely different way. And so the whole journey of Spanx, I really took a feminine approach to it. I mean, I, I def, I didn't know business. I'd never taken a business class. I didn't have a business plan. I didn't go out and raise VC. So I trusted my gut. I stuck with intuition. I, you know, just did things what felt very, yeah. I think traditional business has been very male energy. And so I wanted to see what would happen if I took a very feminine energy approach.

• 45:53Lewis Howes?

  How have you handled, you know, kind of the recognition, the, I guess, the fame of the business you've built? I think the, I don't know, that's the actual stat, but you're like one of the only self-made billionaire women. I think that's like the line or something. You're one of the top 100 most influential people in the world by Time Magazine. How, how have you handled the exposure and the awareness and the, all the things that come to you?

• 46:17Sara Blakely?

  I believe money just makes you more of who you already were. So if you weren't kind, you're going to be kinder. If you're a jerk, become a bigger jerk.

• 46:26Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 46:27Sara Blakely?

  You know, insecure, you become more insecure. I see it as a magnifying glass, like, you know, money. So money didn't change me. It doesn't feel weird to me to, to, you know. For me, it was really about, I was so inspired to make a product that was gonna make a difference and make people feel good. And especially women, I feel like the industry had stopped caring about how we felt in our clothing. And I was really, I wanted to take that angle of like, no, I do believe we can feel good and look good at the same time.

• 46:54Lewis Howes?

  It doesn't have to be like a uncomfortable.

• 46:56Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, it doesn't have to be a compromise, you know? Yeah.

• 46:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's cool. What's your biggest fear right now?

• 47:02Sara Blakely?

  Losing someone I love. What's your biggest fear? Am I allowed to interview you?

• 47:07Lewis Howes?

  You can ask me anything you want. Um, you know, it's interesting that you say that because it hasn't really been a fear of mine until recently, because I'm just like, I have so many good friends and people that I've met over the last few years, especially with the podcast, that have all these great relationships. And I'm like, gosh, at some point, like, it's either me or someone else, you know, I'm not sure who it's gonna be. Something's bound to happen to someone I know, just because of the odds, you know, so. And I don't want it to happen either, you know?

• 47:38Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 47:38Lewis Howes?

  So, yeah, I don't wanna say it's a big fear, just like, I feel like it's gonna happen at some point. Like, it's just like a feeling, and I don't want it to be someone really close to me, you know? It's scary.

• 47:48Sara Blakely?

  I've had a lot of loss.

• 47:49Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 47:50Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, a lot of loss.

• 47:51Lewis Howes?

  A lot of people close to you? Really?

• 47:53Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. By the time I was thirty-one, I'd lost eleven different people close to me from separate tragedies.

• 47:59Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 48:00Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. So I've been, you know, dropped to my knees many times in life by grief. I mean, just, ah, it's like unbearably painful. But I will say that, you know, going through that, I always think there's a hidden blessing in everything that we go through in life. And, um, one of the blessings was that facing my own mortality at a really young age. Had all these hidden gifts, you know, I use mortality and sort of the insignificance of all of this in a positive way, you know, it doesn't, you know, just how temporary this all is to fuel me and to say, what, why would I ever not do this? What? Because I'm afraid that person, that person's not going to remember me five minutes after I make a fool of myself

• 48:44Sara Blakely?

  anyway. Like, let's do this. We're all here for just a short period of time. So it freed me up in a way that I think most people in the natural course of life, you know, maybe starts to think about in their 40s when they might lose a parent or a grandparent or something. So, yeah, really.

• 49:00Lewis Howes?

  How do you get through a challenging loss like that? Like, what's your process?

• 49:05Sara Blakely?

  Oh, my gosh. I, one day at a time. I mean, it is just one day at a time. Yeah. It was really, my best friend, she died in a tragedy and I was her roommate and I started Spanx in her bedroom.

• 49:19Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 49:20Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I've, I've never really talked about that, but yes, Spanx headquarters was in Laura's bedroom. And so, that's pretty cool. I feel like I had a, yeah. Yeah. And she was always really so supportive of me.

• 49:35Lewis Howes?

  Were you guys roommates or was this?

• 49:36Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, we were roommates.

• 49:38Lewis Howes?

  She passed away when you were, when you were living together?

• 49:40Sara Blakely?

  Yep. She was riding a horse and was hit by a car on the horse.

• 49:44Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh.

• 49:45Sara Blakely?

  Chapel Hill. A 92-year-old man said he never saw her or the horse when he came around the corner.

• 49:49Lewis Howes?

  Oh, my gosh. So sad.

• 49:52Sara Blakely?

  So, and she was so awesome. But anyway, I, yeah, many, many different things like that have happened.

• 49:59Lewis Howes?

  Eleven different.

• 50:00Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, I've lost very close people in my life. And, um.

• 50:05Lewis Howes?

  Well, you've, you've come out in an amazing way and been such an inspiration to so many people. So it's made you better. It sounds like the experiences you've learned from it sounds like so.

• 50:15Sara Blakely?

  Thank you.

• 50:16Lewis Howes?

  What, speaking of learning from lessons, you've been around a lot of incredible entrepreneurs. And I know you did a reality show with Richard Branson, this is 10, 12 years ago, you said?

• 50:25Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 50:26Lewis Howes?

  What was that like and what's been a big lesson you've learned from him? And what was the show and what'd you learn?

• 50:31Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, the show was called The Rebel Billionaire and it was the Apprentice version, Richard Branson's version of that. They were looking for 16 entrepreneurs, so I'm like, hey, I'm an entrepreneur, I want to do this. And I really wanted to meet Richard. I sort of had set intentions out there that I was gonna manifest him becoming a friend in my life. So when I heard about the show, I was like, oh, this is interesting, this might be how this happens. So I applied for it and it was wild.

• 50:58Lewis Howes?

  And how big was Spanx at the time? Was it really well-known or was it like just kind of?

• 51:02Sara Blakely?

  It was pretty, I mean, it was four years in, it was doing great.

• 51:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, multiple seven figures in sales a year.

• 51:07Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, my lawyers begged me not to do it. They're like, what are you doing? You own this company, you're gonna do a reality show. I was like, I just want to know Richard. I just feel like this is a chance. So, yeah, and all the business challenges took place around the world in different cities. And instead of, if you didn't win the business challenge, going into a boardroom to get fired, you had to do a crazy stunt, like a world record-breaking stunt. Cause Richard is obviously like a huge adrenaline junkie guy. So in addition to being an amazing entrepreneur. And the very first day of filming, I had to climb the side of a hot air balloon at 9,000 feet in the air on a dangling rope ladder and have tea, climb to the top and have tea on top of the balloon with Richard.

• 51:47Lewis Howes?

  It's insane.

• 51:48Sara Blakely?

  It's insane.

• 51:49Lewis Howes?

  So what did you guys talk about on the top?

• 51:50Sara Blakely?

  Oh my God, I talked about like, how do we get down? And that's what he said, you climb back down. I was like, what? I didn't think about that. It was so scary.

• 51:58Lewis Howes?

  Oh my gosh.

• 51:58Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, so it took me 48 minutes to climb to the top. It's at the height of a 17-story building and the dangling rope ladder was just like hanging out into the abyss of nothingness, wasn't anchored to anything. So I'm like climbing it and.

• 52:13Lewis Howes?

  And there's cameras up there?

• 52:14Sara Blakely?

  That was the first day of filming. So two months later, I know.

• 52:18Lewis Howes?

  And there's cameras up there?

• 52:19Sara Blakely?

  Yes, I mean helicopters circling. Probably, probably. I had to do all these crazy stunts. The next stunt I had to do is I had to jump off the side of the Victoria Falls Gorge in Africa on a, with a bungee cord attached to me. And my guy on my team was dangling on a wire, on a crane. Ten feet out from the cliff and each person had to come up and stand there and you couldn't run and jump and you had to stand still and jump and if he caught you, you were okay and they'd put you back on the cliff and if not, you fell 385 feet on a bungee cord. And so I am beyond terrified of heights. It's like one of my, I'm so afraid of heights. I

• 53:00Sara Blakely?

  cry on airplanes still during takeoff a lot of times and I was one of the only people to make the jump. Richard didn't make the jump. All these other guys that were like amazing athletes didn't make the jump. And I like to talk about this because I always talk about aiming high and the importance of aiming high in life and that I think all of us, we don't aim high enough. And so watch where you're aiming. And that that saying, you know, if you shoot for the moon, if you miss, you're at least with the stars. And afterwards, everyone's like, Sarah, how did you make that jump? You're literally like the only contestant and look at you. I said, well, I was aimed at the pulley six feet above his head. Where were you aiming? And I aimed, I didn't even look at him. I aimed six feet above his head and I landed

• 53:44Sara Blakely?

  at his waist and he caught me and everybody else was aiming at his face and landed at his feet and missed.

• 53:50Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 53:52Sara Blakely?

  So it's like a really just poignant example of the importance of aiming high.

• 53:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, in all areas of life.

• 53:58Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 53:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Wow.

• 54:00Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 54:00Lewis Howes?

  This is fascinating. So what was the biggest lesson you learned from?

• 54:03Sara Blakely?

  From Richard? Richard is a really, first of all, he's such a bias for action. It's fun to watch him have, he doesn't think things through to the point, you know, I mean, it's unbelievable. He has an idea and before you're even done saying, well, wait, writing it on the napkin, he's doing it.

• 54:21Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 54:21Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. He doesn't sleep much. He requires almost no sleep.

• 54:24Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 54:25Sara Blakely?

  And he's always got a notebook with him, writing ideas. He delegates, he's really good at delegating. He's very good at empowering the people around him. And he didn't ask us to do any business challenge, any crazy challenge that he didn't do himself first.

• 54:40Lewis Howes?

  He was doing it with you. He'd already done it.

• 54:42Sara Blakely?

  He did each one that we did himself also.

• 54:45Lewis Howes?

  Amazing.

• 54:45Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 54:47Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Would you say he's the most inspiring entrepreneur you know, or?

• 54:51Sara Blakely?

  Probably. I mean, he's just, yeah. He's so, he's so much fun. He's a multi-billionaire that still lives his life like he has twenty dollars in his pocket.

• 55:00Lewis Howes?

  What does that mean? What do you mean?

• 55:01Sara Blakely?

  It means he's up for anything. He, there's no entourage about him. He's not afraid of anything, you know? Sometimes I've seen some people become a little bit more

• 55:11Lewis Howes?

  Reserved.

• 55:12Sara Blakely?

  Reserved, or, you know, careful. And

• 55:15Lewis Howes?

  He still takes risks.

• 55:16Sara Blakely?

  Oh, yeah.

• 55:17Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. Have you been to his island many times?

• 55:19Sara Blakely?

  I have. Yep. Necker Island.

• 55:20Lewis Howes?

  That's cool.

• 55:21Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 55:21Lewis Howes?

  Amazing. I'm curious, what is more challenging for you, running a billion dollar brand or being a mom and a wife?

• 55:32Sara Blakely?

  Being a mom, because it's a moving target. Like what worked yesterday doesn't work today. I'm like, wait, that worked on you yesterday.

• 55:41Lewis Howes?

  Just wait till our teenagers, right?

• 55:42Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, it's the most humbling thing. I mean, I feel like I gave birth to, you know, four teachers, to me. I mean, your children are here to teach you. I'm a believer in that too. So I'm a student right now and it's fascinating.

• 55:57Lewis Howes?

  So being a mom, more challenging than running a business for you?

• 56:00Sara Blakely?

  Yes. Being a mom and, you know, running the business and the brand just required a lot of hustle, just a tremendous amount of hustle. I always say that, you know, anybody you think is really, really lucky, there's a lot of sweat behind that luck. You know, it just is.

• 56:21Lewis Howes?

  Final few questions. I really appreciate this. I wish I could talk to you forever, but I know you gotta get back to things.

• 56:28Lewis Howes?

  What are you most grateful for in your life recently?

• 56:30Sara Blakely?

  My children. That's easy.

• 56:33Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 56:33Sara Blakely?

  My four children.

• 56:34Lewis Howes?

  I think every mom has to say that, right? Or it's just like?

• 56:36Sara Blakely?

  I mean, it's true. It's really how I feel. I'm also really grateful for being a woman born in the right country at the right time. I had nothing to do with that and I'm very grateful. And I wake up all the time thinking of that. You know, my mom, we're only twenty-one difference in age, twenty-one years. My mom, her choices were so much more limited and what was expected of her or what her opportunities were. So, I mean, if you think about how long we've been on the planet, some people think a couple thousand years, some people think a couple million. Anyway, it's a long time. And by just twenty years in the right country, I feel like I was born and had the opportunity for Spanx.

• 57:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 57:19Sara Blakely?

  You know, to fulfill a potential or something inside of me as a woman that was in me. And so I'm grateful for that.

• 57:26Lewis Howes?

  That's amazing. Yeah, it's amazing. Uh, this is something called, uh, the three truths question that I ask everyone at the end.

• 57:33Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 57:34Lewis Howes?

  So if, uh, this was the, uh, the last day, many, many years from now for you. And it's your last day and you've achieved.

• 57:40Sara Blakely?

  I have no idea why, but mustard came into my mind.

• 57:43Lewis Howes?

  Okay, perfect. We'll see if that's a part of it.

• 57:45Sara Blakely?

  Okay. I don't know. I just thought I would share that idea. I was like, I want mustard.

• 57:51Lewis Howes?

  Is that like a mom thing after you have kids?

• 57:53Sara Blakely?

  I don't know. Maybe it makes everything. Just put mustard on it.

• 57:56Lewis Howes?

  Perfect.

• 57:57Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 57:57Lewis Howes?

  I actually don't like.

• 57:58Sara Blakely?

  The last one on the planet.

• 57:59Lewis Howes?

  No, you're not the last one on the planet. No, no. This is, this is, uh, the last day for you many years from now. So.

• 58:04Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 58:05Lewis Howes?

  It's the, it's the last day. Uh, you've achieved everything you want.

• 58:09Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 58:09Lewis Howes?

  Everything in your business, your family, everything you want, you've, you've got. But for whatever reason, everything you've created has been erased. Your books, your projects, your companies, it's all been gone. And your whole family and friends are there and they say, we don't have anything to remember you by. So can you write down on a piece of paper and a pen, the three things you know to be true? About the lessons you've learned in life that you would pass on to us? So three truths.

• 58:37Sara Blakely?

  This is so heavy and intense.

• 58:40Lewis Howes?

  You can make it light. You can make it like and be simple.

• 58:42Sara Blakely?

  Oh my God, wait.

• 58:42Lewis Howes?

  And this is off the cuff. So again, three lessons that you would pass on to your friends, family and the world. It can be anything you want. You can say, eat mustard as number one, but.

• 58:53Sara Blakely?

  Mustard makes everything taste good. Um, okay.

• 58:57Lewis Howes?

  Three truths.

• 58:57Sara Blakely?

  Jeez.

• 59:00Sara Blakely?

  The more you experience in life, the more you'll have to offer others. So experience everything, anything and everything. Don't hold yourself back. Um, smile and be kind. And don't take it all too seriously. Remember to laugh along the way.

• 59:17Lewis Howes?

  Those are great.

• 59:18Sara Blakely?

  Is that okay?

• 59:19Lewis Howes?

  That doesn't have to be heavy, right?

• 59:20Sara Blakely?

  And use and pack mustard.

• 59:23Lewis Howes?

  I like it. Um, before I ask the, uh, the final question.

• 59:27Sara Blakely?

  Oh, my gosh, there's another one after that?

• 59:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, yeah, before I ask the final question, I want to, I want to know, uh, is there ever a question you wish people would ask you that they don't ask?

• 59:38Sara Blakely?

  No, I think you did a pretty good job.

• 59:39Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 59:40Sara Blakely?

  Yeah.

• 59:41Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 59:42Sara Blakely?

  How about that question for you?

• 59:46Lewis Howes?

  I'll tell you off camera.

• 59:47Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 59:48Lewis Howes?

  I'll have to think about it. I don't know. I'm so focused on you right now.

• 59:53Lewis Howes?

  Um, again, before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Sarah, for being an incredible inspiration in the world, for being a, a leader for women where, where I think a lot of women didn't have a lot of great leaders before you came around and you've really stepped up to show people what's possible to have it all in all areas of life, family, relationships, career, business, friendships, your health, and it's, and you're an amazing example for so many people and your generosity and your sweetness and your kindness is even more refreshing because of what you've created. Uh, you're still a genuine, kind, caring, loving person. So I want to acknowledge you for the incredible gifts you are.

• 1:00:37Sara Blakely?

  Thank you.

• 1:00:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:38Sara Blakely?

  That was so nice.

• 1:00:39Lewis Howes?

  Of course, you're welcome.

• 1:00:40Sara Blakely?

  I really appreciate that.

• 1:00:41Lewis Howes?

  Of course.

• 1:00:42Sara Blakely?

  I took that in.

• 1:00:43Lewis Howes?

  Good.

• 1:00:43Sara Blakely?

  Yeah, thank you.

• 1:00:45Lewis Howes?

  Make sure everyone follows you on Instagram and you're gonna do a giveaway.

• 1:00:48Sara Blakely?

  Please. Yes, I am gonna do a giveaway. I just joined Instagram.

• 1:00:51Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 1:00:52Sara Blakely?

  Okay, so I ran around the airport asking people to follow me.

• 1:00:56Lewis Howes?

  There you go. You're like hustling just like you were with Spanx.

• 1:00:59Sara Blakely?

  I can't help myself. I'm like, hi, I'm Sarah. I just joined Instagram. Everyone in the terminal's like, who cares? It's funny.

• 1:01:05Lewis Howes?

  Okay, awesome. Is there anything else that we can do to support you before the final question? Cause I still haven't asked you yet.

• 1:01:10Sara Blakely?

  There's a fi-

• 1:01:11Lewis Howes?

  I haven't asked it yet.

• 1:01:11Sara Blakely?

  Final, final?

• 1:01:12Lewis Howes?

  I haven't asked it yet. I just keep, I keep promoting you. So what else can we do to support you? Go buy Spanx.

• 1:01:17Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 1:01:18Lewis Howes?

  Buy the book.

• 1:01:18Sara Blakely?

  Yes.

• 1:01:19Lewis Howes?

  Follow you on Instagram.

• 1:01:19Sara Blakely?

  Because I give back to help women. So the more Spanx that are bought, the more I can do to help. It's all full circle.

• 1:01:25Lewis Howes?

  There you go.

• 1:01:26Sara Blakely?

  It's like a full circle thing here.

• 1:01:27Lewis Howes?

  I like it.

• 1:01:29Sara Blakely?

  Yeah. No, I think you did a great job. Thank you. And the Belly Book, the Belly Art Project, buy them for everybody you know. It's all for, I mean, it's a gift that gives back.

• 1:01:36Lewis Howes?

  You give it all away.

• 1:01:37Sara Blakely?

  A hundred percent is going to help moms in need.

• 1:01:39Lewis Howes?

  There you go. Love it. Okay, this is the final question.

• 1:01:42Sara Blakely?

  Okay.

• 1:01:42Lewis Howes?

  Sarah Blakely, what is your definition of greatness?

• 1:01:47Sara Blakely?

  My definition of greatness would be going for it no matter what, despite fear, and making the absolute most of the life that you are given because it's not a dress rehearsal.

• 1:02:02Lewis Howes?

  Sarah Blakely, thank you so much. That was amazing. Thank you. Appreciate it.

• 1:02:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow, I'm so inspired by this episode. I loved this interview with Sarah and I wanted you to have access to this. She's such an inspiration and I love her story about failure, how she constantly was empowered to fail by her father. And I think that's so important because I think a lot of us are afraid to actually dive in and fail because of the embarrassment or the fear or whatever it may be, the discomfort. But when we can start to embrace that failure and really get excited about it and have fun with it and play with it, then we aren't afraid to fail as much. We can start to make it a game. And I think that's really cool. We can learn from it quicker and try to improve it. And the more you're willing to put yourself out there, you're going to fail.

• 1:02:55Lewis Howes?

  But you continue to do it, you're going to learn and you're going to grow in that failure and you're going to really succeed in a lot of ways. So if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. LewisHowes.com/893. Text your girlfriends, your guy friends, anyone you can think of. Send it to someone and say, "Hey, I really think you would like this. Let me know your thoughts on this." Also, you can text me at 614-350-3960 and text the word "PODCAST." Every week I send out motivational and inspirational audio messages just to this community of people that text me. I'm sending out different prizes, giveaways, and contests over there as well. Again, the number is 614-350-3960. Just text me the word "PODCAST"

• 1:03:40Lewis Howes?

  and let's stay connected over there as well. If this is your first time here, thank you so much for being a part of the School of Greatness community. I'd love for you to be a subscriber. Every week we bring the most inspirational icons on the planet like Sarah Blakely. To teach you the lessons and give you the stories to help you take your life to the next level, take your business, take your relationships, your spirituality, your mission, your purpose, it's all about becoming a better you. And that's what we do here at the School of Greatness. So click that subscribe button. It's free over on Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts. Leave us a review. We're over 6,000 five-star reviews. We'd love to see more of those. So click a review and continue to let us know how we can serve you, how we can support you.

• 1:04:25Lewis Howes?

  You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, all the places, @lewishouse and continue to stay connected with me there. When people share on their stories and they tag me, I reshare a lot of those when people are listening out at the gym or working out or driving in their car, listening to the podcast. So just take a screenshot and tag me whenever you listen and I'm so grateful that you were here. If you want to get more coaching from me, we have a program with thousands of entrepreneurs. It's called My Inner Circle where we help you every month, we bring on experts to give you master classes in online marketing, lead generation, social media, and brand building. I come on there every month and, and coach people live on video and do live coaching with the entire group and one-on-one. We do a lot of great stuff.

• 1:05:09Lewis Howes?

  There's a private community where people are part of helping each other find business opportunities, sharing their wins and successes. Everything happens at lewishouse.com/innercircle. So be a part of that community of thousands of entrepreneurs from around the world and let's take your brand to the next level in 2020 and beyond by being a part of that community. So check it out, lewishouse.com/innercircle. And as George Bernard Shaw said, "Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself." And Maya Angelou said, "There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." You've got this story, you've got a gift. Don't let the fear cripple you and hold you back from sharing it with the world.

• 1:05:53Lewis Howes?

  The greatest thing you can do is spread the gift, the gift of light, the gift of love, the gift of peace, the gift of fun, creativity, adventure. You've got it inside you. Now's the time to share it and spread your light. I love you so very much. Thank you for being here, whether it's your first time or you've been a subscriber for seven years, thank you so much. I'm so excited to continue this journey with you and as you know, Now's the time. It's time to go out there and do something great.