Transcript

Live From The HIBT Summit: Sara Blakely Of Spanx

Today, we're releasing the very first interview from the 2019 How I Built This Summit, which happened in October in San Francisco. And I just want to say it was super, super inspiring to have so many How I Built This founders gather together in the same place at the same time for two days. People like Mike Krieger and Kevin. System of Instagram, Jen Rubio of Away, Stuart Butterfield of Slack, and many, many others. And they all sat down with me in front of a live audience and just talked really, honestly and openly, about the excitement and terror and challenges of starting a business, sharing lots of new ideas and stories along the way. And today's episode is with Sarah Blakely, founder of Spanx. If you haven't heard the original episode, You may want to go back and give it a listen.

It was our very first and still one of our favorites, because really it is such a crazy success story. With absolutely no experience in fashion or design, Sarah set out to create this new kind of undergarment, one that sort of smooths out the lumps and bumps under your clothes. Today of course Sphinx is an international brand and Sarah is a billionaire. And what you'll discover here is that she's also super open about the strategies she used to stay confident and optimistic when she was just getting started. I want to go back to 1998, when you first were experimenting, when you cut the feet and the legs of pantyhose. Yes. Um and be began to design what would become eventually spanks. And on the podcast you said something to me that I've I've never forgotten. And I'm gonna quote here. You said Ideas are at their most vulnerable when they're brand new.

Yes. Oh it's not gonna work, it sucks, it's stupid, forget it, if it's so great, why didn't other people do it? Um You decided not to pretty much not to tell anybody to keep it A secret.

And it was for that reason because you knew that you would be discouraged? Yes. Now I shared my idea with people who could help me move it forward, like a patent attorney, the people in the manufacturing plants, but I decided I wasn't going to tell anybody just to say, hey, what do you think of this for a while. Ideas are the most vulnerable in their infancy, and we all have amazing ideas. I'm a believer that everybody in their lifetime has at least one million dollar idea, maybe even a billion dollar idea. But it is our inclination as humans to immediately turn to our right or left and say to our friend or co worker or husband and wife and say, Hey, I have this idea, what do you think?

And out of love and concern they'll say Well, you know, if it's such a great idea, why hasn't anybody done it? Or Things like that, and then you end up spending all of your time defending it and explaining it rather than pursuing it. And so I pursued the idea of spanksk for one year. before I told anybody

I sat my family down, I said, guys You ready? They all they knew was Sarah's working on some crazy idea. They didn't know what it was. And I sat him down and I said, Okay, you ready? It's footless pantyhouse. Right, you can imagine the response. They were like, what?

And uh and then I got all the out of total love, you know, if it's such a good idea, Sarah, why doesn't it it already exist? And you know, honey, even if this is a good idea, you're going to spend your$5,000 on s in savings and within six months the big guys could just knock you right out of the water. And I think I really believe, Guy, that had I heard that in the minute that I had the idea and caught the feet out of my pantyhose. I really not have started spanking.

You know could have affected you, you would have given up. Yeah, or I just would have been easily let that one fly right out the window and just been like yeah, okay, maybe you're right. But I also I had set intention for an idea two years before this. And that also helped me. So I sold fax machines door to door for seven years, and I got I was always kicked out of buildings. People would rip up my business card in my face all the time. And one day I had had such a particularly bad day, I pulled off the side of the road, and that's when I thought

I'm in the wrong movie. Like call the director, call the producer, call the writer. This is not my life. And I wrote down what I was good at in my apartment. I'm like, what are you good at, Sarah? And in my good column was sales. And I started asking myself, what is it about sales that I like? And I realized I really liked selling somebody something that they needed or would improve their life. And I wrote down I'm gonna invent something that I can sell to millions of people. that will make them feel good. And then I looked up and I said, I need the idea.

And so two years later, when I cut the feet out of my pantyhose to go to a party, I had never worked in fashion or retail. Undergarment issue kind of, because they rolled up my legs all night. But um But I you know I looked smooth, I had no lines, and I thought this should exist for women. But because I had set that intention and been so clear with the universe two years prior and said, please give me the idea. You know, I I believe ideas are gifts from the universe, and I think they're very precious, and I think the minute we get them we should write them down instantly. I've been carrying the same style notebook with me for twenty years and now I mostly use my phone, but I keep a log of every thought and idea that I think could potentially be something.

I I think about your story a lot because In those early days where you were going door to door, selling fax machines, getting doors slammed in your face. I wonder if that built resiliency. Start this company? One hundred percent. I believe that cold calling is one of life's greatest trainings. Wow. I had to learn how to be quick on my feet. I had to learn how to win somebody over quickly. I had to learn to get to the heart of the matter in um a sales scenario very quickly, which is when I learned what's in it for them and get to the point very quickly and don't sell the product, sell the problem you're solving. I learned all this through massive mega trial and error and door after door slamming in my face.

And that helped me so much with Spanks because for the first two years I was working on Spanx at night and on the weekends while I was still selling fax machines. by day. And that I got s uh told no for two years. Yeah, I mean it was basically no. Which I just want to point out, if you invent something or if you're an innovator, it means you're doing something that's different than how everybody else is doing it. You're going to hear the word no. That's cool. If I mean if you say you had told people about this idea, people who loved you and cared about you, maybe some of them would have said, hey, you know, Sarah why don't you go work for a fashion company for a couple of years and get experience in the industry and learn about it and learn the ins and outs, um, and then you know, you you m you'll know what to do. You'll have connections and so on. But I wonder if

Um sort of an intuitive advantage given that you ac I mean you told me on the show you didn't know anything about the industry. Right. I mean that's really logical advice to give, especially f as a parent.

To a child. Like go get experience before you go do this. So there's a very high likelihood I, you know, would have heard that right away. And you know, one of the things my life was so bad. When I was selling fax machines door to door. And I had this conversation one time with my dad and he said, Honey

You know, you live in Atlanta now. Go get a job at CNN or go work at Coke, and this voice inside of me said But then I might be content. Mm-hmm. And I thought I need to be miserable right now. Like I need to stay miserable because if I stay in rock bottom and I'm this unhappy

I'm gonna ensure that I I'm willing to take some sort of a leap that terrifies me. But I mean even early on you didn't I mean you didn't ask for permission. When you went to Neman Marcus I mean your products were on display in sort of the back of the hosiery section and you surreptitiously moved them next to the cash register. Yes so people would notice them. You didn't ask for permission and you

It was almost like you were fearless. You wouldn't you weren't worried about the consequences of of doing those kinds of things. Yeah, I'm definitely not fearless. I'm courageous. And there's a big difference. I'm f afraid of so many things. Like those days that I moved the stand when no one gave me permission to, I was shaking. But I believe the difference is that courage is doing things despite fear. And you know, we build our courage muscle by continuing to just face it and do it. But I was terrified during all of those steps.

I will say that I think Being an entrepreneur and charting your own own course Especially if you're going to be doing things different than how everybody else does it, which is where real change and innovation for society and the world happens. You have to be someone who is willing to ask for forgiveness, not permission. And I still I still live my life that way. You know, I I feel like there were so many fundamental things that happened in the early days where I would just

Um ask for forgiveness. If Spanks had not gotten any traction in the first few years, Do you think you would have Persisted and kept going. Yes, I mean when you said that I just was looking at you so confused because I'm like of course it would get traction because I was making the traction. I went to every department store in the country that bought spanks to sell it and sold it for them.

I stood in the store from eight thirty in the morning until seven at night every day. Selling my own product. to ensure it was a success. And then the other thing I did, Guy, was I was buying my own product. So I was sending checks to all of my friends around the country to go buy Spanks. So it was like I was a hundred percent sure it was gonna Take off. Right.

I mean literally I would call friends and I'd say, Hey, it's Sarah. Can you go into Neiman Marcus in Dallas and look like you love this product called Spanx and buy it and I'll mail you a check. I mean you have to. And then I would go stand in the department stores and I would be selling the product and I realized that a lot of people just would ignore me, so I would Ask friends to come over to Neiman's on their lunch break just to stand by my table and look interested. Because energy begets energy. So then all of a sudden my friends be like Q, go. And they'd be like, wow, this looks so interesting. And then all of a sudden all these shoppers would come over and you know I'd have to like push my friends aside and be like, okay, good. So um I mean when you think about the arc of the story, right?

You launch the product and within two years. Oprah is talking about. I mean it sounds like Uh just a flash like so quickly. Did it feel like it was fast at the time or did it feel like a sort of a slow burn? The development of the product felt very slow. It took two years and I was working at night and on the weekends. But then once I had the product made, it did feel like it was very fast. I mean I quit my job on October sixteenth and Oprah called me in the beginning of November.

Well. And chose Spanks as her favorite product of the year. Which of course. It blew up, right? You you had an apartment in Atlanta at the time, I think you were stacked boxes stacked and I did. It was really a wild time. I was the fulfillment house. I had semitrucks coming to my apartment twice a week with boxes of spanks.

And I didn't have a website, and you know, of course the Oprah show's like you have a website, right? Because that's a requirement to be a favorite thing. I was like Yes. Yes, I do. I had like six days to build a website. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know anything. I actually took a color copy of the packaging I had created on my friend's computer and scanned it, and that was the home page of my website for a year and a half. Um, Sarah, as you know, the theme of This conference is kindness and collaboration. We deliberately wanted that to be the theme because it seems so un business like and ish and we want

We we think that this show, people like you, the founders we've had on the show really rede are redefining What it means to run a business, an ethical business and a kind company, and a collaborative company, um Can you share um just one quick story of kindness or an act of kindness that you experienced when you Yeah, when you were Trying to ramp this thing up.

I mean there's where do I begin? There's so many acts of kindness. That's the reason that I'm sitting here. But when I first started Spanks, it was about three months after I started it. I was at a cocktail party. And three guys came up to me. And they said, Sarah, so we heard you invented something. And I said, Yes, I did. I'm so excited. And one of the guys put his hand on my shoulder and he said, Yep.

Great. He goes, You know, business is war. Mm. And I just looked at him and the other guy goes, Yep. I hope you're ready to go to war, Sarah. And I went back that night and sat on the floor of my apartment.

And I think I was in Hello Kitty pajama bottoms. And I just was staring at the floor and I thought I don't wanna go to war. Like there has to be a better way. There has to be a different way. I have no interest in going to war. And I made a decision that night that I was gonna go about this business in a very different way.

And use very different principles of other than going to war. And I just want to say I'm very happy that I believe there's a real shift happen now where the conversations around using kindness and vulnerability and empathy and intuition is finding its home inside of business because I truly think it's about the balance. You know, sir, I think um uh a lot of people are surprised when they hear stories uh of founders who are not naturally charismatic. Um I I can think of like um Yvonne Chinard or

Eileen Fisher or Tony Shea, they're they're more introverted. They have a curve there's an inner charisma they have, but they're more introverted and and quiet and you come across as very charismatic. First of all, is that something that you just are or is it something you learned how to be as you grew into your into your role. I feel like this is who I am.

Mm-hmm. I've been this way since I was a little girl. Do you think it's an important quality to have as a founder? I mean clearly not because there's so many founders that aren't more extroverted. I think it's really fundamentally comes down to the belief in yourself. And the profile of the person, listen, you gotta hire your weaknesses as soon as you can afford to.

I know what my weaknesses are. And if you're the kind of founder that sales and being out front in front of people and cold calling and doing all of that isn't your thing, then that's a great place for you to invest your money early on as soon as you can afford to. I needed to invest In an operator.

very clearly. I was not good at that. I did not enjoy that. The day to day management of the company, the inventory, the logistics. I mean literally I remember when I first started and I had to be every department, I was The head of sales The head marketer. The head. Packer and Shipper.

I was the before and after butt model. I was literally Every department, okay? And one time I don't know that I've ever told this story, one time in the beginning when it was all happening, I was having to ship Neiman Marcus orders. I got my big break and the the buyer said I'll put'em at seven stores. And so I was in the aisle of office depot looking for a bill of lading. and um manifest. Okay. And all of a sudden I sat on the floor of the aisle and started sobbing.

I just started crying and this man was looking for like I don't know envelopes. He's like, Are you okay, honey? I'm like, what's a bill of lading? I don't even know what I'm doing. And and it was highly overwhelming to me that side of the business. How did you We still don't really know what a bill of lading is. How did you manage your own personal anxiety in in those early days and even as you began to grow.

Yeah, I definitely have um a lot of negative self talk. It's a part of my life. I think it's a part of everybody's um life. I will doubt myself often. I still do. And I've also trained myself to identify when it's happening because sometimes we don't even know we're saying the stuff we're saying to ourselves. And so the identification and the awareness is a big part of it, and then I will reframe it. I will just stop it. And I have certain things that I'll say to the voice when it starts happening.

And um I'll redirect it. I mean it's it's remarkable because I think a a lot of people in this audience and and beyond who know you would think of you as a s you know The superhero, right? Like That you would never have self doubt or anxiety. But I think it's important to hear that because

A lot of the founders on our show Have talked about that. have talked about things like imposter syndrome. Or about experiencing bouts of self doubt even now, even after they've been wildly successful.

I think that's a big part of success. I think it's the people who can um that really is a huge component to success. There's a quote that says um self doubt will kill more successes than failures ever will.

So I I just happened to be lucky. I was going through a really hard time in my life at the age of sixteen. I watched my friend run over by a car and killed, and then my dad left home. My parents got separated and when my dad moved out, he handed me these cassette tape. From Wayne Dyer and said, Sweet, I wish I was your age when I listened to this instead of the age of forty. And then he left. And so I started listening to these and it talked about not caring what other people think about you, not fearing failure. А старте край і мо. And I just remember thinking, I have just spent sixteen years in school being taught what to think.

But nobody has ever taught me how to think. And it was like Yeah. It was like the lights went off and I went Oh wait, I can control how I think, and then I became a student outside of school of that. Anything I could get my hands on of how can I train my thinking to process things in a way that propels me forward rather than holds me back.

And I gotta say in high school, nobody wanted to be stuck in my car. After a party, they're like, don't go in her car, she's gonna make you listen to that motivational stuff. I had it on at all times, literally. And then um, and then I ended up on the cover of Forbes like 10 or 15 years later, and all my friends from Clearwater High texted me and they were like, damn, should have listened to that. Ha ha

Sarah Blakely, founder of Sphinx. Sarah joined me live on stage at the 2019 How I Built This Summit, which happened in October at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. We're gonna be running more conversations from the summit every Thursday through the new year, so keep checking for updates. Next week, we've got Troy Carter, an investor and the former manager. behind Lady Gaga. Thanks to JC Howard, who produced this episode, and Raptin Arablui, who composed the music.

I'm Guy Raz, and you've been listening to how I built this.