Got to feel like a model for a moment. Pretty cool. Hello. She really needs no introduction but i will introduce for. Sarah is the legend in the entrepreneurial world, the founder of spanx. Not only is she making people look better in their clothes that she has been incredibly generous with her foundation and we will touch on a number of these topics in the chat so thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Lets start at the beginning. You are a frustrated consumer. I was. And decided to try to solve a problem. What were you trying to solve clacks i couldnt figure out what to wear under white pants and i was frustrated as a consumer, undergarment options at the time were not great. We had underwear that the detainee line, the turtles that were thick and uncomfortable, and then they invented the phone did he have thong that puts underwear exactly where weve been trying to get it out of. [laughter] at the time i invented spanx and for those in the audience who dont know what this is, its a invented and undergarment fills the gap between traditional underwear and a heavyduty shapers and i was interested in giving women a smooth canvas. Like i love clothes and to be able to wear them, thats just what a painter if you dont have the right canvas, it affects the painting. The options were not great and could be seen, they left lions, bulges cause of that is what caused me to invented the first product which was the first ever spanx for this pantyhose. I broke into an industry that had been on a doubledigit decline. They were making hosiery to be seen on the leg and all i did is make one small tweak to a product that had been made for a long time and i was able to revitalize the industry and have the fabric be what was special about what i need instead of saying lets get on the legs. It was a strange concept for all of the men especially in the manufacturing plants because they were like its meant to be seen. Weve been making at the same way for so long and i said i just want the material. Im going to invented a new type of product, and undergarment thats made out of it. It doesnt need to be seen on the legs. Started with 5,000, an idea, and you went down the line to talk to these men in the manufacturing plants. How did that go . [laughter] it was interesting. When i first thought of the idea with the backup for a minute. I actually really manifested the idea. Its like everyone is always like how did you take an idea and then start a business . How did you even come up with the idea. At the time, my life was not great. I was selling fabric machines doortodoor living with my mom, like 25yearsold, and i remember after a whole day of being kicked out of Office Complexes or they were sometimes my business cards wrapped up in my face, i pulled off on the side of the road and was like im in the wrong movie like what just happened. Call the director, called the producer, this is not my life. I went home that night and wrote down my strengths are what i thought i was good at and the only thing i had with sales and i felt okay well i know im good at selling. What is that i like about it and i realize i like offering something for someone that the need or didnt know they needed that could improve their life would help them. So in a moment, he wrote down in my journal i want to invented products that i can go to millions of people that will make them feel good. [applause] and two years later the idea came to me and i was ready for it. Women have been cutting the feet out of the pantyhose for a long time and i only dated on did it, but i already asked the universe for my idea and said when it comes i will not squander it and i will take it and run with it. I didnt know where to go. Ive never taken a business class. I never worked in fashion or retail. I have no industry contacts. I went on the internet and started looking up hosiery manufacturers and they were in north carolina. I called them on the phone relentlessly and didnt get anywhere so eventually i took a week off of work and drove there in person. And it was such an eyeopening experience for me, for them also. Im sure they didnt know what to make of me. I have my lucky red backpack with me and i would just show up unannounced at the manufacturing plants and they would always ask me the same three questions. They would say and you are . And i would say sarah and they would say and you are . And i would say sarah blakely. And they would see and you are financially backed by . And i would say sarah blakely. [laughter] so thats how it all started just banging on doors and trying to get someone to help make the idea. One of the important things for everybody in this room is that business aspect, the paperwork aspect and for you you were creating something that was new and differentiated and needed patents, trademarks, brand names. How did you ask someone selling machines and then with 5,000 talk about designing and developing this product i knew i wanted to protect it so i met with several attorneys and i called the Georgia Chamber of commerce and there wasnt a single female passed attorney so i went and met with three different lawyers and they quoted me between five to 10,000 to writ write my paddedi have 5,000 setasides landed up going to barnes and noble and i bought a book on patents and trademarks and then i [applause] i didnt know how to write the claims portion which was the legal part of it so i ended up going back to one of the layers picking him to do it over the weekend. Ive done the drawings of what it is and he agreed to do it, but you know what he later told because he said i thought you had been sent to my office by candid camera. [laughter] [laughter] i was like what you mean. He said dont take this the wrong way but youre not the typical person to walk in my door. You have a red backpack and started telling me youre going to change the world. I felt my friends were cranking me. [laughter] so the whole time hes looking around the room for a hidden camera. He said i will help you make this end christ the claims. I just i operated so much off of intuition and as a consumer. Wanting to protect it, i wanted to do that and i did it with as little money as they could because they didnt have much and then wanting to make the packaging stand up and make it something memorable, all of that. This is something that i talked about that is differentiated for the Small Business owners, you and i talked about the difference between the watch and the why. Help people understand our philosophy around that. I would like to say its important to stay connected to why. Why are you doing what youre doing, and thats a question i ask myself all of the time. So many times, companies focus on whats, what we are doing, what we are selling. People are deeply connected to why. Iand the Harry Company 17yearsold and never advertised until a year and a half ago for the first time. Suggest a brand built on wordofmouth and i fled with the story of spanx. Why am i doing it, why does this matter. He also touched on the importance of the brand. The brand under the name is cheeky and different. Tell us how you developed the name. The name spanx came to me after about a year of really bad names and i would think of the multimic in airports i could write them on the rental car agreement in scrap pieces of papepaper, gum wrappers like mae thats it. And i finally narrowed down my thinking and i knew kodak and cocacola were the most recognized names in the world so i just said what do they have in common and they had a strong case sound so forgot what i decided i want my product name and company name to have a k sound. It came to me sitting in traffic atlanta where i live and i saw it sort of come over the dashboard in my mind. I pulled over and wrote it down and when i was trademarking at night on my computer i went to my website which im sure you all know very well, its like my home away from home. I typed in spanx into the last moment i backspace and changed it to the letter at and trademarked it with my credit card. Can i tell you how bad the runnerup name was, opentoed delilahs. [laughter] i dont think i would be sitting here with you if i named the company opentoed delilahs. [laughter] it makes you look better and nobody ever forgot it. Nobody talked about undergarments, not on the red carpet is no less no less, so nt something fun im a big believer in having fun and being able to laugh at herself and all of a sudden radio djs were saying we want this girl that invented this name spanx so i started Getting Press and it brought life to a category that was super boring. Without a doubt. Continued to develop them for this pantyhose to a whole host of products and i think that is something often with Small Businesses are developing and growing. How do you keep the authenticity while you bring creativity and expansion into other products and build out your team fax that must have been a pretty big journey for you. Stay connected to why. Innovation and Product Development we do briefings on the products and people product ideas come from different people in the company, they often come from me that there will be a collaboration sometimes an employees husband who has an idea. Its very collective. But in the briefing is always why. So they had to say why are we doing this and why are we better. And that helps keep the product very connected and authentic. Icbms close to your consumer as you can. Im lucky that i am the consumer, i am my own consumer so i stay very close to that and spanx has just always been we didnt advertise so we were just wordofmouth. I got the chance in the early days i landed Neiman Marcus with my first account and i also than sold on qvc and everybody told me in the First Six Months they said you will be out of business in like three months. Nobody sales at Neiman Marcus and also on qvc that i trusted my gut and i said if it is me and i am able to tell my story, then lets see what happens. And its worked out beautifully. It was my chance to explain why. And when you explained why to the Neiman Marcus folks, how did you get them over the line . I called for about a week and a half every day multiple times a day kept getting a voicemail and i knew from selling fax machines dont leave a message. After about a week and a half, the human answered and i was like hello, this is sara blakely and i invented a product thats going to change the way your customers were closed and its going to make a big difference for them. Can i have ten minutes of your time. I was flown to dallas and she said if you are going to fly here i will give you ten minutes. I jumped on a plane and i went there. Literally five minutes into the pitch, she was so perfect that you have to imagine it like her dress matched her pain that matched her shoes. [laughter] i come in with my lucky red backpack from college which let me tell you my friends were like you cant take that red backpack to the Neiman Marcus headquarters, no. By a prada bag and return of the next day, whatever you need to do. [laughter] so im sitting here with a ziploc bag of the prototype in my red backpack from college and a color copy of the packaging that my friend and i created on her computer. Ive been working on designing the package. Anyway, i was losing her bigtime like five minutes into the end of an all of a sudden its like you know what, will you come to the bathroom with me. [laughter] shes like excuse me and i said you just need to come with me and im going to show you in person. So i went in the stall and i put it under the white pants and showed her with and without and she calmly said i get it from its brilliant and i will try it in seven stores. [applause] ive known ssierra for more than a decad decade, and the perseverance and courage is amazing and palpable. There were bumps in the road. Your dad is very important in your life and he talked a lot about failure and the way you think about failure no doubt there were small failures along the way. Help folks understand your philosophy around failure and what you learned. Growing up, my dad used to encourage my brother and me to fail so at the dinner table he would actually ask us what did you fail at this week and if we didnt have something to tell him he would actually be disappointed. I remember coming home from school like i tried out for this and i was horrible and he would be likely to go and highfives me. It was such a gift what he was doing. I didnt realize at the time but he was redefining failure for me so it came not about the outcome, but about not trying. So the fear of failure as we all know its one of the greatest fears in life and one of the greatest things that stops us in our tracks. We celebrate failures and talk about them and we have meetings where we all announce things we had. We sometimes even attached theme songs and we will play it in front of the whole company but i think it is just so important to get the people you work with to take risks and not live in a place if that i want to protecy job if you like i not save if i make mistakes. One of the things i also like to do is go up to people and say if you think about it everything we do autopilot we do things the way someone showed us were taught us how to do it. If you are doing things the way someone else told you there is going to be no significant change or meaningful potential breakthrough. I always go up to people and say if nobody showed you how to do your job, how would you be doing it. Just sit with that. Stop myself off to like this is how ive been doing it but is this right in to give yourself f time to think about it. But thats from my dad celebrating failure and teaching me. I wanted to be a lawyer growing up. I dont think that he actually made it but you did. I wanted to be a lawyer, my dad was a lawyer and would get me out of school to watch causing arguments it was important. I have been debating in high school and college and i basically failed the test, i had been a bad test taker. I took the course and feel that basically, so i always say failure like that is lifes way of nudging you and letting you know you were of course. One of the things that is hardthat youre a passionate entrepreneur who cares very deeply after all these years about your business and your brand. What happens when you bring someone in and how to describe the culture i guess and when something didnt fit with the culture or someone how did you deal with it . They are tough decisions. Culture is important. So, i would describe the culture as entrepreneurial, fun, risktaking, innovative. We are very innovative. Everyone has heard it you hire e slow and fire fast. Its hard to do that, but if someone is in the right fit for your culture it can impact the entire whole team. Something else you said i must admit having the chance to work with a lot of entrepreneurs not everyone does you said hi your your weaknesses. Yes, i have. Is that empowering for you or sure. I tell people when you cant afford to come higher your weaknesses. You know what you are good at and thought and what you like ie and dont like and usually there is a correlation. When we are entrepreneurs we are in every department i started as the packager and the shipper of head of sales and packing and everything. [laughter] i was like i dont like this or im not good at this and as soon as i could afford to, i hired the people that were better at that than i was. And being an entrepreneur you have the idea, you start it and create something out of nothing which is incredible, but you need people to grow it and you have to be willing to delegate and let go of the reins in certain areas for sure for it to grow beyond just view. Speaking of that, as many people probably know sarah also has four children. Under the age of eight. [applause] and she still remains the incredible ceo that shes always been. I think it is a genderneutral term question by the way, but you as the ceo, founder and a mother of four, how do you even begin to think about and im going to use the word balance i think that its a silly concept but how do you integrate all of the pieces of your life . Do you have a set schedule or what are the secret sauce i is o that lacks while, i will tell you it is really hard and i am a work in progress. I dont have this whole thing figured out. There are some days that i cry and some days im like ive got this. This is great. I think thats what its about is to expect youre not going to have those days feeling completely overwhelmed or youre not cutting it as a mother or at work. It normal. One bit of advice i can give and like i said im not an expert here im still trying to figure it out, to stop the negative talk. Do not beat yourself up. The first year and a half that i was a mother, i come to the amount of negative self talk and beating myself up, you should be with your child, you shouldnt be at work. I have to make a conscious effort to stop that and i started to see a change for myself, that i had to train that voice to go, to stop and not give it ou power. Im working on creating memorable moments with my children. I drop them off at school every day, my husband picks them up buoffbut i find that creating te special kind of memories is important, so i for example a few pancakes every sunday, so we have pancakes sunday and i do one thing with each of my children alone and we have our special things like my oldest son i pick him up sometimes randomly at school and we go to a tree and ipaq sleeping bags in the back of the car and we spread them out and draw and a book and weve been drawin drawn the same book every time we go to this special treats are trying to give them each really important memories as well. They come home from school and i have twins that are three and they had to write what do they like most about mommy and whethemoney and whatdo they lik. My one son wrote i love us about mommy is she gives me hugs and as a mom you cant help but be like well what about i take you to school everyday after is also chosen to remain 100 in control and ownership of your company which is pretty unusual. [applause] conscious decision, why did you make it and have you considered along the way as many businesses do raising capital in order to grow the business, how did you work that lacks well, when i first started spanx in the First Six Months, i have multiple people come up and asked mask me what my exit stras and i was like what are you talking about i didnt know people started businesses just to exit them. Finally after six months i said to someone when he asked me i set my exit strategy as i want to exit a room and look good. [laughter] just literally i got lucky as a munchkias amunchkin or that it t me a lot to take in the capital. My prototypes were very inexpensive t technique and the manufacturer was helping me make them basically for free. I dont think he thought the idea was going to go anywhere, but so i have been able to be profitable from the beginning and i also believe in starting small and thin king big and i never got ahead of myself and i just have taken the profits from my sold and usethat i sold and y the next round of inventory and thats what ive done from the very beginning. You also in this new world order of ours are a big user against a gram. How do you think about your role as a mother, wife, friend, social entity and ceo into your views and how you think about being that public persona and also the ceo of a large billiondollar company . I was probably one of the last people on the planet to join and stay gram or any social media. I just joined not long ago, and i love it. I am having so much fun. Im using and will continue to until it is not fun. I do my own content. Its always worth a moment. I may be leader and being very authentic. You will see a good come of god, the struggles. Im putting out advice and tips and im showing it all, but its messy and real. Not a lot of filters going on on my insta gram channel. Speaking of friendships and advice, Richard Braunstein you got to know him on the rebel billionaire. Hes been to be here today for those of you that dont do that. Have you shared advice along the way to not only as successful entrepreneurs but also public figures . I met Richard Branson in an unlikely way. We became friends in the first time i met him we scaled the side of a hot air balloon together at 10,000 feet in the air and had tea on top of the balloon. [laughter] i tell people if you like a basically have ttheybasically ho become his friend. She did a show called the rebel billionaire and it was his version of the apprentice but instead of all the business challenge is taking place just in new york city, they took place around the world. We did not know a minor detail is that if you didnt win the fe business challenge instead of going to a board room and getting fired you would have to be world recordbreaking stunt with richard. [laughter] the contract was 27 pages and it said we could cement you underwater, and i submitted it to my dad and said can you make some advice and he said no sane person would sign this, love dad. I signed it i richard and i became great friends. I climbed to the very end of that show and i was the last two contestants. I did challenges around the world, and crazy stuff i had to do. Richard you just watch many learn, what i love is he has a bias for action, he is super passionate about the consumer imax advocating for the consumer. When it for he thinks the consumers being underserved thats where he goes. He is a great delegator and as crazy as it is he didnt ask us to do anything he didnt do himself. In addition to being a great business woman, wife and mother you have also started a foundation. Thats focused on empowering women and girls. [applause] is one of the projects you did was the belly our project. She painted her pregnant belly and got other people to including someone very famous who is also here and that is warren buffett, how did you get warm buffett to participate in this project. When i was pregnant three days before i delivered my son i woke up in the middle the night a semi belly and said this is amazing. How can my body do this. I sought is a big beautiful caiaphas. That may be may body would never be that way again. I had a friend come over and paint my belly and i ran around atlanta. When he painted watermill i went into a Kroger Grocery store and i put my belly on top of the display and you cannot tell the difference. Like i did all this for charity. As can make a coffee book about it to raise money for maternal health. I donated proceeds to every woman counts. Once the only guy in the book. I was like enough to be seated next to warren one day and he said what are you up to and i said well i just did this photo shoot and he belly laugh for a while and said thats amazing how do i get in the book and i said well youre not pregnant and he said youre telling me you dont have enough to work with . I didnt know if he was serious or not. About a year later i emailed him and said a measure of your serious and he said count man. The amazing and talented before we wrap up im happy to be here but theres two things i want to do, i only do this when i give speeches. The first thing is get out your phones and go to ask sarah Brett Blakely and follow. If you want to put in the comments goldman all pick 30 people and send leggings or an guys valentines day is tomorrow. You could get for your girl my guy friends got spanks leggings for the girlfriend arrives for the holiday and just email try me at spanks will email a code just for you i will give you 50 off of anything you want. And we make spanks for guys but we also have a lot your women would like. Its just one time code that goes to you and you can use it until friday. The last thing is you have to spell it within acts or you will get a real treat. [applause] it afternoon ill call order of wild we make probiotic drink