8 00 p. M. Next on sara blakely from spanx shared her advice on being a Small Business owner. She gave them to Goldman Sachs summit in washington d. C. Hi, everybody. Wow. [ applause ] got to feel like a model for a moment. There you go. Hello. Sarah needs to introduction, but ill introduce her. Sarah is the legend in the entrepreneurial world of spanx. Incredibly in fundraising with her foundation. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. All right. So lets start at the beginning. Okay. So you were frustrated consumer. I was. And you decided to try to solve a problem. What was the problem you were trying to solve . Well, i couldnt figure out what to wear under white pants. And i was a frustrated consumer. Under garment options at the time were not great. Right. We had under wear that left a p panty line. Girdles that were uncomfortable. Then they invented the thong which put under wear exactly where we were trying to get it out of. [ laughter ] so i was like, yeah, no. And, listen, at the time that i invented spanx, and for the guys in the audience and stomp of the lady ease wsome of the lady eas who dont know, i filled a gap between the under wear and shapers. And i was interested in giving women a smooth canvas. I love clothes and be able to wear them, but just like a pain fer if you dont have the right canvas it effects the whole painting. And options werent great. They could be seen. They left lines. They left bulges, so thats what inspired me to make the first spanx. I broke into an industry that had been on a double digit decline. And they were making hoistry to be seen on the leg. And all i did was make one very small minor tweak to a product being made for a long time and i was able to revitalize the industry and have ht fabric be what was special about what i made instead of saying, lets see it on the leg. There was a very strange concept for all of the men, especially in the manufacturing plants, bass they were like, wait, its meant to be seen on the leg, we have been making it the same way for the whole time. I said i just want your material. It doesnt need to be seen on the leg. So you started with 5,000. Yes. And an idea. An idea. And you went down to South Carolina to talk to these enlightened men in the manufacturing plants. How did that go . It was interesting. You know, when i first thought of the idea, well, let me back up for one second. I actually really manifested the idea. So its like everyone is always how did you take an idea and then start a business . Well, its how did you come up with the idea . I was in search of my idea. And at the time my life was not great. I was selling fax machines door to door. Living with my mom. I was like 25 years old. And i remember after a whole entire day of being kicked out of Office Complexes again all day, or sometimes my Business Card ripped up in my face, i pulled off the side of the road one day, kathy, and i was like im in the wrong manufacture ee. What just happened. Call the director. Call the producer. This is not my life this is not my movie. A went home that night and wrote down my strengths or what i thought i was good at. And only thing good column was sales. And i thought, okay, well, i know im good at selling. What is it i like about selling . And i realized i like offering something to someone that they need or didnt know that they needed that can improve their life or help them. And so in that moment i wrote down in my journal i want to in strebt a product that i can sell to millions of people that will make them feel good [ applause ] and you know what, and two years later the idea came to me. And i was ready for it. People, women had been cutting feet out of panty hose for a long time. And i only did it one time, but i had already asked the universe for my idea. And i said when it comes, ill not squander it. And ill take it and run with it. But then when i ended up, i didnt know where to go. I had never taken a business class. I had never worked in fashion or retail. I had no industry contacts. I went on the internet and started looking up hoistry manufacturers and threat were in north carolina. And i called them on the phone relent leslie and didnt get any where. So eventually i took a week off of work and drove in person. It was eye opening experience for me. For them too, they didnt know what to think of me. I had my lucky read back pack with me, and i would show up announced and they would ask me the same three questions. They asked and you are . I would say sara blakely. They would say who are you with . Sara blakely. And financially backed by . Sarah blakely. So nice to meet you. Good luck, girl. So thats how it all started beating on doors and getting someone to get my idea. One of the important things for everyone in this room is the business aspect, paperwork aspect. And for you, you were creating something that was new and differentiated needed patents. Yes. Trademarks, brand name. Talk about how did you, as someone selling fax machines 5,000 and idea start to think about patents and designing and developing this product. Well, i just knew that i wanted to protect it. And so i went and met with several patent attorneys. And at the time i called the Georgia Chamber of commerce, there wasnt a single female patent attorney in the state of georgia. So i went and met with three different lawyers and they all quoted me between 5 and 10,000 to write ply patent. And i had 5,000 so i went to barnes noble and read up on patents and wrote my own patent. [ applause ] but i didnt know how to write the claims portion which is the really legal part of it. So i ended up going back to one of the lawyers and just begging him to do it over the weekend. Ive done everything. Ive done the abstract background. You know, ive done the drawing of what it is. And he agreed to do it. But, you know, he later, you know what he later told me, sara i thought you had been sent to my office by candid camera. [ laughter ] i was like what do you mean . He goes well dont take this the wrong way, but you werent the typical person who walked in the door. You whipped out hoistry with a read back page. I felt my friends were pranking me. And during the meeting he was looking around the room and now i was know he was looking for the cam wrath he said ill help you write the claims and i did it. So i offered so much off in tuition. And i did it with as little money as i could because i didnt have much. And wanting to make the packaging stand out and wanting to name it something memorable and all of that. You touched on this in the beginning, but i want to talk about it differentiated and important for the Small Business owners here. You and i have talked about the difference between the what and the why. Why he. Help people understand your philosophy around that. Yeah, i like to say its really important to stay connected to the why. Why are you doing what you are doing . And thats a question i ask myself all of the time. And so many Times Companies focus so much on the what. What we are doing, what we are selling. But why. People are really deeply connected to the why. And spanx is a company, 17 years old, we never advertised until a year and a half ago for the first time, so this is brand built on word of mouth. And i led with the story of spanx always. The why. Why am i doing it. Why does this matter . Yeah. Very, very different shated. And you also touched on the importance of the brand. So the brand, the name is somewhat cheeky and different. Tell us about how you developed the name spanx. Well, the name spanx came to me after about a year of really bad names. And i would think of them all the time. Like in airports write them on rental car agreements and scrap pieces of payment pieces of paper in my purse. Gun wrappers. Maybe thats it. And i narrowed down my thinking. And i knew coca cola and kodak. And they both had k strong sound in it. So i said for good lucky wanted k sound in it. And literally spanx came to me and i saw it come over the dashboard in my name and i pulled over and wrote it down. And when i was trademarking it that night on my computer, i went to my website which im sure you all know very well usptogov, like my home away from home, typed in spanks, and then i had x and trademarked it. But can i tell you how bad my runnerup was . Open toe delilah. That is so bad. Rolls off the tongue. So bad. Can you imagine . I dont think id be sitting here with you if i named the company open toed delilah. But spanx is here makes your butt look better and nobody forgot t and my space i broke into super boring. No one talked about under garments. And the red carpet. Naming it something fun and laugh at your self. Then dj is it like i want this girl who invented spanx. So i brought life to a sugar meant that was super boring. Without a doubt. Foot his panty hose to a host of products. Yes. Thats something that often Small Businesses are developing and growing. How do you keep the authenticity while you bring creativity and extension into other products and start to build out your team . That must have been a pretty big journey for you. You stay connected tod the why. So in spanx on Product Development we do briefs on the product and products come from different people, but often from me, sometimes an employee, sometimes an employees husband that has an idea. Very collective. But in the brief its always why. So they have to say the why. Why are we doing this . And why are we better . And that helps keep the product very connected and authentic. I say be as close to your consumer as you can. I object cess the consumer. I am lucky i am the consumer, my own consumer, so i stay very close to that. And spanx has always been, we didnt advertise, so we were just word of mouth. You know, i got a chance, in the early days, i landed Nieman Marcus first account. And i also then sold on qvc. And everybody told me in the First Six Months they said youll be out of business in like twi monthhree months. Nobody sells at Nieman Marcus and qvc. And i trusted my gut if its me and im table to tell my story, lets see what happens. And its worked out beautifully. It was my chance to explain the why. And when you explained the why to the Nieman Marcus folks, how did you get them over the line . Well, i called for about a week and a half every day, multiple times a day, just kept getting voice mail, and i know from fax machines you dont leave a message. After a week and a half a human answer answered, i was like, hi, im sara blakely and i in vented a product that will make a big difference for them. Can i have ten minutes of your time. Ill fly to dollars. She said if you are willing to fly here ill give you ten minutes. So i jumped on a plane and went there. Literally five minutes into the pitch this lady was perfect, you have to imagine niemans, her pen matched dress matched her shoes. I came in lucky read back page from college. My friends are you cant. Buy a prada bag, return it the next day, whatever you need to do. But im like its good lucky need to do it. So im sitting in front of her i have zip lock bag of prototype of read back back frbackpack. And i was losing her. Five minutes into it, all of a sudden i was like, you know what, will you come to the bathroom with me. She was like, excuse me . I was like, yeah, you need to come to the bathroom with me. Im going to show you in person. So i went in the stall. I put on spanx under the white pants showed her with and without. And she calmly goes i get it. Its brilliant. And ill try it in seven stores. I was like yes [ applause ] so ive known sara for more than two decades and the percent veer ance is all important. And your dad taught you a lot. Small failures along the way. Help tell folks about failure and what you learned . Growing up my dad used to encourage my dad 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. And i can remember coming home fromle skoo, dad, dad, i tried out for this and i was horrible. And he would be like way to go and highfive me. [ laughter ] and it was such a gift what he was doing. I didnt realize it at the time but he was redefining failure for me. So failure became not about the outcome but about not trying. And so, you no he, the fear of failure as we all know as entrepreneur is one of the greatest fears in life, stops us in our tracks and keeps us from trying something. So i incorporate that in my philosophy at spanx. Celebrate failures. We talk about them. We have oops meetings where ill announce the oops that i have. And sometimes we have fun with it. Well even attach theme songs to our oops. And well play them in front of the whole company. But i think its so important to try to get the people you work with to take risks and to be entrepreneur and not live in ha place i want to protect my job and not feel like i cant make mistakes. Thats tough. One other things i like to do is go up to people at spapgs get people off auto pilot. If you this i about it almost everything we do in life is auto pilot. Doing things someone showed us or taught us how to do it. If we do things someone taught us, there wont be potential change or break through. So i always go up to people at spanx, if no one showed you how to do your job, how would you be doing it . And ill say just sit with that. Im always like ill stop myself often and just say, okay, you flow, this is how ive been doing it, but is this right and give people to think about it. So i ask the people to do that. But this is all about my dad teaching me failure. I wanted to be a lawyer growing up. Earlier conversation danny also thinking about it. I dont think he made it to the lsat. Did you. Well, you know, anybody can go in. Yeah. So i wanted to be a lawyer. My dad was a lawyer. And used to gret my out of school to watch closing arguments and something very important to me. I had been debating in high school and college. And i took the lsat to get into law school and failed it. Im a bad test taker. I took the course and failed it, basically. So i always say failure like that is lifes way of numbering you and letting you know you are off course. You scaled a business. One of the things thats really hard, i mean, you are passionate entrepreneur who cares deeply after all these years about your business and your brand. How did you build a team . And what happens when you bring someone in how would you describe the culture i guess one question, and when something didnt fit with that culture or someone, how did you deal with that . Those are tough decisions. They are tough decisions. I mean, culture is really important. So i would describe spanx culture as entrepreneurial, fun, risk taking, innovative, we are very innovative. And, you know, everyone has heard it, that you hire slow and you fire fast. And its hard to do that. But if someone is not the right fit for your culture, it can really impact the entire greater whole of the team. And Something Else you said i must admit having a chance to work with a lot of entrepreneurs you always say hire your weaknesses. I have. Is that hard for you . I say as as soon as you can hire someone, do it. You know what you like and dont like. Usually there is a correlation. When i started i was head of sales, i was everything, shipper, packer. And i was like, i do not like this or i am not good at this. So as soon as i could afford to, i hired the people that were much better at that than i was. And being an entrepreneur and you have the idea, you start it, you create something out of nothing, which is incredible. But you need people to grow it. And you have to be willing to delegate, you have to be willing to let go of the reins in certain areas for sure for it to grow beyond just you. So speaking of that. As many people probably know, sara also has four children. I have four children under the age of eight. [ applause ] yes, crazy. And she still remains the incredible ceo she has always been. So i think of this as a gender neutral question by the way, but you as ceo founder and mother of four, how begin to think of balance, i wont use that, how do you begin temporary great those pieces of your life . Do you have a set schedule what are the secrets to that . Well, ill tell you its really hard. And that im a work in progress. I do not have the bucket figured out. There are some days that i cry. And there are some days that im like i got this. This is great. And i think thats what its about to expect that you are not going to have those days of feeling completely overwhelmed or feel like you are not cutting it as a mother or not cutting it at work is normal. One bit of advice that i can give in this bucket, and like i said i am not an expert here, im still trying to figure it out, is to stop the negative talk. Do not beat yourself up. The first year and a half i was a mother, the amount of negative self talk and beating myself up, you should be with your child, you should be at work. I had to make a conscious effort to stop that. And i started to see a real change for myself that i had to train that voice to go, you know, stop, not give it power. And, you know, im working on creating really memorable moments with my children. I drop them off at School Every Day. My husband picks them up. But i find that creating these special kind of memories is important. So we have paints, an example is i do pancakes every sunday. So we have pancake sunday. And i do one thing with each of my children alone. And we have our special thing. Like my oldest sony pick him up sometimes at school and we go to ta tree and we have a set tree and ipaq sleeping bags in the back of the car and we spread them out and draw in a book the time we go to special tree. So im trying to give them each really important memories as well. They come home from school, i have twins that are three, twin boys, and they have to write what do they like most about mom and dad. And my one son wrote i love that my mom gives me hugs. And as a mom you cant help but say what about i take you to School Every Day and sleeping bags. And hes like youve also chosen to remain 100 in control and ownership of your company, which is pretty unusual. [ applause ] conscious decision y d, why you make it, have you considered along the way raising capital to grow the business . How did you work through those . Well, when i first started spanx in the First Six Months i had multiple people come up to me and ask me what my exit strategy was. And i was like what are you talking about . I didnt even know that people started businesses just to exit them. And finally after about six months, i just said to some guys when he asked me, you know what, my exit strategy is i want to exit a room and look good. [ laughter ] thats my exit strategy. So im someone who literally i got lucky as entrepreneur that it didnt cost me a lot and did not take me a lot of capital to start my business. My prototypes was very in expensive to make and manufacturer was helping me make them basically for free. I dont think he thought the idea was going to go anywhere. He was taking pity on me. So i was able to be profitable from the very beginning. And i also believe in starting small, thinking big and scaling fast. And i never got ahead of myself. And i have taken the profits from what i sold and used that to buy the next round of inventory. And thats what ive done from the very beginning. Fantastic. You also, in this new world order of ours, are big user of instagram. So how do you think about your role as a mother, wife, friend h social entity, and ceo, and your views and how do you think about being that public persona and also the ceo of a large billionaire Dollar Company . Well, i was probably one of the last people on the planet to join instagram or any social media. I just joined not long ago. And i love it. Im having so much fun. Im using it, and ill continue to do it until its not fun. And i do all my own content. Its all spur of the moment. And its very real. And i believe in being authentic. Youll see the good, the bad, struggle. Im putting out advice and tips. Im showing it all. But its messy and real. I guess you can say not a lot of filters going on on my instagram channel. And speaking of friendships, advice, being out there, so richard bronson, you got to know him on rebel billionaire, you have gotten to know him and become friends. Hell be here later on. Have you shared advice on entrepreneurs and also public figures . First day 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. So that was, i tell people im like i feel like i basically had to risk my life to become his friend. But Richard Branson did a reality show called the rebel billionaire and it was his version of the apprentice but instead of all the business challenges taking place in just new york city, they took place around the world. And what i didnt know, a minor detail, was that instead if you didnt win the business challenge, instead of going to a boardroom and getting fired, you would have to do a world record breaking death defying stunt with richard. Okay . Have i mentioned im terrified of heights, im afraid to fly, i get very im not kidding. Yeah. So i have always been a fan of richards. I read his book in college and when i found out he was doing a reality show, i thought this is cool, im an entrepreneur. I just never forget the contract was 27 pages and it basically said we can like submerge you under water, set you on fire, i emailed it to my dad, because my dads a lawyer and said do you have any advice, can you make a few tweaks to this . All he wrote back was no sane person would sign this, love, dad. Thats it. I signed it. And richard and i became great friends. I clung to the very end of that show. I was the last two contestants and i literally did challenges around the world. Most of them business challenges but then crazy, crazy stuff that i had to do. And what i the advice richard isnt a huge advice dispenser. You just watch him and you learn. What i love about him is he has a total bias for action. I love that about him. Hes super passionate about the consumer. He likes advocating for the consumer. And wherever he thinks the consumers being underserved, man, hes like thats where he goes. Its all heart. Hes a great delegator. As crazy as those challenges were, he didnt ask us to do any single one of them he didnt do himself. In addition to being a great businesswoman, wife and mother, you also have started a foundation. Umhum. To give back. Its focused on empowering women and girls. Yep. One of the projects [ applause ] and she will soon be running for office. But one of the projects you did was the belly art project. For those of you who dont know it, sara painted her pregnant belly and got a lot of other people to, including someone very famous who is also here. Yes. That is Warren Buffett. Yes. How did you get Warren Buffett to participate in the belly art project . Well, yes. So when i was pregnant, three days before i delivered my first son, i woke up in the middle of the night and saw my belly and was like this is amazing. Like how is my body able to do this . I saw it as this big, beautiful canvas and i wanted to turn it into an object because i was like maybe my body may never be in this state again. So i wrote down on a piece of paper watermelon beach ball, mr. Potato head. The next day i had a friend come over and paint my belly all those things. I ran around atlanta. When he painted the watermelon i went into a kroeger Grocery Store and put my belly on top of the watermelon display. You could not tell the difference. Anyway. I did all of this for charity. I ended up making a Coffee Table Book about it to raise money for maternal health. I donated 100 of the proceeds to every mother counts. Thank you. Warrens the only guy in the book. What happened, i was lucky enough to be seated next to him at a lunch one day and he said sara, what are you up to . Im sure he wasnt expecting this but i was like well, i showed him pictures on my iphone, i said i just did this photo shoot. He belly laughed for awhile and he said thats amazing, how do i get in the book . I said warren, youre not pregnant. He said you telling me you dont have enough to work with . I was like oh, okay, great, great. And i didnt know if he was serious or not so about a year later when i was closing out the book, i emailed him and just said not sure if you were serious, and he said count me in. There you go. Yeah. Amazing. The amazing, the talented sorry. One thing i have to tell everybody before we wrap up. Im so happy to be here but theres two things i want to do for everybody here in the audience. I only do this when i give speeches so if you want to participate, thats great. The first thing is you just get out your phones and go to sarablakely and follow. If you want to put in the comments goldman, im going to pick 30 people at random and send the cult following leggings that spanx makes, the faux leather leggings or the seamless i got a fan over here. Guys, listen, valentines day is tomorrow. So you know, you could get it for your girl or your girlfriend or my guy friends got spanx leggings for their girlfriend and wives for the holidays and theyre like i spent all this money on jewelry and all she talked about was the leggings. Then the second thing is, email, all have to do is, mail try me at spanx. You dont have to put anything in the subject. We are going to email a code just specifically for you that will give you 50 off anything you want on spanx. Com. And guys, we make spanx for guys but we also have a lot that your women would like. Thats try me spanx. Its just a onetime code that goes to you and you can use it until friday. It expires friday. And the last thing i will say is you have to spell spanx with an x or you will get a real treat. Dont put in the wrong word. You will get a totally different website. The beautiful, the talented, the generous, sara blakely. Thank you. Thank you, kathy. Tomorrow night on cspan, former Florida Governor and president ial candidate jeb bush talks about School Choice and education savings accounts. You can catch his speech at 8 00 p. M. Saturday on cspan. Our live coverage of the savannah book festival starts saturday morning at 9 00 eastern and includes robert latip with his book future war, preparing for the new global battlefield. Scott shapiro with the internationalists, how a radical plan to outlaw war remade the world. And Celeste Headley with her book, we need to talk, how to have conversations that matter. Watch live coverage saturday morning beginning at 9 00 eastern on cspan 2s book tv. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events in washington, d. C. And around the country. Cspan is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. Health and Human Services secretary alex azar appeared before the house ways and Means Committee this week to discuss the president s 2019 budget request for the department. He talked with Committee Members about a range of issues including the opioid epidemic, the needs of rural hospitals, and health providers. Prescription drug costs and funding for the medicare and medicaid programs. This hearing is two hours. The committee will come to order. Today our committee is honored to welcome secretary alex azar to testify on president trumps fiscal year 2019 budget proposals for the department of health and Human Services. Secretary azar, congratulations on your recenton