Sarah Blakely
speaker
93 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Sarah Blakely’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
And two years later, I cut the feet out of control top pantyhose one night to wear white pants to a party and not have a panty line or anything show. Because guys, you're out there in the audience. I don't know how many of you struggle with what to wear under white pants. But it's a legit problem that we have.
And so I cut the feet out of my pantyhose one time and I thought this could be the idea because I had already set the intention for the idea to show up. But as soon as I started on the path of it, I thought, okay, I don't want to tell anybody my idea because I feel that ideas are the most vulnerable in the moment that you have them.
And it is our human nature that the minute we have an idea, we tell our friend, our coworker, our wife, our husband, boyfriend, girlfriend. And in those moments out of love and care and all the right intentions half the time, the person might say something that completely squashes it or makes you not pursue it.
So I didn't want to tell my family and friends, and I have very supportive family and friends, but I didn't want ego to have to get involved too early on in the process. I wanted to spend my time pursuing it and not defending it.
So at night and on the weekends for two years, I would sell fax machines during the day, and then at night I would stay up, and I was working on the patent, and I was doing all my research and driving, taking vacation days to drive to North Carolina where the manufacturing plants were and begging them to help make the first prototype. But that is really why.
And I have to say, I mean, everybody in their life has a million-dollar, even a billion-dollar idea. I mean, we do. I haven't had mine yet. Well... Well, you do. And I feel like recognizing it is a big one. And then also, you know, holding it sacred for me. And I'm glad I did because I sat my family down a year later and all they knew was Sarah's working on some crazy idea.
And a year later, I sat him down and I said, OK, guys, are you ready? It's footless pantyhose. And I mean, they were like, so sweetie, if it's such a good idea, why hasn't anybody else created it?
And then someone else in my family was like, well, honey, you know, and even if this is a good idea, the big guys are just going to knock you off in the first six months and you will have spent your savings on this. And if I had heard those things in the moment that I had it, I probably would still be selling fax machines or something like it. So I really believe that.
I believe that you've got to really protect it. Now, it didn't mean I didn't tell people that would help me pursue it. I was telling lawyers, having them help me try to write the patent. I was cold calling manufacturers and talking to them. I just didn't seek out people simply for validation.
until I knew I'd put enough of my own sweat equity into this idea that no matter what the validation came back as, I wouldn't waver.
Yeah, I mean, you've got to create your own hype. Small wins. For sure.
It's reminding me, I mean, for the first four years of Spanx, I wore a black T-shirt with SPANX ironed onto it that I went to one of those T-shirt shops and took a white letter and ironed on Spanx and cream pants. But I was the advertisement. So I wore that everywhere I went.
And then when I got a chance to sell it in Neiman Marcus, I would bring my friends to the store to act like excited customers. And they would stand around my display table and go,
every time we'd like cue it we'd like customer coming and this like really fancy lady you know perfectly dressed would be walking up and my friends would all go tell me more what is this i can't believe i'm just finding out about this and it would always cause the customer to go what you know what's happening and and then i'd be like yes i get an opportunity to explain it to her
Yeah. So when I first landed, Neiman Marcus was my first account. And two things about that that are just something that I reflect back on. One is everybody in the industry after I landed Neiman's came up to me and said, how in the world did you land Neiman Marcus? And I would look at them and I'd say, I called them. What do you do?
And they'd say, oh my God, we go to trade shows and we set up a booth and we've been doing it for seven years. And everybody says around year six or seven that you get a chance with Neiman's. I didn't even know there were trade shows. So I often say what you don't know can be your greatest asset if you let it.
If you're not intimidated by the self-talk of I have no idea what I'm doing and that shuts you down. So if you can power through the I have no idea what I'm doing and actually see it as a positive and go, That means I'm going to do it different. And that's where you break real ground. It takes a lot of courage and a lot of willingness to look stupid and potentially fall on your face.
But that's where the magic is. So anyway, I got a chance to go and cold call Neiman Marcus. I flew on a plane from Atlanta, where I live, to Dallas. And I met with the buyer, and she was impeccably dressed. I'm in the intimidating Neiman's headquarters. I had my lucky red backpack from college.
I had the prototype in a Ziploc bag from my kitchen and a color copy of the packaging that I had created on my friend's computer. And halfway through my pitch, I was telling her what it is, and I could tell I was losing her. After seven years of cold calling and trying to sell things to people, you get really good at reading nonverbals. And I always say nonverbals tell you way more than the verbal.
You know, when people sit there and shake their head and say, I love it. And I'll call you tomorrow. You're like, oh, my God, Mayday. You know, that's when you pull the shoes. I've got to like try everything. And so she was kind of doing that. She was like, OK, thanks. And I just stopped and said, you know what, Diane, will you come to the bathroom with me? And she literally was like, excuse me.
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