Sterling International Speakers - Sara Blakely

Sara Blakely

Founder of Spanx

About Sara Blakely
Life handed Sara Blakely a lemon, and she made pantyhose. After twice flunking law-school admission tests, Sara channeled her energies into entrepreneurship. Now, she has combined humor, past work experience, determination and a brilliant product insight to build a multi-million-dollar brand of undergarments called Spanx.

After her LSAT disasters, Sara became a chipmunk at Disney World and then sold fax machines door-to-door in St. Petersburg , Florida . She rose to national sales manager with the office-equipment company, and that was one key to the rest of her future.

“I did standup comedy at night in different cities for fun, because I couldn’t fraternize with the people I was training,” Sara recalls. “One night I was going to be on stage but I couldn’t figure out what to wear under my white pants that wouldn’t show lines. So I cut the feet out of my panty hose. That’s when I had my epiphany.”

A quick, informal focus group of her friends—many of whom also had cut the feet off their hose at one time or another—convinced Sara that she was on the right track.

“I was envisioning a totally different life for myself,” she confesses. “I knew I could sell, and I knew I could be self-employed, and I knew if I could come up with something for the masses instead of fax machines, I’d succeed.”

So Sara geared up. She researched and wrote her own patent for footless pantyhose. She came up with the name “Spanx,” wanting a moniker that was just a little edgy. In keeping, she then came up with the slogan on Spanx packaging, “We’ve got your butt covered!”

Finally, Sara cold-called hosiery mills and department-store chains – and got not only her feet in the door but the rest of her legs, and Spanx, too. “I called all my friends and begged them to go to Neiman’s and make a fuss over the product and buy them up,” Sara writes on her website. “At just the moment I was running out of friends, Spanx caught on and the rest is history.”

Indeed, now Spanx is for sale at high-end retailers including Saks, Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s as well as Neiman Marcus. And a diversifying Spanx is beginning to cover customers’ other body parts!

Using the Power of PR

Sara’s marketing mien told her from the get-go that the way to make Spanx a runaway hit would be to create a buzz in the marketplace about it. And from the start, she decided to rely on public relations instead of advertising.

“As a consumer, I’m so jaded by advertising that I don’t even pay attention to it any more,” Sara explains. “Word of mouth and the media are so much more powerful and believable, so that’s the route I decided to go.”

Just as important, Sara believes, was that she decided to do most of the PR herself—with a PR assistant—instead of hiring an agency. “When I asked the agencies how many placements they could get, and what they would do to get them and the cost, it didn’t seem that they would do anything different or better than I would do. And they would pawn it off to some young girl in a cubicle that I’d never met.

“I believed so much in my dream that the idea of someone pitching it who maybe hadn’t even worn Spanx just completely freaked me out. So I decided to try the PR myself for awhile.”

That move worked fabulously. Editors and producers were refreshed by the idea of a business owner flacking herself when there clearly was an alternative. And Sara was able to use Spanx’s risqué name and persona, as well as her own disarming sense of humor, to great effect.

She also sent a gift basket of Spanx to Oprah Winfrey, thanking the iconic celebrity for inspiring Sara. “She loved it and made it her product of the year,” Sara says.

Results: Spanx got hit after hit in women’s magazines like Vogue, in business magazines such as Forbes, and on TV venues such as Good Morning America . Sara’s efforts to target celebrities got her endorsements from the likes of Gwen Stefani and Sarah Jessica Parker, as well as Oprah.

“I found out that we’re even a Trivial Pursuit question now,” Sara says. “It’s something like, ‘For what product did an innovative hosiery company come up with the marketing phrase, No more gridbutt’? We’re the answer because of our controlled-top fishnets.”

Sara has never looked back at her decision to focus on PR and disdain for advertising. And Spanx’s success speaks to the fact that she did the right thing!

TOPICS:

Entrepreneurship
Fashion
Public Relations
Women-owned businesses
Facing hurdles when starting your own business

Additional Information on Sara:

Sara Blakely, 33, founder of Spanx, Inc., wanted footless body-shaping pantyhose to wear with her cream-colored pants and open-toed shoes but couldn't find them anywhere. Frustrated consumer-turned-entrepreneur, Sara took $5,000 in savings, and in 2000 began her adventure in the $2 billion male-dominated hosiery industry.

Two years later, with the first pair of footless pantyhose in hand, Sara cold-called and landed all of the top retail stores across the country. Selling more than 50,000 pair in its first three months from the back of her apartment, Sara Blakely’s SPANX brand revitalized an industry in a ten-year slump.

Name:	Sara Blakely
Age:	34
Company:	Spanx Inc.
Location:	Atlanta
Initial capitalization:	$5,000 from her personal savings
2004 revenues	$20 million

Since then, Spanx has developed and launched more than 60 styles and a full line of new products, all designed to be innovative, comfortable, slimming, and stylish. With names like Bra-llelujah, Two Timin' Tights, Power Panties, Slim-Cognito, and Topless Socks, Turbo Tights, and All The Way, it’s no wonder Spanx is rolling off the tips of every fashion savvy woman’s tongue on a regular basis. With such unique, beneficial products and bright bold packaging, Spanx continues to capture the eye of fashion editors, television producers, and celebrity stylists.

Sara and her brainchild have been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show and CNN as well as in the pages of Glamour, Vogue, People, InStyle, New York Times, Vanity Fair, WWD and USA Today. Remaining self-funded and profitable ever since Sara used her own savings to start the company, Spanx continues to show increasing profits, proving to be a classic ""American Dream"" story. Spanx products are sold at Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdales, and other upscale retailers and boutiques nationwide.

The Spanx operating philosophy is based on delivering the highest levels of quality, comfort, and innovation to women - all with a sense of humor. That emphasis became apparent when Sara, who moonlighted as an amateur comedian before founding Spanx, first coined the company’s memorable name and catchy tag line "Don’t worry, we’ve got your butt covered!"

Sara's trademark humor is even infused throughout the product packaging, with funny cartoons touting the "No More Grid Butt" advantage of wearing Spanx Control Top Fishnets or the Power Panties mantra to "Put Underwear Back Where It Belongs" as an alternative to the G-string. “Looking good on the outside starts with how you feel on the inside,” explains Sara. “If I can make women laugh or smile when they purchase and wear Spanx products, then they’ll feel even more confident about their outward appearance.”

Sara received her B.A. in communications at Florida State University in 1993. Prior to launching Spanx, she worked by day as a national sales trainer for DANKA, a $3 billion fax/copier manufacturer, and by night in comedy. She was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Southeast region, in 2002.

All Spanx products are designed by women for women. Spanx, based in Atlanta, as is proud to support community organizations that also focus on building a woman's confidence. For more information about Spanx products and retail stores, visit www.spanx.com.

KEYNOTE FEE CATEGORY: $25,000 *

* Honorarium can vary depending on presentation length, distance to venue and many other factors. Please contact us for individual circumstances. All fees are plus travel expenses and subject to change, so please call for an exact quote.

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