[Music] inspiration really does come from so many different places and for me the inspiration came from my own butt I did not like the way that my pants looked I mean excuse me my butt looked in white pants and like so many women and probably every woman here in this room I had clothing that hung in my closet unworn because I couldn't figure out what to wear under it it looks great in the magazines it looks great on the runway but at the end of the day you get home and you go now what so let's face that our options were not that great either at you know what are we supposed to wear underneath these beautiful clothes there were the Shapers that were out there and those were Dreadful they were very binding and they all had these leg bands on the thigh that left a a line or a bulge that you could see through our clothes and then came the underwear right so that's another option but that left a panty line and then Along Came the thong which still confuses me because all that did was put underwear exactly where we had been trying to get it out of so I took matters into my own hands and I actually cut the feet out of my own control top panty hose I threw them on under the the white pants I felt better I looked more toned Slimmer it smoothed out cellulite it got rid of my panty lines but they rolled up my legs all night and I remember thinking you know I have got to figure out a way to comfortably keep this down on the leg if I can find a way to keep this just below the knee there won't be any line or mark on the woman's thigh it'll look invisible under close but it'll be lightweight enough that we'll want to wear it under everything even beautiful slacks so that was the ex moment and what you know caused me to cut the feet out but on my journey of getting this made it it dawned on me very quickly I was talking to almost only men and I kept thinking to myself where are the women and then it dawned on me okay so maybe this is why our panty hooses and our Shapers have been so uncomfortable for so long right because the people making them were not spending all day in them and if they were they certainly weren't admitting it so so I started the process and um at the time I'll paint the picture a little bit about where I was in my life I'd only really had two jobs since College I basically bombed the um ENT the elsat I wanted to be a lawyer and I didn't do well on that test twice so I tried out I went to Disney World and I tried out to be goofy um um but you have to be 5'8 in order to be goofy and I'm only 5'6 so they made me a chipmunk and um that was a real High Point um so I did that for about three months worked at Disney World and then I ended up selling fax machines door too for seven years until I cut the feet out of my panty hose I had never taken a business class I'd never worked in fashion or retail and I had $5,000 in savings I just moved out of my mother's house I was 27 years old and I was probably dating a loser at the time so there you have it there I was and I you know wanted to wear these pants I didn't know where to go so I decided I've got to get this made I went on the internet and I started looking up hosery Mills and I went to a website called Thomas registry.com which lists all manufacturers in the United States now it's called thomas.net but they listed it for me and lucky for me most of the hosery manufacturers are in North Carolina well I was in Atlanta Georgia at the time so I started picking up the phone and calling all these manufacturers and introducing myself over the phone and I I just I a couldn't get the right person on the phone people kept transferring me around I mean I imagine on the other end of the line them saying you know here there's a girl on the line say she's going to transform her own butt like who which department am I supposed to send her her too everyone kept either hanging up on me saying no thanks it's not a good idea so I believed in my own idea enough though that I realized okay I want to patent this I may be having some difficulty right now getting someone to help me make the idea but I want to protect it so I went and looked up on the Internet Martin Dale Hubble which is a website that lists attorneys and they will tell you the ranking and you know sort of the rating next to them I started looking for a female patent attorney in the state of Georgia and I couldn't find one so I called the Georgia Chamber of Commerce and I introduced myself said I'm looking for a female patent attorney and they told me that there actually was not a female patent attorney in the state of Georgia at the time so I said okay I gotta I'm gonna go describe this to a man and we'll see what happens and I went on the website I picked three different law firms I cold calleded each Law Firm I put on my nicest suit from selling fax machines that I had I had my lucky red backpack that was with me the entire journey of Spanx and I went and met with them well they all quoted me between three and $55,000 to patent it and I had $5,000 set aside in my savings to do this so I decided to patent it myself well the attorney that ended up helping me at the very end of this process he admitted to me that when I came to him with the idea that he thought my idea was so bad when I met with him that he actually thought I had been sent by Candid Camera which completely makes perfect sense because I was as I was sitting in the room explaining it to him he kept looking around the room and he later said to me he said Sarah I really have to tell you I either thought you were sent by canic camera or that I was being pranked by some of my guy friends because you know you whipped out the pianos you're showing me the the crotch and where you cut these and how you're going to change the world and it's like I wasn't used to that so uh I ended up going and buying a book called patents and trademarks at Barnes & Noble on Peach Tree Road in Atlanta and I started writing my own patent I wrote the background my mom did the sketch of the drawing that's still in the patent right now and it was me standing in our living room in the Prototype and so I was in the process of getting this made and when I got to the end of it there's the claims portion well I have no idea how to write the real legal part of it so I knew I was going to need the attorney's help at some point for that portion of it at the same time I decided I'm going to try to make this prototype myself so I started driving around and going to fabric stores I started going to Michaels and Hancock Fabric I was duct taping pieces of lace at the bottom of the the panty hose I was paper clipping little stretchy things to it to try to create my own version and just from my cold calling days I realized I've got to go in person to these Mills they need to meet me they keep hanging up on me but I have to go there in person so I took a week off of work from selling fax machines at Danka and I drove around North Carolina and I went door to door to all the manufacturers that I'd been calling on the phone well I would go in and they would always ask me the same three questions which was and you are and I'd say Sarah Blakeley and they'd say and you're with I'd look around I go Sarah Blakeley and they'd say and you're financially backed by and I'd say Sarah Blakeley so you know so nice to meet you Sarah Blakeley but we're not interested they all escorted me out and I didn't have any luck on that road trip but what happened was two weeks after I drove around North Carolina in person I actually got a phone call from one of of the manufacturers in North Carolina Sam Kaplan in Charlotte and he said I quote Sarah I've decided to help make your crazy idea and when I asked him why he had the change of heart he simply said I have two daughters so he had run the idea by his daughters they said it's brilliant dad help this girl make it and he we set out to make it so the process of me cutting the feet out of my panty hose while trying to get the Prototype made before I launched it was two years so there was a year solid of me driving in North Carolina on the weekends and at night or taking time off from work to go and work on the Prototype get it made I learned so many things that I didn't know as a consumer it had never dawned on me you know that men were making all of our undergarments so I learned very quickly that the industry had been taking an average wasteband size between a small and an extra large and putting the same waistband on every pair exactly that's what I said I said you know that's not working we're really uncomfortable and they were doing it to cut cost in production so I immediately changed that in a Spanx waistband a size small gets a small medium gets a medium and so on makes perfect sense right I also realized that they had been putting a tiny rubber cord inside the waistbands that had been there forever well we had made so many advancements in Yarns that they no longer needed the rubber cord but no one had stopped to say do we still need to put this so I immediately took the rubber cord out of it and another thing I learned was the way that they were doing sizing was just so blew me away they would figure out a size by putting them on plastic forms and they would all put it on a plastic form they had different size forms and they would stand back with their clipboards and go yep that's a size medium and I'd lean in and I'd go ask her how she feels so at Spence we put our product on women my mother my grandmother who's 90 my sister-in-law Cassie I mean all of my friends the girls at Spanx we're testing it on real women and we want to test it in more than two seconds to say yep that looks like a medium we we have people wear it for a week wash it tell us if it rolled did it move did it stay in place how did you feel very concerned with Spanx garments and how they made you feel so in making the Garment getting the process done I revisit the patent I get the the Prototype finally exactly where I want it and I called the attorney back up and I said okay I'm ready please help me write the claims portion and I basically beat this guy down I think he felt sorry for me he said I'm going to write the claims over the weekend for $700 I said great I'll take it and he wrote the claims but he called me on Monday and he said Sarah in doing this it dawn on me I don't know a lot of the technicalities of this garment can you please um you know get me in touch with somebody at the Mill you've been working with so we can discuss Yarns I said no problem so I called Ted well Ted was someone that I had really become close friends with in the back of the hosery mill for the last year now if I could describe Ted to you he was Southern and when I say Southern I mean real Southern real Southern so I get on the phone do a conference call Ted hi this is my attorney can you guys all talk and let's talk about what's in this product he said sure and he goes well there's 70% nylon and 30% lacquer okay great thanks I'm writing I'm taking notes I'm I'm my attorney I'm like got it great okay the night before I'm about to submit this to the United States patent and trademark office office I cannot sleep all night I'm up and I'm thinking to myself how is there lacquer in this product so I called Ted I said Ted it's Sarah can you please spell lacquer he's like yeah l y c r a oh my God okay L rooc got it that makes so much more [Laughter] sense so so I called my attorney I said do an all change on lacquer it's Lyra and he started laughing so hard he goes Sarah do you know how fast you would have gotten a patent on trying to make this out of paint thinner like okay so I've written the patent I'm submitting it I have the Prototype I'm getting it almost perfect to where I want it to be I got to come up with a name so I had been writing down on scrap pieces of paper for that entire year really bad names in my car on a plane you know pulling off the side of the road and finally I narrowed down my thinking on what I wanted to name my invention by this I I recognized that the two most recognized names in the world at the time were Kodak and Coca-Cola so I started playing with them in my mind why are they the two most recognized names in the world what do they have in common and they both have a significant k sound to them and I actually had read that the man who started Kodak liked the k sound so much that he put the K in the beginning and the end of the word and started playing with letters in the alphabet to come up with the word Kodak I also knew that you know coca colola add such a strong case presence to it and I have a bunch of friends that are standup comedians and it's this just this weird trade secret among comedians that the k sound will make your audience laugh so it was determined for good luck my invention was going to have the k sound in it and I added it I I decided okay once I decided that I was clearer on my thinking for the name it came to me while sitting in traffic in Atlanta I got very lucky I was sitting there and just the word Spanx came across the dashboard and at the very last second I went home and I I knew it was right and I changed the ks to an X at the last minute because I had done research that madeup words do better for products than real words do and they're also easier to trademark I didn't tell one person the name I got on uspto.gov which stands for United States patent and trademark office.gov which was my best friend at the time I was always on that website I did a search I entered my credit card and for I think $250 or $300 I hit send and I owned the name Spanx a month later I got it in the mail I didn't even know that people spent millions of dollars trying to name things and that they had big groups talking about it I didn't even know that at the time and then I decided okay well I'm going to be a business I need to incorporate so I went to incorporate.com and I put my credit card and I think it was like $150 at the time and I remember looking at the options I'm like LLC never heard of it subclass or C Corp never really heard of it es Corp okay escor my name starts with an S I'll give let me try this one out I ended up reading about escorp and it made the most sense for me but I that's how I got narrowed it down to the es Corp so I hit okay es Corp hit send and and then I was incorporated the packaging what am I going to do for the packaging I knew I thought as a consumer I didn't know anything else I'd never actually taken a marketing class either in my life but I knew as a consumer I was frustrated I was going into the hosery Departments and everything looked the same it was the same beige package or the same white package with the same half naked woman that had been on there for 30 years and I couldn't tell what I was buying so I said to myself I'm going to do this different I want it to be my favorite color red no one had ever done red in the hosery space before I wanted to be bold stand out I knew that if I got a chance to be on the Shelf with no money to advertise it had to jump out and say I'm new I'm Different try me so I put three animated Illustrated cartoon women on the package which had also never been done before there had only ever been photography on these HRI packages I was working on it every night after work on my friend's computer she had just finished um graphic design school so I would come home and we would sit side by side and I was cutting out lips and eyes and I was very you know excited about how to make it design wise I wanted it to feel like you were buying a present for yourself instead of a commodity that we dreaded well as soon as I got the package exactly where I wanted it to be I remember having this moment where I thought maybe there's supposed to be something on this package for legal reasons so I went to the store and I bought 10 different brands of panty hose and I put them all on the floor of my apartment and I remember looking and if the same thing was on all 10 I was like must be legal so I added it so here I have the the packaging I love it I have the product I put it in a Ziploc bag for my kitchen I've got my lucky red backpack I got to go sell this thing I called nean Marcus around the corner of my apartment in Atlanta and I said hi this is Sarah I've got a product I want to come show you and the lady kind of laughed and said well we have a buying office and that's in Dallas I said oh okay so I hung up and I called and called the buyer and from my cold calling days I knew I'm not going to leave a message I'm going to keep calling until this woman answers the phone so the second she answer their phone I took a very deep breath I was so scared and I said hi this is Sarah Blakeley and I've invented something it's going to completely change the way all of your customers wear clothes and I'll fly to see you if you'll give me 5 minutes and she just kind of took a pause and she goes well where do you live I said Atlanta she goes all right if you're willing to fly here I'll give you 10 10 to 15 minutes so I jumped on a plane and I went to the Neiman margus headquarters before I went I was you know my few friends I had my lucky red backpack they stopped me in my tracks I had my closest friend they go Sarah please they were pleading with me please don't bring that red backpack to the nean Marcus headquarters I mean this was my old backpack from college it was dis dirty and you know they said do anything you can't bring that red backpack I mean if you need to go buy a Prada bag return it the next day I mean whatever you need to do but don't bring that red backpack well I took a very deep breath I said you know what this is my good luck charm I got got to bring it so there off I went with the Ziploc bag in the pack the backpack the color copy of the packaging I went to the Nan Marcus headquarters I'm sitting in front of this buyer that was the most impeccably dressed woman I'd ever seen in my life I mean even her pen matched her outfit I was just and I was shaking I had my red backpack on the floor and I started going into my Spiel and I was I knew I wasn't really making a ton of sense and so halfway through it I go you know what you just have to come with me to the bathroom she's like excuse me I go I know I know it's a little weird but just please come with me to the bathroom I'm going to do my own before and after for you and then you'll get it so we walked down the hallway I mean in total silence I'm like I can't believe this I go into the stall I have on the white pants that caused me to invented I come out with the Spanx on I turn around I just shown her what it looked like without the Spanx on and she took a step back and she goes I get it and then she goes it's brilliant and then she said I'm going to give you a shot I'm going to put you in seven stores thank you that drive from the Neiman Marcus headquarters to the airport may have been one of the greatest drives and moments in my life I was driving and I was just beside myself I called Sam from the hoser mill first call I made Sam Sam it's Sarah I need more Spanx it's like excuse me what slow down what's going on I said I just landed nean Marcus total silence excuse me I just landed nean Marcus they love my product I need more he's like more of that Spanx thing you invent that thing that we've been making for you yes that thing Sam total silence Sarah don't take this the wrong way but I thought you were going to be giving these away as Christmas gifts for the next five years I said no Sam they love it they want more and he was just wow congratulations this is unbelievable Let Me patch you through to Ted patches me through to Ted Ted Ted it's Sarah I need more well that's great but what you going to do about the crotches excuse me don't they come with crotches we've been making them with crotches well yeah but we only got two crotch machines and they're being used by somebody else okay let me get this straight I have just landed nean Marcus and I have no crotches I don't know were to go for a crotch I [Applause] mean I looked in the Yellow Pages under crotch it's not [Applause] there so I realized that there was a fancy word for crotch it's called a gusset so that helped me on my search for the right the right crotch so my roommate at the time I started calling companies all around the world they were fedexing them to me all the time in our apartment my roommate would come home from work and hold the FedEx package up and be like got another crotch in the mail i' hold it up looks good to me I don't really know so luckily for me I found a Guss company 20 minutes north of my apartment in Atlanta in Norcross Georgia and just to make the story just even that much better when I walked in an 80-year-old man who' been in the business forever he was apparently a crotch Legend his name was Jean Bobo and Jean Bobo came out and I'm hyperventilating Bic I'm like I'm playing Marcus I invented this thing and I he's like I have your crotches so he saved the day he truly did he provided me them them right away sent them to the mill and we were able to use them in the Garment in order to place the order well I my chance was seven stores so what did I do I immediately called anybody I had remotely ever known in my life in those Seven Cities and it went kind of like this hi this is Sarah remember me we sat next to each other in fourth grade right yes that's me um can you please go into nean Marcus and buy this product called Spanx and act like you've been looking for it your entire life and I'll mail you a check and I literally did that as soon as I was running out of friends and money the Oprah Winfrey show called so nothing's better for an entrepreneur with no money to advertis and getting that phone call I had sent a gift basket to her with a note saying you know she was an inspiration and um you know I hope that she liked my product and her uh the man that dressed her for so many years Andre put them on her right away and she fell in love with them and basically has been wearing them almost every day since that day and I got the call that Sarah Oprah has Chas chosen your product as one of her favorite products of the year and she doesn't ever have a person on this show it's always all about the product but she heard that you are sort of she heard a little bit about your story and how you're taking on the male dominated hosery industry and doing it out of your apartment and so she wants to roll a little clip about what you're doing and who you are so we're gonna fly down to Atlanta I said that's fantastic they said we're going to be there in two weeks you have a website right uh-huh I turned to my boyfriend at the time Dave who was a healthcare consultant I'm like build me a website he's like I'm a healthcare consultant I'm like please build me a website it's like okay I'll figure it out so the two of us went on bigst step.com which no longer exists and we scanned in the color copy of the packaging and that was the homepage of my website for two for a year and a half and it cost me $18 a month to run my online business for the merchant account so the Oprah Winfrey Show they show up at my apartment very official clipboards big cameras notebooks very professionall looking people and the first thing they said is Sarah we discussed it on the plane we want to film you in your headquarters I said you're here and this person kind of gained their composure looked at the other like oh okay well and we also discussed that we want to film you having a staff meeting hold on a minute so I called Connie that I had met at mailboxes Etc I said Connie it's Sarah can you be at my apartment in like 5 minutes and look like you worked for me she goes I'm on my way and then I called several of my close friends they all left their jobs raced over to my house and we sat on the floor of my apartment in a circle and that was the staff meeting on the Oprah Winfrey Show so where do you go I just landed Oprah I had this product I felt that it was you know I was on to something I needed to build a a team I needed some help so my boyfriend who was the healthcare consultant he left his job and he started helping me do all the Fulfillment he said you got you you know I'd send my trucks pulling up twice a week to my apartment in Atlanta and um I was doing all the shipping at night and he really started helping me do the Fulfillment and we were in the back room we we ended I ended up starting the headquarters and my best friend's bedroom she had moved out and I we set up two cardboard tables in the beginning and people used to call and say I need to speak to shipping and handling and we'd always say please hold while I transfer you then I Then I then I went for a walk with a friend to get a bagel and I'd given her one of my prototypes and the entire walk to get the bagel all she did was tell me how much she loved it by the end of the walk I looked at her and I said do you want to be my head of PR she's like well I don't know anything about PR I go I don't either I've been calling these radio stations and magazines and circling people's names and newspapers and I think you could do it just as good as I could if not better you seem to really love the product so she immediately came on board and started doing that and then the third person that joined my team was someone that I was looking for an assistant because at that time I was doing everything and also trying to coordinate my travel and it just got so crazy so quickly so this woman jadida who had been an interior designer came on board to be my assistant and after two weeks in my apartment I came home one day and I looked at her and I said do you want to be my head of product development she looked at me and she goes I don't know anything about pianos or Shapers I go I don't either it's perfect so she actually did become my head of product development and she's still with the company today 12 years later and let me tell you something she's unbelievable she has this special gift because she thinks so far out of the box she'd never done it before and the two of us together coming up with ideas and really trying to push the hosery Mill Way outside of their comfort zone is a a huge reason why the products that you so love and enjoy that you have today and now the product development team is grown obviously be Beyond her and they all think so far out of the box that's why we want to keep bringing you such innovative ideas and products so I had assembled my team and literally from that moment I said I turned to them and I said I'll see you later and I basically left for two years I was on the road every single day for the next two years standing in stores promoting SP thanks I would always you know jump back go back to the headquarters I was always calling back and checking in and they were trying to call as many outlets as they could to continue to do it but I cold called Neeman Sachs Nordstrom Bloomingdales QVC I was out on the road and I think a lot of entrepreneurs make the mistake they think once you get the order you're golden and that couldn't be any further from the truth once you get the order that's when the real work starts I was absolutely determined to ensure my own success and I think that's what it takes I didn't want my success to be contingent on anyone else having to sell this so I hit the ground running and I went from department store to department store and I would do morning rallies at the store where I would gather people around well the store manager said Sarah you know you can do it with the hosery associates well I'd travel all the way to Arizona and there'd be three hosery Associates so I quickly was like I got to get the whole store at this morning rally so I would go into the entrance before the store open like a Neeman or a Sachs or a Bloomingdale's and I would run around and introduce UC myself to every employee setting up their station I'd say hi I'm Sarah and I would try to convince them that it would be worth their time to come see my morning meeting and I got everybody there I had taken the Oprah clip and the a little bit of local press I I'd received and put it on a video and did that in my morning rally and it was such an important thing that I was doing I inadvertently was building a Salesforce that wasn't on my payroll and they all across the country became my biggest advocates for the product and started selling it on behal of Spanx and me but another thing I learned and as an entrepreneur you learn your obstacles very quickly by being in the space they come at you and they're they become very clear I realized I have to get this product out of the hosery department it's it's hosery yes but the woman who's buying this is not going into the hosery department and it's by the way the sleepiest corner of the store and not only that so you all say yes you know not only that they gave me one pocket I didn't even get a row I got a pocket I'll never forget when I got the pocket and the first day it shipped to the first NE of Marcus I went in by myself I stood there like this I saw my product that I just created on my home computer with my friend between Donna Karen and Calvin Klein and I saw spanks and I literally just big tears started going to I was just like I cannot believe this so I was so excited I've got to make this work I feel like if I didn't go to the stores and really make this happen on the ground level that my product as great as it is would have shipped to the store and 6 months later been shipped back to to me so I I was running around and doing everything I could to get it out of the store and two things that I did I realized okay what can I do so I went to Target and I bought Target stands that you buy in the office equipment aisle and I put them at every register in Neiman Marcus with some Spanx in it well can you imag I mean NE and Marcus is so impeccably designed and their visual team is so unbelievable but I started getting away with it cuz everybody thought somebody else approved it so I just walk to a register and I'd put it right there while the lady was ringing up a beautifully dressed woman and throw my three spanks in there and be like okay yep it's approved and what happened was by the time that nean Marcus caught on that no one had approved this the CEO of Neiman Marcus Bert tansky um said whatever this girl's doing let her keep doing it cuz he had never seen so much volume off of the $20 item so I got the approval after the fact on that one but another time in my one pocket it was in Atlanta Georgia they moved my pocket I went in I was always in the store every other day to check on things and they had moved my pocket in a place in the department where I couldn't you couldn't see it anymore from the escalator and that was my big shot that some woman would maybe see it and be drawn into the department so I pulled up my car I jumped out I had a loose sight bin with two compartments a clear bin that held panty hose that I had bought bought at some Container Store I ran into Neiman Marcus I had duct tape I threw it on top of the register in the hosery department I duct taped it as fast as I could and I sprinted out of the store well this woman an associate that I'd become friends with she called me the next day she goes Sarah we need to talk I said why what's up she goes well they have you on surveillance video um [Applause] oh sh okay yep all right so I'll talk to the store manager I mean the store manager's like you know you could get arrested for this I mean what were you thinking I said look please just you move my pocket and he finally said I'll put the pocket back I'll give the hos team the direction to move your pocket back so that's kind of what I was doing the whole process and I'm driving around the country all day long every day and when span started I got to set the stage a little bit for you there were no self there were no uh excuse me black Beres no one had ever heard of an iPhone or an iPod before I mean the Kardashians were in like the fifth grade and map quest was just getting started so half the time I was on my the computer in the hotel that I was staying at and trying to Map Quest my next location and it it was a really crazy time as I'm driving all around I you know I'm thinking to myself actually I I I remember this one time in Chicago I had spent so much time alone on the road I did an event at the nean Marcus outside of Evanston I believe it was at in Oakbrook or Northbrook and I spent the whole day promoting lifting up my pant leg and turning and shaking my butt for everyone in the entrance and that's you know I'd been setting up these tables and moving them farther and farther out of the H Department to the point where they were in the entrance of NE and Marcus I mean people would walk in I go hi I'm Sarah and I would flash them my butt and you know I was trying everything I put Donuts on the table I was like have a doughnut and some spanks um and so one I got in this uh taxi that I had called at the end of that event and I was driving I was maybe 15 minutes into the cab ride it was a 35 minute cab ride I was completely fried I'd been talking to people all day I was reading my book out of my red backpack the cab driver and I had not said one word to each other I'm reading reading after like 15 minutes I hear this voice he goes do you want to go to dinner I looked up I go sure and then I just remember saying but will you turn the meter off while we eat and he goes sure so he was from Lebanon he took me to Lebanese restaurant it was fantastic I was so happy to have someone to talk to rather than room service and then I went back home so two years of this on the road and and sweating it out but the things that on this journey that I feel like most B made the biggest impact for me was the first thing is you got to differentiate yourself I always ask myself why am I different how am I different and I I think it's it's very important to be I I call them the three C's but clear concise and confident you have to be able to describe it in a minute or less make it so clear the customer really wants to make smart decisions and they really want us to make it easy for them so I always say make somebody feel the pain or if it's not the pain uh which means the problem on why you did what you did or why you're creating what you create then explain to them your uniqueness and then right after that you've got to give them the solution very quickly and then take it through and say why you're the best I mean very quickly explain to them in just a few seconds why you're the best option and I find that very very helpful so in everything I do I ask myself why am I different I also am a big believer in visualization I I I sort of took a I call it a Polaroid picture of where I wanted to be and when I was in my late 20s I saw myself on the Oprah Winfrey show that was my Polaroid picture I I don't know where you want to be or what you know what where you're headed but I really I really feel like you should see it first and maybe you're sitting at a table with world leaders maybe you're driving a certain car maybe you have certain flexibility in your life from from a hour standpoint whatever it is for me I was sitting on the stage with Oprah and for the next 10 to 15 years of my life it felt like I was filling in the blanks I was really curious what I was talking to Oprah about and I couldn't wait to find out because I saw myself there and we were talking and I and I remember always thinking what what are we talking about I can't wait to figure this out and if anyone had come up and whispered to me it's footless Panos I would have said you're crazy the other thing that I did is I didn't tell anybody my idea for one whole year and it's very important to tell the people that can help move your idea forward but I didn't share it for validation purposes and no one had shared that with me it was sort of a gut feeling but one you know ideas are the most vulnerable in their infancy the moment you have them and this is the moment that we always want to turn to a friend a co-worker a husband and tell somebody the idea well the minute you tell somebody the idea egoo has to get involved and then you end up spending all of your time defending it and explaining it rather than pursuing it so I feel like more than anything the reason why I'm not still selling fax machines is because I kept it a secret for one whole year and all my friends and family can tell you all all I would ever they would say is Sarah's working on some crazy invention we don't know what it is and after one year I sat them all down I said okay guys it's footless pantyose I mean you should have seen their faces like what and out of love and concern I heard you know if it's such a good idea why isn't somebody else done it and sweetie if it is such a good idea you'd use your life savings and the big guys might knock you out of the water in 6 months and until I had invested this much of myself in this I think if I had heard that a year ago when I cut the feet out of my Panos that day I'd still be selling facts machines I also am uh I I I was given a gift by my father on not being afraid to fail so I think failure and your attitude and the way that you embrace the fear of failure is a big part of where we end up in our lives and my father used to at the dining room table ask my brother and me what we failed at and he used to encourage us to fail so I can remember being at the dining room table and he would say Sarah would you fail at this week and if I didn't have something to tell him he'd be disappointed and I can remember coming home and sitting at the dining room table and saying Dad Dad I tried out for this and I was horrible and he would say way to go and high five me and those teachings and that that principle that was such a gift for me as a child actually came from Wayne Dyer my dad had been listening to a series called um what do you really want for your children and so I got the benefit and so did my brother of this sort of different way of parenting and thinking and for me it redefined failure failure was no longer for me the outcome failure was not trying so that was a very big gift for me in closing I'm going to leave you with a global expansion story H as you heard in the video Spanx is in 40 countries which is so unbelievable I have the most amazing team now and they are beyond amazing uh the one common denominator we have about 120 employees and 110 of them I think are women and they're all they are the common theme is you if you ever meet a span's employee they will be very kind we always just we have the kindest people they're smart strategic women out of the box creative and of course we have a few good men that are really pulling their weight to and making a difference and I hired a CEO two years into it that made a very big difference for the business I always tell people as soon as you can afford to hire your weaknesses do it so two years on the road I saw my limitations what I like doing what I didn't like doing what I was good at what I wasn't good at and I brought her on and that really moved the company forward and let me focus on the creative side and the sales and the marketing but for our Global expansion it's had to starts somewhere so it started with me jumping on a plane flying to London with my lucky red backpack I cold called herods Harvey Nicks sries and Fen and I got a chance to be on the BBC which is sort of you know Europe CNN and the guy right before he starts he goes so so uh you know million people no no pressure I was so nervous and he started out and he goes so Sarah tell us what Spanx can do for women in the UK well I smiled and I said well it's all about the fanny it Smooths your fanny it lifts and separates your fanny well this man lost all the color in his [Applause] face and unpronounced to me I had no idea but apparently Fanny means vagina in England [Applause] [Applause] great right so I had to call my team of three back at my apartment and say our International expansion is off to a great start in closing I'm leaving everybody with a gift you have a gift card in your bag Spanx doesn't ever um discount but whenever I give speeches as a gift to the women and the men who've been in the room uh you will get a coupon or something I believe it is in your bag that's 50 off of any Spanx item you want as Star Jones mention we have bras it's they're so comfortable bruah swimwear we just launched active wear so you're we have the whole Bagel Buster in the yoga pant that looks really good as you're running around town and as you're getting in shape you look even more like you're in shape it's awesome um and the swimwear we got so many requests from you that you wanted to wear your Spanx to the beach and we could not bear the thought of those tan lines so we we thought we got to do something about it we put Spanx inside the swimsuit and when you're going to spanx.com I just want to remind you please spell it with an X or you're going to get a real treat okay [Applause] [Music]