Travels from Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Sara Blakely's speaking fee falls within range: Over $75,000
Sara Blakely is the founder of Spanx and Sneex. She is an inventor, a category creator and an industry disruptor who asks for signs from the Universe and gets them. She is an intuitive brand expert who can embody the heart and mind of the consumer through putting herself in their shoes… literally. She spends an unusual amount of time daydreaming in her car, sometimes just parked in the driveway. She’s a seeker of ideas who has spent her life building the courage and mindset to pursue them. She may be a legendary entrepreneur, but she doesn’t take herself too seriously and she believes it’s her calling to support and elevate women.
She was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the world and was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine as the youngest self-made female billionaire. She’s also a Guinness World Record holder for climbing the side of a hot air balloon and having tea on top. Yup. And she’s afraid of heights.
When she’s not disrupting industries, setting world records, or making pancakes in crazy shapes for her four small kids… she dreams of a world where the feminine and masculine energy is more balanced. She has donated millions of dollars to support and elevate women and girls around the world through her foundation and in 2012, she signed The Giving Pledge, committing half her life’s wealth to philanthropy.
Sara Blakely tells the story of her amazing success with her product SPANX. She not only explains the process that led her to invent the product, but shares some of her marketing ideas and secrets with her audience. She says, “I knew that if I got that shelf space I needed to make it stand out, to say I'm here, I'm new, pick me out. I had no money to advertise, so I chose red, which was extremely unconventional, nobody had ever used red in the hosiery or shapewear space, and I did something nobody else ever done either, I put three cartoon looking women on the box… I wanted it to feel like kind of a present to myself." Remembering her early days of success, she says, “I literally ran the business out of my apartment for a year and a half, and of course after a few months the next thing I decided to do was I said, I'm going to Europe. So I grab my lucky red backpack, get on the plane, I made cold calls to Harrods, Harvey Nicks and Selfridge's, I got to be on the BBC and the guy who was interviewing me said tell us what SPANX can do for women in the UK. So I said, it's all about the fanny, it smooths the fanny, it lifts and separates the fanny… and all the color went out of his face. I didn't realize that in England fanny means vagina…" Detailing the incredible progress the company has made, she says, “We've gone from 1 to over 100 employees, from a single footless pantyhose we're in swim, in bras that are amazing–they're called Brallejulah, they're amazing–we've done so many amazing things with SPANX, it's exceeded my wildest dreams."
Sara Blakely knows what it takes to succeed as an entrepreneur, having taken her $5000 investment and leveraged it into a company turning over hundreds of millions of dollars every year. She can speak to you of the hurdles involved in starting your own business, the challenges facing women in a male dominated business world, entrepreneurship, fashion and public relations.
Finding Your Leg Up: Inventing the Career of your Dreams
Sara Blakely, Spanx founder, shares with audiences several key concepts she believes helped her company become what it is today—market leader with $400 million in annual sales.
Blakely talks about how failure comes from staying in your comfort zone rather than stretching yourself. She also talks about how not knowing your marketplace or even the product you are developing can have its positives. She knew nothing about patenting a product, manufacturing, marketing or product development. But she pursued her idea, researched and learned what she needed to know, hired others who knew what else she needed to know, and was committed to her mission.
Blakely says that just like you shouldn’t take “no” for an answer from anyone else, you shouldn’t take “no” for an answer from yourself. Her inspiring story concludes with motivation for those with big dreams: “Believe in your idea, trust your instincts, and don’t be afraid to fail.”
The Fashion & Hosiery Industry
Marketing & Public Relations
Giving Back to the Community
Women in Business
Entrepreneurship
“I can honestly say I’ve never seen an event with so much engagement both in the chat function, as well as the virtual networking environment we set up. Our guest comments reflected Sara was a PERFECT fit for our program. Her authentic approach to leading had the entire audience wanting to work for her/Spanx, which is a testament to her vision and execution. Thank you for helping us make this happen!” – ADP
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