YouSaid · the spoken record

Sara Blakely

lines on the record: 44
first: 2021-07-13
most recent: 2021-07-13
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Masters of Scale is a weight what original. The show is recorded on-site in California and produced at the studio inside SY Partners in New York. Our executive producers are June Cohen and Darren Triff. Our producers are Dan Kedmey, Chris McLeod, Natalie Chang, Jenny Cataldo, and Ben Manila. Our supervising producer is Jay Punjabi. Original music and sound design is by the Holiday Brothers, mixing and mastering by Brian Pugh. Special thanks to Chris Yea, Elisa Schreiber, David Sanford, Saeeda Sepieva, and Stephanie Kent. Visit masters of scale.com to find the transcript for this episode, and be sure to subscribe to our email newsletter.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You can learn more about the Boiling River Project on our website, mastersofile.com. And with that, I'll revise my theory, define your big idea, you have to look for it, and look for it, and look for it, and then act. And know that this is only the first step in a long entrepreneurial journey. I'm Reid Hoffman. Thank you for listening.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Up, of Describing an appearance on Oprah as helpful is like describing the universe as large. It's a vast understatement. But here's the thing. Sarah's entrepreneurial journey didn't end when she reached her goal of appearing on Oprah. She still had years and years ahead of her, where she built brand awareness one customer at a time. And what about our explorer, Andres? Remember that moment of your phoria when he finally breathed in the steam of the boiling river? Turns out it too was just the beginning.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“My advice to each of you you don't have to be quite that tired, but you will need unwavering persistence. You have to search high and low for your idea, putting yourself in situations where inspiration is most likely to strike. You have to act on it once you find it. Surround yourself with people who can help and seek feedback from those who can help build your idea, and you have to persist through the inevitable failures and setbacks and naysayers. And when you start to bring that idea into the world, don't let massive gaps in your knowledge of how to scale your product get in the way. What you don't know can actually work to your advantage.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But Sarah didn't take investment. She started Spanks with the $5,000 she had in the bank, and while I would never recommend this route to anyone for a whole range of reasons that sent her on speed, support, and sanity, you have to admire that she grew a billion dollar company without ever taking outside investment. Her reason? She didn't know was an option.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So it's important for entrepreneurs and anyone with an outlier idea to remember that not everyone has the entrepreneurial mindset. Many people will tell you that's crazy, that's risky. You'll never succeed. Lots of people have tried this and failed. What makes you different? Why don't you just take a nice safe nine to five job? So if you're the kind of person who will get discouraged or bullied out of your idea, you might want to do what Sarah did and keep it to yourself. But there's also a real advantage to feedback. As I said earlier in the show, I do my best thinking when I'm around people who challenge me, who poke holes in my ideas, and who can tell me where the landmines are. This is one of the advantages, in fact, of taking investment in your company. Each time you pitch your company”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you've listened to that episode, you know that Linda's idea ended up providing much more than just job security, and that's because she held tight to it even when people tried to talk her down. It isn't only entrepreneurs that face this kind of naysaying. It's anyone with an idea that's out of the ordinary. Once again, our geoscientist Andres had a similar experience. When he talked about his quest to find the boiling river, he didn't get a lot of love.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This kind of unhelpful input is very common, and we've heard it on the show before. Remember our episode with Linda Rotenberg, The CO of Endeavor? Linda has now built entrepreneurial communities all over the world, but twenty years ago she was a recent graduate with a dream, a dream that was about to be crushed.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's not that Sarah didn't have any input, she just figured out where to get the most useful input from the people who knew the ins and outs of the business, and she shielded herself from the kind of criticism that might have crippled her.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This was a surprise answer to me. I tend to think that the best ideas are produced by networks, not individuals, and that feedback is a huge part of scaling an idea successfully. But if you listen closely, you'll hear who Sarah means when she says she didn't tell anybody.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I have a feeling that a lot of patents have been researched at that Barnes and Noble on Peachtree Street in Atlanta, or at the one in Union Square in Manhattan, or the one on Almaden Place in San Jose. When you find your idea, you should protect it, and if you only talk about your idea to one person, you might want to make that person a patent lawyer. And that brings me to a fascinating footnote in Sarah Story. As she leaned into the idea of Spanks, naming them, fabricating them, patenting them, there was just one thing she did not do.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I reached out to someone who knows patents inside and out to get a bit of advice for any would be entrepreneur or inventor who's just getting started. Michelle Lee is the former Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and the former director of the US Patent and Trademark Office. Try saying that five times fast. Basically, she was like the chief of ideas for the entire country. And so even an increasingly digital world, she says patents are never going to go out of style.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Makes total sense. I mean, one of my theories about how scale businesses work, you build a product that people love and then you scale it. And so it totally makes sense that you said, look, I cared about scale already coming into it, right? That was the thing. And I cared about like, could this be the ticket to transforming my life and millions of people's lives? She was teaching herself how to realize every piece of this idea. And that included something. I don't think we've mentioned yet in 21 episodes of the show. Patents. Most entrepreneurs don't think to pursue patents right away. And my world of tech, they aren't the most important part of developing a business. But in other industries, they matter a lot.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“As Andre Sancera's stories both show, you don't need to start with an impressive or high powered network. All you need is passion, persuasion, and grit. And Sarah's story is one of real grit. Remember, she didn't have any experience with business or retail or fashion.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“If you're a regular listener of the show, you may remember our episode with Stuart Butterfield, the founder and CEO of Slack. Remember what he said about getting people on board with your idea? Your ability to show your passion, to tell the story of how you poured your blood, sweat, and tears into your product is just as important as the product itself. And when you have a great story, you'll bring people along. Andres, our Amazon explorer, has another great example of how you get help. In short, you ask for it.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sarah couldn't get anyone to see the genius behind her simple idea. Footless pantyhose? What's the point? As an aside, I have a sneaking suspicion that Sarah was speaking to mostly male manufacturers. If she'd been pitching other women, she may have found a willing partner more quickly because they would have understood the problem she was trying to solve. Great ideas get passed over because the people in charge just don't understand the issue. But I digress.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sarah loved her handmade versions, but she quickly saw their limitations. She wanted to take it one step further by partnering with a manufacturing plant they could produce at capacity. And this is a critical step for anyone developing an idea. You have to surround yourself with people who can help. Remember the river guides and shamans that our Amazon explorer called on. You have to surround yourself with this kind of network. Sarah didn't know anyone in manufacturing, but when she reached out to find them, they instantly understood her vision. Right? Not exactly.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“All that. They have a funky provocative name that says, this ain't your grandma's girdle. But none of this existed yet when Sarah first had the idea. She saw a gap in the market and started building toward it.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“At this point in the episode, I want to acknowledge that women's shapewear is not exactly one of my personal areas of expertise, but every great investor spends time understanding underserved markets that are not their own. So for those of you in the audience who are not in the Spanx target market, here's what you need to understand. Spanks may have started as normal pantihos with their feet cut off, but that isn't where it ended. The classic Spanks, which women by the millions now rely on, are the length and shape of bicycle shorts. They look great under pants and dresses, never creating seams or lines. You could compare them to old fashioned corsets, except that spanks are breathable, flexible, and invisible under clothes. They're architectural marvels. The waistlines have an incredible non-sticky grip that keeps them in place. The legs don't roll up or show through clothes.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is a pivotal moment in Sarah's trajectory. She calls it the moment that Spanks was born. But here's the thing. It wasn't born just because Sarah came up with an idea. It was born because she decided to do something about it. Sarah could have just kept cutting the feet off pantyhose every time she had a party to attend. She could have just tolerated her makeshift contraption, rolling up her legs all night. Instead, she saw an opportunity and seized it. It started with a little reconnaissance.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No matter how quickly you translate those patterns into ideas, chances are other people will be doing the same thing. The difference between you and them is your willingness to actually do something. You can't scale an idea that only lives in your head. You have to act on it because that's the only way to find out if it has legs. And great entrepreneurs know not every idea is going to succeed, but every idea should be treated like it could. You can only know in retrospect which ideas go the distance, but even if your first idea doesn't take flight, it may land you at the doorstep of your next big idea.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, now we have cloud storage. What businesses are not possible? Now we have artificial intelligence. Now, what businesses are possible? Another way that entrepreneurs find their ideas is by noticing a more abstract pattern or trend and building toward it. I can see this model for how the components can come together, and even though there's no initial demand for those things, I figure I can build to that. LinkedIn is one of those, Airbnb is one of those, right? Because there is a little bit of demand for Airbnb, but not a lot of demand, right? Like it's kind of the, I want something really cheap. I want to stay in someone's couch. There's this thing called couch serving. But it's like, I want to rent someone else's room in their apartment or their apartment for a night. That's like a new thing.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Let's say you found your perfect thinking place and you stumble onto that big idea, the one that starts with this should exist sign flashing in your mind. That's great, and I'm happy for you. But that's just the first step of the entrepreneurial journey. Some people have a bunch of ideas for products, but then they think they have an idea. It's like, oh, it's like I had an idea for a smartphone because I thought, what if you had a computer in your pocket? And it's like, well, if you had a computer in your pocket, it's not the same thing as having an idea for a smartphone. So it's actually, can we build it and can we make a business out of it? So an idea isn't complete until you figure out how to build the business. And we're about to see how Sarah does it. But it's useful to spend another moment looking at how some of the best business minds find that initial idea. This happens a bunch in Silicon Valley tend to go, oh, there's a platform shift. Which businesses does that open up, right? Now we have mobile phones. What businesses are now possible?”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To have people or not, but it has to have a thing where I can really focus on a purely kind of blank page new part of thinking. There's a number of events where the content on stage is super boring, but I'm locked in my chair because I can't walk out. And so that's the reason I always bring a notepad with me, because what I'll do is I'll start working. But I have the focus of the fact I can't leave. I can't get distracted. I can't go work on something. I can't do email. And I'm just sitting there with my pad of paper, sitting there going, okay, this is really boring. And I pull out my notepad and I start working. Sarah has some great practical advice for anyone looking for their next big idea.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I haven't had the chance to answer my own lightning round questions yet, but if I did, I'd be torn between two answers. The first that I do my best thinking with other people, usually with just one person at a time. I have a thick skin and I don't mind being challenged. In fact, I usually ask people to tell me all the reasons why my idea will fail. This gives me an edge when it comes to spotting landmines and roadblocks even before I act on my idea. But my second answer is about location. Some people think big and familiar places like the shower or their favorite running path, and it makes sense. Familiar spots will let you go on autopilot while your mind wanders. But my favorite thing spots are the ones that are brand new. I do my best thinking in cafes or new spaces, places that I haven't been in a lot. Usually it requires a little bit of bustle.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Serenite had already discussed her fake commute, so by the time we got around to the lightning round the answer was pretty obvious. And this is the one that you're going to laugh. Your favorite place to think big.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sarah knows that she does her best thinking in the car, so she intentionally creates the time and space first thing every day to open herself up to new ideas. This may seem like an interesting bit of trivia, but it's more important than it seems. When I interview guests for the show, one question I ask every single person is what is your favorite place to think big? Here's what some of them have said. Your favorite place to think big.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But you have to look at what happened before that moment. Sarah had already oriented herself squarely in the direction of a big idea. She'd been on the hunt for the last ten years. Whatever kind of idea you're staking out, you have to be intentional about looking for it. Think about our explorer, Andres Russo. He knew his find was in the Amazon, and he could make some informed ideas about his launchpoint. As an entrepreneur, you have to put yourself in situations where your great ideas are likely to strike. Sarah has made a science of staking out her own great ideas.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sarah was prepared to go for whatever idea presented itself, so when the idea struck she was ready. All the other women who had the same thought simply went to their party and back to work the next morning, leaving the neon sign This should exist behind them in the night. And this gets to the heart of a major misconception around entrepreneurship. There is a myth that big ideas drop out of the sky, land in your lap, and transform you into no billionaire the next day. Ta-da! This almost never happens. Yes, Sarah did have a key moment of inspiration,”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sarah just uttered three words that flicker like a neon flashing light over that truly big idea. Those three words, this should exist. They're your clue that you've stumbled onto something with real potential. If you feel as a consumer that you need it, if you can imagine a crowd of others nodding with empathetic encouragement, this just might be your idea. And Sarah had spent years scanning the horizon for that neon sign pointing to her big idea. When she saw it, she followed the sign. And you may ask yourself, how many other women had mutilated their pantihos in exactly the same way? The answer, apparently, is plenty.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Different people have different ways of expressing how ideas came to them. Sarah will tell you she asked the universe and the universe answered. I would interpret it a bit differently. I'd say Sarah kept asking the same set of interesting questions, starting with Is this my big idea? And one day inevitably the answer was going to be yes. It came to her as she was getting ready to go to a party and found herself aggravated by her wardrobe options.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“On the side of the road that night, Sarah's despair led to a clarity of purpose, and that clarity became the catalyst that sparked the big idea.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Door to door fax machine sales, not exactly disruptive tech. It was a dead end career, and Sarah knew it. She had to get out.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Sarah was constantly looking for the clues, trying to figure out what moves to make so she could do something so amazing that even Oprah had to notice.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Whether you're making undergarments or iPhone apps, great entrepreneurs are always on the hunt for the idea that changes everything. Sarah is no exception, for entire adult life she spent her waking hours hunting for that big idea.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of pantios with no background in fashion, fabrication or business, she grew it to a billion dollar company that reinvented underwear without ever taking outside investment. I believe the key to her success happened before the idea popped into her mind. She succeeded because of her clarity of purpose, her consistent optimization of her own best thinking, and her willingness to act, and her persistence to follow through. Her story is the perfect parable for any entrepreneur looking for their first or the next big idea. She's also really fun to talk to. For a tech guy like me, I don't get to have many conversations like this. One of the things that I love talking about to you is, you know, my world is this whole digital world and the people who actually build things, it's super cool.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's a myth amongst entrepreneurs of the lightning strike or the aha moment when the idea just comes to you. In reality, it's rare to find the successful scale entrepreneur who simply received an idea. It's more likely they were already on the hunt. If you want to find your big business idea, you have to constantly search for it. Surround yourself with a human equivalent of a pack of bloodhounds. And when you find yourself on its trail, follow the scent relentlessly and be ready to act when you think you found it. What differentiates successful entrepreneurs from everyone else with a good idea? They pursue it. I wanted to talk to Sarah Blakely about this because her story of spotting, pursuing, and realizing her big idea is both legendary and highly unlikely. She came up with the idea for Spanks at age 26 by cutting the feet off a pair of”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is Masters of Scale. I'm Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, Investor at Greylock, and your host. And I believe there's only one way to find your big idea. Look for it, look for it, look for it, and then act. I often play the role of mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, and the question I'm asked often is, how do I find my big idea? And how do I know it when I see it? I always compare launching a startup to jumping off a cliff and assembling the plane on the way down. So this week we'll look at the earliest step of scaling a company, finding the idea you'll jump off the cliff with. You have to have an idea of the kind of plane you're building, and then you have to jump.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And false discoveries. I believe there's only one way to find your big idea. Look for it, look for it, look for it, and then act.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Andre's first observed the river in 2011. It would take him another three years to prove that it was a naturally occurring phenomena, and that was still only the start. You can read Andre's full story in his Ted Book The Boiling River. It's a delightful short read, full of adventure and science. Like any great explorer, Andres knew what it would take to succeed in this search. He had a guiding idea of what he was looking for, and he constantly surveyed the environment for clues. He recruited useful people to help him each step of the way. He had the resilience to overcome the inevitable obstacles and setbacks, and he just kept searching. It's the classic hero's journey. And like Andres, successful entrepreneurs are always on the search for their big ideas. They aim for it. They track it. They keep their eyes open for clues. They surround themselves with a team who can help, and they rebound from dead ends.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Andres is quick to tell you that he wasn't trying to discover the boiling river, which was already known to local cultures. Rather, he was trying to document it from modern science. There were several false arts, but then the A fateful moment”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Andres found allies in the local shamans who saw his respect for the sacred site and for traditional spiritual practices that had protected it. The shamans offered him guidance. Still, the road ahead wasn't easy, and it wasn't exactly a road.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Most people thought he was asking a stupid question, but Andres had grown up between Peru and Nicaragua. He was fascinated by the Amazon, and he believed, as a scientist, that the boiling river could exist, like any explorer, he found help in some unlikely places.”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's Andre Rousseau. He's a national geographic explorer and geothermal scientist. In twenty ten, he began a personal quest to find the boiling river he'd heard about in a childhood legend. Did it exist?”
2021-07-13 · Masters of Scale · How to find your big idea w/Spanx's Sara Blakely · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT