Subscribe: Apple Podcasts |  Google Podcasts |  Amazon Music |  Blubrry |  RSS |  More

Sara Blakely was getting ready for a party when she realized she didn’t have the right undergarment to provide a smooth look. She cut off the feet off of her control top pantyhose and the crazy SPANX revolution began! Like all revolutions: it was not easy.

David Young:

Stephen, I don’t know. We’re fairly early in the series here, but we’re going to venture into the ladies’ undergarment department. Is that what I understand?

Stephen Semple:

That’s where we’re going.

David Young:

This is the story of Spanx.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah. Spanx was started by Sara Blakely in 2000. And she had no history in fashion or in any of those things, and she’s now a billionaire. So she took this from 2000 till today, where she’s a billionaire. And I think anytime somebody does that we should pay attention because there’s something to learn here. And the story starts with her going out to an event or a dinner, and she puts on these expensive cream-colored pants, and there are panty lines. She’s like, “I don’t want that, that’s not okay….”

So, where did she go next? She goes to the control top pantyhose. But the problem with that is she wants to wear open-toed shoes. She’s got these great open toes shoes that she wants to wear. So she grabbed scissors, chopped off the feet, put that on, and put on the shoes, and out she goes.

And it’s all great, except what happens is the legs keep rolling up. So she then realizes, “Well, oh my God.” And she looks around and discovers there are no footless control top pantyhose out there anywhere. They don’t exist. So she starts figuring out, “Well, how can I make this work?”

And there are two lessons in this story. First of all, she discovered a problem that wasn’t being solved. And pretty clearly, when you think it through now, it seems obvious that that’s a problem a lot of women would face. You don’t want the panty lines. You want a control top, and you want to be able to wear open-toed shoes.

That’s not a stretch to say this is a big unsolved problem. So she figures out how to solve the problem, but then it gets more interesting as she goes knocking door to door at top hosier companies to find a manufacturing partner. So she wants to find someone who wants-

David Young:

Who will make this?

Stephen Semple:

Yeah. And they say, “No, not interested. No, not interested. No.” She gets rejection, after rejection, after rejection, after rejection. And then there’s one night she gets a telephone call. Honest to God when you hear her being interviewed, this is how it’s put. This plant manager calls her and says, “You know what, we’ll help you with your crazy idea. We’re willing to figure out how to make this crazy idea.”

So even this person was like, I’m not really excited but was like, “Well, what the heck. It’s a crazy idea, but what the heck. Well, we’ll do a flyer and give you a hand on making this.” So she persevered. The manufacturers all were rejection, rejection, rejection. So you think, “Okay, great, I’ve got it made now.”

David Young:

Yeah. Now she’s got a product.

Stephen Semple:

Now I’ve got a product. I built a better mousetrap: billionaire… No.

David Young:

No.

Stephen Semple:

She then hustles. It took her ages going from store, to store, to store, to store, to get somebody to actually stock this. And clearly, as we look at it now, we see this is a good idea. But anytime something’s a brand new idea, it’s amazing how often people go, “I don’t think it’ll sell.”

David Young:

She had to actually shepherd the product. She shepherded it into production, into existence, and then had to shepherd it into department stores that didn’t understand it. In fact, I remember listening to her story the first time she got it into a store, and I think it might’ve been a Nordstrom. I could be wrong on that.

But she ended up having to go into the store because they would put it off, bury it behind other hosiery products, and she would go in and stand next to the display and engage with shoppers. Physically in the store, she was shepherding women to actually try the product as well. She had to treat that business as almost a toddler. Like you had to bring this child up and show it the ropes and let people get to know it. It’s an amazing story of perseverance.

Stephen Semple:

Too often, we look at it and go, “Well, if I build this better mousetrap, create this better pantyhose, it’s all I’ve got to do.” Or, “Now that I’ve got this product, it’s easy.” Or, “Now I’ve got it into the store… I’ve got it in Nordstrom…”

David Young:

Yeah. Well, that’s the fallacy of that old saying if you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door. And I don’t think it actually said that, and that’s never the case. You may have a great mousetrap, but if you don’t tell anybody about it…

Stephen Semple:

Right. And here’s the other thing that she understood. When she got into Nordstrom, it wasn’t going to stay in Nordstrom if it didn’t sell. So even when you finally get the product placed in the location you want, you need to have a marketing strategy for driving business to it.

Years and years ago, before I became a Wizard of Ads partner, I was working with a brewery. And this brewery has subsequently been bought by a national brand. They’re now owned by one of the big breweries. So they did really well.

In Canada, we have these liquor stores that are owned by the government, and that’s where your craft beers are sold. So we would get the man, and they would have a certain amount of space dedicated for local craft beer. And so we would convince the manager to take our local craft beer, and they put it in the store. But here’s what we knew: if it didn’t sell, it wasn’t going to stay.

So we immediately had on the grounds a heavy, expensive local marketing campaign just to drive people to the store to buy that beer. Because we knew when you went to the next store you could go, “Hey, Dave’s had great success.” It was an awesome product. But you can’t just sit there and go, “I’ve got a great product, and I got it in the store. Job done.” It’s not as simple as that.

Now, there’s a point where you get in Nordstrom in three or four stores, and it’s doing well. It’s a high-margin item, and everybody else catches on. So it gets placed well, then the next retailer wants it, and eventually that momentum grows. The next thing you know, you’re a billionaire. But boy, in the early days, it’s hustle, hustle, hustle. And don’t expect that just because I’ve got a good idea and I get it made and I get it in a store that you’re going to have success.

David Young:

Yeah. It’s a great story of perseverance. It really is. It reminds me of the old Churchill quote, “We shall fight in France. We shall fight on the seas and the oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. Fight on the beaches, the landing grounds. We’ll fight in the fields and the streets. We shall never surrender.”

Stephen Semple:

Yeah.

David Young:

Right. She did not give up. And she had so many reasons to. It’s like, “Well, I can’t find anybody to produce this I guess…” And at some point, she even quit her really good job.

Stephen Semple:

Yeah. You’ve got to pursue this.

David Young:

To keep fighting for this. So that’s an amazing story.

Stephen Semple:

To be an entrepreneur is hard. But there’s a great positive in this story of the success she had. There’s a caution in this story as well. And the caution in the story is being an entrepreneur, owning a business, shepherding in a brand new product or an idea requires perseverance, requires strength, requires shoe leather. It requires sweat and grit. And if you’re not prepared to do those things, there’s a reasonable chance that you’re not going to succeed. And that’s just the reality of it all. And frankly, if you’re not prepared to do those things, don’t become an entrepreneur.

David Young:

Thanks for listening to the podcast. Please share us. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app and leave us a big fat juicy five-star rating and review at Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to schedule your own 90-minute empire-building session, you can do it at empirebuildingprogram.com.

Latest posts by Stephen Semple & Dave Young (see all)