🛠️ Sara Blakely: How 1 woman turned a pair of hose into $1 billion

What up, marketers. Welcome to this marketer deep-dive edition of Adam’s Letter. Thanks to the 22 of you who joined the community since Sunday! If someone sent this to you - please subscribe. You can also listen to this issue HERE.

Here’s to the crazy ones. The comm majors. The door-to-door salespeople. The career marketer who dreams of more.

This one’s for you.

Today’s story is about Sara Blakely. As the Founder/CEO of Spanx and the youngest woman to become a self-made billionaire - you’ve almost certainly heard about her.

How she built her career from door-to-door sales gnat to Tres Commas Club member is the stuff of legend.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. Sara was a Comms major! To my marketing professor who questioned if Comms majors had value: suck it.

2. She had no idea what to do with her career: Comedy? Sales? Law School?! (this is getting uncomfortably familiar)

3. She was in door-to-door sales for 7 years before founding Spanx

She’s truly “one of us.”

IMO, Sara has achieved more than any pure marketer before her.

Here are 3 lessons I took away from studying her career:

1. Learn to Fail Up

Sara’s dad taught her failing was a good thing. Each week, he’d ask her what she had failed at. When she answered, he would give her a high-five.

She learned that failure paved the lane for success.

Sara eventually spent two full years and $5,000 of her own money trying to figure out what Spanx would become.

Two. Years. She easily could have quit.

Thankfully, she didn’t. 2 weeks after going full-time, Spanx was featured by a little-known influencer named “Oprah.”

Fail, fail, fail…win big.

2. Know Your Superpower

Sara knew what her unfair advantages were. Here’s my favorite story about her.

Sara knew selling was a superpower and became her own door-to-door salesperson.

After convincing department stores like Nieman Marcus to carry her products, she bought some racks at Target and set them in up stores to sell Spanx herself.

Everybody assumed she must have gotten special permission.

And she did. From herself.

Once the higher-ups realized what was happening, they didn’t stop her because she was selling such insane volume for a low-priced product.

Sara leveraged every bit of her personal advantages to create and market a product in a way nobody else could.

3. Market To Yourself

Sara is truly comfortable in her own skin.

As marketers, this is a toughie. We spend most of our working hours thinking and writing and talking like someone else. It’s a huge part of our job.

When asked, Sara gives the same advice to new entrepreneurs, “…differentiate yourself. Why are you different? What’s important about you?”

She followed her own advice when building the Spanx branding.

Traditionally, undergarments’ packaging all looked the same. Similar designs were created and sold by men to an all-woman audience.

Sara turned this on its head.

She bought a bunch of competitive products. Figured out what info had to be on the package to be compliant. Then threw the rest away.

Then she chose a name, colors, and a design that she liked. Instead of staying with the same old boring look; Sara created a colorful brand that made every purchase an experience.

She leaned into what she liked and built a billion-dollar brand that stood out from the rest.

My takeaway: Sometimes we marketers gotta be a little more self-centered. I know, I know. But doing the hard work to be in touch with our unique powers and to communicate them effectively always pay off. Also, man spanx are a no-no. Let’s not get crazy.

- av

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