Level Up! With Shay

I’m so excited to bring you some of my mentors who I’ve learned from over the past 4+ years. From content creators, to business owners, serial entrepreneurs, and so many more. There are so many different videos and interviews out there that share these mentor’s stories and how they got to success, but with MMM I will bring you my own, fresh perspective of what has stood out to me about their achievements and their grind!

So for today’s Millionaire Mentor Monday, I present to you…

Sara Blakely

Who (is this millionaire mentor?)

Sara Blakely is an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She is the founder of Spanx, an American intimate apparel company with pants and leggings, founded in Atlanta, Georgia (Wikipedia). She has four kids and is married to serial entrepreneur, Jesse Itzler.

I promise this isn’t a whole Wikipedia page. Keep reading!

I first discovered Sara Blakely on Lewis Howes’ podcast, The School of Greatness, a few years ago. She seemed like such a go-getter, so determined, so confident. Then I looked into the work she’s done to get her where she is – a billionaire! (Unfortunately, there’s no day of the week that starts with a B). During my research I REALLY started paying more attention to her. Sometimes seeing the finished product of a business or a process can make it seem like, “yeah ok this person is successful…cool”. But when you REALLY look into what they did to get to where they’re at, you can 1) say “this is going to be too hard, I quit” or 2) “holy cow, THAT’S what it takes?! HELL YES! How can I do more of THAT??”. In this case…be the #2.

What (does this millionaire mentor do?)

Sara Blakely first discovered the need for Spanx when she cut the legs out of her hose before a night out. At the time, she had been selling fax machines door-to-door. (Um…what??). And that ordinary night, turned into a night that would change her life. She kept it a secret from her family for TWO YEARS! She did this, not because she thought someone would take the idea and make it their own, but because she thought her family would stop her (out of love of course), but either way it was not a good idea to share it just yet. She worked with lawyers and manufacturers to create a patent and the product. After she was laughed at by a couple lawyers, she decided to take matters into her own hands and create her own patent. Then she begged one of the lawyers to put the finishing touches on it and *poof* Spanx was patented.

When (did this millionaire mentor start?)

Sara came up with the idea and started on the process in 1998!!! She was 27 years old and still selling fax machines. She spent about two years with the manufacturers making a prototype and eventually made contact with people at departments stores such as Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales and presented the product to be sold in their stores. In 2000, she launched the product out of her apartment! That same year, Oprah named Spanx her “Favorite Thing” which that led to Sara finally leaving her door-to-door fax-selling job. Since then, the company has been growing and while I don’t know the current revenue due to Spanx being a private company, it did grow from $15 million in sales in 2002 to over $400 million in 2014!

Where (is this millionaire mentor now?)

Sara Blakely currently serves as the CEO at Spanx, is part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks NBA basketball team, and is very philanthropic with the Sara Blakely Foundation which helps women through education and entrepreneurial training. She has become good friends with Richard Branson who has helped her tremendously in her philanthropy. She has many programs she is running through Spanx right now – The Red Backpack Fund which is supporting female entrepreneurs during COVID-19 and donating $5 million to help alleviate the impact. Grameen America which helps low-income female entrepreneurs through micro-loans, credit, and asset-building services. And Flip the Script that is empowering female storytellers in a world where 90% of the content is created by men! You can see all of the work that’s being done at http://www.spanxfoundation.com.

Why (does this millionaire mentor do what they do?)

Anywhere you look on her website or any interview she’s done, Sara will tell you she was meant to serve and empower women. Through her early days creating Spanx, she found out that mostly men were in charge of the hosiery businesses and those men were definitely not using their own products! She knew she had to get more women into the limelight.

“Since I was a little girl I have always known I would help women. In my wildest dreams I never thought I would have started with their butts. As it turns out, that was a great place to start!” – Sara Blakely

Sara has learned a lot of lessons through her life, like failing, something her dad urged her to do daily, and here are a few lessons I have learned from my Millionaire Mentor, Sara Blakely.

Sara Blakely’s Millionaire Mentor Lessons

1. Sometimes you gotta keep things a “secret”.

I am a big believer in saying your dreams and goals out loud, but be careful who you say them around. If you want to start a coffee shop and share the idea with your family, they could try to stop you by saying it’s too expensive, something about the economy, nobody needs a new coffee shop, and so on, but if you feel like you are being called to start a coffee shop, you can’t listen to ANYONE who is getting in your way. Find those people who support you no matter what and surround yourself with a team who can take you to the next level. In Sara’s case it was a couple lawyers and a manufacturer. Oddly enough, sometimes people who have NO stake or no prior relationship with you are more willing to help!

2. Use your work to fuel your purpose.

For whatever reason, Sara knew she wanted to empower women. At first, she was empowering herself by becoming a very successful sales person at her office equipment company. Now she can empower women through hosiery and how they feel with their bodies. In addition with the success Spanx has had, she can use that money to empower women who are building other businesses and or want some assistance share THEIR stories! She didn’t create Spanx so she could help animal shelters – although, helping animal shelters is always great! – she did it because it fueled her purpose.

3. Patience. Patience, patience, patience.

Sara worked at that office equipment company for 7 years before she left for Spanx full-time. Are you willing to be at a company for 7 years before you can leave to run your own business? Are you willing to spend hours outside of your actual work to build your brand, product, or service? And for multiple years, at that? Consistency and persistence over time is what built Spanx. Even though Sara was selling fax machines, her goal was to make money to invest in her dreams. She knew she wouldn’t be in that place the rest of her life. She grinned it out until Spanx took flight. It reminds me of when I’m in a plane and we’re on the runway about to take off. As the plane starts going, you feel the gravity pull you back in your seat. It goes and goes almost like if you were to see your face in the mirror, you could see your eyeball sockets. And then you take off and it’s smooth(er) sailing. That’s the grind. The grind may not take 10 seconds like the plane does on a run way, but maybe years. You have to be willing to put in the time and be patient along the way.

I hope you enjoyed today’s Millionaire Mentor Monday! Is there someone you’d like me to feature? Someone who you’ve thought of as a mentor? Comment below!

Thanks for reading this! I hope you have a great rest of your Monday (or whatever day it is!) and keep leveling up! ❤

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