1. Sara Blakely: The Undercover
Billionaire

2. Background & Biography
• Born in Clearwater, FL in 1971
• Daughter of an artist and a lawyer
• Wanted to be a lawyer, but changed direction after
scoring poorly on LSAT twice
• 7 years of sailing fax machines before following her
dream of being an entrepreneur
• Launched Spanx based on a need that she felt was
unmet in her own life
• Invested $5,000 in savings and two years of late nights
to developing and launching her business
• Grew a one product business sold and marketed out
of her apartment (in 2000) to a leader in the
undergarment industry, generating $250M…all
without investment or advertising

3. Achievements
Youngest, self-made female $17.5M raised through Sara Mother and Wife
billionaire in the world Blakely Foundation Extraordinaire
Still owns 100% of Educating and Training Married to fellow entrepreneur
Spanx equity Female Entrepreneurs and former rapper Jesse Itzler; 3-
year-old son Lazer
Undergarment Runner-up on Rebel
provider to the stars Billionaire
Breakthrough after Oprah chose Despite fear of heights, flying, and
Spanx for Favorite Things episode being on stage

4. Connecting Her Domains
Work Community
• Leveraged a personal want and • Aligns community involvement
need to launch her company with passions
• Embeds herself “in the DNA” of (entrepreneurship, female
Spanx (mascot, comedy) empowerment)
• Space that supports “recreational • Raised $17.5M for her foundation
thinking” and fun so far
• Actively used network to achieve • Includes her family in her
her success volunteer work

5. Connecting Her Domains
Self
• Strong core values have guided her
actions in all domains (e.g.
resilience)
• Takes time for “recreational
thinking” and strong believer in
visualization
• Keeps health as top priority – hired
live-in Navy Seal to train her
Home
• Shares passion for
entrepreneurship with husband
• Dinner time is sacred
• Limited after-hours work talk
• Hires personal
assistants, chefs, nanny, etc. to
maximize quality time spent with
family and friends
• Maintains position as the ultimate

6. Lessons Learned
While reading about her life, I could hear my own father’s voice. The following are lessons that he has always
told me, but Sara’s success story demonstrates that my dad may just know what he is talking about.
1 Visualize your own success…see it and be it
2 Permission to fail, encouraged to rise again
3 Do what you love and the money will follow