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This is Sara. She failed the LSAT twice and was too short to play Goofy at Disney World.
Credit: Celeste Sloman
Today her company is worth $1.2 billion.
Spanx started with $5,000 in savings. No business plan. No investors. Just an idea she got by cutting the feet off her pantyhose.
Here's what happened.
1. Rock bottom
Sara was selling fax machines door-to-door. For seven years. Getting doors slammed in her face constantly.
Most people would quit. Sara did something different.
She started talking about her failures. To everyone.
When she pitched Spanx to buyers, she didn't hide the struggles. She led with them.
2. The bathroom pitch
Sara was losing a buyer at Neiman Marcus. Five minutes in, she could feel it slipping away.
So she said something that shocked everyone.
"I need you to come to the bathroom with me."
In that bathroom, she put on her pants. First without Spanx. Then with Spanx.
The buyer looked at her and said "I get it. It's brilliant."
She placed an order for seven stores.
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3. Building the brand
Sara didn't stop there. She built her whole company around this.
Every new employee has to do standup comedy. They hold meetings where everyone shares their weekly screwups.
In her marketing, she used her own body in before-and-after photos. She shared the rejections. The failures. The moments she almost quit.
When Oprah featured Spanx, they sold 20,000 pairs in one day.
Here's the thing:
Sara figured out something most founders miss completely.
People don't buy from perfect founders. They buy from founders who've been where they are and figured out how to get where they want to go.
Sara didn't just share struggles. She connected them to solutions.
The mess isn't the message. The lesson is the message.
Most founders are so worried about looking professional that they end up looking exactly like everyone else.
Sara chose vulnerable. And vulnerable wins every time.
Talk tomorrow,
Stephen
P.S. This is exactly what we work on in business story consulting. Taking your messiest moments and turning them into your strongest marketing assets. When you share the right struggles in the right way, prospects don't see weakness. They see someone who gets it.
