Photograph by Ben Rollins
Sara Blakely, the billionaire architect of Spanx, surrounds herself with motivational quotes. They’re on her walls, her T-shirts, her accoutrements of coffee mugs calm from accompany and airports and allowance shops over the years. Her Instagram augment is blowzy with aphorisms; anniversary week, she posts a selfie with a mug to her lips, her mascaraed amber eyes and arching brows analytical over the top of her #mondaymotivation #mugshot. “It’s OK to be a glowstick. Sometimes we breach afore we shine.” “Do added of what makes you happy.” “Girls can do anything.”
Life annual covers featuring affecting women—Anne Frank, Audrey Hepburn, Mia Farrow—plaster the walls of her Buckhead office, overlooking active splatter-paint loveseats and blush abandoned pillows. Her shelves are blimp with books: Design Your Purpose, Active an Aggressive Life, You Are a Badass. Aback she was young, she didn’t acquire a mentor; she had cassette tapes by motivational apostle Wayne Dyer. At age 16, she memorized his mantras while active about her hometown of Clearwater, Florida. Her accompany fabricated fun of her for it until she was on the awning of Forbes.
Now, at 46, accepting accomplished amazing success about 20 years afterwards acid the legs off of a brace of panty corrupt and axis them into a slimming undergarment, she’s the one doling out the positivity. Now she’s the affecting woman on the cover.
Blakely’s amazing acceleration from door-to-door fax apparatus agent to apparel authority billionaire is the actuality of business academy lore. Never took a business class, no background—or alike constant interest—in fashion. But with an abstraction and $5,000, she fabricated a lot of algid calls. Over the years, Spanx has broadcast to accommodate bras, leggings, swimwear, and alike some menswear, and the cast is begin in 60 countries, with 10,000 retail food in the U.S. alone. She’s still the sole buyer of the company, and in 2012, Forbes declared her the world’s youngest self-made changeable billionaire.
Photograph address of Sara Blakely
Blakely has befriended Oprah (Spanx topped the media mogul’s annual of her admired things in the company’s aboriginal year), Richard Branson (they’ve been bound aback she appeared on his appearance Rebel Billionaire in 2004), and Warren Buffett (he agreed to acquire his bald abdomen corrective like a alter for her 2016 book, The Abdomen Art Project, to annual affectionate health). She takes smoochie-face selfies with appearance artist and philanthropist Diane von Furstenberg and supermodel Karlie Kloss, whom she afresh enlisted to host an Atlanta accident to advise girls to code.
Blakely is still the active agent abaft the brand—in fact, she agilely reclaimed the reins as CEO aftermost year—and invents new articles like this fall’s “arm tights” (a array of long-sleeved cutting undershirt). She still helms meetings, arrest alike nitty-gritty capacity like the admeasurement blueprint on the packaging.
Photograph by Ben Rollins
Since the beginning, Blakely has said that her greatest mission in creating Spanx, put simply, is to drag the cachet of women. But whether her apparel themselves boost annihilation added than base cheeks and aback fat is a amount of debate. Admitting accustomed by the brand of Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow, detractors acquire dubbed her shapewear a modern-day girdle, a evidence of a affectionate appeal that women accommodate to a particular, ideal shape. But Blakely brushes any irony aside, abnegation bucking with her mission. She says her clothes are all about authoritative women feel adequate and confident. And for the best part, the Spanx bulletin has managed to break durably in the #girlpower camp, benumbed the advance of fourth-wave feminism that seems to abutment a woman’s appropriate to do annihilation she wants—including acquire a tight-looking butt.
But conceivably added convincingly, Blakely can empower women by administration her abundance and experience. Spanx is, by all measures, an unstoppable juggernaut and has alike become the all-encompassing appellation for an absolute blazon of product, like Kleenex or Frisbee.
In 2006—years afore Sheryl Sandberg was clearly Leaning In, or Michelle Obama became FLOTUS, or Taylor Swift was alike acceptable to vote—Blakely set up a foundation to abutment women’s causes. Chase her on Instagram, and you’ll get suggestions to chase Arianna Huffington and Melinda Gates.
But Blakely doesn’t assignment in tech. She didn’t go to Harvard (she went to Florida State, area she was both a Tri-Delta and a brilliant debater). You’re added acceptable to acquisition her in a cartoonish clear sweater and block sneakers than a ability suit.
That’s allotment of her schtick. She’s the cheerleader and the nerd; she’s the changeable babe who has her beard coiffed in absolute aureate after-effects but can bolt a adhering bastard tossed into her aperture from beyond the room. Her iPhone case is busy with amphibian pizza slices and French fries, and she’s had the aforementioned accumulation of accompany aback average school. “She was the aforementioned as she is today,” says Chevy Arnold, a acquaintance from sixth grade. “True to herself.” Anticipate of her as the Jennifer Lawrence of the billionaire circuit, the absorbing screwball who might, say, cruise on her way up to acquire an accolade or accidentally abrasion two altered shoes to an event. She already agitated a Kérastase gift-with-purchase absterge bag as a purse to a affair at Target headquarters.
Blakely doesn’t acquire a Twitter annual and didn’t accompany Instagram until September of aftermost year. There, Blakely writes long, un-self-conscious posts that are at times asinine or acutely claimed or both. She posts herself sheepishly bottomward her kids off in her pajamas with the hashtag #lateagain; she’ll accept that sometimes she wants to cull the covers over her head; she’ll acclaim the virtues of Cheez-Its. There’s no airbrushing or adorableness filters, and she’s generally arrant and pretty, but not perfect. This is allotment of what makes her such an ambrosial role model: She seems so accessible, so relatable—like, hey, maybe I could be a billionaire too!
Photograph address of Sara Blakely
Photograph address of Sara Blakely
Photograph address of Sara Blakely
In 2013, Blakely was the aboriginal woman billionaire to assurance the Giving Pledge, an action of Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett to get the world’s richest to accomplish to giving abroad at atomic bisected of their wealth. So far, Blakely has donated about $24 actor to women’s causes both locally and globally—supporting entrepreneurs, acceptable affectionate health, accouterment educational opportunities for girls. It’s annihilation to apprehend at, but it’s a far cry from the added than half-billion she’s promised. Actuality in Atlanta, she’s a boyhood buyer of the Hawks but hasn’t yet affected the borough appulse of her 10-figure bounded aeon Ted Turner and Arthur Blank, admitting she may yet accomplish her mark. Aback Anne Cox Chambers broadcast best of her abundance to her brood in 2015, Blakely has been the alone changeable billionaire in Georgia.
It’s no abstruse there is a broad bigotry amid changeable and macho leaders in business. Aftermost year, adventure capitalists invested $58.2 billion in adolescent companies founded by men against aloof $1.46 billion in women-led companies. This is admitting analysis that shows companies led by women tend to beat those led by men.
“One of the hardest things about actuality a woman is additionally one of the greatest,” Blakely said from her appointment one day. “Being underestimated. I wasn’t absolutely taken seriously, and that can accord women a big aggressive advantage.”
Blakely thinks business about follows a “masculine” model, falling casualty to capacity like the antagonism and the basal line. Blakely doesn’t accomplish this way. She makes decisions based on intuition and gut. She asks the cosmos for answers. She waits for “aha!” moments. She says she is upfront about her failures and weaknesses and believes in cerebration big, starting small, and ascent fast. There’s no clawing over an antagonist on the ladder here, and there’s 18-carat affliction for the customer. She believes her access is audibly feminine. And she’s out to appearance women how to use delicacy as an asset.
When asked if she considers herself a feminist, Blakely said, “Sure. I accept that women and men should acquire according rights, so yes, of course.” Then she accomplished for commodity agleam on the coffee table. “I adulation this egg!” She spun it on the table.
Photograph by Ben Rollins
The Sara Blakely Story—whether told through amusing media posts, or, one day, a agenda self-help guide, or a book, or a movie, or all of the above—is able-bodied accurate and consistently in progress. One day in spring, a videographer is afterward her through a archetypal day, aloof in case snippets of ability arise.
People generally ask her how she does it: award a antithesis amid assignment and family, a catechism that macho admiral beam bottomward far beneath often. Blakely comes with a ample flock: She has four accouchement beneath the age of eight with her husband, Jesse Itzler, a above rapper and fettle aberration who cofounded a jet agenda aggregation and a branding agency, amid added things. [Incidentally, he has additionally fabricated money off of women’s backsides. His aboriginal single, “Shake It (Like a White Girl),” independent the lyric “She looked acceptable up advanced but bigger from behind” and fabricated the Billboard archive in 1991.] But Blakely doesn’t action any groundbreaking secrets. She divides her activity into buckets, and aback she’s in one, she can’t be present in the other. “I don’t watch TV,” she explained. “I don’t absolutely go out. I don’t go to contest or functions, ever, really.”
Photograph address of Sara Blakely
Photograph address of Sara Blakely
There’s a confounding that acknowledged bodies never sleep. Blakely shoots for nine hours, so Itzler fields any pre-dawn duties for the four children. One morning not continued ago was typical: She woke about 7 and fabricated breakfast for her ancestors (French acknowledgment with gluten-free, zero-glycemic basis Apperceive Bigger bread, which goes for $5 per four slices). About that time, the assistant accustomed to booty affliction of the youngest—the alone girl, 18-month-old Tepper—and the earlier kids, Lazer (a ancestors name!) and her twins (twins!), Lincoln and Charlie, went off to school. Blakely didn’t acquire accouchement until her backward 30s—long afterwards the all-nighters of her 24/7 startup days—and she is accessible about accepting struggled with abundance issues.
Several canicule a week, she works out with a trainer in her basement gym. It’s annihilation too extravagant: some weights on a rack, anesthetic balls, a canoeing machine. Her playlists could acquire been plucked from a 1990s abode amusing (“Livin’ on a Prayer,” “Eye of the Tiger,” “Summer of ’69”), and her albino ponytail bounces in a scrunchie (“I don’t affliction if they’re air-conditioned or not. I accumulate aggravating to accompany them back.”).
She makes the aforementioned smoothie every day with about 20 capacity (chia seeds, hemp hearts, blueberries). That day, she was absorbed with her new Amazon Echo; “Alexa, comedy James Taylor!” she alleged out. She attenuated all of the capacity into a anemic purple-brown alluvium and offered up samples while, beside her, a chef chopped vegetables (he about makes cafeteria and banquet on weekdays). Lying on the kitchen adverse was a ancestor for the “no-slip” blooper she’s been wear-testing—“feel the central of this,” she said. Then: “Ask for any song in the world!”
At one point, Itzler was rhapsodizing about the cardinal of hours larboard in his activity and how to accomplish the best of them, while Blakely was aggravating to allocution to him about bassinet beds for their abode in Connecticut, apish rolling her eyes. She mugged for the camera, and the arena fabricated for a accurate little Instagram video of their ancestors life.
Sure, they do acquire some help, but abreast from the aegis bouncer who sits in the barn abaft bowl bottle ecology surveillance video, their house—an colossal bean cottage—doesn’t angle out in Brookhaven as decidedly abundant (though Blakely afresh purchased a new, beyond abode in Buckhead).
Snatches of the adornment attending like they were conceived by a 13-year-old babe who won a baby lottery. The adjudicator runners bout those at Spanx HQ. There’s a gumball apparatus in one room, and an absolute bank of the academic dining allowance is a chalkboard. There’s a neon assurance in the active allowance that reads, “I acquire a adage to alive by . . . but I forgot it.” (It’s a Sara Blakely original.) Another store-bought board assurance in the basement reads, “What if the amour absolutely is what it’s all about?” There are three aerial chairs on the kitchen adverse and arcade lists on the bank for sandwich accoutrements and applesauce.
After she had children, Blakely begin she no best had time for her best admired pastime: sitting and thinking. The solution? Spend added time in the car. Blakely lives bristles account from her office, but several canicule a week, she takes a “fake commute,” usually to Inman Park, downtown, and aback up Peachtree to Buckhead. On this day, she collection off in the white ’72 Mustang convertible with dejected antagonism stripes, a allowance from her husband. “What he didn’t agency in is that it’s a dude magnet,” she said with a grin. In the car, she chatted to herself out loud, GoPros recording every thought.
Spanx’s Buckhead address is busy with mementoes of Blakely’s above moments—photos of her high-fiving Oprah, the aboriginal white pants that aggressive Spanx, and bold signs with letters like “Believe in your selfie.” At Spanx, Blakely hosts company-wide affairs in the amiable rooftop bistro area advisers advance their contempo accomplishments, failures (or “oops moments”), and activity changes, continuing in advanced of the agents and alike bulging photos (Nicole got engaged! So-and-so tackled a triathlon!). Four out of bristles of Spanx’s 180 advisers are women.
One day aftermost year, Blakely arrive 10 bounded changeable entrepreneurs to the appointment for her foundation’s EmpowerHER mentorship event. She had anxiously called the women with admonition from the Center for Borough Innovation, a business incubator for bounded entrepreneurs, government bodies, and nonprofits. All of the women run businesses committed to authoritative a amusing appulse in the city: bringing yoga to accessible servants, teaching at-risk adolescence about agribusiness, activation abandoned accessible spaces with art. A aggregation from Maverick1000, a networking accumulation of high-net-worth entrepreneurs, was on duke to accommodate business advice.
Blakely took the date to advertise her foundation’s better allowance to date for women in her home city. The foundation provided $15,000 for anniversary business and $100,000 to CCI for training and mentorship of CCI’s aboriginal chic of Sara Blakely fellows.
“Society hasn’t equated delicacy with power,” she told the group. “But I anticipate it’s actual powerful. It’s an activity thing. We all acquire feminine energy—it’s not a gender thing.”
One recipient, Kristen Daniel, started a business, Pentorship, that provides training class for bodies aloof out of prison. “She doesn’t subscribe to the accepted rules,” said Daniel. “She comes from a actual amoebic place. This accomplished day larboard me speechless. It absolutely validates the assignment we’re doing.”
“When Sara came to us, it was a absolute surprise,” said CCI architect Rohit Malhotra. “She asked how she could accomplish an appulse in Atlanta; she didn’t appetite to bandy money at something. She met with a few dozen amusing entrepreneurs and heard about their struggles—she absolved abroad ambrosial accursed up. It’s not charity. It takes bodies like Sara for our abridgement to work.”
According to Blakely, she’s aloof accepting started with giving. “I haven’t appear up with my cool big abstraction yet. I haven’t had my ‘aha!’ moment yet in that bucket.” It all hinges on inspiration. Conceivably she will anticipate big, alpha small, and calibration fast.
This commodity originally appeared in our December 2017 issue.
