Confidence Classic: Why Your Mindset Is The KEY To Success! With Sara Blakley & Jesse Itzler

Summary

Podcast Summary: Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan

Episode Title: Confidence Classic: Why Your Mindset Is The KEY To Success!
Guests: Sara Blakely (Founder of Spanx) & Jesse Itzler (Serial Entrepreneur)
Release Date: February 4, 2025

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Introduction

In this compelling episode of Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan, Heather sits down with two extraordinary entrepreneurs, Sara Blakely and Jesse Itzler, to delve deep into the pivotal role mindset plays in achieving success. Through personal anecdotes, insightful discussions, and humorous exchanges, Sara and Jesse illuminate how mental resilience and a focused mindset can propel individuals beyond perceived limitations.

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Personal Journeys and Overcoming Adversity

Sara Blakely: From Fax Machines to Spanx

Sara Blakely shares her inspiring journey from selling fax machines door-to-door to founding Spanx, a global household brand. She credits her unwavering mindset and resilience in the face of relentless rejection as the cornerstone of her success.

• Key Quote:
  “The combination of the amount of rejection I had had was perfect to start a company because I was told no every day for two years. It didn't really faze me.”
  [00:00]

Sara discusses how she meticulously developed her product idea over two years without seeking external validation, emphasizing the importance of protecting and nurturing one's ideas internally before sharing them.

• Key Quote:
  “I was going to pick 20 of you at random, and I'm going to send you some awesome Spanx leggings.”
  [57:18]

Jesse Itzler: The Last Man Standing Race

Jesse Itzler recounts his grueling experience in the Last Man Standing race, where his mental fortitude was tested to the extremes. Despite physical exhaustion and challenging terrain, Jesse's focused mindset enabled him to persevere long beyond his physical limits.

• Key Quote:
  “The mindset was there. And that pushed him, I would say. [...] you just can't ever doubt the mindset of the person who's in the right place.”
  [08:36]

Jesse emphasizes the importance of staying present and maintaining laser focus on immediate tasks to navigate long-term challenges effectively.

• Key Quote:
  “Be where your feet are. And right here, I'm in this loop. Let me get back to the chair, get my little rest, and go on the next loop right now.”
  [08:36]

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The Power of Mindset in Entrepreneurship

Sara and Jesse delve into how a resilient mindset is fundamental to entrepreneurial success. They share personal strategies for cultivating a strong mental framework that allows them to navigate setbacks and seize opportunities.

Sara on Mindset and Success

Sara attributes her success to a mindset shaped by early challenges and the teachings of motivational speaker Wayne Dyer. Her ability to not fear rejection and to maintain focus on her vision enabled Spanx to thrive without traditional advertising for over 16 years.

• Key Quote:
  “I believe mindset is, I work on it daily.”
  [12:37]

She highlights the significance of not caring excessively about others' opinions, which liberates entrepreneurs to take bold risks without the paralyzing fear of failure.

Jesse on Visualization and Goal Setting

Jesse shares his unique approach to goal setting by visualizing the end result and staying committed to the desired outcome, regardless of obstacles encountered along the way.

• Key Quote:
  “When I have a goal, I like to say, that's the end of the movie. I go to the end of the movie first, where I want the outcome to be, and that's unwavering.”
  [12:56]

He underscores the importance of creating momentum through small wins, which builds confidence and propels individuals toward their larger goals.

• Key Quote:
  “Once you get momentum and you start to believe, you can have something that you can build on that's super powerful.”
  [23:08]

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Innovative Approaches to Business and Personal Challenges

Sara’s Path to Spanx without External Validation

Sara describes her decision to keep the Spanx idea to herself initially, fearing that early disclosure might lead to unnecessary criticism or discouragement. This strategic isolation allowed her to invest her energy into developing the product without defending her vision.

• Key Quote:
  “I don't want to tell anybody my idea because I feel that ideas are the most vulnerable in the moment that you have them.”
  [16:42]

Her persistence paid off when she successfully pitched Spanx to Neiman Marcus, showcasing the importance of demonstrating the product's value through direct experience.

• Key Quote:
  “I just stopped and said, you know what, Diane, will you come to the bathroom with me?... I showed her before, and then I showed her with the product on, and she just sat there and she goes, I get it. It's brilliant.”
  [25:03]

Jesse’s Entrepreneurial Story from Music to Business

Jesse recounts his transition from the music industry to entrepreneurship, illustrating how creating compelling stories and building momentum were crucial in his ventures. His anecdote about the unsuccessful business model with the Knicks song underscores the importance of strategic sacrifices for long-term gains.

• Key Quote:
  “People buy into stories and momentum more than they buy into products.”
  [19:53]

He further explains how differentiating his business approach by being authentic and unique was key to scaling his companies effectively.

• Key Quote:
  “What makes you uniquely different. And that was a question Sarah asks all the time to her team and to her employees.”
  [51:34]

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Humor, Vulnerability, and Company Culture

Sara and Jesse discuss the role of humor and vulnerability in building strong, resilient company cultures. They believe that embracing imperfections and fostering a fun, supportive environment can enhance team cohesion and drive innovation.

Sara’s Approach to Vulnerability

Sara shares her practice of intentionally putting herself in embarrassing situations to diminish the power of fear and to foster genuine connections with others. This vulnerability not only strengthens personal resilience but also cultivates a relatable and authentic brand image for Spanx.

• Key Quote:
  “We do oops meetings at Spanx where we have the whole company get together and we stand up and we share what we failed at, or an oops or a mistake that we made and everybody claps and it's just like, diffuses it.”
  [28:19]

Jesse’s Emphasis on Fun and Authenticity

Jesse emphasizes the importance of not taking oneself too seriously and incorporating fun into both personal life and business operations. This philosophy helps in maintaining a positive and creative workplace atmosphere.

• Key Quote:
  “Humor works. Humor's fun. I think one thing we've both had in our entrepreneurial journey is we've had fun.”
  [27:49]

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Lessons Learned: Differentiation and Innovation

Both Sara and Jesse highlight the necessity of differentiation in business. They advocate for maintaining authenticity and leveraging unique strengths to stand out in competitive markets.

Sara on Leading with Story

Sara underscores that customers are more interested in the "why" behind a product than the "what." By focusing on storytelling and connecting emotionally with customers, businesses can build stronger, more loyal customer bases.

• Key Quote:
  “Your customers are so much more interested in why than they will ever be interested in what.”
  [36:36]

Jesse on Being Unique and Standing Out

Jesse advises entrepreneurs to persistently ask what makes their product or service different. This relentless pursuit of uniqueness ensures that businesses can carve out distinct niches and foster innovation.

• Key Quote:
  “If you rip up the playbook that everybody in the industry is using and you say, like, well, how would I do it if I never was taught how to do it? That's where innovation comes from.”
  [51:59]

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Personal Anecdotes and Light-Hearted Moments

The episode also features a fun and light-hearted segment where Sara and Jesse engage in a lightning round of personal questions. They share amusing stories, quirky traits, and pet peeves, showcasing their authentic personalities and deepening the connection with listeners.

• Sara’s Quirk: “I can vibrate my eyes.” [55:20]
• Jesse’s Pet Peeve: “Don't let him boo you. Never let them boo you.” [56:05]

These moments of vulnerability and humor humanize the guests, making their insights on mindset and success even more relatable and impactful.

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Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Sara Blakely and Jesse Itzler's conversation with Heather Monahan offers a rich exploration of how mindset shapes entrepreneurial success. Their stories emphasize the importance of resilience, authenticity, and strategic differentiation. Key lessons include:

• Resilience in the Face of Rejection: Embracing a strong mindset helps overcome setbacks and maintain focus on long-term goals.

• Authentic Storytelling: Sharing genuine narratives fosters deeper connections with customers and builds brand loyalty.

• Humor and Vulnerability: Incorporating humor and embracing imperfections enhance team culture and personal resilience.

• Differentiation and Innovation: Continuously seeking what makes your product or approach unique drives sustainable success.

Notable Quotes:

• “You can't ever doubt the mindset of the person who's in the right place.” — Jesse Itzler [08:36]

• “We did so much of [Spanx’s] growth through humor and through the connection that we had with our customer and storytelling.” — Sara Blakely [36:36]

• “What makes you uniquely different. And that was a question Sarah asks all the time to her team and to her employees.” — Jesse Itzler [51:34]

This episode serves as a masterclass in leveraging mindset to conquer challenges, innovate, and build successful ventures. Listeners are left with actionable insights to apply in their personal and professional lives, inspired by Sara and Jesse’s remarkable journeys.

Transcript

[Sarah Blakely]

Life has a weird way of giving you these experiences. Because when I started Spanx, the combination of the amount of rejection I had had was perfect. To start a company because I was told no every day for two years. The idea is no good. No, thank you. We don't want to help you. We think this is stupid, whatever. And it didn't really faze me. And then the writing comedy for two years while I was doing that helped me do all the writing for Spanx and the marketing. And Spanx didn't advertise for 16 years. We became a household name and a household brand around the world without ever advertising.

[Heather Monahan]

Come on this journey with me each week when you join me. We are going to chase down our goals, overcome adversity, and set you up for a better tomorrow.

[Sarah Blakely]

Fasten your seatbelts.

[Jesse Itzler]

I'm ready for my close up.

[Unknown]

Tell me, have you been enjoying these new bonus Confidence Classics episodes we've been dropping on you every week? We've literally hundreds of episodes for you to listen to. So these bonuses are a great way to help you find the ones you may have already missed. I hope you love this one as.

[Heather Monahan]

Much as I do.

[Unknown]

Meet a different guest each week.

[Heather Monahan]

Hi. Welcome back to Creating Confidence. I'm so excited you're back here with me. Thank you for making it this week. And you are going to flip about this episode. I am so grateful to everyone at Hypergrowth for giving me the opportunity to share this interview with you. It is the interview of a lifetime and I'm so excited for you to hear it. Can't wait to hear what you think. So this week was a really big week for me. Saturday, I am giving my first TED Talk. And it's interesting because I'm learning so much about TED Talks because all I do now is I'm obsessed over watching every TED Talk in the world and reading about TED Talks to really immerse myself and figure out if there's any tips or tricks, you know, on how to make it better to connect with the audience and to get this thing to go viral. So I'm really, I'm really all in on this TED Talk. And the challenge is you only get 10 minutes. And I always thought TED talks were 18 minutes, but apparently you get whatever you are given by the TED TED board that you're working with. And for the TED Talks that we're doing In Boca Raton, TedX, it is 10 minutes. So it's tough to tell a story, share an idea, and, you know, be concise enough in 10 minutes. It's it's a lot to accomplish, so I'm hoping that I was able to do just that. And I am going big or going home as always. So I'm really trying to focus just on the TED Talk right now, which is crazy because this week is there's a lot going on. I'm actually giving a speech on Wednesday at a media company. On Thursday, I'm flying to New York to support the book launch of a good friend of mine, Standing O Encore. I actually wrote the foreword for the book, so I'm flying to New York for that. And then I'm heading Friday to the Boca Raton TEDx VIP sponsor party, which all the speakers have to attend. And we do some media as well as be there to support the actual event. Then I'll drive home and come back the next morning to actually do my talk after we have our walkthrough. So it's, it's kind of a crazy week, and my son is heading to a marine biology trip for three days. So we've got to get him packed up with all of his gear, sleeping bag, water bottles, you know, all this crazy stuff. So it's just, I'm trying to just focus primarily on the TED Talk and make sure that I've got things in motion for the other elements that I have going on. But, you know, really, my TED Talk is the big focus. So the following week, it's funny, I'm actually going back to New York and I haven't even booked the flights. I haven't booked the hotel. Well, I actually haven't booked my hotel for this week either because that's how laser focused I am on the TED Talk. So, you know, again, just trying to prioritize and let other things go, knowing that they will get worked out in the end. But I'm so excited for you to hear this interview. This again, literally is an interview of a lifetime. And I'm going to cut right to it because you're going to be blown away by Sarah Blakely, the founder of Spanx, and her husband, Jesse Itzler, a serial entrepreneur and unbelievable guy. And I'm so grateful I got the opportunity to interview both of them. If you did not catch hyper growth in Boston, you've got to catch hyper growth in San Francisco. It's an amazing event where you get to meet thought leaders. And I got the opportunity to interview Sarah and Jesse live on stage. And now you get the chance to hear it. Can't wait to hear what you think. So hang tight with me.

[Sarah Blakely]

Sarah and.

[Unknown]

Jesse and as was just mentioned, you guys have had a lot going on in the last week.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yes, that's definitely true.

[Unknown]

Not much sleep.

[Sarah Blakely]

Not a lot of sleep.

[Unknown]

In case some of the people here don't follow you on Instagram, can you kind of break down what Last Man Standing was all about?

[Jesse Itzler]

Yeah, so I just. That's the reason why I'm wearing flip flops. I just got back from a race called the Last Man Standing. You guys hear me? Okay, cool. Okay. I feel like an operator. And the format of the race is you run a 4.2 mile loop. You have an hour to do it, and if you finish earlier, you can finish in 50 minutes. You have a 10 minute rest, and then they line you up again at the top of the hour and you do it again and you keep going until one person is left. So my wife, it was in Maine. And when I. When I. Yes. Well, when I googled it, it said that there were. There was moderate elevation. Yeah. If you live in Maine, it was crazy terrain. So I ended up. I just got back we. I did 20 hours, 80 miles and I came in fifth.

[Unknown]

I think that deserves a round of applause.

[Jesse Itzler]

And my wife was the last wife standing.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yes. I win. Last wife standing. I didn't sleep for 35 hours, so I was supporting him. And it's really challenging. I said at one point I had a breakdown, I think at like 4 in the morning where I just started crying because I said marriage is hard when you have to really support each other's dreams and especially if you have to watch the person you love suffer. And Jesse had a pep talk with me before, and he said, no matter what, tell me I look good. Tell me I look strong. Don't pull me out of the race. Don't tell me that you're worried about me.

[Jesse Itzler]

But I didn't say to say it like this. Ooh, you look good.

[Sarah Blakely]

That's true. But it was really a wild experience of just human spirit. You know what we all have inside of us, that grit and determination. And there were 112 of really intensely impressive ultra runners there. And wow, I was just blown away by. By mindset, really, because I. I asked Jesse after this. I mean, Jesse's 51. So I said, honey, even though you didn't get the last man standing, you definitely won the oldest man standing because he was 10 to 20 years older than every other racer in this race. And. Yeah, so. And so I said to him, I was so curious because I knew mindset. I'm a huge believer in mindset. And I said, what was your mindset and what were you thinking during the race? And he looked at me with laser focus after it. And he said, I was saying repeatedly to myself, I push my body and my body responds, and boy, did it ever. I mean, because his knees, his ankles, I mean, the rest of his body really, I mean, was shutting down, but his mindset was there. And that, that pushed him, I would say. I mean, at mile 47, I thought you were done. I love you, but I really did. I was, like, so worried. And then, like, you know, you just can't. You can't ever doubt the mindset. If the mindset of the person's in the right place, then they. They just go way beyond what you expect.

[Jesse Itzler]

What's interesting about this race is, you know, you can get lost in how long it's going to be or how with the distance is. And it's like anything you're doing in your entrepreneurial journey or any challenge, any goal, it's really just being laser focused on what's happening right now, what's the most important thing, and not getting. Not patting yourself on your back for all your achievements, like, oh, I got to mile 25 or whatever, and not thinking about how far you want to go. It was literally just staying super present. And I always say, be where your feet are. And right here, I'm in this loop. I'm in this loop right now. Let me get back to the chair, get my little rest, and go on the next loop right now. This is my job to get to the loop. And that was the focus.

[Unknown]

Wow. It's very, very impressive.

[Sarah Blakely]

And if any of you guys want to be super entertained and inspired, it's on my Instagram page, arablakely. And it's in one of those, you know, I put it in a permanent circle in the bar below the descriptor of my name, and it's called the Last Man Standing. And it's really. It is very special.

[Unknown]

You have to check it out. Her Insta stories are really funny. So, Sarah, you mentioned mindset and the importance and effect that mindset has, not only for Jesse, but, you know, people look at you and your company today and they think you're enormously successful, and it was probably always that way. However, you were a salesperson at one point in time and had a very different life. Do you attribute the things that have happened in your life to mindset or what? Do you attribute that success, too?

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah, definitely. Mindset. I mean, I. I sold fax machines door to door for seven, seven years. After graduating from college. And I, you know, for 20 years, Spanx is going to be 20. I started it in the year 2000. And the sound bite in the media has been, Sarah cut the feet out of pantyhose and solved an undergarment issue. And, you know, now Spanx is here. And while that is true, there was so much more about the behind the scenes of why this happened. And people have asked me, can I have 10 minutes, 15 minutes of your time? I want to pick your brain on how Spanx started. But the real answer is it started way before I cut the feet out of my pantyhose. And it started when I was much younger and I had a series of kind of tragic events happen to me when I was in high school. And it led me to Wayne Dyer, who is a motivational inspirational speaker. He passed away about two years ago, but I got exposed to him and I listened to his cassette tapes over and over and over again to the point that I had his one series called how to Be a no Limit person. Memorized all 10 cassette tapes front and back, and try living with that. Well, yeah, that's funny because in high school, no one wanted to get stuck in my car. Like, after a party, they're like, she's going to make you listen to this shit. And so. But then, you know, I said. I said, I think I would take.

[Jesse Itzler]

Simple things like, I'm just going to do the laundry tomorrow. And she'd be like, do you know the ramifications of waiting till tomorrow?

[Sarah Blakely]

So, but then fast forward, you know, I think it was 10 to 15 years after high school that I ended up on the COVID of Forbes. And the texts I got in my phone were so funny. I mean, literally all my friends were like, damn, should have listened to that shit. So. But I'm a big believer in it. I learned early on about manifesting law of attraction, not caring what other people think about you, which is a really big one for an entrepreneur or, you know, in life, really. And I'm a work in progress on that. There are times where I do care and I check myself and say, you know, let's. Let's work on this. But it's very freeing to not care what other people think. You'll take more risks to not really focus on the outcome and be so afraid to fail. So all of that is a big part of my journey and Spanx for sure. So I think mindset is I work on it daily.

[Unknown]

We all need to. I need to get those cassettes. Jesse, you didn't start out an MTV rapper, you didn't start out owning an NBA team. You were sleeping on couches for quite a while, which people probably find hard to believe. Do you attribute your success to mindset or what do you attribute it to?

[Jesse Itzler]

I think, well, I definitely have my own version of mindset. When I have a goal, I like to say, that's the end of the movie. I go to the end of the movie first, where I want the outcome to be, and that's unwavering. I don't negotiate that. I don't try not to ever negotiate my goals. The script changes, the plot changes, how you get there. You have all kinds of obstacles, but the end of the movie really never changes for me. So that's my form of visualization and how I kind of attack it.

[Unknown]

Sarah, you mentioned that you didn't share your invention with anyone for that first year. Why would you take that approach instead of enlisting others to help you or support you through that?

[Sarah Blakely]

That really came from a gut feeling. I really honor my gut and intuition a lot and still do through the journey that I'm on. But I. When I cut the feet out of my pantyhose and started Spanx, I had actually asked for the idea two years prior. So I was selling fax machines. I had one really bad day. I'd been kicked out of an office again. I mean, I got usually business cards ripped in my face about once or twice a week. I got escorted out of buildings all the time. And this day was just hard. I mean, I'm seven years into 100% cold calling to sell people a fax machine. And I pulled over and I said, I'm in the wrong movie. How did this happen? Call the director, called the producer. This is not my life. Like, I'm redirecting my life. And I went home and I wrote down a list of what I'm good at in the positive column and strengths. And I saw sales, and I thought, okay, well, what is it about sales that I'm good at? And it led me to the fact that I like to offer people things that they may not know they need and then really makes a difference for them. And I wrote down in my journal that night, I'm going to invent a product that I can sell to millions of people that will make them feel good. And then I looked up in the air in my apartment and I said, I'm ready for the idea. If you give it to me, I won't squander it. And two years later, I cut the Feet out of control. Top pantyhose one night to wear white pants to a party and not have a panty line or anything show. Because, guys, you're out there in the audience. I don't know how many of you struggle with what to wear under white pants, but it's a legit problem that we have. And so I cut the feet out of my panties one time and I thought this could be the idea because I had already set the intention for the idea to show up. So. But as soon as I started on the path of it, I thought, okay, I don't want to tell anybody my idea because I feel that ideas are the most vulnerable in the moment that you have them. And it is our human nature that the minute we have an idea, we tell our friend, our co worker, our wife, our husband, boyfriend, girlfriend. And in those moments, out of love and care and all the right intentions, half the time the person might say something that completely squashes it or makes you not pursue it. So I didn't want to tell my friend, family and friends, and I have very supportive family and friends, but I didn't want ego to have to get involved too early on in the process. I wanted to spend my time pursuing it and not defending it. So at night and on the weekends for two years, I would sell fax machines during the day and then at night I would sneak stay up and I was working on the patent and I was, you know, doing all my research and driving, taking vacation days to drive to North Carolina where the manufacturing plants were and begging them to help make the first prototype. But that is really why. And I have to say, I mean, everybody in their life has a million dollar, even a billion dollar idea. I mean, we, we do. They, they kind of.

[Unknown]

I haven't had mine yet.

[Sarah Blakely]

Well, well, you do. And I feel like recognizing it is a big one and then also, you know, holding it sacred for me. And I'm glad I did because I sat my family down a year later and all they knew was Sarah's working on some crazy idea. And a year later I sat him down and I said, okay, guys, are you ready? It's footless pantyhose. And I mean, they were like, so, sweetie, if it's such a good idea, why hasn't anybody else created it? And then someone else in my family was like, well, honey, you know, and even if this is a good idea, the big guys are just going to knock you off in the first six months and you will have spent your savings on this. And if I had Heard those things in the moment that I had it, I probably would still be selling fax machines or something like it. So I really. I really believe that. I believe that you gotta. You gotta really protect it now. It didn't mean I didn't tell people that would help me pursue it. I was telling lawyers, having them help me try to write the patent. I was cold calling manufacturers and talking to them. I just didn't seek out people simply for validation until I knew I had put enough of my own sweat equity into this idea that no matter what, the validation came back as I wouldn't waiver.

[Unknown]

That was a tweetable moment for me. I'm going to spend my time and energy pursuing it, not defending it. I think that's really powerful. Do you see ideas the same way that they need to be nurtured and protected? Or were you more. I mean, because you created a lot of different companies and concepts over your career in life. Did you bring people in earlier on or did you take that same approach?

[Jesse Itzler]

Well, I have to agree with everything. We're married, so of course I agree. No, I think one of the most important things as an entrepreneur I found is figuring out how to get from point A to point B the fastest. And if that is telling someone, or if that, in my case, maybe it was getting a key investor, getting a celebrity as part of Zico or one of our brands, whether it was a key partnership, I think that's been a critical part of my journey. Because when I started out, I did sleep on 18 different couches. The one thing I needed that we all need is we need a story. We need momentum. People buy into stories and momentum more than they buy into products. Like, we're the business plan. And when I started out, I started out in the music business. I had a record out on a label called Delicious Vinyl. And right when my album came out, I did Club MTV, which is a big show on MTV. At the time, I was 21 years old, and I thought, like, wow, man, Mom, I made it. I'm on mtv. This is unbelievable. And I did my first show in Pittsburgh, and I got off the airplane in Pittsburgh, and when I got off the airplane, there was a huge newsstand. And on the COVID of this newsstand, big magazine called Rap Pages at the time was my picture. And I'm like, holy shit. I'm on the COVID of Rap Pages and I'm like. I'm like, this is unbelievable. I was like, being like Forbes for Sara. Like, I'm on Rap Pages and I go and I get the magazine and the COVID of the magazine with my picture on it was, are white rappers ruining hip hop? That wasn't.

[Sarah Blakely]

I heard this story.

[Jesse Itzler]

Why would I tell you what? They married me. So. So I needed a story. I needed a story. So for me at that age, you know, it wasn't about when I had an idea telling people. It was about getting momentum. And I went to the New York Knicks with an idea to do a theme song for the knicks. I was 22 years old and I said, you know, sports is changing. People sit in seats for three hours in an arena, but the game is only 48 minutes. So you have to entertain him for over two hours. Let's do a song and a video and we'll get all the celebrities in New York. The song was called Go New York, Go. And the knicks paid me $4,000 for the song. And by the time I paid the studio, the engineer, the singer, the producer, the drummer, it cost me $4,800 to do the song. So is that a good business model?

[Unknown]

No, right?

[Jesse Itzler]

They paid me 4,000, they paid me 4,000. It cost me $4,800. Do you guys think that's a good business model? Wrong. That's an amazing business model because I would have paid the Knick, right? I would have paid the Knicks $5,000 to do the song for them to help me get to point B faster. Because now I had a story and I could call up the Bulls and be like, I did the Knicks song. And every team that came into Madison Square Garden was like, why don't we have a song like that? And that was what really jump started my career. So for me it's like, how do you get from A to B the fastest?

[Unknown]

Meet a different guest each week.

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I asked you to try to find your passion and then you wrote and produced a song for the NBA that actually won an Emmy.

[Jesse Itzler]

I did.

[Unknown]

And then you created a company, another company, out of this concept.

[Jesse Itzler]

Right.

[Unknown]

So it actually was a good business model, losing $5,000.

[Jesse Itzler]

Yeah, well, I mean, we figured out the business model after that. It wasn't sustainable, but it got me in the door and it got me momentum. And you know, I always tell people that, ask me if they're stuck, if they're overwhelmed. Small wins just, you know, even in this race I just ran, we all go through this period in any part of our journey where we're overwhelmed with self doubt. Anybody, no matter what you're doing as a parent, as an entrepreneur, as a marketer, someone's bad. I'm not good enough. I don't have what it takes. Whatever we go through this period of self doubt, I had it in my race. I started off, I was, I couldn't run four miles. And once you get momentum and you start to believe and you can, you can have something that you can build on that's super powerful.

[Sarah Blakely]

And yeah, I mean, you got to create your own small wins for sure. That's reminding me. I mean, for the first four years of Spanx, I wore a black T shirt with Spanx ironed onto it that I went to a one of those T shirt shops and took a white letter and ironed on Spanx and cream pants. But I was the advertisement, so I wore that everywhere I went. And then when I got a chance to sell it in Neiman Marcus, I would bring my friends to the store to act like excited customers. And they would stand around my display table and go, oh, every time we'd like cue it, we'd be like, customer coming. And this like really fancy lady, you know, perfectly dressed would be walking up and my friends would all go, tell me more. What is this? I can't believe I'm just finding out about this. And it would always cause the customer to go, what? You know, what's happening? And then I'd be like, yes, I get an opportunity to explain it to her.

[Unknown]

I Love that you brought that story up. Would you mind sharing that story of how you sold it into Neiman Marcus? Because that is such a great face to face and it just pulls on that past track record that you had with the cold calling and how it paid off for you.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah. So when I first landed, Neiman Marcus was my first account. And two things about that that are just something that I reflect back on. One is everybody in the industry after I landed Neiman's came up to me and said, how in the world did you land Neiman Marcus? And I would look at them and I'd say, I called them. What do you do? And they'd say, oh my God, we go to trade shows and we set up a booth and we've been doing it for seven years. And everybody says around year six or seven that you get a chance with Neiman's. I didn't even know there were trade shows. So I often say what you don't know can be your greatest asset if you let it. If you're not intimidated by the self talk of, I have no idea what I'm doing and that shuts you down. So if you can power through the I have no idea what I'm doing and actually see it as a positive and go, that means I'm going to do it different. And that's where you break real ground. It takes a lot of courage and a lot of willingness to look stupid and potentially fall on your face. But that's where the magic is. So anyway, I land, I got a chance to go and cold call Neiman Marcus. I flew on a plane from Atlanta, where I live, to Dallas. And I met with the buyer and she was impeccably dressed. I'm in the intimidating Neiman's headquarters. I had my lucky red backpack from college. I had the prototype in a Ziploc bag from my kitchen and a color copy of the packaging that I had created on my friend's computer. And halfway through my pitch, I was telling her what it is and I could tell I was losing her. You know, after seven years of cold calling and trying to sell things to people, you get really good at reading non verbals. And I always say non verbals tell you way more than the verbal. When people sit there and shake their head and say, I love it and I'll call you tomorrow, you're like, oh my God, Mayday. That's when you pull the shoe and say, I've got to try everything. And so she was kind of doing that. She was like, okay, thanks And I just stopped and said, you know what, Diane, will you come to the bathroom with me? And she literally was like, excuse me. I'm like, I know it's a little weird, but can you just follow me to the bathroom? And I'm going to actually show you what my product can do. I'm going to go in the stall. And she was like, oh, okay. And she walked down the hall, and I went in the stall, and I put it on under my white pants, and I came out. So I showed her before, and then I showed her with the product on, and she just sat there and she goes, I get it. It's brilliant. And I'm going to try it in seven stores. And I was like, that deserves a round of applause.

[Unknown]

I love that sword. So you guys talk a lot about humor and embarrassing yourself, poking fun at yourselves in business and in life, and have a lot of fun with that. And we mentioned specifically on Instagram, can you talk a little bit about what that looks like?

[Jesse Itzler]

I just think we both, you know, don't take ourselves super seriously. And humor works. Humor's fun. I think one thing we've both had in our entrepreneurial journey is we've had fun. And I think a lot of people forget how fun it can be. And we work on making it fun. We try to do fun things, incorporate fun things into our household, with our kids, with our cultures at our companies, and it's an important part of the process.

[Sarah Blakely]

I mean, I would say, to add to that, I recognize that the two biggest fears that we all have as human beings are basically the fear of public speaking and the fear of being embarrassed. And so I want that to lose its power over me. So I will intentionally embarrass myself or I will intentionally find scenarios where I'm not good at something, and then I go through it, and it usually ends up making me laugh, or if something ridiculous happens to me, I immediately want to share it with people. People. Because then I start to find that it loses its power over me. And then you also find that when these things happen, if you can make somebody else laugh or smile, then it was. Wasn't all in vain. And that's where real human vulnerability and connection happens, especially even with your customers. So I learned that from selling fax machines. I mean, anytime I tried to act perfect or put on the perfect pitch, I got kicked out time and time again. You know, if I walked in and was like, look, I'm. You know, I'm nervous. It's hard for me to walk through your door. I'm sorry. I know there's no soliciting sign. I mean, I would get farther with that. But just calling out the humanness and the real of what we're all dealing with and not. Not being afraid of it. So we do that at Spanx, too. We have oops meetings at Spanx where we have the whole company get together and we stand up and we share what we failed at, or an oops or a mistake that we made and everybody claps and it's just like, diffuses it.

[Unknown]

That's such a great culture. I believe we actually may have a video or two that we can share. I happen to be a huge fan of this one bird video. If we could cue this video up the Instagram stories.

[Jesse Itzler]

Lovely.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah. Oh, great. Okay. I just did Good Morning America with my dress going backwards. I didn't even.

[Jesse Itzler]

You. I see him. I see him looking at me.

[Sarah Blakely]

My husband has been running every day on this island and says a bird attacks him. So I'm on the walk with him where his jog path is, cuz I don't believe him. Well, honey, where. How bad could it be? Come on. How are you going to get past this walking spot? Nothing's attacking me. He's fine. I see him and he's fine. See, the bird's there. He's not going to bother you, Jess. Oh.

[Jesse Itzler]

That bird. That bird. No, Heather, that bird is not raised properly. That bird was ridiculed as a kid.

[Unknown]

I have to tell you, I. I'm so happy that you shared that video. I had shown it to my son after I'd gone to interview you, and I said, you know, Jesse's such a great guy. And I was showing it to my son. He said, mom, I thought he was a really strong kind of guy until right now.

[Jesse Itzler]

I ran the same route every day, and I would come home and Sarah would say, how was the run? I was like, the run was great, but I got attacked by a bird every time. And she's like, it's impossible. I said, no, you got to come with me. And she walked by. The bird didn't care. I walked by and the bird went bonkers.

[Sarah Blakely]

It was very personal, obviously, for the bird. With Jesse. I don't know. I may be. They thought your hair was a nest, Honey, I don't know.

[Jesse Itzler]

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[Unknown]

So to elaborate on this, and you guys are not going to be shocked. Now, Sarah, you actually spend some time doing stand up comedy. Were you petrified to do that? Because now it seems natural. I feel like you could just grab a mic and walk around and do it.

[Sarah Blakely]

I was so petrified. I, I, I did it when I was selling fax machines door to door. And I just, I have this thing where I don't if something terrifies me or if I think I would never do that. And the answer is because I'm scared. It kind of becomes something I really want to try to do. And that was one of those things. And I just did open mic mostly around, I did it around the country for two years while I was a trainer for the company that I worked for. But it was terrifying. I mean, I was so nervous and I wasn't that good.

[Unknown]

So it sounds like the hardest job in the world.

[Sarah Blakely]

It's the hardest. Well, it's, I mean, it's taking the number one fear in America, which is public speaking, to the next level because you can be in front of an audience and be bombing and not really know, you know, like the whole back section could be asleep or on their phone and you still ramble on. But if you're doing stand up comedy, I mean, you get validation or you get crickets every 15 seconds. So it's like the most immediate. Like, you're failing, you're not failing, you're failing, you're not failing. And the only way to test it is in front of an audience. So you have to be so willing to bomb in front of a group of people or.

[Unknown]

So please laugh at our jokes.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah, exactly. Or to learn what's funny or not funny. So I, yeah, it was, it was. But you know what? I didn't know it at the time, this combination. See, I wanted to be a lawyer, but I'm a terrible test taker. I'm not good in, like, I have trouble with reading comprehension, so I'm sure I have some sort of undiagnosed learning disability. But anyway, so I did debate all through high school and college, and then I get to the LSAT and I bombed it not once but twice. So it derailed my whole vision of being a lawyer. And that was really depressing at the time. And then I naturally Then went to Disney World and tried out to be Goofy. And you have to be. You have to be 5, 8 in order to be goofy. And I'm only 5 6, so I'm the height of a chipmunk. So, like, this was rock bottom for me. I mean, my family, everyone's like, what's happening? I said, I'm too short to be Goofy and I don't want to be a chipmunk. And so I just started selling fax machines door to door because it's really. I mean, you needed a pulse to be hired there. And so anyway. But the standup comedy I did. But life has a weird way of giving you these experiences. Because when I started Spanx, the combination of the amount of rejection I had had was perfect to start a company because I was told no every day for two years. The idea is no good, no, thank you, we don't want to help you. We think this is stupid, whatever. And it didn't really faze me. And then the writing comedy for two years while I was doing that helped me do all the writing for Spanx and the marketing. And Spanx didn't advertise for 16 years. We became a household name and a household brand around the world without ever advertising. And I believe we did so much of that through humor and through the connection that we had with our customer and storytelling. Jesse mentioned it. Lead with story. Your customers are so much more interested in why than they will ever be interested in what. What you're selling, why you're selling it, why you're doing it. Who are you in the world, what matters, what's your why? That is what people really respond to. So. And if you can do it and make somebody laugh or smile, it's so much better. I mean, you. Then you have a chance of them telling five other people, which is what happened with Spanx. You know, it became a word of mouth brand.

[Unknown]

Jesse, did you have that same experience that Sarah had getting into stand up comedy, being afraid of it. When you became a rapper, was it that same, you know, you were petrified it or did you gravitate towards it?

[Jesse Itzler]

Well, the first, right when I got signed to my record label, Delicious Vinyl. They had two huge acts at the time. One was the guy named Tone Loke, some of you might not remember. Tone Loke, Yeah. Wild Thing, Funky Cool Medina.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah.

[Jesse Itzler]

The other was a guy named Young MC who won a Grammy for his song called Bust a Move. And I was one of the next artists signed to the label. So before my album even came out, I Got a call from the owner.

[Sarah Blakely]

Wait. Jesse was best known for two songs, Shake It Like a White Girl and College Girls Are Easy.

[Unknown]

Please Google it. Please Google it.

[Jesse Itzler]

So anyways, I get a college, which.

[Sarah Blakely]

I had a lot of fun telling my dad, you know, I was like, dad, Dad, I think I met the one. He's like, that's nice, honey. What does he do? I'm like, he's a rapper best known for Shake It Like a White Girl and College Girls Are Easy.

[Jesse Itzler]

People buy. People buy into stories. This is all part of the plan. Anyway, before my album came out, I got a call from the owner of the record company, who said that they're having this huge concert in Atlanta, where we live now, at the Georgia Dome. And they were busting in 36,000 inner city kids from all over the state of Georgia for this concert that they coined, the Increase the Peace concert, because they were going to have black artists and white artists come together in this community bonding event. And the day before the concert, Vanilla Ice canceled, and they needed a white rapper, so they volunteered me to be the white act. So I get to the venue, and as soon as I get there, I recognize immediately, like, the place is unruly. There's fist fights going on. They're putting the house lights on, and police are everywhere, and the kids are booing. Every single act that came on stage. They booed him off stage. So the first guy up was like, LL Cool J in his prime. And they boo LL Cool J off the stage. I'm sitting over here in the green room, about to go on next to sing my song called Shake It Like a White Girl. So I called my mother and I said, mom, I got a really big problem, man. They're booing LL and she was like, sweetie, just be yourself. They're gonna love you. And I get up on stage, and the NC's like, you know the way from California, Give it up for my man Jesse James, which is my stage name. Do not Google it. And as I'm going on stage, the record company gave me some T shirts, like promotional T shirts. So I grabbed them as I come on stage. I'm like. I'm looking at the kids in the front row, and they're pissed off that I'm even invited to the venue, but I have these T shirts. So I'm like, does this section over here want some free T shirts? And the kids go crazy. I throw them out. I'm like, the section over here to my right, you want some T shirts? They went nuts. I threw them Out. I'm like, middle section. You want some T shirts back there? They went bonkers. I threw them out. I said, thank you very much. Salt and pepper's up next. I got the out of there, man. That's. Never let him boo you. Never let them boo you. Like the first rule I got in business? No, I'm not doing stand up.

[Unknown]

How animated is this, man? Oh, my gosh, I can't take it. Okay, so, Sarah, after you had made it, you made a very shocking decision, in my opinion, to really put yourself out there and go on Richard Branson's reality TV show.

[Sarah Blakely]

Why did you make that decision? You know, I read his book in college and I really thought he was. Seemed like such an interesting guy that I would like to know. And so I. That was the start of it. And when he declared that he was doing his own version of the Apprentice, his own reality show, I just thought this was a great opportunity to meet him. And he started Virgin overseas in London. He's just a really colorful, fascinating, adventurous guy. But he. Yeah, so Spanx was 4 years old at the time. And my lawyers literally begged me not to do it. They're like, why would you ever do a reality show? You're the face of this brand and you're putting your reputation over to Fox and you have no idea what they're going to, how they're going to edit you or what they're going to do. And I just, I just had confidence that Richard, from what I'd read about him, would, Wouldn't be a part of something that wouldn't edit me the way that I am. But I got a 27 page contract before I did this. And it was the most insane contract. It literally said, we can burn you, we can submerge you underwater, we can drop you in political unrest. I mean, it was like insane. So my dad is a lawyer and I emailed it to my dad and I said, dad, I'm thinking about doing this reality show. Can you help me edit the contract? And all he wrote back was, no sane person would sign this. Love, dad. And I signed it and I went and.

[Jesse Itzler]

Which is a great influence on our kids.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah, we have not let the kids see the video footage, but it was two months of the most intense stuff. What they didn't do, tell me, but I should have figured out and put the two and two together from the contract was that, you know, if you lost the business challenge each. Each business challenge took place in a different city around the world. So instead of every challenge being in New York City. One was in Hong Kong, one was in Africa, one was in Tokyo. So it was wild. We were traveling all around the world. But if you didn't win the business challenge, instead of going to a boardroom and just being fired, you had to do a world record breaking debt defense stunt with Richard. And two days into filming, I literally was in Atlanta in the Starbucks line like the day before. And then the next day I'm in England. And they woke me up at three in the morning and handed me a helmet. And I said, I'm an entrepreneur. Why do I need a helmet? And I had to scale the side of a hot air balloon at 10,000ft in the air and have tea on top of the hot air balloon with Richard.

[Unknown]

And you're afraid of heights.

[Sarah Blakely]

And I'm so afraid of heights. Like I cry on planes. I cry during takeoff. I don't like heights. Yeah. So that was crazy. And that was the first day of filming. But Jesse can't even watch it. Jesse's watched like half of the first episode.

[Jesse Itzler]

Got so ridiculous. It was like, Sarah, climb the scale the top of the building and jump in this glass of water, you know, and then when you're in the, we're going to throw you in with the sharks. And then we swim around and come up. I was like, what? This is crazy.

[Unknown]

So you guys weren't married back?

[Jesse Itzler]

No, no.

[Sarah Blakely]

He didn't know me then, but yeah.

[Unknown]

So was it worth it now when you look back, are you glad that you did that?

[Sarah Blakely]

I'm so glad I did it. I mean, I think that I, I don't think I would have done the challenges if I was a mother at the time, but I wasn't. I was single and definitely not. Yeah. But yes, I'm so happy I did. I mean, Richard's actually a great friend. I'm actually going to Switzerland this Friday with Richard and about 35 entrepreneurs from around the world. And we're doing a physical challenge through the Swiss Alps to raise money for education. And I'm not like my husband. I'm not this physical, you know, challenge person. But I had had too much tequila when Richard asked me if I wanted to go. And I said yes. And so now I'm going. I hate it when that slightly terrified. But we're going to swim, bike and hike through Switzerland. And it starts with a glacier lake, swim in a full body wetsuit, meet.

[Unknown]

A different guest each week.

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I asked you to try to find your passion. Well, just in case you guys haven't can't picture this or haven't seen this show, we brought you a clip.

[Sarah Blakely]

Oh, you have a clip. Which clip is it? Can you Next challenge is that we're going to go up into the top of the balloon, something I've never done.

[Jesse Itzler]

It's not going to be easy at all.

[Sarah Blakely]

On the top of the balloon. We're going to have a tea party.

[Jesse Itzler]

And have a discussion.

[Sarah Blakely]

Being hoisted out on the ladder suspended at 10,000ft on the side of a hot air balloon is terrifying. I am so scared here. That is. I'm in full sweat. I'm in a full sweat. I don't.

[Jesse Itzler]

I don't.

[Unknown]

Did you just watch it?

[Jesse Itzler]

I'd rather run for 20 hours.

[Sarah Blakely]

That was so intense. There were so many things about that, but it took me 48 minutes to climb. It was a dangling rope ladder, so there was nothing anchoring it. So I spent the first 25 minutes of the climb just flailing around in the air. And then the last 20 minutes I kept saying just get to the balloon, get to the balloon. But once I got to the balloon, the balloon was hot and the rope was very taut against the balloon. So I had nowhere to put my fingers anymore around the rungs of the ladder. So I'd use my fingertips. And then once I did the little T thing and was like, woo, that was great. I started bawling because I realized I had to climb down.

[Unknown]

Oh my gosh.

[Sarah Blakely]

I was like, wait, how do we get down? So we had to go back down the ladder.

[Unknown]

It sounds horrific.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah, no, but thank God you're here. Listen, I'm here. And what an experience. Experience. So.

[Unknown]

So, Jesse, you have an online community. Build your life resume community, which is really amazing. Check it out if you guys haven't seen it. All right, we got some peeps here.

[Jesse Itzler]

Awesome.

[Unknown]

Thank you guys.

Some of the feedback, Jesse, that really pops out at me, the things that people like. The takeaway is the brownie. The, you know, what is your unique brownie? Can you share what that means and how you develop that?

[Jesse Itzler]

It's just a reference to a story. When I was in college, I took. I was a crossroads. My senior year of college, I was either going to the music business, which I loved, or I was going to sell a product called Aunt Franny's Brownies. I had a roommate in college that had an aunt Franny. And every month she sent us a shipment of brownies. And I don't know what she put in the brownies, but they made everybody happy. Like, I can market these. Like, this is going to work. So for my advertising class senior year, we had to create a fictitious brand from scratch. Soup to nuts. Like, you know, jingle, which I was good at. Billboard, slogan, packaging, everything. So I said, I'll use this advertising class as my R and D department. And if they like my Aunt Franny's Brownies presentation, I'll just roll it out and I'll sell brownies. So the way that the final exam was set up, there were 100 kids in the classroom. It was small and everybody had a hand in their campaign. But five people were going to get picked at random to present a 30 minute state of the union of the business they were going into, the industry they were going into in front of the class. So, like, I'm a senior in college, there's a 5% chance that I wanted to get picked. Like, nobody prepared for the oral presentation. You didn't want to get picked. And sitting to my right in the classroom was a guy named Ronnie Cohn. Ronnie Cohn was a professional jackass. No, Ronnie Cohn bullied half of the class for four years of college. So when the professor said, we're going to do this the democratic way, everyone write down your name and I'll take Off my hat and I'll pick out the name. When he came to me, I took 25 pieces of paper and I wrote Ronnie Cohn's name down and I stuffed him in the hat. And when he picked out the name, this is a true story. Sure enough, the first name that came out was Jesse Itzler. The jackass did the same thing. He's such an asshole. So I went up there and I pitched Aunt franny's brownies. And 30 seconds into my presentation, and by the way, the tuition in American University is $40,000 a year. That's where I went. So for four years of tuition, $160,000 of my parents money, this is literally the only thing I remember. The professor stopped me for $160,000. He stopped me in the middle of my presentation. Thirty seconds in, he said, son, I want to know what is your point of differentiation? And I was like, what does that even mean?

[Sarah Blakely]

He.

[Jesse Itzler]

He said, what makes your brownie different than all the other brownies on the market? And I was like, well, they're moist and delicious, they could be gluten free, they're home baked, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he was like, no. He said, son, there's a thousand brownies that come out every year and substitute them for marketer, for a restaurant tour, for advertising, for lawyer, for whatever you do. There's a thousand of you that come out. And if you want to make it, you're a brownie. Whatever it is has to be different than all the other brownies. Sit down. And he made me sit down. And I realized at that moment, like, it was a real powerful moment for me, because I asked myself at that moment, like, and since then, as an entrepreneur, I've always asked myself, like, how am I different? You know, what makes my product stand out? How can I treat my customers differently than everybody else? Sarah mentioned it early, but like, if you, if you rip up the playbook that everybody in the industry is using and you say, like, well, how would I do it if I never was taught how to do it? That's where innovation comes from. So I always ask myself in an authentic way, you know, if you're quirky, be quirky. If you're this, be this. But what makes you different? I just remember, not to belabor this point, but I remember when we started Marquee Jet, which was a private jet company that I started with my partner, we had no aviation experience, we had no airplanes, we didn't know a lot of rich people. And we started this company that. And not A great formula for a private. But we ended up building companies that. That did $5 billion in sales, and we sold it to Warren Buffett's NetJets. And I remember sitting with our sales team, and I would go in and I would listen to pitches, and they would pitch the way Kenny and I, my partner and I were pitching, and I'd be like, what do you.

[Sarah Blakely]

You can't.

[Jesse Itzler]

What are you doing? Like, you're a single mom. Tell. Be who you are, you know, and be unique for you and be different for what you are. You can't. You're not the CO found. So it's always been a mantra of mine to just kind of like, what makes you uniquely different. And that was a question Sarah asks all the time to her team and to her employees. You know, she always asks her employees, if no one taught you how to do your job, how would you do it?

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah, because we're on autopilot as human beings. I mean, think about it. Almost every single thing that we do, someone taught us how to do it, or we observed how it was done. And so I like the space of closing your eyes and saying, if no one showed you how to do this, how would you do it? Like, would you be doing it differently? And oftentimes you will, and the answer or the vision comes to you, and then that's a real nugget for yourself.

[Jesse Itzler]

Yeah, I would just put an asterisk next to that because, you know, I just ran this race, and I did. I'm a big believer in becoming the expert in the space you're going into. So before I approached this race, I called everyone that I could find, anyone I could find that did this race, and ask them a lot of questions. How many calories you have to take, how many ounces of fluids you have to take every hour, how much sodium do you need every hour? And in a very, very short amount of time, I became what I believe in my own head was an expert. And I would come in every station and say to my pit crew, I'd be like, I had one goo half a bottle of Rock Tane, which was this drink that I was drinking. I had 200 calories, 70. No, I need 350 milligrams of soda. Like, I was very aware of it. So in certain circumstances, you want to become the expert and follow the advice, but in others, you want to stand out for what you are.

[Unknown]

Please do not get mad at me. But unfortunately, we have to move to the lightning round of questions, and we're about ready to wrap up. And even though no one wants these two to leave. Okay. What's happening in your life right now?

[Sarah Blakely]

I'm going to Switzerland on Friday, which sounds very fabulous.

[Unknown]

That sounds very exciting. Okay. How do you feel when you're in a room with Richard Branson, Microsoft giving pledge?

[Sarah Blakely]

How do I feel when I'm in the giving pledge room? Super humbled. And, you know, kind of like, how did I get in this room? Pinch me. Kind of feeling.

[Unknown]

Sarah's agreed to give away half of her wealth to charity. Amazing. What would your career be if you didn't start Spanx?

[Sarah Blakely]

I mean, I'm a frustrated beautician, so I might have my own salon. Or I was someone who did everyone's hair for prom. And I always liked doing makeovers and things like that.

[Unknown]

Oh, that sounds fun. Theme song for your life.

[Jesse Itzler]

Your speed round, sweetie.

[Sarah Blakely]

Oh, gosh. Theme song for my life.

[Unknown]

Either one of you.

[Sarah Blakely]

Mine is Baby Got back.

[Jesse Itzler]

Yes.

[Unknown]

Excellent marketing. Excellent marketing.

[Sarah Blakely]

I'm in the butt business. Okay, that's good.

[Jesse Itzler]

Oh, there's a song called Here I Come. It's a reggae song. That's one of the mantras, like Here I come. So it's just my strong personal thing.

[Unknown]

Okay. Favorite party trick?

[Jesse Itzler]

I can make people say no. I had this crazy thing I could do with you after Heather. Have you ever heard it before?

[Unknown]

No. All right, that was good. Weird trait about you.

[Jesse Itzler]

Weird. What?

[Unknown]

A weird trait about either one of you.

[Sarah Blakely]

I mean, this is so weird, but I can vibrate my eyes.

[Unknown]

What does that even mean?

[Jesse Itzler]

What'd you say?

[Sarah Blakely]

I can vibrate my eyes.

[Jesse Itzler]

You learn something new all the time. We've been married for 10 years. I've never seen you vibrate your eyes.

[Sarah Blakely]

I can vibrate my eyes. And the weird thing is, Charlie just looked up at me and vibrated his eyes the other day. Our little boy. So apparently it's genetic.

[Jesse Itzler]

I've only had fruit until 12:00 noon for 29 years now. Unwaveringly.

[Sarah Blakely]

Fruit till noon, brother. Fruit till noon.

[Unknown]

And I didn't like that smoothie that you gave me. Pretty nasty. Listen, okay, what's your biggest pet peeve?

[Jesse Itzler]

Pet peeve?

[Sarah Blakely]

Oh, I know what yours is.

[Jesse Itzler]

It's like the Newlywed Game, you know? What do you think mine is?

[Sarah Blakely]

Well, I mean, you're probably about to answer something different, but. Running water?

[Jesse Itzler]

Absolutely. Don't get me started on running water.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah.

[Unknown]

Did anyone notice the clock is now going the opposite direction?

[Jesse Itzler]

What?

[Unknown]

I'm a little confused. Okay.

[Sarah Blakely]

My pet peeve is when the windshield wipers are going more than they need to.

[Unknown]

That's a fair one.

[Jesse Itzler]

Believe me, I get the. I mean, she'll be driving, and Sarah will be like, shut the window. The wipers off. I lower the wipers. I'm like, it keeps setting me based on the wind. Raise the wipers, lower the wipers.

[Unknown]

Okay, here's a good one.

[Jesse Itzler]

Sarah, shut the wipers off.

[Unknown]

Who is.

[Jesse Itzler]

Get rid of the wipers.

[Unknown]

Who is your celebrity crush?

[Sarah Blakely]

Well, growing up, my celebrity crush was Gene Wilder. Unexpectedly, I married. I found my real life Gene. I'm not kidding. I didn't.

[Jesse Itzler]

Well, guess what my celebrity crush was Wonder Woman. Guess who I married. I love that. I love that.

[Sarah Blakely]

That was awesome.

[Unknown]

All right, well, we're gonna wrap up, and even though we don't want to lose these two right now, but if you thought this day couldn't get any.

Better, Sarah has something that she wants.

To share with everyone.

[Sarah Blakely]

Yeah, I'm sorry. What was. Okay, okay. Yes. So listen, all you have to do, I'm gonna give away some awesome Spanx products. Okay? Yes, yes. And for the guys out there that are like, yeah, look, you've got a wife, a daughter, a sister, a mother, they're gonna love you for this. And I also happen to make man Spanx, so you can buy yourself something, too. Okay, Jesse. My underwear. Well, not my underwear, but the underwear that I make for Spanx. His favorite underwear. He loves the man Spanx underwear. But anyway, I digress. So all you have to do is get out your phones and go to Instagram, follow arablakely, and that's S A R A without an H. Blakely. And then in the last post, which actually was his last man standing post, just put hashtag hypergrowth. And I'm going to pick 20 of you at random, and I'm going to send you some awesome Spanx leggings. And if you're a guide, you don't want leggings. You want something else. I'm happy to send that to you, but these. We have a cult following for our faux leather leggings. People love them. You'll love them.

[Jesse Itzler]

Hold on. Can I do a promotion if you guys you're gonna out promote it. Are you doing a promotion?

[Sarah Blakely]

We just found out.

[Jesse Itzler]

All right, go to my Instagram at Jesse Itzler. Use the same hashtag. Come to a Hawks game with me courtside. I'll take three people.

[Sarah Blakely]

Oh, my gosh, this is amazing.

[Jesse Itzler]

You can wear your Spanx and I'll pick three people. You'll come to a game? We'll go early, we'll go to shoot around, and if we win, you get invited back.

[Unknown]

That's awesome. All right, guys, please join me in.

[Heather Monahan]

Thanking these two amazing human beings.

[Sarah Blakely]

Thank you. Thank you.

[Unknown]

Thank you.

[Sarah Blakely]

Thank you so much. Thank you.

[Unknown]

That was awesome. Thank you so much.