Spanx's Sara Blakely on Launching a Billion-Dollar Business During Tough Times

The founder offers lessons in resilience and marketing your "why" rather than the product

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Sara Blakely, the founder of innovative shapewear brand Spanx, says difficult times can provide the most fertile ground for change.

Indeed, Spanx was created during what the entrepreneur described as “the darkest time in my life.”

In a conversation with Heide Palermo, Adweek’s head of community, during our Challenger Brands summit, Blakely delved deeper into the origin story of a brand that would go on to dominate the shapewear market.

A new beginning

It was in her mid-20s that Blakely, selling fax machines door-to-door while living with her mother, decided it was time for a change.

Blakely

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