They Say You Should Never Meet Your Hero…
They say you should never meet your hero because they’ll only disappoint you. That was definitely not the case this past weekend.
I had a chance to sit down with Sara Blakely and Jesse Itzler.
I mean…what??
Sara is the CEO and founder of Spanx, a women’s shape wear company I am of course familiar with. She is also the very first guest on the popular podcast (and my personal favorite) “How I Built This” by Guy Raz. I had seen Sara on Oprah and I knew of her but listening to her interview with Guy about 3 years ago really changed my perspective on not only Sara’s journey, but it changed my perspective on what it means to be a female CEO, how important it is to help bring up other women around you, and that the entrepreneur journey is a long and bumpy - albeit worth it - road. I think another reason this interview with Sara was so impactful on me that it came out at the very beginning of my personal entrepreneurship journey in the summer of 2017.
Ok so back to how I landed a sit-down with this incredible duo for 30 mins in Laguna Beach, CA.
Sara Blakely holding my Olympic medals in Laguna Beach :)
I don’t mind putting myself out there and asking for things when it relates to me learning, growing my business, or making meaningful connections with mentors I look up to. I follow both Sara and Jesse on social media and they do a really good job of keeping their content engaging, educational and always humorous. On Saturday, Jesse made a post on his instagram about his “come up” journey. The post basically said that when he was starting out with his first business, he would strategically put himself in the right place at the right time. For instance, he would go sit at the bar of the Beverly Hills hotel, order the cheapest salad possible, and then just meet as many people (guests of the hotel) as he could, networking and making contacts. THEN he said he was happy to pay it forward and return the favor for other up and coming entrepreneurs. Fast forward to me DM’ing him and saying I was in the area, I would love to meet him and Sara and I would bring them bananas and smoothies (his favorite food) if they could give me a few minutes of their time. Long story short, he agreed to meet the next morning in his hotel lobby. He said he would only have 5 mins but that was alright with me. I stopped by a local smoothie place and picked up 2 drinks for he and Sara, got some bananas too, AND swing by CVS and got Sara her favorite food (Cheese-it’s - which I’m here for) I ahead of my meeting.
With only 5 mins of their time I was trying to plan out in my head what I wanted to discuss and how I would lay it out for them. Without getting into too many specifics of what I said, what he said, what she said, etc. they ended up sitting down with me for THIRTY minutes and asking me questions, giving me advice and just being all-around amazing people.
I walked away feeling like I was floating, incredibly inspired and with a renewed respect for the two of them. My advice from this experience? If you ever have a chance to meet your heroes, always take it.
