Founder Of Spanx On Courage, Failure And Fashion

Sara Blakely was 29 when she founded the shapewear company Spanx. A former door-to-door fax salesperson, she used the $5,000 she'd saved up to create a form of control-top pantyhose that she could wear under her cream-colored slacks.

Now 45, Blakely is the youngest female billionaire in America, according to Forbes. She's also self-made, joining the rarefied air of Oprah Winfrey and Meg Whitman.

Blakely was in Boston to be a keynote speaker at the Massachusetts Conference For Women, a meeting of 11,000 women in the state. She joined us before her talk to tell us what she's planning next.

Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx, which tweets @spanx.