SPANX and a Lesson Every Educator Needs to Hear

I'm Brian Martin, a second grade teacher who find so much joy and fulfillment in what I do. Being in the classroom for almost 20 years. I know all about the time, effort and energy that you are continuously pouring into those you serve. That's why each week, I'm going to bring you an inspiring message to give you a little joy, and help fill your cup back up. Thank you for being here. And welcome to the teaching champions podcast. What's going on everybody? I hope this finds you striving and thriving and doing absolutely amazing. today. I want to talk about specs. That's correct. I want to talk about specs. Now what do I know about them? Nothing. Even though they have Spanx for men line, I don't own a pair. I've never tried a pair on. But what I do know the story is Spanx is one of grit, of courage, of ingenuity, of resilience. It's a story of turning over every rock knocking down every single door and being doubted and laughed at the story of Sara Blakely, the woman who founded Spanx, who started a company with $5,000 with no business degree. And she took on a multi million dollar industry that was male driven. And she turned that industry upside down. And she took her business with her own $5,000 investment. And she now has an estimated net worth of over a billion dollars. Let me say that one more time. Ms. Blakely started a company with $5,000, in her bank account, stood toe to toe with the industry leaders. And today, she's worth over $1 billion. And this is a story educators need to pay attention to. We should be looking at ultra successful people. We need to be analyzing them and what helped them achieve the level of success that they have. And ask ourselves how we can in turn, help instill some of what made these people successful into our own champions. And it's not just looking at that knowledge or skill level. But it's looking at those characteristic traits and asking what made them the way that they are. When looking at Ms. Blakely, there are many different traits and lessons that she can teach us. But there's one that I want to focus on. And it's something that her father ingrained in her from an early age. And she mentioned it and so many interviews. And she says that this was one of her key components and her becoming successful. Sarah says that when her brother would come home from school, her father would ask a simple question, a question that's greatly influenced the way that she perceives things, a question that would stop her from having limiting beliefs. When she would return home from school. Her father would ask, what did you fail at today? And she said he would be disappointed if she didn't fail at something. And when she told him of her failures, he would give her a high five. Think about that. What message does that send? How does that impact the way that we view failure when a celebration takes place because you weren't successful? When the outcome didn't matter where it was all about putting yourself out there and trying? Miss Blakely said, this was one of the most impactful lessons that she was given. Because it reframed how she defined failure. Because those seeds were planted, that failure became no longer about the outcome. Failure for her is about not trying. She said that her father would take it one step further. And he would ask her what she learned from that experience. What were the gifts that were given by trying? What were the lessons learned relationships made skills developed? What were those bright spots? Look at what was being taught her in early age. How does a young woman face years of failure? How does she face having her business card ripped up? How does she take a company that was started with$5,000 and go toe to toe with million dollar companies run by men, only to become a billionaire? She's wired a little different. She has a little different definition of what failure is where it's no longer about the outcome. It's about not trying. What if we did that for our students? We talked about growth mindsets, we talked about the power of Viet, we do a few activities throughout the year to reinforce it. We decorate our rooms with cute posters and make some bulletin boards about having a growth mindset. But do we vocalize it? Do we make it visible to our students that we want them to fail? We give them high fives when they get a right. But how often do we give them high fives when they get it wrong? And tell them that we're proud of them for failing? How often do we help them see the bright spots and the gifts that you received from trying? Regardless of the outcome? Every single day we teach writing. Every day we teach math. Why every day, we need to teach about failure as well. We need to encourage failure celebrate failure, we need to model failure to our students, and teach them to look for the lessons that failure gifts. Because it's not about the outcome. It's about whether we tried or not. If we can instill that into our champions, then watch out, because how far will they go if they view failures, not outcome based, but about not trying. Now, if you like mindsets and inspirational people, then check out Sara Blakely. There's so many YouTube videos and articles about her. And I have to say the more that I looked into her this week, nothing that I admired most about her is she comes across in every single interview in every podcast I listened to is someone that can go into a faculty room, sit down and have lunch with any one of us. And she would fit right in. Even though her salary might be a tad more than ours. She never comes across as in letus. She comes across as a awesome human. Now, I don't think I'm ready to become a customer of Spanx yet. But I'm definitely a big fan of Ms. Blakely. Because failure isn't about the outcome at the end of the day, said about whether you tried or not. Thank you so much for your time, I appreciate you. And if you could subscribe, rate, or share the podcast helps the podcast grow. And we're here to serve one another. And it doesn't matter. If you're from rural America to urban America, to Canada to Spain to Bahrain. We're all on that same team. We're all on that same mission. And we're always better together. My challenge for you this week, take a look at yourself. How do you view failure? Is there something that you want to pursue? But you find yourself holding yourself back? Because you're worried of falling short of how you look to those around you. Ask yourself, is there a part of you that needs to reframe the way that you look at failure? Keep me in amazing, my friends. And as we go on to this week, may you step into your strength may step into your shine, and let's build these champions up. Have a great week, everybody.