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How I Built This with Guy Raz

ActOne Group: Janice Bryant Howroyd

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.831.1K Ratings

🗓️ 3 December 2018

⏱️ 53 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the late 1970s Janice Bryant Howroyd moved to Los Angeles and began temping as a secretary. She soon realized there were many other young people in situations similar to hers. So with $1,500 in her pocket, Janice rented an office in Beverly Hills and created the staffing company ACT-1. Today, ActOne Group is an international workforce management company, making Janice Bryant Howroyd the first African-American woman to own a billion-dollar business. PLUS in our postscript "How You Built That," how Ofer and Helene Webman developed a device that can change the way an acoustic guitar sounds without bulky pedals and amps. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

0:07.0

Download the app today.

0:09.0

New Year's is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.

0:13.0

As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.

0:17.0

So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.

0:24.0

Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.

0:27.0

Hey, it's Guy here, and in just a minute we've got a brand new episode of the show for you today with Janice Bryan Howroyd of Act One.

0:35.0

But before we start the show, I just want to remind you to take a minute to show your support for NPR programs by contributing to NPR's Year and Fundraising campaign.

0:46.0

Your local station depends on your support to bring you the news and the programming you love, and the stations are the lifeblood of public radio.

0:54.0

Please consider donating by going to donate.npr.org slash built.

1:01.0

That's donate.npr.org slash built.

1:05.0

And thanks.

1:07.0

I'll tell you candidly, and I'm not proud of it.

1:13.0

There were times when I would gift my intelligence to other members of my team and have them go in and make a presentation or them make the pitch

1:23.0

so that the client wouldn't have to interact directly with me as an African American or as a female.

1:30.0

Because you thought they wouldn't want to.

1:34.0

In some instances I thought it in other instances I knew it.

1:38.0

From NPR, it's how I built this, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

1:53.0

I'm Guy Raaz, and I'm the show today.

1:58.0

The temporary gig is a secretary inspired Janice Bryant-Harroy to build an employment agency that turned into an empire and made Janice the first African American woman in history to own a billion-dollar business.

2:17.0

So hiring employees is one of the hardest things about running a business.

2:22.0

If you listen to this show long enough, you've heard founders talk about how when their company started to scale, hiring enough good people consumed so much of their time.

...

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