4.8 • 31.1K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2023
⏱️ 67 minutes
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Kinko’s copy shops were once so ubiquitous that the name became a kind of shorthand for photocopying. Paul Orfalea started the first shop in 1970 in a tiny converted hamburger stand near UC Santa Barbara, called it Kinko’s after his childhood nickname, and eventually grew it into a sprawling global chain.
Rather than relying on a franchise model, Paul partnered with co-owners, which often made it hard to keep the business on track. Far-flung owners couldn’t agree about the basics of logo design or the complexities of keeping stores open 24 hours. In 2004, Kinko’s was acquired for $2.4 billion by FedEx, which eventually shed the name and transformed the shops into today’s FedEx Office locations.
This episode was produced by Chis Maccini and edited by Neva Grant, with music by Ramtin Arablouei. Our audio engineer was James Willetts.
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0:00.0 | This is my voice. It can tell you a lot about me, and I'm not changing it for anyone. |
0:08.0 | In MPR's Black Stories, Black Truths, you'll find a collection of MPR episodes centered on the Black Experience. |
0:16.0 | Search MPR Black Stories, Black Truths, wherever you get podcasts. |
0:23.0 | Hey, before we start the show, I want to share something I heard recently from actress Audra McDonald. |
0:28.0 | It's about fear. Audra is one of the greatest living stage actors. She's won six Tony Awards, six. |
0:35.0 | And she told me that every new role she takes still scares her. And she explained why that fear is essential to her work. |
0:43.0 | To hear my conversation with Audra, listen to my other podcasts, The Great Creators. |
0:48.0 | Just search for The Great Creators with Gyros, wherever you listen to podcasts, or go to thegreatcreators.com. |
0:54.0 | And now, on to today's show. |
0:58.0 | I'll tell you something that bothers me. |
1:08.0 | It's when a business person says, I love my business. That's absolute bullshit. |
1:14.0 | You love your family. You can enjoy your business, but once that becomes a love affair, you lose your objectivity. |
1:20.0 | I never loved my business. I could enjoy it, but man, your business is an instrument to make you happy. |
1:27.0 | And you own it. It doesn't own you. |
1:37.0 | Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built. |
1:48.0 | I'm Guy Ross, and on the show today, how Paul Orphila rented a Xerox machine for 1100 bucks a month and grew a single store into a global photocopy shop with an instantly recognizable name. |
2:01.0 | Kinkos. |
2:08.0 | Kinkos played a pretty important role in my professional life. |
2:12.0 | In high school, I used to race to the Kinkos in Northridge, California, sometimes at one or two in the morning to print out projects that were due just a few hours later in my English class. |
2:23.0 | In college, once again, I'd race to a Kinkos in the middle of the night, get a portfolio of my articles, viral bound, and sent off to newspapers just in time to meet their application deadlines for internships. |
2:37.0 | When I applied to be a radio reporter in 2000, just minutes before the deadline, I raced to a Kinkos in Washington, D.C. at four in the morning to get my resume and articles all printed out. |
2:50.0 | Kinkos enabled me and probably millions of other people to put off projects, applications, and presentations to the very last minute, and still somehow make them look pretty good. |
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