Janice Bryant Howroyd
Founder & CEO, ActOne Group. On 1 show, 2 appearances. The Shows tab opens the full record on each.
founderexecutiveauthor@JBryantHowroyd ↗LinkedIn ↗askjbh.com ↗Wikipedia ↗
Janice Bryant Howroyd founded the staffing and workforce solutions company ActOne Group in 1978, becoming the first African American woman to build and own a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. In addition to her executive leadership and philanthropic advocacy for education, she has authored books including The Art of Work: How to Make Work, Work for You.
1shows
2appearances
20statements
1resolved
1supported
0contradicted
100%fully supported
3said about them ↓ Everything Janice Bryant Howroyd said on any show that made the record, most notable first. Each card names its show and opens the statement there.
Howroyd: Teacher Stood on Desk Claiming Black People Were Suited for Slavery
“And we had a teacher who stood up on the desk that day, the first day I went into his history class, and explained so eloquently, if you can even see the paradox of that, how blacks are so suited to slavery.”
Howroyd Often Had White Colleagues Pitch to Sidestep Client Bias
“I'll tell you candidly, and I'm not proud of it, 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. So that the client wouldn't have to interact directly with me as…”
Howroyd: Black Female Founders Face "Can We" Scrutiny Rather Than "How"
“I think the questioning and the scrutiny would be different. There would be more question of can we than how will we. Whereas if I sent someone different on my team in, the questions around how are we going to do this happened a lot quicker in the conversation…”
Howroyd Sent White Colleagues to Pitch Clients to Avoid Racial Bias
“I'll tell you candidly, and I'm not proud of it, 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. So that the client wouldn't have to interact directly with me as…”
Howroyd: You Cannot Teach Experience, Common Sense, Confidence, or Unwilling Minds
“In our company we teach that there are five things you can't teach people. You can't teach people experience. You can't teach people common sense. You can't teach people confidence. You cannot teach people anything if they don't want to learn it, and you can't…”
Howroyd: Initially Resisted Minority Business Certification as Intrusive
“Initially I thought that certification was a strip search. I needed to open up my business to total exposure to someone, to in return, have them come back and say, yes, you are a minority. Yes, you are a woman. And yes, you are running this business. And it ju…”
Howroyd: Segregated Tarboro Maintained Southern Politeness Alongside Racial Injustices
“Now, we were segregated, make no mistake about that, but we had that southern etiquette that went along with it, so there was a politeness That occurred amongst people, but we also were very aware of the injustices.”
Howroyd: You Are Defined By What You Answer To, Not Names
“It's not what they call you. It's what you answer to. And that was my first big lesson from dad. That I should not listen to what they called me. I could only be what I answer to in life.”
Howroyd Launched ActOne With $900 in Savings and $600 Family Loan
“I borrowed money from my mom, and I had saved 900 and borrowed 600 from her.”
ActOne Reached Profitability Within One Year of Its Founding
“Hitting profitability in a year seems pretty good, but living through it didn't.”
Howroyd: Gwen Moore authored California legislation mandating utility diversity spend
“Gwen Moore was an elected official congresswoman out of California here, and she had been very active in championing, and I believe she was one of the original authors of legislation that required public utility companies in California to have diversity spend”
Howroyd: Formal Contracts Must Supersede Client Relationships Because Personnel Leave
“And one of the failures I've seen occur in my own business as in others is that we create Great relationships with people in companies, and definitely we should do that, but people are moving all of the time, and the agreement you have with a person, it may no…”
Howroyd: Family Must Earn Outside Experience Before Joining ActOne
“One of the things that I insisted for my family members before they could come into my company is that they either had to work for three years in a larger company somewhere else Or have three promotions before they could come to work for me.”
Howroyd Merged Companies With Husband So Their Son Wouldn't Choose Between Them
“I think the thing that would make it interesting for me is that our son not have to decide which one of us he wants to work for, because by then our son was looking at our industry as a future for himself, and he had worked in my company, he had worked in his …”
Teacher Stood on Desk to Tell Howroyd Black People Suited Slavery
“We had a teacher who stood up on the desk that day, the first day I went into his history class, and explained so eloquently, if you can even see the paradox of that, how blacks are so suited to slavery.”
Howroyd Founded ActOne With $900 in Savings and a $600 Loan
“I borrowed money from my mom, and I had saved 900 and borrowed 600 from her.”
Howroyd: ActOne reached profitability within its first year of operation
“Hitting profitability in a year seems pretty good, but living through it didn't.”
Relying on Client Relationships Over Written Contracts Creates Business Risk
“One of the failures I've seen occur in my own business as in others is that we create Great relationships with people in companies, and definitely we should do that, but people are moving all of the time, and the agreement you have with a person, it may not al…”
Howroyd Required Family to Earn Promotions Elsewhere Before Joining ActOne
“Now, one of the things that I insisted for my family members before they could come into my company is that they either had to work for three years in a larger company somewhere else, Or have three promotions before they could come to work for me.”
Howroyd's Grandmother Adjusted Food Prices Based on Customers' Employment Status
“She fed people to-go bags where they would come and buy their lunches or dinners at the back, and she would charge based on who was working and who was out of work, and she had that sense of justice in her mind about how to run her business”
The other half of the tape: Janice Bryant Howroyd's own voice is left out of every number here. Other people bring the name up 3 times in 2 episodes across the shows. every mention, with the transcript →
Who brings them up most Randy Pink 2Guy Raz 1
Every mention by year
tap a year for its mentions
How I Built This 3
2024 2 mentions in 1 episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode
One line per show, most statements first. The link opens Janice's full record on that show: the calibration, argument clarity, speaking style and every statement made there.
| Show | Role there | Eps | Statements | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOW I BUILT THISLEDGER | Founder & CEO, ActOne Group | 2 | 20 | 100% 1/1 | full record on How I Built This → |