Dec 3, 2018 · 51m · how-i-built-this
ActOne Group: Janice Bryant Howroyd
Janice Bryant Howroyd · 28m spoken Guy Raz · 14m spoken Ofer Webman · 1m spoken Helene Webman · 1m spoken
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this episode of "How I Built This," host Guy Raz interviews Janice Bryant Howroyd, the first African American woman to build and own a billion-dollar business enterprise, exploring how she scaled ActOne Group from a $1,500 startup into a global workforce management leader.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Guy holds 33.5% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Guy as informed peer 1.1 Guest teaching 2.5 Guest disagreement 1.0 Guy pushing back 0.3
speaking balance: gold is Guy, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 41:06 Flat rejection of luck
Janice forcefully shuts down Guy's question about luck, asserting that luck had nothing to do with her billion-dollar success.
Hardest push from Guy ▶ 36:36 Pressing on why she sent others to pitchGuy presses Janice on whether she sent colleagues because she assumed prospective clients would refuse to work with a Black woman.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 4:25 Correcting assumption of household chaosJanice corrects Guy's assumption that living with 11 siblings was chaotic by outlining her parents' highly structured managerial system.
Guy holds their own ▶ 43:22 Summarizing Janice's financial and philanthropic scaleGuy displays command of Janice's full financial trajectory, citing her 350-million-dollar net worth and specific 10-million-dollar educational donations.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Guy as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Guy pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NPR Year-End Fundraising Campaign Appeal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Introductory monologue and NPR fundraising appeal with brief introductory teaser clips. | |
| Childhood in Tarboro: Family Discipline and Entrepreneurial Roots | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Janice gently reframes Guy's assumption that an 11-child household was chaotic, detailing her parents' strict organizational systems. | |
| Integrating High School and Lessons in Resilience | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Janice corrects Guy's premise that her parents sent her to integrate the high school, noting it was a communal family decision. | |
| Higher Education, Tragic Loss, and Leaving Home | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Janice shares an emotional account of her college years and the tragic passing of her father, with Guy listening supportively. | |
| Arrival in Los Angeles and the Billboard Temp Gig | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Janice explains how her temporary secretarial work for her brother-in-law at Billboard sparked the idea to start her own placement firm. | |
| Launching ActOne: Office Space, WOMB Strategy, and Early Growth | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Guy questions how she launched with only 1500 dollars and no network; Janice explains the WOMB strategy and interview mastery. | |
| Marrying a Competitor and Navigating Diversity Certification | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Janice discusses marrying a competitor and her initial reluctance to seek minority business enterprise certification. | |
| Scaling ActOne: Contracts, Temp Staffing, and Acceleration Tech | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Janice details the financial risks of temp staffing and how developing proprietary Acceleration technology enabled scaling. | |
| Siblings in Leadership and the AppleOne Merger | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Janice explains her rule for hiring siblings and the strategic succession reasoning behind merging with AppleOne. | |
| Confronting Corporate Bias and Leadership Evolution | 2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Janice explains gifting intelligence to white male colleagues to bypass bias; Guy presses for clarification on why she did so. | |
| ActOne's Billion-Dollar Legacy, Philosophy, and Philanthropy | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | When Guy brings up his standard question of luck versus skill, Janice flatly rejects that luck played any role, crediting blessings and hard work. | |
| How You Built That: Ofer and Helene Webman's ToneWoodAmp | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | How You Built That segment featuring Ofer and Helene Webman recounting the invention and marketing of ToneWoodAmp. | |
| Episode Conclusion, Summit Teasers, and Production Credits | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Host closing credits, summit teasers, and standard NPR promo monologue. |
Statements from this episode (7)
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.”
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…”
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 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…”