Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Mic Unplugged. And this episode is very touching for me on many ways. I'm talking to the queen. She turned a $900 loan into a billion-dollar enterprise, becoming the first African-American woman to own and operate a billion-dollar business.
She's a trailblazer in staffing, a fierce advocate for equity, and a leadership icon who's redefined what's possible. She's brilliant. She's bold, legendary. She is the queen. We're talking to none other than Ms.
Chapter 2: How did Janice Bryant Howroyd turn a small loan into a billion-dollar business?
Janice Bryant-Alroy. JBH, how are you doing today, dear?
Wonderful, Mick. What an introduction. Wow. Thank you. It's a revisit for me, actually. You mentioned staffing. You mentioned a billion dollars. And I think about what that meant when I first realized that was happening in the company. By the way, it wasn't just me. It was the incredible team of people who worked within the Act One group.
And here we are now at a multibillion dollar company operating in over 43 countries. And we're primarily providing technology solutions and the technology itself to enable companies to plan, to hire, and to retain workforces they desire. And we're also delivering agenda solutions as part of that how work gets done environment that we operate within.
So thank you for the revisit as well as an incredible introduction, Mick.
Absolutely. So innovative, so cutting edge in everything that you do. And, you know, I've been a huge fan of you all of my life. Studied you. I became an entrepreneur a lot based on some of the wisdom and teaching that you were showing, not just telling. And that's why I love you with all of my soul. And I know that.
That entrepreneurship for you didn't start in 1978 when you started the company. I know that you had a moment in the 11th grade when you realized there was something for you. I'd love for you to just talk to us a little bit about those beginnings, but in particular, when you knew that there's something bigger.
You know, earlier I was talking with a gentleman who has had an amazing transformation in his life and by doing so has transformed the lives of others. And transformation is the big word right now. All companies are doing it. AI is encouraging it, sometimes forcing it, but always providing a support to it for us now. It's not a new thing, although people talk about it. It's new.
It's been around for a while. And that's how I look at my journey of entrepreneurship. Well, I really became inspired that I would do something with my life that would be a light about who we are as a people. At that time, who we are was referring to us as Black people in the South. Today, it refers to us as entrepreneurial people who want to do good. I'm sitting right now.
in Conclave in Mexico with entrepreneurs who are looking at how we build democracy forward in an ethical and inclusive way. And so my journey, though, to entrepreneurship started before I was born. And I didn't realize it, Mick, until much later in talking with my mom. I didn't value back that when my grandma, Dora...
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Chapter 3: What does authenticity mean in entrepreneurship according to Janice?
Then as I remain today, um, And so he taught us that it was a responsibility as well as an ability to build forward and to be inclusive. And don't hate people because you hate them, because that's a sickness and that's an illness they have. There was no pushover, mind you. You didn't want to get on the wrong side. He did what he needed to do.
I think importantly, he loved his family and he taught us to be together. One of the main themes in my company throughout the years has been together we win. That started, that was formulated in my home. There were 11 kids, one mom, one dad. That's how we did it back then. And together we win was kind of a Bryant household theme.
And that meant that if your siblings weren't getting good grades in school, then you couldn't brag about the grades you got until you helped them get it. If somebody didn't finish cleaning the kitchen properly, then you had to get in there and help them. And each of the older ones had a younger one who we were responsible for. And it wasn't just about getting homework done.
It was about making sure they were clean, they were properly practicing hygiene, that they were completing their chores. And primarily, they were holding a positive attitude toward life. Never did I imagine how mom and dad so strongly so absolutely fanatical about us keeping a positive attitude would impact my life as I journeyed away from that small hometown.
And now, as I've said, have opened in over four, I said 43 countries, we're actually in over 47. 47.
That's amazing.
You'll never had a girl from Tarboro, North Carolina.
Let's go. Let's go. Tarboro, stand up. JVH, you don't know this, but you're probably the most quoted person in my household. I have looked up to you, like I said, as a business leader, as an entrepreneur for quite a long time.
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Chapter 4: Why is company culture critical in business success?
And you have something that's a core pillar in not just my household, but the four companies that I run too. You have this quote and you say, never compromise who you are personally for who you want to be professionally. And that's a pillar for who we are in my businesses as well, because I need all of my teammates. I don't call them employees. I need all of my teammates to understand
I want you to be the best human being that you can be first and foremost, because that's a part of our culture and culture runs our business. Not me, not you. It's who you are as a human being. And I would love for you to elaborate on that quote, because it changed my life.
It made me when I started my first company, it made me understand you have dreams, you have visions, but don't compromise who you are. And then who I am is who my business is, too.
You're so on point there. And, you know, thank you and thank God that you find something that I do that is worthy of expressing that forward in how you live in your home and how you live in your business. That examples a lot about your own personal culture. May I, in preface to talking about that statement, because that is my life mantra, just talk a little bit about culture. Culture is
is often referred to as something we can get around to or something we can have a marketing team design for us when we're in business. It's often referred to as a very social singular thing when we're talking about communities or individuals, when in fact it encompasses everything about us. It is how we live, you know? And so culture is important because
It also is a very threadable and a very expanding thing for us. And you try to sell something into a community without understanding its culture, you're going to go flat broke. You try to sell an idea. You try to sell a relationship. into someone's home or someone's person without understanding their culture, and you're going to get closed down.
And chances are, you'll be closed down long before you realize that your trying is in vain. And so How that feeds into who we are personally is about making certain that we don't, you know, there's a lot of conversation about appropriating as well. And we can get so granular in how we look at relationships. What I found in my life, Meg, is that we need to get in touch with who we are.
That's where all the strength, that's where all the growth, that's where all the pain can be healed is when we understand who we are. And so I came to I'm sitting in Mexico right now. I left the East Coast for the West Coast in the 70s and the 1970s. And I arrived in Los Angeles in the middle of what was a very exciting time for my sister and her husband.
They were in the entertainment industry, and I met so many stars, people who I'd read about in Jet magazine and seen on the cover of Ebony magazine and seen on TV. I was meeting these people, and I was meeting people who were mixing, marrying, working, building across races as well as across their talents. And so... It was an exotic time for me as well.
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Chapter 5: What personal experiences shaped Janice's entrepreneurial journey?
Sticky note pads that many people use to this day, even in this digital age, were an accident. at one of the national entities where we do exploration. And it was an attempt to look for how to put planes together with glue. And some folks from 3M walked in and they said, wow, this we can commercialize, we can monetize it.
They didn't see the value in it as scientists because it wasn't achieving what they looked at having it to solve. But 3M said, this is exactly something we can innovate from and built a multimillion dollar empire on somebody else's mistake. And so giving people the freedom to innovate,
And allowing everyone that opportunity is valuable, whether you're doing that in a personal or a business relationship. Excellence in delivery. The young man I talked with earlier today, Shaka, said it better than I can. I paraphrase him, but he said, why settle for good enough when excellence can be yours, you know?
And so we look to deliver excellence by encouraging each other to be our best in our company. And I think it works well in your personal life. And then everything and everyone and everything matters. It's in the details, Mick. It's in the details. You think you're rolling. You think you're doing so great. But it can be that one little thing that you were thoughtless to, unaware of.
or had no knowledge about that can paralyze the opportunity, can hurt somebody, can lose you the deal. And so everyone and everything matters. Years ago, when I would go into San Francisco on an early morning United flight from L.A. and then catch the United flight back that same day, you could do that in, you know, a matter of a couple of hours.
Now it takes you a couple of hours to get through security. Wow, those were the days. I mean, I'd go into the large buildings there, and I'd notice people rushing by and signing in. They had receptionists at the front entry. And I never noticed people saying hello or engaging well with the receptionist. And we'd always stop, my team and I, we'd take time. How are you doing?
You know, how's Joe, your little boy? Oh, last month you said, did he make it? Did he make it on the team? Those kinds of things, you know. And one lady said, oh, you always smell so good and your breath is so fresh. I never thought about the impact of people's breath on a receptionist, right? And I handed her a packet of gum that I had. I said, this is what I use. And she loved it.
And, you know, so when I came back, she said, oh, I look at her chatting with it. She also told me everybody who'd been in before me to make a presentation, what their energy was, you know, et cetera, et cetera. And I didn't ask her for that. She felt that we were in a community. She felt we had a culture of shared experiences. She bothered to read about me.
She knew that I come from humble beginnings as had she. And she knew that I was an example of who she could become. But most importantly, she knew she mattered.
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