Bryan & Shannon Miles: Secrets to Remote Culture and Servant Leadership Success

0:00Bryan Miles:Hey everybody, I'm really excited to bring you this episode with Bryan and Shannon Miles. If you've ever wondered what a nine-figure exit looks like, we're going to break it down in this episode. We're also going to talk about the importance of culture, the pitfalls that entrepreneurs usually have, and the importance of servant leadership. Get ready to buckle up and listen to this dynamic episode with Bryan and Shannon Miles. Please join me in welcoming the visionary, the relentless, the kingdom-minded Bryan and Shannon Miles. Both of you, how are you doing today? Doing great. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here.

0:33Bryan Miles:I am honored to have both of you. I was telling you both, you know, offline, become a huge fan of you both recently. I think that we share so much in common to not just the world, but in particular to leaders. Right. You all know I'm writing a book, How to Be a Good Leader When You've Never Had One. And I feel like the world puts a lot of importance on, I'm not going to say things that don't matter, so I'm not saying that. But when we were growing up, Brian and Shannon, we had leadership books in the library at school from early on. Right. Like there was always leadership moments. And I just feel like today, social media is kind of driven into silly or how can we go viral?

1:19Shannon Miles:Yeah.

1:20Bryan Miles:But there's this big thing of leadership that we're not talking about. So I'd love to start with with both of you and what's your because that thing that's deeper than your why, like that thing that really resonates with you, that drives you. So if I were to say I'll start with Shannon, because I know she's the boss, right, Ryan? Of course. Shannon, what's your because?

1:40Shannon Miles:You know, my because is I truly believe everything belongs to God. And because of that deep belief and how I've seen leaning into that and living that out show up in my life over and over again, it has enabled me to have a unique perspective on business and business ownership and mentoring and all the things that we'll get into today. But I genuinely believe that, you know, everything belongs to God.

2:12Bryan Miles:That's amazing. I love that. And we're definitely going to talk because, you know, that's very similar to my journey and my following as well, too. So, Brian, what about you? What's your because, brother? My because is fairly simple. It's just that your life is just not for you. You know, we have so much that we're meant for and that we're born into this world to do. And most of it, 99.9 % of it's for other people. And, uh, that is my deep because that's inside me that plays itself out in a lot of things that we do even today. No, I love that, dude. The fact that you're spot on 99 % of what we're supposed to do should be for others.

2:57Bryan Miles:We talk a lot about servant leadership, and I don't think a lot of people truly understand that the real definition of that. So Brian, I'd love to unpack a little bit of what you just talked about. Sure. Why are most people not servant focus as they should be? What are some things that you think we're missing in society that we can't get to the 99 % like we should? Oh man, that's a big question. Here's what I would say. I think that I had the opportunity just turned 50. And so, you know, I'm a little bit more reflective as I'm getting a bit older, but I would just tell you that, you know, when you're young, you, you're told to go get it, to get after it, to, to, to serve your interest, to, to grow the thing, to, to grow the business, to, you know, to, to, to grind.

3:53Bryan Miles:And so what happens, I think at least I've witnessed in the guys that I've mentored that are a couple of three seasons younger than me is that they, sacrifice a lot of things for the sake of a business or for whatever their intent or their purpose is. And I think social media feeds into that a lot. It's a consumer-driven society where even heck, in church, it's easy for people to go, this is my seat, my pew, right? And it's not. That seat's there for everybody else, right? And so I think that what happens in life is that hopefully as you mature, you start to realize that you're to be a blessing to others.

4:35Bryan Miles:You're to be there for other people that you weren't just for you. You weren't born just for you. That's the best answer I can give you at the moment. No, I love that. I completely love that. Now, Shannon, I want to come back to you. My mother is a minister and I am totally of the belief that my leadership principles, my personal principles all line up through faith. And knowing you and following you like I do, faith is very prominent in what you talk about, right? Like, and I'm one of the reasons I'm a fan of you both is that you don't hide behind your faith. And I think a lot of times there are people that they won't give the full glory when they should.

5:17Bryan Miles:And Shannon, you're not that person. So talk to us a little bit about how important faith is in your journey and what you're doing on a day to day.

5:27Shannon Miles:I mean, personally, it's of utmost importance. It's tricky what you put out there, though, because I never want my faith and my beliefs to be off putting to anybody else so that I'm creating an environment that seems overly Christian or whatever, so that other opinions and faiths and denominations can't be welcomed into the work. So it's a delicate balance of being honest and genuine and communicative about what I believe, but also recognizing that faith is a very personal thing for people. And there's a lot of religious trauma out there that can turn people off from some really helpful principles just because of the trauma.

6:08Shannon Miles:And so I want to be cognizant of that as well. But I mean, I my parents, I didn't grow up in church a little bit of Lutheran background, a little bit of Presbyterian background. But it wasn't until I was 13 that my parents were saved and I saw the difference that Christ made in their lives. And then I shortly I became a Christian shortly thereafter. We were all baptized at the same time. So I was an adolescent when my faith journey started. But, you know, as the years went on, I always held that faith. But it wasn't until like the early 2000s where Brian and I had met, married, moved to Atlanta, amassed a tremendous amount of debt from college and credit cards and car leases and stupid decisions that that belief that everything belongs to God was really enacted.

7:01Shannon Miles:It was through our church that we heard the message of give, save, live. And the fact that if you really believe that everything belongs to God, then 100 % of what you earn is his and you have the ability to decide how to allocate those funds. And so we first started to give and then save second and then live.

7:25Bryan Miles:And in 18 months, we got out of$80 ,000 in debt with no change of job.

7:30Shannon Miles:Like it's, it was a miracle. So that's, that was the first, like really leaning out into that faith and that belief in a really practical way and seeing the transformation that could happen in our finances and subsequently our marriage too.

7:45Bryan Miles:Wow. So you just said 80 ,000 in debt, right? In a somewhat short period of time, like let's talk to the viewers and listeners about that. What were some of the things that you did to, to delete that debt? Yeah. Well, I mean, let's just be honest. We were knuckleheads. You know, we were newly married, had double incomes, just spending money, had college debt of that call of that 80 grand. 50 grand was college debt. 30. Probably half of that was in revolving debt or credit card debt and then in car car payments. And just out of nowhere, we were just like, my goodness, we had zero debt in college to having 80 ,000.

8:25Bryan Miles:We've got to do something different. And it took a, it took actually me being laid off. I had a job in Atlanta. I worked for a dot bomb. They raised a bunch of money and they did really well. And then they exploded in the dot com era and then they bombed. And I got laid off. And it was around that time we started learning these messages at our church about give, save, live. And we're like, you know what, we can't, you know, that everybody here is like tithe 10%. And tithe is just all tithe means to just give where your heart wants it to go, like a humane society or a church or something. That's what tithing means.

8:59Bryan Miles:So giving for us was just we couldn't do 10%, but we could do 3%. And so we did that. And actually, we tithe 3 % off my unemployment check, too, in addition to her salary that she had. And so we just we realized that it wasn't the amount. It was about the consistency. It was about communicating with our heart what was important and being consistent about that. And so doing that consistently and then increasing that percentage over time and then even to this day, that is something that, you know, we were able to just to pay off the debt because we, I mean, look at it simply like this. Let's say you have 10 bucks, right?

9:37Bryan Miles:And you give$1 away and you save$1, you get eight bucks to live on. I mean, that's a ton of money, right? And so it just seemed logical that, like I said earlier, that your life isn't just for you, that even your money needs to go somewhere and be about other people.

9:56Shannon Miles:And I mentioned it was affecting our relationship. I mean, I'm sure you're aware, like financial stress is one of the leading causes of divorce. We were not in a good place and we knew that things weren't working on our own and we needed to implement a new a new system to not only get us out of the hole that we were in, but we had big dreams. You know, we didn't want to live paycheck to paycheck like our parents did. And the moment we met, we were like, we want to travel the world together. Well, how do you do that? You have to you have to have resources. So we knew that we needed to dig out of the hole, but then also set ourselves up for the future life that we had dreamed about.

10:39Bryan Miles:So let's talk about that future life that you dreamed about. I think a lot of folks that are our age, we all start by working for someone else or another entity. And then it's like, well, wait a second. There are some good things here that I could probably do or that I'm learning from a business aspect. but there's a lot of things that I don't like and I want to go do something on my own. And so talk to me about that mind shift, but then also let's go into, let's go into the company that you created together.

11:10Shannon Miles:Sure. Yeah. I, I grew up in corporate America thinking I would retire from McKesson. I loved my job. I worked in the software division and I had three distinct roles over the decade that I was there. And every step that I took in that company was the right next step. I just, I knew it, I felt it. And it worked until one day it just stopped working. And I'm like, oh, okay, maybe this change that I'm feeling like I need to make in my career is bigger than just the next move within the same organization. I looked externally. I was like, nope, that's not it either. And we'd always talked about wanting to have something of our own, wanted to be business owners.

11:50Shannon Miles:And I was going through that transition for myself, that mindset of like, maybe this isn't my forever job. Maybe this is like a risk that I'm being prompted to and to step out into. And Brian at the same time was, was experiencing something similar in his company.

12:09Bryan Miles:Yeah. She loved corporate America. I hated corporate America. Cubicle hell had no interested in that whatsoever um and so but i i worked for a church consulting company that built construct they constructed churches around the united states and i did that for seven years um oh and then it was basically traveling too much and so back in 2010 um our kids were two and five at the time and it was the height of the great recession unemployment was 9.8 percent and but we were at this place both in our careers where we were just like we need to we need to make a change. I mean, we're, we're desperate for a change that we're, we're working for other people.

12:49Bryan Miles:We're, we're making other people plenty of money, you know, and what, what needs to change with this? So we, we fortunately were able to, um, do a lot of due diligence and realize that there was not a domestic solution for virtual assistant company at the time. And that's essentially what we set out to do. And, um, we got our ducks together after all of our due diligence we talked to some advisors and we left our jobs um well not left we gave notice on the same day october 1st of 2010 within 45 minutes of each other that you know shannon went into her employer and she gave notice and then i called her when i got up to pittsburgh and i said hey this is it we're doing it and so we we we turned in our notice and about 60 days later, we started on our own payroll for the company that is now known as Belay.

13:42Yeah.

13:43Bryan Miles:So the inspiration behind virtual assistants was what, right? Like, what did you see that was really missing? And more importantly, what did you see that you could impact? Yeah. Right. Yeah. So in 2010, um, rather exhausted from traveling a ton for work. Um, I picked up a book, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. And in that book, all of the solutions at the time pointed to overseas solutions, not nothing, anything domestic. And then I was thinking about that and I'm like, you know, I have a virtual assistant. She lives in Charlotte. I'm in Atlanta. She's virtual. I see her because I go into the office in Charlotte, but she's a virtual assistant.

14:28Bryan Miles:And I just, we've got the thinking and talking. We're like, you know what? There's plenty of leaders that actually would probably hire a virtual assistant if they were not overseas, if there was a viable domestic solution that was available. Now, mind you, now more than ever in 2025, we're more global as a world, right? But back in 2010, we were still trying to convince people that virtual could work, right? And like we had this thing called FaceTime and people were still figuring that out.

14:56Shannon Miles:Zoom didn't even exist then, if you could imagine such a world.

14:59Bryan Miles:I just started FaceTime like three weeks ago. So for us, it was this era of like, well, yeah, virtual work can occur and let's provide as best we can the best domestic solution for that. And then about a month into business, we quickly realized there was a bookkeeping need as well. So we created a virtual bookkeeping solution as well. And it's two separate types of people that perform that type of work. But we basically went the market in 2011 really hard with virtual assistants and with virtual bookkeepers.

15:34Shannon Miles:And in building the company, we wanted to create the type of business we always wanted to work for. You know, when you're working for somebody else, you don't get to choose the clients that you say yes to or the team that you surround yourself with. But we really had the opportunity to do that. And so we wanted to create an organization that we were excited to participate in every day and that worked for the clients and that worked for the contractors, you know, that were the ones providing the services of bookkeeping and virtual assistance. So it was important to us that we created an organization that worked for all of those so that it could be fulfilling on all sides and sustainable.

16:16Bryan Miles:Yeah, I'm a huge fan of virtual work and I applaud you for doing things stateside too. One, because it matters. But two, it becomes the, I don't know, the, I'm trying to say the most political correct way of saying this, right? The stigma of your company can appear to not be based U.S. when you have certain dialects or languages or whatever accents that are that are present. And so the fact that you were doing things stateside, I also think it just helped businesses with credibility across the things that they were doing. Yeah. I'd love to have a leadership moment right here if we can, because most of my companies.

17:01Bryan Miles:Most of my employees are remote, right? But I'm such a big proponent of culture. I tell leaders all the time, entrepreneurs and CEOs, you don't actually run the business, you run the culture. And the culture is what actually runs the business. That's right. So for both of you, looking at the solutions you provide where remote work is a thing, how do leaders, the viewers and listeners now, how do they build a culture? What are a couple of strategies to build culture in a remote environment? I'll take the first part of that if that's all right. Back in 2017, Entrepreneur Magazine awarded us as the top company culture out of 50 companies.

17:44Bryan Miles:and we were ranked number one on the list and we were the only one on that list that was all remote and we got to a place where people like how did you do this all remote like literally we don't today even belay does not have an office and it ultimately comes down to this especially around culture is that we believe with all of our hearts as owners back then all you know as owners of the business that a company culture has nothing to do with an office. It has everything to do with shared vision. And so from a leadership perspective, it's incumbent on the leader to communicate cast vision in such a way that it's compelling, but it's also transferable and it's magnetic.

18:32Bryan Miles:And so that's what culture is, is the shared vision that we're all going together in this direction has nothing to do with an office or a fancy ping pong tables or chalkboards or whatever the cool things are you want to have chalkboards aren't cool but you know what i mean yeah maybe they'll come back like record players so so you mean the afternoon pizza party or the beverage dispenser that i put in the break room doesn't help culture brian no i mean i think it's nice i think it depends on what you put in it i don't know yeah i think it's nice but what i do believe more than that is that people want a meaningful place to work.

19:09Bryan Miles:And culture is something that is shared vision. And it's the it's the job of the leaders, the job of the business owner or whomever to basically connect their heart to what you're doing. And when we're all doing that together, that shared vision is what equals your company's culture.

19:25Shannon Miles:I 1000 % agree with that. I think the thing that came to mind for me first was trust. You know, there is with some people an inherent distrust of virtual. If I can't see you, how do I know that you're working? And so we worked very hard to establish trust amongst our own team members first and create a culture of trust and create connections where that trust could be built and proven. And we're extremely results driven because nothing will erode trust worse than having an expectation for someone, they miss it and you don't address it. How can you trust a leader has everybody's best interest in mind and that type of environment?

20:10Shannon Miles:So we were very caring and vulnerable and culture driven with our team, but we were also extremely results oriented. And we would never allow somebody to stay in a position so long that the issue became about the person, not about the performance. So that was another, you know, sort of the other side of the trust coin, I think is the radical accountability for results.

20:35Bryan Miles:No, that's amazing. You know, we talked a little earlier about, you know, my book, how to be a good leader when you've never had one, but my, my passion is modern leadership, right? Again, society's changed. We have humans have changed. And so the way we lead has to change as well, too. And I love the fact that what you're doing with owner is helping be that sounding board for entrepreneurs, because again, times have changed. When the generation before me, the idea was, you go to the job and you stay and retire from that one job, right? So you always saw the perfect job. Well, we're in a time now where, yeah, I've got a nine to five, but I also have a six to 12, right?

21:20Bryan Miles:And at some point that six to 12 is going to become my nine to five or my nine to 12 or whatever that may be. Talk to me a little bit about what Owner is, but more importantly, the mission behind why you decided to start that, because I'm so passionate about what you're doing with Owner.