“Many small business owners feel isolated,” says Bryan Miles. “That’s why we created O’nr — to be a safe harbor for them to connect with people going through struggles that only they can understand.”
O’nr (pronounced “owner”) is a non-profit platform that creates films, courses, and live events aimed at helping business owners thrive financially and personally. It was founded by Bryan and Shannon Miles, a married team who have built several businesses together, and know firsthand the extreme highs and gut-wrenching lows that come with this lifestyle.
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Their entrepreneurial journey began in 2010, when Bryan and Shannon left corporate life, cashed in their 401(k)s and founded BELAY, a remote team management company. It was a big risk — this was well before remote work became the norm we know today — but it came with a huge reward. After more than a decade of hard work, Bryan and Shannon had a nine-figure exit in 2021.
Their exit allowed them to concentrate on their other business, NoFo Brew Co., a craft beer and spirits brand with three locations in Georgia and operations in England and Ireland. And to explore a wide variety of opportunities, including investing in four soccer clubs via the Trivela Group: Walsall FC, Drogheda United FC, Silkeborg IF and Trivela FC Togo.
Having achieved an exit most entrepreneurs can only dream of, why did the couple decide to found a non-profit? Shannon told Entrepreneur, “When we sold BELAY, we gained some influence and power, and that gave us a decision to make: What do you do with that? Do you use it for your own consumption? Or do you want to give away that experience and help other people on their journey?”
Entrepreneur caught up with the couple in New York to get further insights into what they hope to offer entrepreneurs with O’nr, and to get their hard-earned advice for taking on risk, learning from mistakes, and the good things that can happen to you when you start to do good things for others.
Entrepreneur: You had an incredible exit from your business BELAY. So blunt question — why are you doing anything now? Why aren’t you on a beach?
Bryan Miles: We feel so fortunate to be in the position we are in. I just turned 50, and you start to think about legacy. What can we do that will leave a lasting positive impact on people? We’ve been the recipients of amazing advice from mentors, and then get your own wisdom through gray hair like I have and you want to pay it forward.
Shannon Miles: We realized O’nr could be that legacy for us, a way to scale our mentoring. And since it is a nonprofit, it takes some of the pressure off of having to go out there and pitch it. We can focus on the mission.
Tell us more about the mission.
BM: Every business is a snowflake, right? They are different. But we have seen in entrepreneurs’ journeys that there are a lot of commonalities. You start off as a hustler. You’re grinding it out. Hustle, hustle, hustle. And eventually, if you do the right things, you become an entrepreneur. And then you develop a team. And then you finally get to be the CEO. And then you have a leadership team, and you realize, I don’t need to run this business. I’m just the owner of it, and I can think about other ideas now. We’ve done all that in multiple businesses. But a lot of people get stuck at points along the way, and they don’t know what to do or who to talk to. We hear it all the time, “I’m uncomfortable talking to my family about payroll. My friends are great, but they don’t get it.” So that’s what this is about: a safe harbor for leaders to connect with other leaders who understand and can help during tough times.
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Things have obviously gone well for you. Would you say you had any tough times?
SM: Yes, a few. [Laughs] We met in college, when it was just so easy to get a credit card. And we had no financial literacy and graduated with about $80,000 of debt. And we were fighting all the time. Every financial decision resulted in an argument. And Bryan got laid off from his job, started to collect unemployment, and we were like, “Okay, God, obviously we’re not doing this right.” We attended a church that taught principles around finances and things like that. The idea was like, “If everything is God’s, that includes your money, too.” So we started tithing from Bryan’s unemployment check and my check as well. It was a small percentage, but it unlocked something in us. It stopped being about what we could consume. We started saving and then living on the rest. And then a year and a half we got out of all of that debt.
BM: We figured out that principle of “give, save, live,” and that ultimately translated to us putting money in our investments that became our startup capital for BELAY. Another thing I had to learn the hard way is the importance of taking care of yourself physically. I was so stressed out at one point, I went to the hospital because I thought I was having a heart attack. I knew I had to course correct on what my health looked like. Why was I doing this business if the eventual payout was that I was just going to die? So we talk about that at O’nr a lot. What are you doing about your health? How are you respecting your body? How is your body going to fuel your future? How do you handle your stress?
Cashing in your 401(k)s to fund a startup isn’t exactly a safe bet. You seem pretty comfortable with risk.
BM: Well, I will first say that it was a bonehead decision. I mean, it worked for us, but we don’t tell anybody to do that. But we talk about a different side of risk that doesn’t always get discussed. Before making the jump to start BELAY, I was working for a company that had a 40-year history. We built over 600 churches around the United States. I had what was perceived as a stable job, right? When I left, I made sure to do it on good terms, in case I needed to come back with my tail between my legs. And four or so years into BELAY, that company I left folded. I would have been out of a job if I stayed there.
SM: And at the company I left, my former division was sold off — it ceased to exist. And those two things happened within nine months of each other. So I would tell someone who is on the fence about leaving a “secure” job to launch their own business that sometimes it’s a risk to stay where you are.
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Your soccer teams are doing well. You had this huge exit with BELAY. How are you judging success with O’nr?
BM: Look, I don’t know that we could talk to a room full of doctors and be helpful, but we can talk to a business owner who’s struggling in Arkansas and figure out how to grow his business from half a million to a million. Helping someone identify what is holding them back is incredibly rewarding.
SM: When I hear a business owner say, “After working with you and learning from you, it’s changed the trajectory of my life,” I’m not being hyperbolic when I say it is the greatest joy I can imagine. These are hardworking people who care very much about their families and the people that they employ, but they just don’t often see a path forward where they can live a whole life and not die to their business. Giving them a vision beyond what they can see right now and serving as some sort of inspiration is for them — that’s it for me.
