Shannon Miles firmly believes that people can have a career AND the flexibility they crave to keep their priorities in healthy order. She is the CEO and Co-founder of BELAY, a staffing company serving businesses all over the U.S.
When Shannon had her first child, she faced an all too common decision. Whether or not to stay home with her new baby or return to a fast-paced, demanding career that she loved. In her heart, she knew there had to be a “Third Option.” She wanted the opportunity to have a meaningful career and still successfully raise a family.
In her search for answers, Shannon and her husband Bryan Miles found a way to do both. In 2010, they cashed in their 401(k)s and founded BELAY. This innovative staffing company has exploded to 700+ team members, all working remotely from home. Each team member is able to pursue their own Third Option while serving BELAY’s 1,400+ clients. Without a brick-and-mortar office, BELAY has graced the Inc. 5000 list four times and was awarded the number one spot in Entrepreneur Magazine’s Best Company Culture.
Shannon’s new book The Third Option: Why a Woman Doesn’t Have to Choose Between a Career and Family, but Can Actually Have Both and Succeed is now available. In The Third Option, Shannon shares how she took a leap of faith to create a flexible career that gives meaning to both her work and her family, and she shows how you, too, can accomplish the same.
What you’ll learn about in this episode:
- Why Shannon feels passionate about helping people integrate their family and personal life with their successful career
- How Shannon managed to turn a temporary, part-time work-from-home solution into a long term answer to her struggles with balancing career and family
- Why a remote work solution can be ideal for certain personalities, and how the workforce is beginning to embrace work-from-home arrangements
- How Shannon and her husband Brian founded their family-owned business BELAY, how they created the company’s unique leadership structure, and why it works
- What benefits come from bringing outsourced contractors into your business, and what benefits the contractors see from the arrangement
- Why Shannon considers serving others to be the essence of her work, and how she came to be co-CEO of the family-owned business alongside her husband
- What advice Shannon would offer to any couple considering starting their own family-owned business
- Why Shannon and her husband Brian focus on “owning the business” versus “running the business”
- Why Shannon and her husband keep a shared family vision of someday being able to travel with their children and grandchildren
- How to work with BELAY, either as remote support staff or as a business looking to use BELAY for your staffing needs
Additional resources:
- The Third Option by Shannon Miles: https://amzn.to/2IpFoAV
- Website: www.mythirdoption.com
- Website: www.belaysolutions.com