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In this special '12 Days of Business' edition of The Business Owner’s Journey podcast, host Nick Berry sits down with Anthony Milia, founder of Milia Marketing and author of Marketing Magnifier. This episode unpacks Anthony’s growth as a business leader and highlights the pivotal moments that shaped his approach to leadership and business growth. Anthony's lessons align perfectly with Nick's 3 Pillars of Support and Business Alignment System Methodologies. From learning under John DiJulius to implementing the EOS framework, Anthony shares actionable insights on mentorship, community, and strategic planning that every business owner can learn from.
Anthony credits John DiJulius and The DiJulius Group with raising his bar for delivering exceptional customer experiences. Collaborating with John inspired Anthony to focus on the minute details that elevate a brand’s partner experience. He applied this mentorship to improve the operations and services at Milia Marketing, ensuring their agency stood out for its commitment to excellence.
“I learned from the best. It’s now something we obsess over - constantly refining processes and templates to improve the partner experience by even 1%.”
Participating in the Goldman Sachs 10KSB program was a turning point for Anthony. Not only did it help him niche down Milia Marketing to focus on the Stone, Kitchen & Bath industry, but it also provided clarity on strategic business fundamentals. He highlighted the program’s focus on actionable growth opportunities, which helped him refine operations and achieve scalability.
“It’s not about small wins, it’s about defining major drivers that propel your business to the next level.”
Anthony joined Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) to surround himself with like-minded leaders navigating the challenges of business ownership. The tight-knit community of EO provided Anthony with peer advisory support and real-world insights, accelerating his growth as a business leader.
“The more success you achieve, the fewer people can relate to your challenges. Peer groups like EO bridge that gap, offering a safe space to vocalize problems and share solutions.”
Anthony’s journey into personal branding began with the release of his book, Marketing Magnifier. The book not only positioned him as a subject matter expert but also opened doors for keynote speaking engagements nationwide. Anthony also credits working with a speaking coach for refining his presentation skills and delivering impactful sessions.
“Writing the book sharpened my marketing knowledge, and speaking engagements have allowed me to share those insights on bigger stages.”
Implementing the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) proved to be a game-changer for Anthony and his team. EOS brought clarity, accountability, and alignment to Milia Marketing, ensuring every team member operated in their zone of genius.
“EOS gave us a common language and tools that empowered our team to solve problems proactively and efficiently.”
This episode is part of the 12 Days of Business mini-series.
Anthony's previous appearance on The Business Owner’s Journey: Data Driven Marketing and My Best Business Decisions
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The Business Owner's Journey Podcast host: Nick Berry
Production Company: FCG
Nick Berry (00:00)
The Business Owner's Journey. I'm Nick Berry and I've got real business owners telling their real stories, sharing their real lessons and strategies so you don't have to figure it all out on your
Nick Berry (00:12)
I am wrapping up season one of the Business Owners Journey with this special mini series, the 12 Days of Business. Over 12 days, we've got 12 episodes with 12 of my previous guests. And today's guest is Anthony Milia the founder of Milia Marketing Agency. He's an author and a keynote speaker. So Anthony's first episode was primarily about him.
building his marketing agency and their focus on being like the data driven marketing experts. But there were a few other points that came up and got my attention in that discussion. And what jumped out at me is it was telling a really clear and to me really interesting story about Anthony's growth as a leader and these inflection points along his path. So as part of this episode, what I wanted to do was bring those points back up and kind of put the spotlight on that.
And I think there's just so much to be learned from how he describes those events and how he leveraged each of them. He talks about John DiJulius also a guest of ours, but actually I was introduced to John through Anthony. But Anthony met John early on and that kind of planted the seed for him becoming a speaker and an author eventually. Anthony also joined the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Group.
And as a part of that, first of all, that's how I got connected with Anthony is my wife was in that program with him. that program is what influenced him to niche down his agency, which is kind of where it started to take off.
He finishes with the small 10,000 small businesses program. And then he joins entrepreneurs organization and gets involved in that like tighter community of peers. Then he starts building his own personal brand, writes his book, marketing magnifier, and, and it's preparing himself to become a keynote speaker.
And I want to mention Marketing Magnifier. This is a very, very, very good marketing book. If you are a, especially a small business owner who has your hand in marketing, creator, this is a fantastic book for you to help get your head around kind of straddling between strategies and tactics. It's bigger picture while staying actionable.
Then as his timeline continues, he hires a business coach and starts using EOS.
when you hear Anthony talk about these things, he is very clear in describing the effect that each of them had on him. And you can see how it compounds over time. But there is also not an accident why this story, these inflection points jump out to me because in that timeline right there, and this I think happened with him in maybe like a six year period.
He's captured all six of the principles that I use in my own businesses and with the others that I work with as an advisor. I've said this on this podcast, these things, it's in my content, but these are the guidelines that I use. Everybody needs a one-on-one coach. You need to be a part of a bigger community. You also need to be a part of a smaller peer advisory board.
Those are your three pillars of support. you've to have a leadership development plan. You've got to have a strategic plan for the business and you've got to have an operating system. And he nailed all six of those things in just a few short years. So it's not an accident why he is where he is. But listen to him talk about it because these things didn't happen to him.
he created these opportunities. He went into these opportunities with the intention of figuring out how to level himself up. He would then come out of the opportunities and just compound. He would put something into action and then build on it. Like each one of these, you'll hear the residual effect as he tells the story.
now then, if you get value then all I ask is make sure that you're following or subscribed so that you get the entire 12 days of business series. If you want, I'll send them to you through email. You can get all of the episode pages. You can get the exclusive guest profiles. You can get the additional resources that we're sending out, but those are only going out through email. So to get them, you just need to go to nickberry.info slash.
12 days. That's the number 12 days. And make sure that you're subscribed so you can listen to them on your favorite platforms. All right, now enjoy the show.
Anthony Milia (04:50)
Yeah, so we did start in September of 2016, but I'm going to fast forward around that 2017-2018 mark when two things happened. Number one is that we started working with that fabricator based in Cleveland, which was a big milestone for us because it ended up being one of our larger, our first larger clients at the time. And then the second piece is working with John DiJulius who you just recently interviewed and his team over at the DiJulius Group.
More on that is just John has been like an John and his team both have been an incredible resource and just mentor to to me, especially growing a professional services company and figuring out as I go of just growing our portfolio and especially most importantly is delivering a great partner experience to the people that we serve and who like I learned it from the best, right?
from working with their team and doing the marketing for them and being able to consume that content and implement it, it's been such a great mentorship for me and just both personally and professionally I've grown so much.
Nick Berry (06:02)
much have they affected the standards? have they had to come to you at any point when you were working with them? You're like, Anthony, that's not good enough, man. Not for us.
Anthony Milia (06:11)
Well,
I mean, there's definitely been moments of that. But it's raised my standard for sure on what I work for, not only in like working with other vendors. So I want a world class customer experience from the people that we work with as an agency. But I want to be able to turn that around and being able to provide that on the end partner as well of what their perception of our value is or what their customer experience is.
We want to make sure they're having the best experience, but they can't find it anywhere else. So that has been something that I am now like, I'm very nitpicky on like, what are those minor things, those minor moments that can really make an impact in every single interaction that we might have with a potential partner? And how can we just improve that budget? Maybe just by 1%. Like what is that? What is that switch? What can we do?
Nick Berry (07:03)
Yeah.
I think once you become aware of those things, like if it's not just minutia or tedious, right, those are the layups. Those are the things that they're not that hard to do. You just got to recognize them.
Anthony Milia (07:15)
You definitely have to, that's definitely the first step. And now we're very obsessed with it, which I love because it's something that we're for every, you know, all the time. And we're always adjusting like our scripts, our templates, our processes, so we can continue to, to improve that whole experience.
Nick Berry (07:34)
Yeah, you really did learn from the best. And I appreciate you getting me in touch with him. He was a pleasure to work with.
Anthony Milia (07:41)
Yeah, that's awesome. And like that also was one of the inspirations for, you know, motivating me to write the book, but also like now I'm speaking right and have like really good slide decks. I'm being able to speak in Vegas and Miami and all across the United States on the topic of marketing and learning from John and how he's conducted his keynote presentations has really helped me position myself and get, you know, just get started.
So those were two of the big moments back in 2017 and 2018. Around 2020 is when we joined the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program, went through that for a little bit, and that's how we originally connected, right? so we, yeah, yeah, and we were part of the same business group that's a US-wide business group teaching kind of the fundamentals.
Nick Berry (08:21)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Kelly was in there with you.
Anthony Milia (08:33)
And that is also where I my growth opportunity was niching down So that was like this the very very start of us repositioning ourselves to only focus on the stone kitchen and bath industry and I fast forward to one more point is Last year about 14 months ago is when we started to run on EOS and That has probably been the biggest and best shift that we've made
in the last 14 months is hiring a business coach that helps us implement EOS within our agency. We never had as much clarity, accountability and focus across the board. And I can't remember how we used to, I can't remember how I used to run the firm before, before that.
Nick Berry (09:19)
I get it. EOS has that place with us also for that same reason. noticed that you used the phrase delegate and elevate somewhere and I was like, I know what you're doing.
Anthony Milia (09:30)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and it's across the board with every team member to is what you know, what is every team member on our team? What are they just like strongly dislike doing? That's part of their role. And how can we move that to either someone else or to someone that enjoys doing that that line of work? Because we really want every responsibility to be something that every team member like
Nick Berry (09:48)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Anthony Milia (09:56)
They love to do it and they're great at it. That's where we want every team member to be in like that upper left quadrant of that worksheet, right? like ever since implementing just like a minor exercise like that, like you have happier employees.
Nick Berry (10:11)
it gives you a method to apply to things that that you feel you don't realize you're experiencing like all day long. And everybody on in on your team is probably experiencing all day long.
Anthony Milia (10:23)
gives a sense of direction for the entire team. The goals for each department, for the company as a whole, everyone knows where we're heading. You're reporting on a weekly basis. You're able to IDS, like what are your issues that are popping up on a weekly basis? And that's being very proactive in resolving those. So it doesn't amount to something else like in six months. If you weren't doing that, you might catch yourself in a massive right? You just.
But since you're having EOS in place and you're able to IDS those moments, you're ahead of it.
Nick Berry (10:56)
right. I hear you said IDS and delegate and elevate the common language, I think is another thing that it does for you internally. It lets your team knows what IDS means and they know how to IDS, it's these, the set of heuristics and tools that
empower people on your team to do things, apply themselves more efficiently and collectively.
Anthony Milia (11:19)
it's been a great resource. of the best investments we made for just over the last 14 months and moving forward, we're going to continue to run on it.
Nick Berry (11:29)
we got into it in 2014. Like it was so long ago, Gino was the person who ran our workshop and sold us into it. Yeah, there were like four implementers on their website at the time. And this comes up in.
Anthony Milia (11:36)
That's insane.
Nick Berry (11:43)
more than half of my podcast interviews, we end up talking about EOS. And something that came up recently that I've started to talk more about is, you notice when, any of your clients already use EOS? So you can tell, can't you, when somebody's using your?
Anthony Milia (11:54)
Yeah, yeah.
I can
I can absolutely tell when we're working with a partner. It's actually one of the one of the questions I ask in my discovery calls is like, you know, like, how are you guys? Are you guys running on the US? Because if I know that, then I know it's like a very operationally strong, structurally sound organization where we're going to fast or more efficiently with that partner because they have their ducks in a row, most likely most of the time. Right.
Nick Berry (12:26)
you can plug right in. you know what, for the most part, what you're walking into. Yeah.
Anthony Milia (12:30)
Yeah,
I'm surprised that you're running on, you've known about EOS since 2014, you've been running on it. Maybe being an implementer and an integrator yourself, a fractional world consulting group for you.
Nick Berry (12:48)
so the clients that I'm consulting with now. We use it.
Anthony Milia (12:51)
think you and Kelly would be great at that. just from the 10 years of experience from you running a business and owning it and then using EOS, there's a lot of experience sharing from you guys for sure.
Nick Berry (13:04)
Yeah. I I know, I know that system. So, you know, with fitness revolution, we built the alignment system, which there's 50 % of that is EOS, It's the same thing. And like, that's the case with a lot of these systems. but EOS is just the simplest, easiest, broadest application. Like if you have some, aptitude and can think on top of that framework, like your gold.
Anthony Milia (13:14)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Berry (13:28)
You should be just fine.
Anthony Milia (13:29)
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Nick Berry (13:31)
so you mentioned the book, Marketing Magnifier is the book. And I got it whenever it came out, but I'm rereading again because we're having this conversation. And it was just another reminder of I just have always enjoyed our conversations because of the insight and the book has insight, It's not just a, like a stock marketing here, the fundamentals you need to know.
Anthony Milia (13:37)
Awesome.
It's always something I wanted to do and I appreciate you rereading it again just just to be able to share that knowledge and the experiences the interviews and examples which which really allows people to implement those ideas right back into their business is what I what I hope for and I feel people do and And the other piece is just it's just very heartwarming From the side of things that people read it and then they put into action so when I hear that and
makes me feel happy to know that not only is it on your bookshelf, it's being read and being implemented, and I get to hear that feedback too. It's such an awesome feeling. And that off the list of being able to write the book was definitely, it was for sure a challenge.
just the whole journey and the experience of writing it from start to finish, you're interviewing all the different people, you're reflecting back on different experiences and memories and consuming content from different industries. And how can you put that into a story so people can read that and then get value from it as well?
And at the same time of going through those motions, like I'm consuming the content, right? So it's just, it's only sharpening me that marketing knowledge and positioning me as a subject matter expert, which is, which is one of the main, one of the main goals. So number one, obviously wanted to provide value. Number two is being able to write that now maybe, you know, I hope a little bit smarter in the world of marketing has
helped me create a reputation as a subject matter expert and then leading to speaking engagements across the United States, which is awesome.
Nick Berry (15:35)
So you mentioned John, his influence on you with your speaking and presentations. Did you hire a speaking coach? Yeah.
Anthony Milia (15:42)
I did, I
did hire a speaking coach. And it was actually someone that I just found on Upwork originally, because I didn't really know where to turn to for like a more official speaking coach that can dedicate more of the etiquette towards that and just keeping me a little more accountable on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. So I was working with her for several months, especially for my first go around at my first
larger presentation and that had really helped me build up that confidence and and just and just hold me accountable. So showing up to those meetings and then rehearsing and just like I am here and then her providing feedback on what I can do to improve like am I moving too much? Am I fidgety? Am I saying am I humming my ums? Those are all things to pay attention to right so the more that you practice the more that you can you know refine it.
I highly recommend a speaking coach, especially just to get you going.
Nick Berry (16:42)
Yeah, it's trial and error unless you have somebody why not get somebody to tell you here's, here's the way. Just like with EOS. I mean, you could read the book. You could try to do that. And it, and it's possible, but man, it's so much easier if you just have somebody who's done it to say like, here's the way.
Anthony Milia (16:58)
Yeah. Well, to that point, there's people around you that will help you that are better than you at it and that are going to help coach you to get you to that point. So even for the person that designed my slide deck, not the strongest at... I could build a Google slide deck, a PowerPoint, Canva presentation, right? But I can't do it in a way where it's...
It has that creativity, it builds upon the slides. they had more of the eye for detail, right? And it builds throughout the journey and the story. So I had someone else work on the slide deck for me and it was a great experience because what sucks when you're attending a keynote presentation or a session like that is that you're sitting on these sessions and these speakers have like just walls of text.
on their slides and they're just either reading from them or they're saying something over here and then their slide deck says something different. And I'm trying to create just a better speaking experience, right?
Nick Berry (18:03)
What about the, your, your presentation itself? Do you have somebody help you with that? Or did you already have that?
Anthony Milia (18:09)
the speaking coach kind of helped me navigate that a little bit, but really the content behind it was driven primarily from the book. So it was, was already something I had experience on. and I've been able to use that type of presentation and, and several speaking engagements. And now I'm working on my next topic that I'm, you know, going back to the drawing board of getting that designer, rehearsing the content, repositioning the slides where they need to go.
and just building out that story so it's actionable, people learn from it and it's not a sales pitch.
Nick Berry (18:46)
before I move too far from inflection points, we talked a lot about EOS, the Goldman Sachs, the 10,000 small businesses, is that something you would recommend for anybody getting into business or like a certain type of person?
Anthony Milia (19:00)
I think the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program does a great job on teaching the fundamentals through the modules. back in October 2020, we did the whole cohort virtually. So I had a little bit of a different experience because I attended the program over Zoom, which made it a little challenging at times, but I still gained a ton of value from my coaches, my team, and all that. But I would recommend it for people
that are looking to kind of get that foundational business knowledge. And it allows you the opportunity to work on your business throughout that, I think, eight or 12 week timeline. I forget what it is. And you're going through like your finances, your marketing plan, sales plan, your accountability chart, your organization, and really just trying to take you to the next level. I think the result of it is you creating a growth opportunity
what is going to be that major driver in getting you to the next phase of your business. It's not something like, I'm going to build a website. It's like a very major milestone that the next phase of your business that's going to take you to the next level. So in summary, I would say I do recommend it. The next step after that, once you graduate from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program would be something considering something like EO, so Entrepreneurs Organization.
It does surround yourself with people that are most likely running on EOS or scaling up. And that a lot of time it's a great transition from people that are graduating from the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. They find EO because they just want more of what they did from the 10,000 Small Business Program. And you're surrounding yourself with other people that are other entrepreneurs, business owners that are going through.
The emotional roller coaster, the peaks and valleys of trying to grow their business, the ups and downs of revenue, the people leaving your company, people issues, client issues, whatever it is. And you have someone else to talk to where you get very vulnerable with that group of people. You're getting into the 1 % to 5 % those experience shares. And you can't do that anywhere else. You can't turn to your neighbor or some people can't turn to their significant other.
know, share that out loud, right? Because they just don't, don't get it.
Nick Berry (21:24)
this is another thing that comes up just about every conversation. you get into business ownership and they're just not that many people who can relate. No, even if they want to, no matter how bad they want to, they can't relate to the things that are going to keep you up at night. And the more success you have, the number becomes fewer and fewer. And it's nobody's fault. Like that's just it. There are things in their lives that we can relate to either, but
Anthony Milia (21:46)
Exactly
Nick Berry (21:47)
You
need to find people who can. And like those peer groups, I think I'm glad you mentioned EO. I was a ten year Vistage member. it's up there with EOS on my inflection points. One of the most valuable things I've ever done for that reason. you're, you're in there with other people who are looking for the same things that you're looking for. They think kind of like you there. A lot of people are.
Anthony Milia (21:58)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Berry (22:13)
are either solving or have solved a lot of those issues, the challenges that you're facing, it's access to speed when it comes to solving problems.
Anthony Milia (22:21)
Yeah.
Access to speed, your circle of influence and just surrounding yourself with other people just like you going through the same challenges, but it could be a completely different business and having someone to talk to just not maybe not even solving your problem. Just being able to vocalize it is probably the more valuable element to it is just being able to talk out loud. Someone is able to hear you and understand it, acknowledge it and and and resonate with it is has been
Nick Berry (22:31)
Mm-hmm.
Anthony Milia (22:51)
an incredible resource.
Nick Berry (22:52)
Yeah, that reminds me like one of the first, my first memories from being in Vistage, a guy who's like still a mentor to me. I don't remember what we were talking about, but I was kind of stressed out. you know, that you have these blind spots and you know it, but you don't really know how to go about looking for them. And he just said something along the lines of like, you don't know what you don't know. Like, that's all right. That's why you're here. And I was like, yeah.
Anthony Milia (23:13)
Mm-hmm.
Nick Berry (23:19)
It just feels so much better for it to have been acknowledged and him being like, that's why you're here. There's nothing you can do about it other than that. It's like the weight was lifted. Are you still in EO?
Anthony Milia (23:29)
yeah.
Yeah, yeah, we are. about three years since we joined. It's been probably one of the best investments we made. It's just being part of that type of community.
Nick Berry (23:39)
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Nick Berry is an accomplished entrepreneur and CEO, whose track record includes founding and leading numerous companies since 2002.
He is also a mentor and coach to other entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for a trusted (and proven) advisor.
Among peers, colleagues, staff, and clients, Nick has been referred to as both 'The Business Guy' as well as 'The Anti-Guru', due to his pragmatic approach and principled leadership.
He shares his insights and lessons learned, along with those of his expert guests,
on his podcast, 'The Business Owner's Journey'.
