Welcome to "Morgan Entrepreneur Spotlight," our monthly-ish showcase where we shine a light on Northeast Ohio's entrepreneurial superstars. Each feature delves into the journeys of individuals who have participated in our programs and are harnessing their learnings to fuel impressive growth and innovation.
Anthony Milia is the President of Milia Marketing. Anthony is a member of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), which he describes as the single most instrumental influence on his growth as a founder. Anthony also participated in the Burton D. Morgan Foundation-sponsored leadership retreat at Big Rock Valley in Cassopolis, Michigan, offered free of charge to qualified second stage entrepreneurs through Morgan’s partnership with the Edward Lowe Foundation.
About Your Business
Please tell us a little about your business.
“Milia Marketing is a digital marketing firm built for one industry: stone fabrication, countertops, and kitchen and bath. We run marketing for fabricators and showrooms across the country. Websites, SEO, paid ads, and reporting that ties back to real jobs and revenue, not vanity metrics.
What makes us different is focus. Because we do nothing but stone and countertops, we understand slab yards, templating, and showroom traffic the way a generalist agency never will. Our clients get a partner who already speaks their language on day one, and a marketing strategy built specifically for how our industry buys.”
How have the growth programs you’ve participated in influenced your business or leadership approach? What were your key takeaways?
“The biggest shift was moving from operator to owner. Early on, I was in every account, doing the work. EO pushed me to build systems and a team that could run without me in the room.
Two takeaways stuck. First, get honest about your numbers. When you actually track capacity, margins, and pipeline, the decisions make themselves. Second, surround yourself with other founders. Being in a room with people a few steps ahead of you shortcuts years of trial and error. I run the company on EOS now, and a lot of that discipline traces back to the peer accountability I first found in EO.”
Tell us about any growth, milestones, or key wins you’ve experienced since participating in a Foundation-supported program.
“We've grown to around 20 people serving partners nationwide. I wrote a book, Marketing Magnifier, that put our approach on paper. It became a bestseller, and it was written Pre-ChatGPT. And I've become a regular speaker at the major industry events like TISE, KBIS, and the fabricator groups, which has made Milia the go-to marketing name in the stone space. We were also named the official marketing partner for SURFEX 2027, a national stone fabrication trade show. Real proof that betting on a narrow niche paid off.”
What has been your biggest challenge in growing your business, and how did you navigate it?
“Capacity. We hit a point where the team was full, fires kept pulling attention off healthy accounts, and that created more fires. A doom loop.
I navigated it by getting intentional about how we measure and assign work. We built a capacity model and used that to make real staffing and process decisions instead of just working harder. The lesson: you don't grow your way out of a capacity problem; you systematize your way out of it.”
What are one to three goals you hope to achieve in the next twelve months?
“My goals over the next year are to:
1. Launch new offerings.
2. Strengthen the team
3. Keep building Milia as the definitive marketing authority.”
Insights & Impact
How do you define success — for yourself or your business?
“Success is a business that creates real results for clients and a real life for the people who work here, including me. If our clients are growing, my team is challenged and taken care of, and I still have time and energy for my wife and daughter, that's the win. And my team has time to spend with their friends and family as well.”
What motivates you to keep going when things get tough?
“The people counting on me. My wife, dog, and daughter, my team, and clients who trust us. The tough stretches are where you actually find out what you're made of.”
Who has been an important mentor, partner, or supporter in your journey?
“A handful of people have shaped how I lead: Dave Wolf, Alec McLennan, and John DiJulius, whose thinking on business and customer experience has influenced me directly. My EO Cleveland forum has been huge, a group of founders who tell me the truth. Internally, my integrator, Nathalie, keeps the vision grounded in execution. And my wife Christine has backed every version of this from the start. Gianna, who teaches me patience, kindness, and curiosity.”
How does your business contribute to your community or industry?
“We've raised the bar for how an entire industry markets itself. Most fabricators were flying blind on marketing. Through our work, conference talks, and the AI training we lead for industry peer groups, we've given hundreds of shop owners a real playbook. Locally, we're a Cleveland company.”
What advice would you offer to entrepreneurs just getting started?
“Swing the bat.”
Personal Reflections
What role does innovation or creativity play in your business?
“It's the whole game. Marketing changes constantly, and lately AI has changed it overnight. We move fast, test things before the industry catches on, and bring those tools to a trade that traditionally moves slow. Being the ones showing fabricators what's possible keeps us out front.”
What book, quote, or resource has most inspired you?
“Traction by Gino Wickman changed how I run the company. It gave me the operating system to turn a scrappy startup into a real business. Building a StoryBrand shaped how we think about messaging, for us and for our clients. 10X is Easier than 2X. Who Not How. Delivering Happiness.”
What legacy or long-term impact do you hope to build through your entrepreneurial work?
“I want to build something that outlasts me, gives my team a place to grow, and shows my daughter what it looks like to bet on yourself and do the work.”
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
Anthony provides the reflection below on his experience at the Big Rock Valley retreat:
What Happens When You Finally Stop Moving
As entrepreneurs, we pride ourselves on momentum. On solving. On deciding. On doing. It's what got us here.
But momentum without stillness is just noise.
I recently had the privilege of attending a leadership retreat at the Edward Lowe Foundation's Big Rock Valley - a 2,000-acre learning campus in southwest Michigan designed to enable busy entrepreneurs to step away from daily distractions and focus on what matters most. I came in as a second-stage business owner moving at full speed. I left as a more intentional leader.
The retreat experience is built around pushing participants out of their comfort zone - to think differently about how their organizations are changing, how their teams are changing, and how they as leaders are responding to those changes. That framing alone was worth the drive.
What Big Rock Valley does that no conference or mastermind can replicate is remove the noise entirely. The setting is tranquil in a way that enables business owners to unplug from hectic schedules, take a deep breath, and see things from a genuinely different perspective. There are no stages. No keynotes. No performance. Just land, honesty, and a group of peers who are carrying the same weight you are.
Entrepreneurs are often isolated. Family and friends may be supportive, but that doesn't always help with the toughest business decisions. What this retreat gave me was a room full of people who didn't need context - because they're living it too.
One morning I sat alone in a weathered old sugar shack while it poured rain outside. No agenda. No phone. Just stillness. And in that stillness, I had more clarity than I'd had in the previous 90 days combined.
That's what Big Rock Valley offers. Not answers handed to you - but the conditions to find your own.
If you have participated in Morgan Foundation sponsored programs and are interested in being featured in the Spotlight,
contact Gina Dotson.