The cavnessHR Podcast - Episode 1 – a talk with Dr. D. Anthony Miles
The cavnessHR Podcast can be found at the following places:
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Stitcher:https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/cavnesshr/the-cavnesshr-podcast?refid=stpr
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-119338849/the-cavnesshr-podcast-1
YouTube: https://youtu.be/vkWInQwhhZE
Social Media links for Dr. D. Anthony Miles and free resources below!!
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/D.-Anthony-Miles/e/B006JRNDVQ
Legal Expert: http://www.almexperts.com/expertsbio/D-Anthony-Miles-PhD-MCP-RBA-CMA-MBC-Miles-Development-Industries-Corporation%C2%AE/16732
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danthonymiles
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D_Miles/publications
Twitter: https://twitter.com/danthonyphd
Website: https://mdicorpventures.com/
Free resources below!!
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D_Miles/publications
Jason: Hello and welcome to the cavness HR podcast. I'm your host Jason Cavness and welcome to episode one. Today's guests is Dr. D. Anthony Miles. Dr. Miles are you ready to be great today?
Dr. Miles: I'm ready, I'm ready to be great.
Jason: Dr. Miles has an impressive background. He's an entrepreneur, award-winning
researcher, award-winning professor, statistician, legal expert witness and best-selling author. Dr. Miles is a nationally known expert in the fields of entrepreneurship and marketing.
Jason: He's a startup and marketing expert. He is also CEO and founder of Miles development Industries Corporation. https://mdicorpventures.com/ A consulting practice and venture capital acquisition firm and he has ten years’ experience consulting startups. He is also a national startup and market expert in the media. He has been featured on nationally syndicated shows such as Forbes, CBS News, NBC News, Fox News, money matters with Chris Hensley, the Earl Cobb Show and the Michael Dresser show. Dr. Miles that is quite impressive, but I know I probably left a few things out. So, you would you like to like to fill in the gaps for our guests and tell us what you're working on right now.
Dr. Miles: Yes, we are working on a major deal in a foreign country by doing some economic development and possibly working on a $220M contract. So, we're trying to finalize the details and life is good right now. So, I feel blessed.
Jason: That's good to hear. So, for the startup consulting you do. How does a start-up find you to get your advice?
Dr. Miles: Okay a lot of my business now has been a basically referral basis. You know people that I've networked with that are in somewhat similar industries. I get a lot of referrals from people that are starting from zero. My network has increased because of my book that came out.
Dr. Miles: I have a really interesting a client base. My client base are professional athletes and lottery winners. So, I'm a business adviser to them and I protect my clients against business scams and those type of things.
Jason: What's the name of your book and how do people find it?
Dr. Miles: Sure, my book is called “Risk Factors and Business Models, the Five Forces of Entrepreneurial Risk.” They can find my book on amazon.com. https://www.amazon.com/D.-Anthony-Miles/e/B006JRNDVQ They can find my book on Barnes & Noble and you can go to my website https://mdicorpventures.com/ where I have a link to it. There is about three or four ways you can find my book. It's on Amazon and my book is also a hard copy version now. First, we only had a paperback version. I now have a hardcopy version.
Jason: Can you tell us where you are located?
Dr. Miles: I am actually located at in San Antonio, Texas. Which is about 200 miles from Houston about 800 miles from Dallas.
Jason: I don’t know if you know where this is located. But I was born in Kerrville. I still have family in that area and I try to go once a year.
Dr. Miles: Absolutely, Kerrville I forgot how many miles, but it's not that far from here. I believe Kerrville has a military base. Right like a National Guard base. Absolutely, we have a lot of people in San Antonio that are coming from Kerrville to commute. So, Kerrville is like family to us.
Jason: It's a great city.
Jason: Dr. Miles, talk to us about a time you were successful and what you learned from that success and what our listeners can learn from that success.
Dr. Miles: Well, what I was successful at was building my consulting practice and writing my book. Jason let me say this to you and I'll try to be brief. I want to share with the audience one of the things I had to learn was I had to be selfish sometimes. What I mean by selfish is I had to filter out all the distractions that stopped me from doing my business. Sometimes and I know it's probably hard, but sometimes when you want to be successful. You have to be selfish and I don’t mean selfish to someone else. I mean selfish to say, I can't watch this TV program because I have to work on my business plan. I can't do this because I have to do that and sometimes it's a group of people around you because they don't understand.
Dr. Miles: I don't know if you ever heard this before sometimes the boundary between good and great is a big boundary. If I want to reach the next plateau then I have to structure my time and I should structure my attitude. It's almost like being an adult you have to do what they call strategic gratification for you to be successful. Anyway, you have to learn strategic gratification that's kind of what I mean by being selfish. I can't go have a good time all the time. I can't go to every party. I can't go to every function. Because I'm doing things with my business. That I'm looking down the road. They're gonna be very profitable and sometimes it's just not about the money. Sometimes you look at things and say, I can put that off because that's not an immediate need right now. So, I've been successful in my life, with my businesses, writing my book, graduated with my Doctorate and I had to learn the art of strategic gratification. Learning to put things off that are not priority and making things priority, priority.
Jason: Yes, I understand. One thing I need to work on is saying no. I tend to say yes to everything. I have to learn how to say no. Also, there's a lot of people who like to live the startup life. You know they're going to all the events. But they forget they have to build something and sell that to a customer.
Dr. Miles: Absolutely and it's not easy. It's harder to do a start-up than it is to get a job. Because you started from zero and you're the person that is the key contact. You know you have to be very strategic in what you do. Sometimes you may have to go out of town. It may just not be where you can say I can't go to this event. Sometimes you have to say no. We as human beings want to be accommodating to people. But sometimes you have to be strategically selfish. I can't do all things for all people.
Dr. Miles: I have to pick and choose how to prioritize. Because nobody's helping you with your business. If you to go to a function and that function allows you to make some key contacts and you're going to get your business cards out. Then that justifies itself. But if you are just going to some parties, like to a white party. That we have every year and you're not making any business contacts. You are just going around goofing off and I'm not saying all working and no play. But you have to be strategic.
Dr. Miles: Make everything that you do about your business and make everything feed into your business. If you can go to the white party like we have every year and you meet some other entrepreneurs that's a great thing. You just don't want to go have a good time. You want to make everything about building your business. I'm not saying you bombard people with your cards. You can say, I've heard about you and I have seen you on LinkedIn or Facebook and I'm very interested in talking some business with you. Here's my card and maybe we can do lunch next week. You know keep it light.
Jason: That's great.
Dr. Miles: Absolutely and thank you Jason. Now I just want to say this. I don't want to talk your ear off. We have to understand if you're trying to build something. You are going to have to make sacrifices and everybody's not going to be an entrepreneur. Everyone does not have the capacity to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are a very real fraternity. Many of called and fewer are chosen. The ones that are not chosen, get a job because that's what they like to do. Get a paycheck and whatever. There's nothing wrong with that.
Jason: Next let's talk about a time that you failed, what you learned for this failure and what our listeners can learn from that failure.
Dr. Miles: Oh wow, that's a great question. It's funny we're talking about this Jason. I think I've learned more from my failures than I learned from my successes. One of the things I still think about when I was younger. When I was in my undergrad, I got on academic probation and I was kicked out of school because I didn't keep my grades up. I didn't do what I was supposed to do and that was a real reality check for me. It was a very difficult time in my life and I said I have nobody to blame but myself. Because I didn't do what I was supposed to do.
Dr. Miles: When I remember the late coach Dennis Green used to say this. If you look in the mirror ask yourself a question did you do what you were supposed to do. Because that cuts all the excuses out. It can’t be somebody else's fault when you can stand in the mirror and look at yourself and go did I do what I was supposed to do? Did I do the best job that I could. Did I do everything within my power that I could and if you can't answer that question honestly then whatever happened to you happened to you for a reason.
Dr. Miles: Well that situation tore me apart. It was just a time in my life where I was not inspired and sometimes you learn things through the mud then you learn. When that happened to me that was a critical point of my life. I said I will never let myself fail and failure now for me is relative value. To me not getting a business deal, well that's not really a failure. I just didn't get that deal and because of that you won't hear a moral to the story or a silver lining to this cloud.
Dr. Miles: My university did a write-up about me on their website saying I was one of the most successful graduates to come out of the school and they wrote about me because of the article that was done with me being interviewed in Forbes. So that's my story and hopefully it can inspire your listeners.
Dr. Miles: I would say Jason sometimes you have to fail to be successful. Because that is part of the learning process. If you haven't failed you have not tried hard enough.
Because failure is a part of success. That's what they don't tell us. You know we don't like failure. I'm a type-A person, to me I take failure as a reflection on me and it's really not like that. You have to fail before you become successful and when that critical point happens to me in my life. I said I would never fail at anything.
Dr. Miles: If I did my best and I failed and I start feeling bad because I did the best that I could. I stand in front of the mirror and I say did I do the best that I could. I did everything possible that I was supposed to do in that situation. If I can't honestly answer that question then failure was the result of what I didn't do. So that's what I feel and what I felt early in my career and it was a critical lesson that I had to learn.
Jason: I know one thing the media only shows the sexy part of startups. You know the Mark Zuckerbergs, the Bill Gates. They never talk about the unsexy part. You know all the work, all the working at midnight, all the late-night hours. All the trying to recruit people to your team to work for free until you get some funding. They only talk about the sexy part.
Dr. Miles: Absolutely, I totally agree Jason and I tell you one other thing that goes along with that. Is people don't like to talk about failure. Why because it is not pretty. In America, we're so driven to be successful. Let's look at our President. How many times did Donald Trump claim bankruptcy?
Jason: A lot.
Dr. Miles: Did you know Sam Walton filed bankruptcy?
Jason: That I did not know.
Dr. Miles: Yeah, he started a company. I read about in in this book. I actually read three biographies on Sam Walton. He doesn't talk about this in his book. I read it in another one and the reason that he failed. He started I think in retail. He worked for a guy and he was doing great and he was turning the company around. Then the guy got rid of Sam Walton. Sam Walton was crushed and he filed bankruptcy. You know I said this was an inspiring story. I said if Sam Walton was successful after he filed bankruptcy and he turned it out around. I don't have an excuse you know what I mean, I don't have an excuse.
Dr. Miles: I know one of the things my things my dad used to tell me. Is it's better to learn your lessons from other people's experience, rather than learn on your own. So that actually inspired me when I found out that Sam Walton filed for bankruptcy and he crashed and burned. I don't know how many times Trump filed bankruptcy. But he'ssuccessful in real estate, he owns a lot of property. You know that sometimes it's just not your time. Business is like social Darwinism, it's just not your time. Somebody going to get to the marketplace that's more successful than you and the marketplace dictates that. So, if you take those lessons from Trump or whoever, just look at failure as a learning tool and try not to repeat it. It's better to fail earlier in your career, than late in your career. Because later in your career is more devastating.
Jason: Yes, that's a very good point. Learn early learn from mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn and try to learn from somebody else’s mistakes rather than your own if you can.
Jason: Dr. Miles how do you add value and how to solve problems every day?
Dr. Miles: Well is this for my clients or for me or for people around me. Which one that's a really good question.
Jason: It is either way.
Dr. Miles: Okay, I tell you what let's talk about we already know. How to help clients. We already know I make money doing that. So, let's talk about my personal life and my relationships with some people. I would say I try to help people and solve problems. I try to empower people and believe it or not Jason 90% of my work is helping women. Can you believe that?
Jason: I can. That sounds pretty good.
Dr. Miles: I don't know what it is, I have a magnetism. But I'm always helping women. I'm always helping women reach that next level. You know what I like about working with women. They appreciate the help. Men, we have that rooster attitude. I give a guy some information. He's gonna be like, well what do you do? Men don’t like taking advice from another man. Because it's like well, you got something on me and who are you?
Dr. Miles: But when you impart advice to women they take it a lot better. Women are better listeners then men and women are very open to anything you suggest. It's just a different dynamic. 90% of my time away from my business is helping and empowering women. I try to help women lift themselves up and I help women entrepreneurs. A majority of my students are female and they listen to what I tell them. They believe what I tell them and it's really great. Jason, you know what I found out. When you help a man that only stays with that man. But when you help a woman. That woman shares it with other women. That women shares it with her kids. When you help a woman, you help a whole community.
Dr. Miles: Jason, they're like you're giving me something, you're not charging. You gave me some advice I can use. I am going to go ahead and use this advice. Because you know what you don't have to - you don't have to help them. I help people because I like to help. I like to see people be successful. I especially like women to be successful.
Jason: Yes I agree. So, next all of us get help from somebody. Next I like you to talk about somebody that has helped you in the past and how that person helped you.
Dr. Miles: Oh goodness, I have so many mentors. I tell you somebody from my family that helped me. It was my uncle Ralph Myles. My uncle passed away a few years ago. It was really a tragedy to us. He was like the glue that held the family together. He is the reason that I love statistics and the reason I became proficient in statistics is because of my uncle Ralph. He was a statistician with the government and my uncle Ralph passed his wisdom on to me. I cannot believe where I am from when he met me to where I am now. Had it not been for my uncle, I don't believe you see this guy before you who's done all of these different things. My uncle was the one to stop me from quitting school because I was going to give up.
Dr. Miles: When I was working on my PhD, it was one of the most difficult things I ever had to do in my life. I'll tell everybody considering getting the doctorate, even you Jason. The doctorate degree is 90% politics and 10% research. Seriously, that means is it's not about what you do. It's not how hard you work. If somebody doesn't think they like you. If somebody doesn't think you're ready, they will call you down. My uncle was my saving grace. I don't believe I would have graduated from school, unless my uncle was there to help me. Because my uncle made me love the art of Statistics. My uncle he touched my soul by helping me see the beauty of numbers and statistics. I've been very successful at being a statistician. You talk about somebody that touched my soul and helped me be successful. Well the Academy of Business has a conference every year and I won the research of marketing and economics four times. I'm a four-time winner and all those studies that I won awards for was based on statistical work that I've done. I won it four times.
Jason: That's impressive
Dr. Miles: That's not me, thank you, that is not me that you see. That's how I was guided by my uncle. I have to pay homage to my uncle Ralph Miles.
Jason: Next tell us something that most people don't about you. Your close family and friends might know about this. But most people don’t know this. Something that would totally surprise people.
Dr. Miles: Oh goodness, well something most people don't know is I'm a musician. I recorded seven or eight albums and I used to play in a heavy-metal rock and roll band. I used to have long hair. We were supposed to get a record deal and it did not happen. So, life happens. I am accomplished guitarist. I've been playing guitar over 20 years. I recorded seven-eight albums. I had no idea what I was doing with it. I have been saying that I was going to put my music on iTunes that I've recorded over the past 15-20 years. But I never upload it to iTunes. Actually, I’m working on a new album with my colleagues. That's something people probably don't know about me.
Jason: You are a true Renaissance man. You do everything well.
Dr. Miles: A little bit probably, I do everything okay.
Jason: Dr. Miles do you have anything you like to offer our guests.
Dr. Miles: Sure, I was thinking about this when we were talking about this interview. I like to give probably two pieces of advice to your listeners. I want you to think about this. What you do between hours of 9:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. will determine where you end up in life. Think about that, what you do between hours of 9:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. will determine where you end up in life. I have another piece of advice what you do between the ages of 18 and 25 will determine where you end up. Those years between 18 and 25 are the most critical years of your life. What you do between those years will determine where you end up. If you do something unproductive you will have a lay-in goal of being somewhere where you don't want to be. If you do something productive you'll be very prosperous. So, think about this. I tell my children this, what do you do between the ages of 18 and 25 we'll determine where you end up the life.
Jason: I read somewhere that says if you want to meet your goals you can't work 9:00 to 5:00 you have to do more than that.
Dr. Miles: I totally agree with that. Jason what is a job? A job is to pay you enough money so you don't go into debt and you pay your bills. You work steadily for 20 to 30 years and you have nice little pension. Then you retire. We are in a different age now. Young entrepreneurs want what they want and they don’t want to wait 20 or 30 years. You know what that paradigm is Jason? That's the Industrial Revolution paradigm and that paradigm is over.
Dr. Miles: Yes, we are in a new revolution, the information revolution. You can become obsolete very quick and get left behind. Nobody stays at the job 20 or 30 years anymore. Because people can become obsolete very quickly. Your degree could beobsolete, your field of study could be obsolete. Your certifications could be obsolete. So, you always have to be on the cutting edge of what's out there. So, you can be competitive, especially, when you trying to get clients. You can't just be stagnant. You can't be like the mud. You have to grow and evolve. Every year you should be learning something new and traveling. The only two things that don’t change are stupid people and dead people.
Jason: So, true. Dr. Miles, do you have any social media platforms that people that can connect with you on?
Dr. Miles: absolutely! I'm all over LinkedIn. I have my website https://mdicorpventures.com/ I also have some freebies for the people that are listening to me on this interview. I have some workshops that I've done on startups or marketing on ResearchGate.
Free Resources in the paragraph below!!!!!!
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D_Miles/publications If you type in my name, Anthony Miles and go to research gate. I have probably 60 materials and works I've done. I have presented at Stanford University. I was invited to Harvard to speak. I have some workshops and other things I've done. I have other articles that I've written and I'm about empowering people. Just anything on my website that you can use and I'll help you out. Or give you some knowledge that you never had before. That makes me feel good. So, if you go to ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D_Miles/publications I have a lot of free materials You don't have to pay anything.
Jason: For our listeners, we're going to have links to all the all these materials on
the show notes which will be available at www.cavnessHR.com. We will have links to
his social media and his books. As well as links to everything.
Dr. Miles: That would be great. I definitely like to empower people and to share my knowledge with people. I feel my way of being successful and what I will share with your listeners. Is that success and failure or the flip flop of each other. I heard Daymond John say something on Shark Tank. He said 20% is only what happens to you. 80% is how you deal with it.
Jason: More good advice! It's definitely perspective. You know because one person might be succeeding and that might be somebody else's failure. You know or vice versa. You never know someone’s definition of success.
Dr. Miles: Absolutely! I believe that's a take-off of what Henry Ford used to say. If you think you're a failure. Well you're probably right. If you think you're a success you're probably right. What's the difference between the two statements? Really nothing. We ought to impart that type of mentality in our kids. What you think is very dangerous. How you think and how you perceive yourself. That's how you attract different magnetism and different energy from people. If you don't have confidence in yourself, you tend to exude that behavior.
Jason: Dr. Miles, we are coming to the end of the episode. Do you have any
last words of advice for our listeners.
Dr. Miles: Yes, the advice I want to give to people is try to always be positive. Try to always put good people around you. Stay away from negative energy and jealousy. One of the things that I've noticed in my career I can share with you is there's always somebody that's part of the negative fraternity. What I mean by the negative fraternity is they believe they can tell you what you're good at and what you can't do and how far you can go. Keep them out of your life. As successful as I am I still deal with haters. I still deal with people that are part of the negative fraternity. Jason, it's what you do when you get rain you have to deal with the mud.
Dr. Miles: If you don't have any haters, you haven't been successful. You're going to have to block those people out. Yes, in fact your biggest haters are people who think that they're better than you. But they don't do what you do. They don't do anything like what you do. They don't make the attempt to do what you do. You can't please everybody and the man who tries to please everybody ends up destroying himself. Keep away from haters and don’t give haters your energy and keep negative energy away you.
Jason: More great advice. Thank you for that Dr. Miles. I appreciate it. Thank you very much for being our first guest. It really means a lot to me
Dr. Miles: Thank you so much. I want to you be successful.
Jason: Thank you. I'm trying my best. To our listeners thank you very much for listening. I appreciate it. I hope this gives you a lot of value and remember to be great every day thank you
Social Media links and free resources below!!
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/D.-Anthony-Miles/e/B006JRNDVQ
Legal Expert: http://www.almexperts.com/expertsbio/D-Anthony-Miles-PhD-MCP-RBA-CMA-MBC-Miles-Development-Industries-Corporation%C2%AE/16732
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danthonymiles
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/D_Miles/publications
Twitter: https://twitter.com/danthonyphd
Website: https://mdicorpventures.com/
Free resources below!!
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