In the realm of entrepreneurship, few origin stories carry the raw authenticity of D. Anthony Miles’ journey. His path to becoming a self-made millionaire, six-time bestselling author, and pioneer of forensic marketing didn’t begin with a grand vision or a carefully crafted business plan. It started with something far more human: anger, fear, and the fierce determination of a father who refused to let circumstances define his future.
The year was 2005. Dr. Miles had just been downsized from his position at a bank, his job eliminated during a corporate restructuring. His second daughter had just been born. Standing at the crossroads of devastation and opportunity, he made a decision that would alter the trajectory of his life forever.
“To be honest, the inspiration for starting my business was being downsized at my job at the bank,” Dr. Miles recalls. “I got angry. It was then I said to myself that no one will ever tell me I don’t have a job again. It was an epiphany for me.”
That anger became fuel. That epiphany became Miles Development Industries Corporation®, a venture that would eventually position Dr. Miles as one of the most innovative thinkers in marketing intelligence and business forensics. But the journey from terminated employee to serial entrepreneur required more than just determination. It demanded a complete transformation of mindset.
CONQUERING FEAR: THE ENTREPRENEUR’S INVISIBLE ENEMY
Dr. Miles identifies his biggest early challenge with startling clarity: overcoming the fear of starting his own business and discovering his niche. It’s a confession that resonates with aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere, revealing that even the most successful business leaders grapple with the same doubts and anxieties.
“That is why most people are afraid to start their own business,” he explains. “You can’t start a business if you have the mindset of an employee. You have to learn how to marketize your knowledge and skill. That is the key.”
This realization sparked a three-part journey of self-discovery. First came understanding his unique skill set. Then, identifying his niche in the marketplace. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, learning to build ecosystems around his ventures. These weren’t lessons gleaned from textbooks or business seminars. They emerged through trial, error, and the kind of learning that only comes from being in the arena.
“When you are starting out, you don’t see this until you start your business,” Dr. Miles observes. “You must learn how to build an ecosystem.”
This ecosystem thinking would become a cornerstone of his entrepreneurial philosophy, distinguishing him from those who build isolated ventures versus those who create interconnected business networks that support and amplify each other.
DEFINING THE SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR: MAKING THINGS HAPPEN
Ask Dr. Miles what it means to be a serial entrepreneur, and you’ll receive a definition that cuts through the glamorized portrayals often found in business media. For him, serial entrepreneurship isn’t about collecting companies like trophies. It’s about a fundamental orientation toward opportunity and action.
“A serial entrepreneur means that you as a person pursues opportunities and always builds a business or ventures to meet those opportunities,” he states. “A serial entrepreneur does not wait for things to happen. Serial entrepreneurs make things happen.”
This proactive stance has guided his venture selection process throughout his career. Rather than chasing every shiny opportunity, Dr. Miles evaluates ventures through the lens of genuine need and his ability to create meaningful solutions. It’s an approach grounded in market realities rather than entrepreneurial ego.
THE BIRTH OF FORENSIC MARKETING: FILLING A VOID
Perhaps Dr. Miles’ most significant contribution to business thought is the concept of forensic marketing, a framework he developed out of professional frustration. The story of its creation reveals the mind of someone who questions assumptions and refuses to accept gaps in established fields.
“Forensic marketing is a concept that I found based on my frustration with marketing as a field of study,” Dr. Miles explains. “I often wondered why economics and accounting had forensic foundations, but marketing did not. That has always bothered me.”
This intellectual curiosity led him to explore forensic economics and forensic accounting, studying their methodologies and frameworks. What emerged was something entirely new: a systematic approach to investigating performance gaps in firms through what Dr. Miles calls a “marketing autopsy.”
Unlike traditional marketing analysis, which typically examines data from a single perspective, forensic marketing amalgamates evidence from multiple sources. It investigates why products or services fail to perform in the marketplace, using investigative methods borrowed from other forensic disciplines but tailored specifically for marketing challenges.
“It provides a framework for performing a marketing autopsy,” Dr. Miles notes. “It investigates why a firm’s products or services are not performing in the marketplace. That is what makes forensic marketing so exciting.”
The distinction is crucial. Traditional marketing analysis operates within defined parameters, examining metrics and data points. Forensic marketing takes an investigative approach, treating business failures like crime scenes that require evidence gathering from multiple sources to reconstruct what actually happened.
“Forensic marketing is based on investigative methods,” he emphasizes. “It encompasses investigating evidence from different sources to perform an autopsy, a marketing autopsy. This is crucial because marketing is a data-rich discipline.”
UNCOVERING DECEPTION: LESSONS FROM THE EXPERT WITNESS STAND
Dr. Miles’ work as an expert witness has exposed him to the darker side of marketing, where deception replaces strategy and schemes substitute for legitimate business models. His experiences read like a catalog of cautionary tales: false advertising cases, multilevel marketing scams, Ponzi schemes, product copycat operations with trade dress issues, and investment frauds.
“It has been really bad over the years,” Dr. Miles admits, his words carrying the weight of someone who has witnessed the human cost of business deception.
These experiences have sharpened his ability to identify red flags before campaigns fail or businesses collapse. He identifies several warning signs with the precision of a surgeon: pursuing dying market segments, lacking strong value propositions, failing to adapt to paradigm shifts like AI, misaligning marketing with target customer segments, and miscalculating demographics.
Perhaps the most haunting case in his career involved a university that reached out for help but refused to accept reality. The institution exhibited every symptom of marketing failure: a non-existent brand, competitive decimation in the student market, and no discernible value proposition.
“The really bad part about this is, they refused to see the writing on the wall,” Dr. Miles recalls. “They refused to see reality. So, they are slowly dying on life support. How can you help someone who refuses to accept reality?”
His prediction is sobering: closure or merger within 10 to 15 years. He characterizes it as “the perfect marketing crime,” not because of deliberate fraud but because of institutional blindness to market realities.
“The end is imminent,” he states matter-of-factly, the observation carrying both professional assessment and human sadness for an institution’s impending demise.
THE STATISTICIAN’S SOUL: A LATE-BLOOMING PASSION
Behind Dr. Miles’ forensic marketing framework lies an unexpected passion: applied statistics. His relationship with statistical analysis developed in what he calls “an unnatural way,” evolving into what he describes as a childlike obsession.
“I love to uncover the hidden things in data,” Dr. Miles explains. “I just developed a childlike obsession with statistics.”
This passion has yielded 35 awards for statistics research and generated over 500,000 reads on ResearchGate, making his work among the most accessed in his field. Yet Dr. Miles carries one regret: not discovering this passion earlier in life.
“My only regret with my background in statistics is I did not learn it when I was younger,” he admits. “I wish that I had discovered my passion for statistics when I was much younger.”
His uncle, himself a statistician, recognized what Dr. Miles had found: a natural gift. The validation came with an amusing anecdote: “I was even told that I talk about statistics in my sleep.”
This statistical expertise has produced surprising insights, particularly regarding startup success and failure. His research revealed that gender, ethnicity, and age of the entrepreneur are not significant predictors of entrepreneurial risk, challenging commonly held assumptions about who succeeds in business.
“That was the most surprising finding from the data,” Dr. Miles notes, his research providing empirical evidence against stereotyping in entrepreneurship.
Perhaps more importantly, his work demonstrates that most business failures are preventable through better decision-making, shifting the narrative from inevitable risk to manageable choice.
BRIDGING TWO WORLDS: ACADEMIC RIGOR MEETS PRACTITIONER REALITY
Dr. Miles maintains simultaneous careers in academia and business, a duality that many attempt but few sustain successfully. When asked how he bridges these worlds, his answer reveals someone who has found synthesis rather than separation.
“To be honest, I don’t know how I do it,” he admits with characteristic candor. “The way that I do that is to have my hands in both worlds. It keeps me sharp and fresh.”
He approaches academia and business practice as separate portfolios or ecosystems, allowing each to inform and strengthen the other. Leading a nine-person research team called Analytics Research Group, LLC keeps him entrenched in both domains, creating what he describes as a holistic and complete experience.
“They both complement each other,” Dr. Miles explains. “I balance the academic world with the practitioner world.”
This balance manifests in his research output, which has achieved remarkable reach and resonance. He attributes his work’s appeal to three factors: timeliness in addressing cutting-edge topics like political marketing and social media terrorism, genuine connection with audiences seeking academic rigor, and international appeal that transcends geographic boundaries.
“My research has appeal to people all over the world,” he observes. “People all over the world find my cutting-edge statistics work. It really resonates with them.”
BUILDING CREDIBILITY: THE MEDIA MULTIPLIER EFFECT
With over 150 media interviews across major networks and platforms, Dr. Miles understands the symbiotic relationship between expertise and media presence. He views media not as vanity but as a credibility multiplier that extends reach and opens doors.
“The reason I believe the media plays an important role in establishing my credibility and influence is because it adds foundation to my expertise,” Dr. Miles explains. “It helps people trust me as an individual.”
This media presence has complemented his identity as a six-time bestselling author, with three books standing out as gamechangers: “Risk Factors and Business Models,” “How to Get Away With Murder in Marketing: Forensic Marketing,” and “Entrepreneurship and Risk.”
“All three books were based on my frustration of the subject matter not being available in the marketplace,” he notes, a theme consistent throughout his career: identifying gaps and filling them.
THE MURDER BOOK: A STORY OF PERSISTENCE THROUGH SETBACKS
The story behind “How to Get Away with Murder in Marketing” deserves its own chapter, reading like a cautionary tale about the challenges of bringing innovative ideas to market. Inspired by the television show featuring Viola Davis, Dr. Miles saw an opportunity to apply forensic investigation methods to marketing.
But the journey tested his resolve repeatedly. Two coauthors quit, one disappearing after marriage despite promises, another hiring a ghostwriter without disclosure who then threatened Dr. Miles over unpaid fees. Then came the ultimate betrayal: a ghostwriter who swindled him out of $1,000.
“I actually quit three times,” Dr. Miles admits. “I thought it was a bad omen or something.”
But anger, the same emotion that sparked his entrepreneurial journey, became his ally once again.
“I got mad and said I’m not going to quit,” he recalls. “I got mad because of all those things that happened to me because of this book. So, I made myself write this book and it was hard.”
The book took nearly a year to complete, written solo after abandoning hopes of collaboration. Upon release, it resonated widely, the bold title engaging audiences and the content filling a genuine void in marketing literature.
“Success can be really hard,” Dr. Miles reflects. “That’s the story.”
ENTERTAINMENT VENTURES: DOCUMENTARIES AND TELEVISION DEALS
Dr. Miles’ reach extends beyond books and academic papers into visual media. He’s currently working on deals with three major networks for television shows, with one already signed. Additionally, he’s developing two documentaries for streaming platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Tubi, and Hulu.
The documentary subjects reflect his forensic approach to business analysis: one examining the rise and fall of RadioShack, another investigating Kmart’s failure. These aren’t mere retrospectives but forensic examinations of iconic retail collapses.
“These documentaries are long overdue,” Dr. Miles states. “I have a roster of experts who will be in the documentary and showcase their expertise. I am so excited about these two projects.”
These ventures represent the natural evolution of someone who has spent a career investigating why businesses fail. Now, he’s bringing those investigations to audiences who can learn from history’s business casualties.
THE HARDEST LESSON: YOU CAN’T TAKE EVERYONE WITH YOU
Ask Dr. Miles about the most important lesson from two decades of leadership, and the answer carries the weight of hard-won wisdom. It’s a lesson he’s learned multiple times, most painfully through the very projects that meant the most to him.
“The most important lesson I learned over the years is, you can’t take everybody with you,” Dr. Miles states. “You have to leave people where they are. Or all they will do is bring you down or make you frustrated.”
The realization came through his book project and again with his television shows. Expert teams assembled with enthusiasm gradually lost interest, stopped attending meetings, became frustrated with the pace of progress. Rather than continuing to manage adults who needed parenting, Dr. Miles made a difficult decision: disband the teams and proceed alone.
“Everybody talks about wanting to be a part of something successful, but when it comes to commitment, hard work and time, everybody does not have it,” he explains. “Some people think success is easy and happens tomorrow. Success does not work like that.”
It’s a cruel realization, as he describes it, but one that explains the distribution of success. Not everyone possesses the drive required to see ambitious projects through their inevitable slow periods and setbacks.
“Now, I know why successful people got to where they are: because you can’t take everyone with you,” Dr. Miles observes. “That’s why we have people that are millionaires, and then we have people that are thousandnaires.”
Success, he notes, brings truth. It tests not just you but everyone in your tribe, revealing who possesses genuine commitment versus who merely likes the idea of success.
WISDOM FOR VENTURE SEEKERS: FOUR PILLARS OF CAPITAL ATTRACTION
For startups seeking venture capital, Dr. Miles offers guidance distilled from his experiences across multiple ventures. His advice centers on four critical areas:
First, know your product and market better than anyone else. “Many entrepreneurs do not know their own market, much less how their product fits on the food chain,” he cautions. “Remember: all startups are guilty until proven innocent.”
Second, understand the allegory of “Mr. Market,” a concept borrowed from Phillip Graham, Warren Buffett’s mentor. This framework helps entrepreneurs comprehend how market forces can both enable and destroy ventures.
Third, recognize that business is a team sport. “You can’t do everything yourself. It’s not possible,” Dr. Miles emphasizes. “Know where you are strong on the team and outsource the skills where you are weak.”
Fourth, learn to build ecosystems around ventures, creating multiple income streams that support business vitality. “It took me years to figure this out,” Dr. Miles admits. “Building ecosystems helps the vitality of the business. They are very important.”
BRIDGING THE THEORY-PRACTICE DIVIDE
Dr. Miles envisions a closer nexus between business education and practitioner experience, an integration he’s attempting through his television ventures. The “theory versus practitioner” disconnect has persisted for decades, creating graduates who understand concepts but struggle with application.
“My vision is to integrate and maximize the strengths of both,” Dr. Miles explains. “Then integrate their strengths. The theory versus practitioner debate has been going on for years. We need them both.”
This vision reflects his own dual existence in academia and business, demonstrating that these worlds need not remain separate but can inform and strengthen each other.
THE NEXT CHAPTER: SAFEDROP AND BEYOND
As Dr. Miles looks forward, his entrepreneurial energy remains undimmed. His latest venture, Safedrop®, addresses a growing problem in the e-commerce age: porch pirate theft. As Chief Marketing Officer and equity partner, he’s guiding the product through venture capital seed funding.
“This product is a gamechanger,” Dr. Miles declares. “The product will revolutionize the home delivery security market.”
The venture exemplifies his ecosystem approach, combining his marketing expertise with innovative product development. Despite setbacks during development, the team has pushed through, ready to launch a solution to a problem affecting millions of online shoppers.
“You will hear about the product,” he promises. “It is a gamechanger.”
THE LEGACY OF PERSISTENCE
Dr. D. Anthony Miles’ journey embodies a truth often obscured by sanitized success stories: achievement comes through anger channeled into purpose, fear conquered through action, and setbacks transformed into stepping stones. His story isn’t about smooth ascent but rather persistent climbing, often alone, always forward.
From a downsized bank employee to forensic marketing pioneer, from frustrated researcher to award-winning statistician, from failed collaborations to bestselling author, Dr. Miles has built an empire not despite obstacles but through them. His forensic marketing framework fills a void he identified through frustration. His statistical expertise emerged from late-blooming passion. His media presence grew from demonstrating genuine expertise repeatedly.
The documentaries he’s producing will investigate why iconic retailers failed. But perhaps his greatest contribution is the living case study of his own career: a forensic examination of how persistence, ecosystem thinking, and the willingness to leave people behind when necessary can transform anger into empire.
As he continues building ventures, conducting research, and uncovering hidden truths in data, Dr. Miles remains driven by the same fire ignited in 2005 when he decided no one would ever again tell him he didn’t have a job. That decision created not just a career but a methodology, not just businesses but frameworks that others can follow.
“Success brings truth,” he notes, capturing decades of hard-won wisdom in three words. “It will test you and those in your tribe.”
The testing continues. So does the building.
