From Tragedy To Triumph

Make your own path based on how you feel about yourself

I was 24 when I inherited my father’s multi-million-dollar business.
 
There was zero succession plan. I was just a singer and songwriter at the time, then suddenly I had hundreds of staff looking to me for answers, and all of them were double my age.
 
My father, Chet Holmes, was known for having written the cult classic book, The Ultimate Sales Machine. He had a gift for doubling sales and his methodology has assisted a quarter of a million businesses worldwide to grow in leaps and bounds.
 

Much of the business was based around him, so as you can imagine, losing the figurehead, the innovator, the personality, was quite literally, devastating.
 
But more than that, people react in the most cruel and unusual ways after someone passes. I saw how ugly it truly can get.
 
Two years of trying to hire different c-suites to fill the void left by my father, I watched people attack my mother and I with anger, aggression, and make attempts at every turn to use manipulation to satiate their greedy hunger for money.  
 
My father ran an organization of cowboys, and when the sheriff left, it was the wild west.
 

Have you ever been in one of those situations where it feels like you’re so deep underwater and there’s absolutely no chance of you surfacing?

That’s what it felt like. I was so far over my head I was in a constant state of panic. I couldn’t catch my breath all day long, it felt like I always had mini panic attacks.
 
I know I’m not the only one that’s experienced anxiety. Depression and anxiety are at an all-time high in the US right now. Higher than times of the Great Depression or World War I or World War II.
 
My saving grace was that I had a wonderfully selfless teacher who continued to tell me that I could step in as CEO and carry on my father’s legacy. Her formal name is Sarva Loka Maa Her Holiness Sri Sri Sri 1008 Guruji Poonamji, it briefly means Divine Mother to All. Those that love Her call Her Guruji. She’s an Indian Saint, who became my spiritual teacher.
 
She told me, “Your father worked his whole life and made something worth saving, stick with it. You can do this.”
 
So, with all the courage I could muster I finally stepped in as CEO. But that was only the beginning, it’s been eight years now of me at the helm, and due to all the disruption in our industry, I had to rebuild the whole marketing and sales machine that had fueled the company for the last decade. My team and I managed to increase marketing leads by 1,176% and doubled our coaching clients two years in a row during those first few years. It was an utter miracle we made it through. After the storm finally settled and the company was in a safe place, I had zero desire to entertain the antics or the people anymore.
 
So, I retreated to the safety of my teacher’s non-profit, Divine Bliss International, and for two years I spent most of my time in silence. I talked to more plants than people. I only ate the food that I grew in the garden. It was healing. From my core, I healed.
 
The biggest misunderstanding about this in our western world is we want things immediately. We want a pill to make it all go away. The pain. But the pill only masks the pain. So, every day, while I helped the plants bloom, I bloomed. While I nurtured the vegetables I nurtured and fed my soul.
 
I know today people need what I had.
 
According to the data, the number one thing people want to spend their money on over the next 12 months is…mental wellness.
 
That’s what Divine Bliss International did for me, and it’s time for more to experience that peace of mind.
 
I have faced my fears in every sense of the word. I faced down giants when I stepped into my father’s role. Today, as I continue to carry my father’s legacy forward, a portion of our profits goes back to Divine Bliss International. Everyone could use a reset right now. Could you?
 
Whether you’re the CEO, senior-level or manager leading a team of people, consider how life-changing it would be for you and those around you if you faced your fears.
 

Here are my suggestions for you if you’re looking for a reset:

⦁ Spending just 20 minutes connecting with nature can help lower stress hormone levels, according to a study in the April 4, 2019, Frontiers in Psychology. They analyzed people’s cortisol levels through their saliva as they instructed them to go out in nature for 20 minutes a day three to four times a week, and their hormones showed relief! Sometimes your reset doesn’t have to be rocket science, just get away from your phone and take a walk.
 
⦁ Find a teacher to help guide you. We all have blind spots that we can’t see. If you truly want to master something, whether it’s in your career or in your personal life, find someone that’s already there to help you navigate the path with greater ease. The critical point here is you need to find someone you trust, not whom Google tells you to trust, or social media tells you to trust, it should be someone your instincts tell you to trust. You should feel it within you. And it could be anywhere.

⦁ I met my business coach on a beach in Puerto Rico and I knew after ten minutes he was in alignment with my beliefs on business. I met my spiritual teacher in an airport, and I could feel it from across the terminal.
 
⦁ The best measure of a successful life is how you feel when you put your head down on your pillow at night. If you feel you’ve done a good job, you’ll feel good at the end of the day. Nobody can take that away from you, no matter how many may try. It’s all ultimately about the relationship you have with yourself. We teach a lot about clever ways to double sales and often it’s completely different from what the world of business is doing, but you must be confident in yourself to walk your own path. Those that are willing, reap the benefits. So, make your own path based on how you feel about yourself. And a little hint to help you with that… It’s in giving that we receive.
 

Author Bio

Amanda Holmes is the CEO of Chet Holmes International. She has carried on the legacy for the last ten years, eight as CEO. She has spent the last four years writing the new edition of her father’s classic book, The Ultimate Sales Machine. Connect Amanda Holmes