Here’s why this is an incredible story.

“Think about this for a moment. You’re 24 years old having been graduated from USC just 2 years earlier with a music degree (and a promising performing arts career) and you are faced with an incredible decision to “stay the course” with your original career path, or pivot and become the CEO of your father’s incredibly successful multi-million dollar enterprise with more than a 100 employees–most of whom are older than you and have been with the company for several more years than you.” Inc.com, Bill Carmody -At 24, This Recent College Grad Became the CEO of Her Father’s Company and Hasn’t Looked Back Since.

Amanda Holmes has a one of a kind story. She manages to meld together two worlds, hers and her fathers, to create a huge thriving business. Amanda was a singer-songwriter, not really a part of her father’s family business. She was actually in Asia when the doctors called her to come home and be by her father as he was passing away. After he passed she inherited the entire business that she had never really been a part of. She had not planned on losing her father at the early age of 55. Against what many people wanted, she became the CEO of the company after a lot of work. Everyone who was willing to work with her she kept on, but everyone who had a problem with her being in charge she let go. To accomplish the great things I wanted for my father’s company we all had to be on the same page and want the same things.  She even managed to double the business two years in a row.

Amanda says:

“We have assisted over 200,000 businesses worldwide.

The reason why we’ve had so much success is that they are strategies that assist business owners to grow their businesses. We have twelve core competencies because it’s not about doing 4,000 things. Mastery in businesses is about doing twelve things 4,000 times. We have strategies on how to increase your leads nine-fold. We have strategies on how to double your closing rate, how to hire sales superstars, how to double your sales in the least amount of time for the least amount of money. These are strategies that are timeless. My father was able to grow our business working with over 70 of the Fortune 500, everything from mom and pops to Fortune 500. It’s just common sense. I was able to come in as a singer and songwriter, with no background in the business, and be able to grow it because I’ve followed our methodology. I’m one of our best success stories.”

One large change that she made for the company came in the form of webinars. She was able to double the clientele by showing her core story on webinars to 500 business owners at a time. This was a lot more efficient than the one to one selling her father had utilized.

Her father’s pay scale was fascinating as well. He made sure that his organization didn’t cost them a dime if they didn’t make him a dime. This meant that all of his salespeople, consultants, and coaches were purely commission-based. They only were paid when they made money and all of the executive team received a percentage of what they made in revenue. This made every single person more driven to excel in the organization.

She took her background in healing and applied it to the business.

“If this was a person, how would I treat it?”

She had been living the “hippie” lifestyle and now needed to be a conduit of light for a company. That is a very large transition to make. What matters most is making sure that you take care of your health and that happiness that comes from within. ” That led me to then studying. My mentor is a woman by the name of Guruji Sri Sri Poonamji. She teaches self-realization and how to connect to your higher self and live from that space. I ended up studying with her intensively, even going over to Asia and studying under her to truly understand what it means to connect in word and be happy with yourself, because ultimately, no matter what you do outside of yourself, it’s how you feel within you. I would say that that was my biggest realization from that time.

Today, she is out of the day to day meeting with the staff only twice a week. She is finally able to step back and work on Divine Bliss, a nonprofit that teaches people how to connect to who they really are uplifting themselves. It is all based around her mentor’s teachings to help find inner peace.

“You really have to come to terms with who you are, be able to accept every moment, and be present in the now.”

Divine Bliss is in the process of getting a hundred acres so they can do more retreats. In these retreats, they take organizations, entrepreneurs, and business owners to the middle of the forest having them disconnect from their world. The point is to disconnect from what doesn’t matter and reconnect to what really does. Doing this will help bring out the authenticity in your message as an executive rather than trying to sell, sell, sell.

“Maturity is when all of your mirrors turn into windows.” —Henry Thoreau

“You’ve earned their trust, their respect, and they feel that you’re credible, you are 60% of the way to a sale.”—Amanda Holmes

The whole journey of self-realization is something that she feels wholeheartedly about. She sees that we have gotten so tied up in ourselves that the only way out is to begin serving and begin giving.

“The best salespeople I’ve known have been people that feel every day they are going to work to serve their clients.”—Amanda Holmes

Her mentor and her father were opposites but both offered so much knowledge. Her father was such a strong salesman, a through and through business type. Her mentor, however, is the most loving, compassionate person who has never chased a dollar. They both had one thing in common, wanting to give and to serve.

“When you educate your clients, get them to stop selling and start serving, build rapport, respect, trust, and credibility, it becomes a lot easier to close business and to grow. Remember, everyone has their own limiting belief that is stopping them from being who they truly are.”

One factor that she teaches her sales team is to be overflowing in their attempts with sales. By this she means that to help them make sales, they need to not view them as a sale, not as a monetary process, but more as they are sharing what they have so much of with the people they are selling to. She explains that more people need to be coming from a place of abundance rather than from a necessity to make the sale. When you radiate peace and fulfillment the sale will become easy and giving more means getting more.

To figure out your business, she believes the first place to start it with the fight or flight notion. When you are in this mind frame, you are completely reactive not actually thinking or feeling anything. Take a deep breathe in that moment to send a signal to your body so you can center yourself and once again use your brain to come up with better ideas. She tells us to use our higher intellect instead of sole reactions. The second step to figuring out your business is through time management. This can help you become 9 times more productive and efficient in your everyday business. Every time an email pops up it takes almost 45 minutes to bring your brain back to focus. Applying time management tactics to even your meetings can ensure that you are accomplishing everything you need to in those meetings. Everyone will leave feeling heard and understand where they stand on the page.

Decompressing your thoughts is another huge factor in business. There can be so much stress building up from the daily projects at the office. For Amanda, mantra meditation accomplishes just that.

“I like to find that complete peace and quiet in my brain to get downloaded.”—Amanda Holmes

She tries to accomplish this twice a day. Most people think meditation is being silent, but in reality, it is the exact opposite. She explains that you can use the sound of your own voice to calm your mind getting into a repetitive positive tone. Every thought you think and word you utter become a vibration in your electromagnetic field vibrating around you bringing you more harmony. The best example of this is like attracts like. When you are thinking that you are successful, you will attract successful people. The key is to take the fears, frustrations, guilt, anxieties, depression, all of those negative thoughts, those diseases, to dissipate using your positive thoughts and positive tones. These will cleanse away your negative tones and help you become more successful. You really have to make those positive life choices. Choose an environment that makes you feel refreshed and think thoughts that will make you feel better about yourself. If you can reconcile everything that you feel within you and you feel you are doing something positive, you will thrive.

Her father was very supportive of her creating her own reality. When she and her brother were younger they were encouraged to say only positive things and their father corrected them every time they spoke negatively about themselves.

“If I said I can’t do something, he reminded me that those were failure reinforcement words.”—Amanda Holmes

My father instilled in both my brother and me that it’s about going after your dreams and doing what you love in life. He was so supportive of me whatever I wanted to do. I started off as a competitive gymnast, and I did that intensely. Everything I do, I do it with quiet intensity. I did that for about fifteen years, and that helped me with a little thing my father coined as pigheaded discipline and determination. One thing you need to succeed in business is that pig headed discipline and determination to keep going, learning how to do things that absolutely terrify you, and being thrilled on things that terrify you. If we practice acceptance using it like a muscle that you work out every day, then we will be able to move past what we believe to be our traumas or our pitfalls.

“I’ll never forget when my father looked over me and he said, “It didn’t matter how much money I have, because ultimately no money can buy me out of where I’m at right now. What matters most is making sure that you take care of your health and that happiness that comes from within.”—Chet Holmes

What she wants us to take away from her interview is that every person should be who they are. Doing this will assist you in everything that you do. Contentment brings us fulfillment. To gain contentment we have to be ourselves, who we are inside, rather than what everyone else tells us to be. Trends and fads are just that, they are not us and do not define us. Surround yourself with positivity and the willingness to serve others and you will succeed.