Why 40% of Business Content Actually Hurts Your Sales (And How to Fix It) with Amanda Holmes

Summary

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Episode Overview

Podcast: Content Is Profit
Hosts: BIZBROS (Fonse & Chi)
Guest: Amanda Holmes (CEO, Chet Holmes International; Author, "The Ultimate Sales Machine" - revised edition)
Release Date: August 21, 2025
Episode Title: Why 40% of Business Content Actually Hurts Your Sales (And How to Fix It)

Theme:
In this engaging, in-depth episode, the BIZBROS are joined by Amanda Holmes to discuss why so much business content today actually sabotages sales—and what to do about it. The conversation covers Amanda’s journey updating her father’s iconic book, “The Ultimate Sales Machine,” new insights into content and marketing strategy for the modern business environment, the emotional and practical challenges of legacy, and actionable frameworks for creating content that truly drives profit.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Legacy and Evolution of "The Ultimate Sales Machine"

• Amanda’s Motivation for Revising the Book

  • Amanda reflects on inheriting her father’s legacy and why, after years of resisting, she took on the revision of his classic sales book.
    • “Penguin had been asking me for years to redo the book. And I looked at it when I could never touch that, like not in a million years could I touch how brilliant that is.” – Amanda Holmes [05:58]
    • Emotional context: Amanda shares the poignant moment of her father, facing terminal illness, realizing wealth couldn't save him, fueling her commitment to share deeper lessons with the world. [06:35–11:18]

• New Additions and the Impact of Legacy

  • The updated edition contains an entirely new final chapter ("chapter 13")—interwoven with her father's final business insights and Amanda’s journey through grief, leadership, and transformation.
    • “It then took me another two years to come out with a book. Because taking that letter and then blending it with what he's saying and then carrying it on... But I'm really, really proud of that chapter. I rewrote a hundred times, literally.” – Amanda Holmes [11:19]
  • The foreword is now a “Dear Dad” letter, a personal and emotional note Amanda wrote as a direct conversation to her late father—described as raw, honest, containing both anger and gratitude. [44:43–47:38]

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2. How Business and Content Have Changed in 15 Years

• Explosion of Content and "The Problem"

  • The marketing landscape has transformed: The mediums have multiplied from 7 to 13 on average per business, with exponential growth in social, paid channels, and user-generated content.
    • “Fifteen years ago, the average business had seven different marketing mediums... Today ... it’s 13 different marketing mediums, five social media platforms and three paid advertising.” – Amanda Holmes [18:47]
  • “There are 4.75 billion pieces of content posted on Facebook alone every single day ... 50% of content online is deemed useless and 40% of the content that's posted for a business actually hinders your sale.” – Amanda Holmes [23:52]
    • Content, therefore, is not always an asset; much of it dilutes or actively reduces sales potential.

• Why Updating the Book Was Critical

  • Marketing moved from the elite access of TV and radio to universal publishing.
  • Businesses are overwhelmed by channels, yet attention is harder to capture and sales processes blur with marketing due to ecommerce and automation.

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3. Actionable Frameworks & The “Ultimate Sales Machine” Approach

Chapter 7: The Modern Marketing/Content Audit

• Radical update to encapsulate digital/omnichannel realities.
  • Five-Prong Process: A diagnostic checklist for every marketing channel (email, paid, organic, etc.) so business owners can measure—objectively—what’s working and what’s not.
    • “Just follow these five steps, these five checklists and you will know if your email marketing is working or not. If it's not working, go back to the five prong.” – Amanda Holmes [20:32]

Chapter 4: Why Most Business Content Hurts Sales

• Volume ≠ Value; most content lacks strategy, damages brand trust, and distracts rather than drives sales.
• Key Insight: The transition from “only elites” having a platform to “everyone posts” means the quality of content and underlying strategy is now the ROI driver—not merely output.
  • “50% of content online is deemed useless and 40% of the content that's posted for a business actually hinders your sale.” – Amanda Holmes [23:52]

Modern Content Approach:

• Content must serve the ‘frictionless sale’—every message should build toward trust and authority, not just noise.
• Incorporate data, education, and direct value so your brand becomes the only logical choice.
  • “With every step leading back to you as the only logical conclusion. So that as soon as your prospect thinks of some a product or service like yours, you are the first person that they think of.” – Amanda Holmes [31:29]

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4. Standout Frameworks: Dream 100 and the Inverted Buyers Pyramid

Dream 100

• Described as the most powerful growth hack for scaling businesses to $100M+.
  • “ClickFunnels ... went from 0 to 100 million in four years. And the Dream 100 was one of the ... most successful strategies that they use to make that quantum leap.” – Amanda Holmes [27:21]
• Amanda explains new checklists added to help businesses identify and validate their most important target relationships.

Inverted Buyers Pyramid

• Only 3% of your audience are “buying now,” 7% are “open” — the rest are not actively considering your offer.
• Amanda and her content strategist flipped the original pyramid to show that most messaging should speak to pain, education, and value before directly pitching.
  • “If you are just talking about your product or service, you're only reaching that 3% and all of your competitors are reaching that 3%... We described how we have helped more companies become number one in their industry than anyone else. And it's following this framework. And it all comes back to core story.” – Amanda Holmes [34:33]

Inverted Pyramid Steps:

• Global Pain
• Targeted Pain
• Solutions/Expert Positioning
• Resetting Buying Criteria (make your solution the obvious choice)
• Finally: The Offer

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5. Stories That Illustrate the Framework in Action

• Companies like ClickFunnels, Super Dentist, and others featured in the updated edition—case studies where educational, data-backed content directly created game-changing business outcomes.
  • Super Dentist CEO leveraged “core story” with data linking oral health and Covid outcomes to secure half a million dollars in nationwide PR. [27:21–30:09]

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6. The Emotional & Human Side of Content and Sales

• Amanda’s candor about grief, perseverance, and the discipline needed to serve a mission larger than business.

  • “I rewrote [chapter 13] a hundred times, literally. ... I was getting to chapter 12, and I was finishing it up, and tears were already coming down my face, and I cried all the way through chapter 13, but it finally felt like, oh, yes, my masterpiece is done.” – Amanda Holmes [11:19–12:58]

• Content as Connection—not just conversion. The episode is a celebration of vulnerability and authenticity as the most powerful drivers of trust and loyalty in business.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the need for strategic content:

  “40% of the content that's posted for a business actually hinders your sale. It reduces the likelihood of somebody purchasing. … We’ve forgotten the framework for why content will generate sales, which is what we want.”
  — Amanda Holmes [23:52]

• On executing the Dream 100 strategy:

  “So many businesses just get stuck on the first step of how to get that list of a hundred … I go into that and how to find the list and how to narrow down the list so that you make sure. A checklist to know if it's the right list.”
  — Amanda Holmes [27:21]

• On legacy and authenticity:

  “There’s some parts that are really raw and really honest, and it's not all sunshine and rainbows. ... And so I have. I will say that I might have made some grown men cry. And it's kind of a strange way to start a sales book. But you know what? It's just a part of my heart and my soul. And I think people will resonate with that. Because sales should be about your heart.”
  — Amanda Holmes [44:43–47:38]

• Amanda’s anecdote about approaching Russell Brunson:

  “I just ran up there and said, hi, Russell, look. I put together the book funnel for the new edition … And then it just popped into my head. I thought, you know, I'm doing a virtual event when we launch the book and I'm going to have the biggest, best speakers I possibly can. And it would be so awesome to have you as one of the speakers. And he said ... we can host you at ClickFunnels headquarters and you can film it live from, from my headquarters.”
  — Amanda Holmes [41:54]

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Essential Timestamps

• 00:00–01:34 — Episode intro, Amanda's introduction
• 05:19–12:58 — Why Amanda revised the book; emotional legacy stories; new chapter and its challenges
• 18:47–20:34 — How marketing strategy and content platforms have shifted; the necessity of updating frameworks
• 23:52–26:14 — Content saturation and why most business content is counterproductive
• 27:21–30:09 — Dream 100, case studies, and why these tools work (ClickFunnels, Super Dentist)
• 31:29–34:33 — Modern sales content, the blurred line between sales and marketing, building trust via content
• 34:33–39:01 — The Inverted Buyers Pyramid explained
• 44:43–47:38 — On writing the Dear Dad foreword and the importance of vulnerability in business

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Takeaways

• Not all content is valuable: In fact, almost half may be hurting your sales. Strategic, educational, data-driven content is what moves the needle.
• Frameworks matter: Use specific, proven processes to continually audit, refine, and focus your content and marketing—don’t just add to the noise.
• Human connection sells: Transparency about struggle, purpose, and the “why” behind your business is as profit-driving as technical strategy.
• Execute relentlessly: The difference between knowledge and transformation is action; every framework discussed is execution-focused.
• Legacy is built in layers: Amanda’s story is a testament to evolving foundational work with fresh insight, authenticity, and emotional intelligence.

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Resources & Special Offers

• Pre-order “The Ultimate Sales Machine” revised edition at ultimatesalesmachine.com — presale includes access to Amanda’s virtual launch party with major speakers like Russell Brunson and Jay Abraham.
• Amanda Holmes’s podcast and daily implementation tips: Linked in episode description.

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Summary by Content Is Profit Podcast, August 2025. Original content and excellent value courtesy of BIZBROS and Amanda Holmes. For sales and content creators ready to make their content work, not just publish.

Transcript

[Fonse]

Today we're going to learn how to double sales as fast as humanly possible. Last episode we talked about the principle of Money Models Alex Hermos book which by the way we still have free copies for you. Thank you so much for the response. We've been getting messages left and right and you can go and you can claim yours in Business Creator club. Click in on the opt in and then on the second page you'll see kind of like what the membership includes. We do have a free 30 day trial if you type Money models and we'll send you the book as well. You don't have to pay for that. And then if you don't like it. That's totally. We're still friends. We would love for you to kind of experience our world of content is profit. Anyways, that's why I want to show you today's episode. It comes from the Content is Profit VIP vault but is more relevant than ever. Today's guest is an absolute force in the business world. She is a CEO of Chethomes International and author of the updated edition of the legendary Ultimate Sales Machine. I've had the privilege of working with her and her team for over two years and I've seen firsthand at events and how entrepreneurs and business owners get emotional thanking her for how her book has transformed their companies and lives. She shared the stage with icons like Tony Robbins and Russell Branson and helped brands like Disney and Marriott achieve explosive growth. You combine these two books, I'm telling you, you will be unstoppable. That is definitely my focus for the next 90 days. So that's why today I'm stoked to bring you this conversation with actionable steps that double your sales.

[Amanda Holmes]

Quick.

[Fonse]

Please welcome the one and only Amanda Holmes.

[Amanda Holmes]

Yeah, the so I've spent the last four years working on the new edition of my father's beloved Ultimate Sales machine. And I thought we weren't going to be able to do it in time. Everything came up that it wasn't going to happen. And then just about 10 days ago, we found a way to make it happen where we could open up so that people can sign up to get the pre sale for that beloved new edition book.

[Fonse]

That's right. And by the way, for those listening in our, in our platform at the moment or looking at the video, we have it right here called the Ultimate Sales Machine. They call it the Red Bible for a reason. The first time that we read it, I mean Fonzie Amanda was like, please Fonse, you need to bring the copy like your Copy of the book. And for those listening right now, I want to describe little bit. It's. There's a bunch of notes in it, highlights. But the best part is like there's like 400 tabs. And every tab is this amazing value piece of content that serves at the time it served us in the business. So how many, how many businesses has the book helped so far? Do you think, Amanda, that this has.

[Amanda Holmes]

Oh, well, you said it in the, in the intro.

[Fonse]

We got to remind.

[Amanda Holmes]

Yeah.

[Chi]

Wow.

[Amanda Holmes]

Hundreds of thousands of businesses. It's been, it's been a true blessing and what a great legacy that has been able to carry on past even my father. Right. So today is the 10 year. It's been 10 years since my father passed today. So imagine, you know, so many people think about their legacy as they get into the sunset of their lives. And how can you leave something behind for all of those that know you or love you? And this is such a beautiful gift because for years I didn't put any marketing dollars behind this book. And yet it sold, I mean, post his passing, tens of thousands of copies just by word of mouth. The power of how many people love that book. It's. It's such an honor and a privilege to be able to carry on that mantle and that legacy because it's, it's just. It's another way that my father lives on. Isn't every person that takes it and, you know, puts another bookmark and then goes into their business and actually implements something and sees results. So it's. It's a really wonderful thing.

[Fonse]

Absolutely.

[Chi]

Yeah. That is actually how this book got to my hands. You know, I've seen it in so many of so many list of entrepreneurs. And these are my top books that you should read. And the ultimate sales machine almost always makes it in that list. And me personally, when I was reading this, you know, a lot of business books are kind of like they rat around one simple idea and then the whole book is just kind of like very repetitive. This whole book, like my brother said, is a Bible. Right. And you know, for those religious ones, the Bible has like multiple books. Well, this is literally like every chapter is like its own little book with its own little goodness and message. So therefore all the freaking tabs. You know, I remember when I, when I was doing this, like, I have like multiple rows because I will get all the way to the end. And I was like, oh, well, I have to keep putting new tabs in there. And I was a little bit embarrassed. Like, oh man, like, did I highlight Way too much. And then I was like, no, it's just simply that freaking good. There's so much gold in it. So I'm very excited actually to read the new version, you know, the revised version and probably add as many tabs as this one or more.

[Fonse]

So I mean, we often talk in the show, obviously the power of publishing, right. And you just mentioned it with a resource, right, an asset like this for, for everybody to have in their library. But I'm very curious, right, like why, why decided. Why do you decide to revise it and to. To add to it? Because it's not the same. Is this has been elevated quite a bit and is. It's pretty amazing, right? We talked in the headline the State of Business 15 years ago versus today and this. I'm excited to dive in, into that. So. So why that decision to, to upgrade, right? Something that has worked for, for many, many years.

[Amanda Holmes]

So that's a good question. So Penguin had been asking me for years to redo the book. And I looked at it when I could never touch that, like not in a million years could I touch how brilliant that is. So then eventually I ended up saying yes, and I will tell you why, but I will also tell you before I tell you that that then I went following, there's numbers counting down.

[Chi]

We're good, we're good, we're good.

[Amanda Holmes]

I'm like, we're going away. Okay. So I went out to the social media following and I said, I'm about to do the new edition of the book. What do you want to see in it? Tell me. Right? And multiple people replied back, don't change it, it's perfect. So that stuck with me as I thought about, oh my gosh, what do I do here? And so my father passed of leukemia. He got diagnosed with cancer and we battled for about a year and a half and he spent about 352 nights in the hospital and not one did he spend alone. So it was between my mom, my brother and myself. We all pulled all nighters because he would have these night sweats. So we'd be up with him all night and. Yeah, and it's kind of shocking to think because my father was very much a world traveler, you know, public speaker around the world, very high esteemed in that fact. And he was also 6 foot 4, so a very tall man. And when he walked into a room, he was larger than life, right? So while he was there in the hospital, he was running 12 companies from his hospital room like the most productive cancer patient you've ever seen in your life. And he ended up getting the bone marrow transplant. And before that, they basically take away your full immune system. And so you're sitting, you have to isolate, you have to be quarantined in that room, and you can't leave that room. For two months, he stayed in that little room. And I'll never. I'll never forget this moment. I walk in about to start my shift with my dad, and he's sitting next to the window, and he's just staring out. And I walk up to him and he goes, for all the wealth that I've amassed, nothing can buy my way out of this hospital room. And I have tried to forget that moment. And it's just stuck with me for, you know, obviously over a decade. It's been about 11 years now. And that was a huge reason why I picked up the book and said, I'm going to do a new edition. Because during that fight, my father did a lot of soul searching. He actually started a blog during that time writing about his journey because he was debating between the alternative route and the. The more medical route. And it generated 60,000 readers. And in like a matter of 60 days. It was absurd. And we didn't plan for that. It was just supposed to be friends and family. You know how they do, like a Caring bridge site and everybody gets to know so you don't have to tell everybody. So that Caring Bridge site went to 60,000 readers. And it got to a point where people were really heated, so we ended up turning it off. But he learned a lot during that time, and he really changed his whole modus of operandi. And I felt that people needed to know that man. People needed to experience what he had come away with. The next book that he was writing was actually a book on health because we spent so much time going through alternatives and we learned so much about all these different methods. And so I kept. When I was writing this book, I kept thinking, if my father had survived the leukemia, what would he have written in here? What would he have said? Because it was a different man, and majority of the world didn't get to experience that man. And one night, 4am, the book is due to the publisher. I had gotten to a hotel room just to, like, really focus in on writing this, this, to finish this. And I was searching through my father's emails because that was the only way I really got to know his business was I didn't know what he thought about people inside his organization because we never had those conversations before he passed. So I Went into email, and I was just searching, searching, Give me something, something. And then I fall. Fell upon this letter that he had written to one of his best friends where it said, I've generated more wealth in the last six months than I have in the last eight years combined. And this is why. And this whole letter just talked about this. So I put that into the 13th chapter.

[Chi]

Oh, wow.

[Amanda Holmes]

His legacy, you know, that the encore he never got to give. And it then took me another two years to come out with a book. Because taking that letter and then blending it with what he's saying and then carrying it on for what is this? The. The final chapter is really a new chapter for where we're about to go and. And what life is, how that impression left for me and dictated how we've moved forward. So it's evolved over the last decade. But I'm really, really proud of that chapter. I rewrote a hundred times, literally. I have a hundred versions of that chapter on my computer. And several times I sent it into Penguin, and they said, no, this. This shouldn't make the book. This. This doesn't make sense in the book, you. You know, because I'm talking about fulfillment and life. And they're like, this is a sales book, Amanda. So it took so many iterations until it is what it is today. And I was just reading the final to send it in for print, and every other time I would read the book and make edits, I would continually edit it and edit it and edit. Anybody that's ever tried to write a book, I mean, you can edit until the cows come home, it's like something that I did for years. But the final time, I even. I was getting to chapter 12, and I was finishing it up, and tears were already coming down my face, and I cried all the way through chapter 13, but it finally felt like, oh, yes, my masterpiece is done.

[Fonse]

Yeah. I want to acknowledge and celebrate that moment and that story. I know that that's not very easy to share, so thank you. Because what that would mean for a lot of people, it's the world, right? We're evolving. We talked about the state of business in many, many, many ways internally, right? CEOs and people, we have to take care of ourselves in many ways as well. And what you guys or what you added to the book really resonates and really helps people in that I've been blessed to be a part of some of the things that we've done in the last few months to. To expose our community and the people into this Framework this strategy, the way of living. Right. And it has been wonderful. The feedback has been incredible. And it just warms my heart, the fact that you made that very tough decision to share initially that story and then rewrite it a hundred times. Right? That's like, who does that? Just you, Amanda. And this is awesome. It's so worth it. Right? So I really encourage everybody to obviously read the full book first. Don't go to chapter 13 first. Read the whole thing. And then that's just going to be amazing. But so I want to really celebrate the fact that you decided to share that story. I know it's not easy for a lot of people, especially when we talk about publishing. Right. Those are like, the things that we have to. To. To make peace with and be very brave to help others at the end of the day, like where you're serving so many by doing that. So. Thank you, Fonse. Any. Any thoughts?

[Chi]

Well, I'm curious. Did Penguin accepted that because of the hundred times you wrote it and you were, like, persistent, like, this must be in the book, or what was it?

[Amanda Holmes]

It's funny that you say that. So I, I finally. They were. At first, they were like, it should be the. What is it like after. What's not the opposite of a foreword? It's like afterthought or something. Like, after the book, this is something, you know, acknowledgments or something. And that's what it should be. And then my. My book, strategy guide, Genius, Genius Fairy. Julie Eason told me, nobody reads the afterthought. Don't put it as an afterthought. It has to be chapter 13. I'm like, okay, okay. And so then I finally, I rewrote one that was specific to what the publisher was asking for or what Penguin was asking for, and they approved it. I finally got the approval that that should be in the book. And I sat on it for about two months, three months, and I just felt wrong about it. I just felt like I had lowered my bar of excellence to appease what my publisher wanted. And I mean, they know better, right? They're great at books. They're one of the biggest publishers in the world, right? So I. What they were saying and why they were saying it, you know, there's a context here, and there's a whole book talking about something completely different. But then. But then on February 13, which is my father and my birthday, we share the same birthday, I had done a whole strategy session the whole day before, and I stayed up all night, and it just downloaded what chapter 13 should truly be living to my greatest potential and not just the bar of what's approved. And I rewrote the whole thing. I showed it to Julie the next morning. She's like, that is it?

[Fonse]

Yes.

[Amanda Holmes]

I sent it off to the publisher and they went, yep, we approve this. So, yeah, it just, it came to me on our birthday, so that was really special.

[Chi]

That is amazing. Yeah. It feels like you're channeling the whole, the whole energy in there. That's great. Wait, you said Your birthday is February 13th. Isn't that your wife's birthday too?

[Fonse]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Amanda Holmes]

Are you serious?

[Fonse]

Yeah. I was like going in my head, I'm like, I think I've mentioned this to her, but. But yes, very small world is. It's. It's amazing. So I will never ever forget either birthday.

[Amanda Holmes]

There you go.

[Fonse]

Yeah. That's so funny. Yeah, that is a very funny.

[Chi]

I know.

[Fonse]

Yeah. Moment. I'm like obviously like surprised of this, but going away from my personal life. We obviously talked about the state of business, right? So obviously this book deals with very serious issues and very serious things that CEOs have to be very aware. And the cool thing is yesterday we were on a call with Ted, right. Who was part of the team, and he mentioned something that resonated big time. It's like this book is about, it's all about taking action. And it tells you really, this roadmap. There's a lot of material out there, right, that just like it might be fluff, might not be fluff, they might be explored like one idea, right. But at the end of the day, it gives you probably nothing. No roadmap to do it. And it's up to you to actually go and try and figure out this thing is like, it tells you exactly how to do it, why to do it. Like all these amazing stories and people have gotten so many amazing results.

[Chi]

It's an instructional manual for sure.

[Fonse]

It's literally people don't have to go read anything else. Like they do this and like we talked about the pig headed discipline last time. And you know, with that in mind, right? Like how do that then compare in the industry from 15 years ago versus today. And why should people be paying attention to this?

[Amanda Holmes]

Yes. So I'll give you an example. Chapter seven is the seven months of marketing chapter. And it started with like, here's what you need to do about radio, television and billboards. And I went, oh gosh, dad. This is like before the Internet. This is when websites, the word websites was two words. I even put it in my foreword, I'm like, wow, can you believe websites became one word over the last 15 years? But, but when we look at the span of time of what has happened with marketing, so for a half century, the only true innovations that happened in marketing was radio to television. So the change in what we're doing in business was a very slow adaptation. Then you look at the last 15 years and we went from. So 15 years ago, the average business had seven different marketing mediums that they would market on. Today they, oh my gosh, it's 13 different marketing mediums, five social media platforms and three paid advertising. So we're doing double the amount of work because all, I mean, every day a new medium is popping up. It took 30 years for radio to get to 50 million users. It took television 13 years to get to 50 million users. It took Facebook four years to get to 50 million users. And I think this is hilarious, Pokemon Go took six weeks to hit 50 million users.

[Fonse]

Yeah, we were part of those 50 million. It was pretty intense.

[Chi]

It was very intense.

[Fonse]

It was very intense those six weeks.

[Amanda Holmes]

Yeah. So the, the rapidness of how a new medium can come to play is very quick. Right. So because of the Internet. So what we did, chapter seven was like, chapter seven in itself is a whole new book. Basically we had to completely re redo that chapter and how it flows because it can't just be about billboards. So that huge part of what Julie Eason helped me with. Oh my God, I don't, I wouldn't have been able to finish this book if it weren't for her. So, so all through that chapter, what we've done is because there's so many different marketing mediums we took, my father had a five prong process to identify if your marketing is working or not. We took that and applied it to every sub set of marketing. This is how your email marketing. Just follow these five steps, these five checklists and you will know if your email marketing is working or not. If it's not working, go back to the five steps. Go back to the five prong. Go back to the five pronG. So we keep landing it back. Because we're so divided today on multi channel, do you know you need to have all of these different things running at the same time? We don't go back to the basics of is this the right medium? If this is the right medium, why is it not working right? What is stopping us from generate sales from this marketing channel? So that was a big part of adding to and reworking chapter seven.

[Fonse]

It's so important, right? It can be very overwhelming, especially for big corporations, right? They might have the resources. We talk about a lot about this in the publishing pyramid, right? Whether you're an entrepreneur or a big business, same framework applies. Do we have the resources? But then if we have the resources, then it becomes more overwhelming because we're dealing with teams. Where do we go? This big decision. So I love the fact that it is a very simple framework that we can follow to always go back and land. Is this actually working? I remember listening to a story. Well, I listened to books, so that's why I say listening. But about your dad testing a $10,000 budget, right? And I think at the time it was in radium. And they were like, well, how do we know that's working? And they divided 10 different things, 10 different things that they were doing into a thousand dollar chunks. And they will run the thing, right? And there'll be like, hey, are these the results that we're looking for? If it was yes or no, then they will make the continued decision and they will reinvest in the things that they were working. And to me, as I was listening to it, I was like, wow, it is simple, right? But it's not easy to do because there's so much distraction. And Again, this was 15 years ago. Now today is even worse because we have online media, right? We had the Facebook ads, we have YouTube, we have TikTok even. And what resources do we assign to each platform? How do we know the offer is really working? How do we know that we actually attracting the right customer for our business, right? We talked about this many, many times. So the fact that chapter seven is there, it makes it so, so worth it. Especially if we have, if we have that background and if you're experiencing that in your business, you must read chapter seven.

[Amanda Holmes]

Well, that's a great segue to chapter four. If you don't. If that's okay, can I go? So. So There are about 8 billion people in the world today population, and yet there are 4.75 billion pieces of content posted on Facebook alone every single day. We post half the world's population on Facebook in content. Fifteen years ago, that wasn't really the case, right? And that's not even counting what's on Instagram, which is half a billion posts happen on Instagram every single day. So we went from only the elite could get a message out to the world, right? Only the people that had a platform. Today everyone has a platform. There's 3.8, there's 3.8 billion social media pages today. It's so we've gone from competing with just the elite that could pay for radio and, and television. Everyone and their mother, their grandmother can post, their child, baby can post. A dog has its own social media page. I mean everybody has content. But the difference is that 50% of content online is deemed useless and 40% of the content that's posted for a business actually hinders your sale. It reduces the likelihood of somebody purchasing. So we have gone from, okay, I'm going to post content because it's an organic way and I have the ability to have so much of a reach without spending money. Such an amazing concept. And yet we've forgotten the framework for why content will generate sales, which is what we want.

[Fonse]

Absolutely. Essence, right? I remember when we first imagined the show, we're like, okay, the path to the frictionless cell, right? And there's so many elements, right, that we've discovered along this journey. 300 plus episodes, right? And when I first saw the book, right, the title, the ultimate sales machine and it just goes back, it remind me the story of when we were growing up. Our mom was a math teacher, right? So I would go and I would ask her, be like, hey mom, what's the answer to this equation? And she'll be like, let me tell you something. And then she'll sit me down in front of a whiteboard and she'll like go back and revisit like the principles and foundations of what we needed to talk about.

[Chi]

And she was like, when math first started and you're like, oh, here we go.

[Fonse]

But you know, now that we run a business and now that I've seen firsthand with the companies that we help at chi, right. It's so important that foundation, those principles and this rebabble, that's what it is, is that roadmap to always go back and look at these things. Because the world, yes, is changing. It can be overwhelming, but at the same time it cannot be overwhelming. Because if we know, if we stay true to those foundations and those strategies and we stay with big headed discipline, we execute on those, right? We talk about the core storybook and we talk about Dream 100 elevated Dream 100, right. The 47 point checklist, all these things are these amazing tools that will bring it back to those principles and foundations that we can continue to execute no matter what challenges are coming our way in the business. And that's why I believe is so powerful. Do you remember maybe some cool stories off the top of your head of people that have applied this and have obtained amazing results.

[Amanda Holmes]

Yeah, let's see. So many. I mean, I put so many different protege stories of people that have implemented the book because they've done such magnificent things. I had to add them in. I added in quite a few times. ClickFunnels and the CEO, Russell Brunson, because I mean, they went from 0 to 100 million in four years. And the Dream 100 was one of the most, most successful strategies that they use to make that quantum leap. So I do put them in there quite a bit around the dream 100 chapters. So chapter six and chapter eight and really help people better define how to deploy the Dream 100. Because so many businesses, they just get stuck on the first step of how to get that list of a hundred. It. Yeah, so I go into that and how to find the list and how to narrow down the list so that you make sure. A checklist to know if it's the right list. But yeah, that's a great one. Another one I put in there about a client that during COVID they. Their business shut down as super dentist. Their business shut down as a dentist office. And the CEO, Kami Haas, decided to try and get some press and he started talking about the link. So there, there was a link because we did a core story for him. He knew that there was a link between health of your mouth and your lung capacity. And so half of the population, it's something like you're eight times more likely to die of COVID if you have gum disease. And one in every two people has gum disease in the United States today. And so one simple thing you can do to avoid Covid is just brush your teeth for, you know, three minutes twice a day and floss. And this message was not out there at all. And when he started using that market data to get in front of of press, he ended up, he. He got like half a million dollars in press all over the country. He was speaking on every news station because he was using that market data with this story to educate the public on something that's relevant and important to them. And then he also talked about how he had a book coming out if your mouth could talk. And if you guys want to read something fascinating that you would never think you would care so much about your mouth, how. Where it affects your entire body. And it's. It'll have a ton of market data because that's what he did with his core stories. He put it into a book so if your mouth could talk. But I do talk about that. In the book too, a bunch of stories. I have so many stories that I sprinkle through there.

[Fonse]

Yeah, I, I, I love it. Right. Because you know what if you say.

[Chi]

Hey, he started brushing his teeth recently, does that 100%.

[Fonse]

Can you tell? They're so white.

[Chi]

Yeah.

[Fonse]

But you know, we, we often mention hey, just imagine. Right, Just imagine. And, and I think those stories are so important that are there because it can put you in a place where you're like, I can do this right. I can go out and execute with. It's so important. Without execution, nothing happens. We often talk about whether that's again, whether that's an entrepreneur for the contents profit audience or whether that's a corporation, a bigger CEO, bigger company for the chi audience. Right. The same thing. If we don't execute, we don't assign the resources and we provide them with the principles and foundations to go out and kill it out in the marketplace days. Might as well just leave the book in the shelf. So please go and execute this part.

[Chi]

Here of the conversation just made me think on how your dad was the OG content creator. Honestly. Right. Put in these presentations, thinking about what the objections were going to be and then going and present them to the people that he was selling. At the end of the day that's kind of what people are doing when they are creating content. And I can't stop but thinking you're that would have thrived in social media.

[Amanda Holmes]

I feel like yes, everyone says that all the time. You know, it's interesting. So like I said before that people have lost why they're posting and what they're doing with their content and they're not leading it to, they should be. With every step leading back to you is the only logical conclusion. So that as soon as your prospect thinks of some a product or service like yours, you are the first person that they think of. But the lines between marketing and sales sales have really blurred, especially in the last 15 years because now because of E commerce, right. More businesses, more marketing departments are being responsible for sales because we're creating digital salespeople, right. With different funnels that you have that lead you from a page to a page to get you to upsell, to get you to cross sell and then educating along the way. I mean I put in here in the book as well that Amazon has killed the traditional sales brand breath salesperson because, sorry, the traditional commissioned breath salesperson because 97% of prospects don't want to be pushed, feel that salespeople are too pushy today. And it's because of Amazon, right? 50% of e commerce, 50% of sales on the Internet come from Amazon alone. Just them and then everyone else is another 50%. So what has Amazon done? It's taught us that we can buy without the need for a person. That's why there's so much tension between prospects and salespeople. So you have marketers trying to sell more online and then you have salespeople having to market themselves more online. And social gives the opportunity to break down those barriers of I'm just here to sell you. No, you get to know the person. They start talk, they start educating. It's your opportunity to educate. And when you think of the seven steps to to a sale, the first two are establishing rapport and finding the need. Establishing rapport means they like you, they trust you, they respect you. If you do those two steps, you're 65% of the way to a sale today. You do that with your content, you build that rapport, you build that relationship so that they trust you and they respect you by what you post online.

[Fonse]

Oh, so, so good. Can we do like a 24 hour version where we just like dissect the whole thing? Which by the way, if you go listen to Amanda's podcast, please, we're going to link it right below because over the next few days, every single day, there's going to be a piece of nugget that's going to come out your way with all this amazing information on how you can implement it. So super awesome. There's a couple of things as we wrap up Amanda that I really want to tackle is one of, is one of your most famous frameworks, the inverted buyers pyramid, which the first time that we saw it, mind blown. And I've seen many presentations where people see it for the first time and you can actually see their mind blowing to pieces. So do you want to dive into that just a little bit and maybe explain what it is?

[Amanda Holmes]

Yes. So my father taught, at any given time, if you're marketing to a group of people, let's say you have a hundred people in a room, only 3% of that room will be interested in your product or service at that time. 3% will be in the buying now category. Another 7% will be open to it. Just like if you made a hundred cold calls or if you posted on your Facebook page, 3% will be interested in what you have to offer. 7% will be open to it. Another 30% are not thinking about you, your product or Service. The next 30% think that they're not interested in the last 30% are definitely not interested. So you have this buyer's pyramid with all of the subsets. And he did that to say. To say that if you are just talking about your product or service, you're only reaching that 3% and all of your competitors are reaching that 3%. So what we did, as Julie Eason and I were working on this book, we took that pyramid and we flipped it upside down because business has flipped on its head. And we described how we have helped more companies become number one in their industry than anyone else. And it's following this framework. And it all comes back to core story. You know, people, when they read the book, they go, oh, I love that market data thing. I love how that's blended with story. Because we think in stories, stories back to the beginning of time, right? We've taught our history and story. People can remember what happened on the Netflix show three weeks ago, but they can't remember what happened in a meeting last week. But our society is based on the power of science. We believe in the utter legitimacy of science. So your story can only be legitimized by the backing of solid research. So what we do at one of my companies, Empire Research Group, is we go and we look at all of the data and we scan an entire industry. So the first step in that inverted pyramid is global pain. We want to understand what's happened over decades. And that's really to show when someone says something like, did you know that last year, 85% of businesses were in a financial struggle? Actually, 80% made less revenue than they did the year prior to. It sets me up as an expert. Oh, this person isn't just talking out there, you know, they're actually saying something. Seems like they know what they're talking about. So you want that global pain to really catch the entire buyer's pyramid, regardless of if they're interested in your product or service or not. Then we get into targeted pain. So targeted pain is what keeps your prospect up at night, because it's not generally majority of the time, it is not your product or service as much as you think that they care about that. And that's what's keeping them up. It doesn't. It isn't only maybe that 3%. So what keeps them up at night. And if you can articulate their pain better than they can, they believe that you have the solution. So you are just expressing to them that they truly you truly. I get you from that. They would just say, wow, you really understand me. And from there, then we get into the solutions portion. So global pain targeted pain solutions Solutions is just setting you up as an expert in your field. If you give something valuable and it's a part and a piece that maybe isn't exactly this is my product, this is my service and this is what I do. So what can you do to add value to that person? Then the difference between content marketing and what my father taught, which is education based marketing, which is bound being a strategist versus just a tactical. I'm just going to post something online and you know, we'll see what it does. So. So that step is different in this second to last step which is resetting of the buying criteria. All through this education, you should be teaching them so that they're thinking of only you as the possible logical conclusion. So what do you have to do? Because if you do all of those steps and then you don't reset the buying criteria, you're educating your prospect to lead them straight to your competitor. So you have to make sure this is a critical point that you educate them on everything that they'd need to know to purchase a product or service like yours. That's the resetting of the buying criteria so that by the time you talk about you, your product, your service, they should already be sold on you before you've even mentioned you. That is the power of a true core story. That is the inverted pyramid and that will be in the bonus chapter in chapter four.

[Chi]

Standing ovation.

[Fonse]

Yes. Yeah. And that was a, a true Golden Boulder moment right here. Trademarked business. Okay, Amanda, as we wrap up, this has been so awesome and so cool to witness and experience this whole process. And we're right there. So if you're listening to this episode today, that means that the pre sale is up and running. So go get your book links right below in the description. Seeing both shows ultimatesalesmachine.com Easy peasy, easy peasy. Go get your copy and copies. There is amazing bonuses too to be taken for you and your company and your team members. So make sure you get those before they run out.

[Chi]

So I just want to point out that you did a really good job too when writing the book at documenting the process and like sharing with people. You know that you were your late night writing or very early mornings writing and you know some of the, the challenges and struggles that you had. And I just wanted to point that out because you know, it's not about I finished the book and now I'm going into promotion mode. I like you being just and I don't see it honestly as promotion at all, honestly, I see it as you're sharing something that you deeply care about. And, you know, once you started taking on, okay, let me update this awesome book. You started immediately sharing with everybody. And you've brought so many people throughout that journey. So now people are eager to get their hands on this boat.

[Amanda Holmes]

Everybody's like, enough already. Could you just post it? It's been four years of watching you write it on every plane, train, in automobile. We get it. We get it.

[Chi]

Yeah.

[Amanda Holmes]

So, but it is cool because now you see how much work it took, right? It's not just.

[Chi]

I, you know, it definitely increases the, the, the perceived value of it. You know, it's already extremely valuable, but now, you know, by knowing all the way work that was behind makes it even more special. So I'm very excited to grab.

[Fonse]

By the way, I just want to show you this, Amanda, for those listening, I'm just showing like a stack of them in here. Like, this is like the one book that we actually send out to our people and community because it's so amazing and we can't wait to get my hands into that presale now. Bonus story. We talked about this. Well, first, I want to celebrate the fact that over these last three years, you've developed this amazing voice. Voice in, in this space. Right. And it was quite a bit of a process. Maybe we can do another episode just on that. But I really, like you mentioned there's like, there's a funny story involving clickfunnels in a virtual party and writing a bull or something. So, yeah, maybe this is a treat for the audience today.

[Amanda Holmes]

Yeah. So I was at an event of clickfunnels recently, and every time he would like break off and say, okay, now work on your funnel. And everybody it. And they would do workshopping and work on their funnel. And I kept watching Russell and he would just sit there and wait. And I'm like, oh, man, I gotta go up and talk to him. I rarely get to talk to him. He's a client. Right. So we're working on his core story for ClickFunnels 2.0, but it's fair, few and far between. And I kept just staring at him. I'm like, oh, I really want to get up there. I really just want to say hi. I really want to talk to him. I really, I mean, it was like driving me crazy inside of my mind. So then I finally just ran up there and said, hi, Russell, look. I put together the book funnel for the new edition and I showed him because we were using his stickers and he's like, oh, that's so cool. And I'm like. And then it just popped into my head. I thought, you know, I'm doing a virtual event when we launch the book and I'm going to have the biggest, best speakers I possibly can. And it would be so awesome to have you as one of the speakers. And he said, oh, well, where is it going to be? And I said, it'll be virtual. He's like, well, why don't you have it host? We can host you at ClickFunnels headquarters and you can film it live from, from my headquarters. And I went, are you serious? For real? So I, oh my God. I was like a giddy little child. But so that is for every person that gets the pre sale version of the book. You also get a ticket to that virtual party launch party, which will happen for a much smaller group of people. And I'll have him. And then also Jay Abraham him also agreed that he will be there. I still am filling the slots for the two others that will be there, but it's going to be a great, a great party.

[Fonse]

I took a pic on that list and oh my gosh, yes, please go ahead and buy like now because it's going to run out those spots. So much value. Not just the fact that Amanda is there launching these amazing resources and book for many years to come, but also also the people that say yes to doing something like this. You know, Jay Abraham, Russell Branson, Legends right in the, in the marketplace and in the, right now in the business world. So super excited. Thank you for sharing that story, Amanda Fonsi. Anything else?

[Chi]

No. Thank you so much. Yeah. For sharing everything, for putting so much love and effort into the new, the new version of the book. I'm sure it's going to change a lot of people's lives and, you know, get them all pumped up. I remember when I finished reading this book, I was like, like, honestly, as I was reading it, I was like, this is what I need. Like, this is what I need to do now. Right? Even chapter one with like time management, I was like, it's perfect because my time management skills are not the best.

[Fonse]

Yeah, I feel like you need to reread it again. Okay, Amanda, anything else that you want to add?

[Amanda Holmes]

There is one little thing. So I was so normally a forward would be to the reader. You say dear Reader. Right. And I'd written many versions of Dear Reader Reader. And then when I had my first session, because I needed a coach to help guide me finishing this. So Julie Eason was that for me, guiding me through just pulling. I would call her a genius extractor. She just pulls out whatever genius you have in the moment. It's just kind of a mess of thoughts in your head until she helps you plan it out and get it into something clean and clear. Yeah, but we had that first meeting, and she sat me down and she said, you know, know, I think that the forward should actually be Dear Dad. And I heard that, and I went, no, like, immediately. Like, it was, like, guttural, like, out of, like, an instant resistance to no way would I ever want to do that. And so over a couple of minutes, I was like, well, okay, I have hired you to be my guide, so I should listen to you. And this is. Is our first meeting together. So to say no to the very first thing you asked me to do is kind of not being a good student. And I pride myself on being a good student. So I will do it as an exercise. It won't go in the book. That was my. That was my answer. And she went, okay. You know, she could tell I was very upset about it. And after that meeting, I went down and I was sitting. I was in Puerto Rico at the time, and I was sitting at dinner, and all of a sudden it started to come over me of like, oh, I think I can write this forward. And I pull up my phone, and instantly it just. Again, another just download came, and I just start writing Dear dad in a notes in my phone, and tears are streaming down my face. I mean, it was. You ever have those moments where you just get so in the zone that it's like time just, like, slows and everything blurs and it's just you. Because there were some parts of my head that went, amanda, you're hysterically ugly crying in this restaurant right now. I'm sure everybody's thinking that you're crazy. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And this whole forward just, like, flowed out of me in one foul swoop. And, you know, it's. It's a letter that I never told my dad. And there's some parts that are really raw and really honest, and it's not all sunshine and rainbows. There's also some anger in there, but then there's also a lot of gratitude and honoring. And so I have. I will say that I might have made some grown men cry. And it's kind of a strange way to start a sales book. But you know what? It's just a part of my heart and my soul. And I think people will resonate with that. Because sales should be about your heart.

[Chi]

Yeah. I mean, I'm listening to this, and I'm like, I haven't even read it. I'm, like, getting watery eyes. I can't even imagine. I'm definitely gonna cry when. When I read that.

[Fonse]

And if you're a dad, is you even worse? Like, in the best way possible. But, yes, it is incredible. I. I've seen firsthand the effect of that forward. I mean, that. And obviously, yeah, it. Again, very grateful that you decided to. To make that decision and, you know, make. Make this book your own as well, so.