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TRANSCRIPT:

*this transcript was mostly generated by AI, please excuse any mistakes

Kris Jones: The interesting thing about us doing a call and, we had met a couple years ago when you reached out on Twitter, but your dad’s book and your dad have been in my life for certainly a decade plus.

And so really have, it’s had . Such a positive influence on me. And you know this because that’s why you originally reached out. I’ve been a I drink the Kool-Aid, right? I think it’s the most actionable thought leadership in business that that exists. And I think the fact that your dad originally quantified it into the book so that anybody could really benefit from it affordably.

And again, it’s the thing that I love is just how actionable it is. But yeah, I know. It’s great to see you and your background is truly the best.

Amanda: Here is your dose of the Ultimate Sales machine coming to you from the new edition. Visit ultimate sales machine.com to get your copy or multiple copies. Hi, I’m your host, Amanda Holmes, CEO of Chet Holmes International. What you’re about to learn has assisted a quarter of a million businesses to generate billions of dollars working faster, better, smarter.

Thank you. That means so much. And every time I’ve been interacted with you, it’s been so dynamic and you say these things and I’m like, ah, man, I’d really like to know more. What is I see you out with your family and it looks like you have a lovely vacations that you take, and I know that you’re involved in so many different companies, but then you also have this love of interviewing people and media, so you do that as well.

I feel like I know you better than I actually do because the amount of time actually spent with you is very little. But I always think about you in my email signature too, because I remember the day I saw your email signature and went, holy heavens, I have to change my email signatures forever and always because of you.

Kris Jones: Thanks. Yeah, I’ve, you know what and depending on which direction we take this call, I think I’m one of the most fortunate people you’ll ever chat with, and it’s because number one, I’m an accidental entrepreneur. And two, I have had, had such outsized success in my business career that preceded my belief that I was ever going to be that successful.

So I I was fortunate to have built a company in my twenties that I sold to a publicly traded company, and then it really set the stage for what I’ve done over the last, 12 to. 14 years. Yeah, unpacking that certainly isn’t gonna happen in an hour, but I will tell you that the ultimate sales machine, Che Holmes and later Amanda Holmes have had a very very strong impact on my career.

Should I blow your mind now or should we wait a little bit? Do you want to be blown away now? I 

Amanda: kinda just have been recording and I feel like this should be a part of it already. I know we were supposed to dialogue about what we talk about, but I the natural organicness 

Kris Jones: of it. You just let me know because, so I’m reading.

So thank you so much for including a little blurb, little testimonial from me in the newest edition of the Ultimate Sales Machine. I love because that’s like a, that’s like a kid’s dream, his favorite book, and somehow he could read his name in there, but. I had read the book prior to your update many times like it’s pro, honestly, it’s probably a book that I’ve read more times than any other book, but, so I did read your most recent edition.

When I got to the end, which you sent me a note saying, Chris, you should have read the final chapter first. Yeah. So I get to that final chapter and there was something that you said there in there that touched me. So I took action and I’ll show you real [00:04:00] quick. So I’m one sec here. So I’m pulling this, I’m pulling this off my wall.

Okay. And by the way, this is before you reached out and said, Hey, let’s do a podcaster report. Whoa. That totally talk about serendipity and coincidence, but so don’t live in wanting by Amanda Holmes. Whatever life throws my way. I’m so centered internally. That my happiness isn’t dictated by outside events.

My intention is to be humble, grateful, and to serve others. So yeah, this is before you reached out a couple of, like weeks ago or whatever. And 

Amanda: that is wild. I know. Oh 

Kris Jones: my God. Yeah. And it’s not yeah, it was just it. I was moved by that and I couldn’t agree with you more that your new chapter is the most important chapter in that book.

And I was fortunate enough to have figured out a lot of that [00:05:00] fairly early in my career. I’ve always been, driven by purpose and trying to figure out how to make, how to balance. The spiritual side of me, which is a huge part, and I know it is for you as well. And then this high achiever gene, which I just can’t shake.

And it’s it creates so much disruption and dissonance in this guy that’s had a koi pond for 20 years when people find, oh, you have a koi pond? Yeah, I have a koi pond because that’s that’s my center. That’s who I am. So anyway, that’s coincidental that you actually just got to see that I had that.

It’s a little bit cheesy too, but yeah. So you’re pr I told you I was gonna blow you away with it. You’re like, 

Amanda: that is amazing. Yes. I love that. Do you know that chapter I wrote 94 versions of that thing. I would never, I counted on my way to my a few keynotes ago. I was like, I think it’s a lot.[00:06:00] 

So I was just gonna count all the word documents. And that’s not even counting all of the like, Google documents where they kept getting updated. That’s just word documents alone. 

Kris Jones: But how amazing of you to have included that because, a lot of times with business and like even if you take this stuff to its extreme right?

It, it really does leave a lot to be wanted. Don’t live in wanting it. It does, it really does. Like success is somewhat what I have found, and again, I’ve, I was, I came from nothing. I was poor and then all of a sudden I was super successful. Had more money than I at that time than I never would I ever would’ve dreamed of.

But then was like confused whoa, wait, how come I’m not getting as much sense of purpose and meaning as I’m getting from other things? Like you referenced, going on vacations and stuff. From experiences and [00:07:00] from just, doing things that made me feel good, and looking at the impact that you’ve now had on me, I just wanna say thanks. And just wanted to make the point that I think your willingness, your insistence, whether it took you 94 edits or not, of sticking wedging, like literally get all this other stuff out of the way.

I am putting my little spiritual, my little. My little flower thing in. And you know what, it’s my favorite chapter. But I also thought that a lot of the additional texts that you added was was really strong. It’s a better book. Your dad would be so proud of you. Like it’s just better.

And you did mention in the book that that you took some of his letters and some of his emails and stuff to really, stay true. But again, and you might disagree, would [00:08:00] he have, and I’m using this just to make the point, but would he have forced a chapter in there on being centered and purpose driven and all this other fun stuff, all this very I important stuff That’s many business people, many, people who’ve made so much money, never figure out, they never realize that.

That it’s really a shallow kind of existence until you have a center and until you can live not in wanting, but in appreciation of what you have and your capacity to build stuff. Anyway. Yeah. I do 

Amanda: one, I wonder that for the first few years I kept saying, if my father had lived through cancer, what would he have put into the new edition of the book?

If he had survived, what would’ve happened? Because he changed so dramatically. And one thing that I think you’ll appreciate since you have a s e O company amidst all of your companies, so he started blogging when he got diagnosed and he was very public about his experience with his health, whether he [00:09:00] wanted to go the alternative route or go the bone marrow transplant route.

And he shared his whole battle with this. Today I tried, light therapy and it worked. And here’s my blood count and can you please pray for me? I hope it goes down. This is what we’re going for. And what was only supposed to be for our core family turned into, my father had. It was something like 90,000 readers by the end of two months.

Wow. It was absurd. It just took off. But it was, my father just shelling out his heart and soul on this blog every day about this is what’s going on with me. This is, the doctor said I needed that I would die. So I told them to F off and just it was such a surreal experience and.

Everybody’s, all the comments that were made and people exchanging was got so intense that we had to shut down the blog because it, everybody was like, you’re gonna die if you do this. I was like, I was only sharing it for your prayer to assist, [00:10:00] it was a carrying bridge site. Yeah, carrying bridge is usually your Oh, yeah.

And people, yeah. It’s not a big, but afterwards he was like, wow, the power of blogging. I had no idea. And that kind of spurred something in me to think, if my father could, amass all of this following in such a short period of time, just being honest and genuine about his strife and his battle.

I think I could put that at the end of the book too. 

Kris Jones: Smart. It’s something I think men in particular have, and Brene Brown came to mind as I was listening to there because she writes a lot on vulnerability and this kind of thing. A lot of men struggle with that. I struggle with it for sure.

I read it and I educate myself on it and I’m like, yeah, need to be more vulnerable, need to be more human. So the fact that unfortunately that he was doing it in a caring bridge, sit, yeah. Almost a, cuz if that was public and et cetera, that if that was like a, I just also thought of Tuesdays with [00:11:00] Morrie by Mitch album.

Like when he captures Morrie’s final days, there’s so much wisdom, it almost needs to be like, shared. But but Cool. How did you enjoy the process of writing? Was this the. Book that you authored outside of electronic stuff. Wasn’t I 

Amanda: supposed to interview you and now you’re interviewing me, Mr.

Interviewer. So good at interviewing. Okay. But is it your, was it your first one? Yes. It was my first day. I call it, the encore that my father never got to give and how to live a rich and full life. But I feel that it is my father’s final chapter, but my first chapter. So much more to come.

Kris Jones: And you. Yeah. I can’t ask you questions. Go ahead.

You’re right though. We should have done a call before call, right? 

Amanda: I know. I so tell me a little bit about what’s going on in your world. What so that I have an idea of how I can steer this and help people get to Yeah. Where 

Kris Jones: they so the [00:12:00] quick background is I was a professional student after high school, and I have, I discovered this sort of high achiever gene.

When I was an undergrad. So I went to school at Penn State University. I’m a Pennsylvania native and that’s where I currently live and do business. Okay. I thought I was gonna be a psychologist. I went to graduate school at Villanova University studying experimental psychology. Decided that the whole research part of it, while it was interesting, was I had a personality that needed to engage with people and it was very like isolated, like conducting research.

So then I went to law school without ever an intention of wanting to be an attorney. It was something that at that time I was interested in public service and government service. So I went to Albany Law School and again, the high achiever gene, and I’m not gonna get into it cuz everybody, all the listeners would be like, man, that guy’s really full of himself.

But it wasn’t like that. I had nothing growing up. I just learned something that Tony Robbins imparted on me [00:13:00] when I was a teenager, which is this idea that, Everything you need to take the first step towards wherever you want to go. Whatever you want to do is within you right now. You don’t have to wait, you don’t have to wait.

And it just struck me when I was a teenager, so I went on this ridiculous high achiever thing. Then I had already alluded to this earlier, which is I’m an accidental entrepreneur cause I went to law school, all this stuff. Like I’m not a business guy, but I’m a big thinker and I was a high achiever.

And my brother called me while I was at Villanova and said, Hey Chris what are your thoughts about selling Grandma Jones’? She called it Mississippi Mud. What are your thoughts about selling that on the internet? And I was the guy that was pontificating about how this was gonna change the world and stuff.

So he called my bluff, he called me out, didn’t know much at all about what to do. And the interesting thing is I was in debt, I was poor. Of course I had a bright future because of my education, but it just it [00:14:00] wasn’t clear like what I was gonna do or who I was gonna become. So I was like, yeah, let’s do that.

I’ll build us the website. Didn’t know how to do it, self-educated. Then I’ll figure out how to get us traffic. Started interviewing celebrity chefs cuz it was a gourmet food company. We changed the name from Mississippi Mud to Pepper Jam because it better described the product. Long story short I self-educate.

I stumble upon the early days of search engine optimization, the early days of pay per click marketing. Back then it was through a a platform called.com, which later became Overture was bought by Yahoo yada. And I became an expert, like an early expert, right time, right place, good education, confident person graduate from law school and after a short period of time, oh, by the way, this is crazy because.

I, I had nothing. So I learned how to generate traffic through s e o and then I studied how to monetize this traffic. And [00:15:00] by the time I was in my second year of law school, I was making over a hundred thousand dollars a month profit. I literally was in New York State where I didn’t have a bank account and I couldn’t deposit checks.

And I would get all these checks in the mail from all these affiliate networks and I would have to drive over the border, which was a good hour and 15 minute drive to just deposit like $40,000 in checks and stuff. And at that time, I wasn’t, I didn’t have children and it wasn’t married. I basically was just learning how to be an entrepreneur, even though that wasn’t what I signed up to do.

And fast forward, when I graduated from law school, I decided to take the couple million dollars that I had made in affiliate marketing and. Create a business, an internet marketing, and later an affiliate network in my hometown called Pepper Jam. So we used, I used the Gourmet Food Company. Then over the next like six, [00:16:00] seven years, I built it into one of the larger digital marketing companies.

One of the first of its kind. Gave me all these opportunities, Amanda to do what you’ve been doing these last couple years. Keynotes, speaking, writing books, writing articles and I was still super young and it was just like I was like, unstoppable, and which leads me really to, so I sold Pepper Jam.

We had about 130 employees, 2009. I sell it to then publicly traded GSI Commerce, which was a company that was owned by Michael Rubin. And for people who are listening Michael Rubin was, part owner of the Sixers, the c e o of fanatics. He’s a really influential business person. Sold it to him.

I had a five year earnout in payout. About a year later we got acquired by eBay. Oh. New company was rebranded. eBay [00:17:00] Enterprise. My baby, my pepper jam was renamed that. And since I had, after that I had started in an investment fund. And here’s where I give you the dirt if you want to like peel back the onion.

But I was so fortunate here I am, like what do I wanna do with my life? Let’s bottle up what I’ve learned. Jesus, I’m, I just built a company and went through the whole process of mergers and acquisitions and made it out to the other side. I wanna bottle this up and help others. So I created an investment fund called K B J Capital and. In my hometown and I just start making investments in businesses. Mostly early stage tech. I’ve since made 40 some investments. And that’s what I’ve been doing mostly over these last 13 years. Still writing, still publishing, still doing lots of public speaking.

Many of the companies, which we could definitely peel back the onion on, in fact, mathematically it’s either [00:18:00] six or seven. If you give me credit I either found it or co-founded every one of them have leveraged your book. The Ultimate Sales Machine. Every single one of them exceeded in revenue of over a million dollars within 18 months.

So I founded her co-founded seven, six or seven companies, depending on if you gimme credit that have all, generated a million dollars within 12 to 18 months, all using aspects of the ultimate sales machine. And then in 2009 I had three offices and I was getting a little bit uptight about, I felt disconnected.

I was like, I couldn’t be in every spot at once. So I was like I wanna look for some real estate in my downtown and move these businesses into it. And again, I’m thinking social impact. I’m thinking, there’s a lot that I left out about how I’ve taken entrepreneurship and really focused on impact, but I bought a 35,000 square foot of real.

And created a technology accelerator called the Accelerator. In my [00:19:00] hometown, it’s where I’m sitting right now. I’m sitting on the fifth floor of that building overlooking panora views of the Susquehanna River here. And I bought this property in 2019 and we have so many crazy story success stories of some of the businesses I own, but others, there’s no requirement.

You could come in into the building and I’ll provide you with support and advice and all this stuff, and it’s become my new purpose. And like where I’ve really been spending most of my time just trying to help companies in the building raise money, scale hire like all of those things. So Wow.

Hopefully that wasn’t 30 minutes. Hopefully that was only about four minutes, maybe six. But that gives you the lay of the land of what I’ve been up to. Yeah. And like you through all of it, I still try to stay centered. I still try to make sure that you know what I’m doing and the way that I’m doing it is something that [00:20:00] somebody could repeat and feel good about themselves.

So yeah but I’m still, looking out at the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years and I’m super excited about that too. So everything I just shared with you was like, what led me up to this moment right now where hopefully in the same way that you just wrote your first chapter of a book, I’m hoping that, I still have, a good decade or two decades left of impact, 

Amanda: wow. I love that. So do you actively look for those companies to come and be a part of your world, or is it just natural word of mouth that they come to 

Kris Jones: you? Most of it has been natural. My biggest success stories in this building were people who literally reached out, said, I’m moving in, and that’s it.

Didn’t even say what is it? What’s the economic, the economics? And we have a bunch of those success stories. But yeah, the first eight or 10 years was a lot of me going out speaking at tech [00:21:00] conferences and, attracting, people who wanted to pitch me, and that was a lot of it.

And I actually still do that. I’ll still take pitches and I’ll still listen, to anybody that I could help. But now I’m really focused on this project. The building’s about 80% full. And the goal is to fill the building and build another one or buy another one. And just it’s a, entrepreneurship.

And I think you’ve probably found this out or you’re finding this out, is actually I think it’s a service profession. If that’s how you live it, if that’s how you you leverage it it’s a way of really making a difference, really helping people and and really like feeling good about what you do and who you are.

And so I’m less driven by the money. And not that isn’t an indicator, not that isn’t an important part of it, it’s just that I’m fortunate enough to be able [00:22:00] to figure out how the time that I spend has it’s, I have been saying for years now, r o t, everybody’s what’s the R roi?

I’m like, what’s the r o t return on time, and yeah. And so that’s why I’ve been more selective is where I’m going with this. And it’s it’s my building, and I I want the best businesses possible in here and I wanna be able to give them as much of my time as possible to help them.

But yeah, I still get pitched and I still, you referenced earlier that I do some media stuff and some yeah. And some public speaking and stuff. I do those things too. I enjoy them, it’s usually better when someone else is doing it with me, it’s yeah, I’ve worked with some influencers and some celebrities and candidly I get a kick out of, being able to rise to the occasion when you’re getting interviewed alongside someone.

Is really why everybody’s watching. And then there’s, one of my partners is a comedian and an actor, Damon Wayne’s Jr. And he’s part of the Wayne’s family and they’re [00:23:00] super famous and they all look like one another. I could verify cuz I’ve seen them all in person. But yeah, he was on a bunch of TV shows like New Girl and stuff like that have become okay, but yeah, followed by lots of people and camera starts rolling and Damon’s right next to me, he’s a comedian and I’m just like, man, you gotta really raise your game here cuz everybody waiting for him to be funny.

If there’s an opportunity for me to maybe be funny as well. It catches people by surprise, that’s great anyway. 

Amanda: That’s great. So I understand that what fills your cup is impact, and that’s what you’re working on in your building, which I love. And out through those companies.

It’s fascinating 

Kris Jones: and driven by a lot of my success, particularly at scaling things have, has come from the principles [00:24:00] of the Ultimate Sales machine. From your dad’s work. It reminds me, I was I forget the year. I should have probably looked before this call, but what year, if you don’t mind me asking, did your dad pass 2012?

So I think it could have been 2012. Might have been 2011. I’m in Las Vegas at Business Mastery by Tony Robbins. That morning your dad was scheduled to speak that day. That morning particularly me was just shocked when we found out that he wasn’t gonna be able to make it and he was in the hospital and this kind of thing.

Again, the connection to your dad’s life’s work and the impact that it’s had on the business side of me is profound. It’s one of those things that I mean it’s up there. Tony s has had a huge impact on me too. A lot of it mostly is the personal development side, realizing that no matter who you are or [00:25:00] where you are at or what has happened to you, you still have that personal gift, that personal power to build yourself up, to, to reset, to again, like I said earlier, take action in the direction that you want to take your life.

But all of that said, I also believe that building up, institutional knowledge, so like expertise is one of the keys to becoming not only a thought leader, but like really successful at things. So with business a lot of people are surprised sometimes when I’m on a panel or I get interviewed because I do tend to get a little bit less predictable.

And I’ll give you an example. I believe that business success comes as much from studying why businesses succeed and why they fail as it does from just having a great idea. And so you’re, this [00:26:00] book has been, Like such a treasure trove of actionable, specific knowledge about how to effectively build and scale businesses.

How to keep and capture attention, how to, again, r o t it might be the most valuable book a business person can read to more efficiently use your time in an effective way. Love and every business, Amanda and there’s been so many of them over the years every business, I could share a story of how I’ve leveraged insights from this book.

Yes, 

Amanda: I do. I do wanna 

Kris Jones: hear this. Yeah, to help me grow scale. We used to there was a company that I had founded back in call it [00:27:00] 2012, 2013. It was a company that was at the same time as Groupon. But what we did was we built a technology platform to do this for traditional media companies. So like newspapers, radio stations, TV stations.

And we gave them basically a deal platform. So one of the things, one of the ways that we grew it was by creating conversations with the executives at these media companies. So I had two guys on my team, we were all working in the same office and it was Luke and Chris. Yeah, another Chris. And we were compet.

To see who could be more outrageous in a way where we wanted to win this competition. But to get the attention of top executives at these media companies. And there was this one particular day, and at that time he, this was the, like the publisher, the New York Times that we were trying to get in touch with.

And all three of us were [00:28:00] going to attempt to get in touch with this public. I didn’t win this contest, by the way. And by the way, the other two individuals had read the book or trained on the book, could talk about any aspect of the book. And it was Chris Nash who at the time was the president of the company who.

Had said something or caught the attention of this the publisher such that he had this, the call set up in the next 48 hours and we just couldn’t believe it. I was so angry at him and I forget specifically what he did, but he basically was able to cut through the clutter and capture the attention of the publisher by a combination of a little bit of research and just some tactics, techniques that made that person feel like, wait, this is a little bit different.

And in the same way that y in the book still talks about this idea of,[00:29:00] capturing attention by sending things that yeah, that could end up on the person’s desk. Chris had said something like I, I called you three times yesterday and I forgot to leave a voice message. But which he didn’t do.

Yeah, it’s like a, I feel like a humble way of just trying to get someone’s attention. But I wanted to let you know that, I guess he found out that he was like a Yankees fan. Spring training starts and I’ll be watching it next Tuesday. So I am available on Monday or Wednesday for a call, and sure enough, the guy writes back and Chris set the call up with them.

And I’m just like, when you could get your team centered around best buyers come concentrating your energy around capturing attention, persistence, the seven to eight, nine follow up rule. Like I, I’ve said to every single one of my sales teams, like [00:30:00] guys and gals, you. On the third, fourth touch outreach, don’t expect, some will respond but at least seven times, eight times before you should start even like getting nervous.

I have another quick story of one of the largest clients I ever closed was a company called CommonBond. They had raised like one point some billion dollars in capital. It was the 33rd or 34th follow up where the, at that time the president of the company, Rob who I still work with he’s left the company but still work with him, followed up and he is we’re ready.

Let’s go, let’s do this. And I was just like totally looking. I’m not, wasn’t really exhausting, exhausted, but it was exhausting to look at how many times I followed up over, literally over two and a half years. Wow. And won that client just through [00:31:00] persistence. Most all of my best ultimate sales machine stories are really from persistence and just, just continuing, knowing who you want to spend your time following up with, and then just following up and using all kinds of novel and creative ways to try to get them to respond and or remember who you are.

I’ve had lots of people say I, we just need to work with you because who wouldn’t wanna work with you? You just don’t, you don’t quit. And that is never, yeah, that was all learned from. Ultimate sales machine. 

Amanda: I do. Can I tell you one funny story? Go ahead Quick. I think you’ll appreciate this.

So I met this Indian company, they’re called Multi Law Al. They’ve served a million Indians and they have 600 sales reps who all have to read the book. Not once, not twice, but three times during their intake process. And then they have to do a report and they have to present a chapter to the whole team [00:32:00] to get approved.

That they’ve done this process of reading the book. It’s just hysterical. That’s crazy. And I know when I heard that, then I did a webinar for them, but nothing came of it for like doing extra work with them. And I thought, oh my gosh, I am going to be in India one day and I will present for this group.

Cuz they’re just avid fans. They even said, they told me, it rushes through our veins, ultimate sales machine. It’s in our blood. I’m like, yes, I love these people. So I followed up. Using social for five years and even during my Dream 100 bootcamp, I showed them, here’s what I’m doing to get multilevel swell.

And I even had somebody in the audience say, Amanda, that I would really give up. Like the way that person treated you like it wasn’t very kind. I’m like, of course it’s not kind. You have to earn their respect. They don’t care about you. And all of this is on video. And then fast forward in December, I went to India [00:33:00] and I spoke in their sky, it’s like a five story glass room that’s called the Sky Room or something.

It was so epic to finally be there and at the end of the keynote, so at the end they’re like, so when do you give up on a prospect? Like how many touches until you give up? And I laughed and I walked up to the middle of the stage. I walked up to the top of the stage and I looked at him and I went, guys, I have been following up for six years to stand here before you six years.

Crazy and everyone just starts clapping oh my God, he was a guy in the front row, multi law, who’s the CEO O of it? Multi-billionaire. Even he had to clap and go. That’s impressive. 

Kris Jones: Part of that was ma manifested. Part of it was just the truth, the insight. Maybe the number one, top five for sure.

Insights from your dad’s teachings is this idea of, knowing who your targets are and making sure they’re worth [00:34:00] the time that you’re willing to invest. And then just following up without apology but tactically and strategically for as long as it takes. How long? I remember one of my training sessions, cause I’ve done so many training sessions with the book.

I’ve done webinars, all this stuff. I remember one guy saying how many times. I was like, as many times as it takes, how many times? And it was just this moment where there’s other people around how many times does it takes? And I’d yell back and he would yell louder as many times as it takes.

It’s funny, but some of it though, in listening to you, there’s a, and it goes into the spiritual stuff. I really do believe in law of attraction and manifestation and stuff. And I think for anybody listening, Tony Robbins talks a lot about this idea that start with your outcome. Because people are afraid to take that first step.

And even when I was listening to you talk about this persistence with this Indian company and somebody saying to you, but they were, you got something back that, that would set most people off. [00:35:00] I really think that, that’s par for the course of being super successful is being able to navigate that kind of feedback.

But it’s not justification for not taking the first step. It’s not justification for the 32nd follow up. I am telling you CommonBond was closed on like number 34, 2 plus years later. Major contract. So yeah, these are some of the things that are, you do need to pound into the process.

Yes. You don’t want to start second guessing yourself, if you don’t get a response, in a short period of time, make sure you’re focused on the. Customer or client that you’re focused on. But, and change your approach if you need to. But yeah don’t stop.

That’s, then you won’t have these great stories if you stop because the ones that we won on the first, [00:36:00] second, third, right place, right time. I had followed up with someone last maybe two weeks ago. It was just someone that came into my mind. I was like, yeah we worked with this client in the past, and I know my staff told me that it’s a really complex company.

They’re really big, but they’re really complex. I didn’t let that bother me. And I just reached out to them and said, Hey let’s open up conversations again. And the response was oh my gosh, I can’t believe you just reached out. We have to work with you starting yesterday, $10,000 a month for the next 12 months.

Already signed. It got signed within five days. Oh my God. And so just the mindset of building up your own confidence to say, I’m not gonna judge myself based on these, for whatever the reason, the target not responding. Timing is so much in business. And often I’ll get thanked for being persistent, and and doing it in a way where you have to have fun with it. You’ve gotta be [00:37:00] creative, you’ve gotta be willing to try different approaches. I just recently connected with a c of a company who’s raised 250 million. And honestly, I sent him a a LinkedIn I think that’s still pending.

And I’d have to check, but I also sent him a tweet. Yeah connected on Twitter now and now sending each other emails. There’s different ways of, going about trying to establish some of that rapport and some of that early necessary. Oh my gosh. I love the chapter on, how your, how you and your dad talk about like this progression of eventually having dinner at their house.

Like this idea of like where you’re building relationships with someone. Oh, yes. Yeah. It’s you’re, you get to the point where you know the kids’ names and then eventually, you’re going on vacation together. And I’ll tell you that I don’t know if it’s, I’m just a relationship person, [00:38:00] but when I do these trips that you reference, I usually go to Costa Rica a few times a year.

And among other places, I don’t know, I think I do business with these people. Because we’re friends, but almost all of ’em are some of my largest clients. And we’re like going on family vacations together. We’re renting boats for the day, we’re going out sport fishing. And they feel so taken care of as it relates to the business side through that relationship building.

So for some people it might be like, oh, business and personal. But if you could get to the point where your best clients are people that you would go out for dinner with or go on vacation with, and just have that level of trust, it’s crazy. And again, I look back on my career and I say, wow, I could appreciate this.

But part of the reason I was doing it was because of my belief in what I learned some 15 [00:39:00] years ago when I read the book for the first time. You 

Amanda: know? I love that. Yeah. It was shocking for me coming into business and nobody would invite me to dinner with their kids and I was like, I was upset. I thought that was so rude of them because I thought that’s how business went.

But no, it was just how my father did business. I went to so many of the client meetings because that’s just how he was. Always so many people tell me, oh, I saw so many pictures of you growing up, I knew you were a singer. Yeah. Cuz my father would show my picture to everyone. But that was just another piece of him just building rapport.

He was all about relationships. I love that. I love that. That you go on vacations. That’s another one too. I go 

Kris Jones: on vacations. Most vacations I take are with. With clients. It’s funny, my, my wife jokes, we’ll be at we’ll be at a nice steakhouse or whatever in Costa Rica. And like most recently, [00:40:00] two families went with us.

Both of them were clients, just coincidental or whatever. And I am totally like fighting cuz I wanna pay this bill. And by the way, I paid that bill with personal funds. But just the funness was my wife saying, because all my, our kids are there, their kids are there. I think there were like 16 or 17 of us, to be honest with you.

Oh wow. And I grabbed for the bill. They grabbed for the bill and then my wife joked, she’s ah, that’s a business expense. And I was just like, certainly could, you certainly justify it. But when you get to that point, you know where you’re able to be in that position. Relationships Are certainly more important than the business.

And if it could get to that point where you’re still serving them and you’re giving the customer, the client, whatever your attention. I developed this thing. I don’t know if it’s, I say it and when I say it, I’m like, I’m not sure how many people would do this. I know my staff I’ve never asked them their opinion on it, but here’s what I do.

Cuz a lot of our clients [00:41:00] are friends of my personal friends. I will say to anybody who I’m friends with that wants to do business with me, I said, listen, I have a team. They’re gonna do most of the work. I said, but you’ll always have a back channel with me. And so I refer to it as a back channel.

I give every single one of my clients at L Seo O that I become friends with. And the hope is that I become friends with all of ’em, this back channel. And what that means is, and it’s only been used a few times, I can’t ever remember being fired or anything like that, but they’ll be like, Hey, I’ll just use someone’s name.

Amanda making that up. She isn’t, she comes a little bit late to her to, to the weekly standups or, I didn’t get our report last month. And then, I’ll be like, Frank, really? Appreci. We’ll take care of that and we’ll fix it. And I’m sure enough, I go to Amanda and I fix it.

So it’s this interesting dynamic that I have with some of these clients where, you know, as the founder of the company, they just feel [00:42:00] special that they have a back channel such that if they ever need to give, really straight advice or whatever, or feedback, which I’ve gotten sometimes, I’ve gotten some back channel on, how to handle, a departing employee.

Just as an example. This one of our clients, reached out and said, Hey, I just wanna give you some advice. They said, go for it. And they said, you could have done it this way. And I was like, wow. That’s the fact that we have that. And this is a client that’s been with us for five or six years.

Wow. So anyway, it’s all magical. When you could get to the point where it’s not just transactional, but you’re really, truly trying to serve people. You are. You’re willing to be unapologetic about how persistent, you are in the pursuit of success or in the pursuit of, following up.

It’s just all so cool, which is part of the reason like, I’m talking so much, but it’s really because I just, I truly, sincerely [00:43:00] from the bottom of my heart, believe that what you were able to take over on behalf of Chet Holmes, your pop is just such a profound opportunity, not only for those of us that have consumed it, but for you as well, and your team to be able to continue on.

I was saying in the, I was in like a executive meeting before this, and I just said a little bit. I was just like, she wasn’t a businesswoman, and I do remember your dad talking about you when, like, when I would see him speak and stuff and she wasn’t a businesswoman.

The first couple years were hard. She has this like spiritual side, like the whole my or the whole Florida thing that you shared in the book and stuff. And look it now, she is just crushing it. And you’ve got your spiritual side, that little, that aura, that center, that koi pond, that whatever it is, whi which I’ve kinda struggled with, when I public speak [00:44:00] sometimes I will I’ll, I will go off tangent just cuz I want to inspire or I want to encourage people to balance, success with, the 

Amanda: point of life, yeah. This, oh, I’ll have to send you, I just did a a talk for a bunch of billionaire investors on a Saturday. And I talked about mortality and I talked about death. Who staged. It was totally bizarre, but everyone loved it. And then I pulled out my guitar, and then I played, and I made everyone sing with me.

I made, I got buy-in, but it was freaking great. And there should be, and then I showed them, dream 100 and how they could double their sales in the next 12 months. And the messaging, but all of 

Kris Jones: that. So smart, and so brilliant, so cool, so fortunate that you’re, I not able to merge your, all those different things together.

Cool. That’s, yeah, that’s the fun part. And so hopefully for [00:45:00] both of us, we’re. We’re still in the early stages of what is gonna be, so much excitement over these coming years to just make a difference and to build things, scale things, which is just fun.

If you, if talk about mortality in theory, if you don’t grow, you pass, you die, and so progress in many ways equals happiness. As long as the progress you’re making, is purposeful for you and that you appreciate it and you’re grateful for it. In these coming years anything that I could do to be supportive of you and anybody in your universe on the one hand that’s just my nature, but I almost feel like I owe it.

I’ve benefited so much, that, that moment. So just so the folks that are listening, so probably about call it three or four years ago I wrote, I contributed an article to Inc Magazine where I just authentically talked about my favorite books, the books that have [00:46:00] had the biggest impact on me.

And sure enough, number one was the Ultimate Sales Machine. And sure enough Che Holmes’ daughter, Amanda Holmes, reads this and she’s who’s this guy? And again, this has to be, let’s see, 2019, this might be five years ago now. Yeah. At least because it was, I was in my former offices and this kind of thing and so you send me a DM on Twitter and you’re just like, Hey, Mr.

Jones, hey Chris. Thank you so much. And we went back and forth and talk about manifestation and just right place, right time. We continued to like chat and blurbs and some, at one point you said, Hey, and we’re gonna be working on a new addition of the book. And maybe we could take some of the stuff you said in your Ink article and maybe put it into, the book, into the testimony or whatever.

And the interesting thing is that wasn’t the first time I’ve ever had, I’ve probably had it 10 times where other authors will do this, but number one, there [00:47:00] is no certainty that you were ever gonna get to the point where you did get that addition out. But of course, you are who you are, so of course you did.

And then number two, I wanted to make sure that and again, not through any like effortful way, but I just wanted to That is cool. And then eventually you did it and then I bought the book, bunch of copies of the book, not knowing if it was even in there. And then I open it. Oh, I open up the book and there it is.

And it’s it’s just, it’s one of those things where for those that are folks that are listening, it’s don’t think that anything is too big to ever happen. You almost have to believe first off, you have to believe in yourself. Bar none. That’s just the most important thing in your capacity to do just about anything and to experience just about anything.

Don’t make it all about money. Make it about purpose and impact in these kind of things. But it’s crazy that once you believe in yourself, the serendipity and the coincidences that could happen. Like it’s really a small world when it comes [00:48:00] down to where you could find yourself unexpectedly, and I would put that moment where you reached out. As I’ve done some amazing things. I keynoted in front of 15,000 people. I’ve been on television, reality tv. I set a goal when I was a teenager who was poor single mom, that I was gonna be a millionaire by the time I was 30. That happened when I was like 22 or 23.

It’s like all of these things, but that moment where it’s just cuz I have been one of the best evangelists, best supporters for all the right reasons, nobody ever asked me to. But it’s because of the life’s work of your dad and now your life’s mission and work that is just so amazing and you get it all the time because of just how great this content is.

But you keep doing your thing too because you’re gonna be able to continue a legacy and you already are, but do it in your own way and do it in a way that just has great impact. It’s just it’s just so cool, [00:49:00] Amanda. And the thing is I can’t wait to like, watch over these coming years.

I hope you continue to play around with the music and Yeah. Do some crazy things from the stage. I hope to be be at some of those things and anyway that I could support you. I’m game, thank you. It’s a real honor to be able to build a relationship, a friendship, and, to associate myself with you.

Wish you nothing but the best, thank you. No, I’m not gonna go grab the guitar and start playing. I’m close. Maybe we should bring the don’t live in wanting. That’s just so cool. I just, it was wild. I just knew, I was just like, who? Like, how is it even possible that I had done that before you had reached 

Amanda: out?

So cool. That is wild. Wild. So for those that wanna find you online, where would they go? Look? 

Kris Jones: Yeah, to complete that thought real quick, cuz I know we’re at, we’re towards an end here. So what I do on a day-to-day basis is I’m in the accelerator at Wilkesboro and I think [00:50:00] it’s accelerator wb.com for people, business people out there that might be open to relocating tons of benefits to coming into the building.

We have something called the Keystone Innovation Zone, which if you’re qualified, you could get up to a hundred thousand dollars tax credit every year. These are things that Pennsylvania has put in place to try to attract businesses here. Oh. First, first year of rent could be free. It’s another program called the Spark Program, a partnership with us and the mayor of our town.

So anyway, accelerator Wilkesboro. I’m super transparent, like in social media, so LinkedIn Twitter, Instagram. And that’s 

Amanda: Christopher Jones with a 

Kris Jones: K? Yes. My name is Christopher with the K. My my handles are like K BJ Capital. That’s my investment fund. And yeah, that, that’s it. My digital marketing company that was referenced a few times, which has really benefited has generated tens upon tens of millions of dollars because of the ultimate sales [00:51:00] machine and have, and has acquired clients that include E S P N.

PayPal Ring Doorbell it’s unbelievable what we’ve been able to do together, Amanda over a long period of time. But L SEO is a three time finalists, the best SEO agency in the United States. People look at me as, particularly if you’ve raised capital because I’ve raised tens of millions in venture and I know that side and as a professional investor. So anybody that’s listening that, that has raised money or works for a company that’s raised money, I could help you think through the best way to to use those proceeds to, to grow and scale the business.

That’s l seo.com and that’s it. Wow. So many 

Amanda: places to find him, go find him. He’s magnificent. Obviously 

Kris Jones: we were meant by the way to, to to have had this. This recording, you were meant to [00:52:00] have reached out five, six years ago, which is hilarious that you reached out to me. I didn’t reach out to you because if I did, it would’ve been, I would’ve pursued you, but I didn’t have to manifested it.

But it’s super cool and I think for those people that are listening or watching or whatever, it becomes take a couple of the anecdotes that we both shared here and just believe in yourself and swing the bat. And if you miss Okay. Just keep swinging again. There aren’t, there are not three strikes in the ultimate sales machine.

Amanda: That’s a good one. Definitely way more than three. 

Kris Jones: Yeah. That might be the end. Right there. There are more than three. 

Amanda: There you go. Thank you everyone. And that is another episode of Your Weekly Desk, the Ultimate Sales Machine. Thank you. Fun was fun. Yeah. That was fantastic. You kidding me? 

Kris Jones: Yeah.

You, I also, it’s also true when you’re a, when you’re your authentic self, it’s like even doing TV [00:53:00] interviews and it just doesn’t matter. It’s if you could get closer to who you ultimately want to be, and I see that so much in you, and I’m so like, and that part of you that, that seems to be destined to always be centered and to be pure in what you’re doing is so cool because we just don’t see it that much in, in the corporate world, in the business world.

I love that part of you and so I’m glad that you reached out and that I showed a side of myself as well that, that has commonality with you in that pursuit of balance and that pursuit of gratitude instead of accumulation comes. When you stop focusing on scarcity, so many people live their life around protecting stuff, when or a fear.

And once you become closer to yourself, the crazy things that could happen are just so cool.

Amanda: If you’re enjoying the weekly dose of the Ultimate [00:54:00] Sales Machine, then you’ll love our new community program, the Ultimate Sales Machine Dojo, because business is more complex, more crowded, more difficult than ever before. 90% of executives believe that we’re about to hit a recession. So we have to truly avoid the shiny object syndrome.

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