Helping start a business is already quite a task even when you have years of experience. But it was even more challenging for Amanda Ketcham, CEO of My Mountain Mover.
For Amanda, the opportunity to lead a company that connects U.S. healthcare practices with Filipino medical virtual assistants (VAs) came when she was only 22 years old, fresh out of college and with little experience in leadership or management. As a 22-year-old CEO, feeling like an imposter compounded the fear of failure, the latter being a given part of starting a business. Six years later, at 28 as of writing, she has not only grown into the role but also helped turn what was once an intimidating undertaking into a company that continues to grow under her leadership.
During a recent webinar hosted by The Stevie Awards, Amanda joined fellow female CEOs to talk about fear, confidence, delegation, decision-making, and what it actually takes to continue growing when you don’t always know what comes next.
Here are three pieces of wisdom she imparted during the hour-long conversation.
1. Focus on the Next Best Thing
Stepping back and looking at something from afar is often good advice when a task becomes too overwhelming. But when Amanda was starting out, constantly looking at the bigger picture only made an already intimidating responsibility feel much bigger. So she went back to the advice her parents gave her:
“Just do the next best thing. What does today look like? What can I accomplish today? How can I serve the people around me today?”
Rather than looking at every challenge as one big problem that needs an immediate resolution, Amanda learned to break things down into smaller, bite-sized chunks, giving her something she could actually work on in that moment instead of worrying about problems she couldn’t necessarily solve yet.
Apart from that, she talked about the concept of “The Gap Versus The Gain,” where you look at where you are and focus on how far you still have to go, or look behind you and recognize how much progress you’ve already made. “I try to look back at the last six years and say, okay, what are the wins? What impact have I made on my staff, on the company, on the communities around us?” she elaborated.
Amanda herself knows that there will always be more for leaders to learn and do. However, looking at what you can do for today and recognizing the smaller wins along the way can give you a bit more confidence when the bigger goal feels unobtainable.
2. Learn to Delegate
As a leader, it can be tempting to handle everything. But as your company grows, the responsibilities you’re handling don’t necessarily have to remain in your bucket forever.
Yes, delegating can be difficult, especially when you’ve been the one responsible for them from the very beginning. But doing more than you should may do more harm than good because doing everything yourself also means spending less time on the responsibilities where you’re most needed.
Amanda understands this very well, which is why My Mountain Mover follows the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS) approach, and one of its concepts that she swears by is “Delegate & Elevate.”
As she explained, “What are the three or four things that only I can do? And that’s where I need to focus my time.” This is what she calls “Superpowers.” Knowing what you’re good at will make identifying what you should delegate easier because you can filter out the tasks a trusted team member can do on your behalf.
3. Use Your Brain, But Don’t Forget the Heart
Running a company doesn’t just mean knowing the answers. It also means making decisions even when you don’t know them. When Amanda makes an ambitious plan for My Mountain Mover, she doesn’t just make her team work toward making it happen. She first looks at what she does know.
According to Amanda, “I like to look at the data. So what were the economic trends of the last year? What’s actually feasible for our organization?”
Relevant numbers will help you understand not only what you realistically can do but also what initiatives make sense for the time being. However, Amanda also doesn’t believe that data should be your only guide in running your business.
In her words, “Your vision is the brain. It’s where you’re going; it’s how you’re going to make money. Your mission is your heart. It’s the heart and soul of why you exist.” For Amanda, business leaders need both.
Once she and her team understand the numbers and where the company is heading, she starts to think about why everyone should work toward it. The same balance also comes into play when Amanda receives advice or feedback from other people.
She recognizes that as the CEO, she knows the company’s vision and mission better than anyone. However, she also knows that running a business means serving customers, which makes listening to what other people have to say equally important.
According to Amanda, she tries to filter that feedback by asking herself two questions: “Is this helpful? And is this true?”
Not every piece of advice necessarily needs to change the direction of your company. However, being willing to listen can help you determine whether there’s something useful you should take from it.
Sometimes, You Just Have to Do It Scared
Amanda has been leading My Mountain Mover for six years now. But the confidence she has today wasn’t something she had when she first started. At 22, she didn’t have years of experience she could use as proof that she knew exactly what she was doing. As she recalled, “There’s no confidence, there’s no experience that you can bet on.” So, instead of waiting until she felt completely ready, she learned to become more comfortable with the possibility that something might not work.
One mindset that helped was looking at FAIL as a “first attempt in learning.” According to Amanda, being curious about failure can help you understand what went wrong instead of simply treating the experience as something negative. That’s particularly important when you’re building something because there will always be decisions you’ve never made before. Some will work. Others won’t.
And sometimes, you simply won’t know which one it will be until you try.
