While Amanda Howard earned her first real estate license in Chicago, her career truly took flight 22 years ago when she brought her vision and drive to the Rocket City, laying the foundation for what would become one of North Alabama’s most successful real estate brokerages.

With two young daughters at the time, Howard wanted stronger family support and relocated to Owens Cross Roads, where her parents lived, just outside of Huntsville.

Starting over in a new city with few local connections, Howard took a grassroots approach—pulling her young daughters along with her in a little wagon, visiting homes for sale by owners, and hosting open houses. Her hard work paid off when she earned Rookie of the Year in her first year as an independent agent.

She opened her brokerage—Amanda Howard Real Estate—in 2009 with a team-centric model and saw immediate success, growing by 30% in the first year. In 2018, Sotheby’s International Realty approached her, recognizing the strength of her brand and Huntsville’s potential as an emerging luxury market. This led to a partnership built on the Amanda Howard reputation and aligned with the prestigious Sotheby’s brand.

Today, Amanda Howard Sotheby’s International Realty operates as a midsize independent brokerage with about 50 productive agents. Howard recently sat down with the Huntsville Business Journal to share some of the ups and downs of her journey and insights learned throughout her career in real estate.

What do you enjoy most about being a business owner?

What I love the most is that you can control your schedule and your life. I really love supporting other people. I like seeing what they can do, hearing what their goals and dreams are.

How do you balance professional and personal life?

I think balancing personal and professional life is a myth because I fought for it so long and so hard in the earlier days, and I could never figure it out. I think that’s what’s also caused some burnout, because you’re always attempting to fit into something that you’re told you should be doing, but it doesn’t exist.

It’s more of a rhythm. You need to figure out your own rhythm in life. For my rhythm, I need to protect my morning time … and then the rest of the day I can spend with my businesses, my kids, my grandkids, my husband and extended family. We do so much in a day. It’s more about finding out what it is that you love and doing that.

What advice do you have for someone starting their own business?

Start with your why. What is it that you really want to do and accomplish or what solution are you solving? Whether it’s in health or real estate or engineering, you’re solving somebody’s problem. Figure out what your why is, and then solve that problem for them. Think about that first, because it helps you formulate your plan properly.

Then, have a mission statement and your core values. What are you willing to put up with, because it all starts with you. Whether you’re one employee, which is yourself, or you have 100 employees, you’re the leader and your values and your culture will stem from you.

Then it’s consistency. You have to show up every day, even if you’re tired, even if you’re sick, especially as you’re building and you have other people relying on you.

What is a challenge you’ve had in business, and how did you overcome it?

The biggest challenge in business, in my experience, is people. They’re your greatest asset—and at times, your greatest challenge—because you simply can’t control them. You need people to grow, yet many business owners are trying to build systems that eliminate the need for them, often as a response to dealing with a problem-person.

For a long time, I believed the issue had to be either me or the system. I’m big on self-reflection and accountability, so I would always start there. But over time, I realized that while it’s important to evaluate yourself and your systems first, about 95 percent of the time, the challenge really came down to another human choosing not to align with the vision or process.

The truth is, with the right people, everything gets better—regardless of the industry.

What is the secret to your success?

The secret to my success has been unwavering consistency. No matter what—whether it’s raining or shining, whether I’m sad or happy—I show up and focus on doing the things that are productive and move my business forward.

Another key part is a deep commitment to serving others. That desire to truly help people has always resonated with me and made me feel fulfilled. And I’ve seen that when I lead from that place of service and resilience, the business naturally continues to thrive and grow.

The final piece is staying teachable and open to growth. The moment you believe you know it all is the moment you stop evolving. I genuinely love learning—whether it’s through books, podcasts, or YouTube videos, I’m always looking for ways to improve.