You wouldn’t know it to speak with her, but Amanda Zwanziger used to have stage fright and a fear of public speaking.

Today, the new director of business development for Kraus-Anderson’s Des Moines office thrives at speaking publicly and building relationships that can only happen through face-to-face communication. The Minneapolis-based construction management and real estate development company opened its Des Moines office at 100 Court Ave. in 2004.

Zwanziger joined Kraus-Anderson in February after serving as the executive director of the Indianola Chamber of Commerce for three years. She acknowledges that her career trajectory may not make sense.

She also had a consulting business, RightHand LLC, for about six years where she advised organizations on growth strategy. And right out of college, Zwanziger worked for German technology company Siemens.

An industrial engineering major in college, she knew she wasn’t going to pursue the career long term.

“But my mother begged and pleaded with me to just get the degree,” Zwanziger said. “Around that time there were a couple of people who graduated the year before me as sales engineers, and I was like, ‘What is that like?’ They said they engineer what they sell, so that is all I interviewed for and I got the job at Siemens right out of college. I was there for 10 years. It’s a fantastic company, and a great career start, but I was just ready for something new.”

That led her to ITA Group, where she spent seven years. Although she loved working there and the job took her around the world, the travel caused her to miss a lot of family time, which eventually led her to start her consulting business.

“I decided at the time I wasn’t wanting to do the corporate ladder climbing thing,” Zwanziger said.

Along the way, her faith has guided a ministry that started after her husband was involved in a four-wheeler accident in 2015, which left him paralyzed on the right side of his body. What she said was his miraculous recovery, along with the people she met during his treatment, inspired her to help others who are experiencing challenges, whether it is physical or emotional.

That ministry has led Zwanziger to write a book and to do coaching and public speaking engagements as she looks to her faith to help others. She also has taken her message to the Mitchellville Correctional Institution for Women, an experience she described “as one of the most heartwarming and important things I’ll ever do in my life.”

The Business Record sat down with Zwanziger to learn more about her journey, her ministry and her new position at Kraus-Anderson. Her answers have been lightly edited for clarity and brevity. 

How has your prior career experience prepared you for your new role at Kraus-Anderson?

I’m a big believer in relationships, and what I love about this  job is that I’m still able to go out and connect with people. My favorite part of the job at the Chamber was going out and having coffee and lunches, not just getting work done but also getting to know people. My job just isn’t a job. My job is a ministry, too. I really feel fortunate. This company is amazing and right off the bat they respected and acknowledged this line that I drew that I want to work for you but I need this space for this personal mission that I’m unwilling to give up. One of the things I’ve learned is you can step in and out of things and it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to go in a straight line, and the other thing it has shown me is each step, even though very different from each other, they have fed each other. You just take your experiences at each location and then you apply it in a new way. That’s been the cool part.

What attracted you to your new role?

I’ve never been a part of the construction industry before from the ground up. I’ve been part of building renovation, energy efficiency improvements, but building something from the ground up excited me. But that’s also what I like to do with my career, is build things from the ground up. I’m not a person who enjoys rinse and repeat, but being able to be part of something like Kraus-Anderson where they have been doing work in Iowa for 40 years. They planted the flag of this office two years ago. We’re able to come in here like a startup and build something from the ground up. This job in itself is being able to take something that is still a little bit more in its infancy and help grow this to an office that is three to four times the size it is right now. That is exciting for me.

What are your goals in this position?

Short term, I would say first is getting connected. Having those conversations. I’ve been involved in Des Moines since the early 2000s at least. I did all those leadership and young professional things and was super engaged and connected. Then I was down in Indianola doing my leadership down there, so being able to come back up here and just reconnect with people, make those connections, that’s my short-term goal. Long term, my goal is I want Kraus-Anderson to have that brand recognition. I also have a new ministry that I’m building, and I want to get connected with the right people so that it launches into what it should be. I will not be launching alone. 

Please describe your ministry and how it started.

My husband was in a four-wheeler accident in 2015. He was fully paralyzed on the right side of his body. And we had a miracle. We went from having no movement on the right side of his body after day four to walking down the hallway, dancing a jig with a walker on day 10. We witnessed something that was pretty unbelievable. It would have been about a year later when just having gone through my own life of recognizing areas in my life where I was paralyzed and I was stuck. Traveling the world is a great example. I suffered probably a full year of anxiety being away from my family, and I suffered through it because I thought it was my only option. I was supposed to be climbing the corporate ladder, making all this money, and it took me to adopt this mindset that it’s not impossible to find success in a different way that would open up an avenue for me to be happy in both worlds. I realized there was this powerful connection with the people we met in the rehabilitation hospital. The one thing you learn from people who are physically paralyzed, or honestly anyone who is going through a physical battle, is there is just a hope and belief and a determination and a faith that you’re going to overcome, and without that we’ve given up hope and it’s impossible for them to overcome. So, my ministry is a message of inspiring people that the miracle is here for us to just take a hold of.

What is the new ministry you are launching?

One of the things I discovered doing my ministry was that this was being laid on my heart and I just really felt called to be able to share this hopeful message, and to go through this process of not feeling qualified and not feeling like I had the resources to help me. So, that gave me the idea for the future ministry to equip and inspire the ministry-preneur that’s in all of us. In my world that’s through my Christian faith, which calls for us to be disciples. One of the things I identified when I was at the Chamber was a lack of volunteer mentality. We have these churches full of people and it’s nothing against the church and nothing against the people, it’s that they don’t know how or what they should do. So this ministry is almost matchmaking them with things that fit them and then inspiring those people to go out and be the people in our community that we really need.

What is something about you people may not know?

For probably 30 years of my life I struggled with severe stage fright. At Siemens, I sold security systems to the prisons. We had a huge presentation to the Department of Corrections. My mentor at Siemens was my safety net and would encourage me and tell me I could do it. He made me do it. He made me fly. I walked out there and it went well. Now, there’s nothing I love more than speaking. It’s a passion of mine. I love it. It’s not necessarily the speaking itself that I love. It’s just inspiring people to think differently about their lives.

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At a glance

Hometown: Indianola

Family: Married with five children

Education: Degree in industrial engineering from Iowa State University

Activities: Golfing, fishing, boating, spending time with family, being outdoors.

Contact: amanda.zwanziger@krausanderson.com