In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Andia Winslow, a multi‑disciplinary professional who has excelled as a golfer, skeleton athlete, fitness coach, artist, and voice‑over talent. Andia shares a series of walking‑centric stories—from trekking a mountain in Arizona to commuting on foot in New York City and a three‑hour beach walk in Los Angeles—that illustrate how walking became a meditation, a tool for resourcefulness, and the spark for a community hiking group called Straight Trippin'. She emphasizes the importance of career pivots, describing how she weaves together seemingly disparate skills into a cohesive personal brand. Her core business advice centers on curiosity, continuous study, mentorship, experimentation, and a food‑plate metaphor about seeking opportunities versus waiting for abundance. Andia defines happiness as freedom—freedom to experiment, play, and improve daily. She cites "Tuesdays with Morrie" as a formative book and shares two favorite quotes: Jackie Robinson’s reminder that a life’s value lies in its impact on others, and a humorous floor‑metaphor about resilience. The episode concludes with her online handles and a plug for her A‑DUB 365 YouTube series.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. ¡Hola!
¿Cómo estás?
All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Andea Winslow. She is an athlete, artist, adventurer, and activist. So welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me, Tyler.
Of course, thanks for joining us, uh, and we'll dive in. The first question I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I'm going to have to go with the theme of walking. It's not a particular story. It's a series of stories. And there are critical moments in my adulthood where I didn't have access to a car or other mode of transportation, whether that be because I didn't have the money or just had to walk. And the first is in 2007. I had just moved to Arizona, just turned professional in golf. I secured a job at a golf course, but I didn't have a car yet. And my workplace was on the other side of this mountain. And so I thought, oh, I don't have a car, I'll just walk over the mountain. Well, it turns out that that mountain was about 2.5 hours long from my home door to door to my workplace. So during that first week and a half of walking over the mountain to work and walking home, not only did I get in the best shape of my life, but I was the most at peace I had been in adulthood to that point. And it just really solidified my love of hiking. So I was like, all right, walking, that's a thing. And then in 2012, after a season of being a developmental athlete, living up at Lake Placid, the Olympic Training Center, I was training for a sport called skeleton. I moved down to New York City after the season, and I had no money. I was completely broke like most Olympic athletes. People don't know that we don't have any money. I had no job. I had no money for train fare. And so I walked the city. I walked the city every day. I learned the city. I was inspired by the city. I saw the neighborhoods change from block to block. So it was essentially location scouting. And as an artist, I made these short films that were essentially love letters to the city and the people of New York. And these videos went viral online and were featured by Forbes and South by Southwest and New York Times and CNN. So again, walking is a theme of resourcefulness. And then finally last year, I moved to Los Angeles and I just wanted to learn my new neighborhood. So I walked to the beach, which is about 2 hours and 45 minutes away, about 3 hours away. And I loved it. And so I told all my neighbors about the story of this walk and my other friends who were in LA and they thought, you're crazy, you're straight trippin'. Nobody walks in LA. And that was the birth of a walking and hiking group called Straight Trippin'. It's been featured by REI and other outdoor outlets. So it's been a theme of walking as meditation and walking as transportation. And it's really taught me about the value of resourcefulness, the benefit of things not working out, and about really most, most importantly, seeking out adventure and following your intuition. So where might this road lead? And let's just set out and find out.
Wow, that is an incredible story. And I have to chime in real quick because you're talking to somebody who is a crazy walker. I walk like every, every morning. I live down in Miami and I walk every morning down the beach like 2 hours. So I— walking is a theme and it is so helpful for so many things.
Oh yeah.
So that just really like rung true for me. So thanks for sharing that story.
Definitely.
And next question I have for you is what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that is within your expertise or industry?
I'd say the value of the pivot. So I live and work as a professional between industries. I'm a golf professional, fitness professional, sports coach, adventurist, aventurer, I'm a voiceover artist, and I'm an artist. So as a creative, I bring these seemingly disparate ideas and activities together. And I would say that my experience as a world-class athlete led me to kind of desire to understand the marriage between science and performance. So then I sought out understudy positions and continuing education opportunities and became a master certified fitness professional. And then as an artist inspired by sport and movement of the human body, I made these films about wellness and community engagement. And then as a fitness professional and sports coach, I'm on the mic often commanding attention to my athletes or my clients. And so now as a voiceover artist, which essentially is the voice of the unseen narrator speaking, I'm harnessing the power of voice to motivate audiences and consumers to move or to buy or to not buy or to be moved. And it's a really strange way for all these things all to come together, basically by pivoting and seeing where the commonalities lie.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?
Hmm, I'd say whether you have a solitary focus or you're like me, you're a polymath, You've got to really discover the things that intrigue you and challenge you. And then from there, you have to research your craft or your crafts. You got to seek out programs. You got to seek out mentors, advisors who can assist you in your professional development. But at the end of the day, you've got to be prepared to study. You've got to fail. You've got to be prepared to and excited by experimentation. And you just have to do the work. There's really no exception to this rule. And then the other thing I'd like to say, just because I love food and any kind of food analogy is, You've got to realize that what's on someone else's plate has nothing to do with you, absolutely nothing to do with you. And if your plate is full, you got to feast. But if you're hungry, you got to go out and hunt and gather for opportunities. It's all up to you.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Don't eat that extra burrito. It'd be an exclamation. It'd be, you know, don't question the route. The adventure will be worth it.
And it might kind of tie in, but in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
For me, happiness is freedom. It's freedom to, freedom from, freedom to experiment, freedom to play, freedom to adventure, freedom to really just better myself on a daily basis.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
So my parents are both bibliophiles. So growing up, they were having us read everything from a pamphlet to a book. Just read. Just make sure you read. So I really enjoyed biographies. I enjoy tactical works. But a book that resonates with me no matter the stage of my life has been Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom, because it's an intimate look at humanity. Personal relationships, and I guess lessons on how to really just live. And there was a time in my life where I was a primary caregiver for my terminally ill grandfather, and it was probably the most intense experience of my life to date that I think I'll one day write about. But until then, I'm going to keep gifting Mitch's book because it's just so solid.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
That's a tough question. I've got a lot of them. But the two that I think live with me on a daily basis, the first one is, and this is actually apropos time-wise, Jackie Robinson Day was just on Sunday, April 15th. And his quote is, in Major League Baseball, his quote is, "A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." So basically, we're all interconnected. We're here together. We've got to work together to make the world a more equitable and just place. And the second one is kind of comedic. And it's, I'll be there when you fall, floor. Because, you know, if you fail to achieve something, you know, you just got to get up and do it again or do it differently. There's security in that floor being beneath us. I think sometimes people think they're going to fall and like go into the, you know, some space where they'll never be able to recover. But the floor is there. It's hard, it's solid. You just push off and start again.
Yes. Andia, thank you so much for coming on. I am truly in love with this episode. I just have one last question for you before we let you go, and that is, where's the best place for people to find you online?
They can find me online at my websites, andiawinslow.com and andiavoicover.com. On social, IG, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and the rest, @AndiaWinslow. On YouTube, we have a lot of fun stuff out there, A Dub 365. That's A-D-U-B 365. Awesome.
Thank you so much for coming on again. We appreciate it.
Thank you. Take care.
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