In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Andrea Bednar, founder of PoP Associates, a global performance coaching firm. Andrea shares a formative personal story about discovering her father's hidden gay identity, emphasizing the importance of authenticity. She challenges the common focus on purpose by arguing that purpose alone is insufficient; what matters is how one acts on it. Her core business advice is to commit to hard work, as many desire success but avoid the effort. When reflecting on advice for her younger self, she urges relaxation and trust that outcomes will resolve in time. Andrea defines happiness as a two‑part practice: confronting reality as it is, not as our mind narrates, and extending forgiveness to self and others. She recommends Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind for understanding divergent viewpoints, and highlights a favorite quote—“It’s easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting”—to stress action over mere thought. The interview concludes with her contact information (@AndreaBednar on Twitter).
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All right, everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner, and today's sponsor is Flipboard. Flipboard curates the world's stories so you can be smarter in your work, life, and play. Choose from thousands of topics to personalize Flipboard and get the latest stories from the best publishers and experts delivered to you 24/7. So You can get started now at flipboard.com. And now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Andrea Bednar with us. She is the founder of Pop Associates. A global performance coaching and consulting firm which supports leaders in moving from vision and purpose to conscious doing and high performance. So welcome to the show.
Thanks, Tyler Wagner Wagner.
Of course, grateful to have you here. So Andrea, the first question we ask on the show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
This happened when I was 28, although I found out later it had been happening my whole life. When I was 28, I found out that my dad had been living a double life my entire childhood. And it really completely pulled the rug out from under my feet. It— I can't describe what it's like to find out that what everything you think about your life is completely based on something that's just a pretense, just a story. So it turned out that my dad was actually gay. But it wasn't the time period, it wasn't the time in history when you could say or tell anybody that you were gay. So he pretended that he was a straight guy, married my mom, had two kids, myself and my sister, and then ended up getting arrested for propositioning a male police officer. And what I learned out of that, there's a lot of learnings that came out of that. But one of the things that I learned was how important it is to actually be who you are. And that doesn't mean you always know who you are. Like, you know, like you don't know every aspect and life is about discovering, but to pretend to be somebody else will absolutely always catch up with you and people will get hurt. But most of all, you. It just doesn't— it's not worth it. Be yourself.
And then what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
A lot of people have purpose nowadays, you know, or they're looking for their purpose. So having your purpose, knowing a purpose, it's all fine. But here's the thing that most people are not looking at, and that is that having a purpose mostly does not matter. I mean, I'm sorry to say that because everybody's so big on that, but it doesn't matter. What matters is what you do with your purpose. And that I could say weeks of stuff on, but I'll leave it at that to ask people who are listening to think about that. Are you living and doing your purpose?
And then what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
You can do anything you want, but almost no one is willing to do the work to achieve it. Best piece of advice: do the hard work.
And then if you can give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Relax. Relax. Everything always turns out in the end. And if it hasn't turned out, it's not the end.
Yes, I love that. And then kind of going a little bit down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
You know, I think it's kind of a two-part thing. One is to deal with what's actually happening in front of you rather than what your head tells you, the story your head tells you about what's happening. And then the second piece of that is forgiveness of yourself and others. So being willing to deal with the world as it actually is rather than the way you think, and then being able to forgive. And I think you can be happy from there.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
I've read a lot of good books, but the most recent best book was The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt, and it really helped me understand and most importantly actually accept people who think very differently than I do.
And then what is your favorite quote and why?
It's easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting, by Miller and Fuller. And why I like that is because I think so many people go to their heads. They go The Secret, affirmations, all these things to think differently. None of that matters unless you are acting and doing.
Well, listen, thank you so much for coming on. The last one I got for you before we let you go is, where can our audience best find you online?
Well, lots of places, but easiest is @AndreaBednar on Twitter, and I would be happy to chat with anybody.
