In this brief five‑minute Business Blast Podcast episode, host SPEAKER A interviews Andrea Esquivel, CEO of Startup Now Consulting. Andrea shares her top business advice—set high goals but keep them attainable—to build confidence and steady growth. She explains her productivity system: maintaining extensive lists in Microsoft Word and Outlook, checking off tasks to ensure completion. Her favorite online business tool is Outlook/Word 365 because it’s universally available and integrates well with other platforms. For physical health, she stresses realistic goals; for mental health, she links exercise and proper nutrition to well‑being. When asked about happiness, she humorously says the key is “listening to your mother.” The same advice she’d give her younger self. Andrea admits she rarely reads business books, preferring podcasts like Tony Robbins’ “Wantrepreneur” to stay focused on practical business execution. Her favorite quote is “I am Beyoncé, always,” from Michael Scott on The Office, symbolizing confidence. The episode ends with a prompt for listeners to find her online.
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Alright everyone, welcome back to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm with Andrea, the CEO of Startup Now Consulting, and as you all know, the podcast is only 5 minutes, so we'll dive in right now. The first question I have for you, Andrea, is what's your best piece of business advice?
Oh, my best business advice, um, it's basically setting your goal high, um, is always great. But you also wanna set attainable goals. And I noticed that with a lot of my clients, they don't do that. They kind of see, set a big goal thinking that that can be attained right away. And, but really, you know, the key to confidence when you're in business is setting attainable goals. So that would be probably my business advice.
Yeah, I agree. You don't go from 10 grand to a million. You can go from 10 grand to 100 grand and you build it up. And that's just in a financial sense, but, and what's the number one thing you do to increase your productivity?
I keep a lot of lists. It's, I'm a list taker. I'm big with Word and Outlook. So I just keep the long list for all of my clients and I kind of have them do the, I ask them to do the same thing. And you know, at the end of the day, you just gotta check off everything that you did. I don't— it makes a huge difference and I don't know why. I mean, you can talk about something all day, but the fact is, is it actually getting done? So when you have it written down, you know, you can see, you can actually see, okay, this is what I thought of today and it actually did or didn't get done and you can save it for the next day.
And what's your favorite online business tool?
You know, there's a ton of them out there, but I have to say that when I'm working with somebody new, Outlook, the Word 365, I love it because because, you know, everyone has it. And so yeah, that's the one I have to say that I can't live without is Outlook, which is funny because again, I know that there's lots of tools out there, but that's the most basic one that everyone can get.
Yeah, no, that's awesome. I'm more of on the Google Drive side and that stuff, but I do like Outlook as well.
Right, well, they all interact and that's what I love about it. It's all interactive.
And what's your number 1 tip for increasing your physical health?
Physical health, again, it's just kind of keeping your goals realistic. I mean, that's kind of when it comes to all this stuff, you know, it's just keeping stuff that's attainable. And so for physical health, you know, I just, you know, you dive into it and you don't really set goals that are unattainable and go from there.
And what about your number one tip for increasing your mental health?
Mental health is actually goes along with physical. So I believe For mental, that you do need to, you know, you need to exercise and care for yourself. Food and exercise to me is the most important to mental health. Like, it all just goes hand in hand. So that's highly important for mental health, is just to be healthy, eating the right foods and making sure you're working out.
And in your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
The key to happiness? Oh geez, that one has me stumped. It's probably listening to your mother. Spanish.
I love that answer. That's awesome.
Yeah.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would it be?
Same thing. Listen to my mom. Just listen to her. I was a stubborn child, so I think if I was more receptive in my teens and 20s, I'm positive it would have made my life a lot easier.
I agree with you. I went through some similar stuff, I think. And what's the best business book you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
You know, I feel guilty to say this, but I don't get the luxury to read very often. So I have never read a business book, unfortunately. But I do, what I do in lieu of that is listen to podcasts in my car. So my favorite one is like Tony Robbins, the wantrepreneur that he talks about. And again, it's getting lost in the fun aspects of business, but not actually making the money and doing the due diligence of what you need to do to get your company off the ground. So it just helps you stay focused.
Yeah, no, I'm with you. And I actually, I only do like audiobooks, so I don't, I'm not hating on that at all. I feel you.
Right. Okay.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is, "I am Beyoncé, always." And that's by Michael Scott from The Office. We have this postcard of this on the fridge here at my house, and I'm not sure where it came from or how it even ended up there, but I think my best best friend put it there. But, um, you know, you know, if you think you're Beyoncé, you can do pretty much anything.
I agree. And, uh, perfect time, we got 8 seconds left. Where's the best place for people to find you online?
It would be on www.startupnow. The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.
