In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Enana (Inanna) Vega, a professor and coach who helps high‑performers use English more powerfully in their professional lives. Vega shares a personal story of developing a disability in her 20s, how she defied medical expectations by gradually rebuilding mobility, moving to Spain, and using immersion in a new language to trigger a full recovery—drawing a parallel to building a business step by step. She explains that while basic English instruction is saturated, advanced learners need specialized private coaching in Business English or English for Special Purposes. Her core business advice is simple: never stop; persistence prevents failure. She tells her younger self that the past doesn’t dictate the future—present choices matter. Vega defines happiness as taking on a manageable, tangible burden and learning to carry it gracefully, reflecting a stoic outlook. The book that most impacted her is Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Antifragile, which taught her to embrace disorder and discard perfectionism, a lesson she illustrates with her favorite quote: “Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness; the resilient resists shocks and stays the same, the antifragile gets better.” Finally, she provides contact information—her website EnglishForBusyHumans.com, email, and LinkedIn—emphasizing personalized, one‑on‑one connections.
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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.
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Anana Vega. She is a professor of English confidence and coaches high performers how to negotiate their professional lives by using English more powerfully. Welcome to the show.
Thank you.
Of course. Grateful to have you here. We'll dive into the first question. The first one I have for you, Anana, is what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, it's hard to choose just one, but when I was in my 20s, I developed a disability and spent about 5 years being unable to work or really get around much at all. The doctors had said that there wasn't a cure and that I should just adapt. But I didn't want to. I had stuff I wanted to do, especially travel, and I was just dead set on traveling to Spain. So I spent 2 years working my way up to being able to walk a mile. I began by walking just a few meters, then to the street corner, then around the block, you know, gaining strength the whole time. And finally, against the advice of absolutely everyone, I moved to Spain where I had to walk everywhere. And it was walking and I believe the change of environment, but especially the use of a new language, which changed my brain and led to a full recovery. But the key was to ignore the negative expectations of even the experts and to determine that I would indeed be well again, one tiny step at a time, which is kind of like building a business.
Yes, I love that. Congratulations as well.
Thanks.
The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
The English second language field is a fairly new industry, but at the lower levels of instruction where the majority of students are, there's already a saturation of excellent programs. Yet, once a person has advanced and developed some fluency and proficiency, their needs are more unique to their situation. So, at these advanced levels, private instruction makes a lot of difference. So, the thing to look for, for those wanting to really use English to advance their ambitions, is an experienced specialist in either Business English or English for Special Purposes.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
If you want to build something, just don't stop. Don't give up, don't quit, just keep doing it. I love this advice because it's truthful, but it's really, really simple. If you don't want your business to fail, you just don't stop doing it.
Yes, I agree. Isn't it? It's like, it is, it can be like some areas are complex, but at the end of the day, like the simplest thing is like, just don't stop. You know, like, yeah, absolutely. The next one I have for you is, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
The past is not the sole determiner of what happens today and tomorrow. It has a lot more to do with the choices we make right now. My younger self tended to expect more of the same, whereas Even just a small amount of applied effort changes the whole game board.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
It's counterintuitive, but I found that real happiness lies in picking up a burden, something in your immediate environment that you can reach, that you can do, that's large enough to actually be rather heavy or burdensome. And learning how to successfully and gracefully carry it. I'm a bit of a stoic.
Oh, I like it. And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
That would be Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It was enlightening to come across it. Because I was quite the perfectionist to the point of self-sabotage. So it was a life-changing revelation to see that just by setting aside ridiculous ideals, unattainable order, unattainable perfection, that my position was actually strengthened.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
Well, it's from the same book by Taleb. It's Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same. The antifragile gets better. And what I love about it is the idea of getting better by sustaining a shock or a trauma. And that, that really resonates with me.
Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?
Well, I value keeping things simple and personalized, getting to know people one-on-one. So both email and LinkedIn connections allow that sort of interaction. My website is EnglishForBusyHumans.com and my email is the same, enana@EnglishForBusyHumans.com. And you can also add me as a connection on LinkedIn @EnanaVega.
Perfect. Thank you again for joining us.
Thank you so much.
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