In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Cory Warfield, the founder and CEO of Shedwool, a shift‑scheduling platform for businesses. Warfield recounts his 20‑year journey from washing dishes in a mountain town to managing multiple restaurants, culminating in the creation of Shedwool—a "schedule as a platform" solution that helps managers efficiently staff shifts and, in stealth mode, connects them with qualified temporary workers, addressing the evolving gig‑economy and millennial demand for flexible schedules. He shares his core business philosophy: act quickly, fail fast, seek advice, and pursue audacious goals. Warfield also reflects on personal growth, advising his younger self to love more, trust more, and try harder, and describes happiness as a "vibration" generated by kindness, success, or positive energy. He recommends the book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg as essential reading for entrepreneurs, highlighting LinkedIn as a key growth channel. His favorite quote, "Your network is your net worth," underscores his belief in teamwork. Finally, he directs listeners to find him on LinkedIn and learn more about Shedwool at shedwool.com or via app stores.
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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.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner, and today I have Corey Warfield with us. He is the founder and CEO of Shedwool, which is an employee shift scheduling, uh, helping businesses manage their staff most efficiently while empowering their team. After spending 20 years in restaurants living the pain points resulting from inefficient scheduling practices. So welcome to the show, man.
Thanks so much. I'm honored to be here.
Of course, grateful to have you here, Corey. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
That's a great question. I think I would probably go back about 20 years. I was kind of just a young crazy kid. I was traveling the country, not much stability. Ended up in a small mountain town living in a shack with a couple other guys needing a job. So I started washing dishes at a local restaurant, worked my way up to busboy and waiter, ended up working down the street, became certified as a sommelier. And over the course of the next 20 years, I worked my way through management, senior management. I had a number of restaurants under me. I went back to wait tables just because that's where the real money was. But, and then flash forward to today, 2 years ago, after living a bunch of pain points in working in restaurants in every capacity, I started Shedwell. And kind of to bring it full circle, the first restaurant that I was washing dishes at and got promoted to busboy in Telluride, Colorado actually uses Shedwell to schedule their staff. So it's been a kind of cool full circle.
And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Sure. So I would say that workforce is changing and technology has to change with it to support it. A lot of the millennials really like to kind of live on their own schedule. They're, they're the ones that are coming into the buying power and the employing power. So with Schedule as a platform, we not only empower managers to schedule their staff the most efficiently, but we're actually kind of in our stealth mode to enable and empower companies and managers to hire qualified temp workers through the platform to fulfill shifts as they need. and we see that as where, uh, you know, shift work as a whole, where the technology side of that is and where the gig economy is going. And, uh, you know, we love what a lot of people are also doing in this space, but we find that no one solved for that at all. So, uh, we think workforce is changing, the technology has to change with it, and we've created the platform, uh, on the most current tech stack possible that supports that.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice?
Best piece of overall business advice? I would say just go for it and ask for help and advice along the way. So they say most people, for 90% of people, fail their big, their big, hairy, audacious goal at the exact same time, and that's right before they start. So I say go for it, fail fast, fail forward, learn as you go. There's no time to start like the present.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Gosh, if I could give my younger self a lot of advice, I would do it. If I could give just one piece, I'd say to love more, trust more, and try harder. I really think that that would have served me well. And I think once I realized that tenet to love more, trust more, and try harder, that really helped me level up as a human being, both professionally and personally.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Oh, my opinion. The key to happiness, I would say, is really a vibration. And a good vibe can be created in any different number of ways. So I think by being, being kind or understanding or helpful, can be a really good vibration that brings happiness. I think being successful or wealthy to whatever degree, or whatever that means to one, is a good vibration that can yield happiness. But really, I think that the distillate is just the vibration. I think happiness is a vibration. I think that it is something that can be felt, that can be reciprocated, and that is vibratory. So that's my answer, final answer.
Yeah, I love that. That was awesome. And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Gosh, well, again, I'm going to shout out a couple that I really like. I just actually had a book review of mine published in Ink Magazine, shouting out Carrie Luxem from Lincoln's book, The Restaurant Operator's HR Playbook. I love that for anyone in hospitality or anyone in HR. I also was a brand ambassador for Daymond John from Shark Tank and his new book, which is amazing as well. He had his first— not first, but one of his books, The Power of Broke, was amazing. And then this new book, Rise and Grind, I highly recommend. But I say that I kind of gave a bronze and silver medal to say that, although I want to say The Lean Startup and often did, Right now in my world, and the book I recommend to anyone that's kind of in the entrepreneurial space is Traction by Gabriel Weinberg. It is, to me, almost a Bible. It's, I recognize LinkedIn is my traction channel after going through some exercises. I do speaks and I do a bunch of consulting and mentoring. And I recommended that book Traction by Gabriel Weinberg to a lot of people. Every single person's come back just raving, it has changed their business life. So Traction by Gabriel Weinberg, best book I've read. And I think, yeah, LinkedIn. I think for me, what I got out of it is LinkedIn and how to use it, but I think anyone would get something different and relevant to them by reading that book.
Amazing, I have not read that one, so I'm gonna put that on my list.
You have to.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
My favorite quote is that your network is your net worth, and because it's really all about the team. None of us got where we are by ourselves. We've all had people help us along the way, and The first time I heard that, your network is your net worth, it blew my mind. So that's my favorite quote.
Yes, man. 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?
First, second, and third best place to find me online is LinkedIn. I'm active on LinkedIn. Everyone that engages with me, I engage right back with them. And then best place to find out about ScheduleOnline is either the app stores Or simply online, shedwool.com, S-H-E-D-W-O-O-L.com. It's a play on the word schedule, and it's the best way to schedule your staff.
Awesome, man. Thank you again for joining us.
Really appreciate it. You are more than welcome. It was a pleasure to be on.
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