In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Dan Gibson, co‑founder of CoreLock. The conversation opens with a personal anecdote about Dan’s grandfather teaching him on a spiral staircase that staying still means falling behind, a lesson that fuels his drive. Dan then shares industry insight, explaining that contrary to common belief, paper pallets and crates are not cheaper than wood, drawing a parallel to how gasoline engines outpaced electric ones due to value‑proposition timing. He outlines his core business philosophy: never accept ideas at face value, dig deeper, and experiment—principles that guided the creation and patenting of CoreLock. When asked for advice to his younger self, he stresses experimenting more and failing fast. On happiness, he argues that setting hard, challenging goals yields greater fulfillment than easy achievements. Dan recommends Ray Dalio’s Principles, highlighting its early discussion of AI’s role in business and how it can be a positive force rather than a doom scenario. He also shares a favorite quote—a Scottish prayer from his grandfather urging intelligence and wisdom, which continues to guide him. The episode closes with CoreLock’s website (corelock.com) and Dan’s email (dan@corelock.com) for listeners to connect.
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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 makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite 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 Dan Gibson with us. He's the co-founder of CoreLock. So welcome to the show, Dan.
Thank you, thanks for having me.
Of course, thanks for, uh, coming on. So, uh, we'll kick it off with the first question. The first question I have for you is, what's the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Spanish. Yeah, I mean, probably the one that stands out to me the most is, you know, I was about 8 years old. My grandfather just had kind of a way of making things somewhat profound, also just left you guessing. And so I was about 8 years old, I came creeping up on him on the spiral staircase in their A-frame house. And my grandfather, of course, caught me, asked me to stand at attention, and then grabbed the globe as he kind of turned toward me and told me at ease, you know, and basically went on and told me about the fact that the world spun and that if I was sitting still, that I was actually falling behind, that I wasn't just sitting still. And so I think that always inspired me to keep moving and to never sit idle.
Very cool. And what's the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Yeah, yeah, this is something that I think is, is interesting. So if you're completely outside of the industry, um, I would say that you would make the assumption that a paper pallet or paper crate, something like that, would be, would be cheaper than wood. And, um, but that, you know, anybody within the industry would know that that's not the truth. And There's some interesting underlying factors there, but it very much plays into similar reasons why I would believe that, you know, a gasoline engine took off faster than an electric engine. And so it's kind of— I think there's many things in the industries right now, if you can find those nuggets that, you know, maybe a technology that was birthed around the same time but just didn't have value because of the value proposition due to technology. I think we're finding now that some of those things are catching up and open for a new way of looking at it.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice, not necessarily industry-specific?
Yeah, so I think probably my best advice and something that I truly try to live by, it's the way I, I guess, came across Corelok and patented the product in the first place is Just not taking really people's word for things, really digging into them. I've never been one to just like read a book and say, you know, that must be the only way it's done. I tend to, you know, if something my grandfather told me as well as, you know, you know, in like he would have this little Scottish prayer for me. He would say like, you know, Daniel, I pray that you're, I pray that you're smart, most of all wise, and that you know the difference. And then he would follow that up typically with like, you know, intelligence can be read, but wisdom can either be experienced or absorbed. And so, you know, I just encourage people anywhere to absorb it, like really go out and try to do the experiment because there's so many underlying things. Like in the book, you're only getting one specific detail of what they were after. And so sometimes you can just take a much broader scope and you might find something hidden and underlying that you might not have experienced or been exposed to if you hadn't done the physical experiment yourself.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
I think it would be experiment more, right? Just go out there and test things more and try things more and fail, fail faster. I think that's pretty common. But yeah, definitely, definitely would do that.
And, and kind of go a little slightly different path. In your opinion, what's the key to happiness?
Yeah, so I, you know, I think that's always a tricky question. But I think no matter where you're at in your life, you know, financially doesn't always make you happy. But I think having good goals and trying to accomplish them, if they're too easy, I think the gratitude or the happiness you feel after achieving them never quite, quite, you accounts for it. So I would definitely go with like setting hard to obtain goals for yourself and then striving to try to reach those goals.
And what's the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Yeah, so I mean, I read quite often. I read a lot of books. You know, recently Principles I thought Ray Dalio did a great job. It was a fantastic book, and it was so much more than what you thought it would be. You know, like, it's a very intriguing book. I don't know if you've read that book or not, but I'm actually in the middle of it. Yeah, so I thought one of the things, like, a big takeaway for people from that book is the fact that it's got probably a little bit of an early blueprint of how AI and artificial intelligence and the business world can work in conjunction together. And I thought that was important. I thought that stood out to me as kind of pioneering that, where not a lot of people are talking about that in a light way. I feel like there's a lot more of how it can doomsday and ruin society. Rather than the good that it can bring to a company like that.
And what's your favorite quote and why?
Yeah, so I think I kind of already brought that up, but I love the quote that my grandfather would tell me about the kind of the little Scottish prayer that I pray that you were smart Most of all, be wise, but yeah, you know, know the difference. I think that stands out to me as something that's always guided me.
Yes, man, thank you so much for coming on, Dan. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where's the best place for people to find you online?
Yeah, so corelock.com, we just launched the website, and you can email me at dan@corelock.com.
Awesome, thanks, Dan, we appreciate it.
Hey, thank you very much. Thanks. The podcast you just heard was recorded with Anchor. If you want to make your own, download the Android or iOS app completely free from anchor.fm/podcast. That's anchor.fm/podcast.
