What happens when life completely reroutes you from the plan you thought was set in stone? That’s the powerful question explored in the latest episode of the podcast featuring Cory Blumenfeld — a man who was once on the fast track to becoming a doctor but ended up charting a wildly different course as a successful startup founder. But don’t expect a clichéd “left med school and built an app” story. Cory’s journey is layered, deeply introspective, and packed with game-changing insights about growth, self-awareness, and how to define success on your own terms.
In their candid conversation, Cory opens up about the identity crisis that followed his decision to leave medicine. Like many high achievers, his self-worth was tied to a title — and stepping away from that meant reexamining not just his career but who he was at the core. The episode peels back the curtain on how Cory learned to separate his personal identity from his business persona — a shift that allowed him to lead with more clarity and confidence in the long run.
One of the standout themes from the episode is Cory’s realization that letting go of control wasn’t a weakness, but a catalyst for real growth. In the early days of his startup, he admits to trying to micromanage everything. But once he embraced delegation and trusted others to carry pieces of the vision, his business (and his mental health) started to thrive. “Control might feel safe,” Cory says, “but it limits your capacity to grow.” That truth resonates beyond entrepreneurship — it applies to anyone navigating change or leadership.
Cory also gets honest about decision-making. In a world where emotions often cloud judgment, he champions the importance of leaning on data over drama. Whether you’re launching a new product, hiring a team member, or considering a pivot, Cory emphasizes that objective metrics should guide your path. This mindset helped him avoid common pitfalls and make moves that aligned with long-term goals, not short-term anxiety.
The conversation isn’t just for entrepreneurs. It’s for anyone at a crossroads — career changers, recent grads, burned-out professionals, or even dreamers contemplating a big leap. Cory’s story is a reminder that the path to fulfillment isn’t always linear. Sometimes, stepping away from what you should do opens the door to what you’re truly meant to do.
One of the most memorable takeaways from the episode? “Every day is a journey, a story.” Cory’s words are a grounding reminder that it’s okay for your story to evolve. So, if you’re feeling uncertain about the road ahead, let this episode be the encouragement you didn’t know you needed. Because sometimes, the detour is the path.
Watch and listen here. Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review!! ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Transcript:
Mary (00:01.192)
All right, guys, welcome back to the podcast. So today we’re joined by Cory Blumenfeld, an entrepreneur who started three very different businesses despite having no prior experience in any of them. And a lot of us dream about starting a business, right? But we never get around to doing it. Cory took the leap from a driveway repair business in college
to a patient education app and most recently a health planning software for financial planners. So in this episode, we’re going to explore his journey, the challenges he faced, as well as the key lessons that helped him scale and adapt his businesses on the go. So Cory Blumenfeld, welcome to Recruiting Insider.
Cory B (00:51.54)
Thanks for having me, Marion, and thanks for everyone tuning in. I’m to be here and great intro. If only I could summarize, like, 12 years. I was asked to do this last week and it took me like 10 minutes to explain it all. So I’m super impressed. Thank you for having me.
Mary (00:57.25)
thank you.
Mary (01:04.005)
Yeah, man. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. You know what? That’s my superpower. I’m a resume writer, right? So I take really large, complex pieces of information and I summarize it into one or two sentences. Well, awesome, Cory. Could you give us just a little bit of background? I mean, what got you into entrepreneurship in the first place?
Cory B (01:17.363)
I can tell.
Cory B (01:25.209)
Yeah, honestly, I thought I was going to be a doctor or lawyer my whole life, mostly a doctor. And that’s what I what I plan to do. You know, I went to university, I did pre-med and, you know, my family, everyone was pushing me to get into it. I thought I wanted to do it and.
You know, if you look at my entire life, I was, I was doing creative stuff on the side. was selling things door to door that driveway ceiling business. I actually didn’t call it a business at first. It was just like accidental, right? I was just doing these things to like.
Mary (01:54.753)
Yeah.
Cory B (01:58.706)
pay for things, right? Pay for school, have some money on the side because my parents, you know, they were unable to really to give me allowance, right? So I needed to earn money. So shovel people’s driveways, rake leaves. And so all of this stuff, right? That’s very entrepreneurial, but that word wasn’t used in the house. What was used is get the degree.
become a doctor, and then whatever you wanna do after will be so much easier. So my last year of university, I took a course on entrepreneurship, was Entrepreneurship for Science Students. I just thought it was one of those easy courses. It was that easy course that you get like an 80 % and I wanted to go to med school so I needed to my marks up and I needed credits, so that’s how I was thinking about it.
Mary (02:32.929)
Hmm, interesting. Yeah.
Cory B (02:44.766)
The summer prior to that, that’s when I started the driveway sewing business, but it wasn’t a business in my mind. was just something I don’t even know. So spare change, pay for school. And yeah, this course opened my mind, right? Like it helped me understand that I was always an entrepreneur and this was something that I needed to be doing. It was allowing me to be me, right? So, and I think, you know, how did entrepreneurship find me? I was always an entrepreneur, but you know, we don’t talk about it.
Mary (02:51.243)
Yeah, right.
Cory B (03:13.285)
in school when you’re growing up, people don’t really push that on people unless you really grow in an entrepreneurial household. And it found me at the right moment. And I found what I was meant to be doing. I was meant to be making my mom worry every single day about whether I could pay the bills, whether I was going to wind up on her couch. But no, I found something that I loved and really resonated with me and allowed me to be me. That’s how I found entrepreneurship. It was always there. I just needed that spark. And this course helped me find that.
Mary (03:26.325)
Yeah
Mm-hmm.
Mary (03:42.574)
That’s awesome. You know, and I think that it’s cool and I can actually relate to your story a lot because entrepreneurship really wasn’t talked about in my household when I was growing up either. I mean, it wasn’t really honestly wasn’t anything that was even on my radar. Even when I started my first company, it was like, like you said, it was more of like, this is just something that I can do to make a little bit of pocket change, right? Something that I can do on the side to supplement my income.
with my full-time job. that, you know, entrepreneurship and starting my own business was never a conversation. It was never in the books for me. I mean, my dad spent 40 years working in a factory and my mom stayed home with us. So, you know, like you, the narrative was you graduate from high school, you go to college, you get a four-year degree, and then you get a nine to five job. And then that’s it. You know, there wasn’t anything else in the cards for me. So when I actually
stumbled and tripped and literally fell almost into entrepreneurship. was like game changing for me. It was like my life completely lit up. It was so much more exciting and fulfilling than any nine to five job that I’ve ever held. Hands down.
Cory B (04:44.115)
You
Cory B (04:59.572)
I really resonate with that. It’s funny because even after You know exiting the last few businesses Trying to figure out what I’m doing next, you know go back and talk to my family my parents and they’re like, okay like You’re gonna you’re be a little stable now. Maybe it’s good to find something. That’s a nine to five. That’s more secure and It’s hard to think like that
Mary (05:17.025)
Yeah
Cory B (05:25.169)
You know, and I’m doing stuff like that right now where, but I’m doing a more on, on a contract position and it’s, it’s, it’s hard to take the entrepreneur out of the entrepreneur, right? It’s, it’s, we thrive in chaos. We, we like risk and anything as society calls stable. It’s, hard to think about because it’s just a little boring. It’s a little mundane, but you know, I understand.
other folks and I accept what other folks will want to push onto people. But yeah, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, right? It’s entrepreneurship. There’s no plan B. What is plan B? I don’t know.
Mary (06:07.841)
Yeah. I have no idea. Build something else. Yeah. For sure.
Cory B (06:12.711)
Yeah, and that’s how it always will be, right? it’s, yeah, it’s just, it’s fun. It’s a wild ride and I love it.
Mary (06:19.191)
Yeah. Yeah. So I mentioned, you know, earlier in the intro about the, patient education app, well as your health planning software for financial planners. So can you tell us just a little bit more about these, these businesses? And I guess, you know, what were some of the key learnings to after starting, growing, and even exiting some of these businesses?
Cory B (06:38.932)
I think I need to have a conversation with you first to summarize my resume here. Yeah, honestly, like the patient education app, I was super passionate about healthcare. I wanted to be a doctor and in that class and that course that I was telling you about, the professor came to me and was like, okay, why do you really wanna be a doctor? I was like, you know, the…
Mary (06:40.301)
Yeah, right
Cory B (07:01.831)
The thing that everyone says, I want to help people. My grandfather was a doctor. He inspired me. I just, really want to make a difference. I want to help people. I want to make impact. A lot of people. Cool. Do you need to be a doctor to do that? I thought I needed to. Everyone kept telling me I needed this piece of paper. So healthcare was my passion, but it opened my eyes to like, even if you don’t, there was no, like it wasn’t a hundred percent, I was getting into med school. So what was going to happen if I didn’t get into it, right?
Would I not be able to help people? And I wanted to help people at a large scale. So did I need to be a doctor to help a lot of people? No. And my professor opened my eyes to that. And I still loved healthcare. I wanted to do something in healthcare. I knew the system was broken. So me and a few business partners, or my business partner at the time,
We just started building something. We entered a hackathon. We had no clue how to build a mobile app and we built this mobile app that scaled across Canada. And it was just, was an amazing, amazing experience. I had no business background. I call those six to seven years my MBA. Cause I was learning about what not to do in business. I was learning about business, business models, working with people, managing people. And so those were my big takeaways, right? It’s like you learn a lot from the mistakes. So learned about business models, the app itself.
Mary (08:06.37)
Yeah.
Cory B (08:24.373)
I mean, some freemium models work in this case, not so much. know, I learned the value of having a defined business model early on. I learned the value of having clear direction and clear focus early on, right? Knowing what your why is and aligning your team around that. If you’re constantly changing things, it just, doesn’t work. And so that was my big takeaway from that business. And at the end of it,
before we were selling, like, we got to the six, seven year mark and I was like, my God, if only I could start again. Like, I’ve learned so much. Like, if I could go back to day zero.
Mary (09:00.301)
Mm.
Cory B (09:06.163)
There’s so many things I could do different this time. would focus on the business model. I’d focus on the right market. I would focus on running hypotheses, right? And doing a lot more hypothesis testing rather than problem solving with no data. And so we wound up selling that business and
Mary (09:08.203)
Mm-mm. Yeah.
Mary (09:15.5)
Right.
Cory B (09:25.071)
Yeah, mean, another business partner who actually worked with me at the first company, started another business in the healthcare space because still super passionate about healthcare, but knew that, you know, we had to find something with a clear business model to start. And so was funny. We started a medical tourism business and we were going to send middle-aged men who needed hair transplants to Turkey or Mexico and.
you know, in hindsight, it was cool. Like the idea was to save people money and it wasn’t just meant to be hair transplants, but it was a niche. We needed to niche down and be really focused. And the pandemic hit, which was probably in hindsight, good, we couldn’t know. Nobody could travel. So we couldn’t, that business would not work.
Mary (10:03.053)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Cory B (10:16.505)
And that’s, you know, we, had to pivot and we, we determined after speaking about a hunt, like hundreds of patients, what was it that they really cared about? It was the finances, finance side. What happened after a healthcare, event was my family going to be okay. And then we determined where’s the best place to have this conversation was with the financial planner. And so that’s what led to the financial planning software. Yeah.
Mary (10:27.458)
Yeah.
Mary (10:38.112)
Mmm.
Mary (10:41.73)
Wow. So you mentioned that you faced a ton of challenges. mean, especially with that first application that you built with your team and you learned all of these things and you’re like, if I started back from zero, I would do so many things differently after all of these things that I’ve learned. A lot of people that listen to my podcast are small business owners or they’re people that are hoping to step into entrepreneurship. So could you talk to us just a little bit more about
What specifically were some of those challenges that you faced and what did you learn from those challenges? And if you were to start a business over today, what would you do differently?
Cory B (11:17.479)
Yeah.
Cory B (11:23.517)
Yeah, there’s a lot to unpack here, but the first thing is focus, right? I found that we were changing a lot as we went, it was just like new data came in, cool, shiny object. Let’s try that. It can work.
But most of the time it doesn’t work because it’s not just you have to think about, right? Like if you’re constantly trying something new and not committing to something, it’s really hard to actually see what’s working and you get stuck in this trap. So focus was big, but it also the team, right? It’s hard to align when you’re changing things every single day. So.
you know, being really laser-like focused. That was a real big takeaway. You know, the other thing was the clear business model. Day one, really having an understanding of how does this business make money, right? A lot of, at that point, if I build it, people will come. If it really adds a ton of value, people will come. We’ll figure the business model out later. And, you know, you get to a point where…
you’re adding value to the end users. And it really depends on the product or the business or the offer, but you can’t sustain it, right? It’s not sustainable, especially if you’re in the venture capital game and you’re raising money, like that, that isn’t sustainable, right? You have to get to a point where your company’s profitable. So really defining the business model early on was something that was super important for me. Hypothesis testing, right? So running clear hypotheses, committing to them. So if we had
an idea for something like a business model, for example, what data did we need to confirm that this was the right path forward and what was the timeframe we needed to set. And so you can say that has to relate to focus as well, but.
Cory B (13:07.971)
setting those boundaries, running tests was super important rather than just purely going with stuff of gut. Wow, this idea is great. Let’s do it. Let’s get some data to back this up. We don’t need too much data. We need to know what data we need to move forward, but we need to commit to it and focus on this plan.
Mary (13:15.106)
Yeah.
Cory B (13:28.219)
Yeah, there’s, there’s a ton. think, you know, the other thing, if we’re looking at the second business was clear rules, responsibilities, knowing who does what clear communication, like over communicate, right? Those were, there were a lot of things that fell through the cracks because we didn’t have clear rules and responsibilities. weren’t willing to have the difficult conversations upfront. And you’d get deep into the process or deep into the journey. And then you’re having these awkward conversations about who owns what, who does what.
Mary (13:34.626)
Yeah.
Cory B (13:58.086)
What are my responsibilities? And that complicates things. And then the over communication piece, super, super important, right? You know, a lot of the times in the past and even founders I know it’s like, why doesn’t this person understand what I’m saying? It’s so easy. Yeah, you do it every single day. It’s easy. And I was stuck in that trap, right? So I learned to be a better communicator. I learned to document things. I learned to write everything down, write instructions down. And really, you know, as a business,
Mary (14:16.237)
Yeah.
Cory B (14:28.009)
owner act as a guide, as a leader. Like most of my time is not going towards the work. It’s course correcting, it’s guiding, it’s educating.
which is super important. And then the last piece that this has all done well, it’s like most of the time as a business owner goes towards delegation, right? You need to understand what you can delegate. can’t just be you. If it’s a one person business, I understand, but there are ways to delegate. There are ways to outsource as a business owner. And I think that that over the last year, like my biggest takeaway, 2025 is the year of delegation for me. 2024 was the year of being thoughtful and really understanding thoughtfulness as you work with customers.
Mary (15:03.916)
Mm.
Cory B (15:09.173)
customers are in the workplace, 2025 is about delegation. So I guess those are my big takeaways over the last 10 to 12 years of being an entrepreneur.
Mary (15:18.605)
Yeah, that’s amazing. you know, it’s actually interesting. I’m reading a book right now that’s called Buy Back Your Time, because like you, 2025 for me is also, you know, I’m thinking about what can I delegate in my own life and in my own business? And, you know, for me, it’s in 2024, I kind of ran into a wall. And I know we were kind of talking about this a little bit before we hit record. But when I launched the podcast,
back in March, I quickly realized that I had taken on way too much than what I could handle and I needed a little bit of help. And I think as an entrepreneur, somebody that, if you sell a product or if you sell a service, it becomes truly a part of you. And it’s really, really hard to let go of that. It’s hard to kind of separate. Yes, I could probably hire somebody else that could do this.
for me just as good or maybe even better than what I can do. And until you actually take that step from doing it all yourself to letting in somebody into your life and letting them help you, you don’t realize how freeing it can actually be.
Cory B (16:33.106)
Yeah. I think you raise a really good point and this actually something that I’ve, you know, written about in the past, but it’s really separating yourself from the business. I am, I’m Cory. I’m an individual. My business is not Cory. Right. And in it, that’s actually, I love that you brought that up. That’s one of my biggest takeaways because I, I found in the past with me and my business partners, we were making decisions based on
the person, right? It wasn’t about what was best for the business. was, this is what I value. This is, there’s a place for that, right? You can set your values around who you are as an individual, but it’s, you need to be able to step away from the business. You need to be replaceable, right? It doesn’t mean like you’re not a value add to the business, but you need to be able to take a step back if you’re creating a business that.
can live without you. If you also want to be able to delegate effectively or maybe take a vacation at some point, know, taking vacations are important, I think, to people taking time off and early on, like there’s so many things that can kill a business. There are, there’s just so many factors and pressures that can come in and this is one of them. If you build the business around you, which a lot of people think is important, like, you know, I think that
It’s important to be a competitive advantage for your business. Like I am a competitive advantage for any business that I start. Mary, you are a competitive advantage for any business you start, but that doesn’t mean you can’t step away. It doesn’t mean you are the business.
Mary (18:07.691)
Yeah, I still struggle with that. I mean, honestly, if we’re being completely candid, it’s like, you know, if you were to have a conversation with my husband, it’s like I right now again, 2025, I’m trying to separate myself from my business because it’s like, if I have a slow day or a slow couple of days or a slow week, I feel like I’m a failure, you know, like that’s it. My business is done.
But when it’s not, know, in reality, it’s like, I need to figure out how to separate that, you know, that work life, separate myself from my business. What are my passions, my interests? You know, what are the things that light me up outside of my business? Because, I mean, the truth is what I do, you know, for a living, it brings me so much passion and fulfillment that I could do it 24 hours a day and I…
really for the last five years, I kind of fell into that trap, Cory, where I would take it with me on vacation. And so finally, you know, within the last 12 months, I’m refocusing, reprioritizing my own life and how to separate that and how to separate myself from my brand name, from my company, and still do things like, you know, take a week long vacation and just, you know, drop everything and not think about it. And that’s, it’s tough to do.
Cory B (19:32.958)
No, thanks for sharing that. think so much like I feel like that, right? And I think that, you know, when you do start a business early on, there is pain, expect pain. Like it’s going to be hard to step away. But I think something that, that I’ve found for me personally, and again, everything is very individualized. What you shared works for you. It’s probably not going to work for me.
For me, I’ve said to myself early on, I’m going to delegate. I’m going to invest, right? Like invest in this business. There is some sort of investment that goes into every business, whether it’s your time, whether it’s capital, right?
you have to determine what that investment is. And for me, it’s what can I delegate? What can I hand off to folks? I need to build trust, right? There needs to be a process here. If I want to build something to the scale that I want to build it. So why not start on day one? I spoke to the founder of Indigino, Drew Green, a couple of years ago. probably was like 10 years ago now. I’m getting old and we were talking and I was talking him like, why would this was
back in like the raising capital days. And I asked him, like we were talking like, why do I need a board of directors? Why do we’re a small company? And he’s like, with that mindset, you’ll always be a small company. Right. And, you know, I think a lot of, at least for me, let’s talk about me, you know, early on when I was.
Mary (20:55.393)
Yeah.
Cory B (21:08.061)
starting my first couple of businesses, it was like, why would I invest in this? It’s an expense. Why would I do this? Like we’re small. It was just small-minded thinking, right? And that’s okay if that’s what type of business you want. But if you’re thinking of building something a little bigger or you’re thinking about being able to walk away from the business, you have to think about that early on, right? And that has to be, you don’t need the process, right? You don’t need to plan it. It just needs to be.
built into the company’s DNA. Like you have to think about how you’re going to be able to do that. Not a lot of effort into it, but it needs to be a thought. It needs to be part of the culture, right? And those are just things like, I want to trust more people. I want to delegate as much as I can. I want to invest more into the business, more capital into the business, then I pull out. Like money I pull out, right? So yeah, that’s kind of how I think about it now.
Mary (21:48.823)
Yeah.
Mary (22:03.851)
Yeah. And I’m curious, what is your process when you’re figuring out how to scale something? Do you kind of have a go-to strategy?
Cory B (22:13.459)
I don’t personally have a go-to strategy and I think it’s very specific to the business, right? You know, the last two businesses where, you know, raise capital, the capital is what helps you scale, put a team in place.
grow fast, the driveway ceiling business, wasn’t even thinking about scale. I look back at it years from now, like now, and I’m like, wow, I probably could have, you know, if I focus more on delegation, if I focus more on outsourcing, if I focus more on management rather than doing the work and building up teams, I guess this time around, as I think through the VA business.
For me, it’s about putting in the right teams, investing in the right leaders, knowing that we need to put upfront time into the process to deliver a really exceptional service, focusing on things like, you know, 2024 was about thoughtfulness. So we need to repeat that word. We need to share to the team. What does it mean to be thoughtful? How can you be thoughtful, right? I think all of these…
You know, what you build into the business early on is, kind of what sets it up for scale. so scale it’s very subjective, right? Like what does scale mean for the type of business? I mean, if you are a, you know, I talked to a lot of marketing agencies, ghost writers, resume assistance, right?
what the scale is going to be different for every single one of them. If I was talking to a tech founder, it’s like, I need millions of users. I need a very scalable business model. You talk to one of these agency owners, I need to just make sure I have 10 clients a month, consistent, right? So their scale is very different. But the way that I think about it is setting my intentions early on.
Mary (24:03.787)
Yeah.
Cory B (24:15.453)
knowing what I can delegate, knowing where I want to invest my time and money early on, and then trusting myself in the process and the people that I surround myself with. hopefully it all works out and I can live my vision that I want. But I guess the other thing is setting that vision, right? Like what do you want it to be? Because scale is dependent on that.
Mary (24:32.717)
Mm.
Mary (24:41.069)
Totally, yeah. Sort of take it into a little bit of a lighter mode. I’m curious, what’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you while running one of your businesses that you just never saw coming?
Cory B (24:45.907)
Hahaha
Cory B (24:57.48)
I mean, COVID, right? If we’re looking at the second business, we had to pivot because of that. We were a medical tourism business where people were gonna be flying to have hair transplants. And overnight that got turned off, right? And I look at these as opportunities, right? So that was a crazy instance, but it led to the…
Mary (24:59.629)
Yeah.
Mary (25:10.379)
Nope. Mm-hmm.
Cory B (25:19.347)
the business that Caribou became, the health planning software, which probably in hindsight, if we started there, it would have been way better, but we needed to go through that pivot to get there. If I look at my MBA days, my baby days, not my real MBA, but learning about business, just…
You know, we were launching with our first hospital with, with co-health dash MD and we ordered all of these folded cards. These were going to be how we, we reached the patients that were going to be using the app. And so day before launch, we ordered like 50 or 60,000 of these cards. It’s my birthday. And they all came unfolded.
Mary (26:07.853)
Peace.
Cory B (26:09.093)
Right. And, I just remember that because I was the one of the best and most memorable birthdays. Cause we spent the whole night, me, my, my friend, my business partner, just folding cards all night, turning it into a game. And like, wasn’t that it was crazy. It was just fine. don’t know. There was crazy moments where we had to, drive to like, I was living in Toronto at the time and we had to go meet some investors and go take part in a program in Boston. And it was just, we had to drive and make it there.
and started snowing in the middle of it and we should have turned like pulled over, but we drove through that. it just, yeah, life’s crazy as an entrepreneur, right? There’s not one story that I look at that’s like, you know, it stands out. It’s a whole collection. And probably the more I reflect, it’s like, wow, I can’t believe I did that. Why would I do that? And, know, every day is a journey, a story.
Every day there’s something new. And that’s kind of like for me what keeps it exciting. Like it’s a collection of stories that I guess you can share on a podcast or you can keep to yourself and never tell anyone about.
Mary (27:06.743)
Yeah.
Mary (27:14.829)
Totally.
Mary (27:20.717)
Yeah. I love it. So you’ve had to learn a lot on the fly, I would imagine. Are there any specific moments where you thought, you know, I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing, but I’ve got this.
Cory B (27:42.61)
every business that I’ve started. That’s kind of how I feel, right? The driveway ceiling business. I don’t know about driveway ceiling. Initially what happened was my parents wanted me to find a job. So I went on like Craigslist, Kijiji, Kijiji in Canada. And I was like, okay, let’s go do some landscaping.
Mary (27:56.961)
Mm-hmm.
Cory B (28:01.219)
Some people came, they picked me up and they were doing driveway ceiling and I was like, okay. And I was going door to door for them and I’m like, why can’t I do this myself? Like, why am I giving, I can just do everything, right? I get a friend, we do this, we’ll be fun. Watch some YouTube videos, created a flyer and figured it out.
The second business co-health dash MD. had no clue how to build a mobile app. Just had to figure it out. I had no idea how to do product management, manage a team, right? They don’t teach you that in school and you just learn from trial and error. Right. It just, felt natural. Right. So it wasn’t forced the whole managing people and doing all that. I found something that I thrive in. then, you know, as I mentioned a couple of times, I’m Canadian and this, that’s third one. Um, caribou.
when we got into healthcare planning, it was for the US healthcare system and we became the Medicare and health marketplace, healthcare.gov experts in the US. We also taught, we’re like dealing with financial planners. So we had to understand that like whole system. Took us a year and people like we were able to have those conversations.
Mary (29:04.439)
Wow.
Cory B (29:16.571)
We were able to teach Medicaid, like people were coming to us for Medicare advice and health marketplace advice. You just learn on the fly, right? Watch videos, read everything we could find online. Like a lot of times the information’s available. It’s just knowing what to search and then feeling confident sharing that information. So.
Yeah, like every day it’s like that even podcasting like I used to think I sucked at this and look, I’m doing it now. I’m just going with the flow.
Mary (29:43.115)
Yeah.
Mary (29:49.378)
Yeah, yep. Yeah, so a lot of our listeners, know, kind of like I mentioned earlier, they either are, you know, they’re just getting started in a business or they want to start a business. But, you know, they really they just they don’t know if it’s for them. They don’t know where to start or maybe they don’t even know, you know, what business they might want to start. What advice would you have for them?
Cory B (30:16.339)
Yeah, I know that’s a great question. So I’m very vague with my answers intentionally because I think to tell an individual, this is what’s going to work for you. I don’t agree with that because this is what worked for me. So I can only share that. I think the important thing is it’s, it’s getting started, right? That’s the most important thing you can do. It’s getting started and, and
That’s the biggest challenge for most folks. And so the other thing is you have to get started when you’re ready.
Like that’s, that’s really important. Like you can’t force something when you’re not ready. So if you’re not ready to start, it’s going to be really difficult. You’re going to force it and things might not work out. The best thing you can do even when you’re not ready is find something so small, something you can just like, you know, you you get your, your feet a little wet and you test the water, right. And figuring out what that is, but it has to be what’s right for you. you know, fig like figuring out how to get started when you’re ready.
the best piece or the best tip I can give, right? Because for me…
I just jump into things, right? Like I love chaos. I love chaos, but a lot of people don’t thrive in chaos, right? It’s, the other thing is just figuring out what works for you, right? You can hear all these stories of all these amazing entrepreneurs and what worked for them, but I bet you, you try to, let’s say you want to do what Steve Jobs did or Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk and you, implemented their routine as is, as is like they write down in their books. Yeah, that, that might not work for you because they work differently. So.
Mary (31:27.789)
Same.
Cory B (31:56.366)
It’s it’s you know, before you get started figure out what’s going to work for you. Like what what what is going to allow you to thrive? Right and you you know this being in the in the in the the recruiting HR space. I do a lot of interviewing too for for folks and. You know one of the first questions I always ask when we’re in an interview is OK, like what are you looking for? What does fulfillment look like and what type of environment are you going to thrive? Because.
Environment is everything.
Mary (32:27.853)
Totally. Yeah. Yeah. And you also mentioned, you know, your emphasis on using data to really find that product market fit. So, you know, for those people that are like, okay, I know exactly what it is that I want to do. How do I actually start doing that research to make sure that it will be successful?
Cory B (32:47.922)
Yeah, I think the first thing is it may not be successful, right? And acknowledging that, okay, and saying what it’s defining, what does success look like?
Mary (32:51.627)
Yeah. True.
Cory B (32:58.974)
What does success not look like starting with a timeframe? Right. So, so for example, for the, the medical tourism business, when we were transitioning into financial planning, we gave ourselves 90 days to test with financial planners, to get our first clients, right? Like we needed to sign a client. needed to get our first user. We needed to prove that someone was willing to pay for this. That’s was a message that they resonated with 90 days. gave it, right. Wasn’t a week.
Right. Cause that’s not enough time. It was, we are going to stick to the plan for 90 days. It doesn’t matter if the data is not good. Obviously if it’s just like, it’s clear that it wasn’t working, but a lot of times people quit too soon. They, it’s another, there’s another shiny object that comes in there like, this is not working. We’ve to jump into that. So, so for me personally, it’s, it’s the hypothesis testing has really been helpful. in terms of.
Using data to get started and to validate things. And it doesn’t just pertain to a business as a whole. It’s ideas too. Right. And also limiting the number of ideas that I’m going to test in a specific timeframe. The other thing is getting real at this. I don’t know if you could tell from this conversation so far, I have ADHD. So like my mind is all over the place, but really.
really getting good at defining priorities. You can’t do everything all at once. It’s just not feasible. I’m a good multitasker, but even being a good multitasker, because of the ADHD, I know I have to limit what I focus on. So I have to get very ruthless with what I can prioritize. And so, you know, really defining what urgent is, what is the high priority? What is a medium priority? What’s a low priority, right?
It might be a valuable thing, but if it’s a low priority, like it’s going to be hard to make time for that. And guess what? When it’s a low, even when it’s a medium priority, what am I doing with that? It’s if it’s, if it’s something that’s going to add value, I’ll delegate it. If it’s, if it’s something I need to do, but it’s a low priority, I’m going to put a low on the scale. It’s, I’m going to focus on the urgent and high stuff first. So that’s how I use data. And that’s kind of how I, inform my decision making.
Cory B (35:14.715)
as I’m working through things to stay focused.
Mary (35:17.409)
Yeah, totally. And another thing that I would add to that, and I actually heard this when I was listening to a My First Million podcast, and it’s like, it was kind of one of those light bulb moments for me as an entrepreneur was just to simply create a wait list to gauge interest, right? So if you’re launching a new product or you’re launching a new service, put a wait list up, start generating some buzz and see what the interest is. Just kind of feel out the market. Because you don’t have to launch it, if you find out like, okay,
Cory B (35:43.155)
Exactly.
Mary (35:46.358)
Maybe this isn’t going to be as successful as I thought it might be. Well, then at least you haven’t spent like hours, months, years, you know, on a product that isn’t going to be successful or, you know, gain the interest that you thought it might.
Cory B (35:59.88)
Completely, completely agree. Right. And that’s, it’s like, how are you going to test the hypothesis? I think the other thing that’s more of a philosophical debate that I found is, you know, lot of founders will put these hypotheses into place. They’ll start testing. Right. It’s like, okay, let’s do the wait list. And then nobody signs up for the wait list. But then the question is, did you have the right ICP? Did you have the right market? You might have the, a really good product and it’s, you know, taking a step back. It’s, it’s how, how do we test with.
Mary (36:12.983)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Mary (36:19.969)
Yeah, totally.
Cory B (36:29.767)
the right end user. And I’ve seen founders kind of like throw out their idea because it didn’t work with the intended audience. Right. So so there’s a lot to this. Right. And it’s I think the other thing to do is
You’re just breaking things down into the smallest component. Right? So I’m going to do this wait list for who, right? And how do we test the for who before we jump into signing people up? Because to sign people up, we have to know that the thing is solving a problem for who, right? So let’s take it back a step. so that’s kind of how I look at that. Cause I’ve seen folks kind of give up before they even figure that question out. Yeah.
Mary (37:03.553)
Yeah. Totally.
Mary (37:12.523)
Yeah, there’s a balance there for sure. So what’s the one thing that gets you out of bed every day when running a business?
Cory B (37:22.643)
text message from a business partner saying, hey, we have this fire and I need you to solve it. But, you know, that happens. But I wouldn’t say that that’s what drives me. It’s for me, it’s, it’s cheesy, but I, I, I just, I love building businesses and, and knowing that I get to spend time working on something that I enjoy, that gets me up. Like I’m, having the most fun.
Mary (37:26.206)
Yeah.
Cory B (37:49.632)
And as long as I’m having fun, you know, with what I’m working on, I’m just, it’s why wouldn’t I get up? it’s, it’s hard to say the one thing it’s more of like, you know, broad thing, but yeah, I get to choose what I work on every single day. and nobody can take that away from me and I enjoy it. Like,
I do a lot of content on LinkedIn that gets me up every single day. I just enjoy it. Like I want to post that in the morning. Like I look forward to that. I’m working with some amazing, amazing VAs. They helped me get up in the morning because they’re always messaging me, but it just, they’re amazing people and I want to support them. my clients get me up, right? So it’s, it’s
Mary (38:30.23)
Yeah.
Cory B (38:43.408)
multitude of things, but I just I enjoy it and so knowing that I’m having fun I’ll reiterate that I have a tattooed on my body. I’m knowing I’m having the most fun every single day and as long as I’m having the most fun it’s gonna keep pushing me to get up. And my dog he makes me take him for a walk in the morning so so yeah he does force me to get up.
Mary (38:59.682)
Love it. Yeah, right, they have to take a pee there in the morning.
Yeah, yeah, well, it’s definitely a lot easier to get your butt out of bed when you’re excited about what you’re going to be doing that day. Yeah. Awesome, Cory. Well, where can we find you on social media?
Cory B (39:20.467)
I’m on LinkedIn, I’m on Instagram now, I’m just starting that up. I’ve just learned the value of creating personal brand. So I’ve been spending a lot of time doing that. You can find me on those two platforms and we’ll see if I wanna get on to any of the others after.
Mary (39:39.093)
Awesome, amazing, thanks so much for coming on today.
Cory B (39:41.939)
Thanks, Mary. was a real pleasure. And thanks to everyone who listened in. And I end every call with a fist bump, so we got to fist bump it up. Boom.
Mary (39:51.918)
Boom! Love it.