Let me pat myself on the back for a second

I'm the guy who's always asking about your wins.

Celebrate each other. Pat each other on the back. Tell me what went right this week. I love that question, I ask it constantly, and I mean it every time.

So this is a little outside my comfort zone. Because today, just this once, I want to turn it around and celebrate myself. Not for a launch or a number or a milestone. Just for staying focused. For not quitting the thing I quietly started years ago when it would have been easier to let it drift.

Bear with me. I'll get back to celebrating you next week.

Here's what I'm proud of.

Back in 2016, I made a decision that a lot of people would have called a bad business move. I had a production company, Tell Studios, that paid the bills and did good work. And instead of pouring all my focus into landing the next client, I started building something on the side: the education work. Coaching. Teaching. Helping other business owners, not just filming them.

I knew it might cost me. I knew Tell Studios could suffer if I wasn't hunting for new clients as hard as I used to. Somebody looking at a spreadsheet would have told me to knock it off and stay in my lane.

But I couldn't shake this feeling. I'd spent years and a small fortune on books and coaching and masterminds. Hundreds of books. Thousands of hours. And I had this deep sense that if I just kept all of it to myself, quietly hoarding everything I'd learned, my life would sort of be a failure. That the whole point was to hand it back to somebody else.

So I followed the thing I believe God put in my heart, and I started.

I want to tell you what that scary little decision grew into, not to brag, but because I think the fear was worth naming and so is the fruit.

I've gotten to host retreats. I've filled my own studio with business owners for in-person conferences. I've been let into people's actual lives, the business stuff and the personal stuff, the seasons that were brutal and the seasons that turned. I've watched people go from quietly planning to shut it all down to making more money than they'd let themselves dream about. I've sat with people in the hard middle and gotten to be one of the voices telling them to keep going.

And the podcast has been underneath all of it. Ten years of showing up every week became the thing that let me find my own voice and lean into who I actually think I was made to be. I'm so grateful for that, because I feel like I've finally hit a stride. I'm making an impact and, honestly, having a blast doing it.

Some of my favorite business owners and storytellers masterminding at my studio

Here's the part that surprised me most. Handing someone a beautiful video is great and it matters. But helping a business owner remember why they started, and having the guts to ask them "wait, is this even the thing you're supposed to be doing right now?", that's a different kind of fulfilling. That's the work I didn't know I was allowed to want.

I can't tell this story honestly without Matt Davis.

In 2015, he and I were driving to a shoot together, and somewhere in the car he mentioned he was thinking about getting back into coaching and education. And I got nervous, and then I asked if I could help him.

Matt and I doing some strategy and planning for Studio Sherpas circa 2016

He kind of didn't believe me. He was surprised I'd even want to. And I couldn't believe he was open to letting me in. But we built the foundation together. We built Studio Sherpas. And I'm not sure I ever would have found the courage to step into this guide role, this Sherpa thing, if he hadn't left the door open in that car.

Which is the whole point, really. I know a million percent that I don't have it all figured out. But I've learned that if I don't share what I'm learning, the wins and the losses both, I'm nowhere near as useful as I could be. And I only started sharing because someone gave me the nudge.

So if you've got something in your heart you've been keeping to yourself because sharing it looks like a bad move on paper, this is me being the person in the car for you.

Start.

Grateful for you, and grateful you let me celebrate for a minute,
Ryan

P.S. I mentioned the podcast up there, and I realized I never actually told you: I just published episode 500. Ten years, every single week. That show is a huge part of the story I just told you, so if you want to celebrate a little with me, that's the one to listen to: growyourvideobusiness.com/500

P.P.S. If you're one of the filmmakers on this list, that origin story runs straight into a room I still love being in. My Studio Sherpas world hosts an in-person gathering called the Onward Summit, and it's one of my favorite things I get to be part of all year. If that's you, reply and I'll point you to it. If it's not, no worries, next week we're back to celebrating you.