Play your game

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Real Moments You Can't Fake

My 16-year-old daughter took over my Spotify in the car last week and played a song I'd never heard before: God I'm Just Grateful by Chandler Moore and Elevation Worship.

I've listened to it probably 50 times since. On repeat. It's one of those songs that just lands differently depending on where you are in life. And right now, it's wrecking me in the best way.

I've worked hard for most of my career. There have been really high times — like this month, when we helped one of our partner creators get two videos to go viral and rack up over 10 million views and hit 100K followers on Facebook, or when we did over $20K in sales for a live masterclass with one of our other partner creators.

But there were also some low moments this week.

I accidentally sent an email to over 30,000 people with the wrong sender information. It did not go over well. 🙈

Then I spent time manually DMing an Event Blueprint to people on LinkedIn who'd requested it — only to realize later that the landing page wasn't connected to my email system. They got the PDF, sure. But I lost all their contact info. No follow-up emails. No automation with the additional resources I'd built. No way to nurture those relationships.

All that manual work, and I can't even follow up with them. That stings. Not just because of the wasted effort, but because some of those people could've become clients.

I'm moving fast, trying to launch things without letting perfectionism get in the way. But that comes at a cost. Sometimes the cost is an angry inbox. Sometimes it's realizing you just gave away something valuable with no way to build the relationship.

Through it all — the wins, the losses, the grind, the screw-ups — I've gotten to experience it with my family, my friends, and our community. Even through the hardest parts, I'm grateful.

That song keeps playing in my head because it's true. I really am just grateful.

I started watching Miracle: The Boys of '80 on Netflix this week.

If you haven't seen it, it's a documentary about the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team — the Miracle on Ice. These were just kids. Underdogs. A ragtag group that nobody thought had a chance against the Soviet juggernaut that had been smoking everybody, scoring 16, 17 goals a game.

And then they won.

But the documentary isn't really about the game. It's about what that moment meant. You watch these old guys — now in their 60s — watching footage of their younger selves. They're watching reporters ask them questions right after the game, watching their parents in the stands full of pride, reliving what it felt like when the arena erupted and someone said, "I thought the roof was going to come off."

Al Michaels, who called the game, said something that stuck with me: "There are times when sound has feel."

I was tearing up multiple times on my early morning spin bike. Not because of the hockey — because of the storytelling. Because these are real moments, real people, real emotions captured and laid down in a way that moves you decades later.

Tomorrow, USA faces Canada in what could be one of the biggest matchups in Olympic history. I can only imagine the thoughts running through those players' heads right now. The real moments that are about to be created. The ones they'll remember forever.

Before the Miracle on Ice game in 1980, coach Herb Brooks told his team: "Play your game."

Not someone else's game. Not the game they thought they were supposed to play. Their game.

That's what I'm trying to do. That's what I hope you're doing too.

Thanks for reading. Means more than you know.

— Ryan
ryankoral.com

P.S. If you're in a spot where you want more connection with other entrepreneurs who actually get it, my next mastermind is launching soon. Twelve seats. Real people in your corner. If that sounds like something you need, get off your butt and let me know you're interested: https://mastermind.ryankoral.com

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