Ryan goes live — sort of — and ends up doing what he does best: real, honest coaching. In this solo-ish episode, Ryan chats with Mark Cruz about the fear of hiring help and what it actually looks like to start delegating in a small video business. Ryan also gets candid about overcoming perfectionism and why launching imperfectly beats not launching at all.

Key Takeaways

Hiring a virtual assistant through sites like onlinejobs.ph or Upwork — even for just 5–10 hours a week — can free up serious mental bandwidth and open the door to more revenue-generating work
You don't need consistent income to start hiring; start small, build trust, and scale from there
Perfectionism is the enemy of progress — in business and in life, done beats perfect every time
Use AI tools (like Claude!) alongside personality assessments to build a hiring process that finds someone who truly complements how you work

About Ryan Koral

Ryan Koral is a documentary filmmaker, founder, and creative coach based in Michigan. Over the last 20+ years, he's built a 7-figure story-driven video studio (Tell Studios), a global community of filmmakers and creative entrepreneurs (Studio Sherpas), and a weekly podcast with over 1 million downloads. His work has reached email audiences of over 100,000 people, and he's had the privilege of working with names like Gino Wickman, Mike Kim, Disney, and the University of Michigan. Today, Ryan helps founders and experts who are the best-kept secret in their industry step into their voice, tell their story, and build a brand people believe in. He's currently writing a book about storytelling in the age of AI.

In This Episode

[00:00] Welcome to the show!
[07:24] Hiring an Executive Assistant
[16:02] Buy Back Your Time
[23:25] Overcoming Perfectionism
[25:49] What Could Happen?
[28:51] Being More Authentic
[31:22] Outro

Quotes

"You don't learn until you launch." — Ryan Koral

"If you just got 10 hours back a week — how would that feel?" — Ryan Koral

"I built my job, my studio, for my life — I'm not trying to build my life around my work." — Ryan Koral

"Make mistakes, go ugly early, try things out at a fraction of the cost to learn your processes." — Ryan Koral

484. You Don't Learn Until You Launch