Author: Henry Murphy

You know, I often think about my granddaughter Arie every day.

I think about the things I can’t control—like how long I’m going to be here.

I don’t know when my death date will be.

And let’s be honest…

We all gotta go.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about breadcrumbs.

If I don’t reach the monetary amount I want to have set aside for her, then what else can I leave behind?

What other things can I have in place that still speak beyond the grave?

Intellectual property means a lot to me.

That’s why I’ve got trademarks in place, and a long list I still need to secure.

One day, I want to sit down with Arie and talk to her about what trademarks are, how to monitor them, and the importance of renewing them every 10 years. I want her to know:

You can own them forever.

And the benefits that come with that are generational.

That’s legacy.

I also want to talk to her about the custodial account I’ve set up in her name.

I want to make sure there are guardrails in place, so that she can have access to the money throughout her life.

Not all at once.

Not recklessly.

But in a way that gives her time for discoverability, to figure out who she is, what she loves, and what she wants to build.

So that she can take that money and walk into entrepreneurship with purpose.

I used to play this song by KB all the time, It’s called “Nobody Owns Us.”

It’s a reminder that when you own your business, you’re not owned by anybody.

You’re the controller.

You’re the visionary.

You have options.

That freedom hits different.

I think about the businesses I’m building now…

The systems I’m creating…

And I’m making sure the SOPs—Standard Operating Procedures—are intact.

That way, Arie can walk right into them, or she can place somebody else in that position and just work the system.

God gave us an amazing gift when it comes to imagination.

So we really, really have to think big.

When I wrote my first book, I had no clue what I was doing.

But I knew one thing:

I wanted to own the process.

I wanted to create my own publishing company, and I wanted to call it Murphy Madison.

I wanted her name tied to it.

If she ever wants to become an author, we’ve got a system in place.

She can write, self-publish, market, and distribute.

She can own the whole process.

She can be a super communicator.

She can sell her own books.

And make way more than a traditional publishing house would ever offer her.

I’m not there yet.

But I’m building it, thinking about her every step of the way.

Doing my best that every time I see her, I communicate something to her, about trademarks, business, entrepreneurship, and systems.

If God allows me to live long enough, then yes—I plan to do everything that’s in my heart.

But if I don’t?

At least I got started.

That’s what breadcrumbs are.

If I had to go today…

What foundation have I laid?

The foundation matters.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

Imagine a beautiful day in Stone Mountain, Georgia.

It had just rained lightly.

Now there’s a cool breeze drifting through the trees, and the sun is peeking in between the leaves.

I’m sitting on the porch, locked in, listening to one of my mentors on YouTube and writing down strategies.

Pen moving, ideas flowing.

Then this young man walks up.

He’s doing pest control—but not the traditional kind.

This one doesn’t use anything harmful or toxic.

I went to get my uncle, since this wasn’t my house, and let him handle it.

He didn’t want the service, but while I was out there, I asked the guy, “Do you own the company?”

He said, “Nah, I work with a friend who owns it. But I’m building a team.”

You could tell he was sharp.

Put-together.

Well-spoken.

Ambitious.

He was going door-to-door. Hustling.

He said, “How old do you think I am?”

I said, “28.”

He said, “Nope, 21.”

Man, I was taken aback by his maturity.

Then we started talking.

Out of nowhere, I asked him, “What do you do with your money?”

He paused and said, “Honestly, I blow a lot of it.”

So I started talking to him about intentionality with money.

I didn’t even get deep into what I’ve learned over the years, but I just told him, if you start being intentional now, at 21, by the time you hit 30, your understanding of money will be different. Way different.

You’ll have a head start most people never get.

Then we got into stocks.

He said he’s interested, but doesn’t know where to start.

So of course, I gave him my go-tos: Wall Street Trapper and Earn Your Leisure.

I said, “If you really want it, go learn. Start now. Don’t wait.”

Told him to open a Charles Schwab account and put something in it.

Don’t talk yourself out of it.

We ended up talking for 15–20 minutes.

Before he left, I told him to follow me on Instagram, and I followed him back.

Because I felt like—even if this wasn’t a one-on-one mentorship, the content I plan to put out could be mentorship from afar.

And the fact that we met face-to-face?

That just adds to it.

There’s something about meeting people in person.

When you see them and feel the energy in real life, it hits different.

That moment reminded me, 

Mentorship matters.

Here I was listening to my mentor, executing on what I’d learned.

And then, God allowed me to be a mentor in that same moment.

Even if he never sees me again, I pray he remembers that conversation.

That he takes action on it.

That he executes.

Because we need mentors in all areas of life, but especially in entrepreneurship.

Mentors and coaches help you collapse time.

They help you avoid unnecessary pitfalls.

They challenge your thinking and elevate your game.

Keep going.

Keep innovating.

God Bless The Entreprener®️

So maybe you’re reading this, and you’re too embarrassed to look weak if you try something and fail at it. But the truth is, Iff you don’t try, you already failed. No matter what, you gotta give it a shot.

I had to tell myself today: never assign a level of difficulty to a thing until you try. And if it doesn’t work out? Then you just keep trying. You stay consistent and keep going, no matter what.

You find out real quick that people will always have something to say, good or bad. But guess what? They’re not the focus. They never were.

Anytime you’re pushing to be a successful entrepreneur, pain and heartache are gonna show up. Roadblocks, curves, bumps, setbacks, all of it will try to slow you down or make you quit.

But you gotta keep going.

You have to learn how to encourage yourself.

You have to talk to that negative mindset. And I mean, don’t be nice with it.

Tell that negative voice to go sit down in the corner. Don’t talk. Don’t move. Don’t say a word.

And if it does? Then you just might have to punch it in the face.

Yeah, I know that’s a little colorful, but that’s exactly how serious it is.

That mindset will try to convince you that you’re a failure, that you should never have started, that it’s too late, too hard, too much.

But it’s a lie.

And the only way to beat it is to remind yourself why you started and who you’re doing this for.

Because everything you’ve been given your gift, your dream, it’s not random.

It has purpose tied to it.

You weren’t put here to play small.

You were put here for connection, for impact, for purpose.

Push through the pain.

Push through the adversity.

Keep going.

No matter what.

God Bless The Entrepreneu®️

I find solace sitting on the porch, watching the sun peek through the leaves while sipping coffee. It’s my quiet moment to think. That calm was interrupted when my cousin asked me to fix her daughter’s car seat, it was way too tight and uncomfortable for her.

While I was adjusting the seat, a young man walked up selling a home security system meant to rival Ring. Honestly, I admired his approach. He asked, “Can I speak to the King of the Castle?” I chuckled and called my uncle, even though I already knew what was going to happen. My uncle doesn’t buy from solicitors, he had shut someone else down just a few days earlier. Sure enough, this young brother got a “no” in about 3.2 seconds flat.

But here’s where it gets good.

I’ve been reading a book on communication lately, and it has me constantly thinking about how to connect with people more effectively. I’m naturally talkative, but this time I felt led to put some of what I’ve been learning into practice.

I asked him a few questions and discovered he’s an entrepreneur. He does this sales gig to sustain himself, but his real passion is connecting with people. That alone impressed me. After about 10 minutes of conversation, he asked what I do. I told him I help entrepreneurs build their e-commerce brands from the ground up, offering tools, insight, and mentorship to take their ideas from concept to sustainability.

That got his attention. Turns out, he’s in e-commerce too. He started asking questions, and I gladly answered. He even asked me how he could get better at his job. I gave him a few pointers:

• Adapt your approach: Your company may give you a script, but they’re not out here with you. People are different, you have to adjust your approach accordingly.

• Know your audience: Just like in e-commerce, you need to understand who you’re talking to.

• Dress and posture matter: Wearing your hat backwards might be cool in a Black middle-class neighborhood, but if you’re in a different area, it could come off the wrong way.

• Develop multiple scripts: Have at least four different approaches. See which one performs best and refine from there.

• Be observant and genuine: Find something you genuinely admire when approaching a house—like the car in the driveway, if you’re into cars, and comment on it sincerely.

We had an amazing back-and-forth, and he ended up following me on Instagram. I’m excited to see where that connection goes.

And here’s what struck me: this is the second young man I’ve had a meaningful encounter with this week. Both of them were just 21 years old. I’ll tell you, I love this coaching thing.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

The other day, my wife looked at me and said something I didn’t even know I needed to hear: “Give yourself grace.” She told me it was something she had to remind herself of that morning too. She said she felt like God, by His Spirit, was encouraging her spirit with those exact words, and now she was passing them on to me.

That day, I felt off. Just… blah. I wasn’t up and at it like I usually am. I didn’t worship. I didn’t read my entrepreneur book the way I normally do. My stamina was low. My eyes were blurrier than usual. Everything felt off rhythm. Nothing seemed to be going right.

But when I looked back at the day, it actually wasn’t that bad. In fact, I had knocked out almost everything on my to-do list, four out of six things, to be exact. That’s more than half! And honestly, I’ve been thinking about cutting my list down to just three big tasks a day anyway. The one thing I missed was listening to a podcast. I read the book but didn’t get to the podcast, and somehow, in my head, that made me feel like I failed.

We do that sometimes, don’t we? We blow the small things up until they overshadow all the progress we actually made.

That same evening, one of my students from The Ground Up Academy messaged me like she usually does. She asked how my day went, and I told her exactly what I just shared. She said, “Wow… I feel the same way today too.”

So I told her what my wife told me: Give yourself grace today.

The next day, she messaged me back and said, “Tell your wife I said thank you. When I said those words out loud, ‘Give yourself grace today’, it was like everything heavy fell off of me.”

Let me tell you this: if you’re having a rough day, if things feel off, or you’re just not hitting your usual marks, give yourself grace. God is giving you grace today, so why not give some to yourself?

Then wake up tomorrow and go at it again. Keep moving forward. Don’t stop.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

I said it before and I’ll say it again:

I really did not like school.

The structure? Hated it.

The curriculum? Felt like it was designed to kill creativity.

Every day felt like a reminder that this blueprint wasn’t made for people like me.

I always wondered who came up with this whole system, because it sure didn’t feel exciting.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved the social part.

Making new friends, cracking jokes, building relationships, that part of school was cool. That was me all day.

But when it came to subjects? Let’s just say my list of favorites was short.

I loved Home Ec, my mom and grandmother could burn in the kitchen, so cooking always felt like home to me.

I liked Typing class, too. Don’t ask me why, but it clicked for me. Fast-forward to today? That skill still serves me well.

English was alright. I didn’t love it, but I liked writing. It gave me structure.

But here’s the thing…

As much as I didn’t like school, I love learning.

Because now I understand that it’s not about traditional education, it’s about specialized knowledge.

What’s Specialized Knowledge?

Specialized knowledge is focused, relevant learning that’s tied to a specific skill, craft, or industry.

It’s not about knowing everything. It’s about knowing the right things.

The stuff that directly applies to your gift, your business, your calling.

It’s that knowledge that moves the needle.

Let me break it down:

• What are you good at?

• What do you love doing?

• Is there a market for it?

If you’ve got talent and there’s demand, then it’s game time. But here’s what most people miss:

Being good at something ain’t enough.

You can make the best wings in your city, but if you don’t understand the business behind it—you’re just cooking for friends, not customers.

You have to become a great entrepreneur.

That means learning what it takes to bring your vision to life:

• Understanding your industry

• Knowing your target market

• Learning the platforms that make you accessible (whether that’s Shopify, Kajabi, or Squarespace)

• Watching tutorials

• Studying marketing

• Investing in courses

• Improving your content creation

• Learning how to edit, post, and promote

This is the kind of education I can get behind.

Because it’s tied to what I actually do and what I’m trying to get better at every day.

So whether you paint custom hoodies, roast coffee, design logos, or write music, learn the business behind it.

You can’t earn if you’re not willing to learn.

So I’ll leave you with this:

Learn, baby, learn… so we can earn, baby earn.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

One day I looked up and realized I had created an entire ecosystem, and most of it lived on what I now know as digital real estate.

My wife and I have been empty nesters for a little over a decade now. When it comes to traditional real estate, we’ve thought about buying a home. But honestly? We’ve hesitated, mostly because we never knew exactly where we wanted to plant roots. We love California, so if we ever buy true real estate, that’s probably where it’ll be—unless it’s an investment property.

I share that to set the tone for what I’m about to unpack in this blog, because real estate isn’t just about houses anymore.

It’s about platforms.

Websites.

Courses.

Social media presence.

E-commerce brands.

These are all properties. Assets. Digital spaces that you can own.

And the wild part? I looked around one day and realized I had built a portfolio. Multiple assets across multiple platforms. Digital real estate was all around me, and I didn’t even know that’s what I was doing.

Let me take it a step further.

Somewhere along the journey, I picked up a few stocks. Nothing too crazy, still learning. But one thing that stood out was REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). That was dope because it gave me a chance to be a part-owner in physical real estate without having to buy a building. Warehouses, shopping centers, some of the very places we interact with every day.

But that mindset… of owning pieces of valuable property? That applies to the digital space too.

Now back to the story.

I stumbled into all of this. It wasn’t my original intention. I didn’t fully understand what I was building, but I loved what it became. And honestly, it happened naturally.

But you? You have an opportunity to be intentional. To plan it out. To design the life and business you want to build online.

Before you start, ask yourself:

• Who do you want to serve?

• What do you want to deliver to them?

• At what level of excellence?

• What are your non-negotiable values?

This matters. Because digital real estate, just like physical real estate, requires clarity before construction.

What Is Digital Real Estate?

Digital real estate refers to online assets that carry monetary value and can be bought, sold, rented, or leveraged, just like physical pr perty.

These assets include:

• Websites that attract consistent traffic

• Social media accounts with strong engagement

• Domain names (especially short, brandable, or keyword-rich ones)

• E-commerce stores that generate revenue

• Email lists with active, targeted subscribers

• YouTube channels, podcasts, or blogs with an established audience

• Even virtual land in the metaverse or NFTs (in some cases)

What makes them valuable?

• Traffic & engagement

• Niche authority

• Content quality

• Revenue potential

• SEO ranking or social reach

And just like with traditional property, you can:

• Build on it (create content, systems, or infrastructure)

• Rent it (through ad space, sponsorships, affiliate links)

• Sell it (flip the asset for profit)

• Leverage it (funnel traffic to your offers, grow your brand)

Digital real estate is one of the most undervalued wealth-building tools of our generation.

Low barrier to entry.

Scalable.

High margins.

If you’re creating content, building a platform, or developing digital products, you’re already sitting on some form of digital real estate.

The question is:

Are you managing it like an owner or just passing through like a tenant?

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

I know a lot of people will look at this title and think, “What kind of cons could there possibly be to making $55,000 a month, if you’re barely making ends meet. I get it, m, it sounds like a dream.

I was on the phone with a friend recently, and we started reminiscing. We used to  mentor him  in the e-commerce space, and while we don’t talk about that season much, we ended up having a deep conversation that lasted 30 minutes longer than planned—all about this topic.

And I thought to myself, this is something my students in The Ground Up Academy need to hear.

Here’s why:

I was coaching someone who wanted to go into a full launch of their website to start selling their products. Now, let me be clear, there are situations where a website is necessary early on. For instance, if you’re doing a simplified version of a site to help establish proof of concept or to show your trademark lawyer that you’re active in the marketplace, that makes sense. But this particular student wanted to skip past all the foundational work and go straight into a full-scale launch, and that’s where the issue was.

If you haven’t built out your foundation pillars, launching too soon is dangerous.

Let me explain.

I won’t go deep into every pillar here, but you need your why, your mission, your values, your brand identity, and of course, your trademark. This isn’t optional. This is essential if you’re building a real brand. If you’re doing a side hustle, you might still benefit from this, but I’m just being honest, I’m not your guy if you don’t want to build it the right way.

Now let’s talk about the graphic design phase, because that’s where the connection begins. This is where you build the story around your visual presentation. This is where you start connecting your marketing before you ever spend a dime. People think marketing starts when you run ads, but it actually starts when you design the visuals that represent your message. This is your first impression, and it matters.

From there, everything else connects, especially content creation.

Price matters.

Profit matters.

Systems matter.

That’s the biggest thing my friend and I were talking about. When he got to $55,000/month, it got crazy, because he skipped a few steps, and some of his systems weren’t in place. The money came in so fast, it was overwhelming. It became hard to maintain and manage, and that’s when you realize that more money doesn’t mean less stress if the foundation is weak.

I hear people say all the time, “I want to scale, scale, scale.”

And yes, scaling is amazing. But you have to be ready. You have to build out your systems and think strategically. It takes real planning to sustain growth. Will it be perfect? No. But if you prepare well, you give yourself the chance to manage it with grace and confidence.

It’s doable. Be encouraged.

Align yourself with the right people.

Keep learning.

Keep growing.

Every single day.

God bless the entrepreneur®️

I woke up at 5:30 AM this morning and checked my bank account. Something hit me, today was the day I needed to sit down and take a serious look at all of my business expenses. What should I keep? What should I cut? What should I pay annually instead of monthly? It wasn’t just about bills, it was about stewardship.

Every quarter, I believe we need to “clean house.” We pick up a lot of tools and subscriptions along the way, and with how fast technology is moving, we sometimes unconsciously allow our budgets to bleed. From TV subscriptions in our personal lives to software in our businesses, costs pile up if we’re not intentional.

I asked myself: “What can I pay up for the year?”

• Shopify? Absolutely. That’s how people purchase my products.

• Kajabi? No question, it’s home to one of my businesses.

• Google Workspace? A must.

• Hole Skater? Yes, still actively using that platform.

Then I asked the harder question: What do I really need?

Do I need this editing software? Yes, I’m planning to publish 3–4 pieces of content a week. But these other four tools? They’re taking about $200 out of my monthly budget, and I haven’t used them in weeks. Gone.

This is where strategy comes in. I’ve seen a famine season before, and I wasn’t prepared. This time, I’m thinking differently.

I’ve already started implementing the Profit First method. If you haven’t read the book, I highly recommend it—it’s a game-changer for understanding how to pay yourself first and structure your finances properly.

But beyond books and budgeting, I’m a believer first. And when I think about stewardship, I think about Joseph in the Bible.

Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and realized that seven years of abundance would be followed by seven years of famine. So what did he do? He didn’t wait. He stored up a portion of the grain during the plentiful years so that when the famine hit, Egypt would not only survive but thrive. That wisdom didn’t just save a nation—it positioned them for power. That’s strategy and obedience at work.

So what does that mean for us as entrepreneurs?

It means we need to think ahead. We need to put up a third of our income. We need to tighten up loose spending and set systems in place. Financial stewardship requires financial literacy. This morning was a shift for me, not just for today, but for every quarter going forward. I’m making it a calendar event. You should too.

Start asking:

• Do I really need this?

• Is this pushing my mission and vision forward?

Clean house. Plan ahead. Prepare for the famine.

God bless the entrepreneur®️