Author: Henry Murphy

Let me take you back to 2013.

I can’t even remember the name of the platform I was using when I first got started, Big Something. Not even worth mentioning. OK, maybe I’m being a little harsh, because it did help me get going. But if I’m being honest, it was missing way too many data points, and I needed more than just a checkout page and a dream. I needed data.

I don’t quite remember how I stumbled across Shopify, but the moment I did , game changer.

Immediately, it showed me things I didn’t even know I needed. One of my favorite features to this day is the heat map. Listen, we used to send out text messages to our entire list, and depending on how large the list was, it didn’t take long to hit everyone. And when it did? You’d see dots popping up across the map in real time.

Man, that was a feeling.

I remember seeing New York, Cleveland, Tennessee, Florida, Houston, and it hit me. Those were all stops on my past tour. It was confirmation that people were still tapped in. Still watching. Still rocking with the brand.

Now imagine pairing that kind of real-time excitement with AI.

Here’s how AI helps you turn Shopify data into direction:

1. Customer Behavior Insights

With Shopify apps and AI add-ons, you can analyze how customers interact with your site:
• What are they clicking?
• What products are sitting in carts but not getting purchased?
• Where are they falling off?

This lets you adjust layouts, product descriptions, or even pricing strategies based on real behavior, not just vibes.

2. Personalized Marketing & Timing

AI tools can figure out when your customers are most active and help you:
• Send email campaigns at the right time
• Trigger automations based on behavior (like win-backs or post-purchase flows)
• Offer dynamic discounts or upsells based on a customer’s journey

3. Smart Content Creation

You still write the story, but AI helps you say it better. Whether it’s remixing your top-performing content, drafting new product descriptions, or helping you organize your blog topics, it’s all you. AI just helps polish and speed up the process.

4. Sales & Inventory Forecasting

One of the things I wish I had early on , the ability to predict. What’s going to sell? What needs to be restocked? AI tools help track those trends so you’re not wasting money over-ordering or losing money from selling out too fast.

5. Split Testing and Optimization

Let AI help test subject lines, thumbnails, images, descriptions, and tell you which ones are working and why. That means you can stop guessing and start scaling.

Here’s the point:

AI won’t replace your instincts, it enhances them.
Let the data speak, then let AI help you move on it. Execution over assumption, every time.

Use the platforms. Don’t let them use you.
AI is a tool, a powerful one, and if you’re building a business, you can’t afford to leave that kind of help on the table.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

My wife woke up early,which is kinda unusual for her. But her perspective had shifted.

She was getting serious about her schedule.

She said, “OK babe, I’m heading out to Starbucks.”

I was like, “Hello? You trying to leave me?”

She said, “I thought you had a lunch date.”

I reminded her, “Yeah, but I told him to pick me up from Starbucks. That’s why I asked you for the address.”

We laughed, sorted it out, and ended up spending most of the day there together.

And honestly, we kinda love this Starbucks.

It’s across the street from Chick-fil-A, down the road from Target and Publix, and just around the corner from a few other places we like.

It’s the perfect little work zone.

She started working on a project she’s trying to launch soon.

I sat down with my Blonde Americanos (yes, plural) and started dreaming big about some things I’m building for The Ground Up Academy.

Probably had too much caffeine, but man, I was in the zone.

Meanwhile, she’s sipping on her peach green tea (I always forget the name of it, so she has to text it to me, every time. Lol).

But here’s why I’m writing this blog,.

Something powerful happens when discipline finally clicks.

You know you need structure, but sometimes you don’t know how to put it into motion.

For my wife, it just clicked one day:

“I need to start going to bed earlier, so I can wake up earlier.”

That might not sound like much, but for years, she used to say she wasn’t a morning person.

And I believed her.

She’s the nicest person in the world,  except in the morning. 😂

But it turns out, she just needed more sleep.

So when she changed her bedtime, it changed everything.

Sometimes the breakthrough isn’t something big.

Sometimes it’s just a tiny tweak that shifts everything.

We know the goal. We might even know the objectives.

But often, we overlook the smallest barrier standing in our way.

We were so locked in that day, so focused on doing what God told us to do, that time slipped away.

And then the barista came around and said:

“Last call.”

We looked at each other and laughed, because that had never happened to us before.

Get locked in on your vision.

Eliminate distractions.

Make the small adjustments.

And do the work God has assigned to you.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

When I first started in business, I had one business account.

That was it.

No structure. No strategy. Just vibes.

And honestly, I wish someone would’ve sat me down when I walked into Chase.

I wish the person who opened my account was knowledgeable, or at least gave me a little nudge.

But they didn’t. And I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

So I spent a long time trying to figure it all out.

Money was coming in and going out, but I had no real system. I couldn’t track profit. I couldn’t budget. I couldn’t grow with peace of mind.

That’s why I’m sharing this with you now.

Because if you can get this part right early, it’ll save you stress, confusion, and even regret down the line.

Start with Structure

If you’re serious about building something real, you can’t treat your business like a hustle.

That starts with how you handle your money.

So when it’s time to open your business bank accounts, don’t just wing it.

Set it up right the first time.

Here are the 5 essential accounts I recommend for every entrepreneur:

1. Incoming Deposits

This is your “home base.”

Every client payment, sale, or transfer comes here first. Don’t mix this with anything else.

2. Operating Expenses

This is where your rent, payroll, software, and monthly bills get paid from.

It keeps your spending in one place so you always know what’s going out.

3. Tax Account

Uncle Sam doesn’t miss.

Take your taxes off top and drop them in here as you go.

A good rule of thumb is to set aside 15% of every dollar that comes in.

That way, when tax season hits, you’re ready, and not scrambling.

4. Profit First Account

This one changed the game for me.

It’s how you make sure you pay yourself, and do it consistently.

 Want to go deeper? Read “Profit First” by Mike Michalowicz. That book reshaped how I think about money in business.

5. Ad Spend Account

Marketing can get out of hand real quick.

Having a separate ad account gives you control, you know exactly how much you’re fueling your growth with.

If I could do it all over again, I’d start with this exact structure.

Even if you mess up, at least you’ll mess up inside of a system, one that helps you learn and course-correct faster.

It’s not about being perfect.

It’s about being prepared.

Give yourself a fighting chance to:

• Stay within budget

• Avoid overspending

• Know what’s going where

• And grow with clarity

Structure protects your peace.

Get this part right, and everything else gets easier.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

Funny story, well, at least to me.

Imagine a guy sitting at a bus stop with a 17-inch wheel and rim still attached, flat tire and all. Right next to the bus stop, you see his car jacked up. Now, you have to consider a few things here:

Maybe he didn’t have AAA.

Maybe he didn’t have the money to call a tow truck.

But he did have the money to hop on the bus, take the tire to a place like Firestone, get it fixed, and catch the bus back.

That’s a prime example of someone doing what they gotta do.

It ain’t pretty, but it’s progress.

I talk to my clients all the time about this, especially those thinking about scaling their e-commerce brands, but they haven’t even handled the basics like a trademark yet.

And I gotta tell them:

Back it up. Back it up. Back it up.

You can’t skip the foundation.

You say you don’t have the full amount to get the trademark filed?

Fine. But where’s the fund?

Are you putting aside $10? $25? $50?

Because listen,  we all tend to spend money carelessly sometimes.

• That trip to Chick-fil-A three times a week? Easy $80.

• That spontaneous Target run? Easy $100.

And most of the time, we don’t even need those things.

We just want them.

So before you tell yourself you can’t afford to make a move, ask yourself:

Are your priorities in order?

Are you really doing what you gotta do?

Because doing what you gotta do sometimes means choosing the bus over the Uber.

Choosing discipline over convenience.

Choosing legacy over lifestyle, for now.

You don’t need it to be perfect.

You just need to start moving in the right direction.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

As an entrepreneur, you should get comfortable with the word maratho, because that’s what this journey is: a marathon race. But it’s not a race built on speed; it’s built on persistence.

Every now and then, when we’re building our skill set and aiming toward a clear goal, it’s easy to get fixated on one thing. But as entrepreneurs, we can’t think like that. We can’t afford to.

Yes, we need to understand how things work in our business—but only enough to do our part until we can bring in someone better at that particular role. That’s where Who Not How by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan comes in. They remind us that the real question isn’t “How do I do this?, but “Who can do this better than me?”

It made me think of this one scene in Frasier. Man, I’m laughing just thinking about it. He was trying to learn how to ride a bike for the first time. When you’re learning a new skill, it’s easy to get fixated. Frasier got so locked in on a fire hydrant that he couldn’t even focus on the ride itself. All he had to do was concentrate and ride, but he couldn’t. He was distracted. He made it way harder than it needed to be. He finished the race hours later, long after everyone else had gone home.

And it’s the same thing in business.

Don’t get fixated on tasks.

If you’re currently in that social media phase, give yourself room to grow. Allow yourself grace. And when your business can afford it, bring in someone who can coach or handle that space. Someone who can give you the framework to improve and scale.

But don’t let your fixation on one area keep you from moving on to the next.

You might need to build your email marketing, but you’re so focused on perfecting Instagram posts that email never happens.

You may need to start running ads, but you’re still obsessing over reels.

You end up spending your energy trying to be perfect, and of course, perfection never comes.

I want to encourage you today:

Don’t get fixated.

Just keep going.

When you enter a new area, expect to be bad at it for a while. That’s part of the journey.

Do what you can, grow, and move forward.

That’s how you build momentum and finish your race.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

One of the women I’m mentoring said something recently that hit me in the gut, in a good way.

Right after our coaching session, I sent her a 60-day content plan tailored specifically for her brand, her voice, and her goals. It wasn’t just a one-size-fits-all strategy. It was built for her. She felt good about it, she really did. But then she sent me a message and said:

“I don’t know what I’m doing.”

But listen, it wasn’t the kind of “I don’t know what I’m doing” that leads to quitting. It wasn’t defeat. It was the opposite. It was a battle cry.

Here’s what had just happened:

1. She had just bought a high-quality tripod, because she knew she needed to start recording her workouts and nutrition videos.

2. She had invested in herself by paying for the coaching.

3. She realized that the example video I sent her wasn’t something I was going to edit for her. She’d have to do it herself.

She took all that in… and still said, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I’m doing it anyway.”

That’s courage.

That’s what this journey requires.

She said, “I see it. I see that women need this. I want to show up for them, regardless.”

You see, when we come to the realization that we’re supposed to be doing something, but then keep making excuses not to start, eventually those excuses stop working.

“I don’t know what I’m doing” isn’t a reason to stop. It’s a reminder that you’re at the starting line.

Everybody starts there. Nobody shows up an expert.

You’ve got to move anyway. You’ve got to show up anyway.

That woman is going to change lives, not because she knew everything when she started, but because she started anyway.

And you?

You’ve got too much in you to let fear or uncertainty stop you.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

As an entrepreneur, I love anything that makes my job easier, saves me time, and boosts my productivity. If you’re anything like me, you’re not washing the car when you can go through the car wash. You’re not ironing clothes if you can drop them off at the cleaners, and you’re definitely not hand-washing dishes if there’s a dishwasher nearby.

The point I’m screaming here is efficiency , and let’s not forget about intentionality.

If you’re an e-commerce brand owner, you really need to be thinking about how your “why” connects with your brand story, how to define your brand voice, and how to clearly articulate your mission and values.

These things aren’t optional, they drive how people relate to your brand and influence how your audience receives you. They show up in your product descriptions, your social media captions, your email flows, your packaging, everything.

So why not use AI to help shape that communication?

It’s still your story. It’s still your message. It’s still everything God put in your heart to build. You’re just using a tool to help you craft it clearly and execute it consistently.

Use the AI platforms, don’t let them use you.
It’s a tool. A powerful tool. One that can help scale your brand and your business when used with purpose.

Master the tool. Don’t let the tool master you.
Let it sharpen your vision, not strip your voice.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

I was checking in on a good friend of mine, Dolly.

If you’ve read any of my blogs, you’ve probably heard me talk about her before. Sometimes we fall out of touch for a bit, but I’ve been trying to get back to at least a weekly check-in. Life moves fast. And it’s easy to let important relationships slip through the cracks.

She hit me back with a message that rocked me to the core. It was a sermon called “Signs of the End,  Part Two” by Phillip Anthony Mitchell from Church 2819.

That message? A straight-up reminder that it all matters.

As believers, we’re not drifting through life aimlessly. We don’t just “hope for the best.”

We are on mission.

Everything we do carries weight.

Our prayers matter.

Our intentions matter.

Our relationships matter.

Our obedience matters.

And listen, when we pray, it matters that we’re praying as saints. The Scripture reminds us that God hears the prayers of the righteous and the repentant. So when you pray for your family, your friends, and your future, He hears you.

That means I should be praying not just for my family now, but for my kids’ kids’ kids. That’s legacy. That’s vision. That’s Kingdom thinking.

As much as I love entrepreneurship, and y’all know I do, that love flows from something deeper.

That’s why my tagline will always be:

“I’m an entrepreneur, but I’m a believer first.”

That calling is what fuels everything I build. It’s why I take it so seriously.

Because it all matters.

We’ve got to care about sin just as much as we care about stewardship.

We’ve got to care about stewardship just as much as we care about community.

And we’ve got to care about community just as much as we care about humility.

It’s all Kingdom.

It’s all connected.

It. All. Matters.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

We’ve all heard the term “self-made.”

Self-made millionaire.

Self-made success story.

And to be honest, we love that idea.

It makes us think someone pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and built something from nothing.

They made it happen—no handouts, no shortcuts.

But let’s be real:

Is that even true? Can any of us really do this alone?

When I look at my own journey, I see connection everywhere.

We build networks.

We introduce people to others in our circle.

We get mentored—and we mentor others.

We serve people in the marketplace, and we get served by them too.

This is how we grow.

This is how we build.

This is how we become who we are, in business, in life, and in the Kingdom.

I used to love the idea of being “self-made.”

But now? I see it differently.

Because if I’ve reached any level of success, it’s because somebody helped me get there.

If I scroll on social media and a video from ET Thomas fires me up,

that motivation might push me to write a blog that lifts someone else who’s down.

If I talk to my friend John Gray, and he says,

“Keep building. You’re on the right track. It’s just going to take systems,”

, then that encouragement carries into my next client call.

And that same vibration flows from me,  to them.

That’s how it works.

We rise together.

The hope is that everybody reaches multimillion-dollar status.

That everybody builds a network.

That we recognize we are all connected.

It’s powerful when you can pick up the phone and say,

“Hey, I know someone who can help you with that.”

Because the truth is, none of us are self-made.

Everything we build is born from connection.

Everything we sustain is rooted in community.

So today, I encourage you:

Find someone to serve. And don’t keep count.

Because it’s all connected.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

Every day I wake up and ask myself:

What should I learn today?

What book should I be reading?

Where am I right now in my journey, and where am I going next?

See, I’ve been in the building phase for a while, and I love the building phase. It’s exciting.

When I was younger, I was obsessed with creating. I’d come up with idea after idea.

“I’m a creative,” I’d say.

“I can build this. I can launch that.”

And I meant it.

But I was all over the place.

Now I’m more focused.

More strategic.

More intentional.

And I’m sharing this because you need to be focused too, especially if you’re serious about where you’re going.

If you zone in on where you are right now, and where you’re headed next, and surround yourself with the books, podcasts, videos, and mentorship you need for this exact moment, there’s nothing you can’t do.

Let’s say you’re building something great, but you haven’t learned how to sell yet.

And yeah, I get it, some people say, “I don’t like sales.”

But the truth is: there are only two categories in this world, buyers and sellers.

Roughly 95% are buyers and 5% are sellers.

So let me ask you this:

You’re telling me you have a life-changing product,  a service that could help people…

and you’re not learning how to sell?

That’s not a problem of skill. That’s a problem of perspective.

Even if you read one book and get one nugget, that could change everything. Forever.

Maybe you’ve got big goals, but your mindset isn’t aligned with your vision.

Or maybe you started strong, but now your thoughts are spiraling.

Here’s what you have to do:

Shift what you say to yourself.

Every time a negative thought rises up, you need to overwhelm it with truth. With purpose.

Until the positive thoughts are so dominant, they swallow the doubt whole.

That kind of mindset shift doesn’t happen overnight.

It happens daily.

And it starts when you wake up and ask:

What can I learn today?

Where am I going?

What’s next?

Every morning you wake up, take a breath, and open your eyes—you’ve been given another opportunity.

And this kind of thinking?

It’ll carry you far on the journey of entrepreneurship.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️