Author: Henry Murphy

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®️

Is it possible to be omnipresent?

You guys know I’m a believer and an entrepreneur, so I’ll be honest, I cringed even typing that word into the title. Why? Because only God is omnipresent. He’s the only one who is everywhere at all times, who knows all things, who sees all things. That’s not up for debate.

But in the context of building an online presence, the concept does matter.

When we’re building something, especially in e-commerce, we need to be findable. If someone hears about you or your brand, and they go searching your name on Google or any social platform, you should show up. But that doesn’t happen by accident. It takes intentionality. It takes what I’ll call “omnipresence” for lack of a better word.

You know what I do, I mostly speak to e-commerce brand owners. I help founders go from idea to sustainability, giving them the tools, the insights, and the mentorship to keep showing up.

And yes, I believe it’s all possible.

I believe:
• You should be on every relevant platform you can.
• You should be repurposing your blogs into social media posts.
• You should be telling your story and communicating your brand voice, consistently.

If you have a Shopify store and you own the brand, that means you should:
• Post blogs regularly on your site.
• Repurpose that content into short-form and long-form across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook Business Page, Threads, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and even Snapchat if that’s where your audience hangs out.

When I say “be everywhere,” I really mean it.

That doesn’t mean you need to be on every single platform every single day, but it does mean showing up at least 3–4 times a week. You want people to see your face, hear your voice, understand your story, and know what matters to you.

You need to be findable. Period.

I’m not going to hit you with a long conclusion today, I believe this blog says what it needed to say.

So I’ll leave you with the mantra:

Make moves or make excuses.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

So many things run through my mind daily that I have to brain dump, over and over again. One of my best companions for that process? ChatGPT.

The goal is simple: use AI as an assistant, not a crutch. It’s here to make us faster, better, and more efficient, not to rob us of our authenticity.

It’s crazy when you think about it, we all say we want more time. We all say we want to work smarter. And now we have a tool that allows us to do just that.

Every business needs structure, email flows, marketing plans, customer service systems. And yes, you still have to be the one to think about what you want to communicate and how to make it sound like you. But when you talk to AI, you’re not talking to just one assistant.

You’re talking to the equivalent of over a billion minds trained on data, patterns, human behavior, and communication.

That’s right , GPT-4 was trained on hundreds of billions of words across the internet. Think about that.

Let that sink in fam.

See, I have experts I talk to regularly. We go back and forth about ideas, strategies, and concepts. But I also take those conversations and run them through AI. I take my thoughts and run them through AI. Then I do it again and again. That’s how you sharpen ideas. That’s how you get clarity. That’s how you get things done.

This is not the time to shrink back. The marketplace is evolving fast. And if you refuse to adapt, you’ll get left behind—simple as that.

Now, I’m no AI expert. I’m a student. A novice, really. But I’ve been an entrepreneur for over a decade, and I know a tool when I see one. There were so many times I wished I had someone who could just take my scattered thoughts, organize them, and give them back to me in a way that made sense. Now I do. And so do you.

Entrepreneurs, don’t be foolish. Don’t ignore this moment.

I recommend spending at least 30 minutes a day inside the tool. Learn it. Feed it your voice. Train it to understand your tone. And soon you’ll be creating better, faster, and more efficiently than ever before.

This is only the beginning.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

I’m sitting on my cousin’s porch in Stonecrest, close to where they’re building the new Black Wall Street, an inspiring project fueling Black entrepreneurship and community growth. I’m sipping coffee and eating a few pieces of a small Hershey’s chocolate bar with almonds while listening to my new Audible book, Never Eat Alone.

Every few minutes, someone drives by blasting loud music, drowning out the voice coming through my iPhone speaker. It annoyed me, and honestly, I don’t know why, because that used to be me.

Am I becoming one of those older men that just sits on the porch? Ha ha, maybe.

I like to work in the quiet.

Speaking of work, I love my work.

I tell myself, I love working. I know I love it because it connects me to people and purpose. I’m happiest when I’m doing it. And I carry this attitude: I know this is going to work. And if it doesn’t? No worries, I’ll find a way to figure it out.

See, I’m in love with the journey of entrepreneurship. Myron Golden said something the other day: There is no there there. At first, I was like, What is this man talking about? Then he made it clear, it’s not about the destination, the journey is the destination.

I literally almost threw my phone down because it hit me so hard. It’s something I always believed but never heard put into words like that. He made it real for me.

Enjoy the journey. Start a business,. Take risks, make mistakes and grow from it. Do something great. We only get one life to live.

God Bless The Entrepreneur
®️

I won’t give you the exact time or season but I will give you the setting. I had just left the barbershop, feeling fresh. My wife picks me up in the truck, no AC, and it’s about 93°and humid  in Atlanta. We’re on the east side, near Decatur, sitting in summer heat that felt personal. I swing by Church’s Chicken. Don’t ask me why, I hadn’t had it in a while.

We’re getting ready to hop on I-20, and I crack open the mashed potatoes,  and realize they didn’t give me a spoon.

Now, here I am, sweating, hungry, and frustrated. But I’m resourceful, so I take a chicken bone, scoop up the potatoes, and make it do what it do. Yeah, you heard me right: I was eating mashed potatoes with a chicken bone.

But while I’m sitting there in the truck, water bottle warm like tea, I had a moment.

A thought slid into my mind, “How did I get here?”

And for a quick second, I felt like a failure.

That’s the part nobody talks about.

The moments in your journey where the inconvenience of life tries to label you.

Where your current season tries to tell you who you are.

But I snapped out of it.

I imagined one of those loud red Xs from The Price Is Right, like a buzzer in my mind.

WRONG.

This is not my end. This is not my definition.

I am not a failure.

You are not a failure.

A temporary circumstance does not define you.

You are made in the image of God, and that alone is enough.

Sometimes, that’s the jumpstart you need: to remember who you are before you ever made a dollar, posted a product, or closed a deal. That identity, rooted in God, is where real confidence starts.

Shift Happens Fast, Be Ready for It

We have to be willing to shift our mindset in an instant. That’s why I stay in the Word. That’s why I keep reading. That’s why I protect what I see and hea, because the wrong content will shape how you think, but so will the right content.

If I let that moment get to me, I could’ve spiraled. But instead, I remembered:

“All work works.”

It’s either working on you or working for you.

This season is working on me.

It’s teaching me patience.

It’s teaching me perseverance.

It’s teaching me consistency.

It’s teaching me to stay locked in on the vision, even when the conditions don’t match it.

So yeah… mashed potatoes and a chicken bone.

It was a moment.

But it wasn’t the end.

And that’s what I want to remind you today.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

I really believe with all of my heart that I was always a big dreamer. I just never could find the motivation to move from where I was. I didn’t have the habits, and honestly, I didn’t have the mindset. I had the desire, but not the movement.

Then one day, I heard a phrase that hit home:

“Nothing motivates you to start that business like a job that you hate.”

And even though I’ve been an entrepreneur for well over a decade now, I still think about how I used to feel when I was clocking in.

From the Breakroom to Breakthrough

I remember being at Checkers, staring out the window, dreaming.

Saying to myself, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to do that.”

But talk only takes you so far.

Eventually, I got tired of talking.

Tired of saying “one day.”

That’s when intentionality became my best friend.

I had to look at my situation and be real with myself. I couldn’t just quit. I had a family. That wasn’t an option. But you know what was?

Being intentional.

Intentionality at Work and at Home

I decided I would be intentional while I was at work.

I would be intentional with my family.

And I would be intentional after work hours, even if that meant sacrificing sleep to build my business.

That job I hated? It became my motivation.

Every time I wanted to slack off or slow down, that building reminded me why I had to keep pushing. It reminded me to stay focused. It reminded me to be faithful.

If You’re Still on the Job

There were times when I slacked off at work, thinking it didn’t matter.

But I was reminded quickly:

If you’re not faithful in someone else’s business, you won’t be faithful in your own.

And I had to ask myself, “Do I want people to treat my business like I treat this job?”

I didn’t get to live that out in the workplace as long as I wanted to, but if you’re still at your job, please hear me:

That frustration?

It’s not random—it’s a signal.

But don’t just react.

Be intentional.

Nothing Motivates You to Start That Business Like a Job That You Hate

Use this season to sharpen your skills.

To prepare mentally, spiritually, and practically.

If you’re checked out at your 9 to 5, ask yourself:

Am I being faithful here?

Because how you show up here is how you’ll show up there.

Every delay. Every detour. Every dull moment.

It’s building you, if you let it.

So don’t waste it.

Be intentional. Be faithful. Build with purpose.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

All Platforms. Every Day. No Excuses.

Entrepreneurs, especially e-commerce entrepreneurs, should be on every platform.

Here’s the thing: most people are loyal to their preferred app. Instagram folks stay on Instagram. YouTube heads live on YouTube. TikTokers? You already know they’re not going anywhere.

As a brand owner, you can’t afford to be picky, you’ve got to meet people where they are.

That means showing up on every platform, every day. Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Threads, LinkedIn… and yep, we might even be sliding back to Snapchat.

And while you’re there? Make sure you’re actually talking to your people.

Don’t just pos, connect. Speak directly to your target audience.

Here’s the challenge:

Commit to a year.

That’s your minimum, not your maximum.

You need that kind of time to really see the data, build the muscle, and learn the platforms.

And please, don’t underestimate the value of even 25 views.

When’s the last time you commanded the attention of 25 people in a room? Think about that.

Analytics Check-In:

I’ve dropped 10 posts over the last 10 days. My views ranged from 150 to 1,900.

The highest I ever reached on Shorts was about 5,000,  so trust me, I know I’ll be hitting that and beyond again soon.

Simple goal: At the end of 30 days, I’ll ask:

• Which posts got the most engagement?

• Which ones got the most comments?

• What flopped and why?

• What content should I double down on?

Then I’ll create more of what works and tweak what doesn’t.

Takeaway:

The goal isn’t just more views. The goal is to get better:

• Better at storytelling

• Better at communication

• Better at consistency

• Better at reading analytics

Don’t compare yourself to anyone else.

Your journey is your own. No shortcuts. Put in the work.

The algorithm owes you nothing, but the results will come.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️