Author: Henry Murphy

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®️

There’s a scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming that lives rent-free in my head. Spider-Man is trying (and failing) to interrogate a criminal. The dude looks at him and says, “You gotta get better at this part of the job.” That dude? Played by Donald Glover,  you might know him better as Childish Gambino.

That line hits harder than Peter Parker’s punch. And honestly? It’s a word for entrepreneurs.

There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t feel like a level up is needed. Not one. There’s always something I can improve,  and that ain’t a bad thing. It just means I’m aware. I could talk about a lot of areas, but let me be real:

I could be better at blogging. Like, actually understanding how Google works so that the time I spend writing hits the people it’s meant to hit. That’s the goal, right? Reach who you were sent to reach.

I could be more consistent with my podcast , staying on course with the topics I said I was gonna talk about. Not just what’s trending or easy. Nah, I gotta stay locked in.

And don’t get me started on coaching. I love it. I’m good at it. But even in that space, I can prepare more. Sharpen more. Be more intentional with every call.

It’s not that I’m bad at this… I just know I can be better.

Excellence over perfection. Every time. Because perfection paralyzes,  but excellence keeps you moving.

So I ask you… Is there a part of the job you need to get better at?

Here I am, getting ready to record content tomorrow. I’ve got an amazing outline. Strong points. Clear thoughts. But I’m still wrestling with how to transfer that outline from my head to the mic,  in my voice,  with flow.

And guess what?

That’s another part of the job I gotta get better at. That transference from idea to execution. From paper to performance. From concept to clarity.

But awareness is the first step. Execution is next.

Takeaways:

1. Awareness is a superpower. You can’t grow in an area you won’t acknowledge needs growth. Be real with yourself.

2. Good enough ain’t great. Just because you’re decent at something doesn’t mean you don’t have room to improve. Go for excellence.

3. Every level requires a better you. Whether it’s content, coaching, communication, or consistency,  get better at this part of the job. Then do it again at the next level.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️

How could this happen every Saturday?

I go get a haircut. I always try to stay ready so I don’t have to get ready. That’s been my motto for years. But somehow, every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I find myself overthinking content.

What should I talk about?

Now to me, that’s kind of crazy because I’m always encouraging people to get in front of the camera, to be bold, to tell their story. And honestly? I’m decent at it when I actually get in front of the camera. But somehow, some way, I still struggle.

So guess what I told myself?

“Once I start getting my haircut again, then I’ll get back to it.”

But every Saturday, I find myself in the chair, still not doing it. So clearly, it’s not the haircut.

It’s me.

I’m in my own head. Maybe you are too. That’s why I’m writing this, to be real, to be transparent, and to tell you this:

Yes, I still struggle with showing up. And that’s okay. But we can’t stay stuck.

We have to do something about it.

This blog is my confession.

A confession to the world. A confession to myself. It changes this Saturday, after this haircut, I’m going in.

Every now and then, I have to gently remind myself:

You have value.

You were put here to serve.

You were designed for a purpose.

And you were too.

We can’t squander that. We will be held accountable for what we were given. We must steward the gifts, the calling, the influence. It’s not to be taken lightly.

So keep going. Somebody needs what God has put in you.

God Bless The Entrepreneur

I probably shouldn’t be disappointed in people’s mindsets, but I am.

Conversations in the barbershop, casual talks with friends… I’m seeing a pattern, and it’s hard to ignore.

I’ve realized something sobering: you can’t save people from their mindset. They have to want to change. You can give them game. You can offer wisdom. You can even show them the way. But if their mind is made up, it’s like talking to a brick wall.

Sometimes I ask myself, “Am I being too hard?” “Too harsh?”

But deep down, I just want to see people be better, because they actually can be.

It makes me wonder why we run from the very things that can help us grow.

Why do we avoid challenges, new information, and different perspectives that could improve our lives?

I say this from experience. I used to be stubborn too, especially with small things like food. My wife would try to introduce me to healthier options, and I’d shut it down immediately. Not because it wasn’t good for me, but because I was stuck in my ways. My palate was closed off, just like my mindset.

That brings me to something that happened today in the shop. A lady walked in selling sea moss. She was an entrepreneur, so naturally, I respected her hustle. She started explaining the health benefits of sea moss: how it cleanses the body of mucus, boosts energy, and supports the immune system. It was a solid presentation. But people tuned her out. Heads went down. No interest.

And that crushed me.

Maybe it hit harder because I’ve dealt with health issues myself, specifically with my eyes. Issues that, if I’m honest, were caused by my diet. That’s why I listen now. That’s why I care.

But again, we wait until we hit rock bottom before we decide to change. Why?

It all comes down to mindset. And this applies to business mindset, financial mindset, health mindset, you name it. Your mindset is either your ceiling or your launchpad. It controls your decisions, your habits, and ultimately your future.

That’s why I constantly push things like:

• Taking courses

• Attending webinars

• Reading books

• Getting coaching

• Finding mentors

That’s how your mindset shifts. And if your mindset shifts, your life shifts.

Now I can’t talk about changing mindset without talking about the Word of God. Because we don’t naturally think the way God does, we need the Word to renew our minds. It’s the only way to see life, people, and purpose the way God intended. And when you start there, every area of your life begins to align.

So this wasn’t supposed to be a blog post. I wasn’t planning to write anything today.

But this was fresh on my heart and I had to share it with you.

You can change your mindset. Right now.

It doesn’t matter what you’ve been doing or not doing, that’s the past. Focus on the future. Make a decision today to shift your thinking. You don’t need permission. Just choose.

Changing your mindset will change your life.

God bless the entrepreneur.