Author: Henry Murphy

You may have heard me talk about systems before. I think part of the reason I didn’t like systems in the past was because I wasn’t a big fan of structure—probably because I wasn’t the biggest fan of school. But stay with me for a second. As I started climbing the ranks into upper management, I began to see how important systems and structure are. Here’s the thing, though they’re much easier to appreciate when you’re doing something you love or even just like.

When I worked at Checkers, I ran a pretty good restaurant. We would consistently go back and forth between being number one and number two in the company—not just in sales but across the board. But you know what I hated? The checklist. I thought it was monotonous. I figured my routine had me covered. But the truth is, it didn’t. No matter how good you are, you’ll always miss something without a checklist.

Fast forward to today, running my own business and teaching students in The Ground Up Academy, I stress the importance of having a checklist and using it consistently. It’s not just about going through the motions—it’s about understanding why each step matters. There are certain things that must be in order for everything to work like you want it to.

Every time you step onto an airplane, you don’t realize that the pilot has just gone through a checklist. How do you safely get to your vacation spot, visit family, or travel for business? That checklist plays a huge role in making it happen.

If you’re already big on checklists, keep it up. I applaud you for it. But if you’re not, start today. It could change everything for you. It brings structure to your business and ensures that the people who come after you are set up for success. The ultimate goal is to build a business that can run without you, and that level of detail is critical to making it happen.

God Bless The Entrepreneur.

I have a friend who’s a master at email communication. His copywriting skills are incredible, and what I admire most about him is his dedication to improving. He’s always sharpening his craft—listening to people better than him, getting coached, and attending masterminds. He’s constantly leveling up.

Now, because I own an apparel company called Unapologetic and run a few other businesses, I know I have to at least be familiar with the administrative process—enough to pass it off to someone else one day. Recently, I struggled with writing an email flow for my business, but I finally got it done. When I saw the finished product, I was so happy. Was it perfect? No. But it was exactly what I needed it to be, and I was proud of myself for getting it done.

There’s something empowering about pushing through tasks that don’t come naturally.

I used to have an administrative assistant in the Philippines, but we lost touch—she went back to school for nursing. I really needed her during this time because, after writing the email flow, I had to send it out through Mailchimp. Now, I know I can figure it out if I have to, but let me be honest: I didn’t want to. I wanted to pass it off so badly that I half-joked about hopping on a plane to the Philippines to find her. Drastic? Sure. But that’s how much I didn’t want to deal with Mailchimp.

Before I started writing this blog, I opened the Mailchimp app and felt a sense of dread. I thought to myself, I’m really going to have to figure this out. And the truth is, there are times in entrepreneurship when you have to step up to the plate, knock one out of the park for yourself, and get the job done.

Do I plan to keep doing this? No. But I had to convince myself that it’s valuable to at least know how to do it. I realized that this isn’t just about completing a task—it’s about building a process. I have a sizable email list, and part of the process involves cleaning it up, identifying who’s active, and preparing for the future. By doing this myself, I’m creating a guide for whoever I bring on next, whether it’s Pam (if she comes back) or a new administrative assistant. And if there’s something I didn’t do right, they can educate me.

Here’s the takeaway: There will always be tasks we don’t like to do—especially admin tasks. I’ll be the first to admit that admin work isn’t my thing. I firmly believe in having “aces in their places,” letting people excel in what they’re good at. But sometimes, as the business owner, you have to step in.

It’s your business. Sometimes, you have to work in the business instead of onthe business, and that’s okay. In certain seasons, you just have to do what needs to be done.

God Bless The Entrepreneur

When I first woke up this morning, I was meditating on a podcast that I listened to last night from Tim Ross and Dr. Anita Phillips. It was so good. I had just brewed some tea that helps me fall asleep while listening, and although I was fading, I was holding on because I wanted to finish this podcast. It was so profound.

As I was thinking about all the nuggets I got from it, I was still lying in bed with my wife, and I was so excited. I know I was excited because she said, “You know you’re loud, right?” As soon as I got done, though, it felt like these negative thoughts started to hang glide off a cliff. And it seemed like those negative thoughts were gliding into more negative thoughts and even more negative thoughts until the expression started to show on my face. What is happening? What is going on?

It really showed me how fast the mind moves and how everything can change in an instant. You’ve got to have control over your thoughts.

Two scriptures come to me in these moments: 2 Corinthians 10:5, where we’re reminded to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ, and Romans 12:2, where we’re called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. I’m going to think on these scriptures and get myself back aligned so that I can finish my day strong.

This may be you today, and this blog is right on time for you, or maybe it’ll be you another day, and my hope is that you remember this when it happens.

So, if you find yourself feeling like your thoughts are spiraling out of control—like they’re hang gliding off a cliff with no direction—remember that you don’t have to let them. God’s word gives us the power to take every thought captive and bring it into alignment with His truth. Whether it’s 2 Corinthians 10:5, reminding us to make our thoughts obedient to Christ, or Romans 12:2, encouraging us to renew our minds, we have the tools to shift our thinking. Take a moment, meditate on these scriptures, and ground yourself in what’s true.

Remember, you have the authority to steer your thoughts in the right direction, just like a hang glider needs the pilot to take control. Stay strong, stay focused, and finish your day with peace.

God Bless The Entrepreneur.

It was about 4 AM early Friday morning, and I woke from my sleep. A few negative things weighed on my mind, and I wanted to pray and get them out of my heart. As I started to do that, I found myself talking to God more freely than I ever had before.

I might’ve talked for an entire hour. When I was done, I told God, “OK, I’m gonna listen now to see what You speak to my heart,” and then I immediately started talking again! I laughed at myself because it took a long time for me to get to this space—where I could just freely talk to God, where I was submitting my will every day, being totally honest.

Talking to God is like being off the record. Off the record is when a conversation is private, confidential, and not meant to be shared with others. It’s raw and unfiltered. In the same way, prayer isn’t always the formal kind we pray in church or in front of people. It’s an intimate conversation, just between you and God. There’s no pretending, no putting on a show. It’s where you pour out your heart, submit your will, and seek Him in truth. I want to encourage you to start living a life where you talk with God off the record—just you and Him, building a relationship that’s rooted in pure honesty and intimacy.

If you haven’t been reading my blogs for a while, then you know that I have some eye issues. After that time with God, I wrote down the title Off the Record, but I promise you, it looked like Morse code! I could hardly decipher it, and if the Lord hadn’t brought it back to my remembrance, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.

At the end of the day, it’s not about saying the right words or presenting ourselves a certain way. It’s about being real with God. There’s a beauty in being vulnerable, in speaking freely and truthfully, knowing that no one else needs to hear it but Him.

God Bless The Entrepreneur

 I remember the NF tour like it was yesterday. God orchestrated everything for me to sponsor it, and looking back, I still can’t believe how it happened. I got connected to the right people, and next thing I knew, my clothing brand Unapologetic was part of the tour, while I promoted it on Z180 Radio. God was opening some incredible doors. I’d done plenty of tours before, but this one felt different. NF was an artist you just knew would blow up, and now, look at him.

It’s the possibility of making a dream come true that makes life so interesting. I know how I feel about dreams and the process. I hate the process, but I love it because the deep work is done there. In the process of creating dreams, something powerful is built. We often look at huge companies like Hobby Lobby, a billion-dollar business, and it’s hard to imagine that it all started in a garage.

I also think about Def Jam in its prime, producing some of the greatest hip-hop artists—and it all started in a dorm room. There’s something about the process of creating the dream that makes life worth living. Sure, seeing the fruits of your labor is life-changing. But you have to learn to appreciate the grind just as much. Every up and down, every failure, every financial loss—it all means something. It’s creating something incredible within you.

Possibilities, by definition, are the potential of something becoming real. What I love most about them is the limitless nature of it all. You can dream as big as you want. You can put in as much effort as your body allows each day, knowing that God is leading and directing you. This isn’t just about proving you can do something. This is about God giving you purpose. That’s what makes possibilities so amazing.

God Bless The Entrepreneur

It’s crucial to dig deep when establishing your foundation because your brand must be built on something solid. What is your “why”? It’s the driving force behind everything you do the reason you get up, push forward, and make bold decisions. Your “why” crafts your vision, shapes your mission, and pushes you through adversity.

This is not something to skip over or treat lightly. If you try to move forward without a clear “why,” time will show you the consequences. You may find yourself quitting when things get hard or struggling to keep going when the excitement fades. For some, the “why” is family. For others, it’s a chance to create change, solve a problem, or leave a legacy. Whatever it is, your “why” becomes the pillar on which everything else rests.

Your “why” should fuel your decisions and drive your actions. It helps you craft your mission and establish your values—two things essential to your foundation. Your designs, website, and marketing are critical, but they should all flow from the pillars of your “why,” mission, and values. If these foundational elements aren’t solid, the entire structure of your brand will feel unstable.

And here’s the truth: you have to believe in your “why” first before anyone else will whether it’s your customers or the team you build to help bring your vision to life. Your belief in your “why” will inspire others to believe in it too.

Let me leave you with this:

When the WHY is strong enough, you find the HOW.

And remember, how you do anything is how you do everything.

God Bless The Entrepreneur.

I know when you read this title, it probably felt a little misleading. So, I think it’s fair to give you the backstory. My wife and I were having a deep conversation about life, and at the end, she said, “I want to be empty when it’s time for me to die.” She was saying that she wanted to exhaust everything God has given her to do in this lifetime.

I wanted to stop her and say, “I’m gonna do a blog about that,” but I couldn’t interrupt that moment of vulnerability we were sharing. I went to sleep thinking about it. I woke up still thinking about it. And I realized, it’s so much deeper than just reaching some pinnacle, some dream. Even after you’ve reached your dream, if you’re still alive, there’s more to do. There’s more life to live.

My goal every day now is to ask: What is God putting on my heart, and how do I act on it? How do I dedicate a portion of my life daily to improve my craft—whether it’s writing, speaking, or creating? All of these things matter. I feel it’s crucial to be prepared for whatever God is going to do, for whoever we’re meant to meet, for whatever connections He puts together. My daily prayer is, “Lord, fill me with Your Holy Spirit, lead me in the way You want me to go. I surrender my life to You today.” I truly believe there’s joy in living like this. We won’t always be happy, but we can always have joy, because there’s joy in purpose.

I want to reach the end of my life and be empty, with nothing left to give. I pray the same for you—that when your time comes, you’ll be empty, having poured out everything you had in the time God has given you.

God Bless The Entrepreneur

There will be days when you are building a brand and you might say, “I quit.” Then the next day, you come to your senses and say to yourself, “If I don’t do this, then it won’t get done.” This is how entrepreneurship feels most days: pure exhilaration one day and close to depression the next day. I know that’s not funny, but I laughed a little bit because I really know what that’s like.

I remember my dad used to make me recite this poem:

Don’t You Quit

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When funds are low and debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is strange with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns.

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow—

You may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems afar;

As I started learning about everything that it takes to run a brand, I got overwhelmed. But I realize that I don’t have to be excellent at everything. I just need to know a little bit about everything, and the things that I’m really good at—that’s what I focus on. The goal is to eventually bring in someone to handle everything that I’m not strong in.

You’ve got banking information, incorporation information, trademark info, ads, brand identity, brand story, social media, shipping, Shopify store—the list goes on. Yes, this can be overwhelming, and that’s why you have to give yourself time. You need time to learn, and as you learn and put things into action, you grow. There’s so much potential past the learning curve. There will be days you have to tell yourself, “Once I get past this learning curve, then I’m gonna see everything that I worked for.”

As you navigate the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, remember that persistence is key—every challenge faced is a step toward mastering your craft. Embrace the journey, knowing that the obstacles you overcome today will pave the way for the success you envision tomorrow. So, keep pushing forward, and know that with each lesson learned, you’re closer to reaping the rewards of your hard work.

 God Bless The Entrepreneur.

There are days that I have to cling on to optimism with everything that is in me. Life gets tough, entrepreneurship gets tough, family issues get tough. You know, my saying: life be Lifing. It will do us good to remember that there are two sides to everything, and I know we get caught up a lot when we’re on the bottom side of things. When we are trying to build a business, all we see is this uphill climb, and it can feel like we are failing. In those moments, I remember when Myron Golden said that sometimes the work works on you until it works for you. You see, it’s that type of insightfulness that lets me know all of this is pushing me to the other side; it is pushing me toward success.

In personal development, we can look at challenges as opportunities for growth. For example, when facing criticism, instead of letting it diminish our self-worth, we can view it as constructive feedback that helps us improve. Similarly, financial setbacks can teach us valuable lessons about resourcefulness and resilience, ultimately making us stronger entrepreneurs.

The fact that I know a scarcity mindset exists—and sometimes I live there—I am always aspiring to get to that growth mindset and live there. I want a scarcity mindset to feel foreign to me. I need to pin this blog today because I need the reminder. I’m hoping that this reminds you that there is another side that exists and that it is attainable.

In closing, it’s all about perspective. Remember that the challenges you face today are simply part of your journey, pushing you toward greater heights. Embrace the duality of life, and know that with the right mindset, success is within reach.

God Bless The Entrepreneur.