I had to sit down and write this blog today. Why? Because I was so inspired by the call we had last night in The Ground Up Academy.

One of my mentees, Sherrod White, came through and broke down the real pros and cons of making $55,000 a month with his brand I Refuse to Be Normal. The session was nothing less than amazing. Everybody who was on that call left encouraged and inspired, not just by the success, but by the transparency. And for me personally, it hit deep.

It reminded me of why I started this Academy and why it’s so important to me and my wife. Our heart is to help entrepreneurs, specifically e-commerce entrepreneurs, take an idea and turn it into something sustainable. We do that by giving the tools, the insight, the strategy, and the mentorship we wish we had when we were starting out.

For me, it hit in 2018. I’ll never forget it. We had a solid year financially, but I got to the end of it and couldn’t really account for where all the money went. That moment stuck with me. I looked back over all my years in business and realized I could’ve gone further, faster, if I had somebody to walk with me and help me through the process. That’s why I do what I do now.

Back to the call, Sherrod laid it all out. He talked about how he started with just two shirts, same design, different colorways. That was it. No big collection. No bells and whistles. Just a clear brand, a strong message, and consistency.

He walked us through the climb, $5K months… $15K… and eventually hitting $55K. But it wasn’t just the numbers. He gave the real behind-the-scenes:

• Early mornings at 5AM and some nights ending at 1AM

• Customer service challenges—not just falling behind, but navigating returns, and having to process returned items before backed-up orders

• The pressure of growing fast without systems

• Running out of inventory

• And not putting parameters in place just because certain items were selling well

He stressed how important it is to know your why, to build on foundation principles, and to never stop telling your brand story, especially on social media.

He also shared why he chose Shopify as his platform of choice and broke down the benefits of using their built-in credit card processor, small detail, but big impact when you’re scaling.

This is the kind of conversation that doesn’t just sound good, it helps you make better moves.

We also dropped a Proof of Concept Checklist inside the Academy along with a few other resources for our students. Because at the end of the day, our goal is simple: help entrepreneurs build real businesses that last.

We’re just getting started.

God Bless The Entrepreneur®️