YES, BRAND with Hersh Rephun

Hosted by Hersh Rephun

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Oct 2026

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YES, BRAND features conversations with founders, creators, leaders, and public thinkers at pivotal moments, when the success of what they're building depends on how it's understood. A founder entering a new arena. An author introducing a new idea. A scientist challenging conventional thinking. A CEO redefining a company. An artist reshaping a genre. A leader building a movement. Building it is only the beginning. What happens next depends on how the world understands it. Every episode explores the gap between intention and interpretation, where meaningful ideas meet the real world and take on a life of their own. Welcome to the conversation between what you meant... and what everyone else thinks you meant. Because every idea has two stories: the one you tell... and the one everyone else repeats. Hosted by Hersh Rephun.

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October 28, 202634 min

Scherrie L. Prince: The Attorney Was Never the Destination

Scherrie L. Prince has spent nearly two decades practicing law. But before she became an attorney, she was an entrepreneur who learned some expensive lessons about what happens when ambition outpaces preparation. A handshake partnership gone sideways. A family inheritance complicated by the absence of an estate plan. A thriving real estate business wiped out in the 2008 financial collapse. Those experiences eventually led Scherrie to law school. Today, they're also the foundation of her work as a founder strategist and creator of the MOAT framework. In this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun talks with Scherrie about her upcoming book, Build the MOAT First , the hidden cost of inaction, and why protecting a business means protecting the people and families behind it. They also explore a more personal transition: what happens when the profession that made you credible becomes too small a description of who you've become? Scherrie is ready for the marketplace to see the entrepreneur, educator, and strategist who's been there all along. And she's surprisingly clear about what she'd like people to call her next. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scherriespeaks LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scherriespeaks YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@playbigfasterpodcast?sub_confirmation=1 -- First Contact Live (FCL) is a real-time experiment in how we see, understand, and communicate our value, where one courageous participant takes the Hot Seat and everyone in the gallery gets a front-row view of the discoveries, blind spots, and breakthroughs that emerge when fresh eyes meet an unusual story for the very first time. Register to Attend First Contact Live: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/KpT5hy7nQa-myXILotBy6g Apply for the Hot Seat on First Contact Live: https://www.hershrephun.com/first-contact-live/#application-form -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

October 22, 202630 min

TSK × TripWix Scale Luxury With the Human Touch

What good are gold taps if there's no hot water? It's a fair question. And a surprisingly useful way to rethink luxury. On this installment of YES, BRAND's continuing series following the emergence of The Sovereign Kingdom (TSK) , Hersh Rephun brings together the core team from TripWix , an established luxury villa rental and hospitality company, and TSK , an ambitious new luxury ecosystem taking shape in real time. In the first installment, TSK founder K. Derhem introduced the vision behind The Sovereign Kingdom. Now we're following that vision into the marketplace, meeting the partners who will help bring it to life. Joining Hersh are Lisa Bruno, Miguel Carvalho and Lucia Furtado of TripWix , along with Anthony Paulin-Steinmetz , luxury brand strategist representing TSK. The conversation begins with a deceptively simple question: What does luxury actually mean to the person experiencing it? For Miguel, it begins with getting the basics right. Beautiful surroundings mean very little if the shower doesn't work, the bread tastes artificial, or nobody remembers your name. For Lisa, genuine luxury comes from understanding the individual. What one guest finds extraordinary, another may barely notice. Sometimes the smallest gesture becomes the most memorable. Lucia brings the technology question into focus. As artificial intelligence makes hospitality faster and more efficient, how do companies make sure the guest doesn't become another data point? And Anthony explains the philosophy behind The Sovereign Kingdom: the guest is sovereign. The property, schedule and experience should adapt to the person, rather than forcing the person to adapt to the system. Together, they explore why TripWix and TSK see value in their partnership, how an expanding luxury ecosystem can preserve individual attention, and why consistency, discretion and trust matter more than extravagant promises. Along the way, there's plenty of personality, a little laughter, a mysterious Mediterranean backdrop, and a refreshing willingness to question what the word luxury has come to mean. Because the thing people take home from an extraordinary experience usually isn't the price tag. It's how they felt. This is the second chapter in a continuing YES, BRAND series following The Sovereign Kingdom as its vision, relationships and brand take shape. YES, BRAND: The Sovereign Kingdom Series, featuring TripWix and TSK. tripwix: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tripwix/posts/ TSK: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thesovereignkingdom -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

October 17, 202639 min

Bailey Rankin Barclay: When Being Busy Stops Being Successful

Being booked and busy sounds like success. Until the bookings stop. On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun welcomes Bailey Rankin Barclay , founder of Rankin Design , a design studio helping short-term rental investors turn ordinary properties into competitive, revenue-producing destinations. Bailey knows that professional design can make a substantial difference to an investment property's performance. The challenge? Getting investors to recognize that value before they've experienced it. Because they're often thinking about bedrooms, hot tubs, occupancy and profit margins. They're not necessarily thinking about the designer who can help make the whole operation work. And Bailey's work goes well beyond choosing furniture and making spaces beautiful. She's coordinating logistics, anticipating expensive mistakes, solving installation problems and helping owners get their properties earning money sooner. But there's another business problem Bailey has been confronting. Her own. After years of successful referral-driven work, Bailey found herself stretched thin, managing everything personally, and too busy serving existing clients to build the infrastructure that would attract the next ones. Then the referrals slowed down. Suddenly, being a talented, hardworking designer wasn't enough. She needed to start thinking like a founder. Hersh and Bailey explore what happens when a creative professional has to build a business that can grow beyond her own capacity. They discuss the difference between artistic identity and business identity, the uncomfortable process of delegating, and the challenge of becoming known for the full value you bring. There's also an unexpected twist. Bailey originally wanted her social media to educate potential clients about design. Her social media manager encouraged her to show more of herself instead. The kids. The messy house. The personality behind the portfolio. And something began to change. Prospective clients started arriving with a sense that they already knew her, liked her and trusted her. Which brings the conversation squarely into YES, BRAND territory: What do people think they're getting when they first encounter you? And how much of your actual value can they recognize before you ever meet? It's a conversation about creativity, entrepreneurship, motherhood, trust, and the sometimes uncomfortable realization that the business you're building requires you to become a different kind of leader. Because there's a big difference between being great at your work and building a business that's great at delivering it. YES, BRAND with Bailey Rankin Barclay. Website: https://www.rankindesignnashville.com/ https://www.somerleddesigns.com/ https://www.funkitinteriors.com/ https://www.strcribs.com/ -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

October 15, 202650 min

Like Father, Like Founder? Mark & Malachy Mitchnick Build Burnd

A father invents technology that helps change an industry. Decades later, his son builds a consumer brand around it. On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun welcomes Mark Mitchnick and his son, Malachy Mitchnick , the father-son team behind Burnd , a science-driven skincare brand. Mark spent decades in scientific innovation, including developing transparent zinc oxide technology that helped transform modern sun protection. Malachy, a surfer and entrepreneur whose mother had melanoma, saw an opportunity to turn that expertise into something people would actually want to use. There's just one problem. Great science doesn't automatically make a great consumer brand. People need to understand the product, believe in the people behind it, and trust that it will deliver. Preferably without needing a chemistry degree. Hersh explores how father and son approach that challenge from different directions. Mark brings decades of scientific expertise and experience building and selling companies. Malachy brings entrepreneurial energy, consumer instincts and an understanding of how to make complicated ideas accessible. They even conduct a little experiment during the conversation: Malachy explains the sunscreen from the consumer's perspective, then Mark explains the science behind it. The difference is revealing. Along the way, they get into family businesses, the difference between credibility and attention, why trying to sell to everyone can weaken a brand, and how trust becomes more valuable than any individual product. They also tackle a generational question: Is it better to explore a dozen opportunities or spend decades becoming extraordinarily good at one thing? And Mark shares a remarkable Thanksgiving story about selling his first company, an extremely wealthy investor who wanted him to hold out for more, and the difference between financial success and knowing when you've won. At its heart, this conversation is about something every founder eventually confronts: You can spend a lifetime becoming great at something. But how do you help the world understand why it matters? YES, BRAND with Mark and Malachy Mitchnick Explore Burnd: https://getburnd.com/ -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

October 8, 20261 hr 3 min

YES, BRAND Field Test: Why Aren’t People Buying? | with Estie Starr & Nancy Zare

This is not a conventional episode of YES, BRAND. It’s an experiment inspired by First Contact Live , Hersh Rephun’s weekly event where one participant takes the hot seat, shares what they’re building, and hears from the gallery about what they actually think they’re seeing. Because what we intend to communicate and what other people receive aren’t always the same thing. This time, there’s no gallery. Instead, entrepreneur and business strategist Estie Starr brings Hersh and Sales with Soul psychologist Nancy Zare a real, unresolved business problem. Her new 100K Club is designed to help small business owners reach their next $100K breakthrough through training, accountability, community, networking and a business system Estie has refined over 17 years. People are showing up. They seem interested. The price is accessible. They’re just not buying at the rate Estie thinks they should. So Estie takes the hot seat. Hersh looks at the problem through the First Contact lens: What does Estie think she's communicating, and what are people actually seeing? Nancy, creator of the AlikeAbility System and Sales With Soul, comes at it from the buyer: Who is this person, what matters to them, and what actually moves them toward a decision? Almost immediately, cracks appear. “Accelerator” suggests speed. “Reliable, stable income” suggests something deliberate and sustained. The $97 monthly price makes the offer extraordinarily accessible, but might also be changing what people think they're buying. And the sheer abundance of value may actually be making the offer harder to understand. Then the conversation goes somewhere none of them quite expected. The problem may not simply be the 100K Club. The person building it may have changed. Estie has spent much of her career speaking to the driven entrepreneur. Move. Build. Execute. Get results. But as Nancy digs into the person Estie seems to want in the Club now, another quality keeps appearing: Care. Estie doesn't simply want people to buy her system. She wants to create a place where business owners can get the information, community and support they need without getting taken advantage of. And suddenly Estie has to ask herself: Have I changed enough that my ideal client has changed too? That wasn't the question anyone came in expecting to answer. Which is exactly what First Contact Live is designed to uncover. Sometimes the thing you think you're communicating isn't what other people are receiving. And sometimes what they see reveals something you haven't quite seen yet. This isn't a case study after everything worked. It's a business while it's being figured out. Welcome to First Contact, YES, BRAND style. -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

October 1, 202646 min

Saahil Mehta: You Changed. Did Anybody Notice?

At 36, Saahil Mehta had done what he was supposed to do. The education. The career. The money. The business. The family. The lifestyle. No debt. He'd checked the boxes his 20-year-old self believed would make him successful. There was just one problem. He wasn't particularly happy. On YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun talks with entrepreneur, author, speaker and leadership coach Saahil Mehta about what happens when you successfully build a life around a definition of success that was never really yours. For Saahil, the realization came after a retreat with fellow entrepreneurs built around two words: “no judgment.” For four days, he says he didn't have to pretend. On the flight home, he found himself crying as he tried to reconcile the man he'd just experienced with the one he was returning home to be. Pasted text So Saahil started removing what he calls the “clutter” from his backpack: expectations, behaviors and obligations he'd been carrying without asking whether they still belonged there. He became lighter. He changed quickly. And eventually his wife told him: “I don't recognize you anymore.” Pasted text That's where the conversation takes a very YES, BRAND turn. Because changing isn't necessarily enough. The people around you have built their own understanding of who you are. If you evolve without bringing them along, they may continue responding to a version of you that no longer exists. Saahil discovered this in his marriage. Hersh sees it constantly with founders, leaders and brands. People need evidence of the journey. Saahil and Hersh talk about inherited definitions of success, people pleasing, relationships, communication, personal evolution and the danger of assuming other people understand what's happening simply because it's perfectly clear to you. They also get into Saahil's life as a mountaineer and one spectacularly bad decision involving a 20,000-foot mountain, a requested helicopter and five terrified families. Today, Saahil describes success differently. Rather than climbing one mountain at the expense of everything else, he thinks in terms of his “inner seven summits” , including health, wealth and relationships, and asks what a yes in one part of his life will cost the others. Pasted text Because success isn't simply something you achieve. You have to decide what it means before achieving it can mean very much at all. Saahil has also created a Success Audit specifically for YES, BRAND listeners, along with an offer to personally work through the results with the first five people who respond: podcast.saahilmehta.com/brand FREE GIFT & OFFER link: https://podcast.saahilmehta.com/brand -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

September 29, 202622 min

Ms. K. Derhem: Building The Sovereign Kingdom

A note from Hersh: In interviewing so many fascinating entrepreneurs, many of whom are launching new ventures, we are selecting a handful of businesses to follow as they make their mark. The Sovereign Kingdom, founded by Ms. K. Derhem, is the first of these. Four more episodes with TSK will follow, featuring their partners and team as the story unfolds! So, let's begin at the beginning. The idea for The Sovereign Kingdom started with a locked door in Lima. K. Derhem had booked a stay through an alternative travel platform. Her host had warned her to be cautious traveling from the airport and to keep her luggage out of sight. K. followed the instructions, arrived at the property, rang the doorbell... And nobody answered. For hours. Standing there without access to the place she'd booked, K. found herself thinking: There has to be a better way. Pasted text That experience eventually became The Sovereign Kingdom, or TSK, an ambitious luxury ecosystem built around three founding principles: vision, grace and integrity. Pasted text On YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with K. to explore what she's actually building and why she believes the opportunity extends well beyond luxury travel. They talk about a decision that runs against the instincts of many entrepreneurs: knowing when not to scale. K. believed TSK could have moved faster. But serving a clientele at the level she envisioned, with an offering she describes as averaging around $20,000 per night, required a degree of operational consistency she wasn't yet satisfied they could deliver. So rather than build a different version of the business simply because it could grow sooner, she waited. Pasted text They also explore privacy as luxury, how trust is earned when serving people who value discretion, and K.'s decision to build something that can ultimately become larger than her own personal brand. As she tells Hersh: “TSK is bigger than me.” Pasted text And then there's the name. For K., sovereignty isn't simply language that sounds luxurious. It represents the individual's ownership of their life, while the “kingdom” begins with the home as a place of safety, restoration and family. Those ideas come together in the company's larger ambition. Pasted text Property is the anchor. Service is the product. Sovereignty is the brand. This first conversation is an introduction to K., the thinking behind TSK, and the standards the company has set for itself. Now comes the interesting part: Watching what happens as they try to live up to them. Four more conversations to come. More: https://www.owntsk.com/ -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

September 24, 202632 min

Tim Klitch: How Do You Build a Brand People Want to Belong To?

After 35 years in financial services, Tim Klitch could have retired. Instead, he became Chief Fun Officer of a pickleball ranch. On YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with the founder of Austin Pickle Ranch to talk about second acts, community, and what happens when everything you learned about succeeding in one career doesn't necessarily prepare you for the next. Tim knew relationships. He knew finance. He knew how businesses worked. What he didn't know was how to build a modern consumer brand. Banking had taught him traditional advertising and customer acquisition. Austin Pickle Ranch taught him about social media, influencers, experience and the strange alchemy that happens when a good product and a good brand start reinforcing each other. In 2025, Tim says Austin Pickle Ranch spent roughly $15,000 on advertising while attracting an average of 60 new customers a day. But the Ranch isn't really selling court time. Tim grew up around his father's tennis club and remembered something that many modern sports facilities had lost: people didn't just show up, play and leave. They hung around. So Austin Pickle Ranch was intentionally designed around community. Even its first location, an inhospitable parking-garage rooftop, was transformed with turf, shade, furniture and commissioned art to feel less like a garage and more like a ranch in Central Texas. And before that first location even opened, Tim and his team had already created a brand book and decided what they wanted the place to stand for: Accessibility. Friendliness. Informality. Fun. Those weren't words for a wall. They became a filter for decisions: Is this consistent with the brand we created? Hersh and Tim talk about building community by design, why experience is made up of dozens of tiny decisions, what has to remain true as a business expands, and the unexpected humility of becoming a beginner again after an enormously successful first career. Because Tim went from running a bank with an operations department to being the guy whose phone rings at 2:30 in the morning when the fire alarm goes off. And he wouldn't trade it. He could charge more. Build something more exclusive. Perhaps even make more money. But then it wouldn't be the thing he wanted to build. Sometimes the strongest brand isn't the one engineered to extract the greatest possible value. It's the one the founder actually wants to live inside. https://austinpickleranch.com/ -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

September 14, 202629 min

Cody Lee: What If People Don’t Understand What You’ve Built?

Cody Lee has a problem plenty of founders would love to have. People want what he's built. They just don't always understand what it is at first. On YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with Cody, co-founder and CEO of Food Truck Club , a marketplace connecting companies with vetted food trucks for corporate catering and events. The company has facilitated thousands of bookings, with Cody saying roughly 80% of them now come from corporate clients. But say “Food Truck Club” to someone who has never encountered the company and they may picture something very different. Maybe Cody owns a food truck. Maybe it's a gathering of food trucks. Maybe it's something you join. That's what Hersh calls the “explanation tax” : the work a founder has to do over and over because the audience doesn't yet have the right mental box for what they've built. Cody knows the underlying demand is real. His first crude Wix site generated a $7,000 catering job and a $17,000 catering job on its first day. His approach ever since has been decidedly unromantic: sell the thing before spending all your time building the thing. But as Food Truck Club expands into new markets, another challenge becomes even more important. Trust. Corporate customers need to trust that the trucks will show up and deliver. Food truck owners need to trust the marketplace bringing them business. And neither side automatically cares what Food Truck Club accomplished somewhere else. That trust has to be earned again in every new market. Hersh and Cody talk about why unfamiliar ideas require patience, why growth can amplify problems just as easily as success, why showing your flaws can actually build trust, and the difference between explaining something people haven't encountered before and trying to convince them to want something they don't. Because sometimes the market isn't rejecting your idea. It just hasn't figured out what it is yet. https://app.foodtruckclub.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/codyclee/ -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/

September 10, 202646 min

James I. Bond: Why Some Ideas Stick and Others Disappear

You can have the better product, the smarter argument, even the better idea. And still be the one nobody remembers. On YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with behavioral management specialist and Brain Glue author James I. Bond to explore one of branding's most important questions: Why do certain ideas stick in our heads while others vanish almost immediately? James has spent decades studying the psychology behind what makes language, names and ideas memorable. His fascination began after he lost a pitch for an anti-drug campaign. James had built the logical argument. The winning campaign showed an egg. “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.” James immediately understood that the other campaign had done something his hadn't: it made people feel the idea. That loss sent him down a decades-long rabbit hole into emotional selling and what he eventually identified as 14 “brain triggers.” Hersh and James tear through examples from advertising and popular culture: Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Squatty Potty. Pop-Tarts. Gorilla Glue. The Hathaway Man. I Love Lucy. Even James's own name becomes evidence for the argument. Some are funny. Some are strange. Some sound almost too simple to have produced the results they did. But that's part of the point. A memorable brand doesn't merely describe something accurately. It gives the brain something to grab onto. Hersh brings the conversation back to something central to YES, BRAND: the bridge between the thing you're trying to communicate and the person you're trying to reach. Naming isn't magic, and it isn't entirely science. You're trying to understand what the audience will relate to, respond to and remember. Because clarity isn't terribly useful if nobody remembers it five minutes later. At its heart, this episode asks: What makes an idea impossible to forget? Websites: http://BrainGluePressKit.com/ https://usm-llc.com/ http://onlinesuccesshelpdesk.com/ https://cf.fasterbuyer.com/spd -- Hersh's new book, SELLING THE TRUTH: A ‘Semoir’ with Insights for Life & Business is a semi memoir drawing on his adventures as an Authority Advisor and Standup Comedian. It is part business book, part happiness formula for life, and an amuseful read, whether you’re building a business or burnishing your self-image. You can kickstart your own messaging evolution with a one-on-one 5-Minute Fix . Take the 60-second Get Off Your Assets Quiz, and find other resources here: https://www.hershrephun.com/selling-the-truth/