YES, BRAND with Hersh Rephun

Hosted by Hersh Rephun

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178

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Aug 2026

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About the show

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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60 recent

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/

September 3, 202657 min

Zolal Habibi: When the Facts Aren’t Enough

Facts can tell us what happened. They don't necessarily make us understand. Zolal Habibi has spent more than two decades advocating for democracy, women's rights, and freedom in Iran. For her, that work has never been abstract. Her father, a writer, was executed during Iran's 1988 massacre when Zolal was seven years old. She grew up knowing people who had lost parents, endured prison and torture, and paid extraordinary prices for resisting the Iranian regime. Today, she is an Iranian human rights advocate and member of the NCRI Foreign Affairs Committee. But somewhere along the way, Zolal realized that simply presenting people with facts wasn't enough. A number like 100,000 people executed for the cause of freedom could remain just that: a number. Zolal knew the faces. She knew the stories. And she began to understand that part of her responsibility was becoming a bridge between those experiences and people thousands of miles away. That realization becomes the starting point for a remarkably timely conversation with Hersh Rephun about truth, perception, storytelling, advocacy, resistance, and hope. Zolal offers her perspective on Iran's current political landscape, the country's long history of resistance, the consequences of foreign intervention, and what she believes is too often missing from international discussions about war, diplomacy, nuclear weapons, sanctions, and regime change: The Iranian people themselves. As she points out, negotiations can focus on nuclear programs, terrorism and regional influence while barely acknowledging executions, suppression, or the people whose lives are actually at stake. Hersh and Zolal also wrestle with a larger question that reaches well beyond Iran. What happens when enormously complicated human realities get compressed into headlines, political positions, statistics, and competing narratives? And what responsibility comes with having a voice when others cannot safely use theirs? For Zolal, hope isn't passive optimism. It requires participation. At its heart, this episode asks: How do you make people care about a truth they may already know, but have never really felt? linkedin.com/in/zolalhabibi ncr-iran.org https://oiac.org/ -- 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/

August 27, 202634 min

What Will You Give Me for This Expertise? with Karen Howard

People will spend thousands of dollars on a piece of jewelry, then balk at paying an expert to tell them what they actually bought. Karen Howard has always found that fascinating. On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with veteran gemologist, former appraisal business owner, and Jewelry Appraisers Coach founder Karen Howard for a conversation about expertise, value, trust, mentorship, and what happens when decades of experience become something worth passing on. Jewelry appraisal turns out to be considerably more complicated than looking through a loupe and declaring something shiny. An appraiser has to understand gemology, grading, scientific valuation, construction, markets, history, ethics, technology, and sometimes enough research to defend an opinion in court. Karen and Hersh explore the difference between evaluation and valuation , why lab-grown diamonds have complicated the market, how technology is changing the profession, and why the story attached to a piece of jewelry can matter almost as much as the number attached to it. That last point became part of Karen's own practice. Her personal wedding-ring appraisal includes the story of the ring so her children, and someday their children, will know where it came from. She began offering clients the same opportunity. But the bigger story is Karen's own transition. After more than two decades running an appraisal business, a personal crisis forced her to reconsider what she wanted to do next. She kept remembering former students asking for help with all the things their technical training hadn't prepared them for: clients, ethics, business decisions, and simply surviving that difficult first year. So she built the resource she wished existed. Karen is now coaching new jewelry appraisers and has completed her first book, From Startup to Success: A Practical Guide for Jewelry Appraising , currently in editing. Along the way, Hersh and Karen explore something that applies far beyond jewelry: When the thing you're selling is accumulated knowledge, experience, and judgment, discounting it changes what people believe it's worth. At its heart, this episode asks: What happens when you've spent decades becoming an expert and realize your most valuable work may be teaching someone else what took you years to learn? “From Challenges to Unstoppable: Your roadmap to Professional Success in Jewellery Appraising" Freebie URL : https://zpr.io/UDZw3nC6bJrZ “The Art of Work-Life Balance" https://docs.google.com/document/d/196wzpW54Uq2nT6PafgCNTjxi-D9x_5kz/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=116369053099329677903&rtpof=true&sd=true Call Booking URL : https://zpr.io/rSijC9AarKM6 -- 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/

August 20, 202625 min

Ben Butcher: After Pixar and Funko, Building a World of His Own

Ben Butcher spent nearly three decades helping shape some of the most recognizable entertainment brands in the world, including five years at Disney, twelve at Pixar, and ten as SVP of Creative at Funko. Then he decided to build something of his own. On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with Ben, founder and CEO of Kaleidos Creative , an artist-led company creating original characters, stories, and intellectual property from the ground up. The challenge is radically different. At Disney, Pixar, and Funko, the audience already existed. The characters already carried meaning. At Kaleidos, Ben and his team have to create that connection before anyone knows what the characters are supposed to mean. Hersh and Ben explore how beloved brands can eventually become trapped by their own history, why creative freedom still has to coexist with commercial reality, and what changes when an artist moves from contributing to someone else’s world to becoming responsible for the whole thing. They also get into AI, and Ben offers a refreshingly human reason Kaleidos has chosen not to build its creative process around it: the messy middle is the part they actually love. The mistakes, experimentation, collaboration, and evolution are not inefficiencies to eliminate. They are the creative experience itself. At its heart, this episode asks: What happens when someone who spent decades building other people’s worlds finally decides to create one of his own? https://kaleidoscreative.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/

August 11, 202642 min

T.A. Thompson: When the Category Is Too Small

What happens when the life that pays the bills is only part of who you are? On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with author T.A. Thompson , who has spent more than a decade in commercial insurance while building a very different creative life as a fiction writer. His novel, The Mark , lives in a post-apocalyptic world where people die by 22 and the protagonist, Alexandra, has somehow made it to 25. Which means everyone sees her as old. That premise opens the door to something bigger than dystopian fiction. Hersh and T.A. explore what happens when a label helps people understand what you do, but also compresses what makes it different. They get into the difficulty of becoming known for a new identity, why writing the book may be easier than helping people discover it, how rejection changes the way a creator sees the work, and why dark humor can make the truth easier to face. They also explore the tension between being an insurance professional who writes and becoming an author who happens to work in insurance. At the center of the conversation is a question that applies far beyond publishing: How do you help people understand what you’ve created without reducing it to the nearest familiar category? https://tathompsonwriter.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/

August 6, 202627 min

Sharon McLaughlin: When the Title Disappears, What Authority Remains?

What happens to your authority when the organization, title, and familiar identity fall away? On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with executive coach, leadership advisor, and Change Clarity founder Sharon McLaughlin for a conversation about leadership, identity, transition, and what it takes to move people through relentless change. After more than three decades inside large organizations, Sharon recognized that leadership was never created by rank. The title may grant responsibility, but the ability to build trust, create clarity, and bring people with you comes from somewhere deeper. Hersh and Sharon explore: Why expertise does not automatically translate into leadership The difference between managing change and leading people through it What remains when professional identity is separated from a title Why leaders tend to under-communicate during uncertain times How constant change creates fatigue and emotional saturation The distinction between moving from A to B and leading people all the way through How to evolve publicly without abandoning the credibility already earned And why authority ultimately comes back to who you are Sharon also shares what she learned while moving from municipal government leadership into an independent advisory practice and discovering that the value she brought to the organization had never belonged to the organization. At its heart, this episode asks: When the title disappears, what are people still willing to follow? -- 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/

July 24, 202643 min

Dr. Angela Zeng: When Science Meets Mission

Is your product the mission... Or simply the expression of it? On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with scientist, entrepreneur, and Karviva founder Dr. Angela Zeng for a conversation about purpose, trust, branding, and the challenge of building a company without sacrificing its soul. After years in medical research, Angela discovered that creating an exceptional product wasn't enough. The real challenge was helping people understand why it exists. Together, Hersh and Angela explore: Why quality alone doesn't create a successful brand The growing gap between marketing claims and consumer trust The difference between selling ingredients and sharing a philosophy Why founders shouldn't disappear behind their products How mission creates meaning beyond marketing The role of traditional wisdom in a modern marketplace Why authenticity is becoming a competitive advantage And what happens when a founder finally steps into the story At the heart of the conversation is a simple recognition: People don't build relationships with bottles. They build relationships with belief. https://karviva.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/

July 13, 202639 min

JonRobert Tartaglione: Influence Begins Before Anyone Says Yes

Influence isn't about convincing people. It's about helping them see something differently. On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with psychologist, behavioral scientist, and Influence51 founder JonRobert Tartaglione for a conversation about persuasion, perception, positioning, and why even brilliant ideas struggle when people don't know where to place them. After years studying psychology at University College London, the University of Chicago, and Cambridge, JonRobert realized the hardest part wasn't understanding human behavior. It was helping organizations understand why it mattered. Together they explore: Why expertise doesn't automatically create understanding The difference between influence and manipulation How people decide what to believe Why demonstrations outperform explanations The challenge of building something that doesn't fit an existing category Why many experts struggle with self-promotion How trust creates openness to new ideas And why changing someone's mind is far more human than tactical Along the way, JonRobert shares how he built Influence51 by translating academic research into practical tools leaders can actually use. At its core, this episode explores a question every founder eventually faces: What happens when your work makes perfect sense... once people experience it? -- 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/

July 8, 202641 min

Hakeem Bourne Mcfarlane on Choosing Yourself Before the World Chooses for You

In this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with Hakeem Bourne McFarlane for a raw, powerful conversation about addiction, identity, masculinity, discipline, and what it actually means to choose yourself. For Hakeem, “Choose Yourself” is not a slogan. It was born from grief, collapse, masking, substances, jail, and the long work of rebuilding a life from the inside out. Hersh and Hakeem explore: Why choosing yourself is not selfish The difference between being a good man and being good at being a man How achievement can become camouflage for grief Why discipline is freedom, not punishment The danger of masking pain with productivity How public accountability can become an integrity loop Why what we consume shapes who we become How vices quietly become identity substitutes And why your story should be the root of your brand Hakeem also shares the five-pillar Choose Yourself process, his path through addiction and recovery, and how he turned personal transformation into a community, movement, and message. At its core, this episode asks: What version of yourself are you choosing when nobody is watching? -- 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/

July 3, 202651 min

Rick Stark: How to Spot the Next Big Thing Before Everyone Else

Some people follow trends. Rick Stark has spent his career finding them before they have names. On this episode of YES, BRAND , Hersh Rephun sits down with action sports entrepreneur, media executive, and brand builder Rick Stark for a conversation about timing, trust, category creation, and why the biggest opportunities often begin as communities everyone else overlooks. From launching the National Inline Skate Series before the X Games existed to helping grow World of Dance into a global phenomenon, Rick has repeatedly found himself at the intersection of culture and commerce, recognizing potential long before the market catches up. Together they explore: Why timing matters as much as talent How niche communities become global movements What sponsors often misunderstand about culture The balance between commercialization and authenticity Why relationships outperform transactions The role trust plays in long-term partnerships How to recognize opportunity before it's obvious Why entrepreneurs need people who believe before everyone else does Rick also shares the surprising story behind the return of the National Inline Skate Series and why building Team USA for rollerblading may become the next chapter in a career built on seeing what's possible before others do. At its core, this episode asks: How do you recognize a movement before the rest of the world calls it one? -- 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/