Brilliant Ideas

#22: Turning Childhood Memories into a Powerful Personal Brand with Hersh Rephun

• Alyssa Bellisario • Season 1 • Episode 22

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What if the key to building a powerful brand isn't found in fancy logos or clever taglines, but in truly knowing yourself? This thought-provoking conversation with branding expert Hersh Rephun challenges everything you thought you knew about personal branding.

"Know yourself before you brand yourself" isn't just Hersh's motto—it's the foundation of his revolutionary approach to helping entrepreneurs discover their authentic voice. He reveals why so many business owners end up sounding like everyone else despite their desperate desire to stand out. The culprit? Skipping the crucial step of deep self-awareness and failing to uncover what he calls your "hidden assets."

Through his concept of "holistic brand therapy," Hersh demonstrates how traits you might consider undesirable or irrelevant to your business could actually become your greatest branding superpowers. Those quirks, personal stories, and unique perspectives aren't distractions from your professional image—they're the very elements that make your brand impossible to replicate.

Perhaps most fascinating is Hersh's childhood memory exercise, where he guides you to connect pivotal moments from your early years to your current business direction. This seemingly simple practice often reveals surprising throughlines in your personal narrative that become the foundation of an unforgettable brand story. As Hersh explains, "The way that you end up talking about yourself is unlike anybody who works in the digital space because it's your story."

For those struggling with imposter syndrome or feeling misaligned in their business, this episode offers a refreshing perspective: that feeling of "masking" might be signaling that you haven't fully integrated your authentic self into your brand. The solution isn't necessarily changing who you are, but stepping fully into the multidimensional person you've always been.

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Hersh:

The way that you end up talking about yourself is unlike anybody who works in the digital space, in the course creation space, in the high ticket space, because it's your story.

Alyssa:

Welcome to Brilliant Ideas, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of some of the most inspiring digital products created by solopreneurs just like you. I'm your host, alyssa, a digital product strategist who helps subject matter experts grow their business with online courses, memberships, coaching programs and eBooks. If you're a solopreneur with dreams of packaging your expertise into a profitable digital product, then this is the podcast for you. Expect honest conversations of how they started, the obstacles they overcame, lessons learned the hard way and who face the same fears, doubts and challenges you're experiencing, from unexpected surprises to breakthrough moments and everything in between. Tune in, get inspired and let's spark your next big, brilliant idea.

Alyssa:

Hirsch lives by the motto know yourself before you brand yourself, and he's here to share why. Digging deep into who you really are is the foundation of a powerful brand. In this episode, we're going to dive into some really important topics the biggest mistakes people make when they skip self-awareness, how to flip imposter syndrome into a branding superpower, and just how far branding really goes beyond just logos and design. Whether you're just starting out or looking to give your brand a refresh, hershey's insights are sure to help you build an authentic standout presence. Let's get into it. Welcome to the show Hirsch Excited, you're here.

Hersh:

I'm really excited to be here, alyssa, thank you.

Alyssa:

Yeah, of course, and so I just want to talk about this idea because I've been reading about you, the idea of know yourself before you brand yourself. Now, for most people who are hearing this, they're probably thinking, well, yeah, that's like kind of obvious, Like when you're a business owner, like you have to know yourself. But for many entrepreneurs, I don't know if it is that obvious, especially when there are parts to yourself that you might not think are quote unquote like brandable. So I would I want to ask you what would you consider a big mistake when people skip the step of branding a business without them actually being in it?

Hersh:

Well, one one thing that's likely to happen is, you know, if you start building a brand from the outside.

Hersh:

So, in other words, they have a great product idea, they're thinking about the audience, they know how they can help and they're constantly told you know, the audience doesn't care, they don't want to hear about you, they don't care about you, they care about the problem you're solving and to an extent, that's very true.

Hersh:

But if they forget to look inward and really find out what's unique about them that no one else does that is their secret sauce, their spark that sets them apart, and they don't really look into that stuff Then what will happen is they'll find themselves sounding like the same old stuff. And clients will come to me when they first start working with me and they'll say I don't want to sound like everybody else. Why does my website sound like everybody else? And I don't like the cookie cutter thing? And I'll be like well, yeah, I totally understand that. But what we have to do is go back into your story and figure out where you somehow started to sound like everybody else, and it's probably to do with looking at what is working for other people and thinking somehow that's going to work for you.

Alyssa:

That makes sense and then I like that idea. I do understand that from a perspective of you know cookie cutter because you're, because once you are an entrepreneur, you are playing into that game of comparison and you can easily fall into that trap where you're constantly looking at other people and how they're branding themselves and thinking, well, if I just adopt that, then it will work for me. I have done that in the past and it has not worked for me at all. I have done that in the past and it has not worked for me at all. But then I want to talk about this where. What about with traits that are like, if you're looking inward to yourself and you're thinking to yourself, okay, well, what is my story, what are my little characteristics or traits that I have?

Alyssa:

But what if they think that their traits are undesirable?

Alyssa:

Like, for an example, someone who struggles with, like they're not really feeling, like their work is good enough. Or there's someone who isn't like a world traveler, they like staying home. There's someone who you know thinks that by being themselves whether you know they're funny or they're, you know, you know whatever, you know traits that they have. Maybe they think well, if I, if I'm being myself, my clients are not going to really like my real self, you know. And so this is kind of when you get into this whole like double, you know that double face where you're just like you're masking in front of your clients and you're not really being who you really are, and then once that computer turns off, you're just like you're real, you're real self. And so how do you kind of turn those self-doubt thoughts into like a branding superpower? How can you take some of those traits that you think are undesirable and into something that is like it's actually really good and your clients can see who you really are and can relate to you and things like that.

Hersh:

Well, there's a couple of different ways that this happens. One is that there are things you know you need to fix, that you haven't fixed yet and you've been reluctant to fix them. So that's one way that this can happen. Another way is that you just think that they're not going to be interested in somebody who is unique or has a different way of operating. And there's a happy medium in there where you take the things and this is one of the first things I work on with clients is I look for what I consider to be hidden assets.

Hersh:

I look for the things that they may think have nothing to do with anything, they don't have to do with business. It's a baseball game when they were seven, it doesn't matter. But I'm very good at listening for those things. And when I hear those things and I may say, oh well, the whole reason you do this is because of this, and then they'll say, oh yeah, that makes sense. Well, now the quirkiness or the thing that didn't make any sense to them now makes sense. Now they have confidence in that part of themselves. So a lot of it is.

Hersh:

That's why I call it I kind of loosely call it holistic brand therapy, because it is like therapy. It is like therapy for your brand. I'm not a psychologist, I'm not trained, I'm not even necessarily trying to fix anything, but what I am trying to do is get to the bottom of why you're struggling to really connect with your audience, and sometimes that know yourself thing is more complex than they think. Because they haven't wanted to really know themselves, because they think that, in order to serve the people they want to serve, they have to be different. And that's the biggest thing. It's improving your voice, so to speak, is not about necessarily being a different person. It's about stepping into the 360 person that you're maybe not being.

Alyssa:

Or are afraid to be because you don't know, or afraid to be. Yes, there's a bit of a fear.

Hersh:

Imposter syndrome, melissa, is also people masking, like you say. Like they're on stage and they're saying these things and they're doing well even, but they feel like they're fooling people. Well, that requires some exploration. Maybe they aren't being themselves in those speeches. You know, when I was doing stand-up comedy I love stand-up comedy but I used to do it as characters.

Hersh:

I used to only do characters and, believe it or not, I didn't really feel comfortable. I felt like I was hiding behind there and that the person behind the accents and the characters and all of that wasn't funny and that was wrong. And I learned to prove that wrong. And once I was just wearing a black t-shirt, like I used to do like character thing, go and do a costume change and a whole. I did like a one man show type of act. And then when I started to just wear the black t-shirt, not change anything externally and tell my story as myself, with the characters peppered in, it felt natural. Then I felt confident. Even though I was loud before and probably kind of funny, it was something was off. I was kind of hiding.

Alyssa:

Yeah, and you feel really misaligned when you're stepping into something and you know it's not really you and you know that's when it that's when it leads to burnout, essentially because when you're an entrepreneur and you're trying to be this person that you created for yourself, and then you have to show up as that person, and then you feel deep down that that's not really who I am, because there is that like that, that deeper fear there of really having to show who you really are. Like for me, like for for me. For example, like, um, I'm a, I'm a professor by trade, so I have a level of like the, the way that I operate my business is from a very professional standard, but only like. It's very hard for me to separate, like to be very casual, because I'm not like that. I've been in corporate for, you know, my entire career. I was a professor, I'm still a professor, I'm very well respected, I'm senior level, and so I have.

Alyssa:

It's just ingrained in me that I'm not somebody who is super, you know, super funny and casual and just like can just let loose, like some other entrepreneurs online, like they can just be themselves, and I would love to be that, but you know, I still even have work to do with trying to just let it go, just be funny. It's okay, you know, but it's something that you have to continue to work on because you're dealing. If you're an entrepreneur and you've, you know, have come into your business but you've been working somewhere else for so many years, you kind of adopt that whole personality or that identity as being someone who has to be a certain way because that's what they've taught you for so many years. And then having to transition into like, but no, like, I'm allowed to. Like have no filter and like show up as I want to. You know, that transition, I think, is a. It takes a while to do.

Hersh:

Well, that's a that's a very interesting scenario that you presented, which is are you, do you think that that the reluctance to kind of be casual comes from somewhere that you trace it to and you'd be like, well, I would rather not be like that. Or is that just your personality and you're really comfortable with formality, with formality and being formal and being a professorial?

Alyssa:

you know, personality is really what works for you, but you just think that that may not work so well for entrepreneurism that is true, like you know, because now I feel like in the online space it is very casual and less of the formality and because you know, you know you're I'm dealing with clients who are not like they're very just just business owners that you know they've been doing this for 15 years. It's kind of like their own identity, they've been themselves. But for me it's like you know, I've had to kind of work on work on that and and also this is a good question for you, because in the context of being an entrepreneur, if you are being yourself, can they still take you seriously? That's interesting.

Hersh:

Yeah, well, ok. So when you say being yourself, you mean if you're being casual, if you're being funny, you know, if you're using humor can they still take you seriously. So from my personal experience you know it's one of the interesting things that has happened is I talked about how I used to do accents and dialects and characters. I really don't do it anymore, even though it sometimes is natural to me. I used to. When I was speaking to someone from the UK, I used to always fall into a British accent and it was fun and it was funny and they didn't take offense to it because I was doing it in a very jovial way. But I did learn over the last maybe five years of really focusing on personal branding, where I'm really front and center. I'm working one-on-one with the clients, not about being behind the scenes, writing or producing, you know, advertising and coming out for dinners. You know I'm literally working one-on-one with clients every day. I have ceased to do that kind of silliness, you know, which I kind of miss. But at the same time I do feel like they have to know who they're talking to. Now I do believe that in your case, for example, you should, I would say, lean into who you are and how you feel most comfortable, because casual is supposed to mean another word for comfortable. So if you're super comfortable with somebody and you're still rather formal, that they're going to read your comfort, they're not going to read your formality. There's also ways to lean into your personality and how you work, and I'm sure you would do this too and say I know I come off a little formal, but that's my background as a professional, a corporate person, a professor, but really you're allowing yourself to bring everything that you have to offer your clients to the fore, and that's how I look at it. So when they and one of my friends said something funny to me a few months ago and said, oh, you know, so-and-so is the funniest person I ever met, and for a minute I thought, aren't I the funniest person you ever met? And they said, no, I mean, you're funny, you're really funny. I would say you're one of the smartest people I ever met. And I really liked that because I was like okay, so during the time that I thought I wasn't being taken seriously because I was funny, I was being taken seriously but there was something missing, which was I wasn't using all of my skills, you know, and so I think it's.

Hersh:

It all comes down to being yourself, and then you can do self-improvement. Right. If you say, okay, I have habits I want to break. You know I put things off. I you know I'm a procrastinator, okay, well, once you're yourself and you're presenting as yourself, you can shape your brand and you can hone things and you can sharpen or soften the edges. But you have to be yourself first, and so I think that that's the best place to start. That's what I try to do with my clients by going backward a little bit. I start where they're at, I look back at their life so far, what have they accomplished, what have they yet to accomplish, and just get a sense, you know, get a bearing, and if you're good at reading people, you can kind of figure out where their happy place is.

Alyssa:

Yeah, that makes that's a lot. That's so interesting, like what you said about just being yourself first and then self-improvement after now. And it's always funny Cause like I always thought that like I was too like outlandish kind of cause, like I'm a very sarcastic person, which is like my, which I think is like I would think maybe it's an undesirable trait, but most people I think are have a little bit of sarcasm to them. So, um, so that's one trait that I would love to bring forward, you know, into my business and you know, and so because that is so different than because with you know, when I'm teaching I'm very strict, I'm very serious.

Alyssa:

You know I have a lot of you know, that whole credibility kind of plays into this whole. Like I need them to see me as the authority. But you know also, I mean, I think I, you know, as a teacher, I think it's a different career, so you kind of have to uphold those certain professional standards, like regardless. But I think for the average entrepreneur like me, who's, you know, making content, I think I can bring that sarcasm and that humor into things, because it actually feels a lot more relatable and I always, whenever I post things that are like funny or, you know, sarcastic or things about me not related to like my business. I get a lot of engagement and so I feel like that would be. I have to do more of that.

Hersh:

Yeah, oh, that's a really. It's an interesting indicator, you know, when you find a style of humor that you like, it's really, it's really liberating. The thing is, the challenging thing on social media is that sarcasm doesn't always read when it's written Right, think about it. You know. You, someone says to you oh, do you want to? Uh, do you want to come to my, to my sister's birthday party on Thursday? And you write back yeah, that's, that's something I'd really love to do, right, yeah, you may be thinking, yeah, that's something I'd really love to do, but but, uh, you know, uh, it may not work.

Hersh:

And I and I, and I remember I had a company with with three, with my three best friends, for several years and it was successful company, but it was very stressful because we, we knew each other really well but we weren't used to this correspondence thing of business and combining business, and so you know they would think something was sarcastic or that I was kidding and I was saying something that was serious. And so you know they would think something was sarcastic or that I was kidding and I was saying something that was serious, and it was like we, there was all this miscommunication and then, and then we'd see each other and we'd be like all stressed out and so I said, okay, we have to create a different system. The email stuff is all business, it's all straightforward. The humor stuff when we're in person didn't work. It didn't really work, but the idea is that you know the sarcasm would be an interesting way to explore communication for you. Have you written a book?

Alyssa:

yet. No, not yet, no, maybe in 10 years.

Hersh:

Oh well, because a book with a sarcastic title would indicate to the reader that there's sarcasm ahead. Right? I often on LinkedIn, I will have to put in a comment you know, sarcasm alert or whatever it is Because there's a lot of what do you call it? There's a lot of satire on LinkedIn, for example. A lot of people are very satirical, they're very funny, but you don't know who to take seriously, cause they're kind of making fun of people. You know they're making fun of gurus, or they're making fun of you know best practices, or posting incessantly, whatever it is, but it's so like on the nose you don't know if they're kidding or not.

Alyssa:

Sometimes, yeah, yeah, that's whole fear of confusion, you know, and fear of confusion, yeah yeah no, that makes a lot of sense.

Alyssa:

No, I and I'll you know I try to lean into that, but also, not everybody can read that sarcasm. That's what I have to keep in mind as well. Yeah, so now this brings me to my next segment. It's called the Brilliant Bite of the Week. You're going to love this. This is where we're going to share. You're going to share an insight, a mantra or a strategy to help my listeners start thinking about their brand and themselves and what to do next.

Hersh:

So what I would say is when you first let's assume that they're kind of first start thinking about their brand or it's a new direction, a new direction that they're going into, I would say one thing to do is to think of a very pivotal moment in their childhood, preferably one of their earliest memories, like something at six years old, you know, seven years old, something like that and then look at what they're about to do and bark on and draw some kind of parallel between the two. You know, and I would almost be certain, I would almost guarantee, that it will somehow connect, but that they may not be able to figure out at first exactly how it connects. But what they will do is draw a parallel between their earliest kind of alpha version of themselves and where they are now and where they're going. And they're going to take logic, professionalism, all those, all the things that you know, that that you you mentioned early on. You know you bring this kind of formality. They're going to take something from a time that was rife with, you know, informality, with unbridled enthusiasm, with imagination, and marry those two things together. And they would love to hear if people do stuff and want to share this, because they will come up with a new voice in that moment that is different from what they've done before.

Hersh:

Now, that's a first step. The next step is to start to follow those lines. You know, where does that? Where does that help? Now Start thinking about the, the who the audience is. Now start thinking about um, what is the message, how is it different? But don't start right out of the gate thinking, okay, I got to come up with a great tagline, or I got to come up with a great name, or I got to come up with a great logo. Don't do. My advice to them would be don't do any of those things. You know it's the opposite of how it works in theater. You know, I did a lot of theater when I was in college and sometimes when you put the costume on, right it as an actor, actor, it really makes you feel the parts. Now, that's great. Doesn't work so much that way. In in building a brand, it starts inside. It starts with the dream, it starts with the imagination and then it takes on the properties of reality, of practicality, of professionalism okay so that starts with the story

Alyssa:

starts with a story from your, from your early childhood, as early as you can, as early as you can recall a really pivotal moment now do these pivotal moments like can they just be like everyday experiences, or do they have to be like something that had changed or that's?

Hersh:

dramatic. It can be literally. It can be literally anything. Well, why don't we try with you? Let's, let's try with you, alyssa, if you, if you, if you were thinking back to your childhood and you said, uh, okay, I'm, you know what? What's an early memory that I have? That?

Alyssa:

Yeah, I mean you know. So my mom bought me. Um, I think I was like seven or eight years old and my mom bought me this dollhouse and she says we're going to, we're going to make it, we're going to build it together. And I was like I can't do this, like I'm a kid. And so she's like, no, we're going to like do this together. And then we built every piece of furniture, we painted it, like, we did it. You know, those wooden dollhouses like those, like like with the furniture, the mini furniture, and I just was so obsessed and I still have it.

Alyssa:

I refuse to get rid of it and it's like an accomplishment because it was the first introduction to being like creative, like where my mom was like, just, you know, just do whatever, decorate the way you want it, we put like lights in it and like we had like the little plates and everything and we put the hardwood down and it was like I think it was just my first like introduction to being artsy and creative. I think it was just my first like introduction to being artsy and creative and I think that's where it came from. It just I mean that's where it maybe had started from, because I was obsessed. I mean, I'm still obsessed with many houses since then, but I think that I mean I don't know how that relates to me as a business owner, but maybe we can find that.

Hersh:

Well, that's the next thing. That's a great story, okay.

Alyssa:

That's a next thing. That's a great story. Okay, that's a the operations. So they give me their product ideas and I take their ideas and I run with that and I create their sales funnel and I create their digital product and I, like you know, and so it's a very creative business.

Hersh:

Yeah, okay, business, yeah, okay. So now, if you take the dollhouse analogy and you say, okay, so let me think about this. So what did I have to do to build this dollhouse? I had to, number one, be creative. So we've got that building. I was creating something. Secondly, I had to have a really good attention to detail. A dollhouse is very detailed. There's a little furniture, there's little pieces, there's it's a miniature house. So if you and how old were you?

Alyssa:

I was seven or eight seven or eight years old.

Hersh:

Perfect, so you say. When I was seven or eight years old, I built a dollhouse with my mother that I have till this day, that had all the detail of an actual home. Now, if you had become a home builder, that'd be a little specific. But this is even better, because now you're like I'm building courses, I'm building a digital presence, I'm building all of these things for clients, and you're doing it with precision, with collaboration, right, because you were doing it with your mom and here you have a client. So there's parallels already.

Hersh:

But what's especially interesting about it is that it immediately, if you, let's say, you started your bio with some version of that story, right, it would mean that your entire experience has a through line of that. And if you went through your history, your work history, we would find that through line, through there, and then your story is guess what? Not like anyone else's story in the world, and so the way that you end up talking about yourself is unlike anybody who who works in the digital space and the course creation space, in the, in the you know high ticket space, because it's your story and uh, and that's, and that's what I think we're all going for. But we have to.

Hersh:

You know, look at our lives are, at this point, a pretty, pretty comprehensive story, right? So you know, if we've gone through a little bit of life and we've gone through business and we can't put everything in there, you see, some of the LinkedIn profiles the about is, like you know, at 2,600 characters or whatever the max is, but it's, it's a lot of stuff. All the awards, all the degrees, all the stuff, those are not all super valuable. They have a place in your experience. But think about that dollhouse story. That would be much more interesting, uh, than you know. And I'm not criticizing your LinkedIn profile, I don't know what it has, but if it doesn't have the dollhouse story, then you know, then it's worth a try, because you never know.

Alyssa:

That is so interesting. Thank you, my pleasure it's. You know what? It's one of those things where you feel like you have to be, you have to put all these awards and all these degrees and all these things, because that's what I mean. I think old LinkedIn was like that, where it's just all about your achievements and even like I teach a course on LinkedIn as well with my students, and it's like that. It's like very like put your resume on there or be very formal, but it's like that. It's like very like put your resume on there, be very formal, but it's like you know what. I'm going to try it out, you know, because that is very unique. I guess I haven't really thought that would be unique because it's like. I mean, I guess not many people do build dollhouses from scratch. So that is an interesting story. That is an interesting story and it's it's.

Hersh:

It's also it's not even Eliza, that you know that. It's that the story itself is like. It's not like we were abducted by aliens and then live there for 10 years on Mars, and you know it's. It's a very normal, human, relatable story, which is part of the charm, yeah, but it's more the through line to who you are. Now. That is interesting because it's it supports your, your, your narrative of who you are, and it it stills confidence in a way, and it also is sharing something personal. And so, and remember this for everybody, you know and I don't use one in my about section because, again, it's not, it's not a cookie cutter process, it's it, but it's this first idea is, you know, an example of looking within and pulling out something and using it to create a thread and um, and that's always interesting.

Alyssa:

No, definitely. That really helps a lot and I really appreciate that. Oh, I'm glad. Well, um, I just want to say so, thanks so much for coming on to the show today, cause you know, um, I have learned so much from you and I'm actually going to take your advice and do that little exercise about listing those earliest memories. I think that's a really good start for a lot of people and for myself as well yeah, I'm interested to see what you uh, what you come up with, please yeah please share it, of course, and so where can my listeners find you online?

Hersh:

they can find me at yesbrandbuilderscom and everything is really there. My blog is there. There's a link to my newsletter there. If they want to pre-order my book Selling the Truth, which comes out May 1st, they can do that. See a little bit of my comedies up there, you know, just for kind of sentimental, a little bit of background, like like I was saying. You know, I think that that's very unique, that I have this background. So to figure out where it goes is important. It's not on the homepage, it's not like hey, I did look at these clips of me doing comedy, but it's there as a facet of my personality. But yes, brandbuilderscom is probably the best place to go and, of course, I'm on LinkedIn.

Alyssa:

Great, awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.

Hersh:

My pleasure. Alyssa, Thank you so much for having me, of course, and to everyone listening.

Alyssa:

Just make sure to download chapter one or to pre-order Hershey's new book Selling the Truth as Somewhere, with Insights for Life and Business it's in the show notes and also connect with him on LinkedIn, youtube, instagram and Facebook. All the links are in the show notes, so please check him out. If you did enjoy this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share it with another solopreneur who needs to hear this. Thank you so much for tuning in today and I'll catch you next time on another brilliant idea. Thanks for tuning into this episode of brilliant ideas. If you love the show, be sure to leave a review and follow me on Instagram for even more insider tips and inspiration. Ready to bring your next big, brilliant idea to life? Visit AlyssaVelsercom for resources, guidance and everything you need to start creating something amazing.