Finding Your True Self Before Building Your Brand Hersch Raphum

Nicole sits down with branding specialist Hersch to explore the profound concept of finding yourself before branding yourself. Together they unpack how authentic personal branding starts with self-knowledge rather than marketing tactics.

• Finding connections between childhood memories and current professional roles
• Understanding the difference between change and evolution in personal development
• Recognizing life's seasons and how they shape our personal brands
• Using gratitude as a "life preserver" against negative self-talk and insecurities
• Creating timeline reviews to acknowledge accomplishments and counteract self-sabotage
• Avoiding moving your own goalposts and celebrating incremental wins
• Taking the personal brand quiz to measure clarity, thought leadership, and mission implementation
• Leading with uniquely personal details in your professional bio

Check out Hersch's personal brand quiz at YesBrandBuilders.com and look for his new book "Selling the Truth." Connect with him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram @Hirsch4.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Hirsch Rapun
• 2:08 Connecting Childhood Memories to Your Brand
• 6:48 Truth in Branding and Personal Evolution
• 11:05 The Yes Brand Philosophy
• 18:24 Evolution vs. Change in Personal Branding
• 23:20 The Role of Gratitude in Self-Discovery
• 27:53 Measuring Progress with the Brand Quiz
• 30:30 Final Tips for Authentic Brand Building

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello there and welcome back to the next episode of Overcome Yourself, the podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole. Okay, just kidding. As you know, my name is Nicole and I'm so excited to be here today with Hirsch, and Hirsch is a branding specialist. I guess I'm going to butcher it if I keep talking, but he does talk about finding you before branding yourself. Okay, before I butcher it, I'm going to go ahead and let Hirsch take it away. Please introduce yourself and let us know who you are and who you help.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Hi Nicole, thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here and it's interesting that you tripped a little bit over the phraseology, because that's kind of the message is before you brand yourself, know yourself. And the idea is really that I went on quite a journey of my own, doing a lot of different things screenwriting, stand-up comedy, pr, creative direction and, of course, branding but what I realized was that I love working one-on-one with personal brands. People who are really trying to get their message across, get it out in an incomparable way, show who they really are and, of course you know, in doing so, earn the fees, the recognition, the impact, the influence that they really desire.

Speaker 1: 1:54

That's amazing. Talk to me about what that means. So like if I wanted to brand myself. How do I know myself?

Speaker 2: 2:03

so I can do that that's a wonderful place to start. Well, what I try to do is start at the beginning of your well. First we start where we are. Beginning of your well first, we start where we are. And I would ask you, I would say okay, Nicole, when you meet people it could be at a party, it could be on a podcast, it could be anywhere and they say what do you do, what do you say?

Speaker 1: 2:29

Well, I do a lot of things. I'm an author and a podcaster and a marketing strategist.

Speaker 2: 2:34

Okay, so now you have these, these three things. Author, podcaster, marketing strategist. So the the, the place that I start is well, where did that, where did that all come from, you know? So I ask a question that a lot of people I don't think would ask and I say what's your, what's your first, what's your earliest memory?

Speaker 1: 3:01

I don't know. There's a lot of trauma in my childhood.

Speaker 2: 3:06

So I don't remember a lot of stuff. Well, I'll take some of the pressure off you, okay, but yeah, that's quite possible. So someone might say well, you know, my first memory is being alone on a train and I didn't know where I was going, and I woke up from a from, from some kind of dream, and I was on this train and you know, and it was a very, it was very traumatic event, another person I have one.

Speaker 1: 3:35

I remembered one. It was kindergarten. I remember that we were going to the elementary school and we were outside and I was with my great grandpa. We were like they were figuring out what classes we were going to go to and I grabbed someone's hand. I thought it was my grandpa's hand and when I looked up it wasn't him. Yeah, he helped me find my grandpa, but I was so scared, yeah, scared, yes that's a great, that's a great memory, okay.

Speaker 2: 3:58

So so you would say uh, you would say all right. So I so, when I was a kid, and where, what? What age was it about? Five, yeah, because kindergarten.

Speaker 1: 4:08

Yeah, I was going into kindergarten so it was about five.

Speaker 2: 4:11

So you say I was about five and I and I and I and I reached out for my great grandfather's hand and I grabbed somebody's hand and it wasn't him, and that was terrifying. And then I would say, ok, well, draw a parallel between that memory and being an author, a podcaster and a marketing strategist. Draw some parallel between that experience somehow connecting to this one, and I can give you a second to do it, or I can do it for you, but either way, the idea is that there is a connection. There's always a connection.

Speaker 2: 4:51

In your case, I could even tell there's a connection because before we got on the air, you were telling me how it works, you were giving me kind of the rundown, you were guiding me, you were helping me as a strategist. You help your clients, you work with your clients. A strategy alone is somehow connected, and the point isn't so much that, oh, my God, what an epiphany. It's not an epiphany like, oh, that's why I'm a strategist. It's that, these connections, the way to really putting forth a strong personal brand that truly is incomparable.

Speaker 1: 5:44

That's awesome, and I guess it makes me think of like finding safety, finding my place right, because I was looking for my grandpa's hand. I was, I was kind of feeling lost and I was like I need help. You're right, I need help, I need to find my person. Um, oh, that's pretty cool and, yeah, that's kind of not that memory, but, um, that's how my book was born, right?

Speaker 1: 6:08

Um, it started with me figuring out well, you know what was the journey? How did I get here? Like, what is my story? You know what was the journey? How did I get here? Like, what is my story? You know, despite everything, how did I end up here? Or because of everything, right, and so I wrote overcome yourself. That's where the book came from, and then my podcast came from. That, and it was the journey of me finding joy. How can I be happy? How can I experience joy? How can I live? I didn't want to drag myself through life anymore after everything that happened, right, and so, yeah, and that's why you're here today talking to me, because of that uh, you know, I think that we all, we all have stuff to overcome, but a lot of it is up to us, right, how do we do it?

Speaker 2: 7:02

do we take it into our into our own hands? And it's it's those kinds of uh, really, uh, existential conversations that I like to have with clients. You know, that was one of the reasons I'm excited to be on the show, because I love substantive conversations that we don't know the answers to the questions. You know, like, I have my book coming out. I'm very excited about the book coming out by the time this airs. The book will be out there and and you hopefully hearing a lot about it and um, and it's called selling the truth, and that to me, is, uh, it's a reminder to myself to, like you know, always come forth with the, with the, with the, with the honest take on something.

Speaker 2: 7:55

And in a world that is, you know, many people would describe a post-truth world or a post-truth environment, where there isn't even really an easy access to truth, we don't know, we don't trust what we see, we don't trust what we read. You know, we only know what happens to us in our moment, in our experience. That's why it's all the more important to remind yourself that, ultimately, the truth is all we have to rely on. We can't sustain ourselves making up things about who we are. We have to really get down with our bad self and figure it out.

Speaker 1: 8:38

Absolutely yeah, because that's exhausting when you're trying to put on a front and trying to be something, yeah, like it works for a little while but it's not sustainable. And I learned that lesson the hard way. And I guess we're here talking because I don't want you, the listener, to have to do that too, right? So kind of shorten that process to have to do that too, right, um, so kind of shorten that process.

Speaker 1: 9:08

Yeah, yeah, I feel you. Yeah, so talk to me about yes brand, like it's behind you, that's your whole thing. So can you tell us a little bit about that, yeah?

Speaker 2: 9:17

yeah. So, um, yes, brand comes from the yes and rule of improvisational comedy. I did stand up and I did improv for a long time and you know. So if it's, if it's that our microphones are, are leaving their stands and they're doing dances on the desk, I I wouldn't say no, they're not, cause that would pretty much end the scene right there. I say yes, and they're doing the Samba. You know, I'm like I'm making it even bigger, even funnier.

Speaker 2: 10:02

So I do the same with my clients, where they're coming to me with their truth, with their take on whatever their services that they're providing for people, whatever their product is that they are selling, and I'm merely adding to it. I don't make anything up that doesn't exist. I'm not trying to change who they are. I'm trying to really bring out and develop who they are as a brand. And I used to say that I worked with high achievers and now I say I work with ever-evolving achievers. I work with ever evolving achievers because I think that it's my clients tend to be the people that are not satisfied with a specific achievement of a certain goal. They're always trying to climb another mountain. They're always trying to to let themselves evolve into the next version of themselves.

Speaker 1: 11:08

that's awesome, and you mentioned that people don't change, but they do evolve, so can you tell me a little bit about that? What's the difference and how do we evolve versus change?

Speaker 2: 11:14

yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:14

Well, here's an example. So I, having done all these different things in in my life, I don't think I'm a different person or even a different professional. Like, for example, I've had certain clients that I've worked with for more than 20 years, even my longest standing client, and I don't think that I've changed, but I think that I have evolved to acquire more skills and to perform at a different level. So I'm performing now, in my case, as a holistic brand therapist, let's say. I'm performing at a certain level of execution right, because I've done it for so long and I've done so much. But I'm not a different person. I have the same values and, in fact, even some of the values that I had when I was younger, that I wasn't in touch with as much, you know, because I just hadn't lived enough. I'm now in touch with more. So I'm probably more myself now.

Speaker 2: 12:21

Also, when I was doing stand-up comedy, I would hide behind voices and characters and pretending to be something else or be on stage and disappear into other characters and other things, and I'm beyond that now. So I'm actually more myself now, but I was always there. Actually more myself now, but I was always there, and so I think that, that this kind of evolution is very natural for us. It's natural for us to learn, to grow and to have different goals that we maybe didn't have a year ago, and that's why I I will, after working with a client, let's say for 90 days I do like a 90-day program, so 90 days later I just do a follow-up session with them just to see how they're doing. See, hersh, you know I'm starting this new venture. Or I'm turning a corner now, or I'm selling my business and I'm going to be doing this now. You know they're the same person, they're just even more so, you know.

Speaker 1: 13:34

I love that Even more so themselves, right, because we are we're shedding those layers sometimes. Because we are we're shedding those layers sometimes A lot of the habits that we form is something we talk a lot about on the show. They're protections and we use them for certain seasons and then, as we grow, as we evolve and we realize, well, I don't need that layer of protection, I don't need to protect myself from that strict teacher. I don't need to protect myself from my strict teacher. I don't need to protect myself from my dad, you know being mad. I don't need to protect myself from this boss anymore, or this co-worker or you know, whatever it is. Um, and we come out refined, we come out more knowledgeable. Um, like fine wines, right, we just keep getting better.

Speaker 2: 14:19

Yeah yeah, and I like that too. That idea of seasons, you know, uh, that's something that I I don't know how long that had that concept's been around, but it it's, it's resonating with me. You know that that that that relationship with, uh, you know, a friend or or a loved one, or something like that, was had a certain season, that, you know it, it was meant to be, uh, at a certain time at a certain place, that kind of closeness, or that career or that job or that role yeah, absolutely, and it's not about leaving behind.

Speaker 1: 15:01

It's about what we take with us right when we keep walking in that path. I love that so much. So can you talk to me about the role that gratitude plays in this evolution, as we are getting to know ourselves better and establishing those brands for right now?

Speaker 2: 15:25

Well, personally, I would say that gratitude is, is like a, like a life preserver. You know it really is, it's, it's not. You know, first of all, when we have gratitude, a lot of times when we talk about it, journaling it or whatever it might be, we're not really telling anyone else, right? I mean, we could say we're telling God, but that's not even really what it is. We're acknowledging for ourselves that we're grateful. Thanking other people for the things they do is more of a courtesy and an acknowledgement for them, for their benefit, which is fine. That's not what people really mean when they say gratitude. They mean you wake up in the morning and you're thankful for another day. You know, and I think I went a long time without paying much attention to that, not because I wasn't on some level appreciative, but I think I was stressed, I was letting the stress take the place of my gratitude, and that's why I call it a life preserver, because it's that thankfulness and that appreciation and recognition that number one.

Speaker 2: 16:37

Things are not as bad as they could be. You know, I recently lost a friend of mine to cancer and one of the things he used to say at his, at his memorial service, his best friend pointed out that he used to say it's not that bad, you know. Like just just you know it's cold, freezing cold. Yeah, it's not that bad, you know, and that concept of it's not that bad. It was a beautiful thing about my friend, but it was also just a beautiful reminder that you know, if we appreciate the best parts of where we are, we're going to get through it much better.

Speaker 1: 17:29

Yes, and going back to what you said about the seasons, right, remembering that things do come in season, because it's so easy to get lost in the monotony of our routines. Well, this happens every day. Well, I do this every day. Well, I see this person every day, and then you don't. And then you're like, oh man, every day, um, and then you don't, and then you're like, oh man, you know. And so I decided I don't want to feel that way. I want to be able to appreciate it in the here, in the now, because that's really all that exists, like there's no before, there's no after, there's right now, yeah, and so just keeping ourselves there, that is fantastic. So talk to me about one of my foundations is gratitude, the other one is habits. So, as someone that helps with brand, with finding yourself, with knowing yourself, do you have any suggestions on, maybe, habits that you recommend to your clients in this journey?

Speaker 2: 18:31

Well, one habit that's pretty popular is the timeline review, the always looking a little bit in the rear view mirror to see what you have accomplished, and it's similar to gratitude, but it's a habit of, you know, celebration I I don't, I don't, I'm no one to like, tell my clients you need to celebrate this. I do tell them that, but I mean, I'm so bad at it that I, you know, I I don't set a very good example, but I will say that when you look over timelines of how you got from A to B and B to C and C to D, you're bound to recognize oh wow, I did that, oh my gosh. So it's not so much gratitude as self-recognition and I think that's really important because, number one, because number one, there's two things One, people may not always know the stuff and they may not tell you. And number, we have to be the one to acknowledge ourselves which is funny. That's kind of counterintuitive.

Speaker 2: 19:56

It's like comedians. You know, sometimes comedians are are really funny to hang around with and sometimes they're not the most funny people in person. You know Um and uh and the thing is that they can come off stage and someone will say, oh my God, that was so great, that was so great, and they'll be like, oh, thank you, thank you, whatever. And then they'll say, nah, that was terrible, my set was terrible, or was it really? What was the worst part? So it's this acknowledgement versus self-sabotage, almost, of holding ourselves back we're our worst enemy, we're our biggest fan, and the two things have to live together yes, yeah, and I think it's important to learn to give yourself credit for the things you do.

Speaker 1: 20:47

I know I was guilty of that, like when I was writing my book. I would sit at the computer for like four, six hours writing, editing, going back, thinking, contemplating, and then I'd get up and be like, oh, you didn't do anything today. And then I had to sit down and have a talk with myself and be like did you know that all this stuff you're doing is getting things done and you just have to allow yourself, give yourself, allow yourself, give yourself permission, give yourself permission to do it, and then give yourself permission to acknowledge it and say, hey, this is good, you did this. So, yeah, the laundry didn't get done, but you knocked out two chapters today.

Speaker 2: 21:27

That counts and you know, nicole, that's, that's a good antidote, for one of the other things that we can possibly do which I know I'm guilty of as well is to always suspect the worst or think that the phone rings and it's bad news. Or you get an email and they're unhappy. You see a client's name on an email and you assume they're unhappy. It's things like that that you know just are part of our you know, makeup, our mindset, whatever it is. So, okay, I may not be able to change that, but if I do that self-recognition that we're talking about, if I remind myself how many chapters I wrote, how many, you know how many calls I did that were substantive and helpful for people and helpful for me, you know, if I do that, then maybe I'll be kind of counteracting a little of that insecurity. That is just habit. You're so right and that stuff is just habit yeah, it is.

Speaker 1: 22:34

It is a habit, and the first step is recognizing when that happens and being like hey there, buddy, that's not true. Let's talk about a few reasons why it's not true, because sometimes your brain needs evidence and you're like oh okay, so if if that's true, then what's the evidence? Well, I don't have evidence. So what's the opposite? Oh, I do have evidence. So if that's true, then what's the evidence? Well, I don't have evidence, so what's the opposite? Oh, I do have evidence for that. So that's helped me a lot. Like I need receipts, like what's the point here? And something else that came up was not moving the goalpost. I think we're really good, especially neurodivergence Anyone everyone does this is moving the goalpost. Divergence anyone, everyone does this is moving the goalposts. You're like, oh, my goal is to schedule out two weeks of social media. And then you schedule it out and you're like, well, no one bought anything. Well, that wasn't the goal. The goal was to schedule out the two weeks, right?

Speaker 2: 23:25

Yep, yeah, which is interesting because we that's all us we said it's not the boss that set the goalposts, it's not a client that set the goalposts. That's easy, that's. I find that that's the easier part, because when people set expectations, they don't move them most of the time, and so you actually have a chance at at doing it. But if your expectations of yourself are always changing, then you can be a very hard customer to please, right?

Speaker 1: 23:53

Yeah, absolutely so, like giving yourself credit for each part. You know, scheduling this stuff out is the first part and then getting some sales from those posts that's the next part. But, like, let's focus on what we were focusing on and appreciate that for what it is Give ourselves credit. So you did mention before we got on the call that you had a gift for the audience to help them in this process of figuring out their brand, so can you tell us a little about that?

Speaker 2: 24:20

Yes, thank you. So I created something called a personal brand quiz, which gives you a holistic personal brand score. So basically the same way that we've been talking and that I work with clients on their brand as a really full 360 view of what they're putting forth, this quiz does the same thing and it takes 60 seconds literally like you can do it in a minute and it gives you really good feedback. And it also gives you three sections of your personal brand that I feel are the most important. One is clarity, because obviously, if you don't have clarity around who you want to be and what you want to offer and all of those things, you're gonna have a hard time getting your message straight. Then there's a thought leadership, which is how good a job are you doing at establishing yourself as the go-to expert in your field? And then mission, meaning how good are you at implementing all of the strategies and all of the things that you've thought about, or exploiting your? You know the thought leadership.

Speaker 2: 25:41

Maybe you're getting a ton of podcast interviews, but you're not actually promoting them or you're not putting them on your website, or you're not updating your blog, your website, or you're not updating your blog. So how good are you at implementing all the assets you're kind of creating around your personal brand, and I'll say that a lot of people get a very high clarity score and the other two are suffering. Sometimes the clarity score is low too and there's nothing. It's a very encouraging, very positive kind of experience to take this quiz, because it's all anybody can get. Do better at it, like I. Like I've never gotten a hundred on it. I don't get a particularly high score across the board every time I take it, and that's another thing is that you could take this, you know, every month. You could do it every month, you know, and it's a free quiz, and you could just go on there and do it every month and see how your scores are changing, where you're at in that ever evolving timeline that's so important.

Speaker 1: 26:49

One of the first steps when I'm working with a client, what I always tell them is we need to take inventory, we need data so that we know what to do, and so that's what you're providing with this quiz is actionable data that we can keep track of, and then we can say okay, this is how we can improve. This is what we can do more of, do less of. So that's awesome. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Speaker 2: 27:09

My pleasure.

Speaker 1: 27:10

My pleasure. Yes, of course, and all of those links are going to be available down in the show notes, as you guys know, and as we're signing off. We'd love to know, hirsch, how can we stay in touch with you, how can we follow you on social media?

Speaker 2: 27:23

Well, I'm on LinkedIn. You can just look for my name, hirsch Rapun. You can look for me on Facebook. You can also find yes Brand on Facebook and the yes Brand podcast on LinkedIn and on Instagram I'm Hirsch4, the number four all, and you can find me at YesBrandBuilderscom. So my website, yesbrandbuilderscom, will have all the pertinent information about everything I I do and for good luck, there's also selling the truth bookcom. Selling the truth bookcom. We'll also take you to the, to the book information where you're all you. By the time this airs, you'll be able to order it.

Speaker 1: 28:09

Awesome. And, again, all of the links that he mentioned will be available in the show notes, so it'll be easy for you to access. And all right, so, as we're signing off for real this time, what is one of your big tips Like? What's one of the best tips that your clients are like? Oh yeah, this is. This is the gold right here that people can implement right here that people can implement.

Speaker 2: 28:35

Well, I think the first one that I started with, going back to your childhood and coming up with that memory, is becoming an increasingly popular one. But there's a quick one, which is that, well, first of all, I would say you want to love the brand that you see in the mirror. So that's not so much a tip as a mantra, it's kind of a mantra. Just, you know, look in the mirror, see what the audience sees, see what your target audience sees and what you see, and really, if you're not loving it, change it, fix it, improve it. You know, if you love it, then great, then you're doing something right. Then chances are other people love it too.

Speaker 2: 29:16

But I would say, if you're wondering whether you're really standing out to your audience and sometimes people have what I call an embarrassment of riches they have so much good stuff in their resume and their history, they've won a bunch of awards, they get a bunch of acknowledgments, but it's just a big mass of info, and so what I say is go down to the bottom of your bio or everything that's been written about you or what you've written about yourself, and you know, down at the end sometimes people will put oh, you know, nicole loves walking in the park with you, know her dog, you know whatever it is.

Speaker 2: 29:57

And I'm like take that and make that the first sentence of your, of your bio, and then segue into into what you do, because you want to have the most original, most personal piece of information representing you that you can use. And so that's kind of a little quick cheat that you can use just to get yourself started, get your mind moving around you and who you are personally and why you do what you do, and not so much about just that sentence, that one sentence. We all try to remember that one sentence or that 30-second elevator pitch. Learn your whole brand language, don't just learn a sentence about yourself.

Speaker 1: 30:44

I love that. That is fantastic. I can go on, so this has been absolutely phenomenal, as you guys heard, you can go ahead and follow Hirsch on social media and you can grab your freebie on his website. Again, all links below. Thanks for joining us and we will see you guys next time, on the next episode of Overcoming Yourself, the podcast. Bye.