Chris Nation with Mirazon

Foster McCarl with Foster McCarl, LLC

On this episode of The Brand Herald, Landon sits down with Foster McCarl, a Louisville-based strategic advisor and business coach. Foster's story isn't a straight line. It winds through western Pennsylvania, Los Angeles, Hilton Head, and finally Kentucky, shaped at every turn by family, faith, and a willingness to do the hard work in front of him. This episode is less about tactics and more about how a great personal brand isn't built in a marketing meeting. It's built across a lifetime. Foster grew up inside a family business that his grandfather started with a $2,500 GI Bill loan in 1946, building what would become a 90-million-dollar mechanical contracting firm. That legacy of promises kept, of street-smart integrity, of a name that meant something in a community follows Foster everywhere he goes.  He shares how watching his grandfather honor a bad deal with the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates became a founding story for the McCarll brand. From there, Foster traces his path through a decade in Los Angeles, managing Guitar Center's flagship acoustic room on Sunset, running a certified Apple consulting business, and even being in the room when Steve Jobs revealed the first iPhone before eventually landing in Louisville to get better support for his daughter on the autism spectrum. The conversation turns to the work Foster does today as a strategic coach and why his unusual path makes him uniquely suited for it. Like Michelangelo removing everything that wasn't David, Foster's coaching philosophy centers on helping business owners and CEOs identify what they actually want, uncover what's blocking them, and then hold them accountable to their own stated goals.  He describes himself on his business card as an "unreasonable friend", someone who cares deeply but won't let you off the hook. The discussion also gets honest about listening, communication styles, and the discipline it takes to be truly present in a world built for distraction. Landon and Foster land on the idea that ties it all together: a brand is a promise, and trust is what makes the promise. Foster's grandfather built that trust by honoring an impossible deal. Foster builds it today by showing up, asking the right questions, and never pretending to have all the answers. His final piece of advice is to practice business acupuncture, focus on helping other people's bottom lines grow, and your own will follow, is a quietly radical idea in a world still chasing the grind.  Chapters: 00:00: Landon introduces Foster McCarl 01:07: Father's Day weekend in Louisville and Foster's wood shop obsession 03:16: Growing up in western Pennsylvania and the McCarl family business origins.  05:18: Foster's grandfather, the Pittsburgh Pirates deal, and a promise kept.  07:46: From LA to the Carolinas to Louisville 08:37: Witnessing the first iPhone reveal live at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference. 10:48: Working with his father and the gap between planning and implementation.  13:13: Moving to Louisville for the Bluegrass Center for Autism 17:34: How lived experience makes Foster an authentic and relatable coach.  19:41: The coaching philosophy: removing what isn't David and asking the right why.  22:43: On listening, auditory processing, and being present in a distracted world.  27:39: A brand is a promise, from grandfather to grandson, the McCarl legacy.  30:53: Final advice: be intentional, be authentic, and practice business acupuncture. Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fostermccarl/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/fostermccarl/]  https://www.linkedin.com/company/foster-mccarl/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/foster-mccarl/]

Josh McKain with Henry Rose Consulting

On this episode of The Brand Herald, Landon sits down with Josh McKain of Henry Rose Consulting, a Louisville-area operations consultant, group coaching founder, with an impressive LinkedIn presence. Josh's story isn't a straight line. It's a winding path from accounting to insurance operations to entrepreneurship, held together by a persistent curiosity and an ability to build trust with people quickly. Josh and Landon connected with each other on LinkedIn before finally sitting down for coffee and discovering they had a lot more in common than they realized. Josh unpacks the origin of Henry Rose Consulting, including the moment on a solo hike at Deem Lake when the name just appeared in his head, and what it means to build a consultancy around a personal brand rather than a keyword-stuffed service description. He's candid about not thinking of himself as a marketer and yet, the way he shows up consistently on LinkedIn and in his community tells a different story. From there, the episode shifts into the evolution of Josh's business model. What started as one-on-one consulting pivoted, almost organically, into Throughput Mastery [https://www.throughputmastery.com/], a group coaching program built around helping business owners get clear on what they actually want from their businesses, not just what they want to sell.  Josh walks through the epiphany he had in Europe that forced him to ask a harder question: why build a business you don't love? He also introduces Aero Growth, a partnership venture, and talks frankly about the challenge of juggling multiple brands under one personal identity. The episode closes on something both Landon and Josh keep returning to throughout: the irreplaceable value of real human connection in an age of AI and automation. Josh's ability to rally accomplished, influential people around a shared idea, from a near-miss business summit to a growing coaching community, is the thread that runs through everything he's built. His friend's line says it best, and Josh has clearly taken it to heart: the only way to lose is to stop playing. Chapters: 00:00: Landon introduces Josh McKain and the story of how they met on LinkedIn.  01:25: Josh reflects on their "online dating of business networking" connection and LinkedIn as a relationship tool.  02:14: Josh explains why he doesn't consider himself a marketer and how that shapes his approach to visibility.  04:06: Growing up in New Albany, Indiana, his early career in accounting, and the pivot to Progressive Insurance.  08:04: How Josh landed at Strothman despite bombing his interview and what that taught him about self-awareness.  12:05: The origin of Henry Rose Consulting 17:04: An epiphany in Europe, why Josh stopped building a business he didn't love and started building one he did.  19:33: Introducing Throughput Mastery and Aero Growth 28:40: Branded merch, personal brand, and why Josh asked Landon to make his logo smaller. 36:24: Practical advice for anyone thinking about going out on their own Resources: Josh McKain LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshmckain/] Henry Rose Consulting LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/henry-rose-consulting/]Throughput Mastery [https://throughputmastery.com] Aero Growth LLC [https://aerogrowthllc.com]

Todd Krise with MercenaryMarketing.ai

On this episode of The Brand Herald, Landon sits down with Todd Krise, founder of MercenaryMarketing.ai, a Louisville-based AI consulting firm helping businesses and solopreneurs harness artificial intelligence without the hype, the headaches, or the fear. What starts as a conversation about a Louisville Business First article quickly becomes one of the most grounded, practical discussions about AI and brand that The Brand Herald has hosted yet. Todd's path to founding Mercenary wasn't linear. Sports journalism, publishing, agency life, and a front-row seat to social media's rise all built the foundation. But it was watching AI emerge on the horizon that made him go out on his own. The core idea behind Mercenary is deceptively simple: most businesses already have the tools, the data, and the people, they just need someone to connect the dots. Todd's platform serves as an aggregator, pulling together a client's existing CRM, email marketing, content tools, and social channels into a centralized system powered by AI. The result is a smarter version of you, working while you're in the field. The conversation turns toward the harder, more human questions: What does brand even mean in an AI-saturated world? Brand, in Todd's view, is the knowledge base, it's everything your AI agents know about how you speak, what you stand for, and how you serve customers. It's not a logo or a color palette. It's the totality of how people experience you, whether they're talking to you in person or to your AI persona at 11:30 at night.  What makes this episode stick is Todd's conviction that as technology gets more powerful, authenticity gets more valuable. Humans can smell fake and the businesses that will win in an AI-first world are the ones that use AI to amplify what's real about them, not to manufacture something that isn't. For anyone wondering where to start, Todd's parting advice is to go to mercenarymarketing.ai/resources, pick a low-risk tool, and dip your toe in. The mercenary isn't here to replace you. He's here to make you unstoppable. Chapters: 00:02: Landon opens with a Louisville Business First article covering Todd's AI consulting startup.  00:36: Todd introduces himself, journalist, MBA, and self-described PhD in "butt kissing."  01:51: Todd's career path from sports journalism to agency work to spotting the AI wave early. 04:49: The origin of the Mercenary name  05:54: How the business evolved from C-suite content creation to a full AI platform 09:32: Real client use case, how a three-business solopreneur uses AI to prospect, communicate, and monitor leads while he's in the field.  12:46: The knowledge base explained why cloning a client's voice and expertise is the key to AI content that actually sounds like them. 19:41: How Todd defines a brand in an AI world. It's not your logo, it's your knowledge base. 25:03: Why hyper-local, in-person relationships are becoming more valuable as AI scales. 31:15: Practical advice for every AI readiness level and where to find low-risk starting points at mercenarymarketing.ai/resources. Resources: Todd Krise LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/toddkrise/]    MercenaryMarketing.ai LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/mercenarymarketingai/]    MercenaryMarketing.ai [https://mercenarymarketing.ai] MercenaryMarketing.ai/resources [https://www.mercenarymarketing.ai/resources]

Bronson Cordle with Vsimple

On this episode of The Brand Herald, Landon sits down with Bronson Cordle, Vice President of Marketing at Vsimple, to explore the real mechanics of marketing software platform in a B2B world. Bronson brings a rich agency background. He trades the agency grind for the chance to build something from the ground up. Landon and Bronson talk about Vsimple's defining challenge, when your platform can automate nearly any business process for nearly any industry, how do you go to market without saying nothing to everyone?  Bronson walks us through the company's decision to lean into AI-powered features and a modular, verticalized approach, targeting commercial interiors, material handling, heavy equipment, and manufacturing niches where Vsimple already has proof, relationships, and traction. From there, Landon and Bronson get into the nuance of brand-building versus performance marketing and why it's common to confuse the two. Bronson explains how keeping branded activities separate from customer targeted campaigns is how your marketing earns revenue and becomes the CFO's best friend. Trade shows, relational selling, and the hand-in-glove reality of marketing and sales alignment round out the tactical picture for a company whose complex sale demands a human touch that no digital ad can replicate. The episode closes on a story that will stick with anyone who's ever bought 500 cheap notebooks thinking they saved the company money. Buddy, Vsimple's CEO, says if the logo goes on it, it has to be something people are proud to carry. It's a reminder that brand isn't just what you say, it's what you hand someone across a table. Bronson's parting advice is to try more things, measure what matters, and never put all your bets on one line item. Chapters: 01:10: Bronson's background and what Christian education has to do with marketing 02:25: What pushed Bronson toward Vsimple 04:51: What you actually lose when you leave agency life 06:34: Vsimple overview and services 10:00: The horizontal platform problem  10:58: An AI features suite and the industries Vsimple targets 15:49: Brand vs. performance marketing 24:16: Trade shows, B2B relationships, and keeping a human touch 27:33: Why generating leads isn't enough if marketing isn't supporting every stage of the sales cycle 33:49: Bronson's one marketing tip Resources: Bronson Cordle LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronson-cordle/]   Vsimple LinkedIn  [https://www.linkedin.com/company/vsimple/] Vsimple [https://vsimple.com]

Chad Churchman with Hyland Insurance

On this episode of The Brand Herald, Landon sits down with Chad Churchman of Hyland Insurance to discuss the intersection of professional branding and community. Transitioning from a decade in digital marketing at Journeys to the insurance world, Chad shares how he helped shape Hyland’s internal culture.  We explore the "Hyland way"—a philosophy built on educating rather than selling, and the simple act of answering the phone. It’s a grounded look at how a 40-year-old family business maintains its relevance by staying human in a digital age. The conversation shifts to the practical mechanics of brand building, from managing email signatures for 40+ employees to the value of quality promotional items. Chad emphasizes that whether it’s a sideline presence at a Louisville City FC match or internal team apparel, the goal is always utility and longevity.  We’ve found that Hyland’s commitment to "putting their money where their mouth is"—by purchasing quality gear for their team—creates an organic brand advocacy. It’s a reminder that in a crowded market, consistency and character are the only real differentiators. Chapters: 01:00: Chad’s ranking as a semi-pro pinball player and his first-place finishes. 02:05: A brief history of Hyland Insurance, the 40-year-old, family-owned Louisville company. 04:04: Chad’s transition from digital marketing at Journeys to finding a home at Hyland. 08:25: The first 90 days of consolidating internal marketing and creating visual consistency. 12:20: Why "Educate, Don't Sell" and answering the phone are Hyland’s secret weapons. 18:22: A candid look at the complexities of managing email signatures across departments. 21:54: Strategic partnerships with Bellarmine University and Louisville City FC. 26:48: Why Hyland invests in their team’s clothing to build internal pride. 36:19: Tips for owners hiring their first marketing leader and the importance of being realistic with expectations. Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-churchman/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/chad-churchman/]  https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyland-insurance-services/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyland-insurance-services/]  https://hylandins.net/ [https://hylandins.net/]