If you've ever hired an agency, been frustrated by one, or thought about building one yourself, you're going to want to hit play on this conversation.

Jared Harman is the CEO and co-founder of One Group Agency, a full-service marketing agency based in Canada with 16 full-time, in-house team members. He's spent over two decades building brands across hospitality, sports, broadcasting, and now agency life, and he's here with Raquel on The Vignette Effect to talk about what's actually underneath a business built on long-term client relationships.

In this episode, Raquel and Jared cover:

The mindset shift that stuck:

Jared talks about a hard-earned truth that most marketers don't arrive at until years in: you're not always the audience. When clients are too attached to their brand to see it from the outside, your job is to help them get to 30,000 feet. And the only way to do that is to get there yourself first.

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If you've ever had a wildly successful launch followed by a complete freeze or found yourself hesitating to send an email, show up on camera, or talk about what you do, this episode is going to feel uncomfortably familiar. In the best way.

Raquel is joined by Leslie M. Thornton, founder of Hypnosis for Permanent Weight Loss (hpwl.co) and host of one of the top 1% most downloaded podcasts globally. Leslie is a former ICU nurse, certified NLP and hypnosis trainer, and someone who spent 20 years fighting her own battle with food and her body before discovering that the solution wasn't more willpower: it was working with the unconscious mind instead of against it.

While Leslie's work centers on food and body image, this conversation goes deep into the patterns that run every high achiever: the triggers that cause self-sabotage, the stories we write when we don't have data, and the mindset that either keeps you stuck or helps you bounce back.

In this episode:

Connect with Raquel:

Connect with Leslie:

When Jessi Jean Home grew a brand new Instagram account to 350,000 followers and followed it with a $1.2 million launch, the internet had a lot to say. Most of the recaps missed the real marketing lessons underneath it. This episode breaks down what actually drove the results, what context gets left out of the viral conversation, and what small business owners can take away from it, regardless of their industry or how they feel about being on camera.

What made it work

Jessi's success didn't come from a new idea or a secret strategy. It came from executing proven marketing principles consistently and in her own voice. Understanding those principles is what makes results like this repeatable.

In this episode:

Reps over research: why getting into action beats waiting until you feel ready, and how consistent practice is the actual growth strategy behind her audience build

Permission to suck: how giving yourself a timeline to be bad at something removes the barrier that keeps most people stuck before they start

Content that pre-sells the offer: what it looks like when your content naturally positions what you're selling so that by launch day, your audience is already bought in

Building for your audience vs. building for yourself: the nuance that gets skipped in most success story breakdowns

Why bringing your own perspective to a crowded conversation is still one of the most effective marketing moves you can make

This episode is for you if you've been watching someone else's success and wondering what you're missing, or if you know you need to get more visible but keep finding reasons to wait.

Connect with Raquel: 

What Sedona, Arizona, Can Teach You About Building a Brand World

If you've ever been to Sedona, Arizona, you already know there's something different about the place. The red rocks, the quiet, the particular pace of it. But what struck Raquel on her most recent trip wasn't just the beauty of it. It was how intentional all of it is, and how closely it mirrors the kind of brand world she talks about building with her clients.

In this episode, Raquel uses Sedona as a real-world case study for brand guidelines that actually mean something. From height restrictions and color palettes pulled directly from the landscape, to a ban on reflective surfaces, to being a designated International Dark Sky area where lights go off at 10 p.m., every rule Sedona has put in place protects the same core value: the integrity of the natural world comes first. Even McDonald's, one of the most recognizable brands on the planet, had to swap their golden arches for teal ones to operate there.

That's not just interesting trivia. That's a brand keeping its promise at every level.

Raquel also gets into one of the most common early mistakes she sees with brands: the impulse to be for everyone. It feels generous, it feels safe, but what it actually does is dilute the experience for the exact people who would have loved what you were really building. Sedona could have said yes to rooftop bars, e-bikes on every trail, and late-night noise. They didn't. And the people who go there for the stillness, the stars, and the vortex energy show up more aligned and more grateful because of it.

In this episode:

Ready to define your own brand world?

Book a discovery call with Raquel here: https://calendly.com/raquel-vignettebrandstudio/discovery

Connect with Raquel on Instagram at @raquel.furman 
See the post with the teal arches here.

Join the email list here.

This episode covers the marketing and branding questions showing up most in DMs and inboxes right now. The ones that come up in different forms but are really asking the same things. From growing an email list to standing out in a crowded industry, from navigating social media pressure to figuring out which platforms actually matter, Raquel brings her 25+ years of experience in marketing, creative direction, and brand strategy to give you clear, practical answers without the noise.

In this episode:

Growing your email list -- Why the most important thing isn't where you promote your list, it's how you describe the benefit of being on it. Raquel breaks down why generic copy fails, how to use your next email as a hook, and which channels (your website, Pinterest, YouTube) have staying power that Instagram doesn't.

How to stand out

Do you have to be on social media?  

Which platforms should you use? 

How to show up in search 

Mentioned in this episode:

Listen to the episode What the FAQ: What Is Brand Strategy? on Apple or Spotify

Connect with Raquel:

If you've ever wondered whether you actually own your brand name, your course content, your frameworks, or the images you create - this episode is for you.

I sat down with Nuzarya Haque-Shah, intellectual property attorney and founder of Legally Savvy CEO, to dig into one of the most important and most overlooked layers of building a brand. Whether you're just getting started or you've been in business for years, there's a very real chance you have blind spots here - and Nuzarya makes all of it approachable, clear, and genuinely empowering.

IP Basics for Brand Owners Nuzarya walks through the four major types of intellectual property rights every founder should know: trademarks, copyrights, patents, and trade secrets. We go beyond the definitions and into what actually matters for your business - including why Nuzarya considers every business built in 2026 to be, at its core, an IP business.

Why You Shouldn't Wait to Register Your Trademark One of the most common (and expensive) mistakes founders make is deciding to register once the brand "proves itself." Nuzarya explains why that logic backfires - from the investor perspective, to the SEO and searchability consequences, to the very real scenario where someone else registers your name, and you're stuck either rebranding or litigating. We also talk through what consumer confusion really means legally, and why two businesses in completely different industries can still end up in a trademark dispute.

The Cease and Desist Story You Need to Hear Nuzarya shares the story of a client who received a federal trademark infringement lawsuit - and threw it in the trash twice because she assumed it was spam. What happened next is a wake-up call for any small business owner who thinks they're too small to get sued.

How to Monetize Your IP Through Licensing. This is the part of the conversation most founders never think about. Once you've protected your work, you can put it to work. Nuzarya shares a remarkable client story: a real estate coach who licensed his course to Spanish-speaking coaches across Latin America and generated seven figures in passive royalty income - without translating a word of it himself. She also shares how her early career at a startup taught her to turn counterfeit infringers into licensed partners, creating a new revenue stream in the process.

AI-Generated Content and Copyright in 2026. We address the question everyone is asking: if you use AI to write your blogs, create graphics, or build course content - who owns it? Nuzarya breaks down where US copyright law stands right now, what it means for your business, and what's still up in the air when it comes to patents and AI-assisted code. She also tackles the ethical question of how AI sources public content and where the law is beginning to draw the line.

Where to Start Your IP Audit. Not sure where to begin? Nuzarya gives clear, practical guidance on how to self-audit your business and how to work with an IP attorney to get a full roadmap - without it being overwhelming or expensive.

LEGALLY SAVVY CEO CLUB

Ready to stop Googling legal questions and have a real IP attorney in your corner? The Legally Savvy CEO Club gives scaling founders direct access to Nuzayra and the NH Legal team, monthly trademark searches or contract reviews, and actual IP registrations built into your membership. Founding member spots are open now at $777/month for life. Learn more and join at  https://bit.ly/LegallySavvyCEOClub_vignettepodcast

FREE GUIDE 

Not sure if your brand is actually protected? Download The 10 Legal Blind Spots That Could Cost Your Business $1,000's, a free guide covering the legal foundation every founder needs before they need an attorney. Get your free copy at  https://bit.ly/TenLegalBlindSpots_vignettepodcast

You’ve registered your business name, bought the domain, and locked in your Instagram handle. So you own your brand… right? Not exactly.

In this episode of The Vignette Effect, Raquel is opening up a conversation that a lot of small business owners don’t think about until it’s too late: trademarking, copyright, and what it actually means to own your brand.

This isn’t legal advice but it is a grounded, real-world look at how intellectual property shows up in creative businesses and why it matters more as you grow.

Raquel shares personal stories from early in her career, including:

She also breaks down some of the most common assumptions small business owners make, like:

And why those assumptions can become risky depending on where your business is headed.

You’ll also hear a powerful example of how trademarking can turn your brand into a true business asset, including how frameworks, methods, and branded systems can be protected and even licensed.

This episode is designed to get you thinking differently about your brand, not just as something you’ve created, but as something you may want to protect and build equity in over time.

And in the next episode, Raquel sits down with an intellectual property attorney to go deeper into the legal side of all of this, so make sure you’re following the show so you don’t miss it.

Connect with Raquel:

If your marketing isn't working, the problem probably isn't effort. You're posting consistently, showing up on the platforms, doing all the things, and something still isn't clicking. This episode is about why that happens, and what actually fixes it.

Brand strategist and coach Raquel Furman breaks down the two layers every small-business brand needs to work on: the technical layer (how people find you) and the visceral layer (why they care). Most business owners are only working on one. That's where the plateau lives.

Why your brand strategy isn't working

A lot of small business owners hit a wall not because they're doing the wrong things, but because they have blind spots inside the systems they're already using. Your website, SEO, email marketing, and social media. Each of these platforms is more nuanced than it looks from the outside. Raquel shares a real example of two business owners who both said Pinterest "didn't work" and what was actually going on. It's rarely the platform. It's almost always the setup.

The part of brand building AI can't do for you

Using AI tools for your brand before you've developed your own creative vision is one of the most common mistakes Raquel sees right now. When you skip the brand foundations, your point of view, your messaging, the meaning behind what you do, and hand it to a tool, you end up with content that's possibly polished but likely forgettable. People can feel when something wasn't written by a person. Raquel gets specific about where AI can genuinely help with efficiency, and where leaning on it makes your brand harder to build.

How to build a brand people actually connect with

The visceral layer is where most brands often plateau. You can have a technically solid marketing plan and still cap out if there's nothing there for people to feel. This is the layer where your brand voice, visual storytelling, and emotional resonance live. It's also the layer most business owners already have more of than they think. It just hasn't been brought to the surface yet.

In this episode:

- Why "I tried it, and it didn't work" is almost always a setup problem, not a platform problem

The Vignette Effect is a podcast for small business owners and creative founders who want to build a brand that's clear, expressive, and built to last.

Resources mentioned:

If this episode resonated, share it with a creative founder who needs to hear it today.

Book a call with Raquel here.

Connect on Instagram at @raquel.furman

You've got the content. You've got the clients. You've got the email list, the engagement, the offers. So why does something still feel a little off?

If that sounds familiar, this episode is for you.

Raquel breaks down one of the most useful frameworks in brand strategy: thinking about your brand like a magazine and stepping into the role of editor. And she uses Miranda Priestly, the formidable editor-in-chief of Runway Magazine in The Devil Wears Prada, as the ultimate case study.

What an editor actually does

An editor isn't writing every article, shooting every campaign, or producing every piece of content. What they're doing is deciding what makes it in. That decision-making role is exactly what's missing for a lot of small business owners and creative founders who are deep in creation mode and wondering why it's not clicking together.

The problem usually isn't that you need more. It's that there's no through line connecting what you already have.

Your brand strategy is your filter

Brand strategy is what gives you the framework to make those editorial calls. What do you want to be known for? What's the through line in your messaging? What belongs and what doesn't? These aren't small questions, but answering them is what lets you stop second-guessing every piece of content you create and start leading with clarity.

Raquel also addresses the fear that comes with getting more specific in your messaging. Getting focused doesn't mean you can't offer multiple things. It means those things have something that connects them.

Miranda Priestly and the "florals for spring" moment

The classic scene from the film where someone pitches florals for spring, and Miranda responds with "florals for spring, groundbreaking" isn't really about the florals. It's about having a clear enough vision to know immediately what fits and what falls short of where you're trying to go. That's the editorial lens. That's what brand strategy builds.

What editing looks like in practice

Being the editor of your brand sometimes means cutting things that were working. Things you liked. Things that brought in revenue. Raquel shares her own experience phasing out photography work to go all-in on brand strategy, and why that trapeze moment, letting go before you've fully grabbed the next thing, is part of the process.

It also means you don't have to have everything mapped out before you can lead. Miranda didn't walk into those pitch meetings with the whole issue planned. She had the vision, and she used the ideas in the room to refine it. That's the move.

If your brand feels pieced-together, this is where to start

Most of the clients Raquel works with aren't starting from scratch. They've built something real. They just need to step back, calibrate, and decide what actually makes the cut. That's the editorial pass. And it's usually what takes a brand from good to pulled-together.

Ready to stop guessing and start editing? Book a free discovery call at the link in the show notes.

Resources + Links

Keywords: brand strategy for small business, brand messaging, content strategy, how to build a cohesive brand, brand editing, small business branding, creative entrepreneur, brand clarity