Find out here about the ThoughtShift startup story. ThoughtShift are a digital marketing agency in Brighton. Learn how ThoughtShift came to be and get our tips on how to start up your very own business. Get the low down on our Managing Directors & Co Founders Helen Trendell and AJ Coutts. #mystartupstory

1. Meet…
&
Together
they
created

2. What Does
Do?

3. The whole team of
ThoughtShifters are deeply
passionate about working with
companies and charities that make
a difference to the world and
believe that creativity is the key.
Our ThoughtShift
PRISM™ Digital
Marketing Methodology
transform organisations,
doubling, trebling and even
quintupling their size.
We specialise in
Search Engine
Optimisation
(SEO) and provide
digital marketing
re-imagined.

4. What Did You
Want to Be
When You
Grew Up?

5. AJ

6. Why Digital
Marketing?

7. Helen: I felt there was a big
future in the internet. I was
working for Thomson’s Directory
in the 90s and we started selling
the additional service of website
listings and companies were like,
website? Why do I need a
website? I would love to see what
those companies are doing now.
AJ: I liked computers so gave that a
go. Through college I learnt the
various bits including website design,
making computers etc and ended up
helping Norfolk County Council with
their first intranet. They liked me so
much they took me on and it went
from there really until I got a job in a
marketing agency.

8. How Did
You Become
Business
Partners?

9. AJ: We first met when Helen
interviewed me for a job and hired
me. We were doing 90 hour
weeks and sat at a pub with a
cold pint we thought; “There must
be a better way to do this?”
Helen: At the time we were also working on a pitch
over the weekend for a blood diamond company.
We didn’t want to work with an unethical company
so we ended up inspired to start our own business,
writing our business plan on a till receipt because
we couldn’t find anything else to write on.

10. What
Happened
Next?

11. Helen: Our till receipt plan was coming up with the idea of
running white label SEO so that we could build our reputation
first offering work via partners.
For example we are now working with a
diamond company that offers a lifetime
guarantee and does business ethically.
We knew we couldn’t help them directly but
digital marketing can affect change and
influence so we decided to work with ethical
businesses or treat their customers well.
Because we had been working with the blood
diamond company when we both watched a
documentary showing children in Guana go
through the various rubbish dumped on their
island for scrap, it made us want to do
something.

12. What Did You
Do First?

13. AJ: The two of us did
planning for six months
and then we hired our
first member of
staff, so there were
three of us in Helen’s
spare room at home.
We both
invested
£100 each which
bought us a couple of
desks, some red paint
and basic supplies
Helen: The room has now been converted to a bathroom
so my old desk is now a bath
and AJ’s is a sink. Haha!

14. How Did You
Come Up With
The Name
ThoughtShift?

15. Helen: The name ‘ThoughtShift’ actually came quite naturally. Now is the time to
reimagine digital marketing as a way of helping people solve real-world problems
funded by brands. If you can think it, you can do it and that's our entire approach,
we first think of a plan to help our clients, then we deliver it.
You're looking at Thought (me) and Shift (AJ) right here. It's all about balance and
we're ying and yang.
The world is going
through a paradigm
shift - the internet is
changing the world.

16. Why
Rainbows
& Bubbles?

17. Helen: Being based in
Brighton the Rainbow is a
significant symbol and we
very much wanted to
express the freedom in
creating our own agency
and symbolise our pride in
being an agency that is
ethical and forward
thinking.
AJ: Yeah it wasn’t so much
a “hey, we’re gay” as a
sign of peace and liberty
and not being afraid to do
things differently. We have
had many different logos
but the thought bubble
demonstrates our focus on
thinking differently.

18. When Did You
Know it
Was Going to
Work?

19. AJ: Quite quickly for
me and lately I
frequently think about
how awesome
it is.
Helen: We really did hit the ground running
with our White Label SEO model, so I knew it
was a profitable business early on and
I guess it was when we started to make a profit
in month 4 that I felt confident it was going to
work. We have been making a profit ever since.

20. What Makes
ThoughShift
Different?

21. AJ: We can’t help kids in Guana but
we have helped people carve out
careers through our apprenticeships.
We also do our Do it Different
(DiD) challenge whereby we support
local charities by running events and
using our digital marketing to help raise
funds for the homeless or young
people.
Helen: We have an ethical approach and
offer a high quality service that ultimately
delivers revenue. We are not about
delivering fluffy rankings results. We are
transparent and we educate our clients
providing free content on our blogs and
offering training. We teach our clients
everything that we teach our employees.

22. Are You Digital
Marketing
Rock Stars?

23. Helen: I am a musician and AJ is passionate
about music so a lot of our branding and
language is influenced by music such as our
‘Thoughtshift Guestlist’
emails, ‘backstage passes’ to our events
and our branded flags, which are
festival inspired.
I think we have let our love of music influence
our direction because it is who we are and if we
are passionate about our company then it will
rub off on our clients.

24. What Are
Your Key
Achievements?

25. …We also made a
popular eCommerce
brand 1 million in revenue
this year.
AJ: 2013 has been a big
year. We started working
with The Law Society,
which is one of the top
associations in the UK
and transformed 5
traditional print
publications to 5 websites
achieving over a quarter
of a million page views for
Gearing Media. However,
one of our biggest
achievements has been
securing our new bigger
offices this month! We
can’t wait to move in!
Helen: We tend to not
think too much about
what everyone else
thinks and just do our
thing. I guess that’s just
our punk attitude!

26. How Have
You Grown
Since 2010?

27. AJ: We have now grown
from just us 2 to 15 in the
last three years, which
isn’t bad going… We now
have an awesome team!

28. Best memories
So far with
ThoughtShift?

29. AJ: Our ‘Walk this Way’ team music
video was definitely a highlight! We
have summer parties and for our last
one after some team building we
booked into a studio in partnership with
Go-experience. We had make-up
artists etc and put together the video, It
was such a laugh and great to actually
be the rock stars we all are at heart.
Check it out …

30. Why Digital
Marketing
Architects?

31. AJ: The digital marketing journey starts
with a digital strategy (a blueprint) and just
like building your dream house, we believe
that our clients need an architect to help
them achieve their vision, to take it from
paper to reality or in our case a digital
marketing architect to take it from
campaign plan to customer-driving
machine.
Helen: Crafting exquisite digital strategies that
increase brand awareness, customer
engagement and new customer acquisition
takes time, this is not something that should be
rushed or you could risk burning your budget.
The last thing you want to do is end up without
having the time to optimise all your marketing
assets for search, social and pay per click (it
would be like building a beautiful house without
any doors to get in)!

32. Tell Us
About the
ThoughtShift
Academy…

33. AJ: I am very passionate about young
people and strongly feel that the
education system doesn’t work. There are
too many young people going to
university and coming out with no job
prospects. We offer practical training that
they can utilise in business. Even if we
don’t take on an intern, they are armed
with the necessary skills to get
employed. I would love to run training
workshops in local colleges and help
more.
Helen: Our industry is so new that SEO and PPC aren't even covered in
marketing degree courses so there is a distinct lack of people with
search marketing experience out there. Creating our own training
programme means we get everyone up to the standard we demand for
our clients - which isn't for the faint hearted!

34. What
Are Your
Future Plans?

35. AJ: When we get a big
eCommerce brand like
Selfridges becoming a
client, then can we can
say…
AJ: I don’t think we’re
doing 90 anymore.
Helen: So that’s
something, we can lob
10 off a year!
…And growing the team
to a point that we can
have a less stressful life
and shorter hours.
Helen: Yeah because
that is pretty much how
we started, to work
less hours but it hasn’t
quite worked out.
Although I don’t know if
we are doing 90 hour
weeks.

36. What Advice
Do You Have
for Anyone
Starting Up?

37. Helen: It is all in the planning and
financial forecasting. We use a
custom tool for that.
…We use ours to decide if we can employ
another person or get the fancy television
or Xbox.
…If someone took the tool from me I may
have to kill them.

38. Top Tip
for Website
Owners?

39. Helen: Make sure your
website is accessible to
search engines.
AJ: Think about what you want to get from
your website. Before you say “I need a
website”, or design it, or throw it together –
think about who your audience is, what do they
want from your website? And then you plan it.
So it comes back to the planning.

40. For more about the
team, visit our Website:
www.thoughtshift.co.uk