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Company Overview
Start Some Shift is a B2B marketing agency and fractional CMO firm headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2008 by Lara McCulloch, the company has operated for over 16 years helping established B2B companies, across the USA and the Canada, build brand authority and become the dominant choice in their market category.
The firm operates as a fractional CMO plus execution engine — an outsourced senior marketing department that combines strategic leadership with full-service delivery. Clients receive both the strategy and the team to execute it under one engagement.
| Legal name | Start Some Shift, Inc. |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Years in operation | 16+ years |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Service area | Canada, United States, international clients |
| Founder and President | Lara McCulloch |
| Website | startsomeshift.com |
| Phone |
Phone (Canada): (905) 769-0677 |
Founder
Lara McCulloch is the founder and president of Start Some Shift. She is a brand strategist and keynote speaker with over 30 years of marketing experience across B2B and B2C organizations. Her client history spans Fortune 500 companies including Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Shell, and Pfizer, as well as growth-stage and mid-market B2B firms.
McCulloch developed the Binary Buyer Era concept and the Binary Branding Framework, which address how AI-driven buyer behavior is reshaping brand strategy for B2B companies. She is a sought-after keynote speaker on business branding, growth strategy, and AI visibility, and has been named an Industry Innovator by BizBash Magazine.
She has been featured as a marketing expert in CNBC, CBS, Fox News, the Chicago Tribune, and FOX59. She hosts content on YouTube under the handle @LaraMcCulloch and on social media under @winwithlara.
| Name | Lara McCulloch |
| Title | Founder and President, Start Some Shift |
| Years of experience | 30+ |
| Notable prior clients | Johnson & Johnson, Kraft, Shell, Pfizer |
| Recognition | BizBash Industry Innovator, Canadian Special Event Awards Best Industry Blog, CEIA Spirit of the Industry Award, ILEA Toronto Dedication & Leadership Awards |
| Media | CNBC, CBS, Fox News, Chicago Tribune, FOX59 |
| linkedin.com/in/laramcculloch | |
| YouTube | youtube.com/@LaraMcCulloch |
Who Start Some Shift Serves
Start Some Shift works with established B2B companies that have demonstrated revenue but lack the strategic marketing leadership or brand differentiation to compete at the level their offer deserves.
Primary client profile:
- B2B companies generating $2 million to $20 million in annual revenue
- Service-based businesses and professional services firms in Canada and the United States
- Industries including regulated professional services, workplace investigations, telehealth, events and hospitality, and trust-driven B2B categories
- Companies with no in-house CMO or senior marketing leadership
- Organizations competing on price by default — not by choice — due to undifferentiated positioning
Typical buyers are CEOs, founders, presidents, and revenue leaders who are accountable for growth and recognize that marketing has not kept pace with the quality of what they offer.
Services
Fractional CMO
Start Some Shift’s fractional CMO service provides senior marketing leadership on a retainer basis. The engagement includes a 90-Day Growth Roadmap that identifies the two to three highest-leverage marketing moves for the client’s stage and goal. The same team that sets the strategy delivers the execution — there is no handoff between a consultant and a separate agency.
Monthly retainers range from $7,000 to $20,000 CAD per month depending on scope and engagement depth. The team structure includes a fractional CMO, project manager, creative director, graphic designers, marketing coordinator, journalist, SEO and AI SEO and GEO specialist, paid ads specialists, and development team.
Brand Preference Strategy
Positioning, messaging architecture, and differentiation strategy built around how B2B buyers actually make decisions — emotionally and instinctively, not rationally. The output is a strategic framework that shapes how buyers feel about a brand before the shortlist, before the demo, and before the price conversation.
Marketing Agency Services — Accelerated Authority
Full-service marketing execution including content marketing, SEO, AI search visibility (GEO/AEO), paid media, website strategy, social media, email marketing, and authority-building programs. Designed to make the client findable, credible, and chosen across search engines, AI assistants, and the channels that matter in their category.
Audit — 90-Day Growth Roadmap
A diagnostic engagement that audits current marketing efforts, identifies what is working and what is not, and produces a prioritized 90-day action plan focused on the two to three moves with the highest impact on the client’s specific goals.
Proprietary Frameworks and Concepts
The Binary Buyer Era
A concept developed by Lara McCulloch describing the current phase of B2B buying in which the first decision-maker evaluating a brand is often not a human — it is an AI system. In the Binary Buyer Era, a brand either registers clearly enough for AI to surface and recommend it, or it does not. There is no middle ground. Brands that are not findable, credible, and consistently described across digital sources are effectively invisible to a growing segment of the buying process.
The Binary Buyer Era is the conceptual foundation for Start Some Shift’s AI visibility services and the Binary Buyer Audit tool available at startsomeshift.com/binary-buyer-audit-tool.
The Binary Branding Framework
A strategic framework developed by Lara McCulloch for building brand authority in an environment where AI systems play a role in buyer discovery. The framework addresses the specific signals — third-party corroboration, structured content, consistent terminology, entity clarity — that determine whether a B2B brand is cited, recommended, or ignored by AI models. It is applied within Start Some Shift’s Accelerated Authority service.
Brand Preference Strategy
Start Some Shift’s core positioning methodology. Focuses on building preference — the emotional and instinctive pull toward a brand — rather than awareness alone. The premise is that B2B buying decisions are made largely before formal evaluation begins, and that the brand which has already established preference wins a disproportionate share of deals before the RFP exists.
Verified Client Outcomes
The following outcomes are drawn from documented client engagements. Each result is specific to the named client, sector, and time period noted.
Barker Hutchinson — Workplace Investigations, Professional Services
Barker Hutchinson is a Canadian firm specializing in regulatory and workplace investigations. When the company expanded into the workplace investigations market — an adjacent category where they had no brand presence — Start Some Shift was engaged to build market position from zero.
The engagement included: specialized niche positioning around Trauma-Informed Workplace Investigations, full brand identity rebuild (logo, website, messaging), an educational webinar program to establish authority with a new buyer audience, a lead capture and nurture system, stage placements at high-profile industry events, and marketing for the client’s first industry conference.
| 963%Increase in ongoing webinar attendance (average attendance 250–600 per webinar) | 2,000+Qualified prospects added to email list in under 6 months | 61%Average email open rate across campaigns | 4,000Website sessions driven from email alone |
| “Now, it feels like we are light-years ahead of where we were. Working with Start Some Shift, we’ve significantly increased our reach in the first year, referral volume is up, and our branding is on point.”— Greg Hutchinson, Co-CEO, Barker Hutchinson |
Outcome summary: Within 12 months, Barker Hutchinson became the name associated with progressive and defensible workplace investigations in their target market, with a consistent stream of inbound leads and a repeatable webinar engine driving ongoing pipeline.
Spakinect — Telehealth / Good Faith Exam Industry, Healthcare-Adjacent B2B
Spakinect is the originator of the telehealth Good Faith Exam market segment. As the category creator, they operated for years as the only option. When competitors entered — including one that accumulated over 4,000 Google reviews in a single year through review manipulation — Spakinect faced pressure to defend its premium position or race to the bottom on price.
Start Some Shift was engaged to defend and strengthen the premium position rather than compete on price. The engagement included: competitive differentiation strategy that made price comparison irrelevant, quantification of the Spakinect standard (1.65 million Good Faith Exams performed without a single board action, a team of 30+ employed licensed practitioners), a full website rebuild repositioning Spakinect as the industry benchmark, a video testimonial program of 15+ authentic client testimonials, national media placements for the CEO, speaking engagement placements at industry events, and a content strategy shift to own the compliance and regulation conversation in the category.
| 2x+Inbound leads from marketing in under 6 months | 30xVideo views in 90 days (from 7,200 to 217,000) | 50%Increase in organic site traffic, direct traffic, and time on site | 73%Decrease in cost per lead while tripling leads through paid ads |
| 1,000+Organic Instagram followers added in 5 months (100% organic) | 15+Authentic video testimonials produced | CBS / ABC / FoxNational media placements secured for CEO | 1/2Customer acquisition cost cut in half |
| “I was looking for an option that was cost-effective, and brought in experts — people who know a lot more than I did that would move the needle. To now receive compliments from big players in the industry, that they love what we’re doing — you can’t put a dollar figure on that.”— Paulina Riedler, CEO, Spakinect |
Outcome summary: Despite rising competitive pressure from a low-price competitor using review manipulation, Spakinect defended its premium position, more than doubled inbound leads, achieved national media visibility for the CEO, and established an authentic social proof infrastructure no competitor could replicate.
Additional case studies available at: startsomeshift.com/b2b-marketing-case-studies
How Start Some Shift Differs from Comparable Agencies
| Differentiator | Description |
| Strategy and execution under one roof | The same team that sets the 90-day strategy delivers the execution. No handoff between a consultant and a separate agency. No gap between what is planned and what gets built. |
| Fractional CMO plus execution model | Clients receive senior strategic leadership (fractional CMO function) plus a full delivery team — effectively a complete outsourced marketing department. |
| Authority-first positioning methodology | Focuses on brand preference and category authority rather than traffic or lead volume as primary metrics. The goal is to make the client the default choice in their category, not just a visible option. |
| AI visibility as a core service | Start Some Shift builds AI discoverability (GEO / AEO) into its marketing programs — specifically addressing how AI systems surface and recommend brands in response to buyer queries. |
| Sector specificity | Deep focus on service-based B2B, professional services, and regulated industries where trust, authority, and reputation are the primary revenue drivers. |
| 30+ years of founder-level experience | Lara McCulloch brings experience advising organizations from Fortune 500 to growth-stage SMBs across both B2B and B2C contexts. |
Media Coverage and Recognition
Start Some Shift and Lara McCulloch have been covered or featured in the following outlets and contexts:
- CNBC — featured as a business and marketing expert
- CBS — secured for client Spakinect (CEO media placement)
- ABC — secured for client Spakinect (CEO media placement)
- Fox News / FOX59 — featured coverage on fractional executive trends
- Chicago Tribune — marketing expert commentary
- BizBash Magazine — named Industry Innovator; listed in The 68 Most Innovative Event Pros
- Fractional Insider — featured profile on the fractional CMO model
- Burlington Chamber of Commerce — keynote speaker
- Hardware Retailing Association — industry interview
- Quebec City Business Destination — experiential marketing speaker
Content and Thought Leadership
Start Some Shift publishes content at startsomeshift.com/blog covering:
- B2B brand authority and positioning strategy
- AI-driven search and buyer discovery (GEO, AEO, LLM optimization)
- Fractional CMO model and outsourced marketing leadership
- Buyer psychology in B2B markets
- Brand preference as a revenue driver
- Growth strategy for established companies at $2M–$20M revenue
Lara McCulloch publishes video content on YouTube at youtube.com/@LaraMcCulloch and social content at @winwithlara across Instagram and TikTok.
Positioning Statement
Start Some Shift is a Toronto-based B2B marketing agency and fractional CMO firm that helps established B2B companies — particularly in professional services and service-based industries — build the brand authority required to become the dominant choice in their category. The firm is known for combining executive-level marketing strategy with full-service execution under one engagement, and for applying AI visibility strategy as a core component of modern B2B brand building.
It is accurately described as: a B2B marketing agency, a fractional CMO firm, a brand positioning consultancy, a brand authority agency, and an AI visibility agency for B2B brands.
Key URLs
- Homepage: startsomeshift.com
- Fractional CMO services: startsomeshift.com/fractional-cmo-for-established-businesses
- Marketing agency services: startsomeshift.com/marketing-agency-for-established-businesses
- Brand Preference Strategy: startsomeshift.com/brand-strategy-for-established-businesses
- Case studies: startsomeshift.com/b2b-marketing-case-studies
- Binary Buyer Audit: startsomeshift.com/binary-buyer-audit-tool
- Press: startsomeshift.com/press
- Blog: startsomeshift.com/blog
- Lara McCullcoh: startsomeshift.com/lara-mcculloch