Our Values
The Code We Live By
Content writers have the privilege of getting up close and personal to their clients and asking questions that their audience may never have the opportunity to ask. Our time with our clients is sacred; it is our chance to learn what makes them who they are, to learn what experiences have shaped them, and to learn what motivates, drives, and inspires them to do what they do.
It is our duty to open our ears and our hearts to our clients. It is also our duty to know how the rest of the world thinks and feels so that we can harmoniously connect our client’s story to the unique perspectives and emotions of their audience.
We take our role as storytellers seriously. We consider it our main mission to challenge people to think deeper, to take on new attitudes and behaviors in ways that positively shape the course of history.
To guide our practice and tell meaningful stories that change history for the better, we rely on three core values.
We Value Storytelling
All people come from a long line of storytellers because all people tell stories. Whether or not you consider yourself a storyteller, we spend our days telling ourselves and others what we did in the past, what we plan to do that day, what we plan to do tomorrow, and what we want for the future.
Stories have the power to change the world. They are the basis of all human communication: they catalog history and change the behavior and psychology of the masses. They have the power to unite or divide us. They give us new perspectives to inform our principles, dictate our behavior, and alter the course of history.
Our writers are always reading and listening to the stories of others. We constantly analyze the craft of storytelling to discover new, impactful ways of conveying thought, action, and emotion. We honor all forms of storytelling: non-fiction, literary fiction, children’s books, plays, songs, speeches, films, animations, video games, conversations and even the stories we tell ourselves every day to make sense of the world around us.
We never stop learning and exploring different ways to practice our craft. Our writers stand on the shoulders of the storytellers who came before us.
We Value the Creative Process
Every creator has their own approach. Some are structured; they eat, sleep, rest, think, and create on a similar schedule, day in and day out. Others embrace randomness and chaos; they thrive on sporadic activity, constantly searching for adventure and trying their luck. Many creators fall somewhere in-between, mixing and matching routine and randomness as they make their way through the creative process.
As writers, we love to learn about other people and how they create. What rituals do they practice? What habits do they form? Where do they draw inspiration? How do they know when they’ve completed a project?
Because we’re a team of writers who work closely with our clients, we’re not only interested in individual creative processes but also collaboration between creators. What can we learn from our clients’ creative process? What do they do differently? What do we share? What can we learn about storytelling from other creatives such as developers and graphic designers? How can we incorporate their approach into how we operate? How can each of our processes coalesce to create something more meaningful and more impactful?
The RedShift process—which we call the Creative Triad—is flexible enough to adapt to almost anyone’s process, but structured enough to provide meaningful guidance if we ever feel stuck. After years of trial and error, we have identified three steps that can be repeated until a project is complete: direction, production, and refinement.
We start by listening and learning the stories of our clients. For businesses and organizations, we record interviews, study their current collateral and how they operate, and observe their competitors, partners, customers, and other relevant stakeholders. When we’re working with authors, our process can be a bit more personal; we not only learn their story but also examine their process so that we can work together to keep each other on track. We take a deep dive into what motivates the author emotionally so that we can stay true to their perspective and show the world why they’re unique. One mark of a good story is when it makes the audience feel the way the storyteller feels.
We Value the Greater Good
While we believe that there is value to most creative efforts, we also believe that we have a moral responsibility to tell stories that serve the greater good. Sometimes, “the greater good” can be difficult to define; people have debated the difference between good and evil for thousands of years.
The RedShift moral code defines the greater good as follows:
Everyone deserves a life of dignity.
We seek to write stories that have a positive impact on the world; we will never write a story of hate. We want a world where people feel closer together, not farther apart. We might explore complex feelings and emotions within our stories, but the ultimate message should celebrate life of all kinds. We embrace the full variety of human experience and the stories of people from any race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, and origin, regardless of how much money they have in their pocket.
We will never write a story that attempts to frame one type of human experience as superior, or glorifies violence against a group of people. We select our clients with the world in mind, and avoid projects that dehumanize others or hurt the environment.
Seek the truth.
Truth can be difficult to find, especially when we’re dealing with deeper human emotions or abstract ideas and concepts of the world. The human mind isn’t always reliable, and we all have our perceived biases, preferences, and experiences that shape our perception.
Still, we often know in our heart what is true and what is right. When someone willfully misrepresents a situation, a moral line has been crossed, and the fallout can be devastating. For example, when someone intentionally alters history or tries to tell another person that something they both experienced didn’t happen, it can cause long term doubt, damage, and trauma.
We try our hardest to ground each story we write in fact. We will never intentionally bend the truth or manipulate facts in order to serve an ulterior motive of our clients.
Give back.
We work with many people, whether they are part of our team, our clients, or members of our community. We find everyone’s work and ideas to be invaluable and seek mutually beneficial relationships with the people we work with.
Our team members will always receive fair pay, guidance and training, and the freedom and flexibility to grow and explore.
Our clients will always get our very best. We seek constant engagement in community events such as Ignite Houston and the Legacy Community Health Center’s Little Readers Program.
We also contribute to the field. RedShift Writers produces thought pieces and other content that unpacks the skills, tools, and spirit of the modern writer in ways that other creators can critique or learn from.
There is always room for improvement.
We know we’re not perfect; nobody is. However, we also know we can always do better. RedShift Writers believes that people are capable of change, but it takes patience in both ourselves and in others. Real, meaningful change isn’t instant; it takes time to truly learn exactly how others see the world, identify and change bad habits, and adopt behaviors and perspectives that serve both ourselves and others in a constructive way.
Most of all, we want our company and our stories to positively impact the world. Consistently striving to live up to the highest level of our moral standards is something we take seriously.
Simply put, we believe in the greater good.