Every company in the world holds one commonality with one another. Culture. It doesn’t matter if you run a custodial contracting company or ad agency, company culture is prevalent in both. What most brands don’t know is that they can now broadcast their cultural motivations to the rest of the world. Many companies are unaware of the vast online outlets that allow brands to share their cultural cues. (Side note: Have you ever heard of the term CCO, stand for “Chief Culture Officer.” Here’s a great article on Entrepreneur about this new phenemon).

So what? Why would you want to share the inter-workings and cultural of your business with the public, potential clients and your competitors. The answer is Social Media. At the heart of this overused, yet highly effective marketing method is cultural. From blogs to Twitter, the main purpose of Social Media is to share what was once taboo. Back in the day it was unheard of for companies to discuss their marketing strategy in public. Now we have American Express, Virgin and Kodak leading the way in demonstrating the effectiveness of this phenomena. The cultural of one’s business drives their core social media messages and ultimately increases their brand’s visibilty.

The motivation for this article was my recent addition to my sidebar. If you notice I added a Tumblr widget. For those of you unfamiliar with Tumblr, let’s just say it’s what Myspace should have evolved into. It’s a more intuitive than Twitter and boasts some of the most creative blogs on the web. I’ve been playing with Tumblr for a couple years now, but just realized the actual benefit it offers. It’s literally a blank canvas that allows one to communicate exactly what they want, in the most efficient way.

The reason I bring Tumblr up is because I strongly believe every company should have one. If not Tumblr, at least an interpersonal communication platform that allows, customers, clients and employees to interact with one another. Facebook and Twitter are great avenues, but most companies don’t use these platforms effectively. They look at Facebook and Twitter as generic social badges to add to their company website. Thinking that by automating every update they will be more relevant in the eyes of their core audience. Tumblr on the other hand is more insightful and lends more to the customization of company culture. Involving employees to share in the company culture by startin their own blogs is another great way to grow your network. As long as their are guidelines in place that state the legal parameters of what can be published, things should go smoothly.

By involving your audience, clients, consumers and employees in the your cultural process, it’s only natural that your brands visibility will spread. Instead of trying to reach your target demographic, you’ll find that they will look for you and seek out your expertise. At the end of the day, people relate to the authenticity of your message, so why not express that in your own unique way.

In this context, we define “enjoying” as truly engaging in something we like to do. Whether it’s our passion or hobby, by truly enjoying what we are doing, we are productively engaging in our work. Taking pleasure in doing our work really makes us feel like we’re not working at all. Instead, we focus on the actual product, service or brand we’re working on and do our best to improve it.

Some of us may have different feelings towards our creative process or how to turn ideas into reality. Throughout most of our lives we are often told what to do, where to be and how to do it. On the other hand, when we create something from scratch, we are the boss and employee. It is up to us to motivate ourselves and complete the job. So how are we suppose to enjoy this process, when we have so much work to do? This is where are passion comes in. When we are truly passionate about a product, service or brand the process becomes enjoyable. Yes, there will be a few annoyances and monotonous tasks, but for the most part, we are doing what we want to do.

When we do what we love, we open ourselves up to even more opportunities. These same opportunities may not have existed, if it wasn’t for our initial attempt. Timing is also an important factor, but I’ve always believed “what’s meant to be will be.” When we make a whole-hearted effort to follow our passion, it almost feels like everything comes together and the tools we need are revealed. I’m not saying this happens every time, but the probability grows when we enjoy what we do.

Taking that first step in “Optimizing our life” is often intimidating. We are putting something we believe in, into action and letting go of any prior reservations. The more we practice these actions, the more comfortable we become in our creative process. As our confidence grows, we begin to embrace our ideas fully and are excited to try them out. Similar to adomino effect, once we put our ideas in motion, the rest falls into place.

In true startup fashion, Venture Cafe has even taken to their Facebook fan page to come up with an official name. It would be cool to see more Venture Cafe’s pop up around the country. I mean, what better way to ignite the unemployed then give them a chance to spark some VC interest with their ideas. Yes, the risk is a lot bigger, but so is the reward.

One of my favorite aspects of the entrepreneurial perspective is the idea of accountability. it allows potential entrepreneurs the mindset to take their future into their own hands and be accountable for their success. When working for a company, the accountability lies in hands of the employer and those employees are in return dependent on their job. There is really no problem with this scenario (the majority of the world, including myself are employees). But, I think if we all begin to start taking accountability for our future and really do what we are passionate about, we’ll begin to see a shift in the way we work, live and think.

Baby steps. We’ve all heard this term before, but when we actually think about making small efforts to achieve a larger goal it, we find it really works. And what better place to foster our growth than the Venture Cafe. This place not only allows us to talk and discuss ideas with budding entrepreneurs, but it also provides us with an environment to cultivate our projects.

Unfortunately the Venture Cafe is only available in Cambridge, Mass. But that doesn’t mean we can’t find similar environments around our area. A few weeks back I made a list of sites to visit if you’re interested in attending workshops, meetups and other events in your area. It’s easier than ever to get our side projects rolling and into the right hands. Collaboration, investment and networking are all potential outcomes when meeting the right people.

As i said before, we’ll likely see more Venture Cafes created around the country, giving coffee shops even more innovation. Why not be the person to start one in your community? All it takes is passion, investment funding and commitment. It might be a good idea to start small with meetups at coffee shops and then go from there. Just a thought

In Seth Godin’s newest book, entitled “Linchpin” he talks a lot about “being remarkable” in everything we do. Whether we’re a waiter or a flight attendant, by being the best we are not only bettering our current situation, but we creating a foundation for positive outcomes. In adding on to the point about being remarkable, I’d like to go even further and say, “In order to be remarkable, one must approach the norm, with a different mentality.”

If we look at some of the most innovative products we’ve created in the past 40 years as humans, we begin to see this “different” pattern in each of the creators. From Bill Gates dropping out of College to Master P using a $10,000 inheritance to start up No Limit Records, each of these innovators approached their craft in a “different” way.

One quote that can better explain my point is: “When Your ordinary, money comes to you. When your extraordinary money comes from you.” Of course this isn’t true in all cases, but I just wanted to emphasize the point that, when we are accountable for more than just ourselves, we’ve gone above and beyond the norm. The fact that both Bill Gates and Master P created their own revenue shows that these two remarkable individuals understood that in order to be successful, they would need a “different” approach.