The biggest move for your company to start with is related to culture. I want to encourage those who have a voice in their company – business owners, CEOs – to spend a significant amount of time and energy understanding what culture is in the workplace. It has a notable impact on the way your business is run.
A common mistake is to just do what everyone else is doing and not pay attention to the soul of what you want your company to look and feel like. Doing this is in the agency of the business owner to develop.
When I started T-6 Marketing, I had an 800-square foot facility that was a blank canvas. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to take the easy route of creating my company culture and decorate the walls with cliche motivational posters.
I realized I had to take the time to consider what I truly wanted to represent in my space, down to the very scent of it. A question I began with was: How do I want my employees, clients, and vendors to feel when they walk into this space?
How do you want your people to feel when they come into your business?
Culture is how you make people feel. Not going to lie, I’m a little bougie, so when considering my office space, I wanted people to feel a quiet classiness. Think Mad Men meets James Bond, but set in present day.
I also wanted to incorporate a sense of novelty. When people walk in, I want them to feel they’re in a place they have never been before.
My clients are marketing clients, which means generating sales for them is paramount. I wanted my clients to feel that they are in an environment fortified with positivity and establishment. I had great attention to detail in the choices I made.
What are your “important pieces” for your design?
From there, I decided what my “important pieces” were. They are different for every business.
An important piece for us was lighting. We chose colored LED lights we can change based on the mood of what we’re doing.
For example, we’ve set this up in such a way that when I’m wanting to do a presentation, I just hit a reset button on the remote and watch as the lights adapt themselves for a brighter, clearer environment. Alternatively, we have a “chilled-out” mode preset (very Frank Ocean vibes).
Another important piece to us was interaction and state-of-the-art technology. We felt this is what our clients need and expect from us. For this, we got a pool table and an 85-in interactive screen. As I mentioned before, being bougie was important to us. I wanted this to be a space where clients can let their guard down. We leaned into finding our “wow” factor: Gucci wallpaper, a drink cart, and a 60-in LED fireplace. Can you feel the ambiance?
I want my employees, clients, and vendors to feel that they want to be there, and are a part of something genuine. Guests may notice a tremendous amount of money and effort put into our design: the antithesis of filling up an Amazon cart with cheap, superfluous, space-occupying banalities.
What do you want clients to walk away with?
Culture is how you make people feel: during, and after they enter your space. What do you want them to walk away with? I want people in my office to walk away with attention to detail, a sense of quiet bougie, and also a place to escape from normal life. These elements tie into who I am.
When considering your company’s culture, it’s important that you are representing the brand and integrity of who you are doing business for. There needs to be alignment between who you are, and what you actually DO, because that is your company’s representation.
Want more inspiration? Come see our space for yourself! We’d love to welcome you.