Since even before I started iThemes in my home in 2008, my partners and I were thinking that if at some point our fledgling business succeeds and thrives, we wanted to find ways to give back in various ways.

Now going on our fourth year of business, we’ve started to put our money and time and effort where our mouth is.

This year, we donated money to a local project that helps refugees in Oklahoma City through iThemes.

And this week I’m delighted to help announce a new nonprofit foundation that Digimedia LP and iThemes have created called The Div.

The purpose is to foster web innovation and creativity in Oklahoma City. We’re going to do that in a number of ways, including offering local training opportunities through weekly and monthly workshops and classes, coworking days to gather the local web community, hosting web-related user groups, and social gatherings periodically.

Learn more about The Div and what we’re doing here and be sure to follow The Div on Twitter. And if you’re a web professional in Oklahoma City, please signup to volunteer or sponsor events and activities.

Yesterday, I did a State of iThemes presentation to our community in order to unpack our core values, philosophies and business objectives and goals for 2011.

I’ve done this before, but in the last 3+ years running a business, especially an online one, I’ve realized how valuable it is to simply communicate transparently who we are and how we run our business.

With over 250 people registered, the response was overwhelming, exciting and motivating. We’ve had a number of community members tell us they love our business and our team and are committed to being customers with us for the foreseeable future.

Key takeaway: Explain who you are, your unique philosophy about how and why you do business … and it wins fans.

Here is the video replay from the webinar:

Here are the slides from the webinar:

My friend Scott Ellis asked me to be on his new vidcast Relentless Business recently and he’s just posted the video interview I did with him.

This Friday, I’m doing another webinar at StartupSofa — a new community for aspiring and rookie entrepreneurs — called How to Start a Web-Based Digital Products Business.

You can register online here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/972390234

Also … I just posted 12 tips for how to be a professional – my advice for college grads with their first jobs and it’s gotten some good response.

Be sure to signup for email updates at StartupSofa too so you don’t miss anything!

Over at StartupSofa, my new project for aspiring entrepreneurs, I’ve got a couple of new things going …

I just posted an article asking key questions for those interested in starting new businesses … it’s called Is Entrepreneurship Right For You. It’s based on the first webinar I did last week on the same subject.

And I’m also presenting another new webinar this week that’s a followup to that post called Discovering the Right Startup Idea to Chase.

Be sure to sign up for the email newsletter and start talking on the community forum over at StartupSofa.