No one likes to hear criticisms. It makes us feel inadequate, incapable, and scared that others will agree. For most of us, our first reaction is to "manage" the criticisms. We'll minimize them, hide them from other people, ignore them, say they are totally invalid, patronize the person criticizing – anything to control the commentary. But, as is true of most things in life, this is the exact opposite of what creates the best results and can have the biggest impact.

Really accepting someone's criticism, mulling it over, and trying to get to the heart of the matter does two things – it affirms a relationship with the person giving it to you (i.e. you care about them and respect them) and two – it helps you grow past potential blind spots. If Branding is all about what someone else says you are (see Marty's diagram), then actually hearing what someone else says about your company, service, products, etc is one of the greatest Branding exercises you can perform.

On the flip side, trying to manage criticisms is like trying to walk a cat on a leash (trust me, it doesn't work).

NPR does a great job of this. Every week they spend a good 10 min segment reading through their listeners feedback. They will give a sampling of every kind of feedback you can imagine from their listeners – glowing, terrible, neutral, and shades of grey in between. The result? I'm sure it results in changed approaches in their reporting methods over time, and as a listener, I can tell you it makes me trust them more. Why? Because they are not ignoring other people's perspectives. And if no one gets it right all the time, that's a pretty important trait to have if you're going to get better.

We've tried this a bit ourselves here at the matchstic house. We'll use an outside consultant to call all of our clients after a project is complete to hear open feedback about every aspect of the work we did, the service we provided, our communication, etc.

It may be a hard first step to do what feels like putting your neck on the chopping block, but the opposite result is almost always true.

On a side note, this reminded me of Frank Constanza in the celebration of Festivus and the airing of grievances, which is provided for your viewing pleasure below (*and is that Jack Black in the background at the dinner table scene?*).

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Social media — everybody (and their moms and teachers and news anchors and congressmen) are doing it. Well, everyone except for me. For the past couple weeks, and the next twenty something days, I've given it up. Facebook, Myspace, AIM, Twitter, Twatter… all of it.

No, I haven't moved into the woods nor do I intend to stick anything to any man. It's simply an attempt to revisit a refreshing experience a couple of months ago on The Rock Boat. Apart from the cool sea breeze, relaxing week off work and awesome people-watching, one of the things I miss most about the trip was being able to disconnect. These days, it's not often we have the chance to do that.

So in celebration of Lent (kind of — it does provide a nice frame of time to work with), I got the idea from a friend who is doing the same to go for a second round. Of course, those five responsibility-free days at sea allowed me to go so far as to turn off my phone and disregard internet and e-mail all together. This time though, I'm hanging on to those things for work and practicality.

I'm not sure exactly what I'll find, or if the recent popularity of communicating online is even a bad thing (although I have often felt otherwise). I've wondered if social media affects our relationships in the real world; whether it strengthens friendships, actually helps to form new ones or is detrimental to either of those things. It is a proven time-waster, but is social media any worse than spending long amounts of time exploring other parts of the internet? I've yet to reach any brilliant conclusions, but I have gotten phone calls in lieu of wall-posts or texting and I have been catching up on a lot of reading. So far so good.

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My job at Matchstic requires me to wear several different hats, but none that I enjoy more than that of director of the Matchstic Semi-Annual Retreat.

Twice a year (late March and late September), we turn off computers, head up to the mountains for three days, and work on Matchstic for a change.  We spend every other day of the year working on our clients, but for six days a year, we analyze everything we do, why we do it, and figure out what we need to do to improve.

We'll be bringing in some top-notch speakers for our in-office day of the retreat.  I'm super excited about that and may talk more about who is coming in later.  The other 2 days and 3 nights we'll be in an awesome little cabin in Maggie Valley, NC.

This will be our seventh Matchstic retreat, as we started in early 2006, and I can look back to every retreat and point to one big decision that came out of it that changed us forever moving forward.  Last fall I wrote about some of the things we discussed at that retreat, and I'm excited to see what comes out of this one.

It starts two weeks from today, but as anyone who knows me would tell you, this is my favorite part of the Matchstic year without a doubt.  I love bringing the team together, I love playing poker & blackjack, I love sharing drinks and conversation on the porch looking down the mountain.  Come to think of it, other than losing my betting money, there's nothing I don't like about it.  Can't wait!

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This past Friday the NewSpring kid's ministry, KidSpring, flung its doors open to the public for their open house and unveiled the new brand we helped develop. We were privileged enough to be there to see kids and parents interact, play, and be amazed at the new building environment.

Check out some of the chatter on twitter about it:

"loved watching kid's jaws drop tonight as they saw the KidSpring building for the first time."

"KidSpring tops all expectations. Great work, and thanks to all of you who had anything to do with making it happen."

"Kidspring open house— Absolutely amazing!!!!!!!"

"home from checking out the finished KidSpring building….it was AWESOME to see all the little kids faces. WOW "

"http://twitpic.com/1w1qg – Lots of families hanging out at KidSpring tonight. #kidmin Awesome!"

For more Photos check out Flickr

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I didn't realize that Alvin had already mentioned Videodrome in his last post, but I just wanted to highlight something that I think gets overlooked so often for convenience: local businesses. This thought hit me the other day when I took two way over due dvds back to Videodrome. I told the dude behind the counter I just wanted to get it over with and knew it was gonna be expensive, to which he laughed and said "You got that right." I had a $30 late fee. For some reason though, he chopped it in half for me without asking a manager, throwing a fit or banning me from the store.

That never would have happened at Blockbuster or Hollywood video. Those establishments are only concerned with financial goals and profit margins and other stuff I don't care too much about. It's kind of like going to TGIFridays for drinks when you could go to a El Myr where you're treated as a member of the family, not a walking cash drawer.

I just think that in such a large, fast paced world with its eyes on the prize, we tend to skip over the diamonds in the rough.

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Today during lunch we all sat around and discussed the first wave of applications that we've received thus far for On The House.  A few things came up as we were reading through the applications that I thought I should clarify for everyone:

• The non-profit must be in Atlanta.  It doesn't have to be within the city limits, but in the greater Atlanta area.  If we receive applications from organizations that are not in Atlanta, they will not get past the first round.

• We are looking primarily for organizations whose impact is directly in Atlanta.  We’ve received several applications from amazing organizations that are based in Atlanta, but whose impact is abroad.  Though there is nothing wrong with this at all, we are just specifically looking for the primary impact to be in Atlanta.

• One of the main things we are looking for is a non-profit that will be able to take this new identity and really leverage it to better the impact they have in Atlanta.  With all of the work that is going into this, we feel a great responsibility to choose someone who will be a great steward of the work donated by the partners.

• The deadline to apply is March 23rd.  If you are planning on applying, make sure you get your application in by then.

We continue to receive applications every day and I personally can't wait to see who is chosen.

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Recovery has taken on a new face with the Obama administration.

From the start, Obama has brought an element of branding to his campaign – and now his presidency.

We all remember the HOPE posters that were turned into tshirts, bumper stickers and eventually led to sites like obamicon that allows users to create their own "Obama" iconic image.

Obama's election website and his "donate" button have been referenced more times in the past year than any other site I can remember in recent history.

At 12:01 the day of the inauguration, Obama's team launched a new whitehouse.gov, that was not only impressive for its timing and well planned efforts, but also a very well designed and laid out website for a government institution.

And now the most recent initiative – recovery.gov – a website dedicated to informing the American people about where their tax dollars are going with the new stimulus package. They're going so far as to have the recovery.gov logo applied to any and all projects that are a part of the stimulus package. So if you see some roadwork going on the side of the highway, you might see this logo applied to the side of a work-truck.

Its interesting to see the government take a venture into the world of branding as they try to convince a skeptical public that its efforts to reboot the U.S. economy are credible and success-oriented.

Of course, the real test will come in the years ahead, but it will still be interesting to see how their brand efforts impact the overall opinions and feelings of the American people in the present.

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I know that snuggies are old news. I know they're the butt of many jokes, but after living with a broken heater for two months, I was starting to think they were on to something. That is until I decided to do some investigative research and discovered they weren't the first ones with this idea.

Thanks to Alvin some new light has been shed on the concept of wrapping up in a blanket with holes for you hands. Back in the day, before in advent of space heaters and fireplaces and hvac systems, lets for lack of a better term call this the late 1960s, its apparent that Joe & Jane Sixpack were struggling to stay warm. Regular blankets didn't cut it; they couldn't do their crosswords or enjoy a Toblerone without subjecting themselves to frigid drafts.

The SnugSack was the first on the scene in this market. They saw the same opportunity that Snuggie thinks they see now. The problem is that there is no real opportunity. That is why you have never heard of a SnugSack!

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On the House is now fully underway. In only a couple of weeks time, we've gotten a ton of great applications and we'll be starting the selection process soon. (deadline is March 23, so there's still time!)

For this campaign, something we wanted to focus on was community. Atlanta, our home and our friends. Keeping it local allows for us to work closer with the selected organization and make a bigger impact. All the partners involved are local companies and individuals. Therefore, one of the eligibility requirements for OTH is that the organization must be based in Atlanta.

With fast food signs and big-box retailer logos littering every street corner, it's easy to forget that there's a smaller, more personal and better Atlanta underneath it all.

In celebration of keeping things local, let's go on a little tour of what our city has to offer, and feel free to add your own favorites.

Morning: The Highland Bakery in the Old Fourth Ward makes amazing breads, pastries and custom cakes from scratch.

Coffee: Octane has a great relationship with roasters Counter Culture and promotes consumer education and involvement with regular tastings and "latte art" competitions. A staff of award-winning baristas doesn't hurt either.

Dog: Inman Pet Works stocks so many specialty and organic foods and treats, a dog can eat better than his owner. Park Grounds is a cafe with its own fenced-in dog park, so everybody wins.

Music: Criminal Records will help you get your hands on hard-to-find albums.

Goods: Star Provisions puts quality meats, cheeses, sweets, quirky imports, dry goods and a farmer's stand all in one spot. And their shrimp po' boy is one of the best.

Outdoors: Intown Bicycle‘s knowledgeable staff sells good bikes and fixes bikes. If only the roads were more bike-friendly.

Lunch: A simple, delicious and affordable menu keeps lines going out the door every day at Taqueria del Sol.

Dinner: Decatur's Cakes & Ale serves up fresh, unpretentious, expertly-made food in a small, handsome setting.

Culture: Venture to Buford Highway for an awesome mix of Latin and Asian cultures. The cheap-to-goodness ratio of food doesn't get any better than out here.

Movies: Videodrome in the Highlands has lots of foreign films organized by region and favorites organized by director.

Shows: Behind the restaurant and bar, The Earl hosts some of the best bands in a compact-but-comfortable setting.

Drink: El Myr cheap beer, good food, covered porch, no flat-screen TVs and smoky air make for a comforting place to finish the night.

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There was a very interesting article in Wired this issue about both the business and technological perspectives of TV commercials' ever changing climate. The change is largely due to the fact that 20% of TV viewers are watching their favorite shows on something other than a TV. Let's face it, these commercials have always been about the ad agencies and not about viewers preference or interest. With viewers being able to watch their favs without watching the primetime commercials, via hulu.com, DVDs, and iTunes, ad agencies are having to get creative and find a new answer for their clients. (I do realize that hulu has commercials, but it is far less than four minutes of commercials for every five minutes of tv show!)

There are a lot of answers for this new climate… Business seems to be fighting to make sure that they can be in control of the ads online.Technology on the other hand wants to get more info to companies about their viewers, so that they can be more likely to have their commercials in front of likely customers. Advertisers actually thinking about what the viewer might want!

Of the people that I have asked, all have said that they would be willing to give info about themselves, if that meant that they would see relevant commercials, (and not irrelevant ones)! Wouldn't that be amazing? Log into google or something equivalent. Update basic info about what you are interested in, or considering buying. Then only find out more info on those things. Not about who will buy your timeshare, where you can send your unwanted gold, or how much a German towel can pick up!

The ending quote of the article is this… "Consumers don't hate advertising, they just hate irrelevant, disruptive advertising." I would say that Seth Godin's Permission Marketing would agree with that. What if you felt protected by advertising firms? Protected from interruption. That would be worth the permission that you would give them in return, wouldn't it?

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