Accentuate the Positive, 3.0

Before I leave my post as a regular contributor to the blogosphere, I wanted to leave a parting gift. Few of you are aware that I am the author of the greatest pick-up line in history — nor its lesson in communication theory.

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Boy, we all sweat over that one, don’t we? To know that a potential lifetime relationship, be it personal or business, swings in the balance of a single encounter. It’s enough to make you sick. Some people do get sick, as a matter of fact. It’s not necessary, though… if you understand the science of first impressions, and the most important part: Some might call it “The Icebreaker,” but essentially we’re talking about a pick-up line.

Whatever your application — phone scripts — sales pitches — some are designed to win another over, some to get your foot in the door. Some are milked to death, and some are cheesy. You’ve probably seen a list or two of the worst ones in your e-mail. We all know what makes them bad, but don’t always recognize what makes them good.

With that in mind, let me tell you about the best pick-up line ever…
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Time is winding down on Accentuate the Positive, and I can’t leave without saying thanks to a few of the people who deserve it.

In no particular order:

Thanks to B.L. Ochman and Jeremy Pepper, for doing what you do so well, and inspiring me to enter the blogodrome (whether you knew it or not.)

Thanks to Peter Himler, for taking the time to say hi, and showing the real power of the flat world.

Thanks to the Texans, John Wagner, Scott Baradell, and Kami Huyse. Three very different sorts of blogs, with three independent perspectives and audiences. I look forward to my occasional invasions and incursions into your comment boxes. I will in fact mess with Texas.

Thanks to Allan Jenkins, Eric Eggertson, and the rest of the Nobodies. If you don’t know who you are, that’s okay. You’re nobody. (And Eric — Accentuate the Positive, 3.0 is available…)

Thanks to Steven Silvers, Todd Defren, and Andrea Weckerle for bringing wicked smarts to a profession that doesn’t always call for it.

Thanks to Ben and Jackie and Steve Rubel for finding cool niches and keeping them fresh.

Thanks also to Gary Goldhammer and Terry Heaton — two very different people who are trying to make sense of the future of journalism.

Thanks as well to all my Birmingham Peeps — thanks to the Combloggerator, I’ve saved so much time wasting time! And thanks to Drew for being the coolest preacher ever, and not saying anything about my quoting Janis Joplin in our Galatians class.

To all the others who should have been here, but weren’t: I’m sorry. Maybe I’ll amend this later.

Oh yeah — why the blog-freeze? I’ve been hired as the Communications and Government Relations Director for the American Red Cross, Southeast Service Area. I’m the key support for both of those functions for 116 chapters in five states. Including Florida. In hurricane season.

Simply put, there will be no freelancing, and no seminars anytime in the near future. Positive Position Media Consulting will emerge from mothballs one day years from now, but for the time being needs to be dormant. As for the blog, I need to focus my attention on learning the new job and the tasks at hand.

(Yes Kami — I will still comment from time to time. That goes for all of you.)

I’ve got e-mails for a lot of you, but if you want to send me anything, try ike AT pigott DOT name. I’ll be sure to bug as many of you as possible if I ever start blogging again.

And just for fun — be sure to link to this post. If I’m going out, I’m going out strong!

(Stay tuned — your parting gift arrives tomorrow.)

Ike.

It can get you in trouble, especially when the cards are stacked against you to begin with.

Floyd Landis — who claims to not know how one of his eight Tour de France doping tests came back fishy — now thinks his immediate scramble for an explanation has done more harm than good.

In more desperate straits than when everyone counted him out of the Tour before Stage 17, Landis has been fired by his Phonak team and the Tour de France no longer considers him its champion. Landis said his biggest mistake has been offering daily excuses for his positive test.

“I’ve been catching a lot of grief in the press: ‘Floyd has a new excuse, a new reason for what happened,’ ” he said. “This is a situation where I’m forced to defend myself in the media. It would never have happened if UCI and WADA had followed their own rules.”

His own team has fired him, so it would seem he’s on his own with regards to finding and funding someone to help him navigate future public statements.