Welcome back to Branded: your comprehensive guide to creative branding.
We’ve touched on this topic before, but today we’re diving all the way in on business cards.
After Podfest left us with dozens of business cards, we couldn’t ignore the mistakes we saw a lot of people making, so we’re talking about what makes a good business card, tips for designing impactful cards, and a few common mistakes you should avoid.
What makes your business card stand out so that people remember you and reach out?
Key takeaways:
1. The Vital Role of Business Cards: Business cards remain an essential tool for making personal connections and leaving a lasting impression. Despite the rise of digital alternatives, traditional paper business cards are preferred by some, like Larry, for their tactile personal touch.
2. Design and Information Hierarchy: Effective design and strategic information placement are crucial for creating memorable business cards. This includes the consideration of QR codes, horizontal vs. vertical orientations, and the inclusion of essential contact information like name, email, website, and logo.
3. Safety and Control Over Contact Information: It’s essential to manage who has access to your personal contact information for safety reasons. Using services like Google Voice to separate business calls or having different business cards for different purposes can help maintain control and privacy.
4. Follow-Up and Networking Strategy: The effectiveness of business cards heavily relies on follow-up. Building and nurturing relationships from the contacts made through business cards is pivotal for long-term networking success and business growth.
5. Creative and Branded Design Choices: The episode encourages listeners to consider unique business card features that stand out, like metal cards or cards with a note section, to be more memorable. However, the legibility of information and the card’s functional purpose should not be compromised for creative design.
Transcript
What is happening, everybody? I'm Larry Roberts. And I'm Sara Lohse,
Speaker:and this is Branded, your comprehensive guide to creative branding. And on
Speaker:this insightful episode of the podcast, we're gonna be taking
Speaker:a deep dive into contact information, Business
Speaker:cards, name dropping, and everything in between
Speaker:when it comes to exchanging contact information.
Speaker:We've talked about this a few times on different episodes whether it's how
Speaker:we feel about our cards, and, we mentioned some of the horrible cards
Speaker:that we got, from Podfest. But we wanna really dive into it and just
Speaker:focus a whole episode on kind of some best practices
Speaker:and complaints that we have and all of that stuff.
Speaker:Well, you know, the thing is and this is good because we have entirely 2
Speaker:different perspectives on what makes a good business
Speaker:card. You know? I think mine Comes from my masculine
Speaker:approach to life and the fact that I have to have this very rigid,
Speaker:very strong, very thick, Very manly
Speaker:card, and you seem to bring the opposite to the
Speaker:table. I mean, I'm I'm fine with a basic business
Speaker:card. And it's funny because I remember I think we were at Podfest. You brought
Speaker:me somebody's card, and it was, like, made of metal or something.
Speaker:And it It really showed the differences in
Speaker:how we see things. Because in your mind, you're
Speaker:like, wow. This is awesome. This guy is, like, Must be super legit, and in
Speaker:my mind, I'm like, this guy is bad with money.
Speaker:Well, I have no doubt that the metal cards are I mean, they're at the
Speaker:The extreme of of high end business
Speaker:cards. I've seen them in a couple of different Lohse, that one that you're talking
Speaker:about. Then I was at another conference a few months ago. Someone else had a
Speaker:metal business card, but I find it interesting because it tends to well, I
Speaker:I'm gonna counter myself here, but it it it seemed applicable at the
Speaker:conference that I was at a couple of months ago because it was a security
Speaker:firm, and they were they, you know, they had they did private security, and you
Speaker:have this metal business card that Maybe it's supposed to imply that
Speaker:it's, I don't know, bulletproof or something. Who knows? But it was just
Speaker:very, very impactful from a security company to have that thick
Speaker:metal business card. See, I wouldn't feel more or less secure
Speaker:with somebody just because their business card is metal. I don't know. We
Speaker:we know that we have different views. I think they were trying to get you
Speaker:to put it in their their breast pocket to cover their heart or anything. Oh,
Speaker:is is it, like, is is it Kev they should have made one of them
Speaker:in, like, Kevlar. That'd be kinda cool. That'd be super cool. I think,
Speaker:like, with business cards, if you're going to pay, like, a premium
Speaker:cause for your business cards, at least make them, like, really
Speaker:cool. Like, metal, whatever. Like, the really thick ones,
Speaker:whatever. I've seen and I've never seen these in person. I've seen them on, like,
Speaker:Reddit and stuff. But, like, the personal trainer's card that's on
Speaker:the stretchy Stuff that you have to pull it apart to
Speaker:see the contact info. I've seen the divorce attorneys
Speaker:out to see the the Exactly. Yeah. I gotcha. I gotcha. The divorce
Speaker:attorney whose business card is perforated so he could rip it in half. So it's
Speaker:like 1 goes to the wife, 1 goes to the husband. Like, things like
Speaker:that that are super branded, super creative, I
Speaker:love that. Yeah. But if you're just giving me a business card. All
Speaker:I need is your contact info. I don't need it to be, like, metal. I'm
Speaker:gonna throw it out anyway. Now I feel like I gotta recycle it. Why not?
Speaker:Oh, gosh. Here we go. But why not? You gotta be memorable. How many business
Speaker:cards do you get at a conference? A lot. Okay. So
Speaker:what differentiates 1 card from the other? What makes you go, oh, I probably need
Speaker:to look at this point or makes you even remember the person that you were
Speaker:talking to you go, oh, I don't remember their name, but I remember their card
Speaker:was rocking. And at Lohse, you know, you can go find that card and reach
Speaker:back out to that person. What makes your business Cards stand out from everybody
Speaker:else's and not get lost in that pile, which ends up where? Recycling
Speaker:bin. Right here in the freaking trash can. It They're paper. We
Speaker:recycle them. Those are business cards. Paper.
Speaker:Recycle. Something like that. Save the trees. But the the way it is,
Speaker:how do you I mean, what's the point of having a business card if it's
Speaker:just gonna end up in the trash can and nobody's gonna remember it. We talked
Speaker:about this a few episodes ago when I redid my cards. I added the note
Speaker:section because I noticed that everybody was trying to write down something to
Speaker:remember me by, and they couldn't on my old cards. Yeah. So I have a
Speaker:note section so they can write something down, but
Speaker:honestly, I I'm more, I guess, more judgmental about the content on
Speaker:the card than the card itself? Well, I mean, it it's definitely a
Speaker:combination of the 2. You really want to get into the content side of things.
Speaker:Sure. I mean, what what do you need on a business card? You need contact
Speaker:information. Yes. It needs to be what? Legible.
Speaker:A size font that is readable. Guys? Guys?
Speaker:Yeah. When you're designing your cards, whatever you design
Speaker:them in, make the canvas the size of
Speaker:a business card. Make it 2 inches by 3 inches so
Speaker:that you see what the actual font size is.
Speaker:Because if you're using font size 4, Nobody can
Speaker:read your card. Yeah. And, I mean, that is that's
Speaker:super frustrating when you're trying to reach out to somebody, and you're looking
Speaker:at their Sara. And you can't even make out the number. You can't make out
Speaker:the email address. And is more. Yeah. Less
Speaker:is definitely need everything on your business card.
Speaker:Gosh, dude. I I saw a couple of cards this last conference and They would
Speaker:have a bio. Yeah. Everything is on the card. I'm like, what in the name
Speaker:of Sam Hill are we trying to do here? The it's a, Like,
Speaker:your speaker one sheet and your business card should be
Speaker:2 different documents. Yeah. It's not a it's not a mini one sheet. It's
Speaker:just It's not a resume. I did see someone was,
Speaker:like, there was at Podfest looking for, like, job opportunities, like
Speaker:freelance opportunities. Yeah. And her card was actually a
Speaker:URL or or a QR code to get to her resume. That's
Speaker:super smart. Do do things like that, but don't print your
Speaker:resume on the business card because nobody's going to read that. Well,
Speaker:I'm gonna counter a little bit too at the same time. While I do respect
Speaker:a A good QR code on the back of a card. That's why I I
Speaker:put them on my cards as well, but my QR code goes to my calendar
Speaker:so you can book some time with me. We can have a conversation, But I
Speaker:saw a couple of cards too that just had QR codes. Oh, yeah.
Speaker:No. Logo and a QR code. I'm like, what is what why would I scope?
Speaker:Context. No. I don't even know what it is. I don't even know what it
Speaker:is. Yeah. We need context. I think every
Speaker:time I put a QR code on something, I have a little note of,
Speaker:like, what will happen when you scan it. Yeah. And I think
Speaker:that's that's necessary because I'm not, like, I'm not just gonna it's
Speaker:like opening an email from someone with an attachment that you don't recognize. Like, I
Speaker:don't know where this is gonna send me. It could oh, that's interesting. I never
Speaker:thought about that from a cybersecurity perspective.
Speaker:Phishing scams on business cards. Oh, we just gave
Speaker:people bad ideas. Well, you just gave me an idea. I'll tell you that.
Speaker:No. But that that business venture.
Speaker:Do best of.
Speaker:No. Solutions.com. Check it out. Oh, gosh. Don't check it out.
Speaker:It's not mine anymore. So but anyway but, yeah, that's interesting because you
Speaker:don't know where it's going. You're just Gaining a random QR code. It could go
Speaker:to literally anything. It makes me think of, like
Speaker:but this is gonna date myself, but I'm not that old, so it's okay. Back
Speaker:when we had, like, AOL Instant Messenger, did anybody
Speaker:else have the super mature, like, boys in their,
Speaker:like, 5th grade class on AOL Instant Messenger put in
Speaker:their little, like, away message, click to watch a brutal
Speaker:car crash, and you click it, And it's actually
Speaker:porn? Yeah. That's, well, that's fishing. Yep.
Speaker:So So I'm just like or that or, like, I'm gonna get rickrolled
Speaker:if I scan this. Oh my god. My next business card. I have a Rick
Speaker:Roll tape. You you get you just nailed it. I'm literally gonna get
Speaker:some business cards made up in Rick Bro, that that's Okay. But do them my
Speaker:way, and don't spend a dollar per card on them, please. Oh, yeah. No. I
Speaker:definitely do it your way. I'd it's I'd spend 2¢ a card. Thank you.
Speaker:Yeah. Yep. So. So okay. What should we actually put on
Speaker:a business card? Name, email, website,
Speaker:logo, so they know the company. I have seen people that actually
Speaker:on one side will list, like, what they do, which that if you have
Speaker:space for it, I think that's really smart. Because at least
Speaker:then, like, they have that's context. Like, you need context. We're countering ourselves a
Speaker:little bit here because we're saying that Lohse out everything that you do. Not everything,
Speaker:but no. I said if there's room. I think it was Virginia Elder. We've
Speaker:mentioned her a few times. Sure. I think she's the 1st person I saw do
Speaker:this, and she had all the contact info on the front and it fit very
Speaker:well. So then the back was just, like, like freelance
Speaker:writing, show notes, SEO, like, very simp like, simple
Speaker:list of, like, a few of the services that she offers, so when people look
Speaker:at her card, they do know why they have it. Right. And Right. It
Speaker:the space, like, it fit well.
Speaker:It would the font sizes were still big enough to read, so she did it
Speaker:really well. There's definitely ways you could do that very poorly. From a design
Speaker:perspective, what are your thoughts there? Are you are you a horizontal Hard,
Speaker:advocate, or do you do you think the verticals work well? I think, honestly,
Speaker:I don't think it makes much of a difference if you're fitting the stuff on
Speaker:well. I don't think I've ever done vertical Lohse because my URLs
Speaker:are so long that I would have to make them too small to fit horizontally.
Speaker:I mean, not vertically. Bitly link on there or something. If you have a
Speaker:long URL, could you maybe just convert it to a use a URL Well,
Speaker:yeah. But my email address? I'm just throwing out ideas.
Speaker:Yeah. Like, my my email address is really long, so, like, it wouldn't fit on
Speaker:one line if I put in a readable font size if I did
Speaker:vertical. Gotcha. Got no. And But I've seen people do it. If it works like,
Speaker:I'm actually there's a card right next to me that's vertical. Oh, look at that.
Speaker:And it's Hold that part back up. That's kind of interesting. So there's some interesting,
Speaker:there's some some nice components to that core. I don't want people to just be
Speaker:able to stalk her. I'm gonna cover up the Actual scanning code?
Speaker:So we have a we have a headshot on there. Mhmm.
Speaker:Have rounded corners. There's rounded corners on it.
Speaker:It's for a podcast, and it's actually in Spanish.
Speaker:Okay. It,
Speaker:But it has a URL I mean, QR code that I'm assuming is gonna go
Speaker:to her podcast, but I don't actually know. It hasn't, like, her handle.
Speaker:I'm hoping that's for all of her social media, or else that's confusing because it's
Speaker:not labeled with which social media it is. And then on the
Speaker:back is an explanation of what the
Speaker:podcast is. Did we have just regular ink there? It looked like maybe
Speaker:it was some foil embossed Inks or something? This it's it's just
Speaker:regularly printed. It's regularly printed? I thought I saw some reflection there that looked
Speaker:aluminum. So No. No. That's just the lighting. But what's
Speaker:interesting with this one is, like, it then I don't know if this was on
Speaker:purpose, but you flip it this way to read it because if you just flip
Speaker:it over, it's it's upside down. Okay. So I'm not sure if that was an
Speaker:accident or if that was on purpose, but the card itself is visually appealing.
Speaker:Yeah. So I think that one was done well.
Speaker:But if you're not gonna do a business card, like, what's your take on the
Speaker:digital ones? Yeah. I think digital has its Lohse.
Speaker:And For a while, I was switching over to only doing digital because
Speaker:I'm like, nobody does business cards anymore, and I used to even say that line
Speaker:when I'm in networking. Nobody does business cards anymore. And then 14 people
Speaker:ask you for a business card. Everybody wants my business card. So I don't care
Speaker:who's telling you that nobody uses business cards anymore. They're not out
Speaker:there networking. I can promise you that so
Speaker:many people still want that physical card. Now I don't know if it's just because
Speaker:they're programmed to ask for it because, traditionally speaking, that's what we're used
Speaker:to doing, but I just don't see where a digital business
Speaker:card is sufficient for representation. I
Speaker:think you need a traditional card along with a digital
Speaker:option. Mhmm. And that's why, well, I don't Have a
Speaker:digital card or one of those singular cards where you tap? Because
Speaker:here here and this is gonna send me on a tangent, but I freaking hate
Speaker:Those tap cards, those are stupid. They never work. Everybody's
Speaker:like, well, tap my phone, and you're sitting there for 5 minutes trying to tap
Speaker:it trying to tap it. No. That didn't work. Try to tap In that time,
Speaker:you could have just typed your email address into my inbox. You could have just
Speaker:said, what's your name, man, and and and put it in your phone as a
Speaker:contact. Those things are stupid. The technology's not
Speaker:there. Everybody's on different OSes on their phones or they have different
Speaker:manufacturers, And not all the cards work well with other phones, and it's
Speaker:just pure chaos. So digital cards, they
Speaker:have their place, but we're definitely not there yet. You need to have that physical
Speaker:card, and one of the things that I do to supplement a
Speaker:digital option is if you look at my phone,
Speaker:my wallpaper is a QR code that takes you
Speaker:to well, for right now, I'm using LinkedIn because trying to build my LinkedIn
Speaker:presence. Mhmm. So I'd love to have people connect with me over on LinkedIn.
Speaker:So I chose LinkedIn, made me a QR code, and use it here. So if
Speaker:somebody wants to exchange contact information that way. I go here, scan my QR
Speaker:code. That takes you to my LinkedIn, and I make sure that we connect there.
Speaker:So that's my tangent On digital business
Speaker:cards, I think they serve a purpose, but they have not taken over the
Speaker:market. There's still a very, very strong use case
Speaker:or traditional cards as well. Yeah. I've I have, like, a
Speaker:few like, I'm kind of on the fence with it. Someone
Speaker:actually asked me prior to Podfest If they should pay the money
Speaker:to get the business cards printed or if their digital card would be okay.
Speaker:And For her, I said digital would be okay
Speaker:because of her goals. Like, she wasn't building a business. She was kind of just,
Speaker:like, meeting people and networking, and it was very casual. So in that case,
Speaker:it's like we're getting close. It would have been, like, a rush printing job or,
Speaker:like, just the get the ones that are, like, the 1 hour pickup, which never
Speaker:look as good. In this case, I think the digital is fine,
Speaker:because it it's not very, like, high stakes. But, like,
Speaker:I personally like, I'm, like, I'm going to have my cards. But I feel like
Speaker:with the digital ones too, there's some that are
Speaker:just click to add to contacts or something, Which is interesting
Speaker:because it's, like, I don't add my business cards to my phone contacts. I add
Speaker:them to my business contacts. I don't I don't get that either. So I'm pretty
Speaker:sure I have some people in my contact list. I have no idea who they
Speaker:are, and I'm never gonna reach out to them. No. Never. I'm not and I
Speaker:I don't go through my contacts on my phone and go, let's see. Is that
Speaker:a business contact, or is it somebody? Yeah. No. If I don't remember I don't
Speaker:get that. I'm not gonna remember you. I'm not gonna remember your business. Well, now
Speaker:you're in my phone. I don't care. I'm still not gonna remember you. I
Speaker:also like so we were I was having a an issue
Speaker:getting the, the a URL that
Speaker:I forwarded to, like, show up correctly. Mhmm. And
Speaker:I so I went in on my phone, and I cleared my history and closed
Speaker:all my tabs. And that's when I remembered that, like, 14
Speaker:people had me scan their digital business card, and all it does
Speaker:is pull it up in a tab. Yeah. Yeah. And so I just lost
Speaker:all that contact info just from clearing my browser. Yeah. So,
Speaker:you'll you you don't even remember their names? No. I have no idea who they
Speaker:were. If guys, if anyone at Podfest had me scan their digital business card and
Speaker:I have not reached out to you, reach out to me, please, because I'm sorry.
Speaker:I lost your info. Yes. I'm not trying to be disrespectful. It's not
Speaker:like we don't remember you by, you know, because we're being rude. There
Speaker:was, like, 2,000 people there. You meet a ton of people, and
Speaker:there's no way you can keep them all straight. Yeah. You know, one of the
Speaker:things that I saw that I thought was super cool from a tech perspective
Speaker:was, the the what is it? NameDrop with your if you're on the new
Speaker:Apple, what, Lohse 17, you can just take your phones
Speaker:and just Bump them together, and then your phone lights up.
Speaker:It's got this really cool look, and you exchange information.
Speaker:But at the same time, that's the personal contact information. That's not Business
Speaker:information. Exactly. Well, it was cool to see it hap I was like, oh, that's
Speaker:the coolest thing ever. And it's nice little graphic that lights up. Yeah. You know,
Speaker:I'm like, oh, that's the coolest. And it is kinda cool, and it's
Speaker:easy. It's cool for personal. It's cool for personal, but I I just
Speaker:don't Sara the value from the business
Speaker:perspective unless it's just somebody that you know, know,
Speaker:know, know you can reach out too. You know, there are a couple of people
Speaker:that I did that with that I know I wanted their personal
Speaker:information because whatever their services are or whatever information
Speaker:we were exchanging was extremely relevant, and it was
Speaker:something that I wanted to follow-up on and build that personal relationship.
Speaker:But the personal word there is what's critical. The the
Speaker:vast majority of folks that I met, while I wanna stay in contact with them
Speaker:and I'd love to learn more about their businesses, it's it's not on a
Speaker:personal level. So that's that's where this functionality comes
Speaker:into play. You have to determine whether or not this is a personal contact that
Speaker:you wanna create. Maybe it's a personal business Contact. You know? And now we're
Speaker:splitting hairs. But, a lot of this digital stuff,
Speaker:man, I'm dating myself, but I just like a
Speaker:good paper card. I just like a good business card in my something I can
Speaker:touch and feel with a nice texture that I can remember and I can
Speaker:put it in my save pile. And that's pretty funny because I just remember that's
Speaker:what I was telling folks at Podfest. You know? Because you get so many different
Speaker:cards. You would say this goes in my save pile, which is my wallet. Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah. And I put it in my wallet, and that's because I knew I wanted
Speaker:to reach out to that person. I knew I wanted to extend that conversation. So
Speaker:if anyone saw Larry put your business card in, like, his backpack
Speaker:or his pocket, you're not gonna hear from him. Larry about that.
Speaker:Reach out to me, though. I'd love to hear from you. Don't
Speaker:call us. We'll call you. Don't call Yeah. You like that. We won't call you.
Speaker:Call us. But but, honestly, I think I think 99% of
Speaker:all the cards that I got went into my save pile, but it was more
Speaker:of just making people exchanging cards feel good and let them know that I am
Speaker:gonna follow-up because Yeah. Guarantee you every one of those cards that I got, I
Speaker:followed up on. Yeah. I sent personal emails to them saying, hey. Great
Speaker:meeting you. Thank you for following up, and, you know, that kinda takes us to
Speaker:a whole another point. How many business cards do you get that you never follow-up
Speaker:on? Well, that's also why when we were talking
Speaker:about, Like, our expo table and making sure that we get
Speaker:like, we're able to convert leads the way we need to. You need to make
Speaker:sure that you're in, like, in control of the contact
Speaker:Because you just said for, like, how many don't do we not reach out to?
Speaker:The same thing with the other people. How many people got our cards and are
Speaker:never gonna reach out to us? For sure. 100%. So when you're paying to be,
Speaker:like, a sponsoring in an expo hall, you need to make sure that you're the
Speaker:1 in the power to reach out to these people, because you
Speaker:cannot guarantee that they will ever reach out to you. And they might really be
Speaker:interested in your services, but they're overwhelmed. They're just, like, unwinding.
Speaker:They might completely forget. So make sure that you capture their
Speaker:information. But jumping back to that, like, personal versus business,
Speaker:so my friend who had asked me about the digital card, she then sends me
Speaker:what it would look like, and it looked great, But it had
Speaker:her cell phone number. And so I
Speaker:have, like, a free Google phone number that I put on my
Speaker:business cards and my website. I know we're different on this because I don't think
Speaker:you do. So but I use my Google number
Speaker:on all of my, like, public thing so that my
Speaker:personal cell phone number isn't, like, out there. But I'll
Speaker:still if, like, if I meet somebody, even if it is for business purposes,
Speaker:and I know that, like, I would talk to this person in the
Speaker:real world. This could this is a connection that won't just be
Speaker:transactional. I'll still give them my cell phone number just because it's
Speaker:easier for me, and I don't even have my Google number memorized. I have to
Speaker:look at my business card, But I have the option.
Speaker:I get to decide that. Cell phone memorized, do you? I I do. I've had
Speaker:the same ones since I was 12. Oh, what is it? Clever.
Speaker:Do you have your credit card number memorized? What is it?
Speaker:No. No. I don't have But anyone from junior high or high school, if you
Speaker:wanna get in touch with me, it's the same number.
Speaker:That's funny that they're the same personal number for man, It's
Speaker:gotta be 20 years. It's gotta be. You know? It's been I got my 1st
Speaker:cell phone when I was 12 or 13, and I'm 28. So I've
Speaker:had this number forever. I can't remember having a different number. But, anyways
Speaker:but no. And I I can see what your the the point there too, man,
Speaker:is from a safety perspective. Yeah. You can track location from a cell
Speaker:phone number. Yeah. And you don't want some creep creeping up on you, tracking you
Speaker:down from your cell phone number. So it's Super, super smart on your part.
Speaker:Like, I I might be able to choose who I give my business cards to,
Speaker:but I can't choose what they do with it. So you can find my business
Speaker:card on the street somewhere. Right. And, like, someone can
Speaker:easily just be like, oh, look, a phone number. I'm gonna call her. And so
Speaker:I wanna be in control of who gets my personal phone number and who gets
Speaker:my business number, And I've had times where it's, like, I give out my card,
Speaker:they contact me through the business number, and I switch them over to personal just
Speaker:because it's easier for me. And I'll tell them, like, hey. This is my business
Speaker:number. I'm gonna text you from my other phone number. But but have that control,
Speaker:and you're saying that's important. Exactly. Yeah. No. When my friend showed me
Speaker:that hers was her personal phone number, I made her change it. I'm like, for
Speaker:your safety, I'm like, this makes me uncomfortable. Sure. And
Speaker:I'm making you change. You're gonna go get a Google number or remove your phone
Speaker:number completely. Yep. Super, super smart there. But let let me go
Speaker:back to to following up on those business cards because not just from
Speaker:conferences, but, man, anytime you get a business card, take the time to go
Speaker:back and just drop a note to the person They gave it to you, if
Speaker:you can read it on their business card. Reach out to them because
Speaker:I promise you, if you're looking to leverage these
Speaker:contacts, If you just take that step to follow-up,
Speaker:you're gonna be 90%, and I'm just pulling that number out of the air, but
Speaker:you're gonna be so much more successful than those people that
Speaker:are networking that do not follow-up on those cards.
Speaker:Take the time. Go home. If you want to, create a spreadsheet
Speaker:and enter that information in a spreadsheet so you have all of these
Speaker:contacts. Do something with that card. It's it's
Speaker:not So much as an insult to the person that gave you the card, they
Speaker:kind of expect to give it to you. And believe it or not, expectations
Speaker:are you're not gonna follow-up. So if you do follow-up, oh my
Speaker:gosh. You're gonna make such an impact on that person that the odds of you
Speaker:doing business together are exponentially, I said 90%, we'll just say
Speaker:Exponentially higher than they would have been if you did the same thing that
Speaker:every other person that gets their card does, and that's just throw it in a
Speaker:drawer. And then after about 6 months, you go, man, my drawer shirt is dirty,
Speaker:and you dump it in the trash. And what is it? Like, you miss a
Speaker:100% of the shots you don't take? You miss a 100% of the connections You
Speaker:don't actually reach out to. Oh my gosh. I'm I'm a
Speaker:philosopher. That is so deep.
Speaker:Shallow as a shower.
Speaker:So I like, forever, I was super guilty of
Speaker:just getting cars and not doing anything with them, but I always kept
Speaker:them. So when I launched my company, I had a whole
Speaker:box, like, a shoe box filled with business cards.
Speaker:And I was like, well, At one point, they gave me their card,
Speaker:which that means that they're giving me permission to then reach out to them. Yeah.
Speaker:They didn't put a time limit on it. So when I first
Speaker:launched my company, that's how I created my 1st email list. So I
Speaker:took all of those business cards and I put them into my email list, And
Speaker:then I sent an email to all of them saying, like, if you're getting this
Speaker:email, we met at some point. It may have been, like, A
Speaker:year or 2 ago, but we met and you gave me your card. Like, I
Speaker:I remember you. I'm Yeah. Like, I like, we
Speaker:we did this. And I even said, like, this is the just an update.
Speaker:Here's what's going on with me. I started this company. Here's what I'm doing.
Speaker:And if you're still interested in staying in touch, Like, just stay on
Speaker:my list. If not, feel free to unsubscribe. And a couple people
Speaker:unsubscribed, totally fine. I think I put a note saying we'll just avoid eye
Speaker:contact next time we see each other, because I had to guilt them a little
Speaker:bit to stay. Sure. Yeah. I mean, marketing. But a lot of people
Speaker:stayed on, and I still, like, kept them. And, like, who knows if that'll turn
Speaker:into something, but I it has an opportunity now. Yeah. Way more than
Speaker:it did when they were sitting in the shoe box under my desk. No. That's
Speaker:great. And I think the point is just make sure that you follow-up. And
Speaker:there's no expiration date, when that follow-up can happen, but the sooner
Speaker:you do it, The better chance of establishing that relationship and building on that
Speaker:simple exchange of contact information that you had with that person.
Speaker:So, hopefully, with this episode, we've exchanged information
Speaker:with you that you find valuable. And if you do, do us a favor, smash
Speaker:that subscribe button so we can continue to bring you these amazing episodes each
Speaker:and every week. And with that, I'm Larry Roberts.
Speaker:I'm sorry, Larry. We'll talk to you next week.
