Hot take: that guy who handed me his card before saying hi at the Phoenix mixer

I was at the Greater Phoenix Chamber mixer last month at the Wrigley Mansion, and this one guy walks up, shoves his card in my hand, says "let's grab coffee." He didn't even ask what I did. I put the card in my pocket and walked away. Haven't called him. Real networking starts with a conversation, not a transaction. Anyone else shut down the card-slingers right away?

3 comments

3 Comments

julia_patel1mo ago

Okay, did he at least make eye contact before shoving that card at you... I had something similar happen at a small biz meetup and I just looked at their card, said "oh, a business card, how 1990s" with a little laugh, and handed it back... It broke the ice in a weird way and we actually ended up talking for twenty minutes about how weird networking can be. Sometimes you gotta call out the awkwardness to get past it, you know? I still have that guy on LinkedIn and we've traded referrals a few times since then.

grant.sam1mo ago

Read somewhere that 80% of people toss cards they get at events within a week, which sounds about right. That guy probably handed out 50 cards and only got a couple calls back.

campbell.tara28d ago

Honestly, that stat feels low. Bet most get tossed before you even leave the parking lot.