I keep hearing people say to hand out cards at every single event, and I finally figured out why that advice is dead wrong | Arizona Business Networking

Jana Allen · 2026-10-10T19:30:05.432892+00:00

Back when I started going to the Phoenix Chamber mixers around 2009, everybody shoved a card at you before they even asked your name, and I did it too because that's what the old guys told me. Last week at a breakfast thing in Tempe I watched a woman work the room for two hours and I bet she handed out 30 cards, and I know for a fact she walked out with zero real leads. The thing people keep getting wrong is thinking networking is about volume, when it's really about whether the other person remembers one thing about you the next morning. I used to keep a spreadsheet of every card I collected and the follow up rate was under 5 percent, which should have told me something a lot sooner. Now I just pick two or three people at an event, ask what they're stuck on, and try to actually help them right there, and my coffee meetings have tripled. A guy named Roger who runs a print shop in Mesa gave me that advice and it took me a few years to believe him. So what's your rule, do you still bring a stack of cards or did you drop that habit too?

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I keep hearing people say to hand out cards at every single event, and I finally figured out why that advice is dead wrong | Arizona Business Networking - Talk Freely