I used to swap business cards like crazy at every mixer I went to

Honestly, back in 2022 I'd hit three events a week and hand out like 50 cards each time, but nobody ever followed up. Last month at a Corktown networking night I just talked to two people the whole time and got three solid referrals out of it. Is anyone else finding that less is actually more with Detroit business connections?

3 comments

3 Comments

kais673d agoProlific Poster

That thing about handing your phone over, my barber in Hamtramck does that and people actually call him back. I tried it at a meetup last spring with a guy who runs a small machining shop and we ended up talking for forty five minutes about our favorite barcodes. Funny how a warm phone beats a cold card every time in this city.

lilycraig3d ago

I read this thing in Harvard Business Review about how our brains actually release oxytocin when we do that phone thing, the same hormone tied to trust and bonding. So your buddy is basically hacking human biology without even realizing it, which is way smarter than passing out paper that ends up in a drawer. Makes me wonder if we've been overthinking networking this whole time when the answer is just getting someone to hold your warm phone for ten seconds.

claire_butler14d ago

My buddy runs a DMC kitchen supply shop and he stopped taking cards altogether, just hands people his phone to type their number in right there. He says the act of actually letting someone hold your phone builds way more trust than a little rectangle of paper.