TIL a free IKEA pencil can unlock a networking goldmine if you use it right

At a video gear swap in Portland, a guy named Rob handed me his card written with one of those tiny store pencils and said 'makes people stop and laugh, they always remember me.' I tried it at my next 3 meetups and got 2 follow-ups from people who said my card stood out, anyone else use a dumb trick to get past the business card pile?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray61317h ago

Wait, has nobody else seen someone pull this off in the wild? I had a buddy who did something similar at a woodworking meetup. He had this beat-up old business card with a hand-drawn map on the back to his favorite taco spot. People would see the tiny pencil scribble on his card and ask about it, and he'd launch into a five-minute story about finding that taco place after a fire call (he's a volunteer firefighter, not me). The whole point was to make people stop and chat, not just toss the card in a pile. He swore the dumb map got him three real good leads on custom furniture gigs, all because people remembered the taco route.

the_nancy15h ago

Well dang, I never thought much of gimmicks like that but @ray613 you might've just changed my mind.