Business card harvesting the ugly side of networking. Look to stars instead

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I have to go and get more cards, a woman, said to me at a networking event recently. Her aim was to collect as many cards and give her card out to as many people as possible. It makes me wonder if people wallpaper their offices with all these cards…..
Another woman, same event, said she collects perhaps six business cards. She might only talk to a handful of people at an event. Yet she was responsible for bringing 15 people to the event.
I met that woman at an earlier networking event, and we had a great rapport and have worked together ever since. Part of me dislikes networking events, and the thought that some people only want to talk to you because they believe they can sell something to you. Part of me likes these events because you meet people who are working hard
at their businesses, and when you work alone, it’s good to go out and interact. Sometimes you meet people with whom you will never do business because you don’t need their product and they don’t need yours but you can share experiences and perspectives that may help you see things in different ways.
I attended an event early in the year and chatted to a very friendly, and funny woman. She followed up with an email the next day. A couple of weeks later a timeshare sales representative called me and said my friend had recommended me. My friend was the funny and friendly woman I had met once. It’s no way to win friends or business. and I exchange cards only after rapport is established. And sometimes it’s OK not to exchange cards and just have a conversation in the moment.
There’s an event for businesswoman I attend once a month, and I never pick up business from it, even when I was the guest speaker. Last time the guest speaker spoke about astrology for business, and the serious ex-Financial Times and Australian Financial Review part of me was sceptical beforehand, thinking what a load of mumbo-jumbo this will be, and yet personally I’m not sceptical about tarot cards and readings, and indulge occasionally. I have also been known to read this and this. The woman made a chart for the network, and it highlighted the strengths of the group that many of us had sensed enough to keep on returning in spite of not harvesting clients. It also looked at the group within the context of what’s happening in the wider world. There are forces in the world that while not excusing us from hard work, help us to see that it’s not just us, but there is a mood. Sometimes we can’t tell if it’s us that’s going a little mad or events out there beyond our control. I have interviewed the business astrologer and will be writing more about it soon. It was fascinating, and I left the networking breakfast after her talk with a clear sense of why I was there. The group offers a place of support where not only business cards, but skills, knowledge and support are harvested.

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Tags: astrology, business, business cards, card reading, events, Kym Kranen, Leonie Marks, network, networking, networking events, Olwen Anderson, small business, SME, SMEs, tarot card reading, tarot cards, timeshare, women in business, writing jobs