To listen to this piece, please click here
I recently collected a bunch of business cards at a conference. It’s hard to believe people still pass them out, especially when they are more likely to end up in a drawer than anyplace else. I’ll probably never get in touch with most of the people who gave them to me, not that they’d want me to. We’ve just all bought into the ritual of handing them out. I guess it seems more personal, more, I don’t know, hands-on.
Business cards are hard to create. You have to get the most important information about you or your organization onto this two by three inch piece of paper. You’ve got to combine the words, artwork, paper stock, and ink color in just the right way so you come across as trustworthy instead of boring, or classy instead of cheap.
I’m impressed by letters that sometimes follow the card holder’s name. They look so professional, so accomplished: Mary Smith, PhD; Sam Jones, CFO; Lynn Green, CPA.
What really bowls me over are the combinations, like having an advanced degree paired with an honorific. I mean, wow. And if you’ve got a title before your name (Admiral, Reverend, Senator) as well as letters after, you are due some serious props, my friend.
I’m self-conscious about my lack of letters. I’m not registered or accredited. I could join a professional organization but I’m not much of a joiner and besides, I’m not sure what it is I actually do. I could make myself president of my own business, which practically screams one-person outfit.
When my cousin, an engineer with no lack of professional affiliations, certifications and degrees, turned forty, his wife thought she’d help him stave off his mid-life crisis. She printed cards that said: Frank Sherkow, GSOE. If anyone asked – and oddly enough, few people did – he would tell them: “God’s Shadow on Earth.”
Most of us don’t need degrees or professional affiliations – we have identities. Hey, we all deserve an impressive and cool-looking business card to show that we are established, accomplished, productive members of society – or not. Herewith are a few ideas:
CCP (Certified Couch Potato)
AIW (American Idol Wannabe)
TN (Techno Nerd)
WNT (Wife Number Two)
LKI (Last Known Identity)
NFCP (No Fixed Career Path)
I have to admit, I inspired myself with all this creative thinking so I re-did my business cards: Nikki Stern, NIN (No Introduction Necessary)
