When I asked David Airey to redesign my business card in early 2008, I told him I wanted a card people would pause over, say “great card!” and want to keep. He more than delivered.

I like receiving cool business cards as much as I like giving them out. My favorites are cards that show a creative flair, alignment with the way the person or business positions themselves in the marketplace, and differentiates them from everyone else.

Here are some terrific resources for re-thinking your own business cards. Even if you’ve got a card you love, these are an entertaining browse. There are a number of good possibilities for mediators and some may serve as brainstorm sources for you.

• Creative business cards on Flickr
• 51 creative business cards
• Make business cards as unique as your business
• Re-thinking business cards
• 10 most creative business cards
• 40 creative business card designs
• 30 creative ways to use business cards

Odds and Ends

Free shipping on my book: I’ve still got a few books left over from various book signings and am offering them up with free shipping plus my inscription. You can buy one (or more!) by visiting the book sale page before my personal stock runs out.

Outstanding marketing conference in May: One of my favorite Internet marketing conferences of all time is coming ’round again. SOBCon, the Successful and Outstanding Bloggers’ Conference will take place in May in Chicago. I’ll be going and would love to hang out with you there. SOBCon organizers are currently sponsoring a registration discount activity that’s right up mediators’ alley (hint: It’s about the value of relationships). Learn more about how to save $200 off the registration by visiting SOBCon’s Blog It! Earn It! Discount announcement.

Making Mediation Your Day Job by Tammy Lenski is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Based on a work at MediatorTech.com.

At a conference last week, I struck up a conversation with a woman seated next to me. She offered me her business card and when I took it from her, I knew without any shadow of a doubt that she’s a visual artist. Everything about her card conveyed that message in an instant.

What does your business card say about you and what you do? Is the message you’re sending a good fit for the market you’re targeting? And how does your card distinguish you from other ADR practitioners or firms?

If it’s time to break out of the traditional business card mold to convey a more effective marketing message [Read more...]

Conventional “guerilla marketing” wisdom holds that you should print on both sides of your business card to maximize your use of the white space available. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest the guerrillas should rethink this idea.

A few weeks ago, while I waited in the lobby of a secure building where I’d be meeting the point person for a workshop I was teaching there, a nice gentleman stopped to offer help. He noticed I’d been sitting there for a while (it was too early for the lobby security desk to be open) and offered to help locate my contact wherever she was in the secure portion of the building. When he learned I was there to teach a workshop for a conflict resolution association, he told me he’d been thinking about a conflict management workshop for his own department. We exchanged business cards and agreed to have a conversation about it. Wow, I always love a little serendipity in my day!

But I didn’t just hand him my card and take his in return. I took a moment for one more key action first. [Read more...]