My Dog Ate Your Business Card

I met a rather handsome, tall male professional while out having drinks with a female client of mine and after some entertaining banter, and chit chat about what we both did for a living, he gave me his card and asked me to give him a call. As a public relations’ pro, I was trying to decipher whether he was interested in me personally or professionally to help him with his business.

That evening, I went home and placed his card on my kitchen bar countertop to look up later. The next day I ran errands and came home to find that the man's business card was torn apart on my couch, with my innocent looking Dalmatian eager to greet me. Apparently, my dog had eaten his business card. (Maybe he was getting me back for making him wear antlers on Christmas). Upon further examination, I realized he didn’t really ‘eat’ it, just chewed it up into several independent pieces. The only thing I could read was the name of his company and after connecting two of the halves was able to decipher his first and last name.

Thank God for Google, because I searched for this mysterious stranger by plugging in his first and last name and it came up with several men nationally with the same identification. So, I then added the name of his company and voilà! There he was, on LinkedIn along with a photo which confirmed that this was indeed the man that I had met. So now what? Should I email him, introduce myself and hope that he remembered meeting me the previous Friday night, after all, he did ask me to call him. Am I all business or do I flirt a little not knowing his ultimate intentions? This has been a dilemma for me in business, not knowing whether a potential male client is interested in hiring me, or dating me, which makes me grateful for female clients, at least I know their intentions, and even then, I don’t really know anymore.

When in doubt, always act professionally. A good connection can start off as a friendship over coffee, drinks and migrate into more if the opportunity presents itself. Never assume anything, the old adage still rings true. I guess my point with writing about this experience is that as a business professional, you need to be found. People need to be able to search for you online and find you, distinguishing you from your doppelgangers. It’s up to you to monitor what they will find and how quickly. You could be one step away from finding a new client or meeting the love of your life and if you have a dog who prefers the taste of business cards, you could find yourself in the same situation as I am, searching for that brief encounter that left you curious.