That Pile of Business Cards Judging You? Let's Fix That!

Mondays are rough. It's scary times for Nonprofits. Your time is scarce. That’s why I created the Monday Motivational Minute. Each week, I’ll send you one high-impact, actionable idea to help you leverage AI and save time. The catch? It will always be a 1-minute read or less. If it adds value, great. If not, the unsubscribe button is right there, but I’m betting you’ll want to stay. (Challenge Accepted ☺️)

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Happy Magnificent Monday,

SOOO, I've been getting back into the networking scene and I'm excited to share how I've leveraged AI to solve one of my most embarrassing problems.

Don't you hate it when you leave a networking event with a stack of business cards and anxiety immediately hits?

The timer starts ticking, you have to figure out WHEN to message people, but there's too many cards, time flies, now you're convinced they think you didn't care, but you were just too busy, and then you run into them at the NEXT event scrambling to explain why you never reached out?

So you choke and just blurt out the first random, sometimes unrelated quote you can think of.."Uhhh, hey Charles, you know..uuuh.The grass ain't greener on the other side, right?"

C'mon, that can't be just me. 🫣

So here's what I did: I created a chatbot where I simply provide a name, where we met, and maybe a note or two about our interactions, and it writes my personalized email in seconds.

I now get through like 15-20 cards in 10 minutes, and, now I'm excited to share my strategy with you.

Actionable Task: Let's Shrink That Pile of Business Cards

Step 1: Copy-paste this prompt to your AI:

"Every time I give you a name, company, event where we met, and any notes I have, I want you to generate a warm follow-up email saying thank you for chatting with me at the event and that we should connect. But first, learn from my actual networking emails. I'll provide 5 examples; learn my style, tone, reading grade level, and anything else you can observe about how I write, then replicate it exactly."

Step 2: Paste 5 of your actual follow-up emails numbered like this:

1. 1) Email one

2. 2) Email two

3. (and so on...)

Step 3: Now take a business card and provide:

• Name

• Where you met

• Their company

• One personal note if you have one

Watch it generate a perfectly personalized follow-up in YOUR voice instantly.

Your next problem will be managing all those new meetings, but that's an AI solution for another day. 😉

Remember: The biggest gap between nonprofit struggle and success isn't resources, strategy, or talent; it's following up. It isn't just courtesy, your next major donor, volunteer, or partner is a business card collecting dust somewhere in your desk.

You're one follow-up away from changing everything!

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P.S. I'd be remiss if I didn't shout out my two favorite Colorado nonprofit networking events:

Aurora Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit Committee– 4nd Tuesday of every month. A great meet and learn networking event for nonprofit leaders.

Nonprofit Nexus– 2nd Thursday of every month, connecting nonprofit leaders with partners matching their specific needs.

#ExistToServe

P.S. Know another NPO leader holding it all together with grit and grace? If you find value in this, pay it forward. Forward this their way. We’re not meant to lead alone, and together, we go farther.

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Regis Arzu (he/him/his)
[email protected]
ETS AI Consulting | CEO
347.748.5078