Going Beyond the Business Card

Dana Nusbaum

Account Executive, Cherokee Media Group

You’ve just returned from WIA 2025 in Nashville. Your laptop bag overflows with business cards, your LinkedIn notifications won’t stop pinging, and somewhere in that whirlwind of conversations lies your next breakthrough opportunity. But here’s what separates career-defining connections from forgotten contacts: what happens after you leave the conference hall.

Dana Nusbaum knows this dance intimately. As an Account Executive at Cherokee Media Group who’s navigated both sides of the conference experience—hosting and attending major automotive industry events—she’s mastered the art of transforming brief handshakes into lasting partnerships that reshape careers.

“Honestly, I kind of just have to collect myself for a minute and just process everything that’s happened during the event,” Dana shares, acknowledging what we’re all thinking but rarely admit. That post-conference overwhelm? It’s real, and it’s okay to feel it.

The 24-Hour Window That Changes Everything

The conference energy is buzzing through your veins. You’re deep in conversation at WIA 2025 with someone whose insights could revolutionize your approach to work. Most professionals make a mental note to “connect soon” and hope they’ll remember this person’s name next week. But the game-changers? They operate differently.

Dana has mastered a strategy that’s brilliantly simple yet surprisingly powerful.

“The easiest thing is during the event, if I meet somebody new, I immediately go to LinkedIn, and then I request to connect with them,” she explains. This real-time connection isn’t just about growing your network numbers. It’s about capturing momentum while the energy is still electric.

Consider the message this sends: When someone connects with you mid-conversation, you’re not just another contact to add to the pile later. You’re someone worth pausing for, worth connecting with right now. And there’s a practical bonus—you can always revisit your recent connections when those faces and names start blurring together.

Redefining ROI: When Relationships Become Revenue

At some point in your automotive career you’ve probably been asked to justify conference attendance with hard ROI numbers. But how do you quantify a relationship that takes four years to bloom into your biggest client win?

Dana’s perspective shifts the entire conversation about value. “It could elevate the brand or your company on social… maybe somebody reaches out and says, ‘I’ve never heard of Used Car Week, but I heard you mention it on your podcast, and now I’m interested.'”

Here’s where her story gets fascinating. After years of digital dead-ends with a major industry player, one face-to-face conversation at a conference booth changed everything. The person she met said those magic words: “That’s not the information that I was getting passed down the line.”

Four years of emails couldn’t accomplish what one in-person conversation did. They signed up for events. They engaged. They became partners—all because Dana set out with the purpose of making the connection while at the event.

Your next game-changing partnership might not reveal itself immediately. Like many investments, sometimes ROI means planting seeds that bloom seasons later.

The Business Card Hack That Builds Real Bonds

Ready for a refreshingly analog approach to relationship building? Dana still carries business cards, but not in the way you’d expect.

“One thing that I do is I write a fun fact,” she reveals. Maybe it’s noting someone’s a Packers fan, or that they mentioned having three daughters. These aren’t just memory aids—they’re relationship accelerators.

When Dana follows up mentioning that personal detail, something magical happens. The generic “checking in” email transforms into “Hey, how did your daughter’s soccer tournament go?” Suddenly, you’re not just another vendor or contact. You’re someone who listened, who cared enough to remember.

One dealer CEO consistently remembered Dana had three daughters, greeting her with “How are the princesses?” despite running a 12-location dealership empire. “That meant a lot to me,” Dana admits. And isn’t that what we’re all seeking—to be seen as an actual person, not just job titles?

Breaking Through the "Too Late" Barrier

Perhaps you’re reading this thinking, “WIA 2025 was over a month ago. I’ve missed my window.”

Stop right there.

Dana’s advice for reconnecting is refreshingly honest: “Do you remember something about the conversation that stuck out in your head? Tap on that.”

She shares how a casual conference mention about books sparked an ongoing friendship. “I reached out and was like, ‘I’m in a book club, and I need a recommendation.'” That simple, authentic reach-out built a relationship that transcended business—and ultimately strengthened their professional connection too.

The secret? Find your common ground, even if it has nothing to do with automotive. World War II novels, fantastical octopus stories, or indoor go-kart racing victories (yes, Dana has quite the story about beating former race car drivers in heels)—these shared interests become the threads that weave lasting professional relationships.

The Power of Being a Connector

Here’s where Dana’s approach gets particularly powerful: she doesn’t just build her network; she becomes the network.

“I pay attention on LinkedIn, if somebody is posting something, ‘I’m looking for this,'” she explains. “Let me check my network. I have connections.” When you become known as someone who connects others, you transform from a contact into a catalyst.

The universe has a funny way of rewarding connectors. Dana helped someone escape a stressful job situation, only to discover they’d been hired at one of her biggest clients. “I didn’t intentionally do that to benefit me, but what a cool full circle moment.”

Building Confidence Through Community

For women navigating male-dominated automotive spaces, these connections offer something beyond business opportunities—they build confidence.

“I really feel pretty insignificant, honestly, when you talk about all the huge names in automotive,” Dana confesses. But then colleagues say, “You don’t know Dana Nusbaum?” These moments of recognition, these relationships that validate your worth—they’re career-defining in ways that transcend any single deal or promotion.

Whether it’s through NASCAR simulator competitions or go-kart racing victories (where strategy meant letting the men take each other out before swooping in for the win), Dana’s built relationships through shared experiences that have nothing to do with quarterly reports or sales targets.

Your 2026 Game Plan Starts Now

Dana’s final wisdom cuts straight to the heart: “It’s not going to happen on its own. You have to put in the work.”

This isn’t about perfecting some complex system. It’s about consistency, authenticity, and viewing every connection as a potential long-term relationship rather than a transaction.

Your action plan for transforming WIA connections:

Immediately During Events:

• Connect on LinkedIn in real-time

• Write personal notes on business cards

• Look for non-business common ground

First Week Post-Conference:

• Prioritize follow-ups based on interest level and urgency

• Reference specific conversation details

• Offer value, not just “checking in”

Long-term Nurturing:

• Become a connector for others

• Engage meaningfully with their LinkedIn content

• Remember personal details and milestones

• Stay persistent without being pushy

Sometimes the relationships that define our careers have nothing to do with spreadsheets and everything to do with showing up as our whole selves, ready to connect beyond the conference room.

The Dealer-Centric Revelation

Before you close this tab and dive into your follow-up emails, consider Dana’s mind-blown moment from Used Car Week 2022. When Steve Leslie declared that dealers keep everyone’s jobs on the table, it shifted Dana’s entire approach from “selling to dealers” to “How can I help them thrive?”

This mindset shift—from transaction to transformation—applies to every connection you make. Stop asking “What can this person do for me?” Start asking “How can I help them succeed?” Because their success becomes your success, rippling through the entire industry.

Your Next Move

That stack of business cards isn’t just paper—it’s potential. Those LinkedIn connections aren’t just profiles—they’re partnerships waiting to bloom. The question isn’t whether you made valuable connections at WIA 2025. You did. The question is whether you’ll do the work to transform them into relationships that reshape your career.

As Dana puts it with characteristic optimism: “You just never know. It could be four years down the road you finally meet the right person through all these other connections.”

Your career-defining relationship might be hiding in that pile of business cards right now. Or in that LinkedIn request you haven’t sent yet. Or in that follow-up email you’ve been putting off because it feels “too late.”

It’s not too late. It’s exactly the right time.

Ready to transform your professional network into a powerful force for career growth? Join the Women in Automotive community and discover how authentic connections can accelerate your journey. Your next breakthrough relationship is waiting at Women In Automotive—because in this industry, we rise together.