I’ve written before about meeting in a place so quiet you feel like everyone in the room can hear you.
That’s a bad way to go, to be sure. But there’s a balance to be struck. If you’re not careful, you might end up in a McDonald’s PlayPlace.
That reminds me of the time I had a support appointment in the McDonald’s PlayPlace.
I didn’t set out to meet in a room that also had a slide in it, it just ended up happening that way. I tend to get really excited once someone agrees to meet for support, so much so that I begin mildly freaking out and perhaps not paying attention to details. The sweet older lady on the other end of the phone suggested we meet at the restaurant near her house, and I didn’t ask any clarifying questions.
So I rolled up into a Mickey D’s rocking the business casual, and toting a laptop. We were all set until I realized that the only plug in the entire public area of the building was literally within arms reach of the bottom of the slide, and my laptop’s battery at the time held a charge for precisely long enough to run frantically from one plug to another in my house, knocking over a lamp that my wife was really fond of (…hypothetically speaking).
So, we had the entire support appointment right there at the base of the slide. I even high-fived a kid as he dismounted for emphasis on my point about there being “tremendous competition on the college campus for the hearts and minds of students.”
Like I’ve always said: Nothing underscores spiritual lostness and apathy like a 5-year-old snot-nosed kid on a slide.
Though my support-raising training was extensive, it did not cover the need to anticipate and speak over the crying toddler and the game of freeze-tag going on 6 feet above your head.
I’m gonna finish this story next week. But for now I’m interested in the strangest place you’ve ever had a “business” meeting. Chime in in the comments.