Here is an often overlooked tool: See, your location matters.
By that, I mean that the visuals of where you are, the context, can be as important as what is actually said.
- A zany and brightly colored website is not the right feel for selling exclusive luxury items.
- A crowded waterpark pool is not the best location to probably invite a foreign diplomat to discuss national tariffs.
- And you might not want to ask your parents for keys to the new car while they are trying to go to the bathroom.
You can make wine taste good or bad with this same principle.
Scott Adams has pointed out the importance of meeting location.
I see this as another form of association and the McGurk Effect.
Matching topic with setting can be a powerful thing.
I meet people at Disneyland because where we meet shapes the discussions we’ll have. We’ve all experienced this, but few of us put this idea into practice when we’re setting our meetings. It’s not silly to meet on a set of swings or a movie set, at a park or an airplane museum or at Build-A-Bear. I’ve used all of them. Each is engaging and creative and fun in its own way. Location drives content. It’s why we should be as picky about where we talk as we are about what we actually discuss. If you have the right conversation at the right place, you just had the right conversation. However, if you have the right conversation at the wrong place, you just had the wrong conversation.
-Bob Goff, Everybody Always
