The Scent of Land

Those words triggered a cascade of memories for me.

The observation was John Roebling’s in the journal he kept of his voyage to America. I read them in the book gifted to me by my daughter for Christmas.

Roebling designed and built the Brooklyn Bridge, at the time the longest suspension bridge in the world. When after a tumultuous eleven-week Atlantic crossing Roebling wrote, “This scent of land produced a beneficial effect…” he had no insight into his future.

Similar limited insight is the tale of the memories his words sparked in me.

The chartered Northwest Boeing 707 troop transport from Korea landed at McChord air base near Tacoma, Washington. When they cracked the doors, the perfume of rain-drenched pine jolted me.

That scent of land assured me I was back in the country where a civilian career awaited me. I re-joined the ad agency I’d left five years before and began climbing the corporate ladder once more. After the company was sold to a British Conglomerate I found a new home at an agency in Portland, Oregon.

Eventually I became CEO.

The day my board and I agreed to disagree was typical Oregon fall. The day dawned sunlit and blue- skied. Leaves crackled under foot. Late in the day the weather shifted and the rain dripped straight down the sky. Other parts of the country have rain storms. Here, it just gently soaks everything and the odor of growing mold seeps into the air.

I left and never looked back.

Snow has a way of eliciting positive thoughts. The winter’s crisp cold air gave me the courage to open my consulting practice. That was in 1990. Since then I’ve helped folks everywhere from a dirt-floored garage to kitchen tables to board rooms build businesses and Brand.

I became an expert in on and off-line marketing.

When they rolled me out of the hospital it was foggy. I didn’t care. I was out and there was a future. I had turned 65 and decided it was time to get a regular doctor. Good thing. The colonoscopy dictated surgery. Jim, my surgeon told me “I believe we got it all.” The recovery went well for about three days. The next three were hell.

I agreed to go see an oncologist, “just to be sure.”

Dr. Schnadig kept me waiting for 45 minutes. I was angry and really thundering that anger down on him. Then I got a good look at his face. I asked what was wrong. He told me he had just had to tell someone they were not going to make it. We talked about what that felt like for a while and then he startled and told me his findings about me.

I went back to work: Networking, Marketing, Contact Relationship Magic.

There was a light breeze and a morning sun drying the maples outside his office when we met this summer. I’d been poked, prodded and run in and out of clicking machines that induce claustrophobia. He told me, once again, I was clear of cancer and that my inability to work more than an hour at a time was because of a thyroid problem he could fix with a pill the size of a baby aspirin. I vowed to use part of my returned energy to build a FREE resource for people that want to develop a personal, professional or product Brand.

I’ve begun the work. See it at www.BrandBrainTrust.com

For me, it is a scent of land, full of promise and possibilities for people at any stage of the Brand journey.

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Jerry Fletcher is the founder and Grand Poobah of www.BrandBrainTrust.com

His consulting practice, founded in 1990, is known for Brand development, Positioning and business development on and off-line. He is also a sought-after International Speaker.

Consulting: www.JerryFletcher.com
Speaking: www.NetworkingNinja.com

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