Branding, part I: Future Ghosts

I mentioned that my friend LB, who coördinated the renovation and staging of my house for the sale, had started a couple of businesses -- in fact each time I see her she seems to have branched out into something new. When we first met she was beginning the home staging but by the time we reconnected in the spring and I hired her to stage the house, she had launched her "personal branding" business. I am possibly more of a candidate for a "life coach" than a brand consultant, but close enough, and her track record was unassailable, so once the dust had settled from the sale, both in my house and in my head, and I felt like I was ready for the next step, I asked her what she thought she could do for me. She arranged for me to meet her last Thursday for a drink after work at a fancy, members-only club in a trendy part of town near her apartment.

I arrived early, in my new suit, chosen by P. and test-driven a few weeks previously at the national policy convention, and found myself nervously and self-consciously nursing a pint and waiting for her on the sunny rooftop patio, feeling for all the world like the ultimate outsider among a tightly-knit clique. But before I could twist such superficial alienation into full-blown loners, LB arrived and I was back at ease, safe in the warm envelope of our the profound connection I find I share with her.

And with that simple blueprint unfolded a delicious and unforgettable evening, all within the tiny radius of a few hundred square metres, as we carved a path from roof, to patio, to bar, and briefly to her apartment, riding the intoxicating highs of her unarrestable and almost unlimited ambition for herself, and her genuine, infectious enthusiasm for me and my incredible potential. She laid bare for me the absurdity of my insecurity considering my advantages and my talents, and made such a simple, indisputable case for recognising that my only obstacle is myself. At one point she led me on a Dickensian tour of the ghosts of my past, present, and future, whereupon she walked me around the bar and contrasted me with the local barflies, whose refinement compared extremely unfavourably with mine, but whose confidence and thus track record nonetheless dwarfed mine. I was close, she took me right to the edge of the water and I could see the entire picture, but I was still frozen on the shore, on the sidelines.