12 months of Brand Building

The annual report to shareholders

Hello, friends, and welcome to this special newsletter marking one full year of Brand Building with Ben Richards.

Because I take my commitment to you very seriously – far more seriously than you might imagine – I figured it was time to review the performance of this project against its stated objectives: kind of like a work appraisal, albeit one where I’m both employee and manager, and you’re just a bewildered observer who’s somehow found their way into the room.

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Developer, Achiever, Performer?

First up: this project has not been abandoned like a blog from 2006. A low bar perhaps, but a good one to clear. In terms of quantity, we’ve fallen short of our stated target of a new piece every two weeks and never came close to the teased ‘more often than that when possible’.

Subject matter has varied: books, comedy and TV have been covered, as promised, along with some music and sport. Most often, we’ve veered into ‘general ramblings tangentially related to some piece of pop culture but mainly the author talking about himself’ (much like a blog from 2006).

For this, I apologise. I hope we’ve at least managed to steer away from the genre of ‘middle-class, middle-aged man is a hopeless wally, despite being conferred many of life’s advantages’.¹

The Ben Richards Blues B(r)and

That would, at least, be a brand: man who does not know how to do things. It’s not my brand, though, which is, on the basis of this project, writing semi-regular posts about a variety of topics, the main common theme of which is that it interested me personally to do so.

I do understand this is not the way to build a successful brand. Generally, you want to be known for doing a particular thing, so you can attract people who like that thing. Indeed, plenty of very talented and successful people who’ve built a brand around their particular thing don’t necessarily find it easy to stop doing that thing and pivot to something else.

I’m not just talking about the megastar actors who decide to put out an album that is no good, and to which no-one will listen, except when the actor turns up on The Graham Norton Show to insist that music was their main love and talent, actually.

I also mean that writers who do the exact kind of writing that I like are confined to a particular specialist subject area, even though their interests and talents may be much broader.

It’s perhaps why I’m a bit harsh on the old newspaper opinion columnist, who is seemingly granted licence to offer thoughts on anything that falls under extremely broad headings like politics, economics, and society; while on the back pages, a writer is permitted to discuss one kind of sport, maybe two at most.

It’s a very ‘old media’ kind of mindset. I consider myself an ‘old media’ guy, in terms of wanting people to know what they’re talking about, seek the appropriate permissions to use the work of others, and be published in a physical format that people can buy, in a way that allows them to be compensated financially.

It’s unfashionable, though, which is perhaps why those writers who write the kinds of things that I like, even those with prior success, portfolios full of great work, and solid professional references behind them, are finding it more and more difficult to do what they do and get paid for it.

AI really hate the pictures on this Substack

On which topic, one thing I am going to change about BBWBR in the future is the use of AI images. I started with a commitment to try and avoid using protected material, like nicking stills from films, and somehow figured that using MS Designer to generate some (often very silly) pictures might be a way around that while supplementing the posts with visuals of some kind.

I was a bit iffy about it in the first place, but given that AI is effectively trained on copyrighted material with the aim of replacing it, and its creators, and apparently uses up a hell of a lot of resources in the process of doing so, it now feels like the greater of two evils.

I don’t agree with using AI for writing, and would be quite alarmed if anyone thought that my use of these images meant that I did. Quite apart from any ethical and environmental issues, for someone who loves writing, there would be literally no point in using AI – the writing is the point!²

However, on the basis that whatever damage has been wreaked by the generation of these stupid pictures has now already happened, and so that the pieces in question still make sense, I don’t intend to delete them all retrospectively.

You’re trying sub-headings though, it looks like

For a writer, the significant ‘old media’ hurdles – effectively, participating in a recruitment process far more competitive than most other job vacancies any of us will ever apply for – are now replaced by a new set of challenges, not in creating things and getting those things out there, but in making them stand out in a world in which anyone else can do the same.

On balance, while I might still dream of getting that job, I think I’m glad to have the opportunity to realise an idea, and have it exist in some form, rather than waiting for someone else to tell me I can do it.

I’ve thought a lot over the years about the things we love to do, of passions and aspirations that endure, or do not, or are thwarted forever, and the effect that has on us. A lot of these things are traditionally associated with youth and dreams of unlikely stardom: playing sport, or performing on stage or screen.

People who are successful in competitive industries like these always say things like, yeah, lots of people are talented, but I really wanted it. But what about the people who were talented, and really wanted it, but didn’t make it? Or the people who weren’t talented, but still really wanted it?

I was never that great at sport, really, but as a youngster there was a certain pleasure to be derived from learning the game and dreaming of one day emulating the players on TV. Once it became obvious that I was miles away from ever becoming one of those players, the motivation quickly drained away.

Many years later, countless grown men and women still enjoy taking part in their spare time, at whatever level, either because they have genuine love for the game itself, or are still living out those dreams in some form.

Others gave up, like me – not because they were no good, but because they were really good – just not quite good enough, or lucky enough, to make it. There is no dream to relive by playing, just the pain of young ambitions cruelly halted.

The limit of your own self-belief, bordering on delusion

The good/bad/different thing about writing is that it remains something that can be pursued unimpeded by the creaking of limbs or other age-related factors. Without those external forces telling you to stop, all that remains is the limit of your own self-belief, which admittedly does occasionally have to border on delusion to keep you going.

It helps that, with writing, I’m not in the category of people desperate for success, or so demoralised back the lack of it that the process itself is no longer enjoyable. I’m the bloke still playing sport at the weekends because he loves it.

(Okay, maybe I’m also trying to live out those dreams in some form. But, as I mentioned: for me, the writing is the point.³)

A sincere thank you

Thanks to you all for reading over the past year. It’s been a great opportunity to stretch my legs – if you write with your legs, which of course most of us don’t, stretched or otherwise – and write about some things that I’ve always wanted to write about.

There are lots more ideas waiting, too. Although, realistically, on the basis of this first year’s output of 18 posts, I think we’ll have to revise our target KPI to an average of 1.5 per month at most.

As for my brand: I never wanted to build one around the subject of my book. Even if such a thing existed – and I’ve seen nothing to suggest that anyone wants it to – I never wanted to be some kind of higher education opinion-haver. I’ve already said everything that I ever wanted to say on that topic.

But, to take this all a little more seriously (for once), I have now completed another book, and started work on a third. It would make sense to support them with #brand #appropriate content, and I have active plans to do so. When these plans come to fruition, you’ll be the first to know.

1. I have nothing against him personally, nor do I begrudge him any of his professional success, but the writer and comedian Danny Wallace used to have a column in a free magazine called Shortlist, which otherwise consisted entirely of adverts for razors, in which he would describe how he didn’t know what a napkin was, or something, despite being a grown man who’d been on the telly. It was a popular genre at the time, even though you didn’t exactly have to be a paid-up member of the grumpy club to think, ‘Come on, mate, grow up a bit, will you?’

2. It’s impossible not to sound a little bit pompous when saying things like this, so apologies. And for the exclamation mark, too.

3. Yes, I said it again. Sorry.