Issue 5 – April 2025
After an inadvertently long hiatus, we’re back with more viewpoints about reputation and personal brand. This edition has the broad theme of ‘action’ – be it in the form of taking it to disclose and address personal challenges or doing something genuinely adventurous instead of simply creating a digital action figure of yourself on your phone or laptop.
A Former Premier League Footballer Opens Up
Overview
One of the various hats I like to wear is that of ‘mental health advocate’, having a) navigated and survived some very tricky periods of my life and b) continue to talk openly about my experiences, what I learned and how (hopefully at least) they may be of use to other people. I won’t go into the details here but for those who are curious, an old personal blog may be of interest while my DMs are always open. As a result of all this, my antennae are tuned into men of higher profile than me being vulnerable and talking about their own experiences. The latest such man is former international and Premier League footballer, Jason McAteer, who in a wide-ranging and honest conversation on Mikael Silvestre’s Tales, Tears and Trophies podcast, discusses his ‘first death’, a common event amongst professional athletes experienced at the culmination of their careers, and revisiting his lowest ebb.
Analysis
Ask any man to tell you how they really feel and depending on your relationship to them, you might not get much more than a ‘yeah, not bad…’ at worst and a ‘been a bit tough of late but it’s fine’ at best. To go on a podcast backed by one of the world’s largest sports broadcasters and drop some tears onto the table in such an honest and transparent manner deserves credit where it’s due.
Verdict
Mr. McAteer, for whatever reasons, might not be held in the same regard as some of his former teammates, at either club or international level but to play any sport on the global pantheon, navigate the turbulence of retirement and then, in time, speak so openly about the challenges footballers at all stages of their careers face puts him in a very positive light. As I wrote this, the story was picked up and published by a large number of UK media outlets, promoting the important message that speaking openly and crying when reliving the moment of reaching rock bottom is just as important as celebrating career pinnacles. I’ll be keeping a close eye, as ever, on how this difficult conversation may set him on a new career trajectory.
From Behind the Lines – A Sports Broadcaster’s View on Mental Health
Overview
On a similar theme, you don’t have to have played at the pinnacle of sport to experience periods of uncertainty, purposelessness and a drop in self-esteem. Sometimes, a career reporting from the position of sports broadcaster, host and commentator can present its own challenges. On his own recent podcast, Matt Kabir Floyd – who may well be a familiar name to the cricket-inclined (and for transparency is a friend of mine) – discussed some of his own experiences with his mental health. Given his co-host is cricketer, Azeem Rafiq , who has faced his own mental and other challenges following his revelations about racism, the two made some important points for their listeners in their recent pod, The Mental Health Episode. During the conversation, Matt discussed being ‘let go’ at Sky Sports, where he had forged a successful career for more than ten years and while one path that presented itself was that of a ‘new chapter’ and the opportunities to write it, Matt felt like that he had failed triggering a withdrawal ‘into his shell’ and at times getting angry with himself for feeling this way.
Analysis
Being made involuntarily redundant is no fun at all, especially around the Covid pandemic and the long shadow it invariably cast over global sport and with that, a dearth in broadcast opportunities. What I found refreshing from the pod was Matt’s ready admission about seeking therapy, something he’d never had the need to seek before and the almost instant benefits it provided. Moreover, while there was a period of feeling sorry for himself, a natural human response, his ownership of the matter and decision to take action is inspiring and may hopefully influence others facing similar crises of professional confidence.
Verdict
From a personal viewpoint, I’m always supportive of people I know who take responsibility for their mental health and proud of when they take action to address the matter, whatever the cause or reason. Given Matt’s public-facing profile, both in his day job presenting the latest news and views from the world of sport, or his It’s Not Just Cricket podcast that has a global listener audience, talking frankly and underlining how it’s OK to not be OK all the time by sharing his own stories can only embellish his personal reputation and respect in what is still considered a very ‘macho’ industry.
AI Action Figures: Digital Nostalgia vs Real Adventure
Overview
Over the past ten days or so LinkedIn and Instagram have been overrun with an army of AI-derived action figures, imitations of the kind I used to covet for birthday and Christmas in my childhood. Alongside Transformers, the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe gang, my John. J. Rambo figure was probably my favourite, especially as he was the most tooled up, accessories-wise. Jumping several decades to the present day, this trend has managed to quickly squash the much used and heavily criticised Studio Ghibli AI generated ‘art’ that disgusted its creator so vehemently.
Analysis
The dopamine hit of seeing your own digital action figure is bound to cause a brand new synaptic sensation, hence why it’s been so popular and ubiquitous. It also cracks open one’s imagination with a sledgehammer as to ‘what MY action figure’ may represent, resemble and ultimately replace in terms of the humdrum of daily professional life. The AI action figure also provides an all-new way to talk about oneself, which ultimately is what social media seems to be about these days. Don’t get me wrong, self-promotion is required to build one’s personal brand (hence why I write these articles) but does copying countless others using AI to do the work count as something original? Pixar’s Buzz Lightyear seems to think he’s one of a kind…of millions.
Verdict
Nostalgia is a helluva drug. If you were to ask most people whether they could go back to being a child again, they’d leap at the chance and so when we are reminded of fond times gone by, we feel good. Combined with a means to self-promote in a manner that has been so widely adopted delivers a dopamine double-whammy. On the flipside to this self-indulgence, there is the ‘carbon cost’ of cooking up digital action figures that is easily overlooked. Personally, becoming a ‘real’ action figure is much more fun, creates a genuine feel-good factor and will leave an indelibly positive memory, that you can revisit again and again from the sustainable comfort of your own brain. And you might even get an actual photo you can use for shameless self-promotion too.
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