Better
Ben Branson's purpose is to make society better. He founded Seedlip and sold part of the business to Diageo for an undisclosed sum in 2019. He was diagnosed Autistic/ADHD in 2022 and has since started the charity PRISM ND - so named because Newton discovered the Prism and apparently he was autistic. Ben has also just launched Pollen Projects - the world’s first independent venture studio dedicated to non-alc drinks with their first project seasn “the salt & pepper for drinks” launched & already stocked by Michelin* restaurants up and down the country.
There are 1.6 billion neurodivergent people in the world - the Hidden 20% - and his podcast of that title now has an audience of 4.5 million after just six weeks. Being neurodivergent (ND) is often related to being more creative and entrepreneurial and Branson has highlighted that - “rebranding" neurodivergence with guests like Kit Harington and model Lottie Moss.
“I grew up on a 300-year-old farm that has been in my mother’s family for 9 generations, and my father was in branding for 40 years, so Seedlip the non-alcoholic spirits brand, was an exact product of my family. Growing up I was very good at sport, I was clever and to be honest I was a good looking little boy so definitely not “stereotypically” autistic. My mother was very sociable and I was at boarding school aged 7, so I learned manners and how to be social immediately. This is how you greet someone, this is how you have a conversation but they didn’t come naturally. I was very able, so I think I could become slightly invisible. Because of sports, I was popular and well-liked so I could mask things. I got in a lot of trouble and my grandfather said to my mother, “You’ll never raise that boy.” I was always flinging myself off things! I was very happy playing on my own outside, building things rather than friendships, I had them because I was in sports teams so I was under the radar. I was very naughty but I was never expelled because I was good at sports. I left school in 2001. It was seven years before adults could be diagnosed with ADHD. Back then if you mentioned autism, people just thought of Aspergers and Rainman.
I was desperate to leave school at 18 and didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I trained to be a chef in London, which was amazing. I had a go at door to door selling for British Gas, I was rubbish. I was a security guard, which was odd as I am 5ft 8, I worked in a pub and for a landscape gardener. I then spent the next two years travelling and working, performing fire-breathing shows in Thailand, working as a snowboarding instructor in New Zealand and teaching children in Botswana. It was a real adventure. Then I started at the bottom in the design world.
I worked with lots of drinks clients (alcohol and soft drinks). I loved the brands and I realised I didn’t need to necessarily consume them. ADHD and alcohol are not always the best of friends! We definitely needed a drink for when you’re not drinking alcohol.
I came across the Art of Distillation in 2013 whilst researching herbs to grow, the 1651 book that inspired Seedlip, I found a PDF of it online - I didn’t prize up the floorboards and find an undiscovered tome. Now I have visited the British Library and held the George III original copy and I have a copy from 1664. It’s just a small book but it has changed my life and drinking culture. Seedlip launched in 2015 and I was diagnosed in 2022 as autistic and then ADHD six months later. I find them opposing. Being autistic means I love routine, structure, strategy, process, in fact distillation, absorbing 500 years of botanical history down to a molecular level, the aroma, the planning, the strategising, the blueprint, putting the puzzle pieces together.
ADHD makes me impulsive, impatient, dissatisfied with the world, wanting to take action, solve problems, quickly, decisively with laser-beamed focus. I’m only starting to learn about these two things - ADHD and autism - and how I can further apply them and consciously harness them. ADHD is certainly an accelerator, autism is the steering wheel - and sometimes a brake - deciding the direction and speed. Obviously ADHD and autism were vital for doing Seedlip and my new drinks brand seasn as well as creating our charity PRISM ND.
It seems far more entrepreneurs and creative people are neurodivergent. Kate Griggs CEO of Made By Dyslexia claims many entrepreneurs who are self-made millionaires are often dyslexic as there’s a strong over-index of creativity and entrepreneurial ability with dyslexic thinking.
The idea of neurodivergence as a superpower is fairly polarising in the ND community. A lot of people identify with that, saying “Look at the amazing skills it builds.” On the other side, what about the 40% of unemployed people who are ND, what about the 85% of the prison population who are ND, or the high levels of suicide? That’s not superpower territory! But it is society’s model of disability that cuts through all that - society is not set up to help neurodivergent people make their contribution or realise their potential. The workplace is largely not set up for neurodivergent people. Society has to catch up, it’s beginning but we’re at the beginning.
The Hidden 20% podcast is aimed at the 80% who are not neurodivergent. The 80% seem to get blamed for everything but there just isn’t enough awareness and this is all very new so we are having the conversation and sharing it to do our bit and best to inform society and shift perspective.
We can’t do this by just talking to ourselves within the ND community. I like to think I’m an open-minded well travelled person but I didn’t know anything about neurodivergence. I am a curious person, I think I have my finger on the pulse on the subjects of inclusion and diversity but we are right at the beginning with awareness about neurodivergence. We have to inform and support the 80%. So we launched our modern, media-led charity PRISM ND is to spread the word and tell the truth. Similarly with Seedlip our non-alcoholic spirits - we didn’t target the teetotallers, everything was aimed at people who drank alcohol. Our new brand seasn “the salt & pepper for drinks” is a pair of delicious and intense cocktail bitters to transform people’s alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks. We want to keep pushing the boundaries!
Our guests for our recently launched podcast The Hidden 20% have been so diverse and that’s amazing. They have so many levels of expertise. Carrie Grant is an expert in this space, Kate Griggs has studied Dyslexia for 25 years. Kit Harrington and Lottie Moss are not ADHD experts but their lived experience is just as valid.
A lot of people out there listening wouldn’t relate to the stats, the medical terms and diagnostic stories. But the common ground is that Neurodivergent people are heard and seen and we can create some kind of collaboration, not put people in silos where they don’t talk to each other. Excluding people, ostracising people is not the answer. We are only six weeks into this journey and we have 4.5 million social media views, the fact that we are in the top 5% of podcasts is mega - we have a place in the world. We have some very serious experts waiting to be guests and that gives us credibility in the ND community, to make sure we are sharing the right message. And the most rewarding thing about the podcast is people sharing feedback - incredible stories of how neurodivergence has affected people’s families, the hope, the struggle, late diagnosis. The truths.
My brain is built for optimisation and efficiency - it’s built for Better. I only have one purpose - I have three daughters and they are my purpose, that legacy, making the world better so their lives as they grow up are better. Changing the belief system - I want to change the things that need to be changed. That constant desire to make things better - it needs to be a win-win, to fulfil me, express my own creativity and have meaning and relevance to other people. I want to do that with PRISM ND and with Seedlip and with seasn.
40% of neurodivergent adults are unemployed and 85% of those in the UK prison system are ND. We can help those people to be productive and happy members of society. We can get people up to a level of understanding, make neuro-inclusive adaptations, change HR practises, change the hiring and interview process, test for different skills. We need to set up the workplace to recognise the contribution autistic people make. We are a neuro-divergent team, and we are making those adjustments out in the open so we get the best out of people, so everyone feels fulfilled. That catch up needs to happen.
I was diagnosed in September 2022, I had no concept of what neurodivergence was. But when I was diagnosed no one was surprised. I’d had a conversation with someone I know in the drinks industry about his diagnosis at the beginning of 2022, I’d heard James Watt the founder of Brewdog chatting about autism on a podcast and I felt compelled to start looking into it. I did an online NHS quesionnaire and scored highly. At first I was in denial. I thought this is not me, what the hell am I doing? But then I thought what’s the worst that can happen? I then did a formal 12 week assessment process that I was very fortunate to be able to do privately and Renata the psychologist said, “Congratulations Ben, you’re autistic.”
I felt like I had this massive test of 300 questions stored up for 30 years and suddenly I knew every answer. My autism and ADHD diagnosis is an explanation - not an excuse. I feel more myself than I ever felt. I feel permission to be myself and I want that for every single person in the world. It’s got nothing to do with the label of ADHD, none of that matters, it’s the explanation, the reason, it’s empowering and validating. If anyone asked me do you need to get diagnosed, all I can say is this is how it was for me and if its possible I would highly recommend it!”
Here’s a list. It’s a list about me.
It began in 2022 with “congratulations Ben you are…”
& continues with “so I am going to…”
Here goes...
I have incredible hearing
Wool makes my skin hurt
Very happy in both excel & photoshop
I have no friends
Am anxious about basically everything
I have a very high IQ
I write emails in 5x sentences
Love patterns (literally & figuratively)
[I also love punctuation!]
Talk a lot for work & hardly at home
I always want to make everything better, faster, clearer, simpler
I like listening to the same song on repeat
I have a really acute sense of smell & taste
Blunt & direct. Sorry
I never lose anything
I have large collections of books, perfume, bottles, Lego, glassware, hats, tattoos, antiques & taxidermy
I like my own time & not leaving home
I am fiercely protective of my family
Phone call over F2F or Zoom any day
I prefer animals & plants to humans
I can act “normal” but it’s really tiring
I blink & clear my throat lots
I love, in fact need routine, systems & structure
I am gullible & naïve
I have a photographic memory
I am extremely curious
I switch off by watching people on reality TV
My time to mastery of something is very fast
I only cry when I’m singing
I dance happily between the minutiae & the big picture
I steer clear of other parents at school pick up & events
I learnt I could draw really well at 25
I eat one meal & drink one meal a day
I am anxious before I meet you & tired after I meet you, because in that meeting, our time together, I am giving absolutely all of me to you. I am present, focused, nothing else matters
I have known all these things for a long time but not why all these things
Now I know
I am autistic/ADHD.
It all makes sense - A green light to be myself
But what does NOT make sense is why;
- up to 40% of neurodivergent [ND] adults are unemployed [that’s conditions like ADHD, Autism, Dyscalculia, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia & Tourettes]
- up to 85% of those in the UK prison system are ND
- There’s up to a 10 year assessment waiting time in the UK
- There’s an ADHD medication shortage
- There’s hundreds of thousands of people scared to share their diagnosis with employers, friends & family
Society is broken, people are struggling but thankfully there are some incredible people & organisations who are lighting the way for THE HIDDEN 20% by busting the myths & breaking the cycle of shame & silence.
It’s not all bad it’s just wildly out of balance & perspective
& it’s not allowing 1.6 BILLION PEOPLE to be themselves.
Too much; deficiency, myth, stigma, shame, ignorance, blame & stereotyping & not enough; truth, support, unity, equality & education
