122: Why we're wrong to think of ourselves as individuals with the HERDmeister, Mark Earls
This week, we followed the HERDmeister to find and catch behavioural science buff, Mark Earls. Dubbed by DO Lectures as “Britain’s answer to Malcolm Gladwell…without the hair”, Mark is a prolific thinker, recovering account planner and best-selling writer. We shoot the breeze on the intimidatingly smart Paul Feldwick, being public enemy no. 1 in the eyes of market research, why we’re not individuals, copying, learning Welsh, what he’s optimistic about in the industry and tons more. In fact, we had to stop and reload a few times to take aim at bollocks brain scans and infantilising the creative genius, before wrangling a stampede of listener questions. What an episode. ///// Find Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter Check out HERD HQ Get your mitts on all Mark’s books: Copy, Copy, Copy Herd Creative Superpowers Welcome to the Creative Age Here’s Strands of Genius guest curated by Giles And ISOLATED Talks If that wasn’t enough, keep an eye out for chances to catch Mark IRL at upcoming The Marketing Society events Timestamps (01:48) - Quick fire questions (02:44) - First jobs, being a tour guide and working with Paul Feldwick (08:38) - Becoming a behavioural science geek (aka becoming HERDmeister) (17:17) - Why we’re wrong to think of ourselves as individuals (22:00) - Stop overlooking the influence of culture (36:32) - Copying and the value of creative triage (48:13) - A shed load of listener questions (53:50) - Why brain scans are bollocks (1:07:07) - How being a lover of both language and languages helps him understand people, communication and culture (cc Lisl Macdonald) (1:31:12) - 4 pertinent posers Mark’s book recommendations are: Why the Germans Do it Better by John Kampfner The Invention of Tradition by Eric Hobsbawn Hooligan by Geoffrey Pearson Books by Jhumpa Lahiri From the Diary of a Snail by Günter Grass /////