Following eyewitness reports of stolen genius, we hurtled down the highway to catch ad land’s own Bonnie and Clyde; it’s Rosie and Faris Yakob. 

Together they form Genius Steals, a nomadic creative consultancy helping brands, agencies, and rebels find the awesome at the intersection of new communication ideas, new product concepts, and new ways of thinking. 

They give us the low down on life on the run road, how Rosie earned $10,000 babysitting, ‘Ask Faris’, US vs UK education system, the lack of industry practitioners as professors, engineering moments of in-betweenness, K-shaped recovery, Blair Enns, charging for what you know (not what you do), entertainment as the cost of admission to someone’s brain, the key to creative effectiveness, and a whole lot more. 

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Here’s Genius Steals 
Follow Rosie on Instagram 
And follow Faris on Twitter (yes, he’s still on there)
For our chinwag with Blair Enns, hear here 
Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) by Baz Luhrmann 

Timestamps
(01:44) - Quick fire questions (Ask Jeeves or Ask Faris?)
(03:42) - How Rosie made $10,000 babysitting and her first jobs 
(10:32) - Faris’s beginnings collecting golf balls, management consultancy and working at lads mags  
(18:41) - The education system, subjectivity and outdated teaching methods 
(26:52) - Life on the road and why you shouldn’t be a prisoner to your preferences
(32:47) - Engineering moments of in-betweenness 
(42:08) - Listener questions 
(42:24) - Attention, emotion and the importance of context 
(52:56) - How we can create more effective work
(01:02:00) - Trends for marketers and the emergence of luxury products 
(01:04:50) - 4 pertinent posers 


Rosie and Faris's book recommendations are: 
To Sell is Human by Dan Pink 
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt 
XX by Rian Hughes 
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud 
Stone Junction by Jim Dodge 

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