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.

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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

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