122: Why we're wrong to think of ourselves as individuals with the HERDmeister, Mark Earls

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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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