Oct 30, 2020
Today I am so excited to
introduce you to Tim Ash, his new book Unleash Your Primal Brain
is currently available on presale,
to officially launch in April 2021, but everyone listening now can
order it direct from Tim using the links in the show notes and
you’ll get an autographed copy, which is pretty darn
cool!
Early praise from the book has
come from Robert Cialdini, Jay Baer, Phil Barden, Will Leach, Roger
Dooley, and Nir Eyal (recognize some of those names from past
episodes of the show?).
Forbes has named Tim a Top-10
Online Marketing Expert, and he was also named an Online Marketing
Influencer to Watch by Entrepreneur Magazine. He had his own
podcast, has published over 100 articles, and spoken at more than
200 conferences around the world. His past clients include Google,
Expedia, eHarmony, Facebook, American Express, Canon, Nestle,
Symantec, Intuit, Costco, and many more. I think it’s safe to say,
Tim knows his stuff and I’m honored to have him with me here
today.
You know there are a lot of past
concepts that will come up today (including last week’s
intentionally planned episode on brain chemicals…totally ties in
with understanding the primal brain!) and they’re all linked for
you in the details below!
Show Notes:
- [00:42] Today I am so excited to introduce you
to Tim Ash, his new book Unleash Your Primal Brain
is currently available on presale,
to officially launch in April 2021.
- [03:39] Tim’s interest and fascination with the
brain started very early and were a huge part of his college
studies.
- [05:43] Brains didn’t just pop into
existence. We are the product of evolution and in order to
understand us,
you have to understand the whole evolutionary
art.
- [06:42] Sophisticated brains are at least 500
million years old.
- [07:18] Insects and animals need brains because
we are in a world of movement; brains are really only to help us
think fast enough to survive in the environment (which is why
plants don’t need brains but still develop adaptive
tendencies).
- [07:58] The brain is a very energy-intensive
system.
- [08:29] The body is balancing between
digestive, voluntary movement, and the brain. When you run out of
energy you need sleep and rest.
- [09:08] Whenever we are not doing computation
or planning tasks, we default to modeling our
environment.
- [11:26] One of the key insights in Tim’s book
is understanding that we made an evolutionary bet on culture
spread. We can learn more from our surrounding tribe by copying
than we can ever in a lifetime of direct experience. That gives us
our tribal edge.
- [13:38] We are born covered in fat and we use
that fat to isolate the neurons in the brain so there’s no
cross-talk or electrical issues.
- [15:15] We get enjoyment by helping others and
transmitting knowledge.
- [18:09] One of the huge puzzles that needed to
be unlocked from an evolutionary standpoint was “Who (and what) do
I learn from?” We want to learn from successful
examples.
- [19:13] We are wired to learn from people that
are most like us.
- [21:17] Once somebody locks into a tribe it is
very hard to have them accept other views. A big task is pulling
towards the center and somehow having a larger circle of
empathy.
- [23:19] When employees embrace different teams
(creating silos) they make it more difficult for the business to be
successful.
- [25:06] Thinking we are individuals and our
happiness matters is a very western idea. Most of the world
thinks more communally.
- [27:06] We are hypersocial animals with a need
for connection. The worst thing you can do to somebody is isolate
them.
- [28:46] Isolation literally drives us
insane.
- [29:37] As teenagers, you are transferring your
allegiance from your parents to your larger group of peers. Parents
have less influence than their peers.
- [32:36] We do a lot of our brain development
out of the womb when it really should be prenatal. It is
really important to make the first five years solid from a
nutritional, sleep, and social attachment standpoint because you
can’t undo it later in life.
- [33:29] Direct experience with other people and
forcing them to walk a mile in other peoples’ shoes is your best
bet for creating good humans.
- [34:08] Primarily storytelling is to simulate
experience and do things we can’t directly do. The other
unestimated reason for storytelling is to maintain cohesion and the
values of our tribe so knowledge spreads faster.
- [35:30] The cultural package determines how we
examine and experience the same story.
- [38:41] Tim’s book really helps us understand
the brain and how that ties into marketing, messages, interpersonal
relationships, and more.
- [40:35] Tim wrote his book to explain the why
behind the brain and behaviors. If you want to understand the why
behind the brain, you have to see how it all
evolved.
- [41:23] Grab Tim’s book here and get an autographed copy (limited time
offer).
- [42:25] It is so important to understand
genetics and history to really understand behavior.
- [44:22] If you haven’t connected with me yet,
please do! I love to give shout outs and spread the love whenever I
can. You can find me, Melina Palmer and follow the company page of
The Brainy Business on LinkedIn, and I’m on all the other socials
as @thebrainybiz.
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