The Brainy Business | Understanding the Psychology of Why People Buy | Behavioral Economics

124. Unleash Your Primal Brain, An Interview with Tim Ash

Oct 30, 2020

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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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