Mark Gardiner

In 2002, I dropped out of the advertising business for the first time. I moved to the Isle of Man, where I lived and trained, with the goal of qualifying for the world's oldest, most famous - and most dangerous! - motorcycle race: the Isle of Man TT. My memoir of riding in the TT, Riding Man, has been sold out in print for a while, but it's available on Kindle. I was the subject of the acclaimed documentary film One Man's Island, and that story is now in development as a feature film by Escape Artists. In 2011, I spent a year working for Trader Joe's, and wrote Build a Brand Like Trader Joe's, which is both an insider's account of life in this very secretive company, and a marketing text on the subject of building a cultural brand. I blog on motorcycle topics at www.bikewriter.com, on marketing and communications at www.RevolutionaryOldIdea.com, and about autonomous vehicles at www.HAVstory.com, my work is also found on Revzilla.com's 'Common Tread' motorcycle blog, and occasionally in the New York Times. Although I'm best known for my writing about motorcycles and the advertising business, the first book I ever wrote, Year of the Raven, is about flyfishing. If you love fishing, I think you will find it one of the most realistic accounts of the satisfactions and frustrations of that sport. I currently live in Kansas City.