#tom asacker

[dustlines]

Who we think we are is why we do what we do.

Tom Asacker, Why TED Talks don’t change people’s behaviors

[rosasay]

Instead of resolutions, Tom Asacker offers 9 predictions meant to challenge you. Do better, and be your greatest self all through 2015, and you will prove him wrong.

For example,

3. Most people will sit quietly in their seats and watch life unfold around them. 

A New Yorker magazine cartoon made it comically clear: There’s a lot that we all want to experience, but not much that we actually want to do. Most of us simply want to go along to get along and enjoy the ride. Well, the ride is slowing to a crawl. And when it starts back up, it’ll be a much different ride. What kind of ride? The best way to know that is to put yourself in charge of creating it. Grab the wheel and get moving. Let the pull of what excites you and what you care most deeply about be your guide.

“The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.” —Robert Frost

[torrentto]

The Business of Belief: How the World's Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe

Tom Asacker - The Business of Belief: How the World's Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe

In this thought-provoking and entertaining book, Tom Asacker, author of Sandbox Wisdom and A Clear Eye for Branding, pulls back the curtain on the workings of the mind and reveals the hidden logic to motivating behavior, both in ourselves and in others.

Whether you are launching a new brand or marketing campaign, selling products and services, coaching individuals or leading a team, this book will shatter your assumptions about leadership and the art of influence, and give you the invaluable insights required to understand and move others.

The Business of Belief is Tom Asacker's most compelling-and important-book yet. It will fundamentally change the way you think about your work and your life. Use it as your companion and as a guide in this fast-paced world overwhelmed by complexity and choice.

The next big idea in business is BELIEF.

"This is a short book. But I hope it takes you, like me, a long time to read it. The Business of Belief earns the word 'profound'—every sentence should be savored." —Tom Peters

"Is this about marketing, life, spirituality, history, change or sales? Yes. A little book with a big idea." —Seth Godin, author of The Icarus Deception

"This instant classic provides the key to motivating yourself, your friends, your family, your coworkers and your customers. A must read." — Inc. Magazine

The Author

Tom Asacker is often described as a catalyst and a nonconformist. He is a strategic advisor, an internationally acclaimed speaker, and the author of six books.

Beyond his success as a speaker and author, Tom is a former corporate executive and an accomplished entrepreneur. He is a recipient of the George Land Innovator of the Year Award. He holds medical patents and product design awards and is recognized by Inc. magazine, MIT, and the Young Entrepreneurs' Organization as a past member of their Birthing of Giants entrepreneurial executive leadership program.

Today Tom helps professionals and organizations grow their brands by connecting deeply with the feelings and beliefs of their audiences, and by creating value that truly improves their lives.

Reader Reviews

[moseetubtim]

[dk-thrive]

Breaking out of our spirit-sucking routines

Face it:  We are either breaking out of our spirit-sucking routines and breaking through to new insights and experiences, or we are breaking down.  So when the opportunity to step out of your comfort zone arrives, and it will definitely come, take it.  Say no to the sure thing and say yes to a creative challenge.  Say no to short-term comfort producing activities, and say yes to fear, passion and leadership.

-Tom Asacker

[dk-thrive]

We eventually see what we look for

The English biologist John Lubbock wrote, “What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” Where you are and what you attend to conditions what you see. If you look for beauty, ideas and meaning, you’ll find it. If you look for data, statistics and shortcomings, you’ll find them. If you want to see new, you have to experience new. Now it may take time for your old eyes to adjust to the new world. So I’d revise Lubbock’s words slightly. “We eventually see what we look for.” Stay focused and be patient. If you’re looking with the right intentions. And you’re looking in the right places. The answers will appear.

~ Tom Asacker

[dk-thrive]

...It is impossible to hit a major league fastball (try it). 

Yet those driven by their beliefs are busy warming up for another day on their field of dreams. Because they've flipped their lids. They've reversed their default mental programming. They've discovered that breakthrough achievement is about belief, then perception. Conviction, then action. Magic, then logic. Heart, then head. They know that seeing isn't believing. Believing is seeing.

 ~ Tom Asacker

[rosasay]

Business isn’t an arms length, abstract creation. Business is reality, it’s life. We’re here to see, to feel, and to create with, and for, others. We must immerse ourselves in our audience’s world, so that we have access to real-world information and insights. We must look with fresh eyes and feel with childlike wonder and compassion.

Tom Asacker talks about the fantasy world we in business seem to be living within today: Back to Reality

His short essay is offered as a 1-page PDF download too, and would make for an interesting talk story within your team next huddle.

I think the "perceptual maps" he speaks of in his essay are a safer place for us too (even though we feel we're working to grapple with a future full of unknowns): We can hide in that kind of work, versus what we spoke of on Talking Story yesterday:

Managers are playing it safe, and that’s bad news for all of us. The inventive, edgy work borne from fresh ideas doesn’t happen where managers play it safe. ~ Your Edge comes from your Inconvenience