• Strategic Planning
• Problem Solving
• Decision Making
• To-Do Lists
• Vacation Planning
• Developing, Practicing and Delivering Presentations
• Coaching Business Clients and a Host of Brain Related Activities

Here’s a personal story that illustrates this:
I was sitting at my computer one day and received an email from a good friend asking a question.  I can’t remember the question, but I knew the answer so I typed it into the email and clicked the “Send” icon.

Several minutes later, I received a one word response from him: “WOW!”

I looked at that for a moment and thought to myself, “What’s WOW?”  I typed that into the email and sent the question back to him.

Probably ten minutes later I received his answer, which had a profound effect on me.  It read:
“Sometimes you’re so close to your own knowledge base, that is so wide and so deep – You don’t know what you know!”

Think about that statement: “You don’t know what you know!”  It’s true for each and every one of us!

The fact is,
“Your everyday could be someone else’s payday.”
“Your everyday could be someone else’s Ah Hah! moment.”

If you’re Mind Mapping alone, you probably won’t keep probing with questions to yourself like, “What else?” and statements such as “So what.”  Another person, if they’re trained to, will keep digging at you to literally and figuratively get everything on the same Mind Mapping page.  They’ll see qualities, good and not-so-good, in you that you can’t see looking in the mirror.

I always tell prospects and clients that if We Mind Map together, We will develop the maximum number of ideas and solutions to their opportunities and challenges.

What are you so close to that you don’t see?

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1. Mind Map Your Dream Board and. . . A Dream Board can be considered a visual representation of...

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One cool use of Mind Mapping is the Development of your Dream Board.

A Dream Board can be considered a visual representation of goals.  Often people will get a large sheet of poster board and paste pictures from magazines and other sources that represent goals.  Mind Mapping software makes this activity really easy.

“Seeing is Believing” and seeing those objects of our desire embeds the impression in our sub-conscious and, with repeated exposure to the Dream Board, increases the odds we’ll “see” ourselves reaching those goals.

The objects don’t have to represent material goals.  In the Dream Board below, I’ve included volunteer work, giving, and spiritual objectives.

A good friend mentioned Vision Board, another term for Dream Board, to me recently.
That reminded me of one I’d done a few years ago.  I found it and posted it here.

I’m happy to say I’ve attained many of the things on the Dream Board.  A partial list of accomplishments are:

• I finished and published a book, “No Sweat Public Speaking!”
• I’ve been fortunate to have promoted it on radio and TV.
• I’m doing volunteer work, coaching unemployed and under employed professionals on their public speaking and presentation skills.
• On one of my other blogs, “No Sweat Public Speaking!” I’ve published a new article (post) each week for over two years.
• We’ve done some traveling, domestic and international.

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Click on Mind Map to Enlarge

This Mind Map was developed for a Presentation to be delivered to an Open House at a Toastmaster Club.

Read it by starting at 12:00 and going clockwise.

“See” how much easier it is to look at an icon vs. black and white text.  I “know my stuff” so I just need a reminder of each nugget.

I won’t go thru the entire presentation, but here are a few “Nuggets.”

1.  You are not alone! 75% of the population suffers from glossophobia, the fear of public speaking.  It is a word, not a disease, and it can be controlled!

2a.  You really never want to get rid of the butterflies in your stomach. A little nervous energy is good.  You want those butterflies to fly in formation!

2b. Never, Never, Never tell the audience you are nervous.  They will be looking for it and it could become a self-fulling prophecy.

3a. Arrive early at the event to Meet & Greet people who will be in the audience.  You will be amazed at how much easier it is to present to people you’ve already met.

3b. Name Tags make the Meet & Greet much easier.  They close the gap between people by reaching out and pulling you in.

More information at “No Sweat Public Speaking!

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34 Power Point Slides or 1 Mind Map. You Choose!

Here’s a perfect example of why you might consider Mind Mapping your presentation to an audience rather than using slide after slide.

I just consulted with a company that was announcing it’s New Vision to all employees.  They had prepared 34 slides, with graphics, that explained everything in the New Vision.

The slides were not great, but OK.  (The branding on practically all the slides added clutter.  Clean & Simple is the mantra for slides.  Very little text – Good! Few bullet points – Yea!)

One of the challenges with the slide show was that it wasn’t easily understood how the entire plan fit together.  There was not a picture from above showing all the relationships.

Mind Mapping the presentation shows the BIG Picture.  This is important to all concerned so they see how all the pieces of the New Vision fit together.

The main parts of the Mind Map are shown in sequence, then the accompanying subsets.  When the next component is show, the other subsets disappear so attention is drawn to what is being discussed.

The final Mind Map slide shows how it all fits together!

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This visual, showing some of the many use of Mind Mapping, was made with Wordle. Try it!

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Each week, one of the members delivers a ‘Mentoring Minute of the Week‘.  It was my turn today, and I developed this Mind Map for that purpose.  (My description is below the map.)

CLICK to Enlarge

“Let’s get Back to Basics”
in our personal dealings with
Prospects, Clients, and Business Associates.”

• Return phone calls
• Reply to Emails.
  • Even if it’s just ‘Thanks’, reply to each legitimate Email you receive.
• Write ‘Thank You’ Notes.  Make them the old fashion kind that are actually hand written by you, placed in an envelope, and mailed to someone who did something to benefit you.
• Confirm Appointments the day before they are scheduled.
• Get to all appointments early.  (If you’re not five minutes early, you’re late!)
• Thank people who give you referrals and update them on the progress of those referrals.
  • If it turns into business for you, consider sending a gift card with your ‘Thank You’ note.
• Pay invoices in a timely manner.
• Limit the amount of ‘Free Consulting’ you give and you ask for.
  • This is how many of us make money.  Our time and advice is our stock in trade and those giving it should be compensated.

All of the above seem obvious to many.  But, trust me, you will stand out from others when you do them!

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• Color
  • The lines and objects can be color coded.  This makes it easy to differentiate between the different sections of you Mind Map.
    • For instance, I use the following coding for many maps
      • Blue – Personal
      • Red – Problem Areas or Potential Problems
      • Green – Opportunities (Green – the color of money!)
      • Black – Business
    • That simple coding has served me well for many years.  It allows me to see those four large aspects of each day on one map.
• Line (Branch) Thickness
  • Thicker lines, radiating from the center and connected to objects, are the higher priority items to deal with.
  • Thinner lines connect to objects with lesser priority.
  • Because everything radiates from the center, objects (items) closer to the center are more important and have a higher priority than items further from the center.
    • This helps prevent spending Major Time on Minor Priorities.  Everything on the map has to be accomplished, but as Stephen Covey says in ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, “First things first!”
• Graphics
  • A picture (or graphic), for many people, is worth a 1000 words.
    • For instance, just the shape of a STOP or YIELD sign usually instantly gives a message to the person seeing that distinctive design.
• Links
  • One of the many benefits Mind Mapping software offers is the ability to link objects to documents, urls, and other Mind Maps.
    • This enhancement makes it possible to go ‘layers’ deep in the explanation and research or individual objects on your map.

Use the above ideas to get the maximum benefits from your Mind Map!

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We live in busy times.  Most of us have lots going on in our personal and professional lives.

Click to Enlarge

A Mind Map allows us to:

• See the BIG Picture of everything that’s going on.
• Prioritize tasks.
• The ability to √ check things off as they get completed.
• Plus add tasks to be done as they arise.

All of that ‘stuff” in one place keeps us on track and more productive.  It let’s us ‘see’, and update and prioritize tasks as things change, and they’re always changing – correct?

The Personal Items might include:

• Play at school.
• Working out.
• Bringing car to the shop.
• Meeting with contractor about remodeling kitchen.

Business Items could be:

• Prepare for client meeting Friday.
• Prepare ad for new admin person.
• Start a Strategic Planning Mind Map for the next quarter.

A additional benefit of using software for this Personal/Professional Mind Map is having hyperlinks to documents, urls, and other Mind Maps.  Linking to the specifics of an item on the map gives the detail, background, etc. so searching other places isn’t necessary.  It’s all there!

I often use a Mind Map for my daily To-Dos.  I color code them for business and personal, and use the thickness of connecting lines to emphasize importance.

Develop your own Mind Maps.  The important thing is finding a system for using them that works for you!

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Of course!

Almost nothing is be more frustrating than trying and trying to express your thoughts, but not having people understand your message.

One reason is that people learn in different ways.

• Some are Visual Learners.
  • They need to literally see the message.
    • Mind Maps and other visuals are helpful to these people.  Often, they “Get It!” as soon as they see the visual representation of the message you’re delivering.
      • Around 65% of the population learns best visually.
• Others are Auditory Learners.
  • Actually hearing a message imprints the message in the hard drive of their brain better than just reading or seeing something.  They’ll learn by repeating, out loud, what they have read, and benefit from software that ‘reads and speaks’ to the them.
  • Reading out loud, rather than silently, has a greater impact on them.
    • About 20% of the populations learns this way.
• And some people Learn Kinesthetically.
  • These people learn best by actually doing a physical activity.  They might read a recipe about baking a cake, but unless they: beat the eggs, add the milk, mix them all together, and eventually pour the mixture into a pan and place in an oven, they won’t truly learn much.’
    • Approximately 15% of us learn kinesthetically.

Even though we predominantly fall into one of these learning categories, we all learn, to a certain extent, in all these ways.  The importance of this to a presenter to to realize their message must be geared to all in the audience.

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