Biggerplate Member Story: Catherine Franz

July 30th, 2010

Biggerplate, The Visual Thinking Library, recently featured Catherine Franz, author of Out of the Blog, Into the Light blog in their Member Story Series.

It is a great article about Catherine Franz and her interests.  I’ve enjoyed her mindmaps on Biggerplate for a while.  So, it was great to learn more about the person.  I encourage you take a look at some of her mindmaps on Biggerplate.  She does great work.

As is stated in the article:

Catherine has certainly got into the spirit of the site [Biggerplate], and has (to date) uploaded 16 maps and generated over 2000 downloads. Her most popular upload so far has been her “Plan for Developing a Success Mindset” but the range of topics covered by her maps includes advice for aspiring writers (40 Writing Ideas to Pull from Life), social media and online marketing advice (Online Tone of Voice) and general business know-how (Where to get endless referrals).

Previous Biggerplate Member Stories have included Luciano Passuello, author of the ever popular Litemind blog and myself.

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Download Mindmaps, Increase Productivity

July 18th, 2010

It used to be that mindmaps were simply about organizing your thoughts spatially with pictures and colors on a piece of paper. Of course, there is still benefit in that. The benefits of mindmapping on a single sheet of paper have been well documented by Tony Buzan in his work on mindmapping.

However, with mindmapping software, mindmapping is a great deal more than that. Today, you can organize and manage all sorts of information quickly and efficiently to increase your productivity.

For many, however, the challenge with increasing productivity comes when trying to create midnmaps using the software. With most mindmapping software programs when you click “new” to create a new map, there is just a blank screen with a central topic box in the middle. This can be rather daunting if you’ve never created a mindmap using mindmapping software.

This is where mindmap libraries can help.

There are mindmap libraries where you can download other people’s mindmaps to create your own. By using other people’s mindmaps as a starting point, you’re able to quickly add and delete topics and sub-topics to create your own unique mindmap. This process of reviewing and editing mindmaps created by other people also gives you insight into the program features they used to create the map. This expands your knowledge of the software.

To find mindmap libraries, simply Google “mind map libraries”.

I recommend Biggerplate.com. That is where I download most of my mindmaps. I also upload mindmaps there as well. Back in February of this year, I wrote a blog post entitled “Biggerplate: A Great Place to Get Mindmaps“.

Since joining Biggerplate.com in 2008, I’ve uploaded 23 mindmaps on a wide-range of topics including financial management, time management, book reviews, and other topics. Apparently my mindmaps are providing value on Biggerplate.com, as I was recently informed by Biggerplate staff that I am the #2 contributor by download with my mindmaps being downloaded a total of 9,329 times as of July 12, 2010.

So, go to Biggerplate.com and download some mindmaps (they don’t have to be mine) to get started mindmapping. Search on topics that interest you and find a map to get started creating your own mindmaps. Also, if you’ve created mindmaps that you’re willing to share, by all means upload it to the community. As the saying goes, “It’s better to give, than to receive.”

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Guest Post: A Mind Map Diet

July 15th, 2010

I’ve watched my morbidly obese father struggle for decades with his weight. This unbelievably intelligent man has run several successful businesses, but can’t seem to figure out how to shed the pounds he needs to live a healthy life. After trying every diet on the market, failing (multiple times), knowing that losing weight is undeniably psychological, I suggested Mind Mapping how to eat, exercise and live.

Breaking it Down

Scientists have proven that men concentrate on one thing at a time while women are born multi-taskers, so Mind Mapping can work for either gender. Beginning on a blank sheet of paper, in the center, we wrote down his goal, “to lose weight”. Connected to this goal are several related sub topics such as “healthy foods I like”, “foods to avoid”, “exercise” and “reasons to lose weight”. This separation of subjects helps your brain to break down and figure out ways to achieve the ultimate goal of weight loss and healthy living.

Constant Reminders

Connecting the next step sub topics are the “reminders”, for example, attached to “reasons to lose weight” are topics like “playing with my grandson”, “to feel better” and “to live longer”. Drawing pictures of these foods and using visual photos on the map also helps you to remember what you should and should not be doing. Although he is perfectly aware of these things, seeing something in its simplest form on a tangible piece of paper, helps to keep this goal and how to reach this goal at the forefront of your mind. This latest form of simple self help may sound elementary, but has helped many people lose weight and keep the weight off. As for my dad, thanks to Mind Mapping, he is seven pounds lighter and that’s seven pounds more than any other past diet has helped him lose!

About the Author: Alexis Bonari is a freelance writer and blog junkie.  She is currently a resident blogger at onlinedegrees.org, researching areas of online colleges.  In her spare time, she enjoys square-foot gardening, swimming, and avoiding her laptop.

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The Trust Agents Mindmap

July 9th, 2010

Recently, I finished reading “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. I purchased the book because I wanted to gain a better understanding of social media tools and techniques.

After reading the book, I can say without a doubt it provides all kinds of strategies and approaches for effectively leveraging social media. But there was something else I gained from the book that was unexpected.

The authors provided me with a much better understanding of the true potential of the web as it relates to helping people and working more constructively with others.

Though the authors provide detailed explanations of how to leverage Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, what is perhaps more interesting (and important) is their discussion of the Internet as a tool for providing value to others.

This idea of “being human” and doing right by others is a central theme that runs throughout the book. And it is this part, if embraced by enough people, that can transform the way we use the Internet.

In the book, they share their knowledge and experience via six major concepts:

  1. Make Your Own Game
  2. One of Us
  3. Archimedes Effect
  4. Agent Zero
  5. Human Artist
  6. Build Armies

I’ve created a mindmap that summarizes these key concepts:

(Click on Mindmap to Enlarge)

I highly recommend this book. It is one of those books that will expand your thinking about the Internet and social media. But perhaps more important than that, it will expand your thinking about the Internet as a vehicle for helping people and doing good work.

For those interested in downloading the mindmap, go to Biggerplate.com.

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The Mindmap Blog is now a Mindjet “Trusted Voice”

July 7th, 2010

Mindjet

Today The Mindmap Blog was selected as one of 14 to be a Mindjet Trusted Voice.

Mindjet is one of the leading visual mapping software companies in the world with over 1.5 million professionals using their products.

Additionally, major Fortune 100 companies use Mindjet products including 3M, Philips, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, IBM, Wells Fargo, and Siemens.

In Mindjet’s letter to me, they stated:

“It is individuals like you who help to champion the mapping way of life. And because of your dedication to the mapping community we here at Mindjet want to recognize you. You are just one of 14 people receiving this exclusive invitation to join the Mindjet Trusted Voice program.”

I’ve written many posts about Mindjet’s products over the past two years.  I can say from personal experience that their products enable you to increase your productivity and manage information more effectively.  So to be recognized as a “trusted voice” by Mindjet is a special honor.

The Mindmap Blog will now display the “Mindjet Trusted Voice” badge (on the right panel).  Thanks again Mindjet.  I appreciate it.

And obviously I’ll be talking about Mindjet in the future.

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3rd & 4th Quarter Calendar Mindmaps

June 28th, 2010

As we get ready for the third and fourth quarter, I’ve created two mindmaps to help you manage your time and activities.

The mindmaps include months, weeks, and days for the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2010. You can add activities to each day on the mindmap. By expanding and collapsing sections of the map you’re able to see your activities on a daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly basis.

Note: If you plan to track a large number of tasks for a given day, it may be a good idea to create a hyperlink to another map with those activities.

To download the 3rd Quarter Calendar Mindmap, click here.

To download the 4th Quarter Calendar Mindmap, click here.

For a preview of each mindmap, click on the images below to enlarge:

3rd Quarter

4th Quarter

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Chuck Frey on the Iterative Process of Mindmapping

June 25th, 2010

I am a big fan of Chuck Frey.  He has done a lot to advance the broader use of mindmapping.  Particularly as it relates to mindmapping software.  Just take a look at his blog, Mindmapping Software Blog, to see what I mean.

Recently, Chuck wrote a post called “50 web content buzz builders - in a mindmap format“.  The mindmap and the list of “buzz builders” is useful.  However, it is his discussion about the iterative process of mindmapping that was particularly useful!  I agree with him on this 100 percent.

One of the great benefits of mindmapping software is that it allows you to quickly organize and re-organize information.  As you see the information spatially you are able to uncover connections between the topics and subtopics that you often don’t see in a linear format.  This enables you to interact with the information more dynamically.

Chuck puts it this way:

“As I create these maps, an interesting phenomenon tends to happen: As I add each tip to my map, I start to notice topics that are related, that are connected to one another by broader meta-topics. I create first-level topics for each of these big categories, and then drag and drop related topics to it, positioning them as child topics.

Inevitably, by the time I reach the end of the list of tips, I have a few “orphans” – topics that don’t fit neatly into any of my first-level ideas. That forces me to reconsider my classification scheme, and may result in more re-shuffling and refactoring of topics until I’m satisfied that all of the tips have appropriate “homes.”

To learn more and to download Chuck’s 50 web content “buzz builders” mindmap, click here.


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Biggerplate Consulting Leverages Mindmapping

June 23rd, 2010

I am always pleased to see businesses leveraging mindmapping when explaining their services.

One company that does a great job of this is Biggerplate Consulting based in the UK.

One of their services is called Simple Social Media.  This part of the business has three phases:

  1. An Introduction to Social Media
  2. Social Media Strategy Creation
  3. Strategy Implementation

To visually illustrate these phases, they use a mindmap:

(Click on the mindmap to enlarge)

As a potential client you have an immediate high level understanding of their approach to Social Media – with one visual.

And because it is mindmap they can drill down on each component during an engagement with a client.

An excellent use of a mindmap wouldn’t you say?

If you would like to download the mindmap and drill down on the details, click here.

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Finding Your Voice: A Mindmap Inspired by Joy Tanksley

June 21st, 2010

I read a wonderful post a few days ago by Joy Tanksley, author of the Being Joy blog. In it she talks about finding your voice.

I think this idea of finding and expressing your voice is so important. So many times people want to copy other people. But there is truly something to be said about being authentic and real. I think it’s fine to admire other people.

For example, I LOVE the writing of Brian Clark of Copyblogger, Sonia Simone of Remarkable Communications (also Senior Editor at Copyblogger), and Chris Brogan at Chrisbrogan.com. But I don’t want to be Brian Clark, Sonia Simone, or Chris Brogan. Though I admire them, I want to be Chance Brown. They are who they are. I am who I am.

When you read Brian Clark, Sonia Simone, or Chris Brogan their writing is fluid. It flows. This is because they are being authentic. They are being who they are.

And here’s the thing: Sooner or later the world is going to find out who you really are anyway. When you’re trying to be someone else your writing feels and sounds manufactured – like you’re trying to piece together something that’s not you. Instead, express your thoughts how you would naturally express them.

Other people give us energy and inspire us. And that’s a wonderful thing. But don’t try to be someone else. It’s tiring and it doesn’t honor who you are.

So take Joy Tanksley’s advice and follow her 4 steps to finding your ideal voice. I’ve created a mindmap that captures her 4 steps:

(Click on mindmap to enlarge)

If you’re interested, you can download this mindmap at Biggerplate.com.

Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. What do you think?

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Mindmapping Helps Manage Google Search Results

June 17th, 2010

Google is a great search tool.  We’ve all “googled” for something.  Yet, the drawback of Google is managing the search results.

The search results appear as links that, depending on your screen resolution, give you about 9 search results.

Let’s say we were interested in Project Management.  We would type “Project Management” in the Google search box.  This would produce the follow results:

(Click image to enlarge)

However, if we did the same search using MindManager, an industry standard mindmapping program, we could easily increase the search results, to say 20, and it would look like this:

(Click mindmap to enlarge)

Every search result (or sub-topic) on the mindmap contains both an active URL link and a note about the search result.

We can also “refresh” the search with one click.  So, if we saved the mindmap and came back a week later, we could simply click the refresh icon to update search results:

(Click mindmap to enlarge)

So far we’ve just looked at searching for one topic.  But what if we wanted to search for multiple topics?

Doing things the old way, we would have to replace the “Project Management” search with a new search topic.  But with mindmapping we can simply add another search topic to the mindmap.

Let’s say we wanted to add a search for the “iPhone 4” (a pretty hot topic right now).  To do this we simply add a topic called “iPhone 4″ and use MindManager’s Google Search feature to generate our search results.

Our result would look like this:

(Click mindmap to enlarge)

As you can see we are able to keep both search results.  We can also expand or collapse search topics to make room for additional topics.

These two search examples illustrate how mindmapping software enables you take full control of your search results and manage them in ways that extend the value of Google.

I find this incredibly useful when I’m doing research using Google.  What do you think?

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