I came across mind mapping years ago and it’s always helped me to see an overall plan in a great visual way. Always. If you’re not familiar with mind mapping, what is it? Well, if you’ve ever drawn out a diagram on a napkin or piece of paper, that’s what I’m talking about, but now, it’s in a more modern, computer generated sort of way. A Mind Map is an easy way to brainstorm your thoughts and plans and allows you to visually structure your ideas so you can see from a different angle how your plan will play out. This is great for those that don’t retain things well from just black and white print or from reading a business plan. I’ve also just recently learned that mind mapping is great for those with dyslexia because it’s more of a graphical representation of a plan, then textual. The Mind Map is a diagram that visually represents tasks, concepts, or items linked to and arranged around a central concept. A Mind Map can turn a long list of boring information into a more colorful, memorable and highly organized diagram that works in line with your brain's natural way of doing things. Enter in the Main Topic, Brainstorm your idea or other topics and Create main branches to your topic. Don’t worry about the order of the topics. Create Sub-Topics. Elaborate on your topics by creating sub-topics. Make sure to use very short phrases or even single words. And when you use software to make your mind map, you don’t run out of “space”, as you tend to do with larger mind maps on paper. Some commercial mind mapping software tools enable you to export your mind map to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Project etc. without re-entering information. You can even use it for better visual presentations or video recordings too. I use Loom to record my videos, and if you use mind map software, you can record the screen as you go over the different sections of the mind map and make your presentation more interesting, instead of using the same old boring PowerPoint. I recently watched a webinar by Ray Edwards and he did this. Just zoomed in to the different branches of his mind map in the video and it made it the webinar a lot easier to watch. So, how else can you use mind mapping. Well, for starters, I use it for pretty much the same topics in my business plan, but in a visual way. The central theme is my business, NET Essentials, and from there, I have all of the main branches of the business: ·       Website ·       Podcast ·       Coaching ·       Webinars ·       Marketing And then, from each one of those main topics, I’ve got branches of sub-sub topics on the overall details that relate to that topic. For webinars, I’ve got free and paid webinars (some of this is in the works). But it lays out the plan for the future and I get to move things around. I was just in one of my mind maps a little while ago and I renamed a coaching program that I have because the original one in the mind map didn’t work out so well. And if you’re into marketing funnels, then mind mapping is probably already part of your marketing plan. You can map out the customer experience and the path you want them to take. Throw in some details about how you want them to feel, through their customer journey if you want. But also, in the marketing realm, you can map out each marketing funnel as well with a diagram for how you’re going to move people through the ‘know/like/trust/try/buy’ process. Putting it in a mind map using software is a great way to quickly move the details around without the need for 50 color coded sticky notes on the wall (I’ve done that by the way). And hey, if you’re into the 3-4 colored sticky notes and you like the old fashioned way of how you can write on them and move them around on the wall, then that’s great. Some people like the old fashioned way. Go ahead. Have fun. But if you’re looking for a better way. A more modern way, then there’s more than a few software opt