Wednesday, July 8, 2020

Mention the $$$ value of Visual Mapping and people magically listen

Mention the $$$ value of Visual Mapping and people magically listen.

Have you ever felt you’re just speaking into an echo chamber and hearing your own voice say blah, blah, blah? And if I’ve experienced this, then I’m sure you’ve experienced it too.

The visual mapping arena has rather awesome thought leaders within it, and those of whom I know personally have all experienced the phenomena of speaking knowledge mapping truths and no one is really interested or even listens.

That is until we mention “hey you can actually monetize your information and knowledge”.
Holy shit, the stampede begins right after you say that; doesn’t it?

We often speak of creating relevancy, managing effectively and exchanging at cost. Yup that word cost just gets them right off the bat. “Cost you say; how do I do that?” is the cry and it’s a loud cry.

We’ve certainly shared the tools, methods and mind-set of visual mapping over the years; haven’t we? And I would say for the most part it has been a great success; not only monetary success for us but in an academic/training way too.

The absolute joy of training someone to become a more effective information handler and knowledge manager via the tools we use, the methods we teach and the monetizing opportunities we share is priceless to both us and our customers.

As knowledge architects we build frameworks for our colleagues and clients that can be built upon and exponentially expanded upon too. At the base level we help people become more in control of the apparent maelstrom they get themselves into regarding personal, academic and business issues that often overwhelm them.

OMG I often think I should have officially studied psychology; as it’s clear at all levels of involvement within this arena, we seem to be pseudo psychologists who kind of baby sit our clients into a place of calm, clarity and control.

The skill-set of visual mapping does seem to be very prominent, in particular, within the personal development arena. I’ve come across many colleagues who are personal coaches and they all use a form of visual mapping from Mind Maps to Goalscapes, to flowcharts and also info graphics. So these colleagues are true visual mappers who use the ever expanding tool-box full of relevant graphical formats to create, manage and share (exchange) appropriate linear and non-linear information and knowledge.

The monetizing though, that gets many super interested.

I use two products that have allowed me to monetize much of my training work. They are Mindjet MindManager (I use a legacy version) and TheBrain.

MindManager is a behemoth of a graphical mapping product that has endured for many years and has evolved into possibly the only visual mapping information management and presentation tool you’ll ever need.

And then there’s TheBrain (Developed by The Brain Technologies), it’s a pretty damn awesome product that drives past any highly developed product I know of to date that is a true knowledge mapper.

Monetizing your information and knowledge using these two products?

MindManager has an HTML5 output that allows the user to package as much information, data and associated attachments into a visual map and then package it as the HTML file format. This is a rather good way of packaging content for sale to clients. Take a look at the product and discover what this output can do for your monetizing of your information.

TheBrain enables the user (subscription required) to sync what you create from desktop to device via a very secure cloud storage system. This allows you to create a Brain, load it with as much information and knowledge as you like. Sync it to the cloud, sign into the cloud version and choose to share by way of a customized link that you can also unshare too (total control).

I create information/knowledge packages using both MindManager and TheBrain methods for  clients. I sell them directly to clients via  the HTML5 output and equally I do the same using TheBrain method too via cloud.

At the time of this writing, I am continuing to use and abuse a very interesting product/service called Thortspace (TS). It has given me a new and different perspective on how we may create, manage and share information and knowledge that is complete;y free from the hierarchical approach of all other graphical knowledge mapping products. It's actually a brilliant and even genius product and approach and a further 3D type of approach to visualizing your graphical knowledge work. I look forward to seeing what TS becomes and am currently enjoying using it to discover how it may fit into my software portfolio for personal, academic and business work and models. I am hoping to discover how I may also monetize information and knowledge packages using TS. To date I am rather new to the product and may report back if and when I find a way to monetize and package.

I encourage you to investigate these three products.

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