The Underlying Blog

ROICopy's Blueprint to Caffeinating your Product (Re)launch is Beckoning

Okay, cue the doves: Walter over at ROICopy has put out an ESSENTIAL blog post for those of you doing online marketing. Life's a busy thing, and sometimes we neglect the very essence of our living, the vitality of our product marketing. I know I'm guilty of this at times, and I'm guessing you may be as well. And with a sense of the general pulse of online marketing, Walter begins with a frightening story I think will resonate with all of us.

Damn, what I love about his post is how quickly you can get going! I think we've all read thousand page manifestos we'll have time to implement when the pigs fly and Britney Spears is out of the news. This is killer stuff you can start on tonight (with caffeine) or tomorrow (I'll still take the caffeine). I'll even go so far as to assert he's giving you the keys to the kingdom in the post, because I've seen him in action and these techniques will take you from Tempo to Lambo when implemented with skill. 

I'd be putting a mustache on the Mona Lisa if I didn't shut up and point you to his high-level blueprint for profitability he's letting you read for FREE:

Relaunching Your Product - My Quickie Strategy Guide

And yes, I will be eating what I'm recommending (cheesy potatoes... and the above). Start now and it'll give you one helluva a platform to launch into 2008 with.

Technorati tags: Kyle McFarlin, Visual Strategist, Britney Spears, relaunching products, marketing strategy, reboot sales, marketing plan, product launch campaign, article marketing, pay-per-click campaign, information blog, client top secret, provocateur, Walter Terry, ROI Copywriting, copywriter, marketing strategist

Teilhard de Chardin Must be Poppin Bottles in His Grave over this MindManager Map

So my ego was huge from what I assumed had to be one of the largest map bodies in history, the VSS (Visual Strategist Solution) template set. So smooth, so sexy, you should really download it now for free and sign-up for the newsletter as well.

Nevertheless, I think I've been displaced size-wize (Content-wise, I'm the Ghostbusters of this field... Arrogance-alert bracelet exploding). As Melinda Venable reports, the history of the world's information is being mapped on a MindManager map in Second Life by George Kurtz. Printed out, it would measure 120 feet by 500 feet.

Yours is bigger. I surrender.

Checkout the article and be sure to download the Visual Information Map:

http://blog.mindjet.com/2007/09/capturing-the-world%E2%80%99s-information-in-one-giant-map

Personally, I think they should do a follow-up article on the tech specs of the machine he's running all of this on. Going through my maps when they're too large is like watching a poorly executed robot dance routine.

Want to know who Teilhard de Chardin was? Look here.

Technorati tags: Kyle McFarlin, VSS, Visual Strategist, Visual Strategist Solution, Melinda Venable, George Kurtz, Yours is Bigger, Teilhard de Chardin, Humor, Second Life

Great Productivity Tool List... Why am I not on It?

Codswallop recently put out a meat and potatoes, ultra-robust list of 131 tools which can make you more productive and improve skin quality (the latter point is a lie). And while I encourage such insight, such consolidation of awesome tools in an often fragmented Internet your brain typically fries trying to find, I take serious, serious offense at my lack of inclusion on the list.

Codswallop, I hold you up as a beacon, and simultaneously hope you find enlightenment, including me on all future lists.

Okay, all jokes aside, great job Codswallop. I'm far too lazy too assemble such a finely crafted, comprehensive list. I'd be talking about food full-time by point 3.

In case you do find the light Codswallop, that's Kyle McFarlin at VisualStrategist.com. Voted Mind Mapping's sexiest mapper 3 years running by absolutely no one.

Checkout the list here.

Technorati tags: Codswallop, 131 Tools List, Kyle McFarlin, Visual Strategist, VSS, Visual Strategist Solution, MindManager, Gyronix, ResultsManager, Mind Mapping

A Thought Virus Worth Catching... via Webinar

'MindManager helps you find three hours a week' from the Value of an Hour.

Okay, you give me 3 hours a week back, and I'm going to watch Scarface in French... who's with me? What would I do week 2? Watch it in Mandarin. Week 3 is Scarface in German. I'm off topic...

Anywho, this is a smashing webinar to watch. I've recently had the pleasure of getting to know Mindjet's Midwest Lead Account Executive, Denny Sikkila. He introduced me to his Learning Module, The Value of an Hour, and I've become smitten with the simple elegance of the message. His colleague at Mindjet, Michael Pricer, is co-host of the webinar. Why should we care? They talk about Dashboards, which you know I'm obsessed with. They also make the connection between MindManager and getting more time in Covey's Quadrant 2, which is worth, oh, basically everything to anyone rocketing toward self-actualization.

The reason 'Value of an Hour' is a historic milestone for Mindjet is it lets business users know clearly and concisely the benefits they'll derive from using MindManager on a consistent basis, starting NOW. In full disclosure, even with hundreds/thousands of hours training people on MindManager & ResultsManager, I've struggled at times to give that elevator pitch that makes people just say, 'yeah, that's it!'. So, I'll be stealing theirs (Cheshire cat grin).

The webinar even originated with a customer in Ohio. God bless my home state and the cheesy potatoes it blesses me with. It infuriates me there is no wikipedia article to link to on cheesy potatoes. I am positively going off subject.

Okay, gluttony smothered (in cheese) for the moment... and... we're back...

Denny & Michael, insightful job. I toast my watching A Charlie Brown Christmas everyday in December with those 3 hours a week I'll have to burn.

You can check out The Value of an Hour Webinar here.

 

Technorati tags: Mindjet Sales, Value of an Hour, Denny Sikkila, Michael Pricer, MindManager, Kyle McFarlin, Covey, Quadrant 2, Scarface, Cheesy Potatoes, Charlie Brown, Christmas

Prayer 2 of a Lonely Map Topic

Dear God,

I come to you as I did last week: While Kyle builds himself the ultimate life Death Star in visual maps, we're ignored. I hope he is doing well, even though we never see him in our map.

I hope he pays attention to the people in his life because he's not paying attention to all of the topics in his maps.

That God is good and good will always win... My hope is built on nothing less.

Technorati tags: Kyle McFarlin, Mindmanager, VSS, Visual Strategist Solution, God, Prayer, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, Star Wars, Death Star

A Video of Me Teaching Mind Mapping

A large amount of my client meetings are spent behind a computer screen in a GoToMeeting. Therefore, many of you clients have no idea what I move like, my gestures, etc.

...So I thought you might appreciate a video of me teaching a particularly difficult client*.

*Not for the easily offended.

Technorati tags: Kyle McFarlin, Visual Strategist, GoToMeeting, Humor

Prayer 1 of a Lonely Map Topic

Dear God,

I pray tonight that Kyle someday finds me. I've been stuck in this Input section of a MindManager map that hasn't seen the LCD light in so long. Darkness is everywhere and hope is fading among my sibling topics.

Is this what Thomas Barnett speaks of when he talks of the Core nations? Why was it MY fortune to be created in a pre-VSS, Gap map? The other Core VSS maps are heaven while I rot, never to find my destined topic tree.

Will I ever be found? Will I ever find? I thought GTD would save me... aren't I supposed to be processed? But Kyle's island hopping, acting more like Nimitz and MacArthur than David Allen. The only rules have become the gray. The parent topics used to tell us to have faith. Now we comfort them.

Still I pray that God is good and good will always win... My hope is built on nothing less.

Technorati tags: Kyle McFarlin, Mindmanager, VSS, Visual Strategist Solution, Thomas Barnett, God, Prayer, Chester Nimitz, Douglas MacArthur, David Allen, GTD, My Hope is Built on Nothing Less

Mindjet Trainer Certification Survives Arrogant Student

Well, I went to Mindjet Trainer Certification in Detroit last week. Matt Mansinne wasn't there. He apparently left Mindjet recently. I wish him all the best in his future endeavors and regret we didn't get the opportunity to do training together.

With the departure of Matt, Mindjet is understandably in limbo about how Certified Trainers fit into their business strategy. Nevertheless, Mindjet's sales reps were encouraging that the program will increasingly play a larger part of enterprise solution sales. This makes good sense to me, as the trainers will inevitably become rusty if they don't deliver training frequently in varied settings.

About the training itself, Day 1 was a Fundamentals Course where the basics were taught. I think I reverted to arrogant student mode a bit too much, because Day 2 it was the students' turn to deliver the materials. I don't think I did so hot, mostly because I thought I'd be too-cool-for-school and use Shortcut Keys instead of point-and-click. That's all well and good, but I forgot I was hypothetically teaching a room full of newbies and was a bit clunky. I still passed, but what an amateur hour mistake to make...

So with reluctance, I bestow upon myself the 'Kyle S. McFarlin Jackass of Last Week Award'. Prizes include grilled Kentucky Fried Chicken and Windows Millennium Edition.

Yet as U. S. Grant said after grievous setbacks after the first day of the Battle of Shiloh in the American Civil War, 'Lick'em tomorrow though.'

 

Technorati tags: Matt Mansinne, Mindjet Training, Mindjet, MindManager, Kyle McFarlin, The Civil War, U. S. Grant

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