Brainstorming Made Easy

By: Kamari Guthrie, In Her Shoes Contributor

My friends never understand why I hate talking on the phone but will text, IM, or e-mail you all day long. My reasoning is quite simple. I am a visual communicator. I write much more eloquently than I speak and I’m much more satisfied with the words coming out of my mouth—ehem…fingers—when they are written.

So for visual learners like me, you will LOVE the newest techy program I’ve discovered. If you’ve been brainstorming a plot for the novel you’ve been longing to write, can’t quite map out your business marketing plan or simply need to get some professional feedback on your thoughts, try mind-mapping. Mind-mapping is the most effective way of combining the creativity of your left-brain and logic of your right-brain to create an organized chart to track your brainstorming. Black Enterprise recently called it “high-level brainstorming,” as it connects your creative ideas in logical ways that make it easy and, more importantly, less daunting for you to begin connecting to resources and acting on ideas that you’ve been unable to bring to fruition.

Using programs such as Mindjet’s Mind Manager or Mindmeister make it easy for you to map out that entrepreneurial plan you’ve kept crumbled in your back pocket for so long.

It’s always hard to hit the ground running on a big idea without properly mapping it out—many times you end up crashing because you’re so overwhelmed by how to make it work. With mind mapping you can visualize your ideas, connect them to the proper resources to make it happen and even virally share them with those who you trust to provide great feedback.

Like my father and entrepreneurial role model always said: if you’ve got a great idea, visualize it, write down, study it and go!