Elevate your thinking and accelerate your results with visual thinking tools
Clarity. In today’s world of information exhaustion, it’s everyone’s Holy Grail. But it’s hard to achieve, unless you’ve mastered the tools and skills to reach information nirvana.
Make sure your mind mapping software skills are up to today’s unpredictable challenges. Supercharge your skills and consistently achieve clarity with the F.A.S.T. Framework for Effective Mind Mapping course from globally-recognized mind mapping expert Chuck Frey.
Imagine experiencing this transformation:
- You’ll never feel intimidated by the process of creating a business mind map again.
- You’ll feel confident to nurture and develop your ideas from rough concepts to finished plans – within a clear, concise, actionable mind map format
- You’ll be able to capture, organize, distill and share your best thinking and ideas – and make a bigger impact in your work
- You’ll be empowered by a simple process that will help you to be more productive, creative and impactful.
- You’ll have the skills to create persuasive visual diagrams that will wow your boss, impress your coworkers and persuade your clients and customers to support your brilliant insights!
Think, plan and take action on your ideas with less stress and frustration.
In the FAST Framework course, you’ll learn:
- Models to help you create a solid foundation for your mind map with the right first-level topics
- Simple techniques to help you build out the content of your mind map
- How to “step back” from your mind map, assess it and significantly improve both its clarity and value
- Practical ways to embellish your mind map to enhance its meaning and clarity.
Be more confident. Be more effective. Accomplish more – with less frustration!
What's included in this course
5 video lessons that walk you, step-by-step, through the FAST framework
A tutorial that walks you through the process of building a business mind map for a real project – so you understand how to apply what you’ve learned
Questions you can use as “brain prompts” to help you think through the content, structure and key messages of your mind map
Mind map templates to help you get started – faster – using the FAST framework
A checklist – in both linear and mind map form – to ensure that you’re following all the principles and best practices of the FAST framework.
Your instructor
I’m Chuck Frey, the founder and author of Visual Velocity (formerly The Mind Mapping Software Blog), the world’s leading source of news, reviews, advice, research and training on all types of visual tools for over 17 years. I am widely regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on mind mapping tools.
I created this course because it bothered me that so many people seem to get stuck at the basic level of using mind mapping tools – and miss out on so much because they don’t have a simple, proven process to follow.
So built the FAST Framework to help you solve that problem!
Course curriculum
Lesson 1 – Introduction
- Why do so many users of mind mapping software struggle to advance beyond the basics?
- The legend of the Gordian Knot – and why its the perfect metaphor for the challenges of work today
- The changing nature of work – and why it’s essential that you upgrade your mind mapping skills to be successful today
- The 3 must-have qualities that all effective mind maps share
- How frameworks can help you to elevate your proficiency and accelerate your success in many types of work activities
Lesson 2 – Foundation
- What are basic ordering ideas and why are they critically important?
- Why it’s impossible to create clear, concise and useful mind maps without a solid foundation
- Get clear on the objectives of your mind map.
- 5 example mind maps and their purpose – decoded
- 10 types of first-level topics to inspire your thinking
- What’s emergent structure, and why is it wise to incorporate it into your map planning
- How to take your use of templates to the next level of effectiveness
- 7 key questions to help you build a rock-solid foundation for your mind map
- First-level topic FAQs
- Exercise: Let’s build the foundation of a marketing plan mind map
Lesson 3 – Associate
- Why your mind’s associative ability is your secret superpower as you build out your mind map
- 7 techniques for building out the content of your mind maps – including several that are inspired by successful brainstorming techniques
- 5 questions to help you uncover new ideas, knowledge and insights to add to your mind map
- Exercise: Let’s build out our marketing plan mind map
Lesson 4 – Synthesis & Sense-Making
- How to organize, distill and make sense of everything you’ve added to your mind map
- What is synthesis and why is it critical to improving the quality of your mind maps
- Making sense of the nebulous concept of clarity – and 5 rules for achieving it with mind maps
- 5 techniques for synthesizing the contents of your mind maps
- The simple practice that can improve the quality of your mind maps by up to 80%
- Why refactoring is so powerful
- The artist’s technique for sense-making
- 11 questions to help you distill and improve the content of your mind map
- Exercise: Applying what we’ve learned to our marketing plan mind map
Lesson 5 – Transform
- Adding the finishing touches to your mind map that will multiply its utility and value
- The secret value of icons and symbols that make them invaluable in large mind maps
- How to instantly make your mind map more understandable to others
- How to quickly draw attention to specific topics that need it
- 8 types of links that can transform the value of your mind maps
- Why dashboards are the ultimate expression of the power and value of software-produced mind maps
- How to transform your mind map into a visual database with this little-known capability of high-end mind mapping tools
- The importance of listening your gut
- 4 questions to help you take your mind map to the next level of effectiveness
- Exercise: Transforming our marketing plan mind map into a truly hard-working planning tool!
Conclusion
- How the F.A.S.T. framework can help make information, knowledge and ideas work FOR you!
Bonus resources
Mind map readiness checklist
Verify that your mind map is the best it can be, following the principles and best practices of the F.A.S.T. framework.
Brainstorming map
How to create a mind map that enables you to capture your ideas AND the triggers used to generate them during the Associate step of the F.A.S.T. framework.
First-level topics map
10 idea-starters to jump-start your thinking on first-level topis during step 1 of the F.A.S.T. framework, foundation.
Mind map templates
I just added 8 map templates to the course that 
you can download and use immediately, with more on the way! These mind maps will get you off to a fast start with common thinking and planning tasks:
- Meeting planning
- SWOT analysis
- PEST analysis
- The Ultimate SCAMPER brainstorming prompt map
- Brainstorming
- Research
- Competitive analysis
- Goals
Getting started with mind mapping tools
What if you’ve never used mind mapping tools before?
This course includes my 30-minute Mind Mapping Software QuickStart mini-course (a value of $29), plus a free report on how to select mind mapping software and a 17-point “pre-flight checklist” to help you assess if your mind map is “done.”
It's time to get unstuck and realize the full value of your mind mapping tool!
- Vanquish information overload
- Eliminate mind map frustration
- Accomplish more in less time
- Capture and express and share your ideas more clearly,
- Gain deeper insights from your ideas, information and knowledge
- Compound the value of your knowledge and ideas
US$47 gets you immediate access to this essential mind mapping course
Guarantee
Based on the feedback I’ve received from the readers of this blog, you’re about to transform your experience with mind mapping software. But if you’re not satisfied with this course for any reason, contact me within 60 days for a 100%, no-questions-asked refund.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do I need a framework to produce mind maps using mind mapping software?
When you have a tool like mind mapping software, you only have POTENTIAL power. If you have a system or process that can help you to get the most out of it, you can accomplish 5, 10 or even 100 times more!
A well-designed framework:
- Saves you time
- Reduces wasted effort and the frustration that comes with it
- Helps you focus on and leverage best practices
- Provides you with shortcuts that can help you to achieve the results you seek, faster
- Acts as a priceless guide to focus your thinking along a proven, successful process. It’s a multiplier for your effectiveness.
- Allows beginners to make progress and experts to progress faster
- Helps you transform chaos into clear, orderly thinking and planning
- Helps you make better-informed decisions
A good framework empowers you. You may not have all the answers, but you know how to use a good process to arrive at them faster and more reliably!
I already downloaded the F.A.S.T. framework e-book. How is this course different?
The first version of the F.A.S.T. framework was based on my perception of what mind mappers needed to build effective mind maps. But it wasn’t validated by you, my loyal readers.
For version 2.0, I asked the readers of this blog to help me make it better – more relevant, more helpful, more actionable. Many of you shared your insights and suggestions with me. Your feedback was eye-opening and helped to shape the F.A.S.T. framework into what it is today – an even more powerful process for producing effective mind maps!
What’s new in this version?
Plenty:
- New tips and techniques have been added to each stage of the framework
- A new set of criteria to help you achieve clarity in the mind maps you create
- Map assessment questions have been clarified and expanded
- The course is WAY more visual than the book
- A new set of exercises helps you put to use what you learn in each lesson
- A set of downloadable mind maps and tools you can use immediately to improve the quality of your mind maps
- And more!
Can’t I just find this information elsewhere on the web?
No. There are many websites that contain brief tutorials on “how to create a mind map.” But they only scratch the surface of what mind mapping software makes possible.
I’ve invested over 14 years investigating, experimenting, learning and sharing the best of what I’ve learned with users of mind mapping software. That tacit knowledge can’t be found anywhere else, online or offline.