I hoped you’ve enjoyed the mind mapping series. The mind map is an extremely powerful tool and is one of the best I’ve found for organizing and recording my thoughts. This will be my last post in the mind map series although I will continue to write about the things I’m doing to move myself and my career forward.
n the last episode I was in the beginning stages of stages of building a licensing mind map. 
I was starting to do some research and looking for info on Google. I found a ton of experts and began reading their blog posts and gathering info. Then something really cool happened. I found a name that looked familiar, Sparky Firepants (how can you forget a name like that). I’d seen his stuff around and really enjoyed reading his blog. He had posted a short vid on Tara Reeds website saying that he was interested in licensing. It sounded like he was pretty much in the same place as I was.
I contacted Sparky (David) and eventually ended up chatting with him on the phone. He had been to Surtex, a licensing show in NY. He shared his thoughts and we discussed a few things. I really liked some of his marketing ideas …then a big giant weight dropped out of the sky and landed right on my head. I had been contacting people with great marketing ideas for the podcast and this guy had great marketing ideas. The math was pretty simple from there, so I asked David if he would come on the show for an interview.
Sparky says...Slow Down
David did a great interview and I learned some really important things from him but the one thing that really stuck for me was the idea of slowing down.* If you haven’t listened to our latest episode this is the part where you should stop reading and head over to check out ep 308 An Interview with Sparky Firepants*. It’s a very simple idea but also one that I sometimes overlook myself. The basic idea is to narrow your focus a bit. Hone in on you market.
It’s good advice and I’d even heard myself mention it a time or two but after talking with David I think it’s time to take a new look at what I’m doing and how I’m marketing myself. I think as artists there is a great temptation to be and do as many things as we can, it’s part of the growth process. As a smart marketer though we have to decide which ideas to pursue and how best to present them. We have some really great interviews coming up on marketing and I can’t wait for you guys to
hear them. So what does all that have to do with mind mapping you might be asking. Simple, if I hadn’t created a mind map I probably wouldn’t have gotten to the point where I actually sat down and began researching. No research, no Google…No Google, no Tara Read… no Tara Reed, noSparky Firepants…you get the idea. The point is that the mind map lead me to take action and by taking action I made something happen and making things happen is what it’s all about. Don’t let your ideas swim around inside your head. Get them out, organize them and then take action. See where they lead you I ‘ll bet you might be surprised.
If you have someone you’d like us to interview please let me know by posting a comment below. Thanks for listening to CI and Pod On.