How to Run Seminars for Lamborghini and Ferrari with Phil Taylor

Can you give us a little intro on yourself, please?

Yeah, well, I'm English, but I've worked in Italy for 42 years, and it's always been an alternation between being a consultant and being a CEO. For example, I was the CEO of Italy's number one Fashion Institute. I'm actually not a fashion guy at all. I'm an engineer from Yorkshire, but they needed someone to rebuild the place. Which we did over the course of 8 years. And it's now one of the best 10 in the world.

Then in 2013 I opened my own little consulting company. It's called Phil Taylor Consultants, which is a boutique consultancy. Now, Lamborghini is the oldest client we have. But we also work with Ferrari, Ducati, Caterpillar, and other Motor brands besides the many universities like those in Naples or Bologna.

Our company is known for highly engaging, involving and interactive seminars. We have the audience participate in almost every step of the way. A crucial element of our workshops is the way we present information and exercises. While other consultants go with decks of 100+ slides per meeting, we only work with a single MindNode file per project.

When and how did you discover mind mapping?

That must have been around 2014. Back then, I tried a few mind mapping apps, but most of them were a too heavy. I was looking for something intuitive and fast. And that's when I discovered MindNode and stuck with it ever since. There, customer experience always comes first.

And how have you used it?

Our consulting projects are often about restructuring organizations, breaking down silos or implementing innovative topics like Artificial Intelligence into everyday business. Every project consists of multiple workshops and seminars, which are supported to 95% by MindNode. We also use survey tools in addition, but no other presentation apps.

Initially, I had the core topic in a main node and all sub topics in child nodes. But these days I rather use multiple main nodes that I spread out on the infinite canvas that MindNode offers me. I navigate the canvas from top to bottom and have a main node as a label for each section. Within each section, there are multiple other main nodes and mind maps.

The great thing is that I can have backup content that I simply pull into view when needed or push out less important nodes if we run out of time.

How has it helped you, personally or professionally?

Mostly for business purposes but also a bit personally. For example, I do holiday lists or dinner organization. And quite recently I planned my pool with MindNode. I designed the pool from scratch and had to consider things like the excavation process, or the filtering.

So for organizing my thoughts in that project, I find MindNode a lot more attractive, and incentivizing than just a boring black and white list. With colored elements that make certain information stand, you get what's important in one glimpse.

Which device do you like to use MindNode on and why?

The iPad is my device of choice 99% of the time. This even stuns my clients because it is often snappier and more interactive than a regular PC. You can even make changes in a presentation in real time without leaving some sort of presentation mode, making changes and going back in.

Do you have any MindNode features that you particularly enjoy?

The thing I really like are the multiple shapes a node can have. To me, that's a real value added. Through these shapes we encode whether information is an interactive exercise, a video, a voting, or information presented by me. For example, fluffy clouds mean that the audience will be working. Thereby, I can also apply our so-called cloud test:

Have you got around 70% fluffy clouds? — If not, it means that I'll be talking too much.

And I can do that test just by looking at the canvas.

What makes your creativity spark?

One aspect is not being overloaded. I'll make sure that my brain hasn't got a million other things to do. I clear out my brain, delegate everything, and then start working on creative tasks. Otherwise, the preconscious level is blocking the creativity.

The second element is the time of the day. I'll never try to design an important workshop at two o'clock in the afternoon because that is not my time to be creative. There is also an exercise during our seminars regarding this topic where we map all the groups members' creativity curve. Only then they can see that they might all function different. So, if you are having a meeting at 3pm, some people will be firing on 10 cylinders. Other people will be dead. This is an essential learning.

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