Fellow Big (D)esigner Keith Anderson needs our help. For more than a month, Keith has in been in the hospital, fighting medical complications resulting from pancreatitis and pneumonia. You can find out more about his situation at prayforkeith.com and Big (D)esign.

Inspired by similar efforts by Adam Connor and Roger Belveal, I'd like to help out in some small way, by helping to ease his family's financial burden, during what can only be a very trying time.

If you've been waiting to buy Mental Notes, or wanted to give a set as a gift, now is the right time. Between now and the end of the year, 50% of all Mental Notes sales will go to a donation fund set up to help out Keith Anderson and his family.

If you prefer to donate directly, you can do so via the ChipIn widget over at the Big (D)esign site.

Thank you!

Stephen

***UPDATE*** Thanks to all of YOU, we raised $1,040 for Keith Anderson. I know this will help Keith and his family at this time. Thank you.

In which you learn more about the Mental Notes production process than you'd care to know.

So, the question on everyone's mind-- when will Mental Notes be available again? For several months now, the "get a set" page has stated  "more boxes expected to arrive in May 2011." May has passed, so what's the status?

Great news! The boxes have arrived (they arrived in Mid-may, while I was away in Europe). My return trip from London was greeted by something akin to an Aztec temple my family had built out of the 50 odd shipping boxes.

What happens next?

One point of clarification: We never ran out of Mental Notes cards. We ran out of the leather boxes the cards are packaged in. Due to cash flow reasons (the per unit cost is high, but you don't really save much after 2,000 units), it made sense split the request for these boxes into two orders. Bit of advice: Lead time for ordering custom made boxes, manufactured in China, is about 5-6 months. We placed the order for more boxes back in November 2010!

So, now we have several thousand shrink-wrapped cards, printed instructions, leather boxes, and the protective wrapper everything comes in, all waiting to be assembled. Fortunately, I have some great friends and family who will all be pitching in this weekend to help assemble this stuff. (Note, if you live in the Dallas area and would like to pitch in this Saturday, let me know! The most I can offer is a free set of Mental Notes, a fantastic assortment of cheeses, and my gratitude. Your help would certainly be welcome-- the more the merrier.)

Following this weekend's "Mental Notes Packing Party," I'll be looking next week at some better ways to handle shipping and logistics on the backend, to make things less painful for my wife, who handles most of the order fulfillment. Following this, I'll shoot out an email to to everyone on the wait list, and we'll begin getting orders out the door ASAP (probably beginning Thursday, June 16th, when I return from a brief trip to Sweden).

So, mid-June. That's when we'll be shipping out new orders.

A quick note:

Since putting up the SOLD OUT sign, more than 900 people have expressed interest in purchasing one or more decks of cards. Thank you all for the overwhelming interest!

IF each of these does translate into a sale, this means two things:

1. My wife and I will be very busy the second half of this month fulfilling orders!
2. I'll finally be able to say we've broken even and have recouped all costs associated with producing the Mental Notes card deck. While sales of the cards have gone extremely well, it takes a lot of capital to produce something of this quality. My initial budget of $15,000 skyrocketed to nearly five times that amount when it actually came down to selecting card stock, moving to a higher quality press, designing custom boxes, commissioning custom illustrations for each cards and everything else that makes this a bespoke product. This kind of investment takes time to payback. Which leads me to one final comment…

Will there be an iPhone version of the Mental Notes?

How about something better: A mobile version for the iOS, Android and Windows Mobile 7 platforms. I've been speaking with a company here in Dallas that has the technology to quickly create a mobile version of the Mental Notes card deck. Completing the /cards section of this site will need to happen first to get all the printed content into a format that is marked up for easy importing (shouldn't take long--the biggest holdup has been the completion of my book). But to be clear, the real holdup on a mobile version has been a business decision: I'd like to break even on the initial costs before offering up a digital version! That, and there's also a bit of psychology at play. Value attribution: We value things when they cost more. 

I want to see people using the Mental Notes in their daily practice. I've found it's easy to ignore all the apps and files we download on a regular basis. Paying a fair price for a really nicely produced physical product is one way to encourage people to follow through and use the tool. But, I also recognize that a lot of die-hard mental notes fans need a mobile version that can go with them everywhere they go (and some hyperlinks between cards would certainly be nice!).

So, while nothing is set in stone yet, here's what I'm thinking:

• Sell a $10 mobile version through the different app stores.
• Make this same mobile version free with the purchase of the regular Mental Notes card deck (anyone who already owns a Mental Notes card deck would also received a the mobile version, free of charge).

There are obviously some logistical technology issues to sort out with this approach, but the company I'm speaking with thinks they know how to sort this out. Again, no final decisions or dates, but I felt it necessary to comment on the future of a mobile version of the Mental Notes card deck.

Thank you all for your support!

If you don't yet own a Mental Notes card deck, please do order one (or five). You will not be disappointed. If you do already own a deck-- thank you! And do continue spreading the word.

I recently opened my email to find these kind words greeting me:

On Wednesday I spent an hour with a client helping helping them envision ways to improve the instructional design of a training program they're creating for store managers. Before the meeting I haphazardly picked three mental notes cards (chunking, positive mimicry, and self expression) and memorized the concepts. Taking your suggestion, I used them more like requirements than inspiration.

The client was really energized by the ideas. It was like their eyes were opened to an entire world of instructional design they didn't know existed. Anyway, I came out looking absolutely brilliant and I owe it to you :)

Thanks for what you do.

How have the Mental Notes helped you at your work?

Did I mention that in my book I'll be interviewing a magician? At Webdagene I had a fascinating conversation with the magician who emceed the event. Mental magic (vs sleight of hand or "trick" magic) is all about psychology!