RON WHITE | A Trained Brain Is a Powerful Tool

If you forget a man's name two seconds after he says it, your memory isn't the problem. You weren't listening. That's the case my guest today, two-time USA Memory Champion Ron White https://www.instagram.com/brainathlete/?hl=en, makes, and he backs it up with a system any man can use: ask yourself one well-worded question before you shake a hand, pin the name to the most distinctive feature on the face, and review it before the forgetting curve wipes it out. We also build a mind palace in real time using the furniture in my studio. Ron shows how the same method lets you give a speech without notes, retain what you paid to learn at a conference, carry a to-do list in your head, and remember the script when a customer objects. We get into why action and emotion lock things into long-term memory, the major system and character-action-object method he used to memorize a deck of cards in record time, and why memory comes down to training and intention, not talent. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 - Epsiode Introduction 04:20 - Connecting with Corey 04:44 - The "Brain Athlete" Shirt & Andy Elliott's Advice 07:06 - 3-Minute Street Hacks for Learning Fast 08:13 - The Mind Palace System for Public Speaking 12:07 - Walkthrough: Memorizing Five Speech Points 15:07 - Visuals, Action, & Emotion in Memory 20:30 - Practical Everyday Memory Applications 23:56 - Overcoming the "Bad with Names" Excuse 25:40 - Calming Brain Chatter with Focused Questions 28:13 - Linking Names to Facial Features 32:20 - USA Memory Records & The Major System 38:42 - Advanced Memory Palace: Character-Action-Object (CAO) 46:43 - How Rhythm and Music Lock In Information 48:38 - Body and Vehicle Palaces for Daily To-Do Lists 52:59 - Retaining Key Points from Conferences & Seminars 01:00:15 - Review Systems & The Phone Flashcard Hack 01:04:15 - How a Telemarketing Call Launched Ron's Memory Career 01:06:10 - Keynote Speaking & Memorizing Sales Scripts 01:09:20 - Memorizing 7,500 Fallen Soldiers & Media Audits 01:11:43 - Guest Socials and Course Info Battle Planners: Pick yours up today! https://store.orderofman.com/products/order-of-man-annual-battle-planner Order Ryan's new book, The Masculinity Manifesto https://www.amazon.com/Masculinity-Manifesto-Establishes-Influence-Credibility/dp/1684513316/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1665048672&sr=8-1. For more information on the Iron Council brotherhood https://orderofman.link/iron-council. Want maximum health, wealth, relationships, and abundance in your life? Sign up for our free course, 30 Days to Battle Ready https://orderofman.link/battle-ready-0

• 0:00Speaker 00

  If you forget a man's name two seconds after he says it, your memory probably isn't the problem, although we often say that, you just maybe weren't listening. And that's the case that my guest today, two-time USA memory champion, Ron White makes. And he backs it up with a system that any man can use. Ask yourself one well-worded question before you shake a hand, pin the name to the most distinctive feature on the face, and review it before the forgetting curve wipes it out. But we also talk about building a mind palace, as he calls it, in real time, using the furniture, even in my own studio. Ron shows us how the

• 0:42Speaker 00

  same method lets you give a speech without any notes, retain what you paid to learn at a conference, carry a to-do list in your head, and remember the script when a customer objects. We get into why action and emotion lock things into long-term memory, the major system and character-action-object method that he uses to memorize a deck of cards in record time, and why memory comes down to training and intention, not simply talent.

• 1:15Speaker 01

  You're a man of action. You live life to the fullest, embrace your fears, and boldly chart your own path. When life knocks you down, you get back up one more time, every time. You are not easily deterred, defeated, rugged, resilient, strong. This is your life. This is who you are. This is who you will become. At the end of the day, and after all is said and done, you can call yourself a man.

• 1:41Speaker 00

  Gentlemen, what is going on? My name is Ryan Mickler. I'm the host and the founder of the Order of Man podcast and movement. And I've got a good one for you today. We're going to be talking about training the mind, using it as a sharp tool for remembering information, and making yourself more influential and effective in the lives of the people that you care about and those you want to serve. Now, before I get into the podcast, just want to mention, over the weekend, I was able to spend a little time sharpening my Montana Knife Company knives. As sharp as they are, and as well as they hold an edge, it's always a good idea to sharpen your knives, especially as you get ready for the upcoming hunt season. So guys, if you're looking for a really good knife, if you're going to be out hunting

• 2:24Speaker 00

  this season, or you're in the kitchen, or you want a good everyday carry, look no further than Montana Knife Company. I actually just got my folding knife. It's called the Montana. It's their first folding knife, made 100% in America. I've got that in my pocket today as I carry a folding knife everywhere I go. Also, like I said, pulling out all my hunting knives and getting those ready for the season. Very excited about it. So make sure to check it out. Go to montanaknifecompany.com and use the code ORDEROFMAN. It's all one word, ORDEROFMAN, at checkout when you do. And you will not be disappointed. And you'll look cool in the process. And as you know, it's important that you always look cool.

• 3:07Speaker 00

  All right, guys, check it out. Montana Knife Company.com. Use the code ORDEROFMAN. Let me introduce you to my guest. His name is Ron White. He is a two-time USA memory champion and the founder of Brain Athlete. He has held US records for the fastest time to memorize a deck of cards, the longest number memorized in five minutes, 167 digits. He's also the longest, excuse me, has the record for the longest number memorized in an hour, which is 800 digits. He got his start at 18, when a telemarketing call led to a job offer from a man who ran memory training seminars. And he's quick to say, he said, he even said

• 3:49Speaker 00

  it in this podcast, he has no special gift, only a trained system. He's a US Navy veteran and joined as a reservist after September 11th, and served a tour in Afghanistan in 2007. And as a tribute, he memorized the names of more than 2,300 American service members killed there, and writes them from memory on a 52-foot wall, which he finished live on the Sean Ryan Show. Many of you may have seen that. But he speaks to companies around the world, grew his Instagram from 13,000 to over 1.8 million followers by teaching strangers memory techniques on the street, and teaches his methods through his

• 4:31Speaker 00

  Recall Under Pressure program at brainathlete.com. His name is Ron White. Guys, enjoy this one. Ron, what's up, man? So good to see you. I'm really grateful that Corey introduced us, because I followed your work, and I've seen you on the Sean Ryan Show, and everything that you're doing. It's pretty incredible. So I'm excited to have this conversation today.

• 4:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, thank you. I'm glad Corey introduced us, too. And I know about you, so looking forward to it as well.

• 5:01Speaker 00

  Yeah. Tell me about your shirt, Brain Athlete. I'm actually very intrigued by that. That's a good shirt, but I'm very intrigued by what that is all about.

• 5:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, so I wear it everywhere. I wore it on the Sean Ryan Show. I wear it everywhere. But about a year and a half ago, I had 13,000 followers on Instagram, and I got some advice from a guy who's some famous controversial figure. But it worked. Well, he seemed as controversial all night, it worked. His name's Andy Elliott. And Andy and I talked for about 30 minutes one day, about a year and a half ago. And he said, Ron, this is what you need to do. I want you to get a shirt. I was wearing a black shirt that day. He said, I want you to get a shirt, black looks good on you, make it black. I wanted it to say white letters, and I wanted it to say Brain Athlete, which is your company. And I want you to just go

• 5:55Speaker 02

  around on the street, and I want you to walk up to random strangers, and I want you to teach them something, how to learn something. You know, I teach people to learn stuff fast.

• 6:02Speaker 00

  Right.

• 6:03Speaker 02

  He said, I want you to teach how to learn something really fast on the street. Follow this format, wear this shirt, do this with your camera. He gave me all the instructions. And I went from 13,000 followers to 1.8 million organically on Instagram. And it just, I can't wear this shirt now. Almost, let me say, that's not true. I'd say 30% of the time I wear this shirt, people will say, hey, I follow you on Instagram.

• 6:29Speaker 00

  Is that right?

• 6:29Speaker 02

  Or I've seen you on Instagram. Yeah, not necessarily I follow you, but I've seen you.

• 6:33Speaker 00

  Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah, Andy is very controversial. I like a lot of what Andy has to say. And also, there's a lot of things where I'm like, eh, rubbed me the wrong way. But there's no doubt about what he puts out there that is, is definitely captures attention. We'll say it that way. And it sounds like it's working for you. I mean, that's incredible. And to be able to go out in public and just teach people things, I think is pretty amazing, too.

• 7:02Speaker 02

  Yeah, it works. It's a great thing, because, you know, what I do is demonstratable. So in other words, in three minutes, I can demonstrate something. You know, if I was teaching something more abstract, like leadership skills, or something like that, I don't know. Maybe you could do something demonstratable in three minutes. But what I do, it fits real good to that format, and it's working really good for me.

• 7:23Speaker 00

  What might you teach in like, a three-minute segment, if you're walking around, you know, downtown Vegas, for example, and you're just pulling some random person out, and you've got three minutes to teach them a concept? What might you be able to teach that person in just a matter of, you know, a few minutes?

• 7:41Speaker 02

  Yeah. So this week, I walked up to some, a couple of different things. One is, this week, I walked up to somebody, and I said, hey, you know, you give me three minutes, I can teach you how to give a speech or a presentation without using any notes. And we did that one. Sometimes, that one's more of a, I guess, a bigger topic. Sometimes I'll just do something real simple. Hey, I'll teach you how to memorize the first 10 presidents, or the first 10 elements on the periodic table, or the Bill of Rights, or the 10 commandments, or something like that. So it's always, I'll teach you how to learn something. Sometimes it's a math trick, how to multiply any number by 11. But it always has to do with learning faster, thinking faster, whether it's a math hack,

• 8:24Speaker 02

  or whether it's learning to say I love you in different languages, or hello in different languages, or memorize something.

• 8:30Speaker 00

  Really? That's interesting. I think, so a lot of the times when, and I've had a couple other memory guys on the podcast over the past 11 years. And sometimes, when we think about it in that context, it's like, oh, I'll teach you a little gimmick, right? I'll teach you a party trick. But I think what I like about what you're doing is it's very applicable. The best advice that I got on memory, I think probably that I've used more than anything else, is what you just said, how to memorize a speech, or how to present without using notes. And the system that I've always used is to go around the room that I'm in currently, and associate it with a topic. So for example, the first

• 9:13Speaker 00

  thing I see right here is my stairs. And so that might be something along the lines of ascending to something more powerful in your life. And then I see a door right here, and that might lead me into a conversation about unlocking potential, and stepping into a new room that wasn't available to you. And then I go to this right here behind me, which is a cabinet with pictures of my grandfathers. And it might be me talking about how legacy is important, and why we ought to honor our past, and why we ought to be a legacy in other people's lives. Is that a similar system that you use for memorizing speeches and presentations? Or do you do something completely different?

• 9:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, that's very similar. And that technique that you're describing is known as the mind palace, or the memory palace?

• 10:02Speaker 00

  Yes, memory palace, yes.

• 10:05Speaker 02

  And it's really a great system and the and just for the the benefit of your listeners, I'd like to go a little bit deeper into what you were saying because what you're saying is one hundred percent accurate and that would hundred percent work. And that was what a great speech you just gave right there too, off the cuff, right? And you you made what was in the room, your room fit. But let's do a hypothetical scenario here. Let's say you had five points to a speech and you couldn't make them magically fit with the furniture in your room, right? So really what we want to do is we want to number, let's say, five pieces of furniture in your room, and then these become objects that never change, which number one can always

• 10:48Speaker 02

  be the staircase. The next one, tell me your your three locations you just named.

• 10:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, so I've got the stairs here. I've got the door here, and then I've got my hutch right behind me over my right shoulder.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  Perfect. So what we would do is is we would make, and I'm and I tend not to use doorways, just because if you used a doorway in every room, it could get confusing.

• 11:08Speaker 00

  So let's take this chair then. So I've got the stairs, I've got the hutch, and I've got my leather chair here.

• 11:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, and then maybe number four, we might make that table that you're right next to you. And then what's what's over there?

• 11:21Speaker 00

  My second leather chair for guests when I have them in studio.

• 11:25Speaker 02

  Perfect. So then these would become your permanent locations, right? Regardless of what the topic is, if if the the first, if the first thing you want to talk about is uh, uh, money, you would, and that leather chair costs you a million dollars. Well, it would make sense over on the the chair, right? But that's not what's going on. It's the you're not putting it where it makes sense on the furniture. You're putting it on the first location because it's your first topic. So now you just imagine money flying out of that that staircase, right? So the little tweak I'm making here is that if somebody's

• 12:07Speaker 02

  listening and you have a speech to give, pick five spots in your room that never change, and then take your first topic. And if it's money, you see money flying out of there. If the next topic is, well, let me give you five points here. So number one is your is your what?

• 12:24Speaker 00

  Uh, the stairwell.

• 12:25Speaker 02

  Staircase. Yeah, so let's imagine money flying out of there. Money is number one. What are we going to make number two?

• 12:32Speaker 00

  The hutch behind me.

• 12:34Speaker 02

  So let's put a clock over there, like a grandfather clock, and a bird pops out, cuckoo, cuckoo. So you imagine that bird popping out, but the word is clock. So what's two?

• 12:44Speaker 00

  Uh, the clock.

• 12:46Speaker 02

  Clock. And what's your number three?

• 12:48Speaker 00

  The chair that I'm sitting in now.

• 12:51Speaker 02

  Let's imagine you're sitting on that chair and you're on the phone, you're talking to your favorite person. And why do I say favorite person? Because the more emotional, the more attachment you have to it, the likely, but let's just say phone. So what's three?

• 13:03Speaker 00

  The phone.

• 13:06Speaker 02

  Phone. Number four, let's make it a plant. So right there next to you, you got a plant, you're watering the plant, maybe the plant comes over and and dirt goes everywhere. And the reason I say you're watering it comes over, it's more more action. Now, one last one, and this will all make sense. Um, your number five is your chair. What's your favorite sports team?

• 13:27Speaker 00

  Uh, I'll just say the Raiders is the closest football team. I don't I don't really have one, but I'll say the Raiders.

• 13:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, Raiders. Okay. So I want you now make imagine the this is going to take memory takes imagination. We're going to see how well your imagination is. I want you to imagine you're interviewing the Raiders in that chair because they won the Super Bowl. How big of imagination do you have, right?

• 13:49Speaker 00

  We'll find out. We'll find out here shortly. What's the question?

• 13:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. So the Raiders are in your chair for the Super Bowl. So um, we'll just say team. So let's go back through the room. And could you tell me all five words I gave you?

• 14:04Speaker 00

  Yeah, so I've got the stairwells money. I've got the hutch, which is clock. I've got the chair, which is call. I've got the plant. I don't think we came up with a a word, but overflowing, I think, is what you said. And then we've got the Raiders, which is team.

• 14:19Speaker 02

  Perfect, perfect. So this could be five points to a speech. Uh, and in I'll give I'll give this fake speech. Hey, guys, I want to talk to you today about how to make more money. We all have got some great ideas. The first key to making more money is our time management skills. We need to become manage our time more effectively. My next point is, is we want to be good communicators, whether it's on the phone or in person. And fine, next, we want to continue to grow, grow like a plant. And we do this by listening to things like Ryan's podcast, or reading books, or whatever. And finally, let's work together as a team. And so the you you described your speech, the what you described earlier

• 15:04Speaker 02

  was so perfect, and you did such a good job at it. But the one tweak that I would make is pick five spots in your room. These five spots never change. You don't you don't pick them based up upon what you're going to talk about. But then you take whatever you're going to talk about, and you imagine it on these five spots, or 10 spots, or 20 spots that never change.

• 15:23Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's, that is interesting. I like that. And it's one thing that stood out as you were saying that is there's a lot of visualization in this, because I think, you know, for example, um, I've got, I've got four kids from ages eighteen down to ten. And when we do our times tables, for example, there isn't a whole lot of visualization that goes into that. It's basically just times tables, cards, flashcards, etc., and just memorizing it through repetition. Um, but I think where you start talking about the concept of visualization, like the one that comes to mind is this money just like flying out of the stairwell, right? That's what came to mind as you were saying that. And I can vividly see that. So is that is that the key? Is the visualization process

• 16:06Speaker 00

  of it, the the emotional connection, the visual, all of that sort of thing?

• 16:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, so our mind, absolutely. Our mind will remember what it sees better than what it just hears. You know, you've probably met somebody, and then six weeks later, you say, I I remember the face. I never forget a face, but I just can't think of a name.

• 16:24Speaker 00

  Right.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  So let's think about that for a second. What is different between the face and the and the name they they said?

• 16:34Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, just you you actually like recalling, you know, what what are their eye, what color are their eyes? What what what does their nose look like? What color hair do they have? It's just, it's just more thoughtful, I think?

• 16:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is. It is. And also, you know, you're looking at that, you saw it. You saw their eyes and their and their all all that stuff that you're talking about. Their name, you just heard it. What we see, we remember so much longer than what we just hear. So when I'm saying, you know, don't look at your hutch and and say the word clock, I'm saying, look at your watch and see the clock. It's the difference between seeing a face and just hearing a name. So we want to see it. But you also noticed, I said, the plant falls over and the dirt get the dirt gets out, because the more action and emotion that's involved, the longer you'll remember it. Let's do a quick test here. Um,

• 17:29Speaker 02

  have you been in a car accident that was more than ten or 20 years ago?

• 17:35Speaker 00

  Uh, no, not that I can recall. No.

• 17:41Speaker 02

  Okay, uh, we'll do another test here. Uh, Ken, where were you on September 11?

• 17:46Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, I know. Two, two vivid places. I know exactly where I was.

• 17:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, tell me about.

• 17:54Speaker 00

  So one, uh, I was supposed to go into work that morning, and I woke up, and I hit snooze. When my radio turned on, it turned on to the news, nothing came on. I hit snooze. When it went back on, I heard them talking about the the towers being struck. So that was the first memory. The second memory of that day was me being in a retail clothing store that I was managing in the mall, and the entire mall had shut down, and I refused to shut down. I kept my store open the entire, I was the only store that was open in the mall that day, and I sold maybe two pairs of shoes. Uh, but I refused to shut the store down that day. And I was the I sent all my employees home. I said, I'll just hang out

• 18:36Speaker 00

  here by myself. And so those are the two memories that come to mind of where I was on on nine 11.

• 18:43Speaker 02

  Yeah. And that was 25 years ago. And 25 years ago, you remember set, I mean, how many days do you remember setting your, you've probably set snooze thousands of times?

• 18:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:53Speaker 02

  But that day, you remember. 25 years ago, crystal clear recall. Now, I ask you or if somebody said, Ron, where were you on September 11? I could do the same thing. But if they said, Ron, where you where were you October 25 of that year? I'm like, are you kidding me? I have no idea. Um, if something has emotion or action like a car accident, or like nine 11, our our brains say, hey, this is something we need to remember. And it kind of stores it in your long term memory. Otherwise, you know, you have this working memory of six, seven seconds, something like that. And our brains constantly forgetting stuff. Um, unless I talk about it right now, and I'm going to, um, we in a year, we would never remember, we could, I couldn't get my camera going at the beginning.

• 19:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:39Speaker 02

  It wasn't memorable. So that's why we have the plant falling over. That's why I try to make a joke, and I say, imagine the Raiders winning the Super Bowl, right? That you got to have imagination for that, because I'm trying to make these things more memorable.

• 19:53Speaker 00

  It's interesting, because when you were talking about the clock on the hutch, what came to my, you said grandfather clock. What came to mind for me is we had this tall six foot clock when I was growing up. And it was one of those, you know, grandfather clocks that you would think of. And I remember listening to that chime, you know, every every hour, that chime that would come on. And that actually, when you said that, I could hear it in my in my head. I could hear the chime going off as a young boy. It was very nostalgic, and I liked it. But I hadn't thought about that for, you know, 40 years or whatever, 30 years, let's say.

• 20:33Speaker 02

  Exactly, a hundred percent. But there's something about that nostalgia and that sound and the fact that you were able to bring that back and bring that emotion back and the sound back made it more likely that you remembered it.

• 20:47Speaker 00

  How do you feel this is, I mean, this is your work, right? And so you're looking for all these heuristics, you're looking for these, these systems, these ideas to be able to recall memory, you know, from somebody who's out there and they're trying to lead their family or they're trying to grow their business and just live life. In what ways do you feel like being able to recall memory are the most applicable in the ordinary day of, of, of a man who might be listening to this podcast?

• 21:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, so let's, well, first of all, we, we, we covered one. Now let's, let's cover the why of that. You know, when you can stand up in front of a group and give a speech or a presentation and not use any notes, it makes you more credible, it makes you appear more knowledgeable, you're able to connect with the audience more. It's just a smoother, more charismatic, powerful presentation if you're not reading your PowerPoint. So that's, that's number one, what we just did. But let's move to the, to another example. You know, the person who could meet somebody today, whether you meet them at the gym, or you meet them, you know, at your church, or at the store, or through a business meeting, network meeting, whatever, and then six weeks later, or six days later, you remember their

• 21:59Speaker 02

  name. You know, Zig Ziglar used to say, everybody's favorite subject is themselves. Dale Carnegie said, everybody's favorite subject's themselves, and the sweetest sound of the ear is the sound of their own name. Zig Ziglar said, people don't care how much you know, until they first know how much you care.

• 22:15Speaker 00

  Zig, he's, he's an idol of mine. Zig Ziglar's stuff is incredible.

• 22:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, it is. He's a, he's a great guy. I, or he was, he was a great guy. I didn't really ever develop a strong friendship with Zig. He called me once, believe it or not, left a message on my voicemail, because I had, I had done, I had, I had attempted a world record in memory, and somebody in his company knew me. And so they had called. But I never got to know Zig, but I, I am great friends with his son, Tom. Tom's a good friend. But, you know, Zig said, people don't care how much you know, until they first know how much you care. And, and Dale Carnegie talked about the value of remembering names. To answer your question, I guess, when you remember a name, it's going to help you in

• 23:02Speaker 02

  life and business, build relationships. And today, we have so much information, you know, we have to learn, there's some, especially with AI, you know, there's, we got, we're overwhelmed with stuff that, that is out there to remember. So if you can learn faster, or it, it's going to be helping be more productive, or you listen to your podcast, somebody, one of your listeners is listening to your podcast, watching your podcast, and then they want to remember four or five key points from it. That's the time they've invested in this podcast actually becomes more valuable, because a week from now, or two weeks from now, they can remember what they learned. So there's so many things. I truly believe that memory is not about remembering your grocery list. It's about becoming, having a more rich life.

• 23:46Speaker 00

  Well, I, I think you bring up a good point about the grocery list. Like, I don't really need to memorize that. I can just write it down. Like, I don't, right? And so I, I think there is some bandwidth issues with the brain. You can correct me if I'm wrong, where it's like, I don't, well, we do this all the time, right? We look for patterns, we look for things that we acknowledge and recognize so that our brain doesn't have to use so much computing power. So I, okay, so I've got a lot of questions. So I, I definitely want to get back to the point that you made about memorizing, or at least remembering presentations, because that would be very applicable for me, and I know a lot of guys who are listening. But you also said something about remembering names. One thing that just

• 24:26Speaker 00

  kind of, it irks me, for lack of a better term, is when I, I cringe a little bit when people say, well, I'm not good with names. And I'm like, wait, are you not good with names because your brain isn't capable of doing it? Or are you not good with names because you tell yourself you're not good at remembering names? When it's very simple to say, you know, to, to come up with some sort of association where you can start to remember people's names. You know, for example, is if, if I knew you were a, a Harry Potter fan, and your name is Ron, I'm like, oh, Ron Weasley's in Harry Potter, Ron, there's Ron, he's the Harry Potter guy, I remember him. But people don't take the effort to do that, it seems like. They just say, well, I'm not good with names. It's lazy.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, you, you have to be intentional about memory, and you have to be intentional about name memory. And it takes, it, it takes a little bit of time to get good at it, you know? The first part of being intentional doesn't take any time. You can start being intentional today. You know, I walk up to you and I say, hi, my name's Ron, you say, your name is Ryan, and then two seconds later, I don't know your name. That's not because I have a bad memory, that's because I wasn't listening, right? And I was, I was, I would always listen to you. But you get the point. I'm trying not to put anybody else on the spot here. I'm trying to put me on the spot. When your listeners are introduced to somebody, and they don't know somebody two seconds later, it's not because their memory is bad,

• 25:52Speaker 02

  it's because they weren't listening. And not listening in a, in a, in a selfish ego way, it's just our habit. We walk up to somebody and we're thinking, what do I think of them? What do they think of me? Have I seen them before? What business deals are we going to talk about? What products should I tell them about? Hey, my name's Ron. Hi, my name is Ryan. And I never even hear it. Because I got all this other chatter going on in my mind. Really, the first thing that you have to do is you have to calm that chatter. And you can calm that chatter by a well-worded question. Brian Tracy wrote a book 25 years ago called Focal Point. And in that book, he said, two things, focus your brain. He said pressing problems. Completely agree with that. The second one he said is well-worded

• 26:37Speaker 02

  questions. And when I read that in that book, I kind of set the book down, and I said, how do I apply this to memory? Like, remembering names? How could I apply well-worded questions to remembering names? And what I came up with, and it's worked for me for 25 years, is when I walk towards somebody, I need to be focused. So I ask myself the question, what is their name? What is their name? What is their name? I don't know the answer, but I do know that when I get their name five seconds later, my brain is listening. And that is a first critical step to remembering names, it's hearing it.

• 27:11Speaker 00

  Yeah, I, I like that. I mean, I often talk with guys about, well, like you said, calming your mind, but also just paying attention and not being so distracted. And what, and what can you eliminate from your life? Because I've seen so many men who, like you said, you might go to a conference, and if I know I'm going to meet a thousand people, it's going to be harder for me to focus on the people that I'm meeting in, in the current moment. And I think that might actually be a byproduct of modernity, right? Where we're so connected, we're, we're so inundated, there's so many accounts that we follow, there's so many podcasts that we listen to, where we have just not, we have lost the

• 27:52Speaker 00

  ability to discern and focus, in my mind, on the things that we actually value and are important to us.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, you have to focus, you, you have, if you're not, if you're not, everything, everything else doesn't matter. If you're not, you got to be intentional about life, you got to be intentional about giving a speech without notes, you got to be intentional about remembering names, you have to be intentional about everything. The, the next real step on remembering names, you know, let's say we meet this guy right here. He walks up to us, so it's, what's his name, what's his name, what's his name? He gets right about here. The next part of it is identical to what we did with your room. When we, when we, when we memorized that speech around your room, we picked locations, and then we took what we wanted to remember, and we attached it to the location. When you want

• 28:42Speaker 02

  to remember a name, it's identically the same. This face becomes a mind palace. And we pick a location on the face that we're going to attach the information to. And it's best if you pick the most prominent, outstanding, unique feature that grabs your, your eye right away. So if you met him, what would his unique feature be?

• 29:04Speaker 00

  I mean, it's a little bit far away from me, because I'm in cameras over there, but what, what stands out to me is the nose.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most people say that, so I agree. So now, let's say that his name is Brian. So right now, we're thinking, we're looking at that nose, and we say, hi, my name's Ron. And he says, hey, my name's Brian. The key to, to, to name memory is not coming up with something, this guy, this Brian plays basketball, right? So let's say...

• 29:40Speaker 02

  Uh, Brian basketball, right? Brian, the basket, because they both start with B.

• 29:46Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 29:46Speaker 02

  Or something like that.

• 29:47Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 29:49Speaker 02

  So, but what, what is, it might work, but what is the best thing to do? Is to have a picture for Brian that you use for every Brian instead of trying to make it just.

• 30:03Speaker 02

  But, and here's the reason why. You can get, it, it helps you get faster, but it's just cleaner and smoother. If one Brian's a basketball and one, and, and another Brian is something else, and another Brian is something else, it could be confusing. But if you say every Brian's a brain, and that's every Brian, and now you imagine this out of his nose, because that's his distinctive feature, same principle, action and emotion, that brain is oozing out of his nose. Then, as you walk away, you review that, you know, and you, uh, brain on his nose, Brian, and then tomorrow you meet a guy named Brian with big ears, will you imagine his ears are part of his brain going out that way?

• 30:45Speaker 00

  Got it.

• 30:46Speaker 02

  So you use same picture for every name. Tomorrow I'm speaking for a conference here in Arlington, Texas. There's going to be 450 bank managers. Uh, my speech is at about three o'clock. I'll probably arrive at 10 or 11 in the morning, and I'm just going to mingle with them at the break, and I'll mingle with them in their, in their hour lunch. I estimate I will get about 150 names memorized in, in the morning and at lunch.

• 31:12Speaker 00

  And it's not even.

• 31:13Speaker 02

  And I'm gonna get up.

• 31:14Speaker 00

  If I could just jump in, but like what I'm hearing you say is, so correct me if I'm wrong, and I don't want to discount your work by any means. I, it doesn't even sound like you're memorizing as much as you're just associating with what you have locked in already. Is that safe to say?

• 31:31Speaker 02

  I guess, I think so. You're taking, you're taking what you want to remember and you're putting it somewhere in your brain.

• 31:37Speaker 00

  Got it.

• 31:37Speaker 02

  Where you can go back and get it later. For example, I'll, I'll meet that 150 people tomorrow, and some people I'll store their name on their nose, some on their ears, some on their beard, some on their hair, whatever stands out to me. Then when I get up on the stage, I'll say, if you're one of the 150 people I met, stand up, 150 people stand up, I'll jump off the stage. And I'll just, I'll go through the audience and I'll start looking for their distinctive features. Uh, that guy was his nose, there was a brain on his nose. And I'll say, Brian, you can sit down. The next person, woman has pretty eyes. And I, I had imagined a missile shooting out of her eyes. And I'll say, Michelle, you can sit down. But I'll do it really fast. I'll probably be able to say 150 names in, in, in 200 seconds, you know?

• 32:20Speaker 02

  So it'll, it'll go really fast.

• 32:23Speaker 00

  That's amazing.

• 32:24Speaker 02

  But I'm taking the name, turning it into a picture, and storing it on a location on their face.

• 32:29Speaker 00

  I, is this the same system you use? Because I know that you have a couple of world records, and, and if I understand correctly, one is the, you, you have, you hold the record for the, the person who has been able to fastest recall a deck of cards. And based on what you're saying, I imagine that you have a image for, let's say, the three of spades, for example. Is that, is that correct?

• 32:55Speaker 02

  Correct, yes.

• 32:56Speaker 00

  What, what's the image for the three of spades?

• 32:59Speaker 02

  Uh, it's Uncle Sam.

• 33:01Speaker 00

  Why is it that? Yeah, I'm curious.

• 33:03Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I held the record for the, I held, I held some USA records, uh, held the record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards in the United States, and the record for the most numbers memorized in five minutes in the United States. And I held a, it was another USA record, uh, an 800 digit number in an hour. And the way I do all of these is I have a picture for number, or I have a picture for, um, a deck of cards. And so

• 33:34Speaker 02

  every digit, zero to nine, is assigned to sound.

• 33:37Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 33:37Speaker 02

  And this is a, a technique known as the major system. It's not something that, that I, I didn't assign these sounds to these digits. Um, it goes back at least two or 300 years. A guy named Gregor von Feingold, uh, and, and it was a German guy, and Amy Paris was a French guy. But they determined that zero is the sa sound, and I'm only going to go up to three.

• 34:01Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 34:01Speaker 02

  Zero is the sa sound, one is the ta sound, T, and a T has one, one downstroke. A, a T has one stroke.

• 34:12Speaker 00

  Got it.

• 34:13Speaker 02

  Two is N, and, and N has two downstrokes.

• 34:17Speaker 00

  Got it.

• 34:19Speaker 02

  Three is M, kind of the same principle there, a little bit, right? So, what I did was for numbers and cards, but for, let's go to cards, because that's what you asked. I assigned two, my numbers, two through 14, to spades. Because the two of spades would be assigned to the number two, the eight of spades would be assigned to the number eight, the, um, jack of spades was 11, queen of spades was 12, 13 of spades was king, and 14 of spades was, uh, ace. And I'll go through the other three suits very quickly.

• 35:03Speaker 02

  Twenty, 22 to 34 was two of hearts to ace of hearts.

• 35:09Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 35:09Speaker 02

  Forty-two to 54 was diamonds, two of diamonds to ace of diamonds, and 62 to 74 was clubs. Um, the, the, so the, the two of clubs would have been 62, the three of clubs would have been 63. So I, for, the first thing I did is I assigned them numbers, right? So the 64 was the four of clubs. And this, I'm, this, uh, if, for, for everybody that I'm losing right now, hang with me for 30 seconds, this is actually very simple.

• 35:38Speaker 00

  I know, because what I'm hearing, like, when I'm, as you're saying this, I'm like, okay, and I'm trying not to be insensitive, I'm actually very curious about that, we can get to this. Of, is this how somebody with a advanced level of, for example, autism's brain works? Like, I'm actually really curious about the brain and how it works between somebody with, with autism versus somebody who doesn't, and like, things like that I'm curious about too. So I'm, I'm not trying to be insulting or insensitive, I'm just curious about how it works.

• 36:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, when somebody, you know, has autism or something like that, um, they are just naturally, uh, seeing things and doing things in their brain that they're not even having to work at, you know?

• 36:22Speaker 00

  Right, yeah.

• 36:24Speaker 02

  You know, perhaps they are giving meaning to numbers and cards that they're not even really aware of.

• 36:30Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 36:31Speaker 02

  But guys like me, and most people who compete in memory tournaments, we are purposefully having to give, to, in, in order to remember something, you have to, uh, make the nonsensical sensical. So, three of spades, that's kind of nonsensical.

• 36:45Speaker 00

  Right.

• 36:46Speaker 02

  What is that?

• 36:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly.

• 36:49Speaker 02

  So let's take the three of spades and let's make it sensical, and, and something that we can lock on to, like the Uncle Sam. So, the, uh, I mentioned that three is M, right?

• 37:02Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 37:02Speaker 02

  And zero is sa.

• 37:04Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 37:05Speaker 02

  So my, my number system goes zero, zero, zero, one, zero, two, zero, three. So the spades are assigned to zero, two, zero, three, zero, four, zero, five, zero, six, zero, seven, zero, eight, zero, nine, 10, and then 11, and, uh.

• 37:21Speaker 00

  12, 13, 14, sure, yeah.

• 37:24Speaker 02

  So the spades is zero, three.

• 37:29Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 37:30Speaker 02

  Spades, or the, excuse me, the three of spades is zero, three.

• 37:33Speaker 00

  Right.

• 37:34Speaker 02

  Well, zero is sa. Three is ma, M, Sam.

• 37:41Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 37:42Speaker 02

  So, I went, now you may say, well, Ron, I don't want the three of spades to be Uncle Sam. I don't want to use the.

• 37:50Speaker 00

  You want it to be.

• 37:52Speaker 02

  Make, make it whatever, you've got a three-year-old niece, and, and you think that's great, make three of spades your three-year-old niece. But I have a, a, a sound for every digit, and this helps me, for example, I was 22, so the two of hearts is, is, is assigned to the number 22, right? Well, two is N, right? Remember, two downstrokes? So with 22, I have N. Well, following that logic, that my picture for the number 22 should be a nun, or, and my picture for the two of hearts should be a nun.

• 38:28Speaker 00

  That's, I was thinking nanny.

• 38:29Speaker 02

  But I like the Dallas count.

• 38:30Speaker 00

  Nanny is what came to mind for me.

• 38:32Speaker 02

  Nanny.

• 38:32Speaker 00

  Sure, but I get it, I get the concept.

• 38:35Speaker 00

  All right, man, just stepping away from the conversation briefly, we'll get right back to it. Uh, before we get to that, I do want to invite you to our next War Room. Now, this is a free live workshop that we host every month. This one's going to be held on Wednesday, October 14th at 8:00 PM Eastern, and it's called Five Fears That Will Fuck Your Future. Uh, because here's what I've seen. Most men aren't really stuck, they're, they're scared. And fear doesn't take your life all at once, it takes it one reasonable decision at a time. The, the hard conversation that you avoid, and you call it keeping the peace, the business that you never start, uh, the weakness that you spend more energy hiding from yourself and others than it would cost to just own the, own the weakness.

• 39:21Speaker 00

  And there are five fears that we're going to address. So those are powerlessness, invisibility, exposure, dependency, and irrelevancy. And one of them, or more, is running you. So in one hour, you'll spot which one is yours, uh, you'll see what it's already costing you, and your wife, and your kids, and your work. And what we're going to do is leave you with a plan to beat it, starting the, the very next morning, starting that evening, frankly. This is not a pep talk, it's not a rah rah celebration, I want you to bring a pen, I want you to bring your notepad, and I also want you to bring the thing that you've been avoiding. So you can save your seat at orderofman.com/warroom. That's orderofman.com/warroom.

• 40:05Speaker 00

  Uh, you can do that right after the show. Again, it's going to be held October 14th at 8:00 PM Eastern, but for now, let's get back to it with Ron.

• 40:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's great. And, but, and then Emmett Smith, um, he's a, he's, his number was 22. And so I actually use Emmett Smith for 22.

• 40:24Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 40:25Speaker 02

  So you don't have to necessarily use the, the major system, uh, which, which is what it's called.

• 40:31Speaker 00

  But then how do you, okay, so I get that, like, every number has a, has an image, right? So 22's Emmett Smith, and, uh, three of spades is Uncle Sam. Then how do you put it in order? Because, like, okay, so you might say, well, Uncle Sam is playing a football game against Emmett Smith, and, and, but you've got 52 cards that you're not just memorizing the imagery, you're also memorizing the order, which is another magnitude of memorization.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, so it goes back to exactly how we memorize that speech. Um, you use the mind palace or you use the, the memory palace technique here. So I'll tell you the, the most basic way to do this and then I'll tell you the advanced way. The advanced way is how I set the record for the fastest in the United States. The most basic way though, and it's the same core principle. The most basic way is, is you number 52 pieces of furniture in your house.

• 41:30Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 41:30Speaker 02

  And you've got these down cold. I mean, you could, you could walk through your house forwards and backwards and know I'm cold. Then you pick up the deck of cards and the first card is a three of spades. Boom, now you've got Uncle Sam running down your, your stairs, right?

• 41:45Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 41:46Speaker 02

  The, the next card that gets played is the two of hearts. So maybe you see a nanny on your hutch, you know, throwing books at you or whatever, or Emmett Smith jumping through with a football, either way.

• 41:58Speaker 00

  Right.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  Then you set the cards down and you recall the deck and you go back and you think Uncle Sam, three of spades, uh, Emmett Smith, uh, two of hearts or a nanny or whatever. To do it that way, you'd need 52 pieces of furniture. It would be effective. The, a person could probably get to where they could do it that way. You could memorize a deck of cards in, in four or five minutes, I would imagine. The first time I ever tried it that way, I did it in about six minutes. Um, but it was my first attempt. I probably could have got it down to four or five minutes.

• 42:29Speaker 00

  That sounds fast. I, I don't even know if I could do it. That's how, you said six minutes. I'm like, that sounds faster than I could even do it. So that's, that's incredible.

• 42:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, it, it would, it would, um, it would take, you would have to have pictures for it.

• 42:42Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 42:43Speaker 02

  It would take, it would take prep work. You'd need to number 52 pieces of furniture and you'd need to create pictures for all the cards. But if you did those two things, you could. Now I'll share with you the more advanced way. We have it, we have a picture for Uncle, three of spades and the two of hearts. Let's, let's do, uh, pick another card for me.

• 43:03Speaker 00

  Uh, jack of clubs.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  Jack of clubs. So for me, clubs are 62 through 74.

• 43:13Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 43:14Speaker 02

  Why? It does, it doesn't have to be that way, but, but I wanted to make it where the two of hearts corresponded to a number that ended in two. So I started with 22. It just made it more intuitive for me because that made the seven of hearts 27, the eight of hearts 28, the nine of hearts 29. And so they ended in nine, so it was more intuitive. So, um, 62 through 74, I made, I made clubs. So what that means is, is the, the two of clubs is 62, the three of clubs is 63 and so on.

• 43:48Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 43:49Speaker 02

  Well, under that, the seven, 71 would be the jack of clubs. Under that system that I created. My image, my, the, the sounds, I didn't create this. The sounds for seven is kah, a, a K sound. If you look at a, let's say this is a seven right here, a seven's like this, I guess. I, i, i, if you kind of move that down right there and put another line out, it kind of looks like a K.

• 44:17Speaker 00

  I could see that.

• 44:18Speaker 02

  Use your imagination.

• 44:19Speaker 00

  Yeah, no, I can see that.

• 44:19Speaker 02

  You have to use your imagination. So 71 is the kah, and we already decided one is T, right? So I have for 71 for me is a cat.

• 44:31Speaker 00

  I was gonna say kite. So that's, it's interesting. I get what you're saying though.

• 44:35Speaker 02

  Perfect, kite is better. Let's go with kite. So now, this is something called character, action, object. And I, I, I, I can explain this in 90 seconds. Um, I don't want to get too deep into the weeds on this because most people, I just don't want to, I don't want to lose people here. But I, stick with this, you've got 90 seconds and I think this is going to be very interesting to you. So we've got, um, the three of spades. For each one of these cards, we need a character and action and an object. Our character for the three of spades, for, excuse me, our character, yeah, our character for the three of spades is Uncle Sam.

• 45:12Speaker 00

  Right.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  For action, I have pointing. That's what Uncle Sam does. Pointing, Uncle Sam pointing. I need you. Uncle, character, action, object. Character, Uncle Sam. Action, pointing. Object, let's just say the American flag. Character, action, object. Uncle Sam pointing at the flag. 22, um, a nanny. The two of hearts. Nanny cooking for the kids. Nanny, character, action, cooking for the kids, object. A kite, a kite flying in the wind. Character, action, object. Now this is where it all falls together. Three cards get played.

• 45:59Speaker 02

  The two of hearts, nanny. The three of spades, it's the second one in the sequence. So we don't take the character for the second one in the sequence. We take the action.

• 46:10Speaker 00

  The action.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  Uncle Sam is pointing, right? So the two of hearts is a nanny, the three of spades, the action was pointing. So now we've got Danny pointing.

• 46:22Speaker 00

  In the wind.

• 46:23Speaker 02

  And then Danny pointing at the wind. There you go.

• 46:26Speaker 00

  Interesting.

• 46:27Speaker 02

  Very good. So what this enables you to do is now you can put three cards on your staircase, right? Instead of just one. Now you can memorize a deck of cards with 18 pieces of furniture, not 52. And that's when you get into the territory of, hey, I'm going to break a United States record, which is what I did in 2009. Now, one more thing I'll say on this and then I'll close my mouth. You may say, well, Ron, why do we have to do character, action, object? Why couldn't I just see the three, the picture? Why couldn't I just see Uncle Sam and a nanny and a kite all on the stairs? You could. And when you go back around to repeat the deck of cards, you would remember all three are there. But you might get the order mixed up.

• 47:10Speaker 02

  Character, action, object makes it impossible for you to get the order mixed up because you know the first one's a character, the next one's the action and the third one's the object.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  Right. So you assign, basically you're assigning three different values, for lack of a better term, to each card is what you're doing. And then based on where it fits in a sequence of three, you know if it's a one, two or three in that, in that sequence.

• 47:34Speaker 02

  Hundred percent.

• 47:35Speaker 00

  Whoa.

• 47:36Speaker 02

  And you could memorize, if, if, and, and character, and character, action, object's a little bit intense. So I'm glad we got into it, but I don't want to stress people out either.

• 47:45Speaker 00

  No, for sure.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  How's that going to help them, you know, it's, it's, it'll help you with numbers a little bit because we, you also just created images for the number 032271, right? So you could memorize a, you could also memorize a six digit number. You could memorize numbers, six digits at a time that way.

• 48:04Speaker 00

  Well, I, I think it makes sense, like if you just actually think just a little bit about how it might apply to the layman's situation, when you were talking about that little guy that you had, that face that you had and his name's Brian, immediately what came to mind is we've got a ski resort in Bryanhead, which is about an hour north of me. And so everybody who's Brian, now I can automatically say, oh, that guy skis with me in Bryanhead. And then I just know it's Brian, right? Like that's, that's fascinating. Okay, so I have a question though about, um, music. Because, you know, if you take, uh, if you take for elementary, uh, school students, you know, the ABCs, right? We, we sing the ABCs. It seems like if you sing it, you can memorize it.

• 48:50Speaker 00

  Or, or you sing about the 50 states and you learn the 50 states or the, or all the presidents through song. What is it about song that helps people memorize things more than just spoken word?

• 49:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, so a, a song, um, a many, a couple of different things. Um, a song can, uh, invoke emotion, right? You get it, you get it in a rhythm and, and you're happy and you're moving. It can evoke emotion and emotion sinks something in your memory. It also creates expectation. One verse leads to the next verse. It kind of, you say that verse and then whether it rhymes or something else, it's kind of creates an expectation for what is next. You know, people will say, oh, I could, I, you know, I was driving in my car, uh, year, a couple of years ago and Ice Ice Baby came on the radio, you know, back, popular, you know, in the nineties.

• 49:44Speaker 02

  And I started singing Ice Ice Baby and I guarantee you, I don't drive around listening to, but I knew every word.

• 49:49Speaker 00

  Right.

• 49:50Speaker 02

  And why can't we remember every words to a song 30 years ago? The rhythm, the emotion, but you've got to think about it too. There was a lot of repetition in it.

• 50:00Speaker 00

  Fair.

• 50:01Speaker 02

  We remember these songs because of the repetition. We sing them over and over again. In the night, in 1993, I go to a dance club, Ice Ice Baby's playing. I go to my friend's house, Ice Ice Baby's playing. I'm driving in my car with my friend and he's playing Ice Ice Baby. Repetition, emotion, the expectation that's created based on the rhyme or the beat. It kind of leads to the, to the next one. And I think those are probably the three primary reasons.

• 50:27Speaker 00

  How do you, how do you use the, and that all makes sense, but how do you use the concept of memory to, you know, a lot of people, for example, have, have like a to do list, right? And so I, I think, you know, I, I spend time every day and I write what I need to do on a daily basis. Um, but then there's also things that maybe I forget to write down or I'm not in the position where I can actually write it down at some point. Do you use some of these techniques to remember, hey, my wife told me to pick up a, a gallon of milk on the way home? Um, that client told me to call him this afternoon at two o'clock. Do you feel like you can use that in a very practical application for these to do items that maybe you forget or neglect writing down and having a system for?

• 51:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, so what I would recommend people do is create a mind palace that you use just for your things to do list. So let's say you number 10 spots on your car. Number one is the, the front bumper, number two is the engine, three is the windshield, four is the steering wheel, five is the radio, six is the passenger seat, seven is the backseat, eight is the bed of the truck, or the, the, the trunk of the car, whatever you want, and then nine is the, the bumper or trailer hitch, and, and 10 is the wheels or something. So you could do that with your car, you could do it with your body. Number one's top of your head, two's nose, three's mouth, four's your ribs, five's your belly button. And now you're going throughout the day, and

• 51:53Speaker 02

  somebody says, hey, don't, don't forget to, that your wife, your wife wanted you to, to grab the milk at the store. Well, either you use your body or your car. Let's say you're using your body. Boom, you imagine a milk, you're attaching it to the top of your head. And then throughout the day, somebody says, hey, don't forget to call that guy at, at 2:00 PM. For me, the number two is a duck, because a duck is neck.

• 52:16Speaker 00

  It looks like a two. Yeah, it does.

• 52:18Speaker 02

  Yeah. So now I got a duck going up this nostril, a duck going out this nostril. And uh, if, if somebody, if I said, oh man, I gotta change my oil, don't forget that. Boom, oil's going out my mouth. So I would just attach it to my body, or maybe spots on my truck. But use my body or my truck every day. I'm driving in the car, and somebody, I'm on, I'm on the phone, I can't write anything down, and they're telling me things I need to remember. I'll imagine the first thing they tell me is on my bumper, the next thing is on the engine, the next is on the windshield.

• 52:50Speaker 00

  This is, so I actually, when you were talking about that, one thing came to mind is, when I was younger, I always had a hard time memorizing the four firearm safety rules. And I was like, how, how can I remember this? And I did it sequentially. So the first firearm safety rule is treat every gun as if it's loaded. So if somebody were to hand me a gun, that's the first thing, that's the first step. They hand me a gun, treat every gun as if it's loaded. And then I work from the barrel to the butt. So the barrel is, second, number two is, never point your gun at anything you don't intend to shoot. Then we work further back the gun. Number three is keep your finger off the trigger until you're ready to fire. And then number four is, once all of that, so we keep working back, now it's on me, I never point

• 53:35Speaker 00

  um, my gun at, or excuse me, um, know my target and what's behind it. So it, like, using those sequential, sequential systems for associating with something has seemed to help me, but I never even really considered it as an intentional thought. It's very interesting. And I also hear you saying getting the other senses involved, right? Whether it's taste, touch, sound, feel, smell, etc.

• 54:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, the more you can involve that, the more likely you will remember it, because it'll make the image, the, or the item stronger in your memory. Absolutely.

• 54:15Speaker 00

  Yeah. And, and so how else do you see this applying? So, you know, to do list tasks that you need to complete around the house, or with your spouse, or memorizing names, or, you know, one of the things that you mentioned earlier, and I don't think we actually circled back to it, is how do I remember a presentation, and the integral parts of a presentation that I might be listening to? Whether it's my boss talking to me at a daily briefing, or me going to some sort of seminar, and investing two or three days to be at, at this, that, this thing that I want to learn about?

• 54:49Speaker 02

  Yeah. So, great, great, great, great, great topic. So, let's, this is what I would do. I, you have five pieces of furniture numbered in this room. And this is what I'm encouraging everybody to do. Pick five in the room that you're in, you know, look at the doorway, wherever the doorway is, imagine yourself, and we didn't do that exactly here, but it worked fine.

• 55:08Speaker 00

  Right.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  But in general, the way I say to do it is, you're in the doorway, start in the doorway, why? Because it's, it's a natural starting point of walking into the room. You're in the doorway, and then just go around the room clockwise, or if it's more intuitive for you to go counterclockwise, do it. It doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that it is a, a path around the room. And you're not making one over here, two over here, three over here, and four here. So, pick five in this room, go to the next room, stand in the doorway, that next room is six through 10. Go to the next room, the, the rooms that are connected, do it as if you're walking around the house. The next room, 11 through 15, the next room, 16 through 20, the

• 55:50Speaker 02

  next room, 21 through 25. Then get to where you can say these forwards and backwards. You're falling asleep at night, and instead of counting sheep for the next couple of days, you're just running through 25, one to 25, 25 to one. Once you have those cold, write out your speech, write out the, the 10 or 15 things that you want to talk about. Walk around your house, you don't even have to walk around your house. You can just sit in your chair and imagine your house. But put these 15, 20 things around the furniture in your house. And then when you're up on stage, give your speech without using any notes, just as we did the first five in your room. Now let's flip it around. You said you go to a conference, you spend two or three

• 56:32Speaker 02

  days in a conference, you've, you know, you've paid $2,000, $1,000, probably $2,000 if you flew there, and you got hotels.

• 56:38Speaker 00

  Yeah, no doubt, yeah.

• 56:38Speaker 02

  The, the fees, yeah. So, take notes in the conference, don't try to memorize as the speaker's speaking. Take notes in the conference, like you wouldn't have notes, or like you don't have a memory system. Take notes, but then when you get your notes, you just reverse engineer it. It's not you giving the speech, it's you memorizing the key points to this person's speech. Take the key points, and put them around your mind palace that way. You could, you could make the room that you're in, a mind palace. You're at a conference in San Diego, you're at a hotel in San Diego, you got 15 things. When you think about this conference,

• 57:20Speaker 02

  you always want to think about that room. You could do that, and you hear the caution in my voice.

• 57:28Speaker 00

  Yeah, right.

• 57:29Speaker 02

  You could do that. The benefit to it is, is whenever you think of the conference, you think of that room. So that works perfect. The drawback to that is, it's not a, it's, you may never go to that place again. It's not a strong location in your memory. So what I may do in that scenario, is if I was dead set on doing it, and it's not a bad idea, it's actually a good idea, if you take this step. You're at the conference, get your cell phone, and walk around the hotel, and take 15 or 20 pictures. The escalator, the, the sign-in booth, the, the water table, the door, the speaker, the stage, the podium, the, the light, the vent, the, the

• 58:14Speaker 02

  product sales table. Then put these 15, 20 pictures around, in an order, around, in a PowerPoint. So now you will never get them mixed up, even if you never go back there. And then memorize it, so you always can review it, and then attach the, the stuff to that. So that's two ways. Attach it to your own home, or attach it to the room you learned it in, but you're gonna need, but make sure you really, and if you don't want to take pictures, just get yourself a notebook, and, and write out what the room looks like, and number it, one to 20.

• 58:45Speaker 00

  Well, and it seems like you can always, not always, maybe, but e- every room has some similarities, right? So when I walk into a conference, there is the entrance way, um, and then on the right-hand side, there might be a wall with some sconces and some lighting, and then in the front, there's, there's the, usually it's gonna be a banner, or some sort of marketing material, and then it'll be a stage, and then a banner, a TV, and then the other wall. Like, every room pretty much has the same, uh, components of, of the room, right? And so maybe you can look at it that way, I guess? I don't know.

• 59:22Speaker 02

  You, you certainly could. And, and also, also, um, uh, keep in mind, that if you go to four different conferences, and you, you use the registration table four different times, you may get, you may start confusing them.

• 59:42Speaker 00

  Yeah, I can see that.

• 59:45Speaker 02

  So what you, to, to, to avoid that, you still could use four registration tables, but pay real attention to them. Ah, this had a banner, it was a blue banner, I'm gonna focus on that blue banner. Ah, this registration table had a million pens right there. This registration table, they had three chairs behind it. So just focus on what makes each one different.

• 1:00:07Speaker 00

  Yeah, that makes sense. I, I think what's on, at the underlying of this is definitely association to things outside of just a name, like what does it sound like? What does it feel like? You know, what, where, where are you when you're associating with this person, or this thing you're trying to memorize? Um, yeah, I think association, and then just intentionality.

• 1:00:30Speaker 00

  But you wouldn't do that if you didn't think it was important. And I think that's what a lot of people overlook, is they overlook the fact that, you know, I, I've run into people who I haven't seen for a while, and they're like, hey, Ryan, what's going on? And that makes me feel good. As, as the person who's been remembered, that makes me feel good, which ought to give us a cue that, wouldn't it be nice for the other person if we remembered their name, even if it was after a year or two, since the last time we saw them?

• 1:00:59Speaker 02

  Hundred percent. It makes people feel really, really good. Even if you're at a friend's house and somebody's just met you, you know, hey, Ryan, good to meet you. Then 20 minutes later, they're like, hey, Ryan, could you pass me the ketchup bottle? It registers in your mind. That dude just remembered my name. But then you have to whisper to somebody else, or I do. I'm not saying not throwing you under the bus. Then I, you know, I, hey, what was that guy's name again?

• 1:01:21Speaker 00

  Oh, I have. I have a system for that, too. Like, if I, okay, so if I were to, let's say, you and I met at a conference early in the week, and you, you told me your name, and then I forgot it, which often people do. If I was with somebody, I, I always tell people this, if I'm with you and I introduce, let's say, you, Ron, and somebody else, if I don't say your name, that means to the other person that I don't remember your name, and their job is to ask. So I might say, hi, this is, this is Joe. And Joe's like, oh, wait, he didn't say his name. So Joe's gonna say, hey, what's, what's your name? And then that helps. That's like a cue for me. You know what I'm saying? Does that make sense, what I'm saying?

• 1:02:05Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yeah. It's definitely a way. And if, it happens to everybody, believe me, I'm, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll go somewhere, and people say, hey, what's my name? I'm like, man, I don't remember your name. Like, oh, you're the memory champion. You spoke for us at a conference in Lake Tahoe. There was 500 people in the room. You memorized 100 names. It was seven years ago. I know you got me. And I'm like, dude, no, I don't. It doesn't. And you know why I don't? Because I didn't, yeah, I knew your name seven years ago in Lake Tahoe with 100 other people. But because I didn't review, and this is a piece of the puzzle that's very important, because I didn't review those 100 names, there's no way I'm gonna remember them seven years later. But here's what I like to do. This is what I'll, and you can't always do it, but sometimes when I do it, when I can,

• 1:02:48Speaker 02

  I can. I'll talk to somebody that I like, hey, I'll, I'll just flat out say, hey, I always like to remember when I meet new people. Can we get a selfie real quick? I take a selfie. They don't even remember a month later that I did that selfie. But what I'll do is I'll screenshot it. So now I've got two copies of the selfie. I'll put it in a folder on my phone, people to remember. The first selfie, I leave alone. I don't do anything with it. The second selfie, I write their name. Let's say it's Brian, and I draw an arrow to the nose, right? If it was his nose, or whatever it was. Then, once a week, I open up that folder. The first selfie has nothing on it. I say the name. I try to guess the

• 1:03:29Speaker 02

  name. I swipe right, and then I see the name. So it acts, it acts as flashcards. You don't just wanna type, write the name Brian and have, because then you're just reading it again, and you may not be remembering it again. So I have two versions of it, and then just swipe through your phone like that. And if you, but you may say, well, I don't, I don't, I can't get a selfie. That's fine. Get yourself a journal, and write the people you met in it. Brian, nose, 40 years old, something about him. And then review that journal. But you, you must review if you wanna remember.

• 1:04:03Speaker 00

  That's interesting. All right. So if you and I met at a conference, and I said, hi, I'm Ryan, what is it that you're gonna look at me and say, oh, like, how would you remember me? What, what comes to mind for you? I'm just very curious about this.

• 1:04:16Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I would use your beard. You know, that's your distinctive feature. And mine used to be yours, the exact same color as yours. So I hope the same thing doesn't happen.

• 1:04:26Speaker 00

  I'm not, probably not far behind. I'm, I'm seeing a lot more, more gray and white in here. And I don't hate it. I, I don't, I don't mind at all.

• 1:04:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, I, I, I wish I had that color back, but I'm not, I'm not enough to where I'm gonna dye my, my beard. I go as I go. But, I would focus on your beard. And then my picture for Ryan, it has nothing to do with you, it's every Ryan, is a ray gun, like on Star Wars, a ray gun. So pew, pew, pew, pew. I would imagine we were having a ray gun warfight, and you're, and the, the rays are shooting out of your beard, and I'm shooting rays back at you. But I would, I would try to see that. And I would, and so right now, as we're on this podcast, I would be telling myself, remember that time you were on the podcast with Ryan, and a ray gun was shooting out of his beard? But I'd have to consciously do it, and then consciously review it. And there was a guy named Ebbinghaus in the 1850s,

• 1:05:19Speaker 02

  1850 to 1909 is his lifespan. But he determined that he created something called the forgetting curve. And he realized that once this podcast is over, me, and you, and everybody listening is gonna forget the majority of what was on this podcast in the first hour. That drop off just, and then it drops off more tonight, and more tomorrow. And by 20, 24 hours, seven days later, we're, we're at about 20% recall of the podcast, and it can level off to right about there. So what that means is, is the first hour is critical. This podcast is over. I got a review. Ray gun going out of his beard, ray gun going out of his beard. Tonight, when I'm falling asleep, I've got a review. That first day, that first hour is the most critical to get it locked in.

• 1:06:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, that makes sense. Is this something that you've always been interested in? Did you, did you grow up around these concepts and ideas? Like, what is it that actually got you into this line of work?

• 1:06:18Speaker 02

  Yeah. So I was 18 years old. I was three weeks out of high school. And my friend Brian, I always use his name for that.

• 1:06:25Speaker 00

  Me and Brian skiing in Brianhead, so got it.

• 1:06:29Speaker 02

  There you go. And Brian, we were, we were, we were 18 years old, three weeks out of high school. He said, I got a job at a telemarketing company. Do you want the job? And I said, yeah, I'll go. It was a chimney sweep company. We, they cleaned chimneys. And one day, they tore out three or four pages of the Arlington phone book, handed it to me. If they had torn out three or four different pages, and handed it to me, I would not be on this podcast with you today. It was a complete, a little, it shows how little bitty things can change your life. They tore out the page, they handed it to me. There was 10 people in the room. Everybody got pages. I mean, the odds that I got that page is just astronomical.

• 1:07:09Speaker 02

  And I started calling. I said, hey, my name's Ron. We wanna clean your chimney. He, he said, we don't want our chimney cleaned. We're trying to sell our house. I said, sir, if you're trying to sell your house, you should have a clean chimney. He said, you know what? You're just trying to overcome my objection. I've got a room full of telemarketers who will not overcome objections. They just hang up the phone when they get a no. He said, I'd love to hire you. Do you wanna go to work for me? I sell memory training seminars, and I'll pay you more than you're making now.

• 1:07:37Speaker 00

  Because, because you pushed just a little bit further, he, he saw that and was, was excited about that?

• 1:07:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. So it was, I got, that's how I got the job. And I worked for him for a couple years, and then I went out on my own. But I have no, I have no special gift. I have no special ability. I was a guy who took a job as, as a memory company, because they thought I was a good salesman.

• 1:07:58Speaker 00

  Why do, that's, that's a good story. I like that story. Why do, why do people hire you? What, what, what is the average, your average customer, your average client? Like, what is it that they're trying to accomplish?

• 1:08:11Speaker 02

  So it's more all be the keynote speaker for a bank. And, you know, they just want their, their bank employees to remember the names of the people walking in. They want them to remember the, you know, they, they're going to a training seminar. They want them to remember the training. You know, a car dealership might wanna remember sales scripts, or how to overcome objections. You know, somebody says, hey, I don't wanna buy the car. I wanna talk to my wife. And the car dealership has a list, here's what you say when they say that. But the salesman, he's like, okay, go talk to your wife, because they can't remember what to say. So they lose the sale. So, you know, remembering scripts, remembering objections, remembering names and faces. So that's, you know, that's a

• 1:08:53Speaker 02

  big thrust of what, of what people purchase my course for, or what they would hire me to speak for. Be more productive in business, more productive in life. Remember what's important to you. Pass advancement exams. You know, a lot of people are trying to get certified as a stockbroker, or a police officer wants to get it, passes advancement exam to be the sergeant or lieutenant. But you got these tests to take. So it's really that kind of thing.

• 1:09:18Speaker 00

  That's interesting. Yeah. As you were saying, that I, I, like, the, the theme or the, the trend there is, you know, people who don't just wanna be caught on their heels, right? They don't wanna be caught off guard, caught on their heels. You know, when you were talking about the objection, it's like, man, if I don't understand, if I don't remember the script for the objection, it is that. It's like, okay, well, you know, talk with her and let me know. And then you lose it. So it's like not being caught on your heels, and being able to be assertive and forward, and, and, and move the needle forward. Which is why I can see why Andy Elliott would resonate with what you're, what you're doing, is where we started the conversation today. Because he is, he's teaching sales strategy to primarily car salesmen, essentially, is, is his background.

• 1:10:01Speaker 02

  Yeah. And that's actually how I met him. I, I heard that, that's what he did. I didn't, I didn't really know who he was. I'd seen the social media, this guy on social media, take your shirt off, or whatever.

• 1:10:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. Let's see your six pack, yeah.

• 1:10:14Speaker 02

  Yeah. But that's all I knew about him. But I heard that's what he did. So here's what I did. I ordered his book, his, his, his objections book. I don't know if I got it right here or not. I ordered his book. It's 56 objections, and how to overcome them. The, the objection and the rebuttal. And I sat down, and I recorded myself doing it. I've memorized his entire book, every rebuttal, every objection, in, in one hour, 60 minutes. I put a blindfold on, and I said, objection one, rebuttal. Objection two, rebuttal. And I said his entire book from memory. And that's kind of how I got on his radar. And, you know, we, I got his cell phone number. We text sometimes. But that's how I got on his radar.

• 1:10:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's amazing. Well, Ron, I appreciate your work. I'm actually gonna dig more into what you're doing, because my ability to, you know, memorize people's names, memorize, but even more important than, maybe not more important, but just as important, is, you know, the way they're feeling about things, what, what they're experiencing, what their hardships are, what they're good at, what they're not good at. Those things are important. I wonder if, and I'll, I'll, I'll leave you with this last question. I wonder if people ever feel like, or maybe even accuse you of some sort of manipulation in conversation or relationships? Is, is there a downside, or a darker side that we ought to be aware

• 1:11:36Speaker 00

  of, that we don't maybe portray as we're trying to memorize some of these things, and, and be in tune with what people are dealing with and going through?

• 1:11:44Speaker 02

  No, I, I, I have, I haven't, you know, people say, um, uh, you know, I, I, I haven't encountered that at all, you know, we're just trying to, it, it, it's not, if you use, uh, Brian's scheme for every Brian, you're trying to remember their name. If you don't use that and you just say their names three times in a conversation or repeat it, or have another method or whatever, or just try to do it, it's not manipulative. You're just, you're just making an effort.

• 1:12:14Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:12:15Speaker 02

  So I don't, I've never encountered that. Now, I will say this, um, I have been, people have investigated me for cheating before.

• 1:12:25Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, I bet they have. I bet they have. Yeah.

• 1:12:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, I've, I've had TV reporters, I do a thing where I write out everybody who died in the war in Afghanistan from memory on a wall.

• 1:12:34Speaker 00

  I've seen it.

• 1:12:35Speaker 02

  It's 7,500.

• 1:12:36Speaker 00

  You did that with Sean Ryan, right?

• 1:12:39Speaker 02

  I did. I finished it live on his show. That was the first time I ever finished it. Um, uh, I, I did. I, I, it was, it was incredibly emotional thing for me. I said, it took me two and a half hours. I, I said it. I was exhausted after it was done. And then we did the interview right after it in retrospect. I wish, yeah, I wish I hadn't done the interview right back to back. Um, I wasn't able to give as concise answers as I did to you today. But it was still a tremendous experience. Um, but I've, I've been writing on the wall before and I've had news reporters coming up and looking in my ear and looking behind my ear.

• 1:13:17Speaker 00

  Really?

• 1:13:18Speaker 02

  You know?

• 1:13:19Speaker 00

  Oh, man, that's wild. That's good. That's actually a compliment. That means that, uh, what you're doing defies what people can understand, which I would take as a compliment.

• 1:13:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, it's, it was fun. It was fun. Uh, uh, yeah.

• 1:13:35Speaker 00

  Well, Ron, how do we connect with you, learn more about you? And do you have any programs that you might want to talk about where guys can get involved with and, um, really work on these memory techniques?

• 1:13:46Speaker 02

  Yeah. So if you, uh, my social media, I'm on Instagram and YouTube at Brainathlete. Uh, my website is brainathlete.com. Uh, I do have a recall under pressure program on my Brainathlete. If you go to brainathlete.com, you'll see a picture of me and Sean Ryan in there and I got my recall under pressure program that you could get. It's just, it, it, you might not be able to bring me to speak for your company, but you might get it just for yourself.

• 1:14:10Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:14:10Speaker 02

  So those are the ways to find me.

• 1:14:12Speaker 00

  Excellent. Well, we'll sync everything up. I'm excited to get this in front of the guys. I see the practical application of it. I mean, whether it's memorized, memorizing your, your employees' names or clients' names, memorizing people's concerns, writing down information and memorizing it from a conference you attended or public speaking, giving a, giving a speech. It's powerful stuff. So I really appreciate you taking some time today and talking with us and sharing some of your technique. And I'm excited to dig in personally. So I appreciate it, Ron.

• 1:14:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I appreciate it as well. Thank you for having me on.

• 1:14:44Speaker 00

  Thanks, brother.

• 1:14:46Speaker 00

  Gentlemen, there you go. My conversation with the one and only Ron White. I hope you enjoyed that one. Very impressive individual. And what's interesting is, as he said, he doesn't feel like he's special. He just has a good system. We talk about systems all the time and it's amazing what a good system will do and how important it is that we learn to better utilize our brains for, for memory and recall and information recollection. So make sure you check out his work over at brainathlete.com. Uh, make sure you also take a screenshot, share what we're doing here, share with other people, uh, other men who might need to hear this message, not just of what we talked about today, but of reclaiming and restoring masculinity. Uh, also just make sure you leave a rating

• 1:15:29Speaker 00

  and review. And the last thing I would encourage you to do is to check out that war room we're talking about where it's five fears that you're going to need to overcome in your life. Powerlessness, invisibility, exposure, dependency, and irrelevancy. Get signed up at orderofman.com/warroom. All right, guys, we'll be back tomorrow for our Ask Me Anything. Until then, go out there, take action, and become the man you are meant to be.

• 1:15:53Speaker 01

  Thank you for listening to the Order of Man Podcast. Are you ready to take charge of your life and be more of the man you were meant to be? We invite you to join the Order at orderofman.com.