- Lemme ask you this question.
How many of you in here think that you have a bad memory?
Who in here thinks...
Oh my gosh.
Your memory is not bad.
It's a million times better than you think it is.
Twenty two years ago, I thought I had a bad memory.
I was going to go into college, kinda.
(audience laughs)
I was signed up.
(White laughs)
At this theory you could just show up and take the test
and everything would be okay and it wasn't okay.
I got kicked out of college 'cause my grades
were so, so bad.
During my year of suspension from college,
I heard about a memory class and I took this class
not because I thought it was gonna help me with school.
I took the class 'cause I thought it sounded freaking cool.
You ever seen those guys who could pick up a deck of cards,
look through it and a minute and a half,
set it down and tell you what the order was.
I had saw that too. I wanted to know how to do that.
Have you ever seen those guys who could walk around,
meet fifty people then go through and say all their names?
I had seen that too. I wanted to know how to do that.
So I walked in, I took this class.
They taught me how to do the names and numbers.
The cars memorized books, everything.
Twenty two years later, I have set the record
for the fastest to ever memorize a deck of card
in the United States.
Thank you for appreciating that.
(audience claps)
My record has been broken.
(White and audience laugh)
But in 2009, I picked up a deck of cards.
I looked through it as fast as I could and I set it down
and then I repeated the order.
I did it in one minute and twenty seven seconds.
It was the fastest ever in the United States.
Two years later, a freak of nature came along,
(audience laughs)
broke my record.
But here's the point.
It's a learned system.
I don't have a natural ability to memorize a deck of cards
in a minute and twenty seven seconds.
I don't have a natural ability to memorize
an eight hundred digit number in an hour, which I have done.
I don't have that natural ability without a system,
but it's a system I learned.
It's a system I teach.
And it's a system I'm about to teach you.
Before we do that though,
I tried to meet some people throughout the day today.
I don't know how many I met. I really don't.
You guys are like trying to herd cats.
So it was pretty difficult for me to kinda get a feel
for who I had and who I didn't have.
But let me just say this.
If I met you...
If I did not meet you do not stand up.
This is not beat up the memory guy time.
(audience laughs)
If I meet you, could you please stand up?
What!
(audience laughs)
Okay. Forget it nevermind.
I'm not gonna do it, sit down.
(audience laughs)
No, just kidding.
I'm just kidding. I'm gonna do it.
This is what we're gonna do.
I'm not gonna get all of you.
I'm not gonna get a perfect score.
'Cause there was only one guy who ever was perfect
and he walked on water and I'm not him.
But I will get a very, very good score.
Put your hands over your name tag
if you're wearing a name tag.
So this is what we're gonna do,
when I call off your name if I get it correct, sit down.
So Sally and Paul, you can be the first to sit down.
Andrew and um...
Andrew we'll come back to you.
And Wendy and you can have a seat.
And then this is Jason right here you can have a seat.
This is Nicole.
And I believe you are Robin right here.
This is Vicky and you are Peter.
And of course Steve over there and that's Cass.
And then this is, this is Brian right here.
And you are David right here.
And I believe I'll becoming back to you.
And that is Greg and that's Craig right there.
And this is Max I believe and you are Tim.
And this is Amy and you are Rita, I believe.
And this is Caleb right here.
And you are Karen, I think.
And this is Aaron and Bridget.
And that's Alex back there.
That's Julie over there.
This is Joseph right here.
You are Graham.
And this is Marianna.
And then...
Did we meet?
- [Crowd Member] Yes.
- We did?
Okay all right.
(White and audience laugh)
- This is Ruth right here.
And this is Maria right here.
And you are Mark over there.
And this is Mike right here and that's Ivy.
And this is Neil and you are Richie.
And this is Dean right here.
You are Daniel.
And that is Kenneth right there.
This is a Maricia and Carol.
That's Les right there.
It's not gonna work Les.
And Teagan, all right.
And this is Ross right here.
And that is Angela I believe right there.
And I think this is Chris.
And you are Stewart.
I think that's Anthony. And this is Michael.
And I believe you are Arna for Arnie.
This is Sonny right here.
And you are Vignash.
And this is Ian and you are Deb.
And that is, Danish right here.
And you are Anna.
And that is Mitchell over there.
And you are Daniel.
And I believe this is Andrew.
And then you are Jane.
This is Michael and you are Tess.
And this is Angus and you are Zoltan.
And this is Warren right here.
You were Carrie, his Kevin.
This is a Marie.
You are Lisa right here.
You are Gilberto.
This right here is Karen. And this is Rhonda over here.
You are Claire.
And I believe that Serina,
That right there is Robert and Diana.
This is Michael right here. You are David and Angie.
And this is David again.
And you are Margaret, okay?
Sit down if I get it right.
(White and audience laughs)
You wanna know what I have nightmares about? (laughs)
This is Lee right here.
This is Mo, this is Gavin.
You are Vaughn. And this is Jennifer.
And I believe you were Carmen right here.
And this is Joanne, right?
And this is Richard.
And this is Sharon right here.
And you were Pauline and Lindsey.
And I believe it's Gavin. Is that correct?
And then you are Debbie right here and you are.
(White panting)
It starts with the an E.
Don't tell me.
(audience laughs)
Is it Andrew?
- [Crowd Member] Close, very close.
- Anthony?
- [Crowd Member] That's my middle name.
(White and audience laughs)
- Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Gina?
- [Gina] Yes.
- Okay.
And then this is Mal.
And this is Sarah right here.
And you are Daniel, I believe.
And this is Virginia.
And you are Daniel right here as well.
So ladies, you know what happened with you.
Tommy.
Ladies, you know what happened with you?
(audience laughing)
I was so stunned by your beauty.
(audience laughs)
I don't mean to be rude here, but could take...
Did you have your jacket on it.
Could you take off your jacket?
Did you have that jacket on?
- [Audience Member] Yes.
- You did?
All right. Well, it's good to meet you.
(White and audience laughs)
All right y'all wait...
(feet clanging)
Alex?
- [Alex] Correct.
- All right.
(audience cheers)
All right.
(audience continues to cheer)
All right.
Yeah.
All right yeah.
(audience continues to cheer)
All right, it's good.
(audience continues to cheer)
All right.
So I got everybody but I got mispronunciation
of your name.
And pronounce it for me again, Annalee.
And tell me your name.
Yes, yes you are.
Okay.
(White and audience laughs)
Okay all right.
See I'm just a normal guy.
(audience laughs)
But, what's that?
- But you're not.
No, I am.
How do you do it?
There are five keys to improve in your memory.
Focus, file, picture, glue, review.
You say them with me.
What are the five keys for improving your memory?
What are they?
Focus, file, picture, glue, review.
Number one, Focus.
Good nutrition and exercise will help your focus.
Spinach and blueberries, Omega-3 fish oil pills.
The Acai berry, blueberries.
Drinking plenty of water.
When I was training for the 2009 USA memory championship,
I lost 20 pounds training for that tournament.
My friend said,
"Dude, are you training for a memory tournament
or a marathon?"
(audience laughs)
I'm like, it's a memory tournament.
But the better fit my body is, the better fit my brain is.
I lost 20 pounds.
I became King of the nerds in 2009.
The next year in 2010 training for that tournament,
I lost another 20 pounds.
People were like,
congrats, man that's 40 pounds a year.
It's really not.
It was the same 20 pounds.
(audience laughs)
There was a six month window in there, okay?
But the better fit your brain is,
the better fit your body is.
Here's some things that are bad for your memory.
Excessive alcohol, sleep medication, not enough sleep,
stress, artificial sweeteners, tobacco, salt, depression,
anxiety all terrible for your memory and your focus.
Let me give you one thing that if this is the only thing you
get from my talk.
If you walk out here today with Elizabeth,
with nothing else but this one thing that I'm about to say,
I promise you, you will remember more names
than you're remembering right now.
And you meet Stewart and you walk up to Stewart.
And as you're walking up to Stewart, you're thinking,
Oh my gosh, do I still have that hamburger stain
on my shirt right here?
I need to meet me and my wife.
I need to pick my kids up after school.
What does this person think of me?
What am I gonna sell to them?
Hey, my name's Ron.
You're not focused.
And that's why you're not remembering 90% of the names
that you don't remember.
You shake their hand and two seconds later,
do you know their name? No.
That's not a memory problem.
That is a focus problem.
That's the biggest reason you're not remembering names.
Let me give you one thing to do that will solve that.
From now on Aaron and Bridgette,
every time you're about to meet this person.
As you're walking towards them, Kevin,
ask yourself this question.
What is their name?
Do not say that out loud.
(audience laughs)
The next thing you need is a file.
You need a place to store the data.
Let me show you how most of your brains
are working right now.
You meet somebody and they say their name is Steve.
That name goes in your ear,
goes on the floor of your memory.
Then you meet Brian.
That name goes in your ear goes on the floor of your memory.
You meet Karen in your ear, the floor of your memory.
You meet Lisa and you get a new bank account number.
You read a new business book.
Brian and Matthew and Jason and Kevin and Craig.
Then six weeks later, you're at the grocery store
and they say, "Ian, how have you been?
It's so good to see you again."
And Ian, those hamsters that run around in your brain,
they panic.
And they go, Oh my God.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I am too good, how are you doing? I'm doing great.
Oh my God.
No, that's not it.
How's work, huh?
Trying to figure out where they work,
so you can remember their name, right?
Two hours later, you're driving home.
And what happens?
Your mind goes, "Huh, look what I found."
(audience laughs)
Was the name up there the entire time? Yes.
That's not the problem.
This is the problem.
Steve's information is great.
Derek's information is great.
Lyndie's their information is great,
but this my friends is how you're expecting your brain
to remember it.
You don't have files right now.
And that's the reason you're not able to memorize data.
File is simply a place in a room.
As the story goes, 2,500 years ago,
there's a guy named Simonides.
He lives in Greece.
He was in a room like this,
the roof collapses.
It kills everybody but one guy.
Miraculously, he escaped Simonides was his name.
After they pulled the rocks off the people,
Simonides was called to identify the bodies.
'Cause they couldn't recognize them anymore.
He said, well,
Les was sitting right there.
Michael was sitting right there.
Gina was sitting right there.
Sonny was sitting right there.
Ian was sitting right there.
Deb was sitting right there.
Big Nash was sitting right there.
He didn't remember based on how they looked.
He remembered them based upon where they were sitting
in the room.
Then the light bulb went off in his head.
What if I could remember anything
based upon a position in a room?
He went home and he numbered spots in his house.
The bed, the desk, the table, the chair.
His TV, probably wasn't in his room.
I don't know how advanced they were in 477 BC.
(audience laughs)
Let's do it here in this room.
Number one is, what do we call this?
The wheel.
So what's number one? Wheel.
Number two, the stairs.
So what's two?
- [Audience] Stairs.
- Number three, we're gonna make it the wall right here.
That kinda looks like a mountain right there.
So let's just call it mountain.
Number three is the mountain.
What's three?
- [Audience] Mountain.
- Four, we're gonna make it the curtain back here.
So four's the curtain.
What's four?
- [Audience] Curtain.
- Five is the video camera.
What's five.
- [Audience] Video camera.
- Say these with me.
What's one? - [Audience] Wheel.
Two? - [Audience] Stairs.
Three? - [Audience] Mountain.
Four? [Audience] Curtain.
Five? - [Audience] Video camera.
Four? - [Audience] Curtain.
Three? - [Audience] Mountain.
Two? - [Audience] Stairs.
and one? - [Audience] Wheel.
- Okay. This is what I've done in my house.
Just like this is a map of here.
I've numbered pieces of furniture all through my house.
What's the next thing you need to memorize something.
Picture whatever you want to recall.
It has to be a picture.
What's the next one? Glue.
How many of you in here you ever been in a car accident?
Anybody been in a car accident?
How many is more than 20 years ago, okay?
And I'm not a cop.
I'm just so...
It's okay.
(audience laughs)
Did you wreck into them or did they wreck into you?
You ran straight into them?
Okay, very honest person, all right.
Do you remember what area of town, okay.
And did you say what time of day it was?
Okay. And how many years ago was this?
He was 17 years old.
Can tell me the time of day,
who was in the car,
where it occurred and how it occurred.
Richard, three weeks ago on a Tuesday.
Can you tell me, did you stop at the gas station that day?
Did you stop at the grocery store, the cleaners?
You don't know.
It was three weeks ago and you have no clue.
One was when you were 17 years old, crystal clear recall.
What's the difference?
Glue, action and emotion.
When something has action and emotion,
it'll stay in your memory for 30 years.
If it doesn't, it'll fade very rapidly.
What's the last key to your memory? Review.
What are the five keys to your memory?
Say them with me.
What are they?
Focused, file, picture, glue, review.
I wanna show you this video right here.
Kaylee was six year old when this video is formed.
Two weeks prior, I had given her brother, Jacob a Nintendo.
A $200 Nintendo toy for free.
If he memorized the Presidents of United States, he did.
I gave him the Nintendo.
He memorized them using my system.
But she was six years old.
Can a six year old, really remember 44 words
with this system.
And I doubted if I could teach this to a six year old.
She was crying, I love her with all my heart.
I wasn't going to reject her request.
I said, Kaylee, let's come to your bedroom.
I want you to pick five pieces of furniture.
She said, my bed, the dresser, my sister's bed, the closet,
the windows.
Then I said, Kaylee, the first president is Washington.
What does that sound like to you?
She said, it sounds like a washing machine.
I was asking her to turn it into a picture, right?
I did not say Kaylee.
Look right there and imagine a washing machine.
A six year old, never gonna remember that.
Neither will a 36 year old.
A 36 year old or a six year old needs a glue.
So I picked her up, set her on the bed.
I said, Kaylee, here's the clothes.
Put the clothes in.
She grabbed the imaginary clothes and she put them
in the imaginary washer.
I said, Kaylee, here's the soap, put it in.
She put the imaginary soap in.
And then I shook her like that. Like she was really in it.
We spent 30 seconds on that piece of furniture.
Focus, file, picture, glue, review.
We went to the next one.
The next president was Adams.
I said, Kaylee, that's a dam.
Pretend like you're swimming.
I stood her up and I swam right beside her.
We're swimming in the dam, Kaylee.
What are we doing?
We're swimming in the dam.
We did a 44 pieces of furniture and that six year old
little girl, started over here and she ran all the way
through her house from room to room to room.
She said all 44 presidents.
When she got to number 30 and said Calvin Coolidge,
I thought to myself, Oh my God,
If I get this on video, I'm gonna make a million dollars.
(audience laughs)
I said, Kaylee, can we do this one more time?
But can I film it?
She said, you can film it for a dollar.
(audience laughs)
I'm not kidding.
Can we play that video?
- [White] Here, come down here, okay.
Come over here.
What's your name?
- Kaylee.
- [White] How old are you?
- Six.
- [White] And what are we about to do?
- Memorize the presidents.
- [White] And how are you gonna do that?
- By furniture.
- [White] Furniture, okay.
Here we go.
What's one? - George Washington.
[White] Two? - Adams.
[White] Three?
- Jefferson.
[White] There you go, Jefferson.
Four? - Madison.
[White] Madison, five? - Monroe.
[White] Monroe, let's hurry up.
Let's go to the next room.
Okay. Here's number six right here.
- Abraham Lincoln.
- [White] No, that's not Abraham Lincoln.
Who's number six right here. - Adams.
- [White] Adams there you go.
Who's number seven?
- Jackson.
- [White] There you go. Who's eight.
- Van Buren.
- [White] And number nine? - Harrison.
[White] Harrison and number 10?
- Tyler.
- [White] Rock and roll here we go.
We're almost there.
Okay. Number 11, come in this room.
Who is it? - Polk.
[White] Twelve? - Taylor.
[White] Taylor, 13? - Fillmore.
[White] Fillmore. Who's 14? - Pierce.
- [White] Pierce and right number 15 right here?
On the door.
Who's the 15th president, Kaylee?
- Buchanan.
- [White] Buchanan, rock and roll.
Here we go.
- Let's go to Thad's room.
- [White] Okay, here we go.
- I said Thad's room.
- [White] Okay, who's number 16?
- Abraham Lincoln.
- [White] Okay, who's number 17 over here?
- Johnson.
- [White] Johnson. Who's number 18.
- Grant.
- [White] Grant. Who's number 19.
- I don't know.
- [White] You know this one?
Who's on the couch right here.
- Hayes.
- [White] Hayes. Who's number 20.
- Garfield.
- [White] Garfield. 21?
- Arthur.
- [White] Arthur then 22? - Grover.
- [White] Grover for Cleveland, 23?
- Benji.
- [White] Benji, 24?
- Grover.
- [White] Grover for Cleveland and 25?
- McKinley.
- [White] McKinley. Let's go to the next room.
- Okay.
- [White] Okay.
Who's this one?
- Teddy Roosevelt.
- Teddy Roosevelt. Who's 27?
- Taft.
- [White] Taft, 28?
- Wilson.
- [White] Wilson, 29?
- Harding.
- [White] Harding, 30?
- Coolidge.
- [White] Coolidge. Let's go the next room.
We're almost there.
Come on.
- I want something to sit on?
- [White] You want something to sit on?
We're almost there.
Who's 31?
- Hoover.
- [White] Hoover at hopes for Hoover.
And 32?
- Teddy Roosevelt.
- [White] Teddy Roosevelt.
We remember Teddy Roosevelt's cousin, right?
So his last name is the same.
So his last name is what?
- Teddy Roosevelt.
- [White] Roosevelt that's right.
And who is the- - Truman.
- [White] Truman and who is, who-
- Eisenhower.
- [White] Eisenhower. Okay, come on.
Let's go to the next room.
Oh.
(both laughing)
Okay, last room.
Who is 35? - John F. Kennedy.
- [White] John F. Kennedy.
The next one.
The next one, who's the president?
- Johnson.
- [White] Johnson.
And then who is the next- - Nixon.
- [White] Nixon that's right.
And who's the next one?
- Ford.
- [White] Ford, very good. And who is this one?
- Carter.
- [White] Carter. And who's 40th?
- Reagan.
- [White] Reagan, that's right.
And who is 41?
- Bush.
- [White] Bush, and who is 42?
- Clinton.
- [White] Clinton, and who is 43?
(Kaylee humming)
- Bush.
- [White] There you go, Bush.
And the last president?
The president right now?
- Obama.
- [White] Obama, very good baby.
(Both cheer)
- I want my dollar.
- [White] You want a dollar?
- I want my dollar.
(speaker laughs)
(audience claps)
- That, I haven't seen that.
I love that little girl with all my heart.
But she's moved away and I haven't seen her
in two and a half years.
Thank you so much for having me out.
(audience applauds)