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Speaker 1: Welcome back to the art of charm podcast. A show designed to help you communicate with power and become unstoppable on your path from hidden genius to influential leader.

Speaker 2: Now we know you have what it takes to reach your full potential and each and every week we share with you interviews and strategies to help you transform your life by helping you unlock your X factor. So whether you're in sales, leadership, medicine, building client relationships, or even looking for love, we got what you need. You shouldn't have to settle for anything less than extraordinary. I'm AIJ and I'm Johnny

Speaker 1: You, everyone for tuning in let's kick off today's show. Today we have with us, Dr. Yohanas mallow. He is a two time world memory champion. In fact, in 2012, he set a world record by remembering 504 digits. In five minutes, he can memorize an entire deck of poker cards in just 20 seconds. Now, before he started professional memory sports, he worked as a researcher and an engineer at the university of Magdeburg. He finished his PhD thesis on the topic of magnetic resonance imaging, and published a study on the topic of memory improvement. In 2015, Yonis is living with muscular dystrophy, which has had a deep impact on his physical, but also on his mental health. When the disease broke through at the age of 14, it was his discovery of memory sports that got him out of severe and long depression. He is also a protagonist in the documentary memory games, which aired in theaters in 2018 is now available on Amazon prime and Netflix. These days, he helps people to master situations which require a good memory, such as presentations, job interviews, and even in social events, when it becomes important to remember names and facts. Welcome to the show. Yohanas so great to have you

Speaker 3: Thank you very much for inviting me and nice to be here. And looking forward to that

Speaker 1: Often on the show that we have a memory world champion, and I'm sure many in our audience are not even aware of memory sports. So how did you start your journey to becoming a memory athlete in competing in memory sports? Yeah, I started

Speaker 3: When I was 22 and, uh, what's the TV show where there was a celebrity on that show who was coached by a memory coach and she is known to be a bit dumped, so she's not, but her image is like that. And, uh, she did it, she, she managed to memorize 20 words and I was like, okay, if she can do it, I can do two. And then I did research in the internet and I found out about memories forwards. And then somehow I got addicted to that, because at this point, at this point I had a hard time competing against other that because of my physical condition. And that gave me something back and I was starting, yeah. Starting to compete in 2004, one year after that event. And it really pushed me and motivated to become better and better each day and was so cool.

Speaker 1: I think what's really fascinating about it is not only are you competing against others, but you're competing against yourself. A lot of these memory sports involve timing and you having to memorize something over and over again in your training to try to shave off time, to become faster and faster at the memorization. What was it like going into that first memory sports competition for you, or actually competing against others and not only yourself? Yeah, it was a

Speaker 3: Very exciting moment because first time you're not sitting at your nice comfortable desk, but you're sitting with others in a room. It was not very big, like eight people, but it's not, it's not football, it's memory sports. And, uh, but it was very exciting. And now it's like, you have to show now it feels like now you have to show that you can do it and you to have a come. That that was very important. But at my first competition, to be honest, I wasn't very nervous. I ended up in the third place in the end, which gave me some confidence at this point for the first time I knew. Okay, I'm quite good at that. Because being at home, you feel okay, I can memorize a deck of cards in five minutes or 10 minutes or four minutes, but how good is that? And being in the competition gave me some context here and yeah, it was really a nice experience. And I think I will never forget that one, the trophy. I don't think you can see it. Yeah. It's a small one. There's this trophy in the background. This is from my first competition. One of these trophies over there. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Well, for those who are listening, there's many trophies in the background because he's won a lot of competitions. And for those in our audience who aren't familiar with memory sports, there are different types of competition, different types of sports to compete in when it comes to memory, what are some that you compete in? And, and what does the lay of the land look like in memory sports? So memory

Speaker 3: Sports in general, the classical tournament format is like, you have 10 disciplines and it's like a big test in the accent, for example. So you're sitting with all the other people you'll have your own desk and all the others in the champion and world championships will like 120 people sitting there and they enjoy just getting a sheet of paper. We're still working on paper. And then they memorize everyone memorizes in, let's say one hour, as much as they can. And then they hand in the sheet of paper, then they get a recall sheet and they have to write it down. And yeah, that's basically what is, I would say for the audience, maybe a boring competition, but for us, it's, it's quite a vivid because we are doing so much stuff in our brains. And then there's another competition. It's more head to head there. The one minute competition you have to compete against your opponent, memorizing 80 digits, as fast as you can. And the other one is trying the same and the faster one wins. So 80 digits today, actually I did my personal record in memorizing 80 digits. Uh, what do you think? What is my personal records? Four 80 digits at the 80 digit number.

Speaker 1: I'm guessing it's in seconds. Probably 25.

Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't think you can win anything with 10 seconds today. Back there. It was a nice score still. Um, but today I did 13.4, six seconds, four 80 digits, perfectly correct. And yeah, and that's, uh, quite fast and exciting of what the audience to watch that

Speaker 1: I love that it's to the hundreds of seconds, to give you an idea of how competitive

Speaker 3: It must be like a 100 meters running, right. So that's also like trying to beat the 10 seconds and it's quite similar to that.

Speaker 1: Now you've also studied the science of memory and building memory. And how does the science play a role in memory sports and how are you utilizing the science and understanding of how the brain works to get that competitive advantage?

Speaker 3: I did my PhD in the area of MRI and I was also doing a study about these memory techniques. And yeah, what I found out is vitally known already that if you use your memory different in a way like you create images, you have emotions. So you would always remember an emotional event over an just boring event maybe, or maybe it's that boring that you got emotional about it. Then it's again very interesting to remember. So what I've found out or what science knows for years already is that you, um, that the brain is really good in memorizing images, visual images, also emotions have very, very good to memorize or to recall. So what I do is I create stories which are emotional, which are visual and which are fun because that's the thing, what a brains remember in the end.

Speaker 1: So that's what we actually hold on to. So if we can evoke some emotion and others, they might actually hold onto a memory of us and we'll stand out and become more magnetic. I think all

Speaker 2: Of us have had moments where a certain smell will unlock memories and emotions that are tied to us from being a child and all of a sudden that those memories and those emotions are so visceral vivid, they'll take over. And it's almost as if we are time-traveling because we are back in grandma's kitchen, smelling the cookies, being baked, to be able to use that on call or at least use what's underneath the tip of the iceberg in our daily lives to enhance our lives is certainly a key and perhaps a little bit later in this week and discuss some ways that people can practice stuff, this stuff and use it in their everyday lives.

Speaker 3: Imagine yourself walking down the street, you got a smell in your nose and you're suddenly threatened. Time-traveling that that's the right description. I like that. And it happens to all of us and this defines our personality today because every single what happened to us in the past defines what, who we are today. These are short glimpse into the past was just the smell. Just the tone, just the song in the radio or something.

Speaker 1: And for you and your journey to becoming world champion in memory sports, let's talk a little bit about what the practice leading up to these competitions is like, kind of, and how grueling that training is. I mean, to go from 10 minutes to seconds to memorize an entire deck of cards, I'm sure there's a lot of practice that goes into that, that many of us mere amateurs or mortals are not engaging in

Speaker 3: The first important thing is you have to believe that it works because if you just think, okay, I try that, but I don't think it works. It will not work. It's really something you have to believe these techniques work and then go for it and try it, give it a chance. And what I did was I was really sitting down each and every day for two or three hours in the beginning and just did my regular memory workout. Like you would go to the park or jogging and running. I would sit down on a nice sunny Sunday afternoon and memorize the list of 1000 digits. Uh, I mean, it's always a bit difficult to sit there and do that, but you need to force yourself to do it because only with practice and regular practice and discipline, you can improve here. So I was sitting there for like a year or two in the beginning, every day for one or two, two or three hours. And that improved me in the beginning here.

Speaker 1: So in a situation where maybe a client of yours or you in particular, want to go to a party and actually remember everyone's name. So we talk a lot about this on the show, your name is magical to you. And if someone remembers that it really makes you feel good and it makes you stand out. But many of us, as we talked about earlier in conversation, maybe we haven't fully caught the name or if we did, we weren't really focused on memorizing it. So what are the simple strategies that our listeners can use if they're going into a situation where they really want to retain people's names? Yeah.

Speaker 3: The first thing is enable your name's focus. That's the first thing you have to do. So you're going into a body and you think, okay, today I want to memorize. I just want to remember some names. If you do that, you are more aware of the situation already. You don't need anything else in the beginning. And then it's simple strategy is using the name. Hi Johnny, nice to meet you. Hi, AIG, nice sunglasses or whatever. And using that name at the, for in the first place already helps your memory to recall it later. If you didn't understand the name correctly, then it's just, don't be shy. Ask again, just us. So sorry, I didn't get a piece. Uh, can you repeat your name? I mean, that's not nothing bad. Everyone knows this feeling of forgetting names. So if you just ask that shows your, and that creates interest in the other and your counterpart. So asking, using it and making yourself aware. I want to memorize some names. Today is all the basic stuff you already, you need. That's a really, really good start. All right.

Speaker 1: Now, practicing your memory and working to get to a place where you can actually compete is one thing. But as we know, when it comes to giving presentations or a job interview or going into memory sports competition, there's a lot of tension and pressure that builds up in that moment. We're competing against others, or we actually are on stage or in the spotlight. What do you do to prepare yourself mentally outside of the training environment to actually compete at a high level against other competitors at these memory sports? Basically,

Speaker 3: It's like, I'm trying to put myself in the same state as I am in the training mode. So when I'm sitting at home at my desk, everything is very comfortable here and I'm just doing my thing here. And then when I'm in the competition, I try to imagine I close my eyes and do a little meditation, just breathe in, breathe out, and then try to imagine myself being in that calm, nice, comfortable environment, just hearing the birds, singing outside, which is always singing here and just trying to bring myself back into that place. And that's already enough for me to decrease my heart rate, to be more aware that everything is fine. It's just a competition. It's not the end of the world, but of course, sometimes you have situations like an important job interview or something in that case. I think it's the same story or the same strategy might work.

Speaker 3: You just try to relax, come down and say to yourself, I can't do that. I have all the skills I need. I have them. And that's it. And if you, for me, in these memory techniques is one very important thing about my own confidence, because I know if I'm in a, in an important interview or a situation, maybe your negotiation just, just memorize 10 keywords, which I really want to mention in that negotiation. And then I know that I works. I can rely on it and I feel much better than that. I don't need a notes or sheet of paper. It just go through my memory palace in that case. And this is a strategy and just, yeah, name the specific keywords. So relying on it and bringing myself back to the comfortable situation that helps

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Speaker 1: If implementing concepts from this show is enhanced your life. Imagine what a year long mentorship in the X-Factor accelerator with me and Johnny could do for you. Unlock your own X factor and become extraordinary. You can apply today at unlock your X-Factor dot com. That's right. Pause this podcast and apply today. Unlock your X-Factor dot com. I know for myself, I've been in situations where there's so much tension and pressure that I feel like my mind actually goes blank. And I can't recall anything as that happened to you. And what do you do in those moments where even if you're training and trying to get to that state may not have worked. And now everything is blank. It happens

Speaker 3: To everyone and that might have happened already. Even that happened to me. And yeah, I mean, this, this is a strange set strategy use. You try to be aware of that. Okay. Now I have a blackout as everything is blank. And, but it's not the truth. This is just because I'm nervous because there's so much tension and it's really like what I'm. Yeah. What I do is I try to put myself back into a comfortable situation in my mind, just closing my eyes, breeze in Braze out. And I mean, it's how it's very similar, simple, but it is really a matter of training if you do that very often. And in many tension situations with, whereas a lot of tension, you get better at this and maybe in the beginning, it doesn't work, but second time it works a bit better and then a bit better. And I mean, in the end, just be honest with your counterpart to say, okay, sorry, I just have a, like out here, I'm very sorry about that. Can you give me five minutes and a bottle of water? I mean, since everyone has been in this situation, maybe then almost everyone would be that kind and say, okay, come down, everything's fine. Just relax. And then you might feel better. So being honest in that situation is also, yeah, maybe a simple tip for you, but I think that works also pretty

Speaker 1: Well. Well, you brought up a great point that you can't really work through that until you've put yourself in those situations before and understanding that it's going to happen to the best of us. There's going to be those moments where we do have too much tension and pressure and we maybe draw a blank or anxiety overwhelms us the best way to actually work through that is to find other ways to put yourself in that tension and pressure outside of the competition. So you work on managing those moments when it doesn't count so that that practice can come into play when it does count. And I think that's a big strategy that we have in coaching our clients in unstoppable and building their confidence, understanding that this is completely normal. Even a world champion in memory sports has drawn a blank is enough constellation view to know, okay, so this is normal.

Speaker 1: So what can I do to prepare myself in these situations that I may encounter later? And I know for all of us memory, as we were talking about earlier is such an important part of our lives. We think about getting older and losing these memories that we hold near and dear. And in talking to Michael, he said, you have some simple daily strategies and trainings we can use, even if we're not necessarily entering memory sports competitions to strengthen that. And I love viewing it like a muscle, because many of us aren't really thinking about it in that way. We just hope that as a strategy, we'll hold onto these memories. So what are some things our listeners can do on a daily basis to continue to strengthen their memory? So they can recall these presentations, these job interview preps, or even names when they're meeting new people.

Speaker 3: Yeah, you're right. It's, it's almost like training a muscle. Luckily for me, it's not like training a muscle because my muscles doesn't work and don't work anymore. So it's always people telling me, yeah, it's like a muscle. Yes, somehow, but of course you can rephrase it like that. The most important part is doing a regular thing out of it. So it's like brushing your teeth. So let's say you just brush your teeth for two hours once a month. Uh, that doesn't make any sense, I would say so to do it every day, every day, that's the first thing. And then just start small. You don't have to memorize 50 words. So our deck of cards just start small and do little exercises, five minutes, 10 minutes. It's already enough just do it regularly. And then maybe you write down a list of, let's say 10 words and you're just try to create a nice little story out of it.

Speaker 3: Just try to be creative, create a nice fantasy story and try to recall them. And if you do that every day, you will see, we come better, you become faster. And then you go up to 15 words, for example. So it's really a matter of doing it in a regular basis and to just get it started. And many people, even in my coaching say, I don't have the time. I cannot find the time for that. But five minutes, if you cannot find five minutes, then you should really think about your schedule. And what I say is, okay, let's, let's go through your day. What do you do after I'm getting up? Maybe you having a cup of coffee and then what do you do then? Yeah, I watch a YouTube video for 10 minutes. Okay. Maybe you can do something else here. So you can find during the day after lunch in the evening, before going to bed five minutes and every day, and then you will have nicer success

Speaker 1: Very soon. It's something that I think many of us are not realizing that it can be trained. Number one, and number two, it doesn't take that much effort to work, to become better at utilizing your memory. Now being in memory sports. I'm assuming that as these world records are set, there's new strategies that come out and even new science that helps you in building that ability, that strength to compete at a high level in memory sports. What are some of the biggest myths or misconceptions that we have as mortals around developing your memory and competing in memory sports? I think

Speaker 3: The most important part is that everyone can use these strategies. Even if you don't, if you think you have a bad memory, you might not have the capability to become a world champion, but you have the capability to break your own records by far. And it's really about trying it. And I mean, ADA, if you want, we can also make an exercise here, um, about that because it's, it's really let's do it. You really should. You really have to try

Speaker 2: It before we get to the exercise, which I'm very excited about. There has been some loose science pointing that for musicians and the memorization of patterns and music helps with, as you get older to hold your memory together. And as we know, use it or lose it. Have you seen any of the science supporting any of that with the muscle memory games or the work that people are doing here? It's

Speaker 3: Not just about music. It's about everything you do with your brain. If you, if you are getting older and maybe you go for retirement, if you just sit in front of your TV, then you will lose it. Right. But if you do something each day and if it's stressed reading a book or doing like a crossword puzzles every day, or just, um, trying something new, that's what you need. You need to try something new. And if it's just like walking another way through the supermarket, it pushes your brain. It gives you some new insight and that's what you need. You need to be active. You need to push yourself, not by being very, very pushy here, but just do something new, doing something new every and each day helps your brain to be fresh and young. And it's about music. It's about sports activity in youth sports activity. It's about criminalization, about meeting people about playing cards, uh, yeah, a lot of possibilities, but do something.

Speaker 2: I think some of the most astonishing things I've seen that have to do with memory is certainly the videos on YouTube. There'll be somebody who's sitting in an old folks' home who has been sitting in dementia or have lost their memory a while ago. And they'll, they'll put headphones on them of music that was maybe they had danced to it as a child or, or had a choreography routine that was burning into their mind. And all of a sudden, they come to life. They begin moving in ways that the music and the, those memories have unlocked. And I just find that fascinating. And there's also an incredible, but yet at the same time, horrific record made, and I'm not you ever heard of it. The project is called caretaker. And this, the record is a six hour record of what this person feels and thinks that memory loss would be like.

Speaker 2: And as the record progresses, it's basically it's one song. And as the record progresses, it kind of degrades. And by the end of the six hours, you hear the last notes being played and it puts you in such an a at least for myself, it would put my self in such an emotional state because the important memories to me and how much they make me feel. And then to put myself into the situation where I'm now observing somebody, losing their memory as this record does, was so sad. But yet the, the song and the emotions that brought out in the beginning of it allowed you to, to understand the joy that this person gets from hearing this music. And so as the six hours goes on and that song slowly degrades and starts to slip away, you can't help, but become upset and, and scared for this person. Who's losing their last memories. And for anyone who's interested in experiencing that, it's, you can find it on YouTube. It's called caretaker and the album is called everywhere at the end of the time. It's, it's a fascinating look. And, and, and as an art project, it's, it's, it's fascinating. It's sad. It's beautiful. All at the same time. Yeah.

Speaker 3: So caretaker, I have to memorize it. Now, look it up on YouTube later.

Speaker 1: Well, I think that touches on a great point that many of us are reliant on technology or smart phones to be that extra memory bank for us and augment our intelligence. And I find myself that, you know, growing up before a smartphone, I would have to memorize locations and routes to get places. But now I don't need to rely on my memory as much to drive, to get around, to go where I need to go. Can you touch on why you think memory is so important? When many of us right now feel like we're, we're relying on it less and less. Yeah.

Speaker 3: That's a major point for me in my coaching span because people are asking me why I should memorize anything. I can use my smartphone and have ever seen in my pocket, my pocket brain. And yeah, it's true. Somehow I also use my smartphone. I also have all the numbers in there and context and it's okay. Of course you can do that. But when it comes to a point when you stop, yeah. Making a conversation about a specific topic, but instead of talking about something, you just look it up in the internet. Then the whole conversation just breaks down. That's one point. And the other point is that when you just looking everything up, never memorizing anything, how can you ever put fencing in perspective? How can you put it in the right context? I mean, if you have no knowledge around a specific point in your own memory, it's quite hard.

Speaker 3: And in times of fake news, it's like if people would memorize more, I have more in their general knowledge, then they would have been, uh, they would be more able to put that in context. And that's an important point here. I think. So having a good memory means to connect different topics, uh, being able to make new connections. And it's not just about memorizing a bank account number or something. It's really about making connections, being creative, putting things in context and perspective. And yeah, I don't know where that goes in in 20 years, I'm still using my navigation system in my car. My GPS, my girlfriend is always, um, like she is always like, we want to using it. And I say, no, I today I want to do it was out. So I memorized the map and then I drive and she's always like, it's never the right place. And I wait for it, wait for it. Then, then I'm okay. Sometimes I just driving around and I'm not sure about where I am, but at some point I find out, okay, the sun is over there. That must be south. And then I, most of the time find the right place. And it's, uh it's so it feels so good if you can do that in the end, isn't it. So, because you're relying on GPS and then standing somewhere, I don't know if I would ever feel happy about that. So yeah.

Speaker 2: Yeah. We're conditioning ourselves and how we want to use our brain. And if our brain isn't going to be used the story, anything, because we're going to be storing it on our phone, that our brain is not going to get the exercise, that it needs to be able to do these things. And it's, it's mind blowing to me when we're seeing it more and more.

Speaker 1: Now we talked about an exercise and I'd love to give our audience an exercise. That'd be fun for them to start working on their memory. Now that we know it's something we can train and improve no matter where we are in terms of we, how we view our memory.

Speaker 3: Yeah, sure. Let's, let's start with that. So what I want to teach you here, just a short glimpse into that is a memory palace, because that's the most powerful method it's already 2000 years old. So the old engine Greeks use that to give speeches. And, uh, it sounds a bit wild to use techniques, which are 2000 years old back. They work pretty well. So let's dive into it. So what we first need is a memory palace and a memory palace is a sequence of locations, for example, through your apartment. So, um, let's imagine yourself in front of your apartment, AJ. So you standing in front of the front door and that's the first location is your door. Okay. And then you go inside and look to the right. What is there? What is the next to the door? What is it? A

Speaker 1: Guest bathroom. The guest

Speaker 3: Bedroom. Okay. So let's take the guest bedroom. So that's location number two. So if you pass by what is next?

Speaker 1: The dining room,

Speaker 3: The whole dining room, but let's say you don't use the whole room, but enter the room. And what is next to the door? He is at a table or a board or what is it? Yeah, there's a bench. The bench. Okay. So we have doorway of bathroom. We have bench. What comes next,

Speaker 1: Then it would be the full dining room table. The dining

Speaker 3: Room table is number four. Okay. Let's do seven. What comes next?

Speaker 1: Okay. Then there's the kitchen island. Okay.

Speaker 3: Number five, number six.

Speaker 1: There would be the sofa. Okay. And number seven, the television.

Speaker 3: Okay. So everyone knows right now it looks in your apartment. Nice. So please recall the first seven.

Speaker 1: So door, bathroom, bench, table island, couch, TV.

Speaker 3: Perfect. Easy. So that's your memory palace right now. And that's the tool we use to memorize the shopping list right now. Just easy one.

Speaker 2: Hi, each item to each specific

Speaker 3: Plant. And Johnny, what do you want to buy? It's your shopping list. Okay. First one. Far-sighted steak. Steak. Okay. And what you do now is you connect it to the door. So you imagine yourself in front of your front door, you opening the door and it's smelling like nice steak and or the door is made of steak, something like that. But the important thing is you have to see it in your mind and smell it in your mind and you have to trust the methods. So don't go back and pack it back, but just go with the story. Okay. Second item.

Speaker 2: Hot sauce. Okay. Your German hot sauce. Yeah.

Speaker 3: So how do you memorize it in your bathroom? How do you imagine that?

Speaker 1: Um, picturing yet next to the sink and the soap to wash my hands.

Speaker 3: Next item, Johnny sparkling water, sparkling water on the bench. So what do you imagine? I would say it's like, there's some fountain out of the band. It's like sparkling water. You coming home and you're so happy about your fountain. So you get a nice drink here from the water. Uh, the sparkling water fountain here. Okay. Number four, 20 eggs, X. Okay. The location number four was a table, right? Correct. So what's your story?

Speaker 1: I'm picturing a chicken walking around the table, laying eggs. Now

Speaker 3: We are getting close to it. So you're making creative and, uh, like not the normal, realistic story. And yet maybe you smashed the X on the table. Everything is over the place and yeah, it's maybe two days old. It smells quite okay. And what's number five, item number five candles. Candles AAJ. So

Speaker 1: My kitchen island is on fire covered in wax

Speaker 3: Because of candles. So you didn't. Okay, cool. I have it light candles because of Johnny's cooking in the kitchen. Okay. Two to go, Johnny. What's the next item? Apples. Apples. Okay.

Speaker 1: I'm picturing my dog puppers sitting next to a bushel of apples on the couch that he's trying to eat because he loves apples.

Speaker 3: Okay. So we have the dock there. Nice. And last item, Johnny bananas, Ben Anna's television.

Speaker 1: So I'm, I'm picturing the, uh, the woman from Chiquita banana on the TV. Juggling bananas. Let's see if you memorize

Speaker 3: Them correctly. So what are the items?

Speaker 1: Steak, hot sauce. Sparkling water, eggs candles, apples bananas.

Speaker 3: Perfect. Easy. And you could also do that. Tech girls. It's now big deal about that because you just go backwards through your memory palace. And that techniques just doesn't work for seven, but it also works for what, 20 or 40, but even 100. Wow.

Speaker 2: That's actually my grocery list weekly. He doesn't need to memorize it, but now I

Speaker 4: Said they have Johnny's grocery list. Simple.

Speaker 2: You can call you with pleasure is simple pleasures. Yeah. So next week when I visit you Johnny,

Speaker 4: Before the bootcamp, I have your shopping list memorized.

Speaker 3: And the cool thing is you will be able to recall it even tomorrow because it's connected now to the locations. And, uh, it's, it's really about that connection, making a story, create a connection, and then, uh, you will be able to memorize even more. And so what I start or what I would suggest to start with, create a memory palace through your apartment, write down 10 words, 20 words, and connect them to the locations. And you will see worked pretty well. It's like a secret, uh, notebook. Um, there's one, or like secret cheating papers for school kids. So you're just walking through their room in their mind, uh, during the class test and there is everything. So is

Speaker 1: This because I already have my home memorized because I live in it. It's something that is visually cute in my mind. I could walk through it blindfolded in the middle of the night, no lights on and know exactly where I am. That's what I'm using to link my existing memory to something that I need to memorize in the future. Exactly.

Speaker 3: So this memory palace is your tool, which you already have, and then you connect it to other items. You have seven locations now, and I have about 2000 locations in different places in the world. I'm not living in a palace, so no various it's just a 30 in my apartment. But, uh, there is the apartment of my mother. There is this shopping mall. There is the park. They see hotel in Las Vegas, for example, which I visited once I'm still walking through these locations, using them when I try to memorize stuff also nice memories. So you are always there walking through former buildings. So

Speaker 1: Can you use this? Not only for a shopping list, but if we have a big presentation coming up where we have key points that we want to get across, or even a job interview where we've prepped our answers and we want to be able to mention those key words or responding.

Speaker 3: Yeah. Right. So in that case you would, I mean, what do you, what do you do when you're giving a speech to, uh, writing down keywords? Don't you? So you just writing down 10 key verts and with each keyword, do you know, what do you want to talk about? And now what you do is just connect each keyword to each location, and then you are in the front of your audience and just walk through your locations in your mind. Or even if you are in a conversation and let's say your counterpart is talking for 10 minutes and you think, okay, I want to, um, answer to that point, to that point. And to that point, you could interrupt that person. But of course you try to don't do that. So memorize these points while he or she is talking. And then when he, or she is finished with that, you just say, okay, point number one, I want to talk about, I want to answer to that point.

Speaker 3: Number two was that point number three was that you don't know how impressive that is to that person. You just win that argument because you memorize everything. You don't need anything more, but that's really something, what is really helpful also for my clients, because that's a social skill. And if you have that skill, being able to answer to all these points. So I talk about all these points without asking you again, what was it, what we're talking about. If you get to that level, you're really on a next step here on the next level. And then

Speaker 1: It leads to confidence, right? You're not second guessing yourself or facing doubt. So working on your memory actually increases your confidence when you're going into a presentation or a job interview or even socially. And you're meeting people for the first time. I can't tell you how many times where I spent time focusing on just remembering names and coming back later at an event, two, three three-day event and remembering that person's name after meeting hundreds of people throughout the weekend, how impactful that was and really sets you apart in a networking situation. Yeah. Or even

Speaker 3: For teachers, imagine you're a teacher you're standing in front of your new class and they have 20 kids in front of you. Imagine you can memorize all these names on sport and the first two or three minutes. How powerful is it? Is that Johnny, please be quiet right now. So it's, it's a way better than a, what was your name again? Please be quiet. It doesn't make any sense. It does it. So it's a real cool social skill, not just names, but also facts about someone. So let's say you're going on a date and you have a long conversation and yeah, just being aware of that, your new date says, okay, next week I have a bad, um, better appointment with my dentist. I'm not sure why I'm talking about the dentist again. Anyway. So, and then, uh, then you say next week you sent her a message and say, okay, what, how was your dentist appointment? Every single. Okay. That's so powerful. Just remembering that and being aware of that. So, um, why not using it? It's it's you paying attention to your, to the other one and you getting something back. So it's really giving and taking and yeah, it's so powerful to have a good memory and a good confidence about you.

Speaker 1: Now. We love asking every guest what their X factor is, what it is that makes you extraordinary. I have a feeling that we might know what your answer is, but what do you think has helped you become an extraordinary memory champion?

Speaker 3: It's a mixture. I mean, this is my, my whole story about overcoming depression and going to, at some point I have to decide, I have to use a wheelchair. I didn't want to use it, but to become the world champion, I have to go to a world championship and without a wheelchair, I wasn't able to walk any more, really good. It was just falling down the floor. And I had to make the decision. And, uh, this point in my life, when I was crying and I was depressed and I was like, I want to be a world champion. And I have to do everything in my power to do that. And it's not just about training. It's about doing more than that, doing the right, making the right decision. And I think that was a crucial point. And that it is the moment when everything changed for me. You not, not on spot, but over time and making the decision and finding out what is necessary to achieve your goals. Sometimes it's not what you think of. It's not just training. It's even more, it's maybe ending a bad relationship or it's maybe about overcoming a depression or a getting away a chair or whatever. And that was my key point here and now. Yeah, of course my X-Factor is I have a really good memory if I want

Speaker 1: To have, thank you so much for joining us. Where can our audience find out more about you and the training that you offer your clients? Yeah,

Speaker 3: Just wizard my website. It's just my name. You Hannah's. And then there's a minus or a hyphen. W I think you say hyphen melo.com and Yohanas minus mellow.com or a memory spots, TV on YouTube. Those are quite nice sources. So would be nice to hear from you. And thank you very much for letting me be on the show here. Hope you will remember the items for Johnny next week. I already

Speaker 1: Remember, and I'm going backwards now. Steak and eggs and Hudson bananas.

Speaker 5: [inaudible]

Speaker 1: Johnny. I don't think I'm ever going to forget your shopping list.

Speaker 2: Well, that's good because you're supposed to be meeting me here next week for a boot camp here in Las Vegas. And I'm going to need all of those items. And I got to say, I love interviews like this because we're experiencing a new world that we didn't know was there, but also with something so important and something that identifies who we are as people, our memory,

Speaker 1: It's so practical, we use it constantly. You have to memorize your answers for a job interview. You have to memorize your presentation or just memorize the names of people you're meeting. If you actually want to stand out. And that's why I love the memory palace, and I'm going to be working on my memory each and every day, this week. AJM

Speaker 2: Glad you're going to be working on that memory. Palace busy. It's certainly going to make my life easier and not to mention Amys and peppers. I got to tell ya, I, this week, shout out, goes to Lucas, who on Instagram goes by wish you were clear underscore, Hey guys, the advice on small talk question, answer statement made a huge difference. It's incredible. How can somebody who considers themselves smart would only have this Dawn on them at the age of 29, only one it's nearly spelled out to them. And that is after reading maybe a half a dozen books on the subject because I'm naturally interested in it. So being a newcomer to the U S I've been having trouble establishing a group of friends and dating. So I think this is going to help tremendously. Thank you guys so much. AIJ. This is one of the things that we discuss in our X-Factor accelerator. We have implementation sessions on small talk on the question, answers statement, and it does make a huge difference. Learning that simple trick changed my life.

Speaker 1: Let's be honest if you're in our audience, you're in a ton of high stakes situations, and it's not easy to practice these skills and concepts from the show when it really matters. So we created the X factor accelerator to give you that opportunity, not only to practice with amazing members, but get that feedback so you can amplify and supercharge those results not have to wait and hope as a strategy to succeed with our 15 years plus of experience coaching clients, just like yourself to these tremendous results. We make small talk, effortless, connecting easier, and of course set you up with the right mindsets to succeed. If you think you're ready to join our X factor accelerator, head on over to unlock your X-Factor dot com. And I would love to personally talk to you potentially inviting you into that group. That's right. Unlock your X-Factor dot com to apply today. Now, before we go, one quick favor, head on over to apple podcasts and rate the show. It helps us bring on amazing guests like memory champions and body language experts like last week's episode with Joe Navarro. And we really appreciate the kind words of encouragement before we go. We want to let everyone know. The show is produced by Michael Harold and Eric Montgomery here on our team. We absolutely love both of them. Go out there and have an epic week. See you guys

Speaker 5: [inaudible].