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Hands down, the most important reason our students indicate choosing to come to their memory training workshop is to improve their abilities to remember people’s names. Unfortunately it’s often perceived as the most challenging one to practice out in the world. So what we’re going to accomplish with this audio/article is to give you some ways to practice that are fun, unique and will get you better and more comfortable when using the system to remember names. So let’s just dive right into it.

Recall Step 2 for remembering somebody’s name. Step 2 says to listen to the name carefully and then repeat it back two or three times during your initial greeting.

There are countless opportunities that you can use Step 2. When you’re meeting people in a formal business networking situation, that’s definitely one place to practice. But think outside the box just a little bit and consider people that sometimes you might overlook. How about taking seven extra seconds to get the name of the UPS guy? Perhaps it’s a waitress, (that’s a great way to get better service by the way) or a receptionist you meet.

Shoot, just the other day I received a telephone call from someone who was requesting information about the car that I’d advertised for sale. She called in and said, “Hey, I’m calling about the car.” I said, “Terrific. Tell me your name.” She said, “It’s Jasmine,” and I said, “Jasmine, nice to meet you, Jasmine. I’m Brian.” There’s two times I repeated the name, and then we went on with our chat. There are endless situations that you can use this, so just look for them.

The area that people tend to struggle the most with early on involves creating pictures out of people’s names. First of all, please understand that this is totally normal.

When I finished my first memory training workshop several years ago, I was going through the follow-up program and I was trying to create a picture out of my cousin’s name. My cousin’s name is Anthony Massavero, and I couldn’t come up with a picture for Anthony Massavero to save my life. I was sitting there like a deer in the headlights. I mean nothing. Now, having used the system enough, I can think about Anthony Massavero and I can picture Anthony as being an ant with lots of thorns on it, ant thorny, Anthony. Massavero becomes, if you just break it down, a massive arrow. That takes time.

Here are a couple of ways that you can practice creating pictures and using file image glue that are less stressful and that are fun:

• Pick up a Magazine

The more pictures of faces the better. A great specific here is to grab a celebrity magazine. They’re full of faces and they’re full of names. This gives you two opportunities.

1) It gives you the chance to create a picture out of the name and then 2) it gives you the chance to take that picture and file it using file-image-glue. Take that picture and file it to the person’s face or their body using some actions, some emotion and having some fun.
You’re not sweating bullets standing in front of a prospect. You’re sitting there on the comfort of your couch practicing your memory training.

• The Grocery Store

Here’s another great one. Next time you’re at the grocery store, pick somebody out. Maybe there’s a man grabbing a piece of bread, or he’s probably getting a whole loaf of bread. Regardless, he’s grabbing a loaf of bread and he’s gonna stick it in his cart. So picture that man as having a name that is very, very common. Maybe you think of the name Steve. So you look at that person and just picture a stove being lit on top of his head. If you know that a common name is Steve and a stove is a picture for it walking in there, then all you need is a person to practice file-image-glue-with. Is that guy’s name Steve? Probably not, but it doesn’t matter.

Where this helps you is, the next time that you meet somebody named Steve, and you want to remember Steve’s name, you’ll have already done it. You know what to do and that’s where the power comes in.

How do you practice the skill of remembering names? Post a comment below and let me know what works for you.

Practice, be patient with yourself, have fun, and above all…..

Be Free!

Brian Qualls
Instructor