Use This TRICK To 10x Your Learning SPEED! | Jim Kwik & Lewis Howes

Because anyone could do this. Because we've been told a lie that our memory, our intelligence, our genius is fixed, kind of like our shoe size. And through my experience of doing this for the past 2 decades, nothing could be further from the truth.

Hmm.

You know, people have unbelievable gifts inside them. They're just not shown how. I always thought it was interesting that school would teach us what to learn, like those subjects that are important— math, and history, and science, and Spanish— the what to learn, but never on how to learn. How to focus, how to concentrate, how to be creative, how to think for yourself, how to read faster, how to remember things. Maybe it should have been the 4th R. Remember reading, writing, arithmetic, but also recall, because there is no learning without remembering, and Socrates said that. But how I got started on this is I actually grew up with learning challenges, and a lot of people don't know that, but when I was in kindergarten, I had a really bad accident, and I had a head injury. And it left me feeling like I was broken, that my brain didn't work, and I had these focus issues, and I couldn't remember things, and it took me an extra 2 years to learn how to read. And I struggled privately and then also publicly. And when you're that age, you get very self-conscious.

Sure.

You become very introverted, very shy. You don't want to connect with people because you feel like there's something wrong with you. And so that was my academic life. I just worked so much harder that I don't know if people watching this can relate, but just struggling with overwhelm or overload, too much to learn, too little time, and it stresses you out. You're like, why can't I do this? Why is everyone else succeeding so much faster and I have to do all this? It's not even fair. That's what happened.

Wow. That's kind of early on made you want to then master it since you were having such a hard time.

It did. I think our struggles really could be some strengths. And you know this.

Of course.

You know, like, you know, when challenge— you know, with these kind of challenges come change, you know, and problems become, you know, help you progress. And so when I got to college, I remember first freshman year at college, I wanted to start fresh. And I thought that I could really make my family proud because they sacrificed a lot. And— but I was doing so poorly. And I took all these classes and I thought I would do better and have a clean slate, but I actually did worse. And I remember I wanted to quit school. And at that time, you'd appreciate this, a friend asked me, to come visit him and his family out on the West Coast, because I was on the East Coast. And he was like, go out there. I was like, yeah, I'll just take a weekend, get a little space from school, because I was thinking about quitting. And when I get there, the family is extremely successful. And I don't just mean financially. They had an amazing home on the water, but they were happy. They were givers. They were learning all the time. And the father, before dinner, asked me these kind of questions. We were walking on his property. And he asked the kind of questions you would ask somebody who just started college, like, how's school? And that kind of stuff.

Right.

And I broke down crying. I was like, you know, and to a stranger I just met like, you know, 10 minutes ago. I said, I'm ready to quit. School is just not for me. I'm not one of those— I'm not smart enough. And he's like, well, why are you in school? You know, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to share, if you will? And it's funny when people— when you're not asked a question in life, you know, it takes a moment to pause to come up with an answer. Do you know what I mean?

Sure.

Like when you're asking questions, and no one's ever asked me those questions before. And when I started to answer, he paused. He said, wait. And he takes out of his back pocket, I swear to you, like a journal, like a diary. And I always thought like 12-year-old girls carried diaries and wrote diaries. And he tears out a couple pieces of paper, and he makes me write down all the goals of what I wanted to do in my life. And I've never— there's something very powerful about taking pen to paper And just writing those dreams, your aspirations down. And after maybe 20, 30 minutes, he asked me if I'm done. And I maybe have 40, 50 things there, which is like a bucket list. And this is before I knew what a bucket list was. And I start folding the sheets of paper thinking I'm done with the exercise, put it back in my pocket, and he grabs it from me. And I was like, I freaked out because on that was everything.

Your life.

Exactly. And I don't even know who this guy is, and he's very successful. And he starts to just read it, and I'm so intimidated.

Out loud?

No, in his mind. And I feel this small because everything— I just, I didn't know somebody was gonna look at it, right? And he looks at it and he says, Jim— and I don't know what he was gonna say because this guy's very successful. He says, Jim, you are this close to everything on that list. And I'm just thinking, there's no way. How could it? Give me 10 lifetimes, I couldn't put a dent on that list. And then he goes like this.

Ooh.

Yeah. And he says like, like as if this was, you know, the key here. And he takes me into his home. And it's this beautiful home. He takes me into a room I've never seen before. And it's wall to wall, ceiling to floor covered in books. I mean, I've never seen like a library in somebody's house before. And he starts grabbing these books. You'll love this. He starts grabbing books and starts handing them to me and starts to pile up really, really, really high. And when I started looking at the titles, because I'm curious, there are these biographies of amazing men and women in history, and some really early personal development books, like Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich, and The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale, and Psycho-Cybernetics, and all these books. I'm just like— And then I kind of get an inkling of what he wants me to do with these books, and he asked me to read one of these books a week. And I'm just thinking, and I say to him, there's just no way. I just told you I have all this schoolwork.

And you're what, 19 now?

I'm 18 years old. I'm like, there's no way. I have all these— I can't even finish one book. I have these reading challenges and I have these learning challenges and I have all this schoolwork. And he was like, Jim, he said, he looked me right in the eye and said, Jim, don't let school get in the way of your education.

Cool.

That's powerful. And I didn't even realize that's a Mark Twain quote. But this is like, you know, a couple decades ago. And I'm just thinking, Wow, and it hit me like that. But still, I'm like, you know what? I still can't do this because I have all this work I need to study. And then, you know what he does? He takes out that list, which he still has in his possession, my dream list, my bucket list, and then he starts reading it out loud, every single thing, line by line. And I get chills thinking about it because there's something about watching a man who you just met, who's one of the most successful people that you've met, and he's incanting and putting it out to the universe out loud.

That's powerful.

You know, your dreams.

Sure.

You know, and it's very unnerving. And honestly, Louis, a lot of stuff that was on that list, and I think about it, it was things that I wanted to do for my family. You know, these are all things that my family, you know, because I mentioned they sacrificed a lot, like a lot of hardworking people do. And I want to do things for them that they couldn't do for themselves. So with that leverage, it commits— I commit to reading one book a week.

Wow.

And then I go from that, I go back to school, and now I have all this pile of stuff that I need to learn, and then a pile of stuff that I want to learn, and that puts me over the edge. Because in order to keep up, I have to sacrifice the things that you know are important to you, that your sleep, things like eating, things like working out, things like relationships. And so no one sees me. I'm just in the library all the time. I don't sleep. I don't eat. And you know that's a recipe for disaster.

Disaster.

It is. And how it came up, how it showed up, was I was at the library, and my body actually is this scariest time in my life. It actually just gave out, like the battery just ran out, and I just passed out, and I fell down a flight of stairs. I hit my head again, and I woke up in the hospital 2 full days later.

Whoa.

And I was down to— I was hooked up to these IVs because I was malnourished, dehydrated. I was down to 117 pounds.

Wow.

And I thought I died. And when I had that thought, I was thinking, you know, what's going on here? You know, because I was ready to check out. Like, check out of school, check out, check out, check out.

Check out of life.

And I was just like, 'cause I just, I was just like, I'm a total failure, I can't do any of this, you know. And then when I was thinking about it, I was just— a nurse came in and she had the answer in the form of a mug of tea. And this is a true story. She gives me a mug of tea, of like green tea, and it has a picture of a pretty smart guy. This is Albert Einstein. And there's a saying on there that you've heard 100 times. It said, the same level of thinking that's created the problem won't solve the problem. The same level of thinking that's created the problem won't solve the problem. And it made me think, just, you know, power of questions.

Did she bring that to you and say, hey, here's the answer?

Or was it just part of the—

No, it was just like that.

And it's funny when you put things out in the universe, you know, ask a new question, you get a new answer. And it made me say, well, what's my problem? And I was like, you know, my problem is I'm a really slow learner. That's what I came up with. I was just like, I'm a really slow learner.

Is that your problem or is that your story?

That was definitely my story and my perceived problem there. And I was owning it too, because I was fighting. No one could tell me different, because I was fighting for my limitations as well. And so I got to keep them.

And it became true every day.

Yeah. And I was really— and I had this whole story. I had this brain injury and everything. But I was like, well, if my problem is I'm a slow learner, how do I think differently about it? And it was like, well, how do I learn how to be a faster learner? And then I thought about school, and I was like, no, school's not it. School doesn't teach you those things, much like school doesn't teach you a lot of things.

The things that are most important, right?

A lot of things that you have in your podcast, right? The things that are just moving the needle on people's lives in terms of their joy and their health, their relationships, their success, their finances, everything.

Most important things.

Yeah. This is not like a diss on schools. I mean, I think they're— my mother's a schoolteacher, my aunt's a professor. Teachers work so hard. It's just the system itself is a challenge. Because if you're stressed, if people are watching this and they're stressed, they're overloaded, there's too much to be able to keep up with, it's not their fault. It's because we all grew up with a 20th century education that prepared us for a world that doesn't exist anymore. That 20th century world of working in factories and working on farms, doing manual labor.

Mm-hmm.

Because the school system back then, which is now, it's like one size fits all, assembly line, cookie cutter, don't talk to your neighbors, sit quietly by yourself. That doesn't work in the digital age anymore. So right now, when we're talking about the brain, how important the brain is, we're not paid for our brute strength. We're paid for our brain strength. We're not paid for our muscle power. It's really our mind power. And so the challenge is, your brain is this unbelievable supercomputer, but it doesn't come with an owner's manual. It's not always user-friendly either.

Right.

And so when I got out of that hospital bed, I decided to study this subject called learning, like learning how to learn. I started to pick up every single book I could on Brain science, adult learning theory, multiple intelligences, focus and concentration, things, early works on flow and stuff like that. In a very short period of time, 60 days, I swear to you, it was like a light switch just went on, and I started to understand things for the first time.

Wow.

I mean, I would sit in class and actually, 'cause I can't tell you, growing up, when someone's talking to you and not understanding, it doesn't make sense, you're not making the connection, things there, and then all of a sudden you're focusing, all of a sudden you're remembering things, I started reading faster, and I started getting better grades. better grades in less time, and it started transforming my life. And the reason I teach this to this day, because it's 2 decades later, is after you have that kind of awakening, you can't help, like with what you do, share that greatness with other people.

Of course.

And one of my very first students, I'll never forget, she's 18 years old, a freshman. I teach a speed reading program to teach anyone to read 2 or 3 times faster with better comprehension. But she struggled for a few days, and then that same light switch went on, and she ended up reading 30 books in 30 days.

Whoa.

Yeah. I mean, can you imagine like what books you would read if you go to Amazon right now, pick out 30 books and know in 30 days you like, you own that information as well as like those authors? Sure.

Now, what is it? You know, I've always— this is my story. I've always had a hard time comprehending and staying focused in books. Now, half of it is probably I'm just not interested in the topic or the book or it's not well written. But what are some things that people can do just, you know, right away to increase their comprehension and just speed it up a little bit so that they are able to stay focused long enough throughout the book.

It's amazing what people could do because here's part of it. It's like motivation plays a big role, first of all. And like you mentioned, like things that you're interested in. Like this girl, I wanted to ask not how she did it, but I wanna know why she read 30 books in 30 days. And I find out that she paused and she eventually told me it's because her mother was dying of terminal cancer. And was given 60 days to live. And the books she was reading were books to be able to save her mother's life.

Wow.

Yeah.

Talk about motivation. I just got chills.

Wow. It's hard for me to even talk about because my memory is so clear of these events. And not just because I'm a memory expert. It takes me back because at that time, I'm 18. I just wished her luck. I'll say prayers. But what do you do? And then 6 months later, I get a call from this young lady, and she's crying and crying and crying for minutes. And I find out that they're tears of joy. And I find out that her mother not only survived, but her mother's really starting to improve. Doctors don't know why or how. The doctors actually call it a miracle. But her mother attributes it 100% to the great advice she got from her daughter, who learned it from all these books. I mean—

Whoa.

And those kind of things, that's why it really went into my body, that learning. That if knowledge is power, learning is a superpower.

That's what I was going to ask you next, because I saw that on your website. So can you speak more into that, the power of learning, and not just having knowledge, but being able to learn? Why is that a superpower?

I think that if there's one skill to master in the 21st century, it's the ability to learn rapidly. You know what it is? They call it in the military a forced multiplier. A forced multiplier is like input goes in, but you get exponential output from it. It's like optimism. Being positive is a force multiplier.

Sure.

Right? And Colin Powell said that. And so certain things like learning how to learn, like meta-learning, or improving your memory, improves everything. It improves your business, improves, like, you know, you can remember people's names, you can remember sales presentations, you could remember things about people. 'Cause like, for example, it's hard to show somebody, for people who are watching this, they're entrepreneurs, right? And they're wearing a business development hat. It's really hard to show somebody you're gonna care for their business, their future, their family, their health, their fitness, whatever you're selling them, if you don't care enough just to remember things like their name.

Their name.

You know, or their kid's name, or their birthday.

That's so true.

You know, so that's, a memory's a multiplier there, a memory's a multiplier in the relationships. You know, like relationships, just remembering those moments. You know, like, not even just remembering anniversaries, remembering to take out the garbage, that kind of stuff, but remembering, you know, the first time you and your loved one, you know, took that walk on that beach. You know what I mean? Yeah, of course. Those kind of moments that make everything worthwhile.

Yeah.

but it's wonderful for every area. So I do believe that 2 of the most costly words in business, for example, are I forgot. You know, I forgot to do it, I forgot to bring it, I forgot the meeting, I forgot your name. It's the worst. Like, you could, forgetting someone's name, and I've seen this time and time again, it could hurt a relationship, it could kill deals. I've had people call someone by the wrong name, and they've lost multiple million-dollar deals just on that.

I've had people email me and use a different name in my email.

Right.

And it's frustrating, I'm just like, if you're trying to reach out to me and you use Mark, Because you weren't even paying attention, you weren't being present. It leaves a bad taste in people's mouths. You know, I know I'm not perfect. I've forgotten people's names and I've probably said the wrong name at times. So, you know, what are some things people can do to remember names?

Yeah. Okay. So there are, there are 3 keys for improving your memory. 3 keys, right? So if you're ever forgetting something, you forget things, you feel absent-minded, like senior moments are coming a little bit early. You're in the shower, you can't remember if you shampooed your hair. You know, so you end up doing it twice. You misplace your wallet, your phone.

Keys.

Your keys, or your car. You see the people like, where'd I park my car?

Yeah.

You know, these kind of things, and they waste a lot of time too, and they take away, you know, all the treasures. And I don't mean just financial treasures, I mean just the important things, you know, in our life. But there's 3 keys, and remember MOM, M-O-M, always remember MOM. So if you're ever forgetting something, usually one of those 3 things are missing. All right, so let's take names. 'Cause when people say, I want a better memory, I hear them say like, oh, I wanna be better at sports, You know, because you're just— you're such an athlete. But it's like somebody comes to you like, well, what sport specifically do you want to be better at? Because there are different techniques and different training for different things. So remembering names is different than learning languages, different PIN numbers and passcodes and all the different things you need to remember.

So everything's different.

Everything's different. And so there's certain principles that are the same. So the M in MOM is this. Let's say someone is horrible with names, right? But let's say that there's a suitcase of $100,000 cash if you just remember the name of the next stranger you meet. How many people are gonna remember that person's name?

I'll remember.

Everyone, right? Everyone. And so that's the thing. The M stands for motivation. So it's interesting. So all of a sudden, everyone's a memory expert, but it had nothing to do with their capacity or their potential. Everyone could do it. It's just whether or not they decided to do it or not, if they wanted to.

It's almost like if it's worth it enough, or the consequences are, you know, that big, or the stakes are that big, if you're gonna miss out or not, right? It's the motivation.

Exactly. 'Cause one of the things to learning, we know with human motivation, 'cause I did this presentation, and Bill Gates was there. We're talking about wealthy individuals, right? Afterwards, I talked to him, and we were talking about the bridge between education and technology, and I was like, what's missing with the future of learning? He was like, Jim, the key is human motivation, really understanding what drives people. I was like, wow, that's really right, because you know this, people could go out there and they could buy courses, but a lot of people—

They never open it.

Exactly, because it has everything to do with drive and reasons, because motivation is like, You know, like, what is your motive for acting?

Sure.

Right? What's the fuel? And I believe there's a success formula called H³ that goes from your head to your heart to your hands. That people could visualize and affirm and see things here all the time and think about it, but if they're not acting with their hands, you know, actually doing something about it, then usually what's missing is the second H, which is the heart, the emotion, the energy of motion. I had a martial arts instructor tell me years ago, You can't steer a parked car. You know, you need fuel. You know, where's the energy that's gonna do that? And so, what's people's mode of action? So simple. When people are remembering people's names, ask yourself, why do you wanna remember this person's name? Because reasons reap results. I've always found that in life.

Wow.

Reasons reap results, 'cause you need a big enough why.

Sure.

You know, like Simon Sinek's book, you know, Start With Why. And so, you wanna get that drive first, all right? So, motivation. The O is something interesting. You know, I have people do this. I have them just kind of shake out their hand like this, and I say, make a fist, and I say, put it to your chin, and then I go like this, and everyone puts it here, but I said chin, and this is the difference. The O stands for observation, and I find that a lot of people blame their memory issues, and they think it's like a retention issue, but I find it's really an attention issue. It's an attention issue.

Okay, just being present, you mean?

It is. That's a big part of it. It's like, you know, let's say everyone uses search engine like Google every single day, but a lot of people, they use it 10 times a day. If I ask them, are you willing to bet your life you know what colors the letters are? Because that's, that's an observation.

Sure.

You know, there's a difference between looking at something and seeing it, really seeing it. There's a difference between hearing something and really listening. You know, like leaders, like for example, I had this whole escapade with the X-Men, which was insane, but I had to leave the set because I had to go to a charity event. And one of the people that I think, leaders, independent of your political bent, who has an incredible memory is President Clinton. Every single time I've met President Clinton, he's remembered my name.

No way.

He does. And how many people does—

He says, hey, Jim, good to see you?

Yes. How many people does Clinton meet on a regular basis, right?

A lot.

And so that's a leadership skill, though, right? And so FDR was incredible with names also. He would walk around the White House and point people out and say hi to them, saying hi to their spouse and using by name. I mean, that's because think about the sweetest sound to a person's ears, right? Their name. It's their name, right? And so anyway, I asked him what memory trick he uses. He uses no memory tricks at all. And he tells me this amazing story.

To build.

Yes. And so he tells me this incredible story about how his grandfather in Arkansas would get all the kids around, tell stories to them, but then he would quiz them. They'd really need to listen and be present. And it's funny because I noticed that Bill Clinton is, regardless of how you feel politically, incredible communicator, incredible charisma, incredible connector, right? And he also, this memory I find, he has this incredible presence, this powerful presence, but I find that his powerful presence and his memory comes from being powerfully present. His powerful presence comes from being powerfully present.

Go figure.

And here's the thing, when people are networking, 'cause I know a lot of people, they're entrepreneurs, they're social entrepreneurs, they're millennials, and they're going out there meeting people, Really, it's what you know and it's who you know. But that's all memory. What you know, a lot of people go to a seminar, 2 days later they'll forget everything. 80%, there's a big forgetting curve. But also who you know and who knows you. But the challenge is, though, networking and how many times do you find yourself talking to somebody and then looking over their shoulder?

I hate that. I hate when people do that to me. It's annoying.

Exactly, because you're distracting yourself all the time. Or if you're not distracting yourself externally, you're talking to yourself.

What am I going to say next?

Exactly. So the people aren't even listening. Now, this is so key. When people are communicating, most of the times you find that they're not even really listening. What they are is they're thinking about how they're going to respond. And if you look at the word listen and you scramble the letters, it becomes the word silent.

No.

Yeah, isn't that crazy? If people would just do that. And we're talking about really fundamental things. That's one of the reasons I love your podcast is because some of these basics, Those are the biggest things that move the needle. I mean, just understanding why you want to remember something, and being present, and paying attention, and being silent, and really listening. I mean, that's not magic, but that's just like going to the gym. We think about the fundamentals. We're talking about exercise. We're talking about sleep. We're talking about a good diet.

Yeah. That's like— Basics.

Yeah, and the mindset. That's 95% of it right there.

Yeah, that's incredible.

And then finally, the third M is mechanics, for MOM. So M is motivation, the O is observation, and then the final M is mechanics. And these are not the person that's going to fix your car, but these are the tips, the techniques, the hacks, if you will, the strategies on how to learn a language, how to speed read, how to remember that person's name, how to give a speech without notes.

Right.

But the M and the O, motivation, observation—

So what's the mechanics then for, you know, say I'm going to an event and there's 10 people that someone's introduced me to, and I'm shaking their hand. We've all done this before. Hi, hi, hi, hi. What's the mechanics to remember?

Yeah, I mean, we've all had the experience. So relationships, it's all proximity, and it's all who you know, right? And who knows you back, right? And one of the most standout skills that I know of is walk into a room meeting 20 strangers and leaving saying goodbye to every single one of them with their name. Can you do that? Because who are they all gonna remember when you walk out of the room? That's a standout skill. That's the thing that— because when you remember people's name, they feel like that you care. Because what's the opposite? If you forget someone's name, how do they feel?

You don't care. That you don't care, that they're not And, you know, this is what I've been, you know, thinking my whole life because I've never felt like I've had the book smarts. Yeah, but I felt like I've cared more than, you know, 99% of people.

Yeah.

And I feel like that's what's been able to get me to where I want to be by showing people how big my heart is.

Yeah.

As opposed to how much I know.

Yes.

And I think that could be the most powerful thing is like remembering and just being connected to people as opposed to— And Telling them what you know.

And that's huge too, because a lot of people, a lot of traditional networking or business advice will be like, oh, you have to, you know, when you're going to people, tell them all these amazing stories and really be interesting to them. I think there's a difference between interesting and interested. You know what I mean? When you meet somebody, being interesting and talk about, oh, I could do this, and then also being interested, sincerely interested in the other person.

People love when they get to share and you listen.

Yes.

When you just allow people to share their story and what they're excited about and you remember their name, you don't even have to say anything and they feel like you're the best person in the world. Completely.

Right? Yeah. The late Stephen Covey, who I had an opportunity to spend a good amount of time with and share stage with, he has that, you know, seek first to understand, then to be understood. I mean, that's huge. That's huge. This is what you want to do every time you want to go. You go to a wedding, you go to a conference, you go to a networking event. 7 tips. You don't even have to use all 7. Just any part of this will be better than nothing.

Okay.

All right, I want you to remember, be suave. Be suave like you are.

That's how I live my life.

I know. This is you, man. So when people are going out and they're checking the mirror on their makeup and their clothing, when they say, I'm gonna be suave, so the B stands for believe, because you know this better than anyone. Believe you can or believe you can't, either way you're right, right? And so here's the thing with beliefs. What I mean by that is you want to kill the ants. Our friend, Dr. Daniel Amen, the big brain doctor, talks about killing ants, automatic negative thoughts. Because here's the thing, with a name like Kwik, I had to be a runner growing up. I always tell people, my name is Jim Kwik, quick learning, help people learn quickly. And they're like, Kwik really is my last name? Yeah, it's really my last name.

Yeah.

Because with a name like Kwik, your life and destiny is pretty much planned out. I had to be a runner back in school. I have to be careful when I'm driving because The worst name to be pulled over when you're speeding.

A little quick every now and then.

Yeah, it's like, once you have that on your license, you're not going to talk your way out of that ticket. And I get to teach speed learning, speed reading, speed memory and stuff.

Were you a distance runner or a sprinter?

Sprinter. So I was preparing for a marathon, and I was really excited about it. Of course, I read books on it and stuff like that, because I read a book a day, and I just like to learn it. And I was like, oh, it's like Matrix style and everything. I go to Barnes Noble, I pick up a book, and then just read it, put it back on the shelf. Save a lot of money that way. But I was reading this book on running a marathon, and there's one chapter on the psychology of running a marathon, and that's what I was really interested in, the mindset. And it opened up with this paragraph verbatim, because I'm a memory expert. It said this: Your mind is like a supercomputer, and your self-talk is the program it will run. So if you tell yourself you are not good with names, you will not remember the name of the next person you meet because you programmed your computer not to. I was like, wow.

Powerful.

So B for Be Suave, the B stands for believe. Believe you can, believe you can't, either way you're right. Because here's the thing that I've learned, and here's the tweetable, if you will, is your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk. Your mind is always eavesdropping on your self-talk. And they're powerful. So you want to monitor that. So I encourage everyone to spend a week, do a 30-day fast, no negative thoughts, or you have to regroup, right? So that's the B. The E in B-SWAP stands for exercise, and I don't mean physical exercise, although People who are more physically active will always do better on mental acuity memory exams, because anything that's good for your heart is really good for your head, right?

Sure.

But I mean practice, because practice makes progress. Practice makes progress. It always does. And so, the bad news, to remember names, it takes effort. The good news, not as much as people think. So, bad news, takes effort, but what's not valuable in your life that doesn't take effort, right? And so, there's no magic pill, like there's no magic memory pill, But there is a magic memory process, and that's what we're talking about. There's no magic memory pill, but there is a memory process. And so the E is exercise. And so it takes about 21 to 30 days. You know, we learn in psychology the law of 21, practicing something for 21, 30 days, whether it's learning how to type, learning how to drive a car, or what have you, until you get to be second nature with it. So you practice. And where can you practice? Everywhere, right?

Yeah.

Just anytime you're flipping through the channels and people get introduced, you're meeting people all the time. You can practice all the time.

Sure.

And so it doesn't take that much. Wherever you go.

Exactly. The gym.

You could go to the grocery store and see 3 strangers and just make up their name. That's Bob, that's Sue, that's Mary. And then when you leave, like at checkout and you're at the Whole Foods—

See you, Bob. See you, Sue.

Exactly.

See yourself, Fred.

Yeah. And then so that's the thing. That's the difference, right? Tony Robbins talks about what you practice in private, you're rewarded for in public. You know, so that's what you do. You practice. So that's the E in BE. So BE. So B is believe, E is exercise. Now the SUAVE is the actual mechanics. All right, so the S in SUAVE, when you're meeting this person for the first time, the S is you say the name. All right, you say the name. So, hi, my name is Jim.

Hey, Lewis.

Lewis, it's nice to meet you.

Good to meet you.

Good to meet you too. Man, if I was any better, my name would be Lewis Howes. No, that's— yeah, that's my secret. So here, so I'll say the name right away, and just by hearing the name again helps me. So now I heard it twice, one from you, one from me. All of a sudden, I'm gonna remember it better. My retention is gonna go up. I also want to say it because Because I want to make sure, going back to MOM, the O, I want to make sure I observed it correctly. Sometimes you're networking, a lot of things going on, you meet someone named Ted, you say, goodbye, Ed. You know, better to get corrected up front than later on. So you say the name. The U in SUAVS means use it. You want to use the name. Very simple, right? You want to use it, not abuse it. But just, you know, because Louis, thanks for coming. Louis, what do you want to talk about? Louis, this is what it looks like.

Then it gets creepy, right?

That's like a Seinfeld episode. It's like salesy, right? It's like salesy. Exactly. It's try hard, and it's It's like a Seinfeld episode where, like, the close talker, you know, or there was actually a Seinfeld episode. I haven't thought about this in years. Wasn't there a Seinfeld episode, like a rerun you might have seen, that he was dating somebody and was intimate with her, but he actually forgot her name? Oh, that's right. And every single time she would leave, he'd try to go into her purse and get her driver's license and meet Kramer and try to get the name to come out. But here's the thing. It rhymed with a part of the female anatomy. And that was the famous— that was the famous episode. If you remember, if people are watching this, remember what that is. So you want to make sure that you use it 3 or 4 times in the conversation.

Sure.

The A stands for ask. And this is a really big one. Ask. Because what's everyone's favorite subject? It's like, it's not travel, it's not entrepreneurship, it's not even, you know, it's not shopping. It's themselves, right?

Sure.

And you ever meet somebody and their name is a little different than you're used to? Like you've never heard that name before? You know, probably 80% of the people you meet, you know, Louis and Jim, they're pretty, pretty common names. But sometimes you meet someone named Afsal or Riddhiker or Isis or what have you. You know, then you ask about a person's name. And what can you ask about a person's name? You know, you could ask, like, how do you spell it? What does it mean?

What does it stand for?

What does it mean? What does it stand for? Who you're named after? Are you related to this person? You know, all these questions. And, you know, for the most part, everyone gets very complimented because a name, again, is the sweetest sound to a person's ears, right? And think about why, though, like the psychology of it. You know, a child, what's one of the first words they learn how to write? Their name.

Their name.

Or mom or dad.

Exactly.

How much love were they given when they did it right? You know, all that emotion tied into—

Oh, interesting.

Because I think, you know, one of the challenges people have, like one of the biggest fears people have, is not being good enough. You know, that we're not good enough, and if we're not good enough, we're not gonna be loved. And if we're not gonna be loved, you know, we're not gonna be— we're gonna die or something, you know. And so, but that name is like our identity, right? So you always want to be able to refer to us. You ask about a person's name and they're complimented. So like, for example, I was speaking at the country's largest life insurance company. About 100 people in the room. Training director was there, and her name was Nankita. Nankita. And I was like, wow, that's a really beautiful name. Sincerely, right?

Yeah.

And so I was like, you know, how is it spelled? Where is it from? I said, what does it mean? And she paused, and she looked at all her coworkers, and she says, it means graceful falling waters. And I was like, whoa. And I got like chills. And then, you know, like half the audience was like making these sounds, and it made me just spontaneously ask, you know, how long have you worked here? She was like, about 4 years. I was like, with all these people? She was like, yeah, you know, like a lot of people are my good friends, they were at my wedding. I was like, that's nice. How many people in this room knew that's what her name meant? And out of 100 people, how many people raised their hand?

Zero.

None. None. And that was one of my biggest clients, because this person was a training director, and so brought me into all— but that name was a bond, right? So that was sincere interest. So you ask about a person's name. And then finally, the V and the E in SWAB. The V is visualize. Visualize. And this is a really simple memory tip where we tend to remember more of what we see than what we hear, right? You go to somebody, it's like their face. You know, I remember your face, but I forgot your name. You never go to someone and say, hey, I remember your name, but I forgot your face. That wouldn't make any sense, right?

That's weird.

So you remember what you see. In fact, there's a Chinese proverb that goes, what I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. And what I do, I understand. What I hear, I forget. I heard the name, I forgot the name. What I see, I remember. I saw the face, I remember the face. What I do, going back to exercise and practice, I understand. If you tend to remember what you see, then try seeing what you want to remember. This is the trick that you meet somebody, you take their name, and you turn it into a picture. Let's say you meet someone named Mike, and then for a split second, you imagine them taking a microphone and singing karaoke on the tabletop. You meet someone named Carol, And you imagine she's singing Christmas carols, right? You meet someone named Mary, and imagine she's carrying these little lambs around. And you do this in the privacy of your own mind, right? And people say, well, that's so childish. Who are the fastest learners on the planet?

Children.

Children. How fast can they learn a musical instrument compared to that? How fast can they learn languages like that, right? So children, they do that. They're playful. They make fun of people's names, right? Kids could be in therapy for 10 years because their name was being Fun of them, they don't even know, right? So that's what you want to do. You want to take someone's name, turn it into a picture. So a person's name is David, I use a slingshot for David and Goliath. You know, someone named Bob, I imagine them bobbing for apples. Just something very— see, because here's the thing, there's something called— I call the 6-second syndrome. The 6-second syndrome is someone tells you their name, you have 6 seconds to do something with that, otherwise it's gone.

It's gone.

It's gone. That's it.