Hey, it's your friend Mel. And welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. Have you ever worried about your memory? Like you put your keys down and then you can't find them and you're like, I know they were right there. Then you start to wonder, am I freaking losing my mind or something? Or this happens to me all the time. Do you ever walk into the kitchen? And you get to the kitchen and you're like, wait a minute, why did I come into the kitchen? And then you walk out of the kitchen because you can't remember why you walked into the kitchen. I have had this happen so often recently that I'm starting to wonder, is this early onset dementia? Now look, I'm not trying to make a joke about a serious topic, but I will be honest with you, here is a thought that crosses my mind at least once a week. There's something wrong with my brain. I can't remember people's names. I just feel overloaded all the time. I'm forgetting things, and I don't know about you, I can't stay on top of it all. I've got a million excuses for why. Oh, it's menopause.

Oh, it's busy. Oh, it's the three kids and a husband and a full-time job and two dogs and a cat that's on medication for UTI, and I need to give it to them twice a day and I keep forgetting, and that makes me a bad pet owner. But the bottom line is I can't remember anything. It's like information is just dripping through the holes in my brain. I don't even know if your brain has holes, but I know you feel what I feel. Between the information overload, way too much going on at work or school or at home, you're overloaded, too. Well, guess what? You and I are in luck because I have brought in today the most respected brain coach on the planet to help you and me. He says that we have super brains. We just don't know how to tap into it. In fact, you want to know why I believe him? Because I first met Jim Kwik. That's his name. I'll tell you more about his credentials in a minute, but let me tell you how I met Jim. Jim and I were both hired to come in and give a presentation at one of the largest management consulting firms in the world.

He's on stage and he's teaching all of these skills and amazing things that you're about to learn to increase your memory to help you read faster, to tap into the superpower of your brain. All of a sudden, he does this thing where he says, All right, everybody who's wearing red, raise your hand. We're talking an audience of several thousand people, and I'd say a couple of hundred people raise their hand, and he asked them all to stand up. Then he did this insane trick in front of all of our eyes. He had the person in the back left hand corner of the room start, and he had everybody standing say their name. I'm talking a couple of hundred people. Without skipping a beat, as soon as they were done, he said their names, and he did it in reverse. Now I was standing backstage because I was going on after him, and I'm very skeptical of this stuff. I had my super eagle eyes on him, and he was not wearing anything in his ears. He was not writing anything down. This was his memory. You want to talk about his super brain? And here's what Jim Quix says.

Jim Quik says that he continues to teach you and me how to do it. In fact, he's going to reveal the secret of how he remembered 200 names in reverse later in our conversation today. But the bottom line is one-third of your brain is predetermined by genetics and biology. Jim Quix is here to teach you that two-thirds of your brain is within your control and you have way more influence over your brain and how it works than you think. By the end of the conversation today, you will know a simple technique that will help you read up to 50% faster and retain it all. You're going to know his technique for remembering people's names. Personally, I need this one. A super interesting thing you can do to never lose your keys again. How cool is that? For the past 30 years, Jim has worked with elite athletes, athletes, actors, and executives. He's taught what you're about to learn to people at Harvard, Google, Nike, Zappos, and even the United Nations. His New York Times bestselling book, which is the handbook on how to create limitless capacity in your brain, now has a new expanded edition, and is here to teach you absolutely all the tricks and tools that you need to know.

If you've ever wondered like I've wondered, how the heck does a Broadway actor remember two hours of a script? Well, Jim is a memory coach that has worked with some of the most famous actors in Hollywood and on Broadway. That's how. You are simply not going to believe what he's about to teach you in less than an hour. This is a skills-packed, brainiac, amazing episode that is going to help you and me tap into the two-thirds of our brain and create what Jim calls a Superbrain. And make sure you stick around all the way to the very end, because at the end of this conversation you're about to hear he's going to teach you in real time 10 things to remember to create a Superbrain so you never forget it. This is so cool. I can't wait for you to drop into this conversation. Without further ado, meet your brain coach, Jim Kwik.

Mel, thank you so much for having me. I've been looking forward to this. And thank you, everybody, who's joining this conversation.

Jim, you're a world-renowned brain coach who has worked with athletes, actors, and executives. And in addition to that, you've been running a brain institute for the past 30 years. Do you really believe absolutely anyone can improve their brain? I mean, come on. Nobody's walked through the doors of your institute that you're like, Oh, boy, couldn't help this person.

It's been my experience coaching people every single day for the past 32 years that regardless of your age, your background, your career, your diet, your education level, your financial situation, your gender, your history, IQ, that we all can improve. It's about progressing beyond what you're currently demonstrating or what you believe is possible.

So you're saying it's not about being born smart. You're saying that we all have the ability to be a super learner no matter what your IQ is?

We know that about one-third of your brain's performance, like its memory, is predetermined by genetics and biology. But that means two-thirds is in your direct control. We have more influence than we think.

Jim, how did you become a brain coach? I mean, do you go to school for something like that?

My inspiration, you could say, was my desperation. One day in kindergarten class, I'm five years old. This would have been in 1978, there was this commotion outside. Sirens and honking. And all the kids obviously want to see what's going on outside, but we're five years old, we can't see outside the window still. We all had this idea to grab our chairs and prop them by the window and stand on them. I lost my balance and I went headfirst into one of the radiators and was rushed to the emergency room. It really affected me in school. I had poor focus, poor memory. I had processing issues where a teacher would repeat themselves like three or four or five times, and I still wouldn't understand, I would compress my body all the time because I didn't want to be called on because I never knew the answer. I would sit behind the tall kid or I'd make myself so sick before an exam. I remember when I was nine years old, God, this brings back this... It's funny how feelings work, right? I was being teased more than usual because I was slowing down the class. I wasn't understanding lessons.

A teacher pointed to me to come to my defense, she said, Leave that kid alone, and that's the boy with the broken brain. And all I took out of it was that I was broken. Adults have to be very careful of their external words because they often become a child's internal words. Because every single time I did badly in school, which was weekly, every time I wasn't picked for sports, I was always the last one, I would always say to myself, Oh, it's because I have the broken brain. And that became my inner talk. And I think our minds always eavesdrop on that inner talk. And it wasn't just something that I dealt with for a year or two. It was elementary school, it was middle school, junior high, and all through high school. And so our struggles can become strengths.

I love that our struggles can become our strengths. But did you always have that mindset?

For me, I wanted to make my parents proud. My parents immigrated to the United States. We live in the back of a laundromat that my mom worked at, and they had a lot of jobs. Through school, it was a challenge. I was lucky enough to get into a local state university, and I thought freshmen meant I can make a fresh start. I wanted to make my family proud. I want to show the world, show myself that I could do this. But I took all these classes and I did worse.

I.

Wasn't equipped. I was ready to quit school because I'm the oldest of three kids and I wanted to be a good role model for my younger brother and sister. And yet also I don't have the money even to be in school and it's better that they have it. I'm not smart enough. This is my belief system. And a friend said, Hey, I'm going home this weekend. Why don't you come with? Saying you're going to quit school to your family is a big deal. Why don't you get some perspective? And I noticed, Mel, that when we change place or we change people we're spending time with, it gives us a different point of view. Yes. I do agree to go. The family is pretty well off, have a beautiful home on the water. The father walks me around his property before dinner and asks me a very innocent question. He says, Jim, how's school? I am introverted and I'm very shy at the time. I start balling like crazy, crying like crazy in front of this complete stranger that I just met 30.

Minutes before.

Oh, my God! What did he do? Yeah, he was freaked out because he didn't know my situation, but I gave him the full download. I told him about my brain injury, labeled broken, how I have to quit school. It's just I'm not smart enough. It's just not who I am. I don't know how to tell my parents because they're going to be heartbroken because they work so hard. He asked me a question, and it's interesting, not only does perspective change your point of view, but so do the questions that we ask. He says, Hey, Jim, well, why are you in school? I didn't have an answer other than, This is what you do, right? You go to school. That's what my parents expected of me. He dug deeper and said, Well, why are you in school? He said, What do you want to be? What do you want to do? What do you want to have? What do you want to create or contribute? Mel, I didn't have an answer for any of those things because nobody's ever asked me those questions before. And so you ask a new question and we get new answers.

I didn't know what I wanted to be or do or contribute, but he forced me to stay in that space to not escape it and change the subject. And I start to just fantasize. He asked me to just imagine you could do anything or be anything or have anything. And then he takes out a little like a journal or notebook in his back pocket and gives me a couple of sheets and he asked me to write them down. It's the first step in taking something that's invisible, that's in your mind, and then all of a sudden it's visible outside of yourself. And I fill up two pages and I start folding up the paper to put in my pocket thinking this exercise is done and we.

Could eat. Let's go.

Yeah. And then as I fold the sheets of paper to put in my pocket, he has the audacity to reach out and grab them out of my hands. And now he's reading to himself all of my dreams and goals. And I don't know how much time goes by because I don't want to be judged based on this. And when he's done, this is what he does. He takes his fingers and if people are just listen to the audio, I'm spreading my index fingers a foot apart. And he says, Jim, you are this close to everything on that list. And it's out of a movie, right? And I'm thinking, this is my honest conversation in my mind, if I'm real and raw, it was like, There's no way. And this is what I'm telling him. I'm like, There's no way. Have you not heard my story? I have a broken brain, horrible in school, and give me 10 lifetimes. I'm not going to crack this list. And he takes his fingers that are spread a foot apart and he puts them this side of my head, meaning what's inside my brain is like the key. And he takes me into a room that just honestly freaked me out.

It was wall to wall, ceiling the floor covered in books. I've never read a book. It's like being in a room full of snakes because I'm very intimidated by books. But what makes it worse, Mel, is he starts going to the shelves and pulling snakes off the shelf and handing them to me. And he says, Jim, you need to read to succeed. Promise me you'll read one of these books a week and then you could have them because it'll allow you to achieve what you want on this list. But I can't. And he, very smart man, he reaches into his pocket mill and pulls out my dream list. And he has the audacity to read my goals out loud.

I can't even imagine what you were feeling in that moment. So what did you do next?

It's funny how memories work at a meta level because it just comes back, even the feelings of how my throw was constricting and I couldn't breathe and I was perspiring, my heart's beating. I thought this is it. Metaphorically, I'm just throwing away my potential or my dreams. Or maybe I could fix my brain, maybe I could learn how to learn better. And I was like, Okay, how do I do it? And my brain went, School. That's how you learn anything. And I look at classes for next semester, and I'm reading hundreds of classes on what to learn, but not how to learn. Classes on math and history and science and Spanish, but there are no classes on how to learn those subjects. And I start studying this initial stack of books that my mentor provided me with. And then it started opening new ideas to the power of the mind. I wanted to find out how does my brain work so I could work my brain? And I started studying it because I had a reason. I had a real problem I needed to solve that I've been struggling with my whole life. I started getting answers and getting a little bit of momentum and a little bit more confidence.

And it was like 60 days, two months into it, a light switch just flipped on. I started to understand things for the very first time I felt. It gave me a lot of hope. And I was really upset, first of all, that there were simple things that I could have done that would have made my life a whole lot easier. My whole childhood was just trying to just work really hard without getting the results. And then the other thing was I felt a purpose because I want to share this with others, almost as an evangelist, because I was just like, How does everyone not know these things? Learning is our superpower, and it's a superpower we all have. We just aren't really shown how to unlock it and unleash it. But the other thing I realized was my mission, my purpose. No brain left behind.

And you have now gone on to build an institute and work with the world's leading brands and teach everybody things from reading faster to better memory. It is incredible because when I hear your story and I then think about how much you've accomplished and how many lives you've changed, I go, Well, Jim with his broke brain, can do it. I can certainly improve my brain. If he can understand how to leverage the capacity of his brain to help him achieve his goals, then I bet I can.

I truly believe that an individual's ability to adapt, to learn, to unlearn, to relearn is one of the most important things that people could invest in. Because if there is a genie to grant you any one wish, but only one wish, everyone would wish for limitless wishes. If there is a learning genie that could help you become an expert in any one subject or any one skill, what would the equivalent be of asking for limitless wishes? You'd be learning how to learn. Because if you can learn how to learn, focus, think, read, retain, you could apply that towards everything: medicine, marketing, money, motivation, martial arts, anything gets easier. Because it's the lead domino. It's the one thing you hit and you sharpen that saw, which is your mind. So I really think that this technology we always hear everyone got the new iPhone and upgraded their apps and get the new devices. But when is the last time we got took time to upgrade?

Jim, I want to just take a second and talk to the person listening. And as you're listening to Jim, I want you to now make this really personal. Let's put what Jim is telling us to the test, okay? I'm going to go first because here's what I'm thinking on behalf of both you and me. Jim, how the heck can I, and the person listening, upgrade the brain? Can you give us simple tricks? Because here's the thing, I'm already overwhelmed. Between the ADHD, the menopause, the three kids, all the stuff that I'm forgetting all the time. I mean, how am I going to also add upgrading my brain to the list? Look, I don't have a story that I have a broken brain. For you listening, I don't know what your story is, but I can see that I have a belief about my brain that is limiting. I believe that I'm always just going to be forgetful. I believe that I have a hard time remembering names. I believe, oh, here's a good one. I believe that it is impossible for me to learn a foreign language because I'm dyslexic. I believe that I'm overwhelmed, and I'm just going to be overwhelmed that my thoughts are going to spin.

Now that I'm saying all this, Jim, I realize that I have a lot of limiting beliefs. As you're listening, I do want you to stop and think about what is your limiting belief. Do you think you're not smart? Are you like me? And you're like, I can't learn a language or I'm not good with math. Here's another limiting belief of mine. I have menopause. Everything that I'm learning is that your brain fog is something that comes with menopause. So am I still going to be able to upgrade my brain with menopause and all this stuff that I'm telling myself seriously? Like an iPhone, Jim?

Yes.

Well, that's encouraging.

We have students in our online academy in 100 countries. We get a lot of feedback and we have a lot of data. I've had the honor of sharing stage with you many times. I'll do these demonstrations where I'll pass around a microphone in an audience and introduce themselves, and I'll memorize 50 or 100 people's names. Or they'll challenge me to remember 100 numbers or words and I'll do it forwards and backwards. But I always tell people, I don't do this to impress you, I do this to express you as possible. Because the truth is we could all do that, we just weren't taught. It's a skill. If you go to somebody like your kids and you say, Focus, memorize this, study. That's the equivalent of going to somebody saying, Play the ukulele, who's never taken a class on how to play the ukulele before, but we didn't have a class called Focus.

I just had a huge breakthrough. Oh, my God, I think I got it. The ukulele example is exactly... That just cracked the code for me, Jim.

Yeah.

All of the education that we have had has been for the purpose of absorbing something to spit it back out and then moving on to the next thing that you're going to absorb and spit back out. What you're basically saying is that you became an expert at figuring out the skill of learning and of memory retention. That's probably my daughter calling me. You know what? This is a good sign, Jim. It's always a great episode when one of my kids FaceTimes me in the middle of it. That's what you're teaching us.

You're not born with the ability to read. We were taught how to read, but when is the last time we took a class called reading? We were like six or seven. Even if we learned a skill, we haven't updated that skill, and the difficulty and demand of our reading has increased exponentially. But how we read is the same. So that growing gap creates a lot of stress, information, anxiety. So skill acquisition is important. I do believe that genius is not so much born, genius really is more built.

I love the idea that genius is built. It makes me feel like I got a chance in this race. If you've ever told yourself this story that you're not smart or that it's not going to work out for you, I love what you're telling us, Jim. Genius is built. And, Jim, I would imagine that the way that you build a better brain and the way that you build genius is through the skills that you've been talking about and that you practice them. And so when we come back, here's what I want to do. I want to go straight into skills because Jim has specific skills that you can learn that will help you read 50% faster. Simple skills that will help you remember names and a very surprising technique so that you always remember where you put your keys or your purse or your wallet. And of course, do not forget to come back after this short from our sponsors because he also is going to share that surprising secret trick to how he remembers 200 names. Stay with us. Welcome back. It's your friend, Mel. I'm so glad you're still here because you're getting a private session with one of the world's leading brain coaches.

I want you to get ready because in Jim's book, Limitless, he gives a ton of tips on reading faster, many of which I'd never heard before. Jim, what are they?

Here are a couple of tips that could really help listeners not only read faster, but improve their focus and their retention and understanding of the information. Because if you ever read a page in a book and just forgot what you just read and you had to reread it and then you still forgot what you just read, this could really help. The first thing is we all have books on your shelf we haven't read yet. The goal is when you pick up the book, if you use a visual pacer when you read, you'll read it faster. Now what's a visual pacer? It could be your finger, it could be a pen, it could be a highlighting, it could be a mouse on a computer. What you're doing is you're not touching the page or the screen, you're just going right above it and just underlining what you're reading. Now, I want you to not just believe everything I'm saying, you could test it out also. When we're done with this episode, pick up a book that you're reading, put a mark in the margin where you're left off, and what I want you to do is set your Timer to go off in 60 seconds.

We're going to read for 60 seconds, and I want you to read how you would normally read, not using your finger, but just how you normally read for comprehension. And then at the end of 60 seconds, I want you to put a mark in the margin where you left off and then count the number of lines that you just read, and that's the lines per minute. Now, set the Timer again for another 60 seconds and then pick up where you left off, but this time just underline the words. And you're just underlining the words as you would read. And then at the end of 60 seconds, put a mark in the margin and then count the number of lines you just read. For the majority of the listeners, they'll find that second number will be 25-almost 50 % greater. And you don't have to work any harder. So it's not about working harder, it's about working more intelligently. The reason why it works is number one, one of the challenges we have when we read is we backskip.

Backskip? What is backskip? What does that even mean, Jim?

We reread words. Oh! And this keeps you from doing that. Some people reread whole lines, right? On the other side of it, your eyes are attracted to motion. So if something ran across your room, you would look at me, you would look at what moves. Because as a hunter-gatherer, your eyes are trained to look at movement. Because if you're in a bush and you're hunting lunch, let's say it's a rabbit or a carrot, depending on your diet, if the bush next to you moves, you have to look because number one, it could be lunch, or number two, you could be lunch. So when your finger is going across the page, it draws your attention through as opposed to your attention being outside of you. And then the final reason use your finger while you read, it's interesting. Kids use their finger while they read naturally, organically, until we tell them not allowed to. And you do also because when I ask people to count the number of lines, maybe they didn't use their finger when they were initially read. But if I asked you to count the number of lines, what do you do? Use your finger as a visual aid to help you to focus.

But the final reason is your senses work very closely together. For example, have you ever had a great tasting fruit right from the farmer's market? But you're not actually tasting a peach, you're smelling the peach. But your sense of smell and taste are so closely linked, your mind can't tell the difference. It can't tell the difference when you're sick, when you can't breathe out of your nose, what does food taste like? It tastes more bland, right? Just as your sense of smell and taste are closely linked, so is your sense of sight and your sense of touch. That when you use your finger while you read, people will say they literally feel more in touch with their reading.

Seriously? This one tool, just using a visual cue or pacer or whatever you call it, can increase your reading speed by 50 %. Is that really true?

Absolutely. 25-50 %. Some of the listeners doing this exercise will actually double their reading speed. Think about it, the value of that. The average person spends about four hours a day processing information. You think about social media and emails and books and reports and research, whatever you have to go through in the newspaper. If you could just cut that in half, you double your reading speed, so you take two hours a day. What's two hours a day over the course of a year? In fact, what's just one hour a day saved over course of a year? Three hundred and sixty hours. How many 40-hour work weeks is that? Over nine. Over nine weeks of productivity you gain back, you reclaim. Two months of productivity is back to yours, saving into something ubiquitous like reading.

You know what I really love about this, Jim? Is that you don't have to try harder. What you just taught us is a skill that will help us read 50 % faster just by using the tip of a pen and leveraging the superwiring of how our eyes are wired to track to movement. That's incredible. Let's jump into the next skill, which is what is your technique for always remembering people's names?

Yeah, so a name is very important. I always say remember mom. This is just a couple of dozen examples in the book and techniques, but remember, a name, as they say, is the sweetest sound to a person's ears. It's probably the number one networking business etiquette skill, because how are you going to show somebody you care for their future, their health, their family, whatever you have to offer if you don't care enough just remember them? Maya Angelou say people forget what you say, they forget what you did, but they always remember how you made them feel. Mom, of course, it's an acronym because I'm doing the short form and podcast form. The first M is just motivation. A lot of people won't remember our names because they haven't touched the reason. So if you ask yourself simple thing you could do before you meet somebody, ask yourself, Why do I want to remember this person's name? Just get in the habit of doing that. Maybe it's to show the person some respect. Maybe it's to make a connection. Maybe it's to make a new friend or get a referral, make a sale. If you don't have a reason, you won't get the result.

So, for example, most people say, I'm horrible of remembering names, but I challenge people on their... Yes, their belief systems. If there was a suitcase, if Mel and I had a suitcase of a million dollars cash, tax-free, if you just remember the name of the next stranger you meet, who's going to remember that name? I am. Everybody will. So as a coach, I'm going to call people on their BS, their belief systems. If there was a suitcase, if Mel and I had a suitcase of a million dollars cash tax-free, if you just remember the name of the next stranger you meet, who's going to remember that name? Everybody. I am. Everybody will. As a coach, I'm going to call people on their... Their belief systems had nothing to do with your capabilities. You can remember names. Are you motivated to remember that name? And one of the ways to do it is to ask a question and tune into why.

To remember names, you have to remember mom and the M stands for motivation. Got that. Why are you motivated to remember their name? That makes sense. What does the O stand for?

The O in mom, this is big, is observation. A lot of people aren't forgetting the name. They're just not paying attention. The art of memory is the art of attention. I remember years ago I got to go to this fundraiser and it was 2,000 people were sitting at the table. I'm the first one there. After that, Forrest Whitaker, the Oscar winner, sits right next to me. Then Richard Branson sits right next to him. Then Ashton Kutcher and Ashton Kutcher's twin brother, who I didn't know he had a twin brother, sits there. Then President Clinton sits right next to me. Now, I had met him a few years before very briefly, and he called me by name. He said hello by name. And I was like, wow, that's pretty impressive because I'm sure he means a lot of people. And then I was like, okay, people and team knew who he's sitting with, obviously. And then I swear he picks up on the conversation that we had three years before and nobody was privy to that. And I was like, I'm a memory guy, I need to know how you're doing this. And he tells me the story of his grandfather in Arkansas in the living room, and he would tell stories, but afterwards to kids, he would quiz each of the kids to see if they were paying attention.

Now, when he's explaining this to me, I also noticed at a meta level, I was like, Wow, I feel like I'm the only one in this room because the way he's communicating with me, it's like there are a lot more important people in that room, especially at that table. And yet I feel like he's not looking over my shoulder or seeing who else is important. And I realize politics aside, people would say he's a great communicator, great connector, great charisma, and he's got an incredible memory and his powerful presence. And I think, Mel, his incredible memory and his powerful presence comes from being powerfully present. That his incredible memory and his powerful presence with people comes from being powerfully present with people. Because most people, they're not forgetting the name. They're just not even hearing the name why? Because they're looking around or they're thinking about how to respond. They're waiting for their turn to speak. And so an easy way to remember names, listen. And even if you want to do a brain exercise, think about the word listen and scramble the letters and it spells another word perfectly. It spells the word silent.

Just be there and listen.

I love that. Because being truly present when you're with someone will help you make them feel like they're the only one in the room. And you just taught us that incredible memory comes from being powerfully present. And so when you're sitting there and you're present and you're silent and you're taking in what the heck they're saying, you're also going to remember what they're saying. That's so cool. What is the last M in mom?

The last M are the methods. Here's the quick method, suave. Next time you're at an event and you will say, I'm going to remember names, I'm more conscious of it because I listened to that episode. Look at yourself saying, I'm going to be suave. The S, say the name right away. When somebody gives you their name, greet them back using their name because it means you get to hear it twice. And also it means you don't want to have a 20-minute conversation with somebody. Let's say there's a lot of background noise, 20-minute conversation with Ted and say goodbye, Ed. You want to be corrected upfront.

I like the fact that you say the name immediately because even if you say it wrong, they'll correct you and they're not going to be offended. Because if you say it immediately, it's just that you heard it wrong. It's not that you didn't remember it. And also, if you notice... Well, so.

Keep going. Yeah, no, absolutely. You say the name that's going to help your retention. The you, you use the name, but you don't abuse the name. Mel, thank you so much for having me on the show. Mel, what do you want to talk? Mel, that would be an abuse, right? It'd be like a Seinfeld episode. Right. So you say the name, then you use it three or four times in the conversation. And then the a in suave, ask. This works really well for people who have unusual names or names you haven't heard before. What can you ask about a person's name?

How do you say your name?

How do you say your name? How do you spell your name? Where is it from? Who were you named after? Does it mean something in another language? So everyone's favorite topic is their name. Actually, when you're talking about the reticular activating system, which is, here's your focus by asking questions, because our brain is mostly deleting information, the name is up on top. Because think of it, it's probably one of the first words you heard, probably one of the first words you learn how to write. Think about the encouragement, the emotion of like, Wow, congratulations. It's one of the reasons why it's the sweetest sound. But to ask about a person's name, they'll be flattered, especially unusual names.

I just want to make sure that as you're listening to Jim, you picked up on the fact that he has this acronym, Suave. Suave is what we're using as the tool to help us remember someone's name. You said it fast, Jim, so I'm just slowing it down for those of us who may not be as quick in the super brain as you are. The S is for say it. Got that. Makes sense. Say it as soon as they say their name. U is for use it, which also makes sense because the more you use it in a sentence without being creepy, the more you're likely to remember it. A, ask about it. What does the V in Suave stand for?

The V in Suave is visualize, and this is how I do it in front of audiences. If there's time on stage, I'll have 30, 40, 50 people stand up, pass around a microphone, and I'll memorize upwards of 100 names depending on how much time we have. But how I do it is I would just visualize the person's name, meaning most people listening are better with faces than they are with names. You go to someone say, I remember your face, but I'm sorry, I forgot your name. You never go to someone say, I remember the opposite. I remember your name, but I forgot your face. That doesn't happen. Your visual cortex takes up more real estate. And so we tend to remember what we see. And if we tend to remember what we see, try seeing what we want to remember. You meet someone for the first time and their name is Mary. Imagine for a split second that she's carrying two lambs underneath her arms. Mary had a little lamb. You meet someone named David, just hit him in the nose with a slingshot. Is David and Goliath. And people say that's so childish. That helps you to remember it.

Because if you could see it, feel it and hear it, you're not going to forget it. Got it. You're hearing it, you're visualizing it, and you're making it funny or ludicrous, and then you're not going to forget it. So a person's name is Mike, imagine they jump on a table and sing on a microphone. And when you say goodbye to them, you're going to remember, Oh, that was the guy that did that. What's his name? Mike. The person's name is John. You could picture whatever you picture. He has that. And then finally, the E in suave stands for end. End the conversation saying goodbye using their name. Because if you could walk into a room of strangers and leave saying less than 20 people and leave saying goodbye to every single one of them, who are they all going to remember? You, right? And that's an absolute standout skill.

Jim, I hate to say this. We got to take one last break. And the reason why I hate to say it is I don't know about you listening, but I'm starting to feel like my brain feeling a little bit more super. Aren't you feeling a little bit more super in your brain? I've got some mad skills that I didn't know about. And guess what? Jim Kwik, he's not done because he's got this super crazy cool trick, so you will never forget where you put your wallet or your keys or anything for that matter. And that's not all. Jim is also going to cover the 10 things that you need to eat, think, and do in order to have a super brain. And he's going to reveal finally that secret to how the heck he can remember 200 names forward and backwards, and he's going to do it for you in real time coming next. Stay with us. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel. I am thrilled that you are here because we're about to dive into the 10 things that you need to eat, think and do in order to have a super brain. But first, I almost forgot the thing I really want to learn, which is how do I remember where I put my keys?

Yeah. It's always the key to... I can't believe I said the key.

There are three keys to remember your keys. For all memory, as you encode, you store, and you retrieve. The hard part is the retrieval, because if you didn't encode it well or you stored it somewhere, it's going to be hard to get it back out and recall it. So encoding you do by seeing it and feeling it. The more senses you use, the more likely you're to remember it. Taking a split second, and it only takes a split second to make something ordinary turned extraordinary. That's what makes it memorable. Definitely. Right? So you don't have to repeat it. You don't have to say, My car keys are here 15 times. But what all I would do is you need the locus of attention. You need to fine-tune your concentration. Let's say you put your keys somewhere, you have to be mindful of it or you're not going to remember it. That's true. It takes a little bit of effort. The good news doesn't take much. It takes a split second. If you took your keys and then just threw it on the desk just for a split second, imagine the desk explodes.

Oh.

Yeah. And then it's like, boom. You can't forget that. Make it extraordinary. For the things you want to remember, the periodic table is pretty ordinary. We teach kids like eight year old to be memorized the whole periodic table in minutes. It's insane when you could see it, feel it, and hear it. Even languages. If I did something with counting to ten in Japanese for everybody here, and you don't have to do this on video, but let's say people want to learn that language like, Do this, Mel. Just scratch your knee and say, itchy knee.

Itchy knee.

That's one and two. Itchy knee is one, knee is two. Saan is saan. Like saan, so point to this little light up above, saan. Saan. Saan. So it's not saan, but saan. Saan. And then she, so point to a female in the room. She. She, right? So itchy knee, saan, she, that's one, one, two, three, four.

Itchie, nee, saan, she.

Holy cow. Yeah, and then five is go. So if you just pretend and say go, go, you're like, You're walking on video, I'm moving my hands and my feet, go, that's five. And then six is roku. Imagine you're rowing a canoe.

Oh, roku. Well, like a canoe. Yeah, roku.

Yeah, roku. That's six. That's pretty.

Cool, dude. You're literally making my brain better as we're talking.

My point with this whole thing is so many of us shrink what's possible to fit our minds when we could expand our minds to fit all that's possible. Regardless of who's listening as their age and their background, age or stage of life, everybody can improve. It's justYou just need the correct lessons and a coach. Our brains, I want people, Mel, to know their brains, know more about their brains. I want them to trust their brains. I want them to love their brains. And I want people to use their brains because it's the greatest gift that we have. Great things begin on the inside. And people who are listening right now, they've self-selected. They have greatness inside of them, and they have genius inside of them. And now is the perfect time to let it out.

Wow. Well, I feel like I should go row, coup, she, son, niche like that. I just cut it five, four, three, two, one backwards.

And you just taught me how. Learning doesn't have to be this sit quietly by yourselves and just study and repeat things. Who wants to do that? Not me. Who has the time to do it or the.

Inclination to do that? Guess what, Jim? Now that we have you as our brain coach, we don't have to because you have all the methods to help us be limitless in our lives, in our thinking, and in the way that we learn. And so when I asked our online audience and our listeners of this podcast, What are you struggling with? 95% of people said distraction, memory loss, information overload, the anxiety about all the things I need to do, my inability to remember.

Things, and Jim.

This is so universal. Can you just explain the simple way that you approach this, the way that you teach people in your institute to tap into the capacity of their brains? Let's start with that bigger context, and then we're going to get into the 10 specific things that will help us create a super brain.

Yeah. So for me, it's three.

Things.

A framework, and then we could go into the tactics and tools. Let's do it. It's three Ms, your mindset. I define mindset as a set of assumptions or attitudes you have about something. Your attitude is assumptions about money. Your attitude is assumptions about relationships, maybe about yourself even. Okay, so the mindset for me at events where I do these demonstrations, people are like, Oh, I'm so glad you're here. I have a horrible memory. I'm not smart enough. I would say stop, because all behavior is belief-driven.

You say stop when somebody says I have a horrible memory because when somebody says I have a horrible memory, that is a mindset. And that mindset, I have a horrible memory, or I'm not smart, or I've never been able to learn a language, or I'm a slow reader, all of those statements is the mindset that is limiting the capacity of your brain. Step one is to identify what your mindset is when it comes to.

Your brain. The first one is your mindset. If people say they feel like they're not smart enough or they're too old, I say stop because your brain is like this incredible supercomputer and your self-talk is a program it will run. So if you tell yourself, I'm not good at remembering names, you won't remember the name of the next person you meet because you program your supercomputer not to.

That makes sense.

Your mind is always eavesdropping on yourself. Talk, audit yourself. I don't have a great memory yet. It just opens up the possibility and it just feels different.

Okay, so I like to just stop and put a highlighting on what Jim is telling you. I have a story that I'm dyslexic, and I took six years of French in high school, and I went to college and took an exam to place into the French requirement. Dude, I played into French 101 for people who had never taken this. Yet, I have this desire to be able to speak conversational Spanish. But Jim's point here is that if I'm not willing to stop telling myself that foreign languages are hard for me, I will never, ever, ever utilize the methods effectively because I will always be arguing against them. And so that's step one. And then let's move on to the second one.

Motivation. When we talk about motivation, I ask myself this question like 10 times a day verbatim. What is the tiniest action I could take right now that will give me progress towards this goal where I can't fail?

That's a big question. Now see here's part of my problem, Jim. I can't remember the question.

Like that. Okay, here we go. What is the tiniest action I could take right now, operative word now, doing little things add up to big things. Because consistency compounds. Little by little, little becomes a lot.

That makes perfect sense. And what I realized now, Jim, you're a complete genius. You've been walking us through and weaving through the mindset aspect of this, of believing that you are capable of more and the motivation and desire for why. And now we are so ready to receive the methods. And so let's talk about them. What are the 10 things that we need to eat, think and do in order to have a Superbrain, Jim?

I'm going to teach everyone a memory technique that I train Hollywood actors to be able to memorize a speech.

We're.

Going to memorize 10 keys for a limitless brain. There are 10 levers for a better brain that will make a difference in your focus, your memory, your overall brain, energy, and health. I'm going to share them, and then I'll teach you how to memorize these 10 things forwards and backwards.

Oh, my God. I love this. Okay, let's go. Yeah.

Okay, so the first one is a good brain diet. What you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. A whole area of science called neuro-nutrition that your brain is part of your body, but it requires different nutrients, some different nutrients than the rest of your body. Avocados, the monounsaturated fat is good. Blueberries, I like to call them brain berries. Broccoli is good for the brain. Vitamin E, olive oil. The Mediterranean diet is good for your brain. If your diet allows eggs, the choline in eggs is a precursor to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, it's really important for cognitive health. Green leafy vegetables, a kale spinach, fatty fishes, because your brain is mostly fat, it's the omega-3s specifically the DHA. Salmon, sardines, is good for your brain turmeric. It has curcumin, which helps the lower inflammation, stemically. Walnuts and almondes, even walked us look like a brain, high in vitamin E, which is neuroprotective. Probably my favorite is dark chocolate. So everyone can remember that very well. So these are some of my favorite brain foods. Number two, the second key for a limitless brain, killing negative thoughts. Number three is exercise. As your body moves, your brain grooves.

Number four brain nutrients. If you're not getting the fish, then omega-fatty acids supplementing with DHAs. But then there's all kinds of neutropics like Ltheanine, Bacopa, Rodiola, creatine, which is often associated with exercise, huge benefit for mitochondria energy for your brain. Number five, positive peer group. Who you spend time with is who you become. You spend time with nine broke people, you're going to be number 10. We have these mirror neurons, and mirror neurons help to drive our empathy and imitate people around us. We imitate their words. Whether somebody smokes has less to do with their biological networks or their neurological networks has more to do with their social networks. Because if your friends smoke, you're more likely to take that action. We start modeling the integrity, the moral fabric of the people we spend time with about what's acceptable and imitating the habits of the people around us. So you spend time with people who are working out all the time, you're probably more likely to work out. If you haven't found that person yet, be that person. We kids love our family and friends, but they don't have to be our peer group. That's five.

Six, clean environment. Cleaning your desk or making your bed, then you feel just a clarity of thought. You know why? Because you're not using mental energy to keep track of everything. Your external world is often a reflection of your internal world. Then number seven, big one, sleep. Number eight, protect your brain, brain protection. You're going to wear a helmet to protect your brain. It's very resilient, but it's very fragile. Number nine, new learnings, meaning there's a study done with nuns on longevity. They lived 80, 90 above. And because it's a set community, similar diet and day play, they found that half of it was because of their faith and their emotional gratitude. The other half key factor for longevity, they were lifelong learners. They're reading every day, they're having spirited debates, conversations, and because of it, add a year to their life and life to their years. My favorite learning, reading. Reading is to your mind what exercise your body. And then finally, number 10, stress management. Chronic stress has been shown to shrink the human brain. It also puts you in fight or flight. You're held hostage in your survival brain.

You know what I'm thinking right now, Jim? I'm thinking, thank God we recorded this because I want to remember all 10 of those tricks to developing a super brain. And yet I'm like, I can't even remember where I put my keys. I'm going to try to blow up the countertop trick. But for crying out loud, Jim, how the heck are we going to remember all 10 of these things? Not to mention, remember to put them into our day to day life.

I'm going to walk you through a 2,500-year-old memory technique that will blow your mind. And I want everyone to do this. Us and we're able to remember all 10. I want you to imagine you're coming to my office, it's in the suburbs, and if you can, close your eyes just to help you to focus if it's safe to do so as you're listening. It's a glass building. Let's say you're coming to take a speed reading class with us. I'm going to name 10 places along this journey to get to that classroom. And what we're going to do is take the 10 keys for a limitless brain, and we're going to imagine each of those keys in each of those places. I'm going to everyone to say out loud as you're listening this. The first place that you get out of is the parking lot. So what's the first place? Say it out loud.

Parking lot.

Parking lot. And that's our verbal memory. I want you to see it and then we're going to feel it and get it in our body. The parking lot, when you get out of the parking lot, it's going to be reminded you need a good brain diet. How you do that, pretend you're eight years old and use your imagination. If you can't imagine it, imagine you can imagine it. Imagine there's a big of your favorite brain foods. You see the blueberry, the avocados, the dark chocolate. Even if you can't imagine, again, imagine you can imagine it. See it, feel it, taste it. From there, there's a waterfall. It creates a moat around the building, and so you have to cross a bridge. The second place is the bridge. What's the second place? Bridge. Bridge. That's your verbal memory. You go across the bridge and you're killing ants. Just to remind you the second tip, quick tip for a limitless brain, you need to kill automatic negative thoughts. You're stepping on those ants. It takes more time to say it than actually to see it. As you're stepping on the ants, you go into the building, the third place you get into the elevator.

What's the third place?

Elevator.

Elevator, great. And then third brain tip, exercise. So your personal trainer is there and whatever your personal exercise is, pilates, CrossFit, whatever, yoga, you're doing it in the elevator. So see and feel yourself doing that. You get out of the elevator and the fourth place is the hallway. So what's the fourth place?

Hallway.

Hallway. And these are brain nutrients, all the neutropics. I want you to imagine you're tripping and falling on bottles of ginkgo, of creatine, of curcumin, of lion's main mushroom, and you're just tripping on it. You're like donkey-com or Laura Croft, you're jumping over these, maybe make the bottles really big. And there are vitamins everywhere. You open the door to my office, immediately to the left is the fifth place, which is the closet. The closet. So what's the fifth place? Closet. Closet. And inside you want to remember your positive peer group. So all of your happy friends are in the closet. They're celebrating, they're cheering, big surprise party, happy friends, positive peer group. Maybe we're doing a mastermind. You get out and it's the sixth place is the receptionist. Receptionist. What's the sixth place?

Receptionist.

And what the receptionist doing is the sixth brain tip, which is clean environment. The receptionist is cleaning the environment. Waxing, vacuuming, dusting, everything is clean. Behind the receptionist is the seventh place, which is the fish tank. What's the seventh place?

Fish tank.

Fish tank. Everyone say fish tank, and then the seventh tip, sleep. Imagine, Nemo, Dorey in their pajamas, and they're in their bunk beds. One of them is snoring, right? And you're sleeping with the fishes. So that's what's going on in the fish and just see it, you won't ever forget it. You don't have to repeat it a hundred times. You see it once, you can't forget it. All right, we're almost there. You go to the classroom, but the door is locked for the speed reading class. The classroom door is the eighth place. What's the eighth place?

Classroom door.

Perfect. There's a helmet on a hook there. You put the helmet on and you headbutt the door open, it splinters everywhere. But the helmet reminds you of the brain tip, brain protection. Protect your brain. Great. We're almost done. In the front of the room is the ninth place, and it's a whiteboard with markers. Whiteboards. What's the ninth place?

Whiteboard.

Great. I'm there as your instructor, and I'm writing two words on the whiteboard in your favorite color. Mel, what's your favorite color?

Red.

Red. In red, I'm writing new learnings. New learnings. So see those two words, new learnings, to remind you about always be learning. And then finally on the side of this particular classroom are these Japanese plants, these banzai trees. What's the 10th place?

Banzai trees.

And you want to remember stress management. So whatever relaxes you, do it on the bondsai trees. Take a moment. You're doing meditation there. You're getting a massage there. You're having your relaxing drink, but you're doing it on the banzai trees. Got it. Perfect. Now you are on stage.

You.

Need to be able to share these 10 things. You go to the first place of the parking lot, and that reminds you of what?

Everybody. Blueberries and brain food.

Yes, your brain food is perfect. And then you cross the bridge and what are you stepping on?

Ants.

Yes. Kill those automatic negative thoughts. You get into the building, you get into the elevator. Exercise. Exercise. Then once you get out of the elevator, you see the hallway and it's covered in-.

Oh, bottles. All those bottles. Like Ginkgo and stuff that I'm... The Lion's Mane and other stuff.

Yes, the Lion's Mane, all the brain nutrients. You open up the door to the classroom and immediately to the left.

Is the closet. Our friends are in there.

Yeah, all the happy friends, your positive peer group. Then you go to the receptionist and what's the activity they're doing?

The receptionist is cleaning.

Cleaning. Clean your environment. Behind the receptionist is a fish tank. They're sleeping. And what are the fish doing?

They're sleeping, Jim.

They are sleeping.

Oh, my God. I could tell you what they are. We're going to put on a helmet and bust through the door and on the whiteboard is going to be the wordsto new learning, and then there's a bonds eye tree where I'm relaxing.

Perfect. You got a 10 out of 10. You can even probably do it backwards, Mel.

From the bonds eye tree relaxing to the new learning to the helmet to the cleaning to the closet where my friends are to the bottles that I tripped over, to the elevator where there was some exercise to do, to the ants that we stepped on to the blue. That is amazing.

My message to everybody is when you understand how your brain works, you can work your brain. When you understand how your memory works, you can work your memory. It starts to change your mindset about what's possible, because when you do something you never thought you could do, then you say, What else do I... Maybe I could read two or three times faster and enjoy it and get more out of it, or I could learn Spanish.

I absolutely love, love, love everything that you just taught us. And I love the fact that where it left us was you just proved to all of us that we have capability in our brain that once we know how to unlock it, there's so much more that's possible. That is so.

Cool, Jim. I truly believe, Mel, that to the listeners that there's a version of yourself that's patiently waiting. And the goal is we show up every single day until we get to be introduced.

Jim, I just want to take a minute and thank you. I want to thank you for not just showing up here and telling us what you know, but teaching us in real time what we can do. And in the way that you taught us, you know what else you did? You proved to me and to the person listening that, yes, in fact, there is more capacity in our brain. That, yes, in fact, we can build a super brain, and that our brains can do more than we know. In fact, more than we knew it could do just 45 minutes ago. So thank you, thank you, thank you for empowering us and giving us specific skills that we can put to use and already have put to use to help us create a better life. You are literally the best.

I'm grateful for our friendship, and for everyone who made it and listen to this conversation, it means the world.

Well, thank you, Jim. Thank you.

And to you, I hope you take what you learned today and you remember your keys and you start reading 50 % faster and you stop telling yourself dumb, limiting beliefs about your brain because now you know you have a super brain and that you start taking care of that brain and remembering more names. And in case nobody else tells you I was not going to forget this, let me be the one to say that I love you. I believe in you, and I believe in your ability to create a better life. Remember that. And I'll see you in a few days. We're looking good, people? Did you hit record? No, it was record. Hit that guy right there. She's like, that looks great. Okay, bye. Don't interrupt me. I'm in the hole. What the... That was special. Forget about the gin and tonic afterwards. Well, it's funny because I did not drink last night, and I did not fall asleep till 3:30. I don't know what it was. And you know what? I've also figured out snoring is literally like Chris Lang. They're going, See, I'm enjoying deep sleep. I'm like, God. Okay, here we go.

He's showing off. He's showing off. I have a question for you. Hold on a second. Okay, hold on a second. Okay, got it. And then you're like, Am I losing my mind? Oh, my gosh. Sorry. I'm starting to trip over my own lips. I don't know why. Now look, I'm not trying to be... What was the other word we used here? Oh, I have it right here. Sorry. Oh, wait. I got to start over because I'm all over the place with the video. I just... Okay. This is just realized. Okay, this is feeling long and chunky, do you think? All right, let me start from the top again because it just felt like I agree with you, Amy. Okay, you're ready? Here we go.

Sorry, one second.

We're recording. Oh, yeah, we're going. I'll ask you to look at him. He's like, I didn't know that we were going to go here. Okay. Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. This is the legal language, you know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode. Stitcher.