Master of Memory: Accelerated learning, education, memorization - MMem 0297: Reprise: How can you make yourself memorable to other people?

Episode Date: April 28, 2015

Today Timothy revisits the question on how to make yourself memorable to other people, with some extra comments on how he would change his answer today. What do you want to learn? Leave your question at http://MasterOfMemory.com/. Music credit: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet, 2nd movement, performed by the US Army Band.

Today, we're revisiting episode 17, which is about making yourself more memorable to other people. This is a nice old episode about having the, you know, the value of having a toolbox of facts and jokes and quotes and things like that to help make you more memorable, which mnemonics can of course help you with, but also the importance of seeing what's memorable in other people and seeing what's memorable to you from the standpoint of mnemonics and applying that to your own life so that other people see you as a memorable person and they'll think of you later. Something I would add to this episode is talk about the importance of funniness and especially spontaneity. Spontaneity, for some reason, is actually perceived as intelligence. So if you're able to come up with a unique synonym for something

or a funny way of saying something just out of the blue, people will very much think of you as more intelligent and certainly as more memorable. So I would add more emphasis and details on these conversation toolbox ideas, which is something that I'm going to be working on significantly while I'm on my sabbatical. Meanwhile, here's the episode as it was originally delivered last April. Welcome to Master of Memory. I'm Timothy and I'm here to answer your accelerated learning questions every day and to inspire and empower you to learn anything you want to learn faster than ever.

Tom asked on Facebook how a business person can make themselves memorable to another person. Remembering names and faces when you're meeting lots of people is very helpful, and I addressed this back in episode two. But what about making yourself memorable to other people? I thought this was a really interesting question, and even though it's not about how to remember things yourself, we can take the principles of memory and of mnemonics and apply them to this situation. So let's say that you meet somebody and you know that this person is meeting a whole bunch of people.

And you happen to think that you would be a valuable resource to this person or for some other reason you want this person to remember who you are. The problem is, again, that person is meeting lots of people, so how do you stand out from everyone else? Well, what you can do is remember the principles of memory. Remember that the mind likes to remember things that are memorable. And there are two ways that I would suggest using that to your advantage. First of all, simply be a memorable person. Think to yourself, what makes me remember somebody when I meet them? And then think how you can apply that to yourself. Of course, there are lots of unpleasant things that we think about when we meet people sometimes, but you want to be remembered positively.

So think about the things that would make them remember you in a positive way. And actually, one of the things that can make you the most memorable is just being a really good conversationalist and having a great arsenal of topics that you can bring up in a quick conversation. For example, if you're able to integrate quotes and stories and jokes and things like that into your conversation, then people are going to, that's really going to stick out at people. People are going to notice that, people are going to remember that, and even people who haven't met you yet, if you're, you know, the center of a conversation because you're just so resourceful, people will want to get to know who you are, and when they find out, then they'll remember.

Another thing I recommend is just working, even when you're not with people you want to remember you, on becoming a memorable personality. One way to practice is, even when you're not with people you want to remember you, just make it a habit to do things that make people think of you in a positive way. Things like random acts of kindness, buying people's coffee whom you don't even know. And of course, I don't recommend just doing nice things just for the sake of being remembered. You know, you don't just buy somebody's drink and then say, yep, I'm Timothy, remember me. I don't think that's a good idea. I think instead you should make it a habit to do nice things, spontaneous things that will make people think of you in a

positive light, but don't make it a habit to be known for those things. So just practice doing what people call RAOK or random acts of kindness for strangers, people who are never going to see you again. And then that becomes a part of your personality. You're going a little bit outside of your comfort zone, but it just helps you grow into a personality that people will remember and like. And that'll help make you more memorable just naturally, your personality more memorable for people who meet you in a business situation or in a situation where it would help you. Again, you don't do these nice things for the sake of getting those people that you're helping to like you. You just do it as a matter of practicing becoming a likable person, becoming someone who will go out of his own way, out of his

comfort zone to be of service to others. And that's just, it just helps you grow into a likable personality. Now, the second thing you can do besides just being a memorable person, is actually to help the other people remember your name by using mnemonic tactics. And this is kind of interesting. Not many people try this, and I'm sure that not many people who listen to this even will try it. But what you can do is, the next time you introduce yourself to somebody, give them a mnemonic to help them remember your name. For example, my name's Timothy, and if I was at a networking event where I want people to remember that I teach about productivity, I could help them remember that by saying that, you know, my name's Timothy, and I'm the one who teaches about time. So if they remember productivity and they think about time, they'll think of my name, Timothy. Also, I could say something about, if I wanted to be really funny, I could say something about

the way that I part my hair in the middle and how much time it took me to perfect that hairdo. So, you know, depending on the levity of the conversation, I could just say, the way you can remember my name is when you see the way I part my hair, you can remember time and then you'll think of my name, Timothy. But anyway, those are just some suggestions. You know, you can at least just make yourself a memorable person, make yourself the kind of person or project yourself as the kind of person that people will want to remember. And then depending on the situation, you might throw out some sort of funny mnemonic you can use so that when people see your face or when they think of the subject that you're related to in a business sense,

they'll think of your name. Now, here's your inspiration for this week. In order to improve my conversation and entertainment skills, I've memorized a hundred jokes by number. So using mnemonics that I had already taught myself, I connected a hundred different jokes to a hundred different numbers. So if I ever want to pull out a joke anytime, you know, there's a lull in the conversation or I just want to, you know, to get things moving, all I have to do is think of a number and then there's a joke attached to that. I'm sure we all know, you know, most of us know lots of different jokes, but it's so hard to pull out a joke at the right time. So I have basically what I call a joke toolbox and I can just reach in and pull out any joke that I want. And if it's a joke I've already told the group, I'll just, you know,

pick a different number, maybe the next number. So when I count from one to a hundred, I'm counting a hundred jokes that I could tell in a conversation. All right, I hope you've enjoyed this reprise episode. For anyone who has any questions about learning or memorizing anything faster than ever, feel free still to leave a message at masterofmemory.com slash question, and I'll be able to respond quickly to your message from wherever I am. I just won't be able to record an episode on that topic until I'm back in the States in May. Meanwhile, if you want to support the show, please check out our Spanish course at master of memory.com slash Spanish. Or if you want to follow my adventures in Argentina or wherever else I might happen to be, you can do that at timothymoser.com.