How to remember speech, names and faces?
An interview about his career as a champion and entrepreneur and his interest in applying these techniques to entrepreneurs.
How did you come to be interested in memory?
I am an engineer by education. Today I am 35 years old, but it all started when I was a student and wanted to finish my studies in India. In English, I couldn’t memorize the vocabulary, but I had to pass a certain level of Toeic (a test that measures English language skills) to pass. My score of 7/20 on the first test made this ride impossible. I had three months to retake this exam. Suffice to say I’m especially stoked! That’s when I did some research and discovered that techniques for working on human memory have been around for 2,500 years. I started… and three months later I scored 16/20 on the same test.
How did your memory of the French champion lead you to become an entrepreneur?
After this success in this English exam, I was able to go to India and finish my studies there. I am very sorry that these methods are not available in France. At the same time I discovered that there are championships. I already had the desire to pass on my knowledge, but to motivate people I needed consistency between the message and the messenger!
I trained like this every day in Vienna and managed to become the French champion with the French national team in 2015, the vice-champion in 2017, and the world vice-champion in 2018. This is a great source of pride for me. . Since 2020, I am the president of the memory sports association ASM, with the aim of introducing these techniques to as many people as possible. And in 2012, I decided to live my passion by creating a training company of the same name.
What audiences do you work with?
We operate in two worlds: the world of education and the world of business. We are campaigning for all pupils and students to have this learning opportunity, but this has not yet been achieved… We train teachers as well as students; for example, we have Ecole du Louvre, medical students, French high schools abroad, parent associations, etc.
How can you help entrepreneurs?
In companies in general, and leaders in particular, we have two types of requests: how to remember a speech, and how to remember names and faces.
Would you be willing to give them some tips to get them started?
Of course. To save a speech without a record, it must first be established in writing. In general, the speech is expressed around 3 or 4 strong ideas, and for each of them 3 or 4 sub-ideas, that is, 12 points should be kept on average. The secret is to use the mental palace technique. You go to a place known as home and create a visual itinerary for yourself. For example, entering from the left, you have two shelves with your jackets and shoes below. This will be your first stop. Then you have a table, sofa and glass cabinet in your living room. Let’s say you have a presentation about China’s influence on microelectronics. The ideas we mentally place geographically are to create associations. If your first topic is human resources, you’ll mentally place the little guys with the Chinese flag on your top shelf in your hallway. If your second argument is about Taiwan, it’s up to you to find out what this island evokes for you: a monkey? Place a macaque on your second shelf, and so on. Each consensus is very individual.
When a leader or corporate executive makes a speech, he will visualize his mental palace in which he will act. Of course, this requires experience.
And how to remember names and faces?
First of all, you need to want the person and pay attention to him. It is the power of intention – I want to do this – and focus – I focus -. Then an experiment was conducted with two groups of people who had to memorize several adjectives, including a gentleman named Boulanger. The group that was informed that this gentleman was a baker remembered his name more easily. Why? Because they spontaneously imagined him in his bakery, baking bread. By adding sensitivity, we increase memory capacity. You should know that each sense is connected to a different part of the brain, and by multiplying the access routes, we increase the chances of good memorization, so to speak. For example, knowing the etymology of words can help. Let’s take a man named Fabre. If you’ve done Latin, you’ll know that the name comes from faber, meaning blacksmith. Imagine Mr. Fabre working on a sword on his anvil and you’re done!
But the combination of ideas can also be completely crazy and irrational. Imagine having to remember an Asian name like Tchikin. Think chicken and imagine Chickie eating chicken or checking in and imagine him getting on a plane and you’ll keep the clue close.
Can anyone practice?
Of course! These methods are of particular interest to business leaders and managers regarding these two aspects of speech and the memorization of names and adjectives, but I can only encourage everyone who has the will – businessmen, students or others – to practice regularly. They will be able to see their progress very quickly. For example, the new employees of Walter France that I have had the pleasure of training, they certainly started training at the Walter Academy, but they understood all the benefits, levels, that they could get from these methods: memorizing the name and remembering the activities of their customers, their to-do lists and etc.
Walter France in several figures
– Federal network of 100 offices in France, including foreign departments (Guadeloupe and Réunion)
– date of creation: 1974
– 100 partners and 970 employees
– headquarters in Paris with a permanent team
– turnover: 125 million euros
Walter France is a member of Allinial Global International
– 256 lockers
– 688 offices
– 99 countries
– 26,000 employees and 4,000 partners worldwide
– turnover: 4.5 billion US dollars
