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Posts Tagged ‘ron white’

30,000 Visits to Our Websites in ONE month! We are GROWING!!!!!

In the month of October over 30,000 visits came to my websites

www.ronwhitetraining.com

www.brainathlete.com

www.memorise.org

That PUMPS me up!!! People are excited about improving their memory and I trust they are coming to MY sites because I am continuing to deliver VALUE!!

I promise to keep delivering value and let’s see 100,000 people a month learning how to remember names, give speeches without notes, memorize chapters of books, learn foreign languages, memorize bible verses and tons and tons of more!!!

Thanks to everyone who is helping to make our sites to successful and I promise to keep delivering valuable, relevant content.

My name is Ron White and I am a memory speaker and two time USA Memory Champion

 

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011  Tags: , , , ,
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TIME.COM Story on the 2011 USA Memory Championship

I arrived in New York a few days ahead of the 2011 USA Memory Championship as I usually do and stuck to my routine of staying at the W hotel just a few blocks from the Con Edison building where the tournament is held. Arriving a few days early allows me to relax and focus on the tournament but also arrive early so the day before if there are any travel delays it would not effect me. Another benefit is that I have adjusted to the new time zone by arriving a few days early.

Arriving early also gives me the opportunity to conduct any media interviews that may occur in the days leading up to the tournament. Before the 2011 USA Memory Championship I was interviewed by Time Magazine and they did a video story on the USA Memory Championship.

It was a fun video where they followed me around New York City and I gave memory tips. I used the example of how to memorize the presidents of the United States with the loci method or journey method. Using this system you basically memorize a journey through a house or around a town and then use these locations to store mental images that remind you of what you need to recall. I explain this method in the video in Times Square.

After my section of the video, they also followed Nelson who ended up winning the tournament.

This is a well done video on the USA Memory Championship and gives you an idea of what the tournament is all about.

I am honored and thrilled to be a two time USA Memory Champion

 

Sunday, August 21st, 2011  Tags: , , , ,
Category: News   1Commentcomments

Memory Speaker for your Next Conference

Are you looking for a memory speaker?

Why not book 2 Time USA Memory Champion and memory expert Ron White as your memory speaker?! He shares with you what you could expect in his talk:

Okay, you are looking for a memory speaker. This is what you can expect – Before the meeting begins (or before he speaking time at a break) I will mingle with the group and memorize up to 250 names in the audience! Yes, you read that right! 250 NAMES.

Then when I get on the stage I will have the people I met stand up. I will then walk around and one by one call off each of their names as they sit down. It will look like dominos falling! I may not get 100% correct but I promise you this…I will do really really really good ☺ I typically get between 95-100% of the audience names correct.

At this point, everyone should be on the edge of their seat thinking,’ Wow, I have never seen anything like that!’ I will then talk about the value of remembering names in business and how Zig Ziglar says, ‘People don’t care how much you know until they first know how much you care.’ I will give some memory tips that everyone can start using right away to improve their retention on names today, tomorrow or in six months.

Next, I will then have the group call out numbers. I will call on 25 people at random and have each person give me a 2 digit number. The group will create a 50 digit number that I will never see and only hear. Then I will repeat the 50 digit number forwards and backwards. I will guess that 100% of your group has never seen anything like that before in person!!

Hopefully, these two memory demonstrations will have entertained, inspired and motivated your group. After I most certainly have their attention the remainder of the class time will be spent teaching the group how they can use the same system that I use (yes I will teach them the EXACT system I use) to:

- Memorize chapters of books
- Give speeches without notes
- Recall product knowledge
- Memorize names and faces
- Improve test taking and grades
- Learn anything new in 1/3 the time
- Become a product knowledge expert over night!

I have been a memory speaker since 1991, frankly I can’t believe it myself that it has been this long. Yet, I stuck with this career because I found a knack for it, plus I am good at it. I promise to give your group a memory training talk that they will NEVER forget!

If you are really considering booking a memory speaker, then I most certainly hope you give me and my memory talk some thought. Visit my link where I appeared on the History Channel’s Show Stan Lee’s Superhumans and get a taste for the amazing memory demonstrations that you are going to see!

 

Tuesday, July 19th, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , ,
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The Hardest Part of the Memory Guy’s Job

What it is hardest part of the memory guys job?

Memorizing stuff? Nah….that is fun and over 20 years I have just gotten faster and better.

Being a two time USA Memory Champion? Well….yeah…that was pretty tough :)

Speaking in front of a group? Nope…enjoy that as well. I am more comfortable in front of 3,000 than I am 3. (seriously)

Getting speaking engagements/business? Well….that isn’t an easy thing to do in any business but luckily for me I have stuck in the same career for 20 years and have tons and tons of contacts and repeat business.

The toughest part of my job is convincing people that I don’t have a natural ability to memorize names or numbers. When they see things like I did here on the CBS Early show (below). They think…’WOW! This guy must have been memorizing French when he was 4 and playing the piano by 5.’ Not even close. I was a very normal student growing up.

 

So what do I attribute my ability to? I won’t suggest to you that I was a bad student or dumb student but I also don’t think I have some special memory aibility that the average person doesn’t have. Frankly, I have close friends who have better memories than me. They remind me, ‘Remember this person from high school?’ I think…’Nope.’

I put it this way – Do you think you could learn to speak a foreign language fluently if you practiced it every day at least 20 minutes for a year? I think most people would agree that they could. There may be a case where some pick it up easier than others but for the most part a person who practices 20 minutes per day for a year could get very very very good. That is all I have done. I have become fluent in the language of memory.

But getting back to it – Do I have some special ability?  No, I don’t think I do. Yet, if I am to compromise a little with the people who suggest that my ability is the result of a natural memory and not memory training I would bend a little and say that if I have a special ability it is my work ethic. When I find a project (such as memory training) to work on my mind really wraps around it and it is hard to shake me off that focus.

So, my answer is that if there is some special ability it isn’t my memory it lies in the fact that I worked at developing my memory so diligently with good old memory training techniques. I do believe ANYONE can improve their memory….anyone.

 

Wednesday, July 13th, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
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What I learned from being the USA Memory Champion

Two time USA Memory Champion and memory training expert Ron White memory guy shares what it was like being the USA Memory Champion and what he learned from the experience:

I have done a few things in my life that I am very proud of and just as many that I am not so proud of. The things I am not proud of, I don’t make excuses for but instead make an effort to learn from and became the man I want to be in the future. The things that I am proud of are often a result of previous failures or mistakes that I learned from in the past.  Good or bad there is always a lesson to be learned from life experiences.

My time as the USA Memory Champion from 2009 to 2011 was such an incredible learning time for me. I first intended to compete in the USA Memory Championship in 2007 – yet I was also a member of the US Navy and instead I was deployed to Afghanistan that year. In Kabul I would practice for the 2008 USA Memory Championship in my free time. Yet, looking back it was really unstructured training and I had no clue what the tournament was actually like. So my training was not adequate. 8 weeks after returning from Afghanistan I competed in the USA Memory Championship and came in 4th place. It was a good feeling but even more importantly I realized how close I had come to winning it and winning it became my goal.

In the time from March 2008 and March 2009 I hired a former US Navy SEAL, TC Cummings to coach me to become focused, disciplined and organized. I consulted with former USA Memory Champion David Thomas on strategy and researched articles written by another former USA Memory Champion Joshua Foer (who ended up writing a highly acclaimed book on the tournament, ‘Moonwalking with Einstein). In 2009 I was incredibly well prepared and seemed to almost coast to victory. When I walked in the room I KNEW the tournament was mine…I saw the trophy and knew within hours it would be mine.

In 2010, my times were better and I had become a better Brain Athlete in the year prior. Yet troubles in my relationship and personal life distracted me the month before the tournament and resulted in me not sleeping the night before the tournament. In 2010, I walked into a mental tournament with some VERY VERY VERY smart people and on 30-45 minutes sleep hung on to win the tournament. Perhaps I am more proud of the win in 2010 than I am in 2009 for several reasons. Including the first 3 lessons listed here :

1. I didn’t have to compete again. Some will win the tournament and then not compete again so they can remain ‘undefeated’. Some who are looking to cash in on the victory believe it will hurt their chances of doing so if they lose. I on the other hand never competed for the glory – I competed for the challenge. So not defending my title was never an option. I am proud of myself for defending it. (As Chester Santos and Ram Kolli did)

2. In the months before the tournament I was sick (fever and throwing up) and my coach TC Cummings suggested I train despite the sickness. WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY?! Memorize cards between trips to the restroom throwing up!? But TC reminded me, what if you are sick the day of the tournament – this is perfect training for that. Turns out I wasn’t sick the day of the tournament but having trained while very ill was perfect training for competing on 45 minutes sleep. The lesson I learned in 2010 was train even when you don’t feel like it because when your ultimate challenge comes there is no guarantee that conditions are going to be perfect. I am proud of myself for being prepared for a competition with only 45 minutes sleep.

3. The devil is in the details!! Two weeks before the 2010 USA Memory Championship I posted something on my Facebook page. All it said was, ‘The devil is in the details.’ For me I was referencing the USA Memory Championship. In my mind it would all come down to the details. The smallest of matters. Every single detail of the tournament I had researched. I knew exactly how long it would take me to walk from my hotel to the event (yes I timed it with a stop watch), I knew the details of every single tournament (even the smallest of details). I had a gut feeling it would come down to details….and it did. In 2010, there were 3 left in the final round – myself, Nelson Dellis and Ram Kolli. Nelson was eliminated on the first card – not because of a memory challenge but details. He wasn’t aware of the rule that in the final event we start with the top card instead of the bottom. He was my toughest competitor and he eliminated himself because of a detail. I won that year. Lesson learned – the devil is in the details.

4. In 2011 I did not win. I was defeated by a very well prepared Nelson Dellis. Yet, in defeat I learned many lessons. The first being one that I knew but had forgotten. To my friends, family, coworkers and clients I was still a champion. The memory feats I have trained myself to do are still very impressive for them and in reality I wasn’t getting hired to speak because I was the USA Memory Champion. If that were the case the World Memory Champions would have more speaking engagements than me (they don’t). I am hired to speak not because of a titled but because of what I can teach others to do. While others may be impressed with the title, what they will pay you for is if you can teach them. Because of the success of Joshua Foer with his book ‘Moonwalking With Einstein’ many see the USA Memory Championship as a ticket to riches and fame. It is neither. The initial burst of PR after the tournament is nice – I learned to enjoy it, use it for marketing purposes but never let it define me.

5. Never allow yourself to be defined by a single day – good or bad. Instead, be defined by who you were in the time leading up to that day. In the weeks before the 2009 tournament I became very stressed and asked my coach TC Cummings, ‘What if I don’t win? What if I come in second and spent all this time training?’ He then reminded me the story of Rudy. The Notre Dame football player in the 1970 who never made the starting team but won the hearts of everyone with his dedication to that goal. He reminded me that the ultimate goal is not winning a starting spot on the team but who you must become in the process of competing. He reminded me that I, like Rudy, had busted my butt and in essence already won. That is how I would allow myself to be defined – not by the results of a single day. This was also a lesson I reminded myself of in 2011 after my second place finish.

So there you have it. Being Ron White memory guy is fun but being Ron White 2 Time USA Memory Champion was not only fun it brought many life lessons and these were just a few I thought I would share. I encourage you to find something to push yourself (maybe even the USA Memory Championship) not because you will take #1 but because of the person you must become in the process of competing.

 

Tuesday, July 12th, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Category: Memory Champion   No Commentscomments

Ron White Meet INcredible Hulk

Two time USA Memory Champion and memory expert Ron White shares his journey from Moscow to speaking with the Incredible Hulk, Lou Ferrigno, in Singapore and Malaysia.

When I was asked to speak in Singapore a few months ago I had no idea what an incredible adventure it would be! It was an adventure for many reasons. First of all the speech in Singapore was Sunday May 22 and I had a speech in New Orleans on Friday May 20th. This means after my speech ended I headed straight to the airport and was on my way to Singapore via Moscow! How interesting it was to land at the airport in Moscow. In the last few years, I have been to Japan (the country my grandfather battled in WWII in the Pacific) and no Moscow the country my father stood against in the Army in Korea (indirectly as the Soviets were backing N Korea). Isn’t it amazing how time heals wounds?

My layover in Moscow was about 2 hours and I walked around but in reality an airport is an airport and you don’t get much of a feel for the country. Back on the airplane for me and the memory guy was off to Singapore now. 24 hours after I left New Orleans I landed in Singapore and a few hours after that I was standing on the stage in front of 1500 ready to teach my memory training seminar.

I had not slept in 24 hours but I really poured my heart into a 90 minute talk on the power of a trained memory and how to use memory techniques to improve grades, memorize names, recall poems or anything else. I memorized a 50 digit number live on stage with no sleep and was cruising along. Then the moment of truth arose….do I sell a product package for $500? or go for the biggest product package sale of my life and sell a 2 day seminar for $2,000 per person? In this decision that I am sure will shape all future speeches I give, I sold a $2,000 per person 2 day seminar and then walked off stage not knowing what to expect……

In a 15 minute period that confirmed the value my memory training brings a line longer than I ever imagined formed to enroll in my 2 day event. The value for this training is there. The value of this memory training is $2,000 per person and I am going to hit a HOME RUN in delivering the event to these lucky folks.

As if it wasn’t enough to hit a home run with a great speech and then sell out on my 2 day seminar at $2,000 per person I got to meet the speaker who followed me. Who would that be you ask? LOU FERRIGNO THE INCREDIBLE HULK!! Now how cool is that!? Someone I grew up watching on television was now standing beside me about to go on the stage I just left. To make the story even more interesting, The Incredible Hulk was created by Stan Lee and Stan Lee is the host of the new show I am on called ‘Superhumans’. So in essence two of Stan Lee’s creations were meeting for the first time in Singapore!

Today I am in Bangkok preparing for my talk here and then I head to Malaysia to share the stage with The Incredible Hulk once again in a few days. This has been an incredible trip in terms of the travel and getting to see Moscow (even if just the airport). It was incredible because of delivering a great speech on no sleep, raising my level of belief in my memory training product package and of course meeting THE INCREDIBLE HULK!!! What an awesome experience!!!!

 

Monday, May 23rd, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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Memory Training in Africa

Two Time USA Memory Champion and memory training expert Ron White shares his account of his memory training tour through Africa:

I was set to deliver 8 memory training talks in 4 countries over a period of 12 days and I was determined to make it a positive trip and…oh wow! Has it ever been positive!

My first talk was in Kenya where I was greeted by my friendly host Hasit. He had arranged for me to speak for students in the day and then teach memory training that night to his organization. At the event there were 80 people and 75 had Indian names I had never heard! Much to my own surprise I was able to flawlessly recall all 80 names! (Examples : Darsham, Rajesh, Kalpesh, Minesha)

Next up was Zimbabwe and I had a heck of a time getting through customs. When they heard I was speaking for YPO they asked what that was and I said, ‘Young Presidents Organization’. This sent a panic through the customs agents as that sounded like a political organization and with the tension in Egypt and Libya they didn’t want anything political. Much to my delight Kalpesh (from the Kenya event) was on the same flight and he came to the rescue and explained my situation. The event in Zimbabwe was a pleasure with about 80 people all there to learn how to improve memory. The ‘old’ currency in Zimbabwe was hit with TREMENDOUS inflation and I purchased an ‘old’ 100 Trillion dollar note for $4!!! I actually left Zimbabwe with over 300 Trillion dollars! In old Zimbabwe currency that is…but it is nice ‘kinda’ being a Trillionaire :)

In Cape Town (my 3rd stop) I woke up to see the beautiful Table Mountain outside my window and also a HUGE Lego statue! :)

We had a great event in Cape Town where I taught my memory training seminar for a group of about 50 students and amazed them as much as I could as a ‘ memory expert ‘. After the students it was on to 200 of the world’s top business leaders and when I say that I don’t mean casually…I mean very successful men and women.

My next stop was a place I had never heard of in my LIFE before I arrived. A small island nation called Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It is a 4 hour flight from South Africa as you pass over Madagascar…and all I can say is WOW!! Sure I came here to teach a memory training seminar but memory training has been the furthermost thing from my mind since I arrived. WOW! I am staying at a resort called ’20 Degrees South’ (The Latitude line here) and it is magical!

Almost reluctantly I taken from my hotel to the event I was asked to speak at as a memory expert and conduct my seminar on how to improve your memory. The event was held at what residents of Mauritius refer to as a ‘castle’ I think in the USA it would be more of a plantation home or a mansion. Regardless, it was INCREDIBLE! It was constructed over 300 years ago by a Russian man and it is still in his family today. Yet, today the family has turned it into a place open to the public for tours and events. Incredible home!

Now, I am still enjoying 2 more days of beautiful Mauritius before I head to Johannesburg (or Jo-Berg) as they call it to teach my final memory training seminar of this Africa trip and then I head home! I will get to spend 40 hours at home in the month of April and it will be next weekend and then off to teach memory training seminars in Indonesia, Bangkok, Malaysia and Singapore. But for now, I am going to enjoy Mauritius and try not to think too far ahead….don’t want to miss too much of this beautiful ‘hidden’ island….

 

Sunday, April 10th, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Category: News   1Commentcomments

He Remembers Names

Two time USA Memory Champion and memory training expert and memory speaker Ron White shares his story about his favorite dry cleaner:

So there I was, just another normal day bringing my laundry to the cleaners. I was hurried and a bit frazzled from a stressful day. Sometimes I need to be reminded that my stresses aren’t the only stresses in the world and my cleaner came to the rescue this day. Oddly enough, he showed me this truth by becoming interested in me.

I have taught memory seminars and taught people how to memorize names for almost 20 years. However, I must confess that I didn’t know the name of my cleaner that I saw twice a week. For me, it was more a matter of walking in, leaving my clothes and going about my way. But on this day, I walked in and Nick (I would learn that was his name), smiled from ear to ear and said, ‘Hello Mr. White! Glad to see you today!’ In this moment, several things went through my mind:

1. Wow, this guy remembered my name!
2. It feels good that he took the time to memorize my name
3. I must be special!
4. Crap, what the heck is HIS name?

For a few minutes I fumbled through a conversation, looking all around his office for something that might display his name and then another customer walked in the door and Nick smiled from ear to ear and said, ‘Hello Mr McMahon, how are you today?’

WOW! Not only had Nick took the time to memorize my name. It seems that he had memorized the names of several customers. Over the course of the next year, I witnessed Nick greet customer after customer by name and it is remarkable to me. A man with no formal memory training (that I am aware of) but understand the importance of a good memory in business. Nick is a good businessman.

Two months after I moved 20 miles away my phone rang, ‘Mr. White this is Nick I noticed you haven’t been in in a while.’ I then informed him that I moved 20 miles away. But after I hung up the phone I thought, ‘This man has my business.’ It has been 18 months since I moved 20 miles away from Nick’s shop but to this day I take my cleaning to him. When I am going to his area, I simply bring my cleaning along.

Nick earned my business because he took the time to remember my name. Dale Carnegie said that,’Everyone’s favorite subject is them self and the sweetest sound to a person’s ear is the sound of their own name.’ Zig Ziglar says, ‘People don’t care how much you know until they first know how much you care.’

Whether you are using memory training or simply have a naturally gifted memory. The value of remembering a person’s name is invaluable in business. Heck, I must confess I love to hear, ‘Hello Ron White!’ and the truth be known we all love to hear someone call our name. If you would like my memory training on names click NAMES MEMORY TRAINING

So my hat is off to you Nick and thank you for taking the time to remember my name.

 

Thursday, March 31st, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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Does Ron White Have a Photographic Memory?

Two time USA Memory Champion and memory training speaker and memory expert Ron White shares the answer to the question : Does Ron White have a photographic memory? :

Wikipedia says that, ‘Eidetic or photographic memory is popularly defined as the ability to recall images, sounds, or objects in memory with extreme precision and in abundant volume.’

So do I (Ron White) have a Eidetic or photographic memory? Short correct answer = NO

Longer correct answer =

An Eidetic memory is typically referred to as someone who has the ability to look at information for say 30 seconds and then be able to recall the information so vividly it is like they were looking at a photograph of the information. This is the result of a 100% natural process in the brain and not memory training, as what I – (Ron White), use.

This video below of Stephen Wilshire is REMARKABLE and also the result of a true photographic memory. To my knowledge, Stephen is not using memory training to recall this information. Instead it is simply a remarkable illustration of an incredible natural memory. Here is an incredible video of Stephen:



The term, ‘photographic memory’ has been incredibly over used in my opinion. It has been used to describe anyone who demonstrates an exceptional memory capability and that just isn’t accurate. Over a period of 30 years, a baseball broadcaster may become such an expert at baseball he has hundreds of thousands of baseball facts in his brain. This does not mean that he has a photographic memory although his recall for baseball may truly be phenomenal.

What many of the memory training experts are doing is the result of a memory system and not a true photographic memory. So the simple answer is that ‘No, Ron White does not have a photographic memory.’ Instead mine is a  trained memory and in reality the term ‘photographic memory’ is incredibly over used and incredibly rare.

Wikipedia further states:

Strong scientific skepticism about the existence of eidetic memory was fueled by Charles Stromeyer who studied his future wife Elizabeth, who claimed that she could recall poetry written in a foreign language that she did not understand years after she had first seen the poem. She also could, apparently, recall random dot patterns with such fidelity as to combine two patterns into a stereoscopic image.[ She remains the only person documented to have passed such a test. However, the methodology of the testing procedures used is questionable (especially given the extraordinary nature of the claims being made) and the fact that the researcher married his subject, and that the tests have never been repeated (Elizabeth has consistently refused to repeat them) raises further concerns.

As of 2008, Elizabeth is in fact the only person who has claimed a ‘Photographic memory’ that has been tested.

If you ask me….bottom line….over used term and incredibly rare. If you want a photographic memory just find some good memory training and you will be halfway there…

 

Wednesday, March 30th, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
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Tackling my Biggest Memory Training Project EVER!

Two Time USA Memory Champion and memory training expert and memory speaker Ron White shares his journey on his biggest memory training project of all time! :

It is March 28, 2011 and as of yesterday I have officially began my biggest memory training project of ALL TIME! It is going to be HUGE!

For this project, I will memorize 18,000 pieces of information in consecutive order and I hope to have it complete by mid-May. Then I will rehearse it for a full month after that and then display it to the world the first two weeks in July.

It is going to be BIG….a David Blaine style memory stunt…

What is it? Well, I can’t tell you! I am not trying to tease you but I just can’t share. Why not? Well, believe it or not here are those in the memory training world who don’t want me to succeed as much as you and I want me to :)

Sure, like anyone else I have competitors and this idea of mine is so creative, so powerful, so…well frankly memorable that any of my fellow memory experts who heard the idea would think….’WOW! Why didn’t I think of that?! That is awesome! I am going to do it before he does!’ Then I would have spent 3 months on this memory training project only to have it wasted :(

A few years ago, World Memory Champion Ben Pridmore was going to break the Guinness World Memory Record of memorizing Pi and he memorized it to 50,000 places and then just a month before Ben was set to break the record a Japanese man broke the record by reciting Pi to 80,000 digits! What a heart breaking thing for Ben!

I will tell you this, it is going to require me to have 2,000 to 3,000 ‘memory files’ or loci. If you don’t know the memory palace method of loci then check it out here memory palace method of loci. Essentially, I am walking around my home town of Fort Worth and snapping 2,000 photographs in a specific order and then using these photographs to memorize my project.

I promise to keep you updated on my memory training project but more importantly I want to encourage you to set a goal for something that you want to memorize that would be interesting to you. For Ben Pridmore that would be 50,000 digits of Pi, for Jerry Lucas (memory guy in the 1980s) it was the NYC phone book on the David Letterman show and for me…well…I am going to keep it a secret just a little longer :)

 

Monday, March 28th, 2011  Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Category: News   1Commentcomments

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