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Speech Transcript (very little editing so not exact)

Unknown Speaker  0:00  

Hey this is Chester Santos, the International man of memory. And if you really want to learn how to level up your life you should be listening to the time to shine today podcast with my good friend Scott Ferguson time

Unknown Speaker  0:12  

to shine today podcast versus squander the Scott Ferguson and I am so stoked to bring you Episode 233 it’s what am I not a knock against any my other interviews 200 some plus interviews, but this was a fun one. It’s with my boy, my Fedora wearin Chester Santos and he is the international man of memory. So much can be leveled up by having a great memory. And Chester is going to walk you through steps procedures protocol, and how you can level up your memory. He took me through an exercise in it. And I did not Ace it by any means but by using his methods, I could have easily aced it over maybe just a second or third try. So I just break out your notebooks. Actually, you know what? I’m gonna read track from that. Don’t break out your notebooks just kind of sit back and relax and just really internalize and be a sponge to this interview with my really good friend, Chester Santos, the International man of memory. Let’s level up. Time to shine today podcast mercy SWAT. This is Scott Ferguson and I have the inner national man of memory mystery memory, my boy Chester Santos, he’s left an impression on all corners of the earth with his unique ability to not only demonstrate extraordinary feats of the mind, but also educate others to do the same. This us memory chap champion is widely regarded to be the world’s leading memory skills expert who is entertaining and educational television and movie appearances, professional seminars and best selling books. My boy Chester here has helped millions of people around the world to realize the benefits of an improved memory and sharper mind. And we’re going to have an interactive exercise here today squad so Chester, thank you so much for coming on. Introduce yourself to the time to shine today podcast varsity squad. But first, what’s your favorite color? And why?

Unknown Speaker  2:11  

Yeah, well, thank you so much for having me, Scott. I really appreciate it. Looking forward to talking with you today. favorite color? Probably green, not really sure of a reason why there I just find that color I guess to be interesting in

Unknown Speaker  2:27  

interesting some way blooming and growth. Right. So most of the United States here is under a heatwave. I’m in South Florida, and I’m from Michigan, there it’s all 100 degrees. But green is my jam, like for new growth as well. And you are this third interview today no lie. They say Graham, is there a method to my madness on it, you might actually appreciate I’ll tell you it’s like, you know, I can read people a little bit more with the with the color green. And I’m sorry, with their favorite color. And also we build all the networking around that color or the marketing around that color as well. So my little thing to help out. But let’s get into this Chester that international man of memory. And I’m so intrigued for this interview. So let’s get into maybe just kind of the roots of where you started to where you are now.

Unknown Speaker  3:15  

Yeah, so you know, I really got into the field pretty random Lee, I do have an undergraduate degree in psychology from Berkeley, which is related to the field of memory. However, I really got into training people around the world. after catching a segment on ABCs 2020, there was a segment on the United States National memory championship, and it just sparked my interest. Because, you know, I’d often would get the comments from people saying to me, wow, you have a really good memory. So when I happen to catch that segment, I thought, hey, maybe I can compete in this United States memory championship. But I quickly found out that although I probably was above average to begin with in terms of memory, I wasn’t on the level of the top competitors in the United States, who were able to memorize hundreds of names decks of playing cards, hundreds of computer generated random digits perfectly in just a matter of minutes. So that’s when I really needed to look into Okay, I’m pretty good right now. But how can I really magnify my memory ability from where it’s at I did a lot of research, played around with a bunch of techniques found what seemed to be working best for me personally, stuck to training myself in that subset of techniques until eventually I was able to win the United States National memory championship and since then, I’ve gone on to train people around the world now I’ve given presentations in more than 30 different countries for various types of organizations, really helping people from various backgrounds to develop powerful memory skills and leverage them for more success in one’s career. Personal life, if you have any kids or grandkids in school, what we talked about today will be useful there as well.

Unknown Speaker  4:59  

Love So do you think? Is any of it inherited? Or is it all work? The memory? Like some Yeah, you know, they might have been born with a certain segment of their brain that cuts to stuff. I mean, I’m nowhere near your level. Okay? And I understand that. But people will tell me for a guy, I remember everything from my youth, everything, friends, best friends, phone numbers, you know, like more of the things that matter to me. It’s not like a deck of cards and stuff. But I remember stuff. And they’re like, for you have a photographic memory. I’m like, not even close. But I do remember things that resonate with me. I guess emotionally, do you think you’re born with any of it?

Unknown Speaker  5:36  

So I think it memory is just like any other ability. Some of us are born with natural inclinations towards certain areas. So in other words, some people are naturally inclined towards music, others are better with poetry, others can throw the ball in the basket, right? Right, right, faster, faster than others, others are good with, you know, mathematics, there really is a wide range of abilities that we might be naturally better at. But the great news is that no matter where you’re at today, in terms of your memory ability, I’m very confident that you can dramatically improve and magnify your, from your memory from where it’s at right now. I

Unknown Speaker  6:24  

love that. And so do you teach people one on one at all? Chester with it? Are you mainly groups?

Unknown Speaker  6:31  

Yeah, so I really do private coaching on a very limited basis. I just don’t have the time. It isn’t the main focus of my business. Absolutely. I focus more on speaking engagements all around the world at corporate events, conferences, association meetings, it’s my main focus, I do my own one day workshop once a month, and now actually coming back from the COVID restrictions that might be down to twice a month for the one one day workshop. And then there’s online training. Now Actually, I’m focusing on more now since the, the pandemic with a private training just be very being very little.

Unknown Speaker  7:13  

Okay, so when you’re bringing somebody in, and maybe no discovery period, whether you’re one on one or group settings, what do you think is the biggest blind spot for people to not have a good memory?

Unknown Speaker  7:23  

Yeah, I really think it is your belief, you know, a lot of people believe that you’re either born with a good memory or bad one as that. And they just, you know, don’t think that memory is something that they can improve, you know, so that, that is one belief that I need to help people to overcome. And then there’s also this bit of a self fulfilling prophecy, that seems to be very much in effect in terms of memories. So when you tell yourself over and over again, that you have a bad memory, that you’re not good at remembering names or or other things, then it kind of, you start seeing that appear in your life more and more that starts forgetting names starts to happen to you more and more. So part of my job is to make sure people understand that absolutely, anyone can improve their memory, and also that it can be fun and easy with just a little bit of training and practice.

Unknown Speaker  8:28  

Well, in so many times it take you to win the US memory championship.

Unknown Speaker  8:35  

Yeah, so the first time that I entered was in 2003. I took third place the first time so I felt Okay, I might be able to, to win this, but I just kept getting third place. And until finally, finally, in 2008, I made it really like I became kind of obsessed with winning and made it my mission in life and I put in just the extra training practice. And then that year, I actually want it pretty easily and jasmonate

Unknown Speaker  9:04  

What’s the um, the layout of a memory championship? Like how what what are the competitions if you will, like, you know, obviously track and field you have the sprint, or the long distance like what consists of a memory competition?

Unknown Speaker  9:19  

Yeah, so the morning events, qualifying events tend to be more like written events. So you will, for instance, have sheets of what looked like yearbook pages. So it will be a bunch of pictures and people’s name underneath. There used to be 99. They’ve increased it beyond 99. Now, you’ll study those for fit, you’ll study those for 15 minutes, okay. They will then give you the sheets with the pictures in a completely different order. And they could even be on different completely different pages. Wow. And you have to correctly write the name underneath. The matching picture spelling counts, which makes it a little bit more difficult. As you know, for instance, there could be Tracy ending and an eye or E. Why? Why? Why like three different spellings, at least for that one name, but you’ve got to get the spelling that originally appeared on the sheet. So it’s pretty tough. That’s one of the events, there are a bunch of events like that, that are more where you’re writing out your answers. Okay. Then from that the large field gets whittled down to seven or eight finalists. It depends on the year. It was seven when I was competing, I think they’ve changed it now to eight finalists, okay. Those events are more, they made them because the event has been televised in different years, they made those events a little bit more TV friendly, like more interesting to watch at home. Right. Right. And, and also, you know, entertaining for a live audience as well. So the one of those events that people would probably think would be cool to watch, they’ll have seven people come out in a row, rattle off things about themselves, their first name, middle name, last name, their residence, state cities, zip code, three favorite hobbies, three favorite foods, all kinds of stuff. And then they will randomly bring out one of the seven people and say, Okay, what was her birthday? What was his? What was his residence, the city state and the zip code? So that’s one of the events that is more, you know, I would say, intriguing for an audience to watch either live in person or watching at home on TV.

Unknown Speaker  11:40  

Wow, that’s interesting. So do you have a coach?

Unknown Speaker  11:46  

I, I trained myself all those years, when I was competing, I no longer compete. I’m now only focused on training other people around the world, basically helping them to learn the techniques that I mastered, and also leverage those techniques specifically for business for both personal and professional developments.

Unknown Speaker  12:07  

Gotcha. So I live in South Florida, and we’ve been open since last May. And I had go out I press flash and network a lot. Okay. If I’m talking to somebody, what kind of things are they saying that that to me? That would make them a great referral contact. For for you, Chester.

Unknown Speaker  12:30  

Oh, great referral or contact for me, just people that are members of associations probably, that have conferences. Anyone that’s involved in booking speakers for conferences or corporate events that because again, that really is my main focus.

Unknown Speaker  12:50  

I love you. Thanks for sharing that man. So if you saw the movie Back to the Future, yeah. Okay, let’s get that Dory with Marty McFly. Chester, let’s go back to the 22 year old Shuster. What kind of knowledge nuggets? Would you be calling that your time to shine today? What kind of knowledge nuggets? Are you going to drop on Shuster to maybe help them level up shorten his learning curve and blast through in life?

Unknown Speaker  13:14  

Yeah, so one important thing is that memory skills can be developed and improved. And if you are able to do that, you’re really going to give your yourself an advantage in so many different areas of your life, because memory is a fundamental part of learning. So when you improve your ability to remember, it’s really going to have a dramatic impact all over the place. In many different ways you’re learning any learning any other skill will become easier once you’ve developed your memory skills. So that’s going to be something I would tell my younger self to work on at it at an earlier time. So one quote that I really like that I think would have helped me and will help other people out there is that you don’t really need to be great at something to get started. But you do have to start to eventually become a product. So that’s my favorite quotes. And I think that one is something that I’ve learned over the years and that I think would benefit other people to really take take to heart. I love

Unknown Speaker  14:18  

that. So how I love that quote, too. I haven’t actually literally on my wall. So let me ask you something. How do you want your dash remember that that little line in between your incarnation date your expiration date your life date your death date on your tombstone? How do you want Chester’s dashed remember?

Unknown Speaker  14:39  

I mean, I guess it would just be that Chester Santos helped millions of people around the world to realize the benefits of an improved memory and and sharper mind kind of you know the tagline on on our website but only that is that really is my mission in life nowadays. And you know, I’m, I feel very privileged to be doing What I’m doing and it’s just so incredibly rewarding when I get, you know, emails from people telling me that they’ve gone through my training and they can’t believe what they’re able to do. Now, they used to think that they couldn’t remember even, you know, a few basic things, but now they really have impressive memory abilities. So that feels really good to hear that stuff.

Unknown Speaker  15:19  

love what you do, dude, I mean, cuz you’re you, you nailed it with no other skills in life will become even stronger, with a good memory. And that’s so true. That’s so true. Thank you. So what do you think people misunderstand the most about Chester?

Unknown Speaker  15:34  

I’m really just, I think that again, there is this misconception that one’s memory abilities just locked in from birth, that it’s something that you can’t really, or that you can’t necessarily improve. And also people think, then that I’m able to remember things so well, like I open my presentations at conferences with naming hundreds of people in the audience after hearing each name just one time people think, Oh, you were just born like that. But no, it’s really a skill that I’ve developed over the years. So that’s something that I always need to overcome and make sure that people understand and also that the process of improving your memory, not only is it possible, but the whole process can be fun. If you use the right approach.

Unknown Speaker  16:30  

I love that and love that in squads sit tight, because we are going to get a little bit of that fun. Here are the interactive interactive exercise in just a few minutes. So what what keeps you up at night?

Unknown Speaker  16:42  

What keeps us up at night? Hmm, um, that’s a good question. I don’t have an immediate answer to that. I think it varies from day to day. from week to week, I do have an issue actually. I don’t know I’ve always had an overactive mind. So I just, I just have a lot of trouble shutting my brain off. Yeah, night. So.

Unknown Speaker  17:07  

So it’s not stress or anything. It’s just you’re like, man, I mean, so you, you put your mind through probably a bigger workout than pretty much anybody I’ve ever known Shuster to be able to do that. And you’re, you’re teaching your whatnot. So it’s like you can’t lose a step. It’s not like a boxer that can retire, and then go teach boxing. He’s lost the stuff in his punch, right? But you’re teaching memory. It’s like you can’t lose that edge doing what you’re doing to teach somebody? Am I correct in saying that?

Unknown Speaker  17:36  

Well, I definitely have to keep the edge as much as possible. Keep my memory sharp in that I do really opened my presentations with naming hundreds of people in the audience. And depending on the audience, let’s say it’s the financial services industry group, I’ll also do a demonstration with numbers where people in the audience will yell out random numbers, they’ll go on to a screen behind me. I’ll try to repeat those forwards and backwards from memory, sometimes 100 plus digits, right. So just in in my career, I really do need to keep my memory. So

Unknown Speaker  18:05  

I was gonna say, yeah, too bad. It’s like, that’s why I likened it to a boxer. You know, I’m in years and it’s like, I don’t have to be as good as I used to be to teach it. Right. Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. You have to be? Yeah, kind of, do you know what I’m saying? So that’s awesome. So you promised us today, an interactive exercise? I blocked off five minutes for us for this, and I’m just gonna let you take the mic, brother. Take me somewhere.

Unknown Speaker  18:38  

Okay, yeah, we’ll go through an exercise you’re going to be the the guinea pig here, Scott. So I’m going to have you quickly memorize the following random list of words, it’s going to be monkey iron rope, kite house, paper, shoe, worm, envelope, pencil, river rock tree cheese dollar. Now, when our site that and I have live audiences I can see people is look at me at this point. They’re like, Man, you’re crazy, there’s no way I’ll be able to remember that not unless you give me a lot of time to do it. And if someone were to attempt any sort of memory exercise similar to this, they would usually approach this by writing out the words over and over again, they would read the words over and over or recite them over and over, right? Just try to drill it into their head with rote memory, you’re not making the most efficient use of the brain using an approach like that. And if you manage to get the words in your head, it will only be in the very short term. So instead, we’re going to do something different. I’m going to guide you through a visual, you’ll simply visualize what I described to you see it happening in your head as best you can. And you will probably have these words down perfectly forwards and backwards in just about three minutes. And of course, your audience can follow along and see how well they do so the first word was a monkey. I just like for you to visualize a month. All right, that’s it. This monkey is dancing around in your head with your eyes opened or closed. Whatever is most comfortable for you. The monkey is making monkey noises. Whatever a monkey would tell him like the point here is to see and hear the monkey in your mind right? The monkey now picks up a gigantic iron like you would iron your clothes with me because that was the next word. So just see this monkey dancing around with this giant iron. The iron starts to fall but a rope attaches itself to the iron, maybe even feel the rope interact with it. Maybe it feels sort of rough. Alright, really feel. Rub that rope. You look up the rope. You see the other end of the rope is attached to a kite flying around, maybe reach up and try and touch that kites. It might just be out of your reach the kite the kite now crashes into the side of a house really see it smash into the house. picture that house it’s covered in paper for some weird reason. It’s completely covered and paper picture that hats out of nowhere a shoe appears and it starts to walk all over the paper. Maybe it’s messing up the paper as it’s walking on it that shoe. The shoe smells pretty badly. So you decide to investigate and see why you look inside of the shoe and you find a little worm crawling arounds really see that smelly worm crawling inside of the shoe. That worm now jumps out of the shoe and into an envelope. Maybe it’s going to mail itself or something I don’t know. But envelope was next, just really see that envelope, a pencil appears and a thin air starts to write all over that envelope. Maybe it’s addressing it that pencil. The pencil now jumps into a river and there’s a huge splash like you wouldn’t expect to see when that little pencil hits the river. really see that river the rivers crashing up against the giant rock. picture that rock that rock flies out of the river it crashes into a tree see it smashed into that tree This tree is growing cheese. You probably haven’t seen a tree like that This one’s growing cheese and out of the cheese shoots $1 $1 shoots out of the cheese really see that dollar in your mind as best you can. Alright, I’m going to run through this again very quickly in about 20 or 30 seconds your job now is to replay through this little story that you’ve created in your mind so we start off with the monkey what was the monkey dancing around with it was dancing on with an iron right what then attached to the iron it was a rope. The other end of the rope was attached to the kite kite. The kite What did it crashed into the house? What was the house covering? It was covered in paper really see that paper in your mind? What walked all over the paper it was a shoe really see that shoe? Something was crawling inside of the shoe. What was it? It was a worm? really see that worm crawling the worm jumps out into an envelope. What wrote on that envelope? It was a pencil that wrote on it. The pencil jumped into the river. The river was crashing into the rock rock rock. Yeah, that rock flew into the tree. What was the tree growing it was growing cheese and what shot out of the cheese It was $1 really see that dollar. So now it should be pretty easy to recall all of the random words by simply playing through the story in your mind. Each major object that you see in the story will give you the next word so if you’re up free up for it, it’s up to you Scott you can give it a try. And your listeners can follow along and see how well they do

Unknown Speaker  23:35  

I have monkey iron rope kite house after house I know there’s an envelope but that’s after the worm shit yeah the house was covered in what all this was covered in paper paper. Paper. keep going keep going. And then I’m like the middle of the stories revolution at Chester the Yeah, no problem. The paper

Unknown Speaker  24:12  

on it. What was walking on the paper shoe. Got it. What was crawling in the shoe? a worm. You got it and then envelope envelope. Something wrote on something wrong solo. You got it. And then the pencil jumped into something with the splash. It was the river River. The river was cracking. Got it that green juice and what came out of the cheese. Ah, that’s all right. Something flew out of the cheese. It was $1 dollar. Okay, yeah. So you get the idea there you did pretty well there under pressure. I just sprung that in the middle of your your own interview. It’s always tough when I do that to people interviewing me. Sure. But, you know, I’m sure when people follow along with that, if you didn’t get it right on the first time, if you will just run through that story in your mind, maybe three, or four more times very quickly just run through the imagery, you’ll have that down, forwards and backwards. This doesn’t just apply to random words, those words could represent if you wanted key points of a speech or presentation so you can minimize the amount of notes you you would use. So you can maintain eye contact with your audience, be more persuasive in your presentations, as opposed to just reading, you know, charts and a bunch of notes off of slides or reading off of note cards and audiences fall asleep, right. So if I were going to give a talk about healthcare in the US, my first image might be of a stethoscope that the doctor uses check your heartbeat, right, I would represent health care, I was gonna hit on first of my presentation, the high cost of health care, maybe shooting out of the stethoscope, a bunch of $100 bills. Under health care programs, in order to get certain things covered, sometimes we need to find a way to navigate through or cut through a lot of red tape wrapping itself around the $100 bills might be too much of red tape. So that should give people a better idea of how to apply that to a presentation. This could be meeting with clients, potential potential clients, you know, having these 510 key things that you want to better demonstrate your knowledge, your expertise, what you learned about that person, what you learned about their business. So all of this can help you to be more impressive, I think in today’s business world, but Gosh, just show that you’re better show that you’re an expert in your particular field when you can demonstrate that knowledge. Wow,

Unknown Speaker  26:45  

you know, it’s the first time that like, I’m actually seeing the story with the objects, whether the objects make sense in the story from penciled in actually telling the story and attaching that into your visual really helped, you know, and I really, really appreciate this and squat, you got to go. And let me put you in touch with Shuster and especially all those people that are running events now that COVID is lifted for most areas, and get Chester out. And let me make a warm introduction to you. And just we’re gonna take you through our leveling up lightning round can’t let you go without that. All right. Okay, so we’re gonna do that just as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors and affiliates. Okay. All right, time to shine today podcast varsity squad. We are back with my boy Chester Santos, the International man of memory. And I’ve got Shuster, I’ve got about six or seven questions I asked you, you and I could talk an hour on each one of these. I’d love to sit down talk to you. But you got five seconds to answer. All right. And all of them can be answered it within five seconds. But okay, you’re ready to level up?

Unknown Speaker  27:55  

Yeah, let’s do it. Man. What is the best leveling up advice Chester’s ever received? Get Started. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  28:07  

That’s right. You just set it to you can’t be great. Yep, that’s right. Sure. One of your personal habits contributes to success. Perseverance has been big in my career. Love it. Love it. Are you a reader? Always. I was just messing with you. What? What’s your book man? What’s your book if you let’s say this? If you see me in my doldrums, you’re like, man, Fergie doesn’t look like he’s feeling quite right. What book are you handing me?

Unknown Speaker  28:31  

It’s got to be the one that I always quote in my presentations, How to Win Friends and Influence People.

Unknown Speaker  28:37  

Dale Carnegie baby Love it. Love it. Love it. Chester, what’s your most commonly used emoji? smiley face thing? Love it. Chess or checkers. Chess, love it have any favorite organization or charity like to give your time or money to

Unknown Speaker  28:57  

um, I’m just an I’m involved with the club that we basically have voting that goes on every quarter as to where the money so it goes to a different I just give the money to that organization. And later it decides where what charities that goes to believe in the organization. That’s awesome, man. Yeah, so

Unknown Speaker  29:16  

last question. You can elaborate a little bit on this one, but what’s the best decade of music? 6070s 80s or 90s? Oh, wow. 90s 90s late 90s. Okay, I’m an 80s, baby. Well, I was born in 72. I’ll be 50 but you can’t kind of had the 70s but the 80s was my jam. So that no, that’s awesome. 90s can’t go wrong either. Love, love some 90s music so just how can we find your brother?

Unknown Speaker  29:41  

Um, if people want to learn more about developing memory skills memory school dotnet is my main training website. I would visualize a giant maybe fishing net to remember that it’s dot net. So it’s memory school.net and I set up code shine valid for 50 uses for your audience. So Wow. First, first 50 people that use code shine will be able to get started without any enrollment fee. Wow,

Unknown Speaker  30:06  

thank you so much brother I really really appreciate that’s very generous of you. And squad we just had literally a masterclass with my good friend Chester Santos here the international man of memory you know he’s he’ll tell you that a self fulfilling prophecy to think that you can’t have a good memory it can be worked on if you just have to put in the time just like any other skill but he will also tell you that memory and skills can be developed and improved and that a great memory is going to give you more of leveling up skills in other areas of life if you just really work on their memory because it will level it up I promise you in also he’s given away I’m gonna put shine make sure you put the shine the code it’ll all be in the show notes. So look below click there because Chester has been so so generous with us. And Chester, thank you so much for coming on man you level up your healthy level up your wealth, your humble yet you’re hungry. You have such an awesome, awesome, awesome demeanor about you. And it’s so chill and calm. And it’s just my pleasure to have you on brother. Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me on the show. Scott. Thank you. You bet, Chester, have a great day, my friend. You too. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast. Proudly brought to you by southern New Jersey real estate real estate excellence who can be reached at 561-249-7266 in online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com flash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see our recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you have been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up. It’s our time to shine.

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