Total Un-Recall: If you don’t have synethesia, remember those names!

I went to a networking event a few weeks ago and slightly embarrassed myself. Although I was having a great time and seeing many friends and acquaintances, I forgot the name of someone that I had met a few times over the past months. She said, “Hi Brian” and I replied with the classic, “Hey, how’s it going………?”

She was wearing a nametag but the event was packed and the name was hidden from view. [not that it’s a good thing to have to stare at a nametag to recall a name you most certainly should know.] The alcohol certainly wasn’t helping my recall either.

It really wasn’t an issue, but it bothered me because I’m grateful to have this particular person in my professional network.

My wife has something called synesthesia. Sounds bad, right? It’s actually quite a gift. Synesthesia is is a neurologically-based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. In short, Jen associates letters and words with colors.

In conversation she sees a “stock ticker” of colors scroll through her head as she speaks and listens. In her alphabet of color, the letter A is red, B is orange, and C is yellow. Each letter, A-Z, has a unique hue, although some letters are differentiated by only slight variances in shading. Pretty cool, don’t you think?

My name, BRIAN is orange, brown, white, red and blue. Jen says the color of the first letter of a word usually dictates the color of the word, so I’m orange. And this color thing works for numbers too.

Why am I telling you about this?

It’s because my wife has the most amazing memory of anyone that I’ve ever met. She uses her “gift” to remember street addresses, dates, and most important for this discussion, names. Jen has bailed us out so many times over the years, recalling names of people she may have met quickly one time (oh, he’s green…E…and it’s a short name…it’s Ed.)

Presumably, you and I don’t have any form of synesthesia. Remembering names is tougher for us, and if we’re going to avoid the embarrassment of reaching into the name vault and coming up empty, we’re going to need to work at it.

Before heading to the event, try and find a roster of potential attendees and scan the names and companies they’re with. Get to the event early and examine the unclaimed nametags at registration. Before heading into a conversation, inspect the room for familiar faces. Having some stress-free time to collect your thoughts before seeing a contact will jog your memory for not just names, but also appropriate ice-breakers that will make your networking event fun and rewarding.

There is no better validation to someone than to see them at an event, shake his or her hand firmly, look them in the eye and say, “Nice to see you [insert name here].” I think we all agree that remembering names is a great way to make a favorable first impression and to get a leg up in business.