BradP loves him some money!

I'm currently preparing two articles on BradP, but as a warmup, here's something I don't know whether I should laugh or cry about: His latest offering called "Millionaire Makeover". The price is a modest $100k. Surely, that's not exactly chump change. The reader who sent me that info commented, "$100k...what a joke!!", and I am sure if you have a sane bone left in your body, you'll agree.

But, hey, for that amount of money you'll receive some great stuff, like:

Lifestyle Streamlining
Positivity training

Wow. Where do I sign up for that?

Guest Post: The black veil of the seduction community

Ratisse has important insights into the seduction industry that come from a guy who has been a bit more involved into the commercial side of this scene than me. Enjoy!

========================================
The black veil of the seduction community
by Ratisse

This is a post compiled of a bunch of shit that's been on my mind for a while due to shit i've seen in the industry.

I feel sorry for a lot of people in the seduction community. Partially because of what has happened due to it becoming an industry. Where you have a bunch of internet marketers rehashing the same shit or saying that their previous method was flawed but on they have a new and improved version. For those just starting in the community, at least 50% of you are just fucked. With all this junk material and teachings out there you’ll get lost in a sea of shit and end up bitter and hateful because you feel like you’ve been taken for a fool.

Then there are those that take bootcamps. This one I can’t help but laugh at. For the most part you throw 6 to 10 “students” in a room with a room full of “instructors”. What you end up with is socially inept people promised that they will become sexual superstars over a weekend by training with these ”instructors”. What they don’t tell you is that you’re fucked right off the bat ratio wise. 2:1 or 3:1 – students per “instructor”. So right there you are getting 50% to 33% of the instructor’s time, possibly less. Also the hype that comes with these instructors is VASTLY exaggerated with extraordinary claims. Anyone can run flash game and talk to a girl. A HUGE percentage of these instructors aren't getting laid like the rockstars they claim to be, with the type of women they claim and I doubt alot of them aren't EVEN getting laid AT ALL. Depending on the company they won’t even demo because if they do they’ll be shown to be the frauds that they are. Next, we have your other type of instructor which is the approach coach. What they don’t tell you here is that this guy may have the same amount of experience or less than you. He could be a guy that just took that companies last bootcamp. Good luck asking him for feedback on what you are doing wrong.

Then on top of this are things like RSD. Look up the definition of a cult and you’ll find that RSD falls into this category. They systematically weed out influences that aren’t in line with their message and have their members trained to be like automatons spouting out slander on anyone that offers a different opinion or god forbid, brings up that RSD’s teachings aren’t working for them. Then you have the main man behind the scenes, Tyler. Supposedly there was all this hype about his woman being gorgeous. I had seen pictures before and every one of them never showed her face because of the angle. I never questioned it then it got leaked and wow…turns out he settled down with the first thing that would have him. This chick’s face just is nasty. It’s like her entire childhood was spent being repeatedly beaten in the face with an ugly stick. Envision the love child of sloth from the goonies and a chihuahua. On top of this the guy is just plain weird.

Then we have guys like Achilles. He’s from the San francisco area. I got the “pleasure” of listening to him speak at a meeting before it was my turn. It was epic. The guy spent his speech rehashing the Venusian arts handbook. Thanks guy for telling us something that 90% of the community has already read. Then he went on to say that he has been in a relationship for 4 years, been in the community for 1.5 years and has never had a Same night lay. Why the fuck are you even teaching? It’s almost like he’s a polished version of Mehow and that’s not saying much.

Getting good at women is a process, you learn over time from experience. It’s not, you hand someone $3000 and poof you are instantly transformed into a superstar. The expectation is fucking ridiculous. My favorite is the student that’s never talked to a girl in a bar, but over a weekend wants to be taught how to get same night lays. Learn how to crawl then walk before you try to run. This is why when I do teach bootcamps, I prefer to teach only 1 on 1’s AND with people that are already getting success so I can help them speed up their process. Also the reason I prefer doing short sessions over the phone. I can steer someone in the right direction, they can implement what they were advised to work on, we can then have another short session and build on the previous work they have already put in and it'll cost them nowhere near this type of retardation.

I have more thoughts on this industry, but presently I have to get ready for work. I'll get back to this later.

The VA 360 Coach Development Program

A reader of my blog (thanks, Jon!) sent me a link to a offer that seems impossible not to refute. Jon writes:

Hey, big fan of the blog. I wanted to give you a heads up about what strikes me as one of the sleaziest (pardon the expression) business practices I have yet seen in the seduction community. Turns out that for $15,000 (yes, fifteen thousand) anybody can be a coach for Venusian Arts.

At first I was shaking my head in disbelief, but then I checked the link and came across a post by a Venusian Arts spokesperson. "Discovery" replies to an inquiring post of one of the sheeple:

yes, until now it has been under wraps and is a 6 month Coach Development Program to train 100 people worldwide to assist at bootcamps, do follow up coaching with students post-bootcamp and 1 on 1 coaching.

the program kicks off with 4 days and 4 nights in Vegas of Coach training and the qualification period to become a certified coach is 6 months including:

1. Coaching abilities (live practise at real bootcamps)
2. PUA skills (demo of basics a must)
3. theoretical knowledge
4. Ability to be a local ambassador in your region for Venusian Arts
5. 1 on 1 coaching with bootcamp students after the bootcamp
6. business management of your territory and region.

the program costs $14,900 and we have 2 more this year (only 10 guys worldwide max) the next 2 have earlybird offers of $11,900, which can be spread over up to 6 months).

If you want any more details contact me direct with your full contact details

this is a serious program of training professional pickup coaches and a considerable investment on your part, so please do not email me if you are not 21+ or could not afford the payment, sorry no charity requests either ;-).

Now, does anybody find a couple of things odd here?

If not, here are some strange things for starters.

1) $14,900 strikes me as a rather hefty investment, but to counter Discovery's "charity defense": what do I get in return? It strikes me that "approach coaches" are the least qualified to teach, and it's a post that has usually been filled by "interns". But money-greedy Mystery and whoever his business partner behind Venusian Arts is, apparently need more money for blow.

2) What certification are we talking about? Being a "certified coach" for Venusian Arts seems similar to being "the world's best dad/cook/lover", but the latter trophies can be had for a few bucks, even though they are just as recognized.

3) Selling a dream. The message basically is that for a few grand, you can start your own Venusian Arts franchise and be settled. But note that this is only between the line. More likely, they'll just take your money and run, similar to the many questionable for-profit universities in this world, who promise you great career prospects (despite evidence to the contrary), and are happy to take anybody who is willing to pay the fees.

Lastly, if you bother to scroll down the thread a little bit, you'll find a pure gem of mental retardation in the post of "Crunx", a dude who is currently undergoing that program. Then again, he might just be an unpaid intern who pulls stuff out of his a**:

I'm currently on the program and it's a great experience!
It's a great way to become a REAL MPUA and not just a guy that knows some material and claims to have a "MPUA"status.

The program is full learning experience which covers IT ALL! Your knowledge and ability to not only pickup HOT girls is being challenged but also the ability to teach and coach others is challenged.

No worries, you'll be given the right tools. You just make sure to bring it on!

And that's just a piece of ALL the material, that is going to be uploaded;

We're talking about High-End Psychology!
The final transformation!
Getting your skill level to a PICKUP COACH level and beyond! And not just a coach or a pickup artist.
Learning and being with like minded people, that support you in your journey.


So if you are looking for a serious program to supercharge your life, this is it!

But beware! Because your going to have some EPIC nights with the other coaches and MPUA's! But also it's a great excuse to travel around the world and making a lot of ( pua/ girl) friends.

And trust me, having some great PUA friends in your social life.... That pretty much spices everything up!

Jesus.

But what's really going on is revealed in this statement:

Thanks guys...it's kinda disconcerting that Henry Hill's negative comments about it that he posted and I got in my email appear to have been censored off here though...any reason for this?

Yeah, any reason for that, Venusian Arts?

Look at Owen aka Tyler from RSD! Ouch...

I’ve been very busy recently, and have hardly kept up with the nonsense in the pickup scene. I believe that the market is shrinking and that the fad will be over in a few years, but this shouldn’t stop us to have some more cheap laughs at those guys.

Among the emails I have recently received was one by JuiceTerry in mid-September (yes, I have been really busy). He wrote:

The first ever infield footage of Tyler Durden emerged last week. As you can imagine, it's not exactly overwhelming or awe-inspiring.

Needless to say, this piqued my intrigue quite a bit, and I couldn’t resist watching the clip. Voilá!



It certainly wasn’t impressed nor entertained, but it was one of the most bizarre videos I have watched in quite a while. Here’s a short “laundry list of ridicule”, as RSD’s Tim would probably call it:

0) Is it just me or does the video look like blue screen, i.e. he only got copied into a street scene?
1) Tyler’s intonation
2) “Ha!”
3) Hair loss
4) No clue of style
5) Haggard frame (What happened to “I’m-gonna-be-buff-4-life-Tyler”?)
6) “Hahahaha!”
7) “The shy girl. Ha!”
8) “Hahahaha.”
9) By 1:18 I was already annoyed beyond belief.

…and the actual in-field video has not even started. Oh, and by the way, even 16 year-old girls make fun of Real Social Dynamics nowadays:



…and they are getting more views than Tyler too.

Some people still don't get it, though. For instance, one comment to the Tyler video on Youtube was:

"tyler durden and mystery are people we should all look up to! both got their shit down, if this was taught in class, crime rate would be 50% lower, eeeeeeaaaaaaaaassssssssssillly yyy."

And another:

IMO he was faking AFC body language by nervously fiddling with objects in order to make himself seem more accessible

Yeah, right...

The Truth About Pick-Up

Recently blog reader "neparlepas" made me aware of two new videos by OGFurious, whom I have mentioned in my post Putting the Fun back into Pickup. The first one is just more comedy gold, but it'll not comment on it. Just watch it and laugh, or tell me that I'm childish if I find this stuff funny.

The second one strikes a much more serious tone and beautifully describes the problems with "technique-driven game". It's not news to anyone who has followed my blog or other writings, but it's a nice summary regardless:

Putting the Fun back into Pickup

Given the rather high comic value of the pickup community, I always wondered why there aren't many people openly mocking fun of it and parody it. Admittedly, PUAHate is sometimes great at displaying the nonsense of the scene, but as far as parodies are concerned, not much has been around.

There were some attempts such as the hilarious article "Fast Seduction 101 and wikiHow" on Something Awful, which, among other things ridiculed the bizarre acronyms in use on mASF, and cited from retarded to downright scary posts. (Too bad they didn't cover some of the sickening "rape reports" such Gruenfeld's Hottie Hardcore LMR day2, but such is not funny but tragic and I hope that karma has gotten this a**hole by now.)

The article on Something Awful appeared over three years ago, but it didn't seem to catch on. Back then idiocy was about as rampant as it is nowadays, and Mehow had yet to appear on the scene.

Back then I also wasn't aware that developing an "insider vocabulary" was part of the marketing techniques, and it is actually part of the content of the products of fraudulent Internet marketers. For instance, convicted felon Frank Kern (who cut his teeth in the Internet marketing business by running a pyramid scheme) draws plenty of examples from the seduction industry. But people watching those programs apparently take it too seriously since they have paid serious money for it, or, in case of the US, just took out some more loans.

I also remember a parody of Mystery and Style in which a dude in horrible make up who calls himself "Misery" is teaching some geeks a couple of concepts from Mystery Method. His assistant has the name "Stylus". This was when the Nintendo DS was on the height of its popularity. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the video on Youtube.

What I did find, though, was this hilarious "tribute" to my favorite Polish PUA, Mehow:



I haven't heard anything from Mehow in a while. Rumors were that he wasn't doing that great these days, financially speaking. Then again, has he ever?

But none of this reached the extent of a thorough parody, but recently once guy crossed this threshold. He calls himself OGFurious. At first I wasn't sure whether he really is serious, but thankfully he has this message at the end of his videos:

Here is one of my favourites:



Indeed, unlike the other PUA videos which are unintentionally funny (again, Mehow comes to mind), this is a guy who makes parodies on purpose, and it's not bad at all.

Also check out this one:



Keep smiling. :)

(Thanks to JonniD for telling me about OGFurious).

The Cult of Real Social Dynamics

I received some interesting feedback to my recent article in which I describe the unethical and (borderline?) fraudulent techniques Real Social Dynamics (RSD) is using to sell Ozzie’s “Physical Game Book”.

First, a guy named JT commented:

It's really a joke at this point. I was at the RSD free seminar awhile back and Tyler himself was poking fun at it, so whatevs.

It is too bad that the joke is on the RSD fanboys.

I replied:

You are asking, "So, whatever?" but are you even aware of the implications?

You basically say that Tyler went up on stage and communicated something like "You know, we think our customers are complete idiots and not only that, we also give a sh*t about business ethics, that's why we use those fraudulent techniques. Isn't that totally cool?"

...and then the crowd cheers and thinks Tyler is a genius. One Asberger's patient might even say to his neighbor, "Oh, gee, I wish I were as unstifled as Tyler."

But it’s not that shadiness is something RSD adopted in recent weeks. My buddy JuiceTerry sent me a couple of classic links he had dug up on the website Rip Off Report. By the way, RipOff Report is run by a scammer, too. Check Salty Droid’s article RipOff Report Report for coverage (the guy running RipOff Report deletes negative reviews if you PAY him).

However, RSD decided not to pay RipOff Report to delete the negative reviews, so there’s still some entertainment to be had.

Please note that those are comparatively old reports --- one was updated in 2009 though --- , but you can find plenty of more recent negative reviews online if you just look around a bit. Sadly, RSD is hardly the exception here.

Exhibit #1:
Report: Real Social Dynamics (Real Social Dynamics - RSD Sucks Ripoff Internet)

At one point in the night every student was with Christophe and I realized no one had any idea where Jlaix or Mike were. They had been gone at least half an hour. I asked Christophe where they were and he didn't know so he had the other students open sets while he and I went out on a mission to find them. We went upstairs and found them in a corner laughing with drinks in their hands and having a good time.

Christophe started screaming at them and they replied that they were opening sets for students. There were clearly no students around them or even on the same floor as them and there were clearly no girls near them. At the end of the night when we debriefed one of the students flipped out that Mike and Jlaix were gone so long and Mike replied that he was doing demos then the student yelled out “Bulls**t!” and they had nothing to say back.

These debriefs were all held in the same pizza place which was a very public setting were people could hear us talk about game. That night one guy who was not in the workshop and was eating at the pizza place yelled out “I have a question” to Jlaix and Jlaix responded “Yes, you're fat”. The guy, who was about twice Jlaix's size, then charged at Jlaix and shoved him in the chair he was sitting in so hard that Jlaix got knocked right into the wall and broke the chair he was sitting in into 3 pieces.

(…)

Like the rest of the days, the other students were pushed into sets and didn't do anything else the first half of this day. When we got there Mike saw that the college he attends UCLA had a close football game on TV so he took some time out to watch it and not pay any attention to the students. He was by himself at the bar watching a football game.

(…)

Next set of girls Mike and Jlaix talked to were 2 girls. I was right next to them the whole time. Mike talked to his girl for a few minutes then she started losing interest and turned the other direction. For whatever reason the girls left 10 minutes into the conversation. Jlaix talked to another girl for about 5 minutes and then she left. She ran to her friends saying “ewww. That guy said he would do ----- if I kissed him so I left.” At the end of the night none of the instructors sets were going that well. Jlaix ended up talking to a girl that was approximately 5'5” and 250 lbs. All Christophe could say was “she's not sleeping in our room tonight”.

(…)


So here is where I put in my opinion. I'd say the instructors skill level was very low. I honestly have friends who on their worst nights still do better than any of the instructors were doing which made me very unsatified. Christophe goes in high energy on the girls he talks to and never drops it which I thought was totally a beginner's mistake. I don't think any of the instructors were good enough to be teaching guys how to get women. Also, expect to take s**t from the instructors.

They know that 99% of the guys who take these workshops are wimps and don't stand their ground so they take full advantage of this. On the third night I really didn't want to go to the Apartment bar for the third night in a row because I wanted to go to a nice venue and see the instructors talk to really hot women. On the third day Mike said we could go someone nice if all the students agreed.

Well, all the students agreed then Mike said how only the instructors know which place is best for the students. The real reason the instructors wanted to go the Apartment bar was because Mike and Jlaix wanted cheap drinks. Every night they drank and Jlaix even mentioned to me about how cool it was that they had $2 St. Pauly Girl beer.

Overall I think the students got very little value out of the workshop. All most of them did was go into set for a few minutes and then leave. Another things the instructors do is say that they make barely any money off of these workshops and that they just do it for the students which is completely off.

The CEO Nick wears $800 D & G shoes from what I've heard and I know someone else who saw the other CEO Tyler (Owen) with 4 full shopping bags of clothes in his hands after shopping at Melrose in L.A. which is extremely expensive. After the workshop I talked to Tyler about the issues I had with the workshop and he said he was going to call some of the students to verify it and get back to me but he never did, even after I tried to contact him several times after.

Exhibit #2:
Report: Real Social Dynamics (Real Social Dynamics ripoff false advertising frauds scam artists West Hollywood California)

Third, none of what they did was objectively result-oriented. Almost every approach would consist of me going up to a group, stating a conversational opening line or story, and then the instructor I was with would come to us 30 seconds later and continue the conversation. Afterwards the instructors would try to drive the conviction into me that the girls “were so interested in you” based on even a frivolous small glance or hesitation on their part which could have signified many different things. Then the cycle repeated.

Fourth, the course was unorganized. On the second day Nick Kho and another instructor gave me the first lecture based on a ‘cheat sheet' they handed out. This document was filled with abbreviations, acronyms, and incomplete sentences that assumed that the reader had a knowledge of what all these meant. Through the lecture, he would explain once what they signified, but afterwards did not volunteer to go through it with us again. Furthermore, I was delayed three times on a time span of two months in excess of the original time I planned on taking it.

By the end of the course, not only did my attitude or knowledge of social dynamics not change at all, but on the contrary, after seeing a lack of both professionalism and effectiveness on the instructors' behalf, my beliefs in socializing worsened. I can honestly say that I am both worse off and monetarily down after taking this class. They did not demonstrate mastery of the skills they offer to teach. They are frauds with cunning advertising. I did not see any results on their behalf or my own.

Increasing the Margin

 This is just a quick follow-up to my recent bashing of RSD's shady marketing techniques (and another one will come soon).

As a quick recap: Real Social Dynamics has released a book with the title "Physical Game Book", and uses this as a Trojan Horse to get people hooked via forced continuity. I thought I had pointed out every facet of their scammy techniques in this case, or at least as much as you can figure out without actually ordering the product, but it turned out that I didn't.

An anonymous commenter pointed out to me that RSD charges ridiculously high shipping fees to Europe. He rightly remarked:

Seriously, RSD? It costs you $56 to ship a book to Europe in any sort of decent time frame?

Here is the proof he supplied:

Just as a reminder: Amazon.com and many other retailers charge a few bucks for overseas shipping, and if you RSD shills now want to play the "Amazon is a multibillion corporation and can afford to subsidize shipping" --- no, they don't. Shipping overseas from the US really isn't that expensive. I've occasionally ordered some stuff off ebay from private sellers, and they seemed to be able to get a book or T shirt to me for a similar amount of money as Amazon does.

However, Real Social Dynamics isn't just trying to rip of European customers. I went to the official site again to check how much they charge US customers, and I shook my head in disbelief:

Honestly, almost $20 for shipping, you gotta be sh*tting me!

For some strange reason, though, they charge less for people living in Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico:

I guess that's just another reason to move to Puerto Rico. The other is that you then save travel cost for pickup workshops that guarantee to get laid. You just pay a grand or two and the workshop host gives a tenner to a hooker while he gets the difference as a compensation for his efforts. It's a clear win-win for all parties involved. I might write about this absurdity of at least one company in this business some other day, but that's enough for today.

You stay classy, Real Social Dynamics!

While certainly not as entertaining as watching The Legend of Ron Burgundy, there is at nonetheless some entertainment value in browsing the website of Real Social Dynamics.

After posting The Marketing Syndicate and the Business Cycle of the Seduction Industry, Part I, one of my facebook friends commented on the note, informing me about a recent book release of Real Social Dynamics. The title in question is called "Physical Game Book", written by their instructor Ozzie, and available for the hefty price of $29.95. While far from the amounts required to purchase DVD sets, it's still far above what you'd usually expect to pay for books.

But what's wrong with trying to sell a book, you might ask.

Nothing, would it not be the case that they use "forced continuity", which is one of the shadiest marketing techniques in the scammy corners of the Internet, which is where the Seduction industry usually gathers. Forced continuity means that you click to buy a cheap front-end product and during one of the check-out phases, the software automatically adds a subscription based service which you have to opt out. It's shady and misleading, and it is laudable that companies such as VISA and Mastercard have started to go after companies that employ "free trials" and forced continuity programmes.

But, on to RSD and what is called by Mastercard a "negative option enrollment", meaning that you have to opt-out, otherwise you will be billed. RSD apparently didn't get the news and I hope they'll get their just rewards sooner rather than later.

On their sales page, the book is $29.95, and they speak of free bonuses:

But look what you get once you click on the prominently placed "by now" links:

You might ask yourself, "Gosh, what's wrong with the sum here?"

I did so too, then I looked up and saw this:

....and only if you disable the box, the price reverts back to $29.95. It doesn't stop here, by the way.

If you click on "learn more", you will learn that you actually pay a shipping fee of $5. Have a look:

And this concludes today's case study on the dishonesty and scammy nature of the Seduction industry on the example of Real Social Dynamics, which also brings me back to Ron Burgundy. Please substitute San Diego for "Real Social Dynamics" in the following clip:

Random Notes on “The Syndicate”

My previous two posts were mostly discussing parallels between the seduction industry and the Internet marketing industry. If you are so inclined, please also check out some of the blog comments of the original article over at Salty Droid. There are many interesting comments to be found, especially due to the overlap of those two industries.

At the time of writing this, Salty Droid’s "The Internet Marketing Syndicate" had 591 comments. I have skimmed those and you may want to, if you have an interest in learning how those scammers operate, since some more techniques get exposed there. Unsurprisingly, there are further parallels to the way the seduction industry works, and there is plenty of “gold” in it. Also, if you dig around deeper at this site, you will find hilarious posts such as one by Ross Jeffries (!), calling out Internet marketer Ryan Geiss because that guy’s product “didn’t work”. I wonder whether Ryan Geiss is bitching somewhere else on the Internet that Ross Jeffries products didn’t help him either.

Furthermore, some days after the publication of the original article, Salty Droid released a “best of” of the comments, and this article has now attracted 135 more comments itself.

The Marketing Syndicate and the Business Cycle of the Seduction Industry, Part I

Salty Droid recently ran a couple of very interesting posts about a syndicate of Internet marketers. Given the close relationship between “gurus” in the seduction industry and Internet marketers --- it is often said that Internet marketers are the gurus of the seduction marketers ---, those findings are indeed revealing and can be used to draw many parallels. If you have followed the seduction industry for a while, a lot of it will sound eerily familiar to you.

Here is Salty Droid’s take on the Syndicate:

The Syndicate is a cartel at the center of the get rich quick world of Internet Marketing. Each of the members tries to pass himself off as a freewheeling entrepreneur. (…) Each sells a version of this easy freedom in a bottle to seekers … the sadder the seeker … the better. But the dream :: like the cake :: is a lie. Success in “the industry” correlates not with value :: individuality :: or effort … but with proximity to a toxic core whose basic operations constitute a serious felony and moral failing.

In plain language this means that we have Internet marketers A, B, C, …, N who all have their own special products that cater for a certain problem. But the seduction industry does not have people worrying about improving their “click-through rate” but instead minimizing the number of flaky phone numbers, which then gives rise to a 3 DVD set with the title “No Flakes!”, co-created by Vin DiCarlo, one of my long-time favourites. Maybe Vin should start to work out if he gets too many flakes.

Of course this level of specialization only started after the big categories like “routines-based game” and “direct game” were filled, in addition to whatever it is that Real Social Dynamics is advocating. Then there was a focus on “day game” and the online game fraction is getting bigger, too.

If you have been around for a while, you might have noticed that there was always a release to look forward to. Neil Strauss aka. Style released his “Annihilation Method”, Venusian Arts their “Mind of Mystery”, and Mehow had his “Infield Exposed”, which is easily the most bizarre stuff I have ever seen. Then another crop of people turned up. Suddenly PUATraining and “Gambler” were pushing products. By that time people were telling me that if you have signed up for one guy’s newsletter, you suddenly got bombarded by emails in which other products were being pushed as well. This was arguably the phase when cross-promoting (affiliate marketing) got popular.

By that time people seemed to slowly wake up to all the nonsense those companies spout out. Of course, if there is a ton of competition you better differentiate yourself and find your own niche. However, for the amount of money some people charge for a scaminar seminar on “how to pickup strippers” you could directly spend it on the strippers yourself --- and have sex with them until you are getting sick of it.

But back to “The Syndicate” and Salty Droid:

The Syndicate keeps prices high :: and dissent low. The Syndicate all but eliminates marketplace competition. (…) The Syndicate uses tough :: tasteless :: and intimidating tactics to defend against what it sees as threats to its unrightful domain.

The comment about price-fixing was true at least until recently. While Neil Strauss wanted to sell his “Annihilation Method” DVDs for close to $4.000, which is downright obscene, others were a bit more modest and just charged the comparatively modest sum of two grand. Unfortunately for our sad bunch of seduction gurus, the Seduction Market is much smaller than the market the Internet goo-roos want to serve, which presumably includes a lot of wannabe seduction gurus. For this reason you still have the Internet crowd trying to charge two grand for their "products", but the seduction gurus either stopped producing DVDs or lowered the prices drastically. Some people now sell their DVD sets for less than $200, which is still an extremely high figure given production costs. Others such as Real Social Dynamics have stopped releasing “programs” altogether, which is a shame since I was so eagerly looking forward to the stuff that was supposed to be released after the “Blueprint” and “Flawless Natural”. RSD claimed it would “really blow your mind”, but I guess it won’t anymore. Shame on all those "piratefags".

To be continued...

PUA Comic

A friend (thanks, Neill!) pointed me towards a website named PUA Comic, which makes fun of the community via comic strips. I like the idea, which is why I support it via a link from this blog. Besides, it has made me laugh twice so far, which is at about the same level as Vin DiCarlo's recent newsletter.

Here's a snippet:

...and here's the rest of this particular comic strip if this piqued your interest.

Keep an eye on PUA Comic! I sure will.

According to Vin DiCarlo, working out is killing your Chances with Women

I was just browsing PUAHate.com after a long absence and found that hilarity these days comes in boat loads. There were not one but two threads mocking fun at Vin DiCarlo's latest newsletter.

In case you don't know Vin, he used to post on mASF as "Woodhaven" and was provided one of the most extreme cases of over-analysis I have ever seen. "Ever" in this context means: in all my life, no matter the subject. A prime example is his "escalation ladder", which is supposed to teach you how to escalate to sex and includes eye openers such as "pinching her cheek". I don't want to know how many Asperger patients run around and try to replicate Vin DiCarlo's procedure on unsuspecting women.

Anyway, not only has Vin strange ideas on how you are supposed to "escalate", he is also concerned about your overall well-being, which is why in his latest newsletter, he recommends you to not work out in order to increase your chances to getting laid. This may sound like nonsense, and that's because it really is. Let's quote the first part of it (emphasis not in the original):

The more time you spend in the gym,
the less time you're likely to spend with
a beautiful woman...

Seems wrong. Seems like guys with
big muscles, pumping iron get laid all
the time...

Seems like you see them out in bars
and clubs with women hanging all over
them...

But the truth is: Some of the men with
the most in-shape bodies you've ever
seen are TERRIBLE with women.

I've got a friend named Tyler.

First of all, the "I've got a friend X" technique is just one of the shady methods of copywriters and Internet marketers use in the hope of sounding more believable to their hopefully gullible audience. Whenever you read such a sentence, you can substitute it with "I have no idea what the f*ck I've just pulled out of my a**, but I'll just dream up a story to justify it".

This imaginary Tyler apparently got laid in high school, but once he picked up bodybuilding in college --- Ta Daa! --- he just can't get laid anymore, despite looking like a stud, because even though he was already "big"...

He wanted the "perfect shape."

The shape Men's Health and other
magazines say is attractive to women.

And the more he worked on himself,
the more he worried that he wasn't
perfect.

Because even if you thought Tyler
looked great... He knew he could gain
another inch on his biceps.

He thought women noticed his shoudlers
were uneven.

He thought women knew he wasn't as
"big" as he could be.

By the way, Vin, nice typo! Apart from that, if you dare to go to a club or leave the house --- you will get a ton of attention if you are in shape and wear clothes that accentuate your body. Being overweight is a deal breaker par excellence and if you are obese, then it doesn't matter how confident you are. Such honesty probably wouldn't sell stuff like Vin's ebook "The Attraction Code".

Indeed, one of the absurd conclusions people reading Vin DiCarlo's newsletter are supposed to make is that "inner game" trumps everything else, including a great body, and working on a great body will only make you insecure. His imaginary friend Tyler only would have to go somewhere, and he will get attention from women. Some will even throw themselves at him. Certainly more than a guy wearing plateau shoes who is desperately trying to hide his 20 kilos of excess baggage under his shirt.

Having a great body of course doesn't mean that you have to look like Arnold in his prime. In terms of muscles "more" is not necessarily better, but in terms of body fat, "more" is always worse. The only exception I can think off is if you are anorectic, which you probably aren't. So got out and hit the gym, but at the very least lose some weight. If you like going to the gym --- which I don't do either --- then have a look at Scooby's Home Body Building Workouts, a great free resource, which I have already recommended some weeks ago.

Interview with Rockstar Pickup

I've mentioned it some weeks ago, but now it is finally online. The host of the Norwegian blog RockstarPickup has interviewed me some weeks ago, and now you can read it. I talk about my background, basics of seduction and some of my pet peeves. I'm sure you'll get something out of it.

Here is a teaser:

How would you define your game?

I don’t believe in “game”. All those pickup companies try to sell you the idea that “game” is the great equalizer that, no matter how you look, how popular you are, how old you are, and how little money you have, will get you “strippers and supermodels”, as those sales letters love to wax lyrical about. However, if you look what’s going on around you, you will be hard-pressed to find a case where an ugly gnome pulls Scandinavian models off the catwalk. My “game” is deeply rooted in reality, not theory, which is why it follows three simple steps:

1) Find your scene or environment
2) Focus on receptive girls
3) Don’t fuck it up

After you have read my interview, feel free to check out the rest of RockstarPickup. They also host an interview with my friend TVA_Oslo, which should very well be worth your attention.

Bad Bootcamp led to Physical Attack by Instructor

One of my online acquaintances (he goes by the name of ForeverDrake) asked me to post the following on my blog.

This story involves people from Vin DiCarlo's company and some other small time players such as "Psych" from PUA Training and a promoter from NYC who is called "Nathan PUA" (who is behind Pickup Artist Events and I've had a questionable encounter with him as well some months ago). Apparently, the "instructors" just go out to get wasted and let some "students" tag along. It sounds like a pretty horrible experience all along, but it gets even better in the end...

=========================

This is going to be divided into two parts.
Part 1 will be the bootcamp and the discussion that sparked this unjustifiable incident.
Part 2 will be the neck grabbing incident, feel free to skip to this part if you wish.





Part 1. The incident that began last year.

This started about a year ago, I bought 2 nights of bootcamp for a discounted price of $200 (so that would basically be $100 a night), I talked to the other 2 students that night, they paid the exact same price as me. We headed out to a bar to do some game, work on some sticking points, it was a fun night out in general. My instructors were Heartwork and Psych, it was not an official bootcamp but an under the tables bootcamp.

This was initially Heartwork’s bootcamp, however, after wards when I confronted him last week he said it was Psych’s bootcamp, which I clearly remember it not being, I will get into more detail on this in part 2. Heartwork also promised to help me sort through my goals and help me set them up, this would take roughly 20 minutes and we had never got to. Also I did watch him do this for another of his students do this that night.

Psych was cool to me and helped me out. I have vague memories of him drinking that night but he said he wasn’t and never has on a bootcamp before, so I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt, I have not heard him lie to me before as far as I can remember. Heartwork however, I cannot say the same for. Heartwork too, however from my recollection of the experience he was pretty drunk and several other people commented the same thing on this.

I did end up losing Heartwork throughout the night, and at certain points in the night I had actually lost both instructors, that’s pretty hard for a 3 student to 2 instructors ratio. Both of the other 2 students on the bootcamp pulled early in the night. I had saved Heartwork’s number on my phone and called him and texted him a few times in the night to find him, he didn’t pick up my phone calls, that is understandable, it is a pretty loud club. He did however, text me back and ask “Whos this?”

I figure when you are about to take a student to game you that you would at least save their number. Or at least NOT drink on a bootcamp, especially if you’re an instructor who is not even the legal drinking age of 21. Heartwork says he was not drunk but had just one or two beers, I remember it being more but hey, I lost him a good amount of the night so it’s not like I can count every drink he had.

It was then that Heartwork promised me a bunch of material that he was going to send me for free, PLUS the 2 nights of the bootcamp. I was super happy that night and I hugged him, it was a cool experience in my eyes, it was also my first bootcamp so I decided to simply disregard the negative parts of the bootcamp.

After the whole bootcamp I e-mailed and texted Heartwork a few times, he did after all promise me a bunch of free products, I did not want to pester him so I did not do it too much, however, a majority of my e-mails and texts were ignored or simply avoided with a short “I’m busy” or something then followed by usually something such as, “I’m going to send you the products soon.” Which he didn’t, I ended up having to send him about 20 more e-mails before he ever sent me the products. I had to pester him and bother him before he sent me the products.

So about a week ago, I confronted him about the less than satisfactory services provided. I asked for a refund for the night that I did not go out. Heartwork gave me a weird response that I do not remember, he was surprised, then he said it was mainly Psych’s bootcamp, and that he was helping out on it, I remember it being his bootcamp and Psych helping out but whatever. We spoke briefly.

He also mentioned the other 2 students being the reason why I lost him throughout the night, that’s weird... To have 2 instructors and 3 students, and somehow lose 1 for a good amount of the night, wouldn’t you say that is strange? He then mentions to me that the price of the bootcamp was way too cheap and other instructors were mad at him and he got in trouble for it. Strange.

Then he says the other 2 students paid the full price of the bootcamp, which was thousands of dollars. I immediately caught on to this and parroted his statement back as a question, “They paid thousands of dollars for the bootcamp?” He then immediately changed his story, “Well... no... they paid about.... Um.... $700.” This is almost 3 times the actual amount each of them paid. I asked him “Each of them paid $700 or they both collectively paid $700?” He says something I don’t remember and then changes the subject.

Then I went to find Psych who I found immediately. I filled him in on the situation. He was really confused as he and I both remembered it was not his bootcamp but whatever, he goes back to talk to Heartwork, I am not here during this. After some time he comes back to talk to me, we have a brief discussion, then we head back to where Heartwork is. Now this new “Nathan Pua” guy is sitting here. He’s a bald guy, overweight to a somewhat noticeable degree, and wears some stylish glasses, a business suit.

This Nathan guy runs Psych’s business and I believe he is a junior instructor for Psych, although I could be wrong about this. I hadn’t really talked to this guy yet but he gave me a weird vibe. A good amount of the people at the convention said the same, and a few of them don’t like him and think he’s creepy. Whatever, not my job to judge.

While talking to me he paced his words strangely in an NLP kind of way, clearly trying to manipulate me, when I explain what he is saying and the incident that ensues, you will realize I was right. I sit there and he asks me to explain the situation so I do. Then he says that I’m not entitled to a refund at all, that’s fair. He offers me a $100 discount on a bootcamp that’s coming up, which was I believe $695? Now it would be $595. I don’t want anymore training if the quality of that night was any sort of barometer of how they run bootcamps now, and it is. Later on I find out the price of the bootcamp goes down to $395.

This “Nathan Pua” guy attempts to get me to buy the bootcamp even further, “Well this bootcamp could really take your game to the next level” he says. I refuse. He says “So your game is at the level you want it to be?” Etc. he continues this for a while, I get very annoyed. I tell him to leave. He looks clearly irritated when I say this. He obliges though and leaves, now it is me, Heartwork, and Psych. We talk briefly. It basically ends with them literally refusing me any compensation.

Later on I talk to one of my friends (Let’s call him Brendan) and who I found out put down a down payment for the bootcamp with Psych and Nathan. He is questioning whether he should take it as he has a family vacation coming up. I told him about my truthful experiences with the bootcamp and this whole incident. He decides not to take the bootcamp.

The next day or two Brendan and he says that they have been trying to get him to take the bootcamp since and they keep pressuring him, that sucks. I tell him to stick to whatever decision he feels is right. He says that he mentions his family vacation to them and that they don’t care at all. He’s apparently made up his mind about not taking the bootcamp.





Part 2. The neck grabbing and threatening to sue.

We were all attending a convention. Later on, during the last speech of the convention I look to my right, my buddy Brendan walks through the room with “Nathan Pua.” So, clearly something has happened, neither of them look happy. Brendan sits down near me but doesn’t make eye contact or talk with me, that’s strange.

I’m kind of waiting for the speeches to end because I am hosting my friends from DC who I promised to drive to the airport immediately after this last speech, it was a pretty cool weekend, I met a lot of cool people. I thoroughly enjoyed it, until this incident.

There is still a speech going on in front of me so I pay attention and watch the speech. Randomly out of nowhere I feel a hand literally GRAB my neck forcefully while I’m watching the speech, now mind you that I am sitting down in a crowded room with a speech going on onstage, I hear a voice talking as well, I look to my left and I see “Nathan Pua” grabbing my neck and talking down on me. He says “Listen you little fucking shit, if you keep spreading your fucking slander I’m going to fucking sue you for thousands of dollars!”

I say “Get your fucking hands off me!” He just looks at me, keeps his grasp on my neck while pushing my head with force so make my head jolt slightly. Then he walks off. Okay, now I am furious. There are speeches going on onstage so I decide not to ruin the footage during this occurrence. The speeches end and the camera turns off. I walk straight up to this “Nathan Pua” guy.

I can’t believe this fucking ass hole just grabbed my neck. I just looked at him and started screaming and cussing, I was fucking furious, this happened today. I basically started cussing at him really loud and yelling at him. He just looked stunned and I could tell he was scared, he said "You have issues man..." I kept cussing. He said "You need help..." At this point some other guys who were my friends dragged me out of there.

A lot of people saw this so I'm sure a lot of people think I have anger issues now, which is not far from the truth actually...



But...

What the fuck man? Does this seriously fucking happen in the pick up community? I was a former student and he fucking grabs my neck in public? I'm fucking pissed off. I wish I could have taken a swing at this guy. What a fucking piece of shit.





Judge for yourself. I was warning this guy about something like this happening, and guess what? It did happen. I just can’t fucking believe somebody is willing to pressure a client to the point of fucking walking them to an ATM machine to pull money out for them at that very moment, sickening.

And if you want to get in touch with this neck grabbing Nathan guy, just google “Nathan Pua”, his facebook is the first one that pops up. He runs lair events in NYC from what I’ve heard.

He did threaten to sue me and I am honestly very afraid of this happening. But I don’t want this happening to anybody else so I’m going to take the risk. From what I’ve heard from friends in the NYC community, he uses these kinds of scare tactics often. Can you even be sued for writing a bad review that is 100% true?

I’m going to end this with, Heartwork and Psych were not affiliated with this neck grabbing incident at all. They were both not there when it occurred, and Nathan made his own judgments to grab my neck and pull this stunt off. I think Heartwork could be an alright coach if he were to be sober the entire night. And Psych is a pretty cool guy who has good intentions and is probably a good coach who made the mistake of simply affiliating with a guy like Nathan.

Ciao.

The Industry further degrades

I consider the websites in the pickup/seduction industry to be on the same level as the oh-so-renowned business men trying to sell you techniques that make your cock grow, last longer, cure hair loss, or get you abs within days with zero work at all. This has been mocked by me to some extent already, but the Industry is not sleeping. Quite the contrary, it seems to be a on a roll.

Read on for what I recently got via "Formhandle", the guy running fastseduction.com, home of mASF. The following advert was included in a newsletter and it shows in what a sad state the "community" is. Sure, after tricking people of IQs at borderline-retardation levels into taking bootcamps, you might just sell them some other crap as well as long as they have their wallet open.

#### THAT SHING THAT MIGHT BE SHITTY ####

Oh, yeah, and a reminder about that thing I'm NOT recommending...

It's called Superman Stamina, I've not actually got my hands on it

so I can't really review it, so for all I know it's a total turd

of a product.  Still, since you're probably hearing about it from

other places, I've got to point you to it:

http://www.fastseduction.com/superman-stamina-might-be-total-shit

Get the freebies they'll be emailing.  I think there's an article

behind the page that link leads to, I don't actually remember.

Ripped Abs Fast!

Most of the Internet seems to consist of scams, primarily in the areas of:

• Making Money
• Getting in Shape
• Pulling Girls

...with (virtually) zero effort on your part. This triad is also known as "health-wealth-relationships" to people who have ever listened to any of Tony Robbin's recordings.

Of course, there are ways to get more attractive, to make money and to get in shape. Unfortunately, it often takes a long time to find the credible resources. Often, they come with little or no cost, quite unlike the more visible and scammy options.

I've done my fair share of Debunking the Seduction Community, Salty Droid is on to the self-proclaimed marketing gurus like Frank Kern and "Eben Pagan", whom we all know from the "community" as well, and very recently, since I have decided to get into really good shape again, I came across Scooby's Home Body Building Workouts. Incidentally, he entertains a free website that will teach you everything you need to know if you want improve your physique.

Further, Scooby doesn't like the scammers in the weight-loss industry. Cf. the following video, which nicely concludes this post:

Making Money Off the Anti-Community Bandwagon?

One of the more ridiculous accusations I've received after releasing "Debunking the Seduction Community" was that I'm trying to "cash in on the anti-community trend".

Here is a reminder: the anti-community trend started on mASF roughly two years ago, and it was guys like me, TVA_Oslo, 60YearsOfChallenge and some others that ridiculed the commercial people posting on there. We told them that their methods and beliefs are complete bullshit and showed them why this is the case. This fight was impossible to win in the end, because Formhandle, the guy running mASF, is obviously profiting from advertising, thus he can't endure too much criticism. If someone pays a few grand a month for banners, you can't watch him getting ridiculed. As a result, sometimes critical posts disappear or, in case of the reviews board, don't get approved in the first place. It would obviously be bad for business.

Eventually, we had to split and took virtually every respected and active poster with us. (Not all post publicly on TheSeducers.com; there is also a secret place where we gather.) However, the reason this could happen was simply because mASF is an incredibly badly moderated forum, completely cumbersome to navigate, and the people profiting from it have zero interest in putting some of the money they make back into it. Add censorship to it and you've got good reasons to leave for greener pastures.

Yet, the "anti-community wave" on mASF was not with out effect. People like LoveSystem's TenMagnet suddenly didn't feel like posting about their "number closes". One of Formhandle's friends, "BigWillie" if I recall correctly, made exactly one post on Masterminds. It was just a copy&paste of one of his newsletters, and he told us, the unwashed masses, that "having a fast car gets you laid". After I was done with him, he never showed up there again. Other victims were "Dream"/Anthony, who proudly wrote that he had two or three "lays" from thousands of approaches, Vin DiCarlo's coach "HeartWork", and recently BradP got a bashing when he was trying to flog his 50.000$ "PU Mansion program" (yes, that's just the fee for a year, you don't acquire any shares, as this price might suggest).

I could give many more examples, but the point would be the same: the commercial industry cannot deliver its promises and can't endure criticism. After all, why would you spend $3.000 on a "boot camp" --- if you knew that the guy teaching you was a virgin and the guy running the show hasn't gotten laid in a year? Incompetence is just one part of the problem. The other is that the boot camp model is flawed to begin with, even if you happened to work with somebody who actually gets laid. This is just one of the many aspects I discuss in "Debunking the Seduction Community".

Thus, the anti-community camp is growing for sound reasons. There are too many bullshitters around, offering overpriced and ineffective products or solutions. This is what I have pointed out in my post "Is the PU Industry a Sham Industry?" on mASF in 2008, and in much greater detail in "Debunking".

However, some now say that guys like me and 60 Years Of Challenge want to simply market to this niche. Sixty can speak for himself on his blog if he feels the need to, but all I can say about myself is that I am the only guy in this "industry" that tells you that you don't have to spend any money on "training". Strange way to cash in on something, isn't it? I have not the slightest interest in exploiting the desperate. The pickup industry, on the other hand, tries to get as much money from the desperate as possible. Case in point: BradP's $50k+ "Pickup Mansion". If I wanted to "sell out", I'd have released a $499 "get supermodels queuing in front of your house, no matter how you look and with zero work on your part --- even if you live in Antarctica" product years ago.

Making Money Online vs Pulling Girls

The seduction industry is relatively small. Someone recently said, if it were a house, it would be a shack in the woods with neither electricity nor running water. However, this industry is very similar to the "making money online" industry, which is just as fraudulent. Its beyond the scope of my blog to cover the latter in any detail, though. However, Salty Droid, one of the blogs I follow in this area recently posted some interesting (and elegant, as my mathematics teacher would say) graphics.

It doesn't take much to see how this is applicable to the seduction industry as well:

(source: Salty Droid)

Release: Debunking the Seduction Community

The subscribers to my newsletter heard the news first, and now it is time to announce the info on my blog: "Debunking the Seduction Community" is done.

Download it directly from my website. It's a PDF with 400 KB.

For a short description, check this page.

Key points of this book are:

• Commercial foundations of the seduction industry
• Why game is not the "great equalizer"
• The disastrous role of Neil Strauss' book "The Game"
• Why phone numbers and make outs are red herrings for seduction
• The unfortunate marriage of new age and the pickup scene
• A very simple overview of seduction and how it really works

Enjoy the book, and please let me know what you think! You can post comments on my forum or send me an email.