As most of you know, there is alot of controversy over the reputation of some pickup workshops. It makes me not so eager to drop $1000 for a workshop, before getting some second opinions!
Over on the Mystery Method forums, there is an awesome post by a student that attended the Art of Attraction workshop. I think it's a kick ass review.
I'll give the highlights, and try to compare/contrast with Mystery Method where appropriate.
Like a lot of workshops out there, this one lasts three days, includes field work with personal instruction, and costs quite a bit. I chose it because the dates worked well for me, I had a local friend I could stay with who had taken the workshop and recommended it, and because the daytime portions of the course feature a lot of exercises rather than just lecture/discussion. I should add that the
Art of Attraction workshop is primarily about the first three minutes.
Comfort and seduction are brought up, but they are not what this workshop is about. I felt that three days to understand the first three minutes was barely sufficient. Also, let me spell out the underlying philosophy here starting with a simple example of what they're trying to do with participants. Smile, right now, and hold that smile for 30 seconds. The majority of people feel happier smiling given that the physical motion is associated with fun, happy feelings. Now, here, the idea is that if you learn to behave like a cool, attractive guy, standing and touching and smiling like cool, attractive guys, you will start feeling like one and this will become more and more natural until the practice becomes the reality.
I believe it, too. We had one instructor who made his first approach in late October, and he really knew his stuff. He easily picked up a HB out of a three set and number closed while we were waiting to get into a restaurant one night, and everything he said was dead on. He also gave advice to another participant, who noticed he was getting IOIs from a hot asian girl seated at a table with her seven friends, that let him pull her right out and isolate her outside for 15-20 minutes.
Back to the workshop. Friday and Saturday we started at noon and ran until 1AM or later, and there was another 6-8 hours of stuff on Sunday. There were a dozen students, and about four instructors for the daytime. The experience level of the students varied from essentially totally AFC, to several who had done other workshops and had some skills. Most of the day we did exercises in groups of four, each with its own instructor. I'm going to run down through some of the exercises we did here.
The simpler exercises happened on Friday, with the more advanced ones Saturday and Sunday. A lot of the later exercises extended or combined earlier ones.Using your hands: we practiced using our hands to hold someone's attention while looking at another member of the set.
Standing: we practiced standing the way cool, confident guys stand.Walking/face: we practiced three different looks for entering a venue that would make good first impressions (sexy cool, smirking, most fun guy in the room).
Entering a set: we practiced opening angles, how to get the attention of a set without leaning in, and how to open the set to you and not get into their space in a bad way.Storytelling: We practiced sharpening and telling stories, sometimes in association with an opener. We learned what elements make up a good story, and how to tell them.
Banter: this is something between cocky/funny lines and negs. An example is "You're bad girls, aren't you? I'm going to have to watch out for you." It's mostly about establishing frame and being the guy in charge, and being fun about it.
Kino: how to touch women (gently), when to touch women (early and often), etc. Also everyone in set really. How to use kino to test for attraction directly.Isolation: a few easy body moves to manage an effective isolation that doesn't set off alarm bells.Fashion: personalized advice about clothes, shoes, grooming for our own looks and environments we prefer to operate within. Opening physically close sets: basically with kino. Effective.
Body language: we entered practice sets and were video taped, so an instructor could point out things we were doing good and bad and we could see them.Building a routine stack: advice for combining openers, stories, and banter, with the advice to practice, practice, practice with the same ones until they were ours, then add more.
Opening difficult sets: seated sets, or sets where the target is surrounded by people you need to deal with to get close to the target.Feedback from real girls: On Sunday, two girls hired out of the newspaper were brought in for us to open. After we ran a few minutes with them, they gave us feedback about what they liked and didn't like. I thought it was easier than with the guys in my group I'd been practicing with, at least at that point. They weren't nearly as critical as we were to each other, or our instructors were.Okay, let me discuss the field work a bit.
Extra part-time instructors were brought in for the field, and each instructor had two students. I thought this was perfect, since we basically learned winging in the field with the same guys we'd been working with. They also tried to match skill levels, and we had different instructors on the two nights. The first night was unusual, since it was St. Patrick's Day, and everyting was a madhouse and crowded. They advocate easy, quick warm-up sets to start with to get comfortable.
Outside the door I opened a girl wearing a green shirt with "Are you Irish?" She immediately smiled and started in on how she was, etc., and then smiling I asked if I could kiss her, and then her friend when she declined. A fine, fun start. I probably opened about 30 sets that night, winged a handful of others, with some nice results and also a few blow outs. I opened seated sets, walking sets, mixed sets. Hell, in one bar my instructor pointed out a mixed two set and told me the guy wasn't doing well with the girl and sent me in. I just went up, ignored him as I opened her, and he wandered off after a minute.
I got blown out several times - once really badly and I laugh about it now. I had opened a seated three set, talked to them a few minutes, and was advised to try a certain special Irish drink (a carbomb). I decided to go get one, and reenter the set. After I reentered (and had to pull up a second chair as a new guy was in the one I had pulled up and then left open!), I asked one of the girls if she was having fun and she replied that she had been...until I showed up. Ouch. I told them I was just out to have fun and wished them a good evening in a way that would maintain some social proof. No one watching would know I'd been blown out that badly. Made up for it in the very next set that went well. My wing and I talked to them for 10-15 minutes before we exited, and then our instructor went and talked to them about how we did! They said we could have number closed in another 30 minutes, but I don't think it would have taken THAT long.
With all the crowded street sarging, I was using situational openers, and opening everything I saw. No fear, just fun. The instructor opened a couple of sets (number closed a blonde HB8.5 and was smooth to watch in action). I had one number close that was ironically after I was finished for the night (but is a PUA ever finished?). I spent a half hour trying to get a cab out a bit after 1 AM. There were no cabs. The whole city was trying to get home. I got opened by a drunk guy about sharing a cab. Turned out that he and his drunk girlfriend had a cute single female friend they were staying with that night in the same part of the city I was headed for. She was from Wales, and had an awesome accent that I loved. We spent the next 90 minutes walking out until we could get a cab. This almost killed me, as I'd picked up new shoes that morning and hadn't anticipated so much walking. I didn't say anything about it until she noticed me limping several miles into our death march. She gave me her number and suggested we have breakfast, but I didn't make it since I had to get back for day two of the workshop.The second night of the field work we hit some trendy bars in the Marina area. I didn't do as well here, and in part I think this had to do with my plan.
I wanted fewer, higher quality sets, and I wanted to work my routine stack which didn't feel natural yet. The crowded, louder enviroment was tougher. I didn't get blown out, but I also didn't feel like I hit any home runs. I did have a few nice experiences.
One thing Lance had talked about that day (there is a little bit of lecturing) were advanced problems to deal with that were hard to practice for. This one involved how to avoid interference (e.g., a girlfriend breaking into your set and telling everyone to come dance). The advice was about how to watch the eyes and body language to see when someone is coming up, and to greet the new person and immediately put them in your frame. I was with a seated girl, who I had seen with friends earlier but was alone when I approached. I knew when her friends came back, turned, greeted them, then returned to my target. They left us alone. It was cool. I was also exhausted relatively early, but had one of the instructors take me around and point out different sets and what you could read from their body language.
There were both group debriefings as well as individual debriefings. Our instructors on the last day gave us advice about what they thought each of us personally should be working on after the workshop.
Pickup 101 does do a bit of the hard sell on following up with their Art of Rapport workshop, which includes day game and direct approaches. Money, and especially time, is an issue for me right now, or I'd take it. Some of the guys who had taken both Art of Attraction and Mystery Method liked both workshops. They thought Art of Attraction would be better to start with, but that Mystery Method was great for pulling a lot of things together, and recommended both.
I liked my fellow classmates, my instructors, and Lance Mason.
I can highly recommend the workshop and it really made many things clear to me that I'd been unaware of, or didn't understand completely, from reading PUA ebooks and websites. These guys knew their stuff and could all approach and pickup easily and naturally. They never talked bad about any other competing workshops, and just went on their strengths.
If you want to focus on attraction and physical exercises, this is your workshop. If you want more theory and deeper understanding of the underlying principles and a bigger picture view, other workshops may be better.
View more about the workshop
here, with dates and times.
Other products from Pickup101 include "Surefire Attraction Secrets" CD's, "Dress for Success" DVD's and e-books
here that are kick ass! (There is also free hidden camera video's)
Download Neil Strauss's Annihilation Report
4 Comments:
Reminds me of myself when I just came into the community.
He looks like such an excuzer waiting for the end of the conversation to ask for the email. He's also not really in the moment. He could have more fun.
Anyway, a lesson is that you don't have to have supertight-game to close chicks. Look at him. He's just vibing, chatting and ---> close.
His problem is that he keeps talking about booooring stuff. He needs to spice up the conversation and leverage the fact that he's french - i.e. play more 'where am i from' guessing games and don't let her find out, compare french women vs american women (if she does guess it right), etc. But at least he's got the balls to approach, good for him.
Exactly. Alot of this is bad. Although he has balls, and goes for it.
Make it FUN guys.
And yes, the audio, Yum.
this sounds like me when i approach... its messed up haha.. I use C & F mixed with MM. im startign to think its not a good idea haha
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