As promised, I will keep bringing you the scoop (and dirt) of what goes on at NYC lairs (without the choking). This past Sunday http://www.pickupartistevents.com/ held a meeting in their usual round table followed by a speaker format, and the speaker was a certain John Battaglia Jr.
John Battaglia Jr is not a “community” guy, so I was already excited at the prospect of a fresh take on things. However, according to himself and the organizer, he dated several extremely high quality women and was going to share his secrets. He currently works as a life coach, but he used to run a large division of Wilhelmina models, which of course allowed him to be around a LOT of hot women, all the time. He also was a coach on MTV’s Made, helping a kid go from “Geek to Chic”. Needless to say, I was intrigued.
The presentation itself was interesting. After the customary introductions, he went almost right away into what he though was wrong in most mainstream pickup thinking (mind you, his knowledge of the community is fairly limited, but this is a man coming from personal experience with beautiful women). He said that what he noticed about mainstream pickup that a lot of it is based on dominance, even humorously referencing “Seduce and Destroy“. But the problem with dominance, he said, was that it breeds difficult relationships (the girl will become almost your “property” which leads her to be high maintenance) and that there will always be someone be more dominant than you. “You may be a cool dominant guy, but then another cool dominant guy comes along, but he has a private jet. Trust me, I’ve seen this”.
His idea of game, after being adequately “styled up”, was to treat it like a rock concert. He asked everyone to remember the first live music show they went to (mine was Group X), and the feelings they experienced, and what the musicians did to work the crowd (i remember the epic crowd interaction), and to apply that same kind of rocker energy to your interaction.
This was especially validating to me because I have been going out recently with that kind of amplified “be yourself” kind of energy (and getting amazing results) and rarely find myself doing more “classic game” like checking for IOIs, etc. And now, a serial modelizer endorses that kind of thinking – which is fine by me:-).
On the other hand, it was interesting to see the reactions from the crowd when he criticized “classic” game and shared his own methods – a slight but noticeable wave of discontent swept through the room, as if someone was gonna say “how dare you criticize our way of thinking”, but in the end he won people over. After all, he is a “life coach” and not a dating instructor.
In other lair news, that same site is hosting a “Summer Sarge Fest” this Thursday at 7:30. I’ll probably attend, hopefully to find that awesome super skilled person that will amaze and enlighten me with how he interacts with women….. Either that or I’m gonna have to babysit newer guys (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Also, thanks to John Battaglia, I’ve been listening to group X all day. Check it out if you haven’t yet.