“There is plenty of help for newbie. Where I see a lack of help is in the middle. If you can open, get numbers and even follow up, but you just aren’t able to get past that final hump and be successful with girls, where do you turn? The only advice I have seen is go open more sets, learn to calibrate and yet that is no magic bullet for a lot of guys. The other thing I hear is ‘hire a coach.’ But most of us don’t have that kind of money, or we’re not sure it’d be worth it.”

There are a couple reasons for this. First of all, it takes far longer for an intermediate guy to become advanced (1-2 years, if not more) than for a beginner to become intermediate (6 months or so). So because the transition is far longer, it’s much easier to get frustrated at a lack of development.

But another part of the problem is WHAT intermediate guys’ sticking points are. Beginners need to focus on the fundamentals, opening, good conversation, escalating, etc. This stuff is VERY easy to teach, and is very clear-cut, easy to measure, so it’s quite easy to learn for anyone who puts in the effort.

Intermediate guys almost ALWAYS fall into one of two categories of sticking points: lack of calibration/lack of experience or inner game issues.

Intermediate guys are basically guys who have the basic skills down, but they still don’t feel like they control their results, or get consistent results. This is either because they’re uncalibrated — i.e., they don’t know precisely when to use each skill or how much to use — or they have some sort of belief system that’s sabotaging them somehow or deep-seated emotional issue that’s preventing them from attaining their goals.

Unfortunately, the ways to fix these sticking points aren’t really anything you can find in any single forum post (unlike something like body language or fashion). Resolving these sticking points is often complicated and unique to each specific guy and his situation.

In the case of calibration, the solution is exactly what you complain about here: go out and do more sets and be mindful of what you’re doing and what works.

If that’s not working, then you have a blindspot within your beliefs and/or some sort of inner game issues going on. Generally, every time I meet a guy who is “decent” but is seeing no improvement over a long period of time despite going out consistently, 99% of the time it’s because of some sort of inner game blind spot.

Coaches can’t really help with the calibration issue other than to speed it up a little bit — and that’s assuming you do a one on one. It’s impossible to get that much personal attention on a bootcamp with 3-6 students. Whether accelerating your calibration ability for the $1250 or $2000 price tag or whatever is worth it to you is your decision. For some guys, shaving a year off their learning curve can be worth it. Others would rather go it alone.

Click here for information about coaching…

As for inner game issues, a coach CAN point those out to you, point out bad habits, point out faulty belief systems. The problem here actually tends to be YOU, not the coach. Guys with inner game sticking points, by their very nature, tend to be horrible at accepting advice and criticism. And I can tell you from vast personal experience, this can be one of the most frustrating situations imaginable. When a guy is paying you to tell him things about himself that he refuses to listen to… typically both of you coming out bitter about it and no one improves.

These days, I’m very wary of doing more than 1-2 phone consultations with someone with inner game issues. If they haven’t improved after that, I tell them to see a therapist and to take some time to themselves, as working with them further is like bashing my head against a wall.

But I hate to break it to you, but the truth is that there’s no *easy* way around any of this for the intermediate guy. If you go out a lot on your own, unless you’re very diligent, self-aware and perhaps naturally talented with people, progress will be slow and arduous.

A coach is no guarantee, and at the end of the day, they’re only going to accelerate your progress, not do it for you over night. Coaching newbies, you can often get magical “overnight” transformations. But for more intermediate guys, it’s more complicated. The most I can often do is point them in the right direction and give them proper encouragement. I often tell students that I can draw them a perfect map, and walk a while with them, but I can’t travel their entire journey.

There is ONE more thing that I’d offer to the struggling to the intermediate guy. I realize that most intermediate guys, having been active for 1-2 years, are familiar and adept at just about all of the theory out there.

Well, what helped me immensely coming up was actually reading the personal experiences and transformations of those better than me. When you see how other people overcome obstacles and barriers, it gives you new perspectives on how to overcome your own. On top of that, reading or hearing about other people’s sticking points can also give you insight into your own sticking points that you’re unaware of.

The author followed up with another post and lamented the following:
“It’s just unfortunate more of these advanced guys aren’t around to hand out free advice. Sometimes I don’t understand the unwillingness to help without a cash exchange.”

I can understand the frustration, but there’s an economical principle going on here. A lot of coaches offer TONS of free advice (just look at this blog), but we can’t personalize advice for EVERYONE, especially intermediate guys who have more unique and personal sticking points.

And that’s the unfortunate truth… Look, I’ll be honest, it takes about five times more effort to coach an intermediate guy than it does to coach a newbie. And at the end of the day, whereas it’s pretty easy for me to drop some free advice here and there for a new guy — it may take 5 minutes of my time and effort — handling some in-depth sticking point from a more experienced guy is something that requires enough time and effort from me that I won’t do it for free.

You combine that with the scarcity of able coaches (hell, half of the one’s that are paid don’t know what they’re doing), and you basically have a lack of any advice coming from the top which you speak about. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it is.

So I guess this is just an insanely long post to say that there’s no easy solution for intermediate guys. But that comes with the territory. The difference between an advanced guy and an intermediate guy is that the advanced guy’s game suits his personality. It’s unique to him.

Once you reach a certain point in this game, there’s no clear-cut, single “right way” to be extraordinarily good. So no matter what — whether you pay a coach or not — the majority of the responsibility and effort is going to fall back to you to achieve those goals.

That why the absolute best advice a guy in your situation can get, is the kind of advice that only happens face-to-face. You’re past the point of emulating somebody else or trying to fit yourself into someone else’s shoes. It’s time for someone to come take a look at you and help you to fit into your own shoes.

Click here for information on coaching…

But after that, I’ll be in “work mode” and hopefully back in “PUA mode” and I’ll begin posting my experiences and observations while I’m there.

I will be doing lair talks and bootcamps while I’m there. The schedule is below if you’re interested.

Lair Talks:
Cologne – Wednesday, September 9th – SOLD OUT!!!
Hamburg – Friday, September 18th – Spots Available
Brussels – Thursday, September 24th – Spots Available

To reserve your spot at any of the seminars, please email me.

Bootcamps:
You can either sign up for one night (EU500) or two nights + seminar (EU800). Email me for more information. Schedule below:

Cologne: September 11-13, 1 spot left
Hamburg: September 18-20, 1 spot left
Amsterdam: September 25-27, SOLD OUT!!!
Prague: October 2-4, 1 spot left
Berling, October 9-11, 1 spot left

What’s listed below is a TENTATIVE schedule. These are all cities of people who have expressed interest and have offered lair talks to me. I’m willing to go to all of them, but I need to get at least 1-2 students in each city for it to be worth my time. If you’re interest please email me.

Also, because I got such an overwhelming response, I’m going to put together a more consistent pricing for you guys.

ONE NIGHT: EU500 — One full night of coaching. Includes personalized sticking point analysis, at least 4 hours in-field coaching and an in-person debrief.

TWO NIGHTS + SEMINAR: EU800 — Two full nights of coaching. Includes personalized sticking point analysis, inner game seminar, unique individual drills, at least 8 hours in-field coaching and an in-person debrief.

If you wan to know about me or my coaching, check out my About page and my Coaching page. They’re both full of testimonials.

Prospective Cities: Cities subject to change. Limit of TWO STUDENTS per night. Some cities already have a student, so act fast. Dates are not yet set in stone, but I’ve provided the likely dates I will be there.

Lyon, France – September 9 – 13 (Date probably won’t change)
Zurich, Switzerland – September 14 – 21 (Waiting for confirmation here)
Hamburg, Germany – Either September 14 – 21 or September 22 – 29 (Depending on Zurich; date may switch with Prague)
Prague, Czech Republic – Either September 22 – 29 or September 30 – October 6 (Waiting for confirmation; date may switch with Hamburg)
Brussels, Belgium – Either September 30 – October 6 or October 6 – 13 (Waiting for confirmation)
London, England – Week after Brussels. Early to mid-October.

My guess is I won’t actually go to all of these cities. It comes down to who wants coaching where. Priority will be given to cities with guys who want to be coached and large lairs. The more students I get, the more cities I go to. It’s that simple.

If you’re interested or have questions, please feel free to email me. Again, I’m coaching a maximum of TWO GUYS in each city, some of which already have one. So please email me ASAP, as I need to book tickets soon.

I’m planning on making a European Coaching Trip in September.

What does this mean for you? Well, obviously, if you want to be coached by a professional American PUA with more than two years of experience and 100+ former clients, then this is your chance. Where am I planning on going? Wherever you guys are. Right now, the vast majority of my European readers are German, so I’d love to hit up Germany. But I’ve also been talking to guys in France, Amsterdam and Sweden. So really, I’m willing to go anywhere you guys are.

What can you do to help? Well, I’m looking to hook up with people for the following reasons:

- Guys who want to be coached (obviously).
- Guys who KNOW someone who may want to be coached.
- Lair leaders or people who can hook me up with lair talks.
- People who wouldn’t mind me crashing on their couch for a night or two.

If you can provide any of the above, please email me at entropy@practicalpickup.com and let me know where you’re located and any specific dates you’re available. I’m looking to stay over there for at least 2-3 weeks, but I’ll stay as long or short as I am getting students.

What’s the price? Since this is a special trip, I’ll only be charging 600 Euros per night. I’ll coach two guys in one night for 1,000 Euros if you can get a friend. I’ll also give a 100 Euro referral fee to anyone who can successfully refer me a student that I otherwise wouldn’t have met. Other discounts can/will be given on if you can get me a lair talk, let me crash on your couch, drive me around some, etc. Email me for more info and we can work something out.

For more info about my coaching, see my coaching page.

Ideally, I’d like to be in Europe from around September 10th until the end of the month. I have to be back States-side by October 6th at the latest. But I will stay as long as I’m getting clients and interest. Again, I’m open to coming to any country. Just keep in mind the only languages I speak are English and Spanish.

Please email me with any questions or interest. I’d like to get this trip planned and set in stone by August.

Hey guys, just a heads up. I’m going to be spending about two weeks in Las Vegas at the end of this month. I’ll have a few nights free while I’m there and am looking for anyone who wants to be coached. Las Vegas is pretty much the Mecca of night game when it comes to sarging. It’s an ideal place for one on one coaching and same night lays.

You can read about my coaching and testimonials from former students on my coaching page. Since it will likely involve travel for guys, I’m willing to take about 20% off my normal prices: so $600/night or $1,000 for two nights.

If you’re interested, please email me. Thanks guys and see you in the City of Sin!

I am still coaching. In fact, I just got back to Boston today from Minneapolis. The trip went great. The first night, both my student and I pulled and the second night we had a group of girls invite us out for some naked hot tubbing at 3AM. For now, I’m just doing one on one’s and phone consults. But if you’re interested, check out my coaching page.

Check out the sign up page for details.

If some of you remember, about a month ago I was talking about large plans for releasing about half a dozen products as Practical Pickup in the first half of this year. Well, obviously, nothing’s been released, and I kind of quit talking about them.

Doc’s retirement obviously derailed a lot of that work and planning. I’ve had to scrap a lot of stuff and start over on other parts of it. But I WILL be continuing on. I’m in a very good place teaching guys right now, both emotionally and financially. I’m getting good business and I believe now more than ever that I have a ton to share to this industry and community that others can’t.

So, yes, I’m continuing with the business. Here’s what we’re looking at right now:

Conversation Demolitions, Vol. 1: I’ve taken down most of the conversation demolitions off of the blog. I’ll be posting two over the next week, a reader demolition and a demolition of one of my conversations with a girl. Look for the first volume to be released next week some time. The book will contain 22 conversation demolitions in all: 9 that appeared last year on this blog, 11 new ones from readers, and then two of my own conversations.

College Game Guide: This one got derailed by no fault of Doc. I was a solid 70 pages into writing it when a fluke of a mistake when I was backing up my hard-drive erased all of it. I plan on sitting down and recording this in audio format at some point soon. I’ve given three seminars on this, written outlines and written 60+ pages, so the content is all ready to go. It’s just a matter of sitting down and recording 3-4 hours of audio and then getting it all produced. I can’t say when this will be released, but probably by mid-year.

Relationship Management: This is my baby right now and I’m looking to book a seminar room at the end of April or beginning of May to record it. I’m shooting for six hours of material. I gave three hours of it to the Boston Lair in December, and the feedback was overwhelming positive, particularly from the 30+ crowd. This material is far more than harem management or how to get a girl to be a fuck buddy (although that’s all covered), it goes into deeper issues of relationships: communication, jealousy, vulnerability, and love. Yes, I am going to make a PUA product on love. In fact, I’ll be spending at least an hour on love and I think the shit I say will mind-fuck you all. I’m aiming for a release of this by June/July.

Blog Re-Launch: I’ll be re-launching both my ebook and my blog later next month. The ebook is revised and I may write another 10-15 pages in it. I may throw in a price drop since it’s been out for a while now.

And the blog, well the blog is going to kick some major ass. I’m going to be moving it over to its own domain, server and the content management is going to be sick. By May, this blog is going to be THE BEST place for free pick up information, both in quality AND quantity.

Super Secret Project: Finally, I have an uber-secret project in planning stage right now. It’s ambitious, but if pulled off, it could change a lot. I’m talking making me a major market player at the worst and running the competition out of business at best.

If you want to stay up to speed and stay informed with any of the stuff listed above, the best thing you can do is sign up for my newsletter in the upper right on this blog. Most of my announcements will be sent out through that.

So here’s the run-down:

In The Beginning:
When: Late 2005
Situation: Had just read “The Game”. Could barely even fathom approaching hot girls, much less envision myself actually doing it. Had just gotten dumped by the love of my life, still dealing with some baggage and depression. Hadn’t had sex in almost a year.
Natural Strengths: Tall and decent-looking. Could hold a good conversation. Good sense of humor. Had some friends. If I got drunk enough, I wasn’t afraid to try and make out with a girl.
Natural Weaknesses: Scared to death of approaching. Had serious commitment/self-esteem/sexual anxiety issues. Honestly believed that I’d never get another girl as amazing as my ex to ever like me again.

Phase 1: OMG, She Talked to Me!
When: Winter and Spring of 2006
Progress Report: It took me three months to actually work up the nerve to cold approach a girl. When I finally did, I was so nervous and self-conscious, I actually apologized for talking to her. I focused mainly on going to parties and meeting girls through my friends. I used some of David DeAngelo’s Cocky/Funny to turn my humor on girls and actually got some mediocre results. A drunk make-out here, an ugly girl’s phone number there. Still no real results though.

I read the Venusian Arts Handbook (basically what became Magic Bullets) and decided to memorize some routines, magic tricks and even some palm-reading. In my first couple dozen sets of my life, I would try these and they would fail miserably. I suck at magic. One girl, while getting a palm-read, looked at me and said, “Why are you touching me?” Another girl, after a botched magic trick looked at me and said, “You should just try being normal.” Little did I know, she gave me better advice than 80% of the PUA community.

Sticking Points: I still had awful approach anxiety. Anything more than one set a night was a “good night.” Attraction game was all over the place, uncalibrated, and awkward. I sucked at routines.

Phase 2: Afraid of Sex
When: May – July of 2006
Progress Report: I took the girl’s advice and tried to just act normal on cold approaches. To my utter amazement, my results got better. I stuck with the Cocky/Funny I used at my friend’s parties and actually started getting phone numbers off cold approach.

My social circle game really started coming into its own. My occasional drunk make-outs finally turned into hook ups and in April, I ended a 16-month sex drought. The experience was terrifying.

When I got sexual with girls, I freaked out that they’d become emotional attached or involved with me (baggage from my relationship; me projecting), and would quit answering their calls. I held the limiting belief that any girl who would sleep with me wanted to be my girlfriend. Seriously…

In June, I met up with a local Boston guy through the lair. He could approach all night but couldn’t hold conversations. I could hold conversations all night but couldn’t approach because I still had crippling approach anxiety. He proceeded to approach about eight sets in the first hour. I stood by stunned and horrified at the groups he fearlessly started talking to. By the end of the night I calmed down and even opened a few sets myself. My AA finally became manageable.

It was in July in which I met a super-natural. We met because the same girl invited us both to a party of hers. To this day, I have yet to meet anyone in the community better than him. Over the next year, I would go out with him and watch him pull smoking hot girls home consistently and without hesitation. I owe a lot of the speed and extent of my development to him.

Sticking Points: Bad sexual anxiety. Sloppy escalation. Would act like a jack ass on day 2’s.

Phase 3: Finally Getting It
When: August – December 2006
Progress Report: I continued to go out five nights a week, half of which I spent with my natural wing, the other half with community guys or college friends.

Watching my natural friend interact with women quickly influenced my dominance and how sexual I was willing to be around girls. The stuff he pulled off was amazing and consistently tested my beliefs and reality.

That summer, I took a girl home from a party. She was very aggressive and it was apparently within an hour or two that we’d have sex. When we got back to my place, once again I ran into severe sexual anxiety and started freaking out that this girl was going to want to date me or something. I decided to take the bluntly honest route and talk to her, set expectations. I told her after sex, “Hey, you’re cool but you need to know this isn’t going to go anywhere.”

She laughed in my face and said, “Who said I wanted to see you again?” This experience was HUGE.

My college party/social circle game hit its peak. I had a night in August where I hooked up with three girls in one night. My college friends and their parties would continue to supply the majority of my lays for the next six months.

I got my first fuck buddies, although I was still bad at keeping them around. I still over-gamed on day 2’s and girls I had already slept with, mostly out of a lack of confidence, but also out of habit.

During this period, I probably slept with 10-12 girls, tripling the amount of women I had been with in my entire life.

On paper, I suppose I had reached legitimate “PUA” status. Within only eight months, I had gone from being a stumbling newbie who needed help approaching, to the guy most guys came to for advice in the lair. I got one night stands. I had a fuck buddy or two.

But I still had a lot of inner game work and emotional work to do — stuff I had never planned on working on, but would soon bite me in the ass.

Sticking Points: Inner game — seeking way too much validation, becoming addicted to sarging. Emotionally vacant. Still had sexual anxiety issues.

Interlude: The Salvadorean Woman
When: January – May 2007
Progress Report: I began to get frustrated in December of 2006. I still had a lot of irrational fears about girls I was seeing — I’d inexplicably stop calling them back and decide that they were needy and crazy — and kept fighting bouts of sexual anxiety.

I decided to check myself into therapy. I did some research, found a guy near my apartment who my insurance covered and I could relate to (went to same college, had been a musician and a slacker, used to womanize when he was young).

What started out as, “Hey Doc, help me keep my pecker hard,” turned into a long dialog that delved into my emotional issues — first, my ex-girlfriend (predictable) and then my parent’s divorce (whoa, didn’t see that coming) and then finally my entire adolescence.

I’m not one of those guys who shits on therapy at all. I think if you find the right therapist, it’s incredibly helpful. You just have to find the right person and be willing to open yourself up and work on yourself. I was extremely engaged every week. Every week I’d figure something out about myself, my emotional inner works, my past, my issues, etc. and then I’d spend the rest of the week turning the ideas over in my head. Eventually, after about 4-5 months, I showed up one day and it felt like I didn’t have anything to talk about. So I stopped. That was it. All in all, seeking therapy was one of the smartest things I ever did.

The other thing that happened was I met a woman. She was foreign (love it), older (also love it), beautiful, smart and rich. Our first date consisted of her buying a bottle of Johnny Walker and us sitting in her apartment until 4AM speaking in broken English (her) and broken Spanish (me). It was wonderful.

Now, as with all the other previous girls that I had really liked, I was still scared shitless of commitment, but this woman was too amazing to not commit to. She was mature and handled her emotions well, which is what I needed in the girl I dated at the time. She was fun and playful, had a sexy accent, and spoiled the shit out of me. It’s really hard to ditch a woman when she’s sexy, fun AND perfectly willing to spend $1000 on you without thinking twice.

It was good for me. It was perfect for me really. It restored my confidence, my emotional stability, helped me open myself up again. I wasn’t afraid of intimacy or relationships anymore.

Eventually, she had to move back to her country. Her family worked in the government (which in Central America is a huge deal). She finagled a job for me at the US Embassy down there and invited me to go down to live with her.

As fantastic as it all sounded, I realized she and I wanted different things. I had just gotten out of college. She wanted to settle down, probably marry and have kids. The idea that a woman was actually willing to marry me — and not even that, a woman of THAT caliber really did a number on my reality.

Unfortunately, I had to turn her down. We lost touch. She was such a blessing and I still think about her now and again.

Phase 4: Put Me Back in the Game Coach
When: May – December 2007
Progress Report: When I came back, I was rusty for a few weeks. But in no time, I was hitting it hard again, five nights a week, and the results started pouring in like there was no tomorrow. Probably a new girl every week or two for six months.

But the difference was that I was actually keeping girls around now. I was keeping them around for three, six, even eight months at a time. We always seemed to enjoy our time together. And when it came time for them to move on, I was remaining friends with them. There were almost never any hard feelings or awful drama.

Within a few months I had a large rotation of girls that I maintained until the end of the year.

Sticking Points: I still remained emotionally shallow with my girls. Also, my lifestyle had become dominated by pick up. I reached a point where I was unemployed, broke, living on a friend’s couch, and was dating four girls and going out three nights a week. It was stupid. And I quickly became miserable.

Phase 5: Girlfriend, Coaching and the Post-PUA Life
When: January – September 2008
Progress Report: I decided to put my life in order. On top of being a mess personally and financially, I was getting burnt out from all of the sarging. I don’t know about you, but after about a dozen 4-month-long casual relationships, it starts to get a bit old. The one night stands got old even way before that.

This period, I found myself slowly falling into another serious long-term relationship with my current girlfriend. She started as a FB about six months prior.

This period also saw me begin coaching which created a bizarre effect on my social life and general psyche for a while. This is documented on this blog in my “Post PUA Life” posts from the summer of 2008.

But a lot of this was just getting back to being a normal person again. As fucked up as that sounds, it was true. Learning how to NOT go out five nights a week. Learning how to go out and NOT approach girls and still have fun.

Phase 6: Emotional Freedom, Polyamory, and Beyond?
When: September 2008 – Present
Progress Report: The evolution I’ve gone through the last six months has been a deeply emotional/relationship management one. It has also been chronicles on this blog here. My saga with Erika has also been a product of this personal evolution.

Sticking Points: I’d say my sticking points now involve managing multiple deep emotional relationships simultaneously — you could call it “love logistics.” I still think when it comes down to it, the first five minutes are my weakest minutes of any cold approach. I could do better opening large groups and handling night-game logistics. But these are all things that I don’t really plan on addressing until I become single again, move and starting going out again.

Which PUA’s you ask? We made quite the rounds this trip. Among spending time with DJ Fuji (Mehow’s top instructor), the ever-lovely Erika, and Megatron (currently in the running in both Practical Pickup’s Coolest Former Student Award and Most Fucked Up Sense of Humor that would Make El Topo Wince Award — BTW, Megs, your blog is pink and looks really gay), we spent some quality time with old skoolers Cameron Teone and Formhandle (of Fast Seduction fame) — and this isn’t even to mention a bizarre text correspondence I had with Hypnotica… brother.

We giggled while Cameron frantically hit on LA platinum blonde crackwhores with fake tits… Well, they giggled, I mostly drank.

Fuji’s mohawk now glows in the dark. Which was helpful because Cameron’s apartment lacked such modern affairs as electricity and dining room furniture. But he sure as fuck had Chex Mix and beer.

I once fucked a girl in a church. This was considered appropriate dinner conversation.

We gave an amazing and dynamic talk to a group of 50+ guys — except I forgot our products in Boston and we didn’t convert one single bootcamp sale. One bootcamp student’s credit card got declined… after a full day’s coaching. If I’m homeless in two months, you won’t have to ask why.

Woo woo spiritual shit actually works. Who knew? Erika might as well be friggin’ Ms. Cleo the way she reads my mind. She cured Formhandle’s cough and my indigestion with nothing but her hands. Doc was skeptical, so she put her hand on his chest and he almost started crying. Respect the woo woo.

We taught, “What’s black, blue and hates sex? … The five year old in my trunk,” as an opener… and it hooked. Take your routine’s manual and wipe your ass with it.