I recently read a very interesting blog article at Boston PUA, in which the author attempts to explain recent developments in the worldwide seduction community. The article in question offers some explanations on the implosion of the pickup coaching market from an American pickup instructor’s perspective.
One of the key things mentioned in the article mentioned above is that the PUA coaching market has become over-commercialized. Many of my PUA friends around the world tell me that demand for pickup bootcamps has also declined greatly over the last four months. It’s a lot worse in the UK and the states than it is here in Denmark. As a result, many new aspiring pickup artists have set up shop as coaches only to discover how hard it is to succeed. Subsequently, they turn to establishing yet another forum so they can make money on affiliate deals.
The reality behind this trend is that with the launch and global exposure of best-selling book “The Game” by Neil Strauss, our little community changed, and it did so very quickly. The newcomers to the seduction scene are so much more pre-exposed to social success than we ourselves were as newcomers in 1999 (me) -2005 (Entropy). As a result, people with less than a year of exposure to the seduction community are now making fun of the gurus, who are but jokes to them. The guys that did well in 1999 had sex with 10 women a year. Where I was raised, that was normal for many of my friends, not for me. The guys that do well in the present day seduction community have sex with 50 women every year. Well, wooptidoo!
Let me tell you right away that I completely agree with the many socially successful newcomers. Putting yourself on a pedestal; proclaiming that you are a master PUA is ridiculous!
I am not making fun of anyone … in fact I have the utmost respect for “the old guard” for their personal development throughout the years. ALL development must be measured relative to the starting position. However, what’s hilarious is that the marketing of the “gurus” has not followed the development of the market profile. They promote their skills with women, and the result is dissatisfied customers, because the customers are already MORE successful with women than the gurus are.
Please, stop and think for a minute. Is it at all possible that you can be a great pickup artist, but a lousy coach?
A very famous English PUA visited Denmark in 2008, and a friend of mine used the opportunity to arrange a bootcamp with this English guy as a star coach. Some of my former clients attended, and a few weeks later I received an email from one of them asking me why on Earth we are not going global.
“He might be a great pickup artist but what he actually gave me for my money was nothing compared to the learning I got through your questions.”
I can tell you right away that both the English guy and my former client can probably out-game me any day of the week. So what?
This is what the gurus obviously fail to understand, when they set up shop as “coaches”… In coaching, it does not matter if you are an expert in picking up women. What matters is your desire to understand your client’s model of the world and deliver coaching to suit his needs. I actually know a guy who quit pickup coaching when a guy at his workshop out-gamed him in a set! (One could be tempted to ask, was this man actually coaching his client, or was he pick-pocketing his client’s wallet with some show-boating?)
We recently had a discussion in our team as to where the market is going. This very interesting discussion was spawned by the fact that since the financial crisis kicked in, many of our competitors in the Danish market have suddenly gone very silent. One of my coaches was worried that it would affect us as well, and begged me to initiate a change in our brand values. “The market is eroding. We need to position ourselves as a pickup bootcamp company,” he said, “else we will lose business.”
To me, one of the key things that separate successful pickup artists and successful pickup coaches is the perception of their own ability to reach a result in terms of picking up women. Poor coaches will need to keep up the appearance that they are successful with women – after all, if they were not, what would they have to sell?
I do not care if I am successful with women or not which, ironically, helps me to be extremely relaxed around women. My main concern for you is that you will meet your desired outcomes in life.
So, here’s what I replied:
“At Powerful Connections, we see seduction as a metaphor for living your potential and, as such, it is a perfect platform to conduct life coaching. The customers are fleeing the market because they decided to have their wallets lifted by one of the many great pickup artists with no clue on how to coach, … instead of engaging one of the very few great coaches that know how to pickup women successfully.”
In fact, I believe the above to be my entire response to the development of the seduction community in 2008. I also believe that it is one of the key foundations upon which we will build our success in 2009.
I know that you will make 2009 a great year in your life and the life of people you meet!
