Hey Guys,
I attended the Sydney bootcamp from the 13th to the 15th of April 2007, and after reading some pretty dirty reviews of another company’s bootcamps, thought I’d throw my own experiences into the ring. I won’t mention the daytime segments of the bootcamp, because anyone can buy the Venusian Arts handbook and read it themselves (albeit without the personal input of the VA instructors, which was great).
What I will mention is the in-field segment of the bootcamp, because that’s where the value lies. For eleven hours spread over two nights, we were out practicing the application of the material we’d been learning during the day, under the watchful eyes of the instructors.
The first night started with me making a few approaches to get into that special place. My first approach was especially funny, because after I ejected and went back to Moxie to see what he thought, he took me back over to the set, locked himself in and explained to me in front of the girls the purpose of locking in. That’s the sort of tutoring that seems awkward, but is totally priceless (not to mention the unintentional comedy of the girls’ confused facial expressions).
The pattern continued all night: making approaches, ejecting, getting critique, and then going back in. We got to see the instructors make several approaches from afar, which was great, because I’d never seen an attractive women dance like a monkey (not literally). But the best part was when the instructors started to wing us; coming into the set when we looked like we were beginning to lose value and helping us out. It’s a great way to see the game played from close range without looking creepy, and it was an incredible learning experience. Not only can you hand over to the instructors; studying their verbal and body language and interjecting with your own stuff along the way, but you can have them there watching you, and literally giving advice to you out aloud (“stand up straight”, “lean back”, “talk louder”), which again sounds awkward, but the girls never even seemed to notice (and besides; if they did, fuck it). Highlight of the first night: getting a phone number and a kiss from a 26 year old Polish student after Moxie and I opened her with a conversation about….salad. It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it!
The second night was much the same, except with the added application of that day’s daytime seminar (which covered A2&3). I was being instructed by Metro (Moxie’s wing, from what I understand), and I spent all night practicing locking into seated sets (which was pretty good fun) and just generally refining the various aspects of my A’s game, with Metro’s great help. The two highlights of the night: Metro applying the “bullshit baffles brains” mantra to steal a girl’s seat and leave her standing in the passageway looking totally none-the-wiser while he chatted up her still-seated friends, and watching Lovedrop and Moxie double-team a three (or four?) set by doing Borat impersonations (Seriously. Their kung-fu is so strong, they could probably shit in the girls handbags and still fuck them later on).
I think there is something in the bootcamp for everyone, regardless of that person’s skill. Having some of the best guys in the game teaching you almost one-on-one how to get better was so powerful, it literally changed my life. You can study the material as many times as you like, but without understanding the application you may as well visit a brothel instead of a club. Lovedrop, Moxie, Metro and London Playboy gave me such a fast-tracked education of the Venusian Arts that I have to recommend the bootcamp to everyone. If you can’t afford the cost, mortgage your house. It’s that good.
I have separated this review into three components: Instructors, Highlights and My Own Experience.
INSTRUCTORS:
Matador
Make no mistake about it, this was Matador’s Workshop. Yes, JDog and Mystery were both involved, but it was Matador’s show.
Appearance: Matador is a big man. Really big. While he is only 6’2”, his shoes (I think that they are the same pair that Neil Armstrong wore when he made his ‘giant leap for mankind’) raised him to at least 6’4”. He has massive shoulders and a tapered waist. He is not the kind of guy that you would mess with in a back alley unless you were packing a Glock, but I get the impression that this man could probably stop bullets…you would need kryptonite to bring him down.
Demeanor: Imagine the man that you know in your life that exhibits the most ‘Alpha’ qualities. Now take that same man after he has been injected with the serum that gave Captain America his super-powers and you have Matador. The man oozes ‘Alpha’. I swear to you, I saw him sneeze and before he could cover his mouth, bits of ‘Alpha’ landed on the table. When he walks through a hallway or club, he has the appearance of moving underwater; his pace is that slow and powerful. Simply by listening to Matador, you could sense your own mind transitioning into an Alpha state.
The Good: After spending time with Matador, you feel like you can conquer the world. He tells it to you straight. Seriously, he’ll hit you with it right between the eyes. He doesn’t hold back because it is not in his nature to disguise his words. He knows that you did not shell out your hard-earned cash to have someone blow sunshine up your ass. If you want that kind of shit, go see Tony Robbins. If you want to create change in your life, hang with Matador.
Please do not misunderstand what I am saying, just because he is straight with you, it does not mean that the man is not articulate. He is surprisingly expressive and eloquent. His level of intellect is evident within moments of meeting him.
The Bad: Because Matador is so overwhelmingly ‘Alpha’, it was evident that it took the group almost a full day to fully relax when they were around him. While I don’t believe this to be a terrible thing, as Matador represents what an man can become with time and dedication, I could sense that some of the students felt that the disparity between themselves and Matador was so extreme that they were feeling as though they could never be ‘that good’. For this reason, I asked Matador to tell us what he was like before being trained in the Community. He graciously told us about his AFC days, which immediately put the group at ease as you could see the development of commonalities.
What he accomplished for the students at this Workshop: Matador did it all. He spent hours helping everyone with their SPs. What I found to be so surprising was the area that Matador told us all that we needed to improve the most. It was our Openers. Not the words to the Openers, rather, it was our body language (BL) during our Openers. We spent HOURS practicing our approaches in the class room before heading to the field. I felt that I was already a socially intelligent guy, but the improvement that I made in this area was immense. Matador’s work was pure genius.
Matador gave each of us exactly what we needed. Everything from the Approach to our own Identities, he took the time to carefully guide us. When we were done the Workshop, I can honestly tell you that I felt like I had ripped these guys off. With the skill set that they gave me, one that no man can gain from any book, I should have paid them $10k, not the paltry $2,250 that they charged me (more on this later).
JDog
I found that I was able to really identify with JDog. He was the polar opposite of Matador, which made for a great Workshop. They were like Gin & Tonic. By themselves, they are okay, but together, they are spectacular. This may have been a poor example since I enjoy Gin about as much as I enjoy Buckley’s cough syrup, but you get the point.
Appearance: JDog has style. The man can dress. Every time that I saw him, I was like, “Whoa, brother, where did you get that?” He would look down at his jacket or shirt and say in his English accent, “Britain, and it was only 30 pounds (currency, not weight, for those of you that are living out in the ‘sticks’ and finally have discovered an Internet connection).” He probably bought the goods at the boutique next door…*wink*
His build is not at all like Matador’s. He stands at perhaps 5’9”, with the same Neil Armstrong boots or Cuban heels on his feet. He is in great shape, but his body resembles a Calvin Klein model’s rather than a WWE wrestler’s like Matador’s.
When in the bars/clubs, unlike Matador, who did no ‘peacocking’, JDog would be moderately peacocked. He kept his same sense of style, but vamped it up just enough to separate himself from everyone else in the venue.
Demeanor: JDog’s game is all charisma. His style is very different than Matador’s, yet they used the same technology to open and hold sets. This is what makes the Venusian Arts so amazing, it does not matter what your natural style is, as long as you are hitting the necessary Attraction Switches, the set is on. Matador and JDog, on the 2nd night out, were locking in sets side-by-side, using the SAME openers and having the kind of success that up until those moments I had only read about.
The students responded well to JDog. This was evident when Matador left the room and handed JDog the reigns to teach the group. Almost immediately the guys starting asking JDog questions. It was obvious that people feel instantaneously comfortable around JDog, where Matador had to show the group that he was not born on Krypton before they would relax with him.
The Good: When I asked JDog about where he was from, he told me ‘Arizona’ and that he had purchased his English accent from eBay. He continued to tell me that he really wanted the French accent, but was outbid at the last moment and had to settle for the English. This is who JDog is, a likeable, disarming man with a great sense of style and wicked game. Witnessing him in set were some of the best moments of my weekend. On the 2nd night, I told JDog that I wanted to watch him work. While I was not paired with him, JDog was good enough to seek me out and start opening sets for me. He did everything right. He was like Iceman from Top Gun. No mistakes. Perfectly calibrated. Unless, of course, you include the part of the movie when Iceman leaves some jet-wash for Goose and Maverick to fly through and Goose dies…You get the point, this guy has spent years honing his skill-set and it was evident.
The Bad: While students worked very well with JDog one-on-one, he does not hold the same presence when in front of the group that Matador does. However, I feel that this will come with time, as JDog’s exposure to leading Workshops increases. If JDog had been the only instructor at the Workshop, I still would have paid the money and felt as though I was undercharged for what I received.
Mystery
I have not read the book ‘The Game’. Of course, I know of it. It’s almost biblical within the Community. Actually, I heard that the Gideons are now leaving the book in hotel rooms…
Anyhow, I did not read the book for one reason: I wanted to meet Mystery without any preconceived ideas or notions. I wanted to see the ‘man’, not the celebrity. When Mystery entered the Workshop, he was only the ‘man’. There is not an arrogant or pretentious bone in this man’s body. You have NO IDEA what this guy has coming down the pipeline and the crowd that he roles with, but he treated each of us as his equal.
I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about Mystery, other than this: I have yet to meet a man that can match his intellect and eloquence. He is an absolute genius that is nothing short of captivating.
I’m going to leave it at that. Find a way to learn how this man thinks. Experts will tell you that success leaves clues. Mystery has not left us ‘clues’, he has given the world a mindset and a system that will change your life. Seek him out and learn.
Mystery’s Girlfriend
We were fortunate enough to have Mystery’s girlfriend join us in the Workshop…
Now, I know that you are all wondering, “What does she look like?” Well, I’ll tell you. She is one of the most naturally beautiful girls I have ever seen. To describe her as stunning would be an understatement. However, it was not her appearance that impressed me so much, it was her character. This girl is special. She is only 22 years old, with a blazingly bright business mind as she is designing three separate clothing lines for major players in the fashion industry. She is empathetic, approachable and happy in life. She has the mind of champion. It is girls like her that are the reason that guys like us pay thousands of dollars to learn how to attract women. It is girls like her that are the reason that guys like us invest countless hours into studying the material and going into the field to learn to calibrate night after night. She was an inspiration for every man that sat in that room.
Mystery’s girl entered the field with us on night two as a pivot. This girl has game. She introduced us to set after set using Accomplishment Introductions. She created ridiculous amounts of social proof for each one of us and she would interrupt sets to arouse jealousy in our targets. I’m not certain that she spent more than 5 minutes with Mystery that night as she was with all of the students helping their game.
Mystery bringing his girl and encouraging her to help us ‘game’ is just one more example of who this man is and the type of quality people that he has attracted into his life.
HIGHLIGHTS
Mystery’s Warm-up: I watched Mystery begin his warm-up by opening a mixed 20-set. Mystery held the set for about 15 minutes before ejecting to open another set that had just witnessed massive amounts of social proof. It was pure genius. He opened the 20-set for one reason: to let the rest of the people in the venue see him causing others to have a good time. It created a complete paradigm shift in my game.
JDog’s AMOG: When JDog was in a 2-set with CrimsonKing (a student) as his wing, an AMOG interrupted the set. This guy was not your normal obnoxious AMOG, he was the Grand Pubba of AMOGs. He may have even been wearing his Grand Pubba hat when he came to the club, as there was definitely a hint of hat-head in the AMOGs greasy hair. JDog handled this guy like how Star Jones handles a pizza. He chewed him up and sent him on his sullen way. How did he do it? Well, in the beginning he just totally ignored the guy. Each time Grand Pubba AMOG would try to take over the conversation, JDog would say ‘right’ and continue on in his set. This tactic will usually diffuse the AMOG, but instead, it just made the grease ball attempt to interject even more.
Finally, the AMOG grabbed JDog and said, “Dude, are you gay?”
At this point, everyone was watching, not just the girls in the set.
JDog’s response: “No man, but the gay bar is just down the street. Have fun.”
Everyone laughed, not just a snicker, but a loud, explosive laugh. It was beautiful. The AMOG then did his own version of a magic trick; he disappeared to another part of the club. JDog just continued the set as though nothing had happened. This was an area that I really needed help in, so being able to witness someone that is this skilled handle the President-Elect of AMOGs was great.
Matador’s Game: On the second night, I was able to watch Matador k-close 3 different girls in the span of about an hour, one of which was our hostess (which he opened and k-closed in front of the entire group in under 5 minutes). These were attractive girls, and you could tell that Matador was trying to help the group understand the process by showing us how to go from A1 to C1 by continuously opening and closing out the sets at the highest level of attraction. He could have pulled anyone of these girls to his hotel (see below), but he felt that he needed to stay to continue to work with the students, which we all greatly appreciated.
Hotel Room Pull: After we arrived back at the hotel on the 2nd night, JDog, Matador and I went outside for a quick smoke. There was a 2-set that was also smoking about 20 feet away from us. Matador opened the set, JDog entered as a wing, and after a 15 minute convo, they pulled the 2 girls upstairs to their room. As Matador opened the front door for the girls to head upstairs, he flashed me a quick smile and off they went. Spectacular.
Venusian Arts Going Above and Beyond: When we arrived at the club on the 2nd night, we had an issue with two of our guys (me being one of them). The club didn’t care for our shoes. I liked my shoes, Matador liked my shoes, but the doorman didn’t. They were not going to let two of us in. After some negotiations the club agreed to let us enter if we purchased the VIP table and drink service. The cost of the service was $400. The instructors did not even blink an eye. They slipped the manager a credit card and we were in the club within moments. It was VERY cool of the Venusian Arts guys to do this for us.
Pinch me, is this real? Within an hour of us being in the club, the strangest thing happened. Three VA instructors, one hot girl (Mystery’s girlfriend), and nine guys that could have played Anthony Michael Hall’s role in “Sixteen Candles”, now OWNED the venue. WE were the cool guys. WE were the guys that were ‘creating the moments’. WE were the guys that had multiple sets coming to OUR area of the club. WE were the guys that were number-closing and kiss-closing. WE were the guys that, in a span of 48 hours, went from AFCs to near-PUAs. It was on this night that each and every single one of us realized that this stuff is for real and that we REALLY did change our lives.
Commitment to Your People: The schedule for the weekend showed that we were to end each day at 7pm to give the instructors time to eat, clean up and catch a nap before hitting the venues. If you have ever run a seminar, then you know just how emotionally exhausting it can be. These guys needed some rest. But, the instructors could sense the eagerness of the students to keep learning, so they stayed with the group until the last possible moment. On the Saturday night, Mystery and JDog didn’t even eat (Matador ate…pasta with clams…perhaps some foreshadowing of events to come later that night). They stayed with us until 10pm on both nights, at which point we gathered our things and began getting ready for the club. On the Sunday night, we were to conclude at 7pm, with the instructors catching flights back home on Monday morning. They stayed with us until 1:00am, in the classroom, working on our inner game. Don’t ever tell me that the VA guys are not invested in their students. It was the single greatest display of leadership and caring that they could have given us. They were EXHAUSTED. Matador’s eyes had almost swollen shut completely. It was like he was having an allergic reaction to oxygen. But he stayed with us. Mystery picked up were Matador left off and we were truly captivated. These are dedicated guys that want nothing more than to help improve the lives of people who are willing to learn. We all were very appreciative of their gesture to keep teaching long past the times that we had agreed to before the Workshop began.
Some of My Own Experiences
As for my personal success, of the 9 sets that I opened, I managed to number-close 5 girls over the two nights. Interestingly enough, two of these girls number-closed ME when they sensed that I might be leaving the set. This is something that Matador taught me how to do through body language. It worked very well.
I was able to stay in set for a long time and I never had a blow-out. Two of the girls that I number closed came from seated mixed sets that held two guys and one girl. This experience elevated my confidence tremendously. Interestingly enough, it was one of these girls that had asked me for my number. Her reason, and I quote: “You are just so brave and come talk to our group and try to get me.” I told her that her ego may be a little too healthy and that I was really interested in the guys, but she wasn’t buying it…*wink*
I did get an AMOG on the first night that was a complete ass and I lost the set. It was going really well up until he entered. He totally tooled me during my ‘palm reading’ routine. I had no idea what to do and I could sense that I had lost the respect of the girls. I ejected from the set and immediately opened another set that was about 8 feet away. I felt that I had created enough social proof to enter the second set with relative ease. I was right, as they were happy to see me. JDog’s demonstration the following night showed me how to handle an AMOG correctly, which I deeply appreciate.
I have called all three of the numbers that I entered into my phone. I have set up Day 2’s with two of them. Of the other two girls that took my number, both have called me. One of them has somehow managed to score tickets to Saturday’s hockey game and I am the lucky recipient of the second ticket (I told her that we should scalp the tickets and jump on a plane to Aruba…). Next week should prove to be VERY interesting.
As I said earlier, with respect to the Workshop, I feel as though it was I that scored the deal. The VA instructors are truly under-charging for their time and their material. I took 77 pages of notes over the weekend. My finger still hurts from the damn pen (since the advent of the computer, a pen rarely touches my hand). These were not notes on one of those standard hotel room pads. These notes were on a full letter-sized yellow pad. Even with all the notes that I took and the experiences that I had, I believe that I have only begun to scratch the surface of what Matador, JDog and Mystery can teach me. When I mentioned this to Matador, he told me that he is available 24/7, just send him an email and he will answer all of my questions. He is truly interested in our progress and continued success.
I do not know what ‘Workshops’ from other companies are like. I can only assume that they do offer some value, since 90% of the competing companies are run by Mystery’s former students (that should tell you something). However, I will assure you that attending a Venusian Arts Workshop will change your life. Anytime you have the opportunity to spend three days, in an intimate setting, with the people who are the best on the planet at what they do, you TAKE IT. I did, and I will never look back.
Matador, JDog and Mystery truly changed my life, and for this, I will be forever grateful.
~Vernon
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