Opening

It's basic, but it's also easy to forget to do. Smile when you approach a girl, and your odds of success with her go way up.

Sometimes the simplest stuff is the most important.

Every now and again, despite however many years at this, I will go out and discover things aren't going my way. Women don't glance at me or hover near me; when I approach them, they're lukewarm.

At first, whenever something like this happens, I assume it's randomness and asymmetry. Not everyone who sees you will like you; not everyone you talk with you'll connect with. Yet sometimes the pattern keeps up, well past the point you can chalk it all up as randomness. You meet more girls, talk to more girls, and they're still not as receptive as they should be.

Whenever this happens, I do a post-mortem on the outing. What did I do wrong? Where'd I screw up? I can usually find a few areas.

One of the most common, though, is also one of the most basic. All too often, I've been off in whatever kind of mood, and realize I haven't been smiling.

See a hot girl during the day and want to get her number, or even take her home? It can be done! But if you expect to reel her in, you’ll need a quality hook.

Most new guys have a hard time hooking a woman they’ve approached during the day – and it’s no surprise. When you approach women, your veins course with adrenaline. You’re consumed with fear over what people will think about you. You can barely force air through your lungs and move your legs, never mind form consonants and vowels into intelligent conversation.

If you’re in this nervous state, most women won’t hook. They’ll take one look at your stuttering, anxious being and just… keep on walking.

Remember the rule of state transference – whatever you feel, she feels.

That’s why I recommend spending at least a year working on your approach anxiety and hooking. What to actually say should be the last thing you worry about, as it’s the hardest aspect of game to learn and it relies more on experience than study.

Once you get the fundamentals down, hooking becomes natural.

In my day-game model, hooking is simply getting the girl you approached to engage you back. You talk, she listens – she talks, you listen.

Women use subtle ways to express their interest. Keep an eye out for these 11 signs though, and women's subtle signals become clear as day.

Women express interest in men in all sorts of subtle ways. Much of the time, you may not even pick up on the signs... or you may have a vague sense she's interested, but not be sure.

It's a common thing for a guy to think maybe a girl's interested, but actually you're not sure, so you let her go... only to realize later on that, yep, she was definitely interested -- and you missed your shot.

In the list below, we'll lay out 11 of the more subtle ways women use to express interest in you. Once armed with these, you won't have to wonder if "maybe she is." You'll know when you've spotted one of the signs -- and can proceed with her accordingly.

Let's start with #1.

The 3 second rule says you must approach a girl within three (3) seconds of realizing you want to talk to her. When do you follow this rule – and when not?

For today's Tactics Tuesday, I've dug up an old pickup rule some of you well know, and others may not have heard of.

The 3 second rule stems from the early online seduction community. It's a "Mystery" tactic (one of the early 2000s seduction pros). And while you don't want to be rigid about it, it for sure can be a handy little thing.

The 3 second rule works like so: from the instant you spot a girl you'd like to approach, you have three (3) seconds to approach her.

The purpose of the rule is to avoid all the downsides that accompany waiting too long to approach: the buildup of nervousness, worrying thoughts that lead to psyching yourself out, and the closing of the approach escalation window.

The rule itself is straightforward. Today we'll talk about a couple reasons it's useful... plus when it's better to ignore this rule.

A girl’s reaction to your compliments can be a great screening tool and indicator of interest. But not all compliments are created equal in this regard.

Compliments are a good way to demonstrate interest. They’re hard to ignore and very clear in their intent. For guys who haven’t yet learned how to be sexy or demonstrate sexual interest with their eyes, face, and body language, a compliment cuts through all ambiguity and makes your case to her clear – “I want you.”

From that compliment, she will make a decision. Is she going to outright reject you? Will she be polite about it? Maybe she’ll entertain you for a little bit and see what more there is to you.

And sometimes, she’ll buy in completely because that’s what she wanted to hear from you. What’s important for you to recognize is how she specifically reacts to your compliment. That’s a critical juncture in the seduction.

If you can get a handle on what compliments to use and when, you can prevent some bad reactions. But that’s not how it always goes. Rejection from some women is inevitable. What’s important when facing rejection is to see how complete it is. If rejection is inevitable, then the question is about saving time: “Is she worth putting more time and energy into?”

Let’s first dive into the types of compliments.

Beaches are laden with scantily-clad girls with nothing better to do than watch your stuff. If clubs aren’t your thing – or even if they are – find yourself a beach!

The beach is probably the best place in the world for meeting sexy, receptive, barely-dressed women. Better than a nightclub? Hell yeah, bro. I argue they’re way better, less expensive, and easier.

My recent exploits include a trip to Thailand, where I basically lived on beaches for seven weeks and went on a date with a new, beautiful girl almost every day. I also grew up in a small town that was nestled between two beaches. Suffice to say, I know beach game.

You might be thinking you don’t have ripped abs, your legs are too skinny, or whatever other limiting belief(s) you grasp on to. Sure, women like fit men, but they also like brave men, funny men, intelligent men, and charming men. I’m not tall or ripped myself – and I slay at the beach, and you can too.

If a girl thinks you’re a player, it can be a pretty uphill battle with her after that. Here’s why she thinks you’re a player – plus how to remove the ‘tells’.

I counseled a friend recently who's struggled with women for sometime. He's a bit of a 'hard case' - a guy who's been in the game a long time, is friends with many very skilled seducers, and is highly skilled at the early part of approaching and meeting women, and even good at getting girls back to his place... but he has lots and lots of trouble sealing the deal with women. After the first kiss at his place, they invariably leave.

Guys like this can be tough to work with, because things that work for almost everyone else stubbornly don't for them. And you run into the issue of the guy not knowing exactly what's wrong himself, and it being hard to diagnose if you don't spend a lot of time with him in-person.

However, one clue recently was his report on a date that didn't pan out. Early on into the date, the girl closed off a bit and made remarks such as "How fast do you usually have sex with the women you have sex with?" and "I'm someone who doesn't just hop in bed right away." This, mind you, was not when he was trying to take her home, or touching her, or hitting on her - this was early into the date, when they'd just arrived at the date location and just began to talk.

This friend gets comments like from other women too; sometimes on dates, sometimes back at his place.

And while it is common to get girls telling you things like "This is too fast for me" or "Do you always move this fast with girls?" once you're back at your place with them, peeling their clothes off, the farther removed you get from that while still receiving these comments, the more of a problem you know you have.

In this case, the problem is the 'player vibe problem'. The problem is she feels like you are a heartless player, and she is only the latest slab of meat to cross your path.

Obviously, for successful seduction purposes, this is one perception you'd like to dispel.

Do you want to talk to a girl, but there’re people around and you feel unconfident? Put on ‘girl blinders’, and make your audience disappear.

You’re out in public. Could be on the train, on a street, in a bar, in a café, in a grocery store. You see a cute girl. She gives you a coy glance and you think she’d like to meet.

Only then... you take a glance yourself at all the people around you. There are a lot of them. If you approach that girl, they’ll notice.

You’ve never spoken to these people before. Odds are good you won’t see any of them again. Yet, they’ve immediately become the biggest obstacle to your approach. You may not even talk to this girl you’d like to meet, who looks like she’d like to meet you. All because there are people around, and you’re hesitant to approach in front of an audience.

There’s a simple little trick to get around this specific fear.

I call it ‘girl blinders’.

Less pressure on her, more leeway for you. This simple technique lowers her defenses and sets you apart from all the ‘other’ guys.

Hey, guys, and welcome back. So, previously I shared a quick recap of the keys to hooking a girl – or a group – into a conversation.

The first minutes of an interaction with a stranger – e.g., in cold approach – can be the hardest, as she has no clue who you are and doesn’t really need a reason to tell you to get lost. In other words, you have little room for mistakes. You need to do things right. That is what this series is all about.

Hooking is all about getting a girl to willingly interact with you after you open. You can open a girl, but if she is not willing to keep up a conversation with you, an opening isn’t worth much.

The paradox when it comes to opening and hooking is that it is the phase where you have the least room for mistakes, yet also the part where you are the most nervous and prone to make mistakes.

Therefore, my goal here is two-fold:

• To give you tips, tricks, and tools for opening and hooking smoothly – knowing “how” will make you more relaxed and less anxious during the initial phases

• To make the process easier, requiring as little mental energy as possible

Many individuals fear approaching new people or environments. It is a bit scary, I won’t lie. Even the best seducers out there have those fears, to a degree. Therefore, there’s nothing wrong with finding an almost risk-free way of approaching so you can relax a bit more and make the process easier for yourself, mentally and emotionally. That’s what we will cover now.

In my opinion, the way to make an opening smooth and efficient is to use a pre-opener beforehand. It’s not cheating, nor is it always a strategy for pussies. In fact, it’s a smart, fun, and most importantly, efficient way of opening.

Being able to open girls and hook them in quickly is essential. These pre-opening tools will help calm your nerves and make the process smoother.

So I listened to Gunwitch’s podcast, and in it he mentioned that passing through the hook-point – when you and the girl (or group) feel settled in an interaction, where you are part of it, not just a stranger from outside trying to get in – is usually the part of the interaction most guys struggle with.

It is also the part that makes guys most nervous, making it even more difficult. The reason this part is difficult is because you don’t have much time. Once you settle in, you have more time; but getting into an interaction with a group is something you only have a few seconds to do.

Their attention spans are short, as they are not yet focused on you. You will not get away with as much, because you have so little playing room. Remember, women don’t need a reason to reject you. Once you hook, you avoid this issue, because they are more dragged in, which gives you more room.

Women judge you based on their first impression. If you mess up, you are screwed. You don’t have much time to present your good qualities, and you have no room for mistakes.

In other words, it is during the initial phase that you must use a lot of brainpower. It is also then that you have to do things perfectly and care about every small detail.

Now, I'm not trying to freak you out.

Firstly, I will provide you with a lot of material that can help you to get it right. Secondly, once you have a girl or group hooked, the hardest part is over. You can then convey your attractive traits in an easier, more peaceful fashion.