Whispering lines like “Baby, I can make you purr,” are not the best way to pick up a woman, our columnist says.
As a single girl in this city, I, along with my female friends, have heard the gamut of pickup tactics. Some make us smile, like the time a guy gave my friend his number on a Queen of Hearts playing card, while others leave us fleeing in the opposite direction, such as whispering in our ear “Baby, I can make you purr.”
But pickup artist Neil Strauss knows the real secret to being good with women is not to try so hard. “It’s about being non-needy or reaction-seeking,” he says. “You can learn the most incredible things to do and say to people, but if you are doing them to get a reaction from them, they are going to pick up on that.”
Strauss would know. Named the world’s best pickup artist three years running, Strauss researched and integrated himself into a sub-culture of men called the “seduction community” whose main goal is to become better at picking up women. The result: The New York Times best-selling book, The Game: Penetrating The Secret Society Of Pickup Artists along with thousands of e-mails asking Strauss, known in the seduction community as Style, to spill all he knows about women.
Two years later, Strauss has returned with a two-volume book, Master The Game In 30 Days, which gives practical guidelines on meeting women along with some of his own pickup experiences, both good and bad.
“There isn’t a guy out there who doesn’t want to be better with women,” he says on why he wrote the book.
Even Orlando Bloom.
Yes, this Hollywood hunk once asked Strauss for advice on women. “If Orlando Bloom — one of the most successful, best-looking guys on the planet needs advice with women, then every guy does.”
The book, due out today, is based on a 30-day online program Strauss delivered on how to attract women. Thirteen thousand men started the online Stylelife Challenge, learning how to pick up a woman in 30 days, yet only 2,000 finished.
“It’s just like a diet, not everyone does it,” says Strauss.
My guess is not everyone has the right game.
For those who think his new book is just a how-to on manipulating women, Strauss quickly advises reading it before jumping to such a conclusion.
“If a woman reads it, I think she’d understand it’s about a guy’s self-improvement, not about a guy learning manipulation tools,” he says, adding those who still aren’t convinced should meet the guys practising what Strauss teaches. “These are the nice guys, not the assholes. The assholes are too cocky to want to read about it.”
Cocky and egotistical certainly isn’t Strauss’ style. When asked how many women this world-famous pickup artist has picked up, he prefers not to comment.
“I think I’m going to be a gentleman who would never say that,” he says.
Then again, he didn’t earn the title of world’s best pickup artist for nothing.
Kasia Iglinski is a journalist who enjoys her work and her dating life. Armed with a notepad and a curious mind, she’s always on the prowl for a good story and a good date.
