Year 3: Junior Review
It’s that time of year again for me. My men’s retreat is at the beginning of October, so it’s time to reflect on what I’ve accomplished and learned.
Since the forum transition left some links broken, these posts may not have everything linked correctly, but here are
Year 1 &
Year 2.
What I accomplished this year:
- 12 new lays (4 social circle, 3 FetLife, 1 Bumble, 2 Feeld, 2 Hinge)
- Harem at its peak with 5 girls before I left Austin
- BDSM Munch established in 2 cities
- 4 boudoir/erotic photography shoots
- FetLife 380+ friends & 230+ followers
- Became a mod for WinnerWithin
- Traveled from Austin to Denver, Spokane, New York, & Seattle.
- Met dozens of guys from the forums along the way and cold approached with some
- Deepened friendships with the Austin crew on NYC trip
- Saw dozens of sights and mini adventures everywhere I traveled including both coasts of the US
- Pulled multiple times to van, which was a whole new experience for me
- Got closure on a lot of old chapters with my ex wife, old friends, and parents, all which have great friendships now
- Deepened my friendships with the men in men’s group and added 2 more guys
- Started offering sex & relationship coaching and had two clients; created dozens of pieces of content so far
- Also worth mentioning, outside of dating, my startup is officially a 501c3 non-profit, has 3 board members and will have 2 more in the future, and we’re working on putting together a major donor strategy for raising 250k for year one’s budget.
Brief reflection:
I find it funny that I had about the same amount of lays despite me traveling around a ton and thinking that might hinder me. In terms of girls, on average they were quality and some of the best connections I’ve had so far. When I return to Austin, I look forward to seeing just how some of those connections reignite.
I’m quite happy with where my FetLife and status in the kink scene is taking me. I started putting work into FetLife because 1) I’m kinky and 2) I did not like how much energy was always wasted on the apps. If you don’t get the girl on a date from an app, the energy to procure that lead is essentially lost. However, with FetLife, I still get to keep some of the effort put in. I got to reap so many benefits from this from girls sliding into my DM’s to actual lays, and the effort will only keep compounding.
It was fantastic to start my munch again in a new city and have someone excited about taking it over when I left. I’ve said this before, but I’d like to focus on more higher end play parties now, so I may try to get that going when I return to Austin.
Being thrust into a new lifestyle when I began van life was difficult. I had the van breakdown a couple of times, dealt with my solar generator taking a shit for about a month, and just the daily uncertainty of “where do I park/cook/charge/hookup with girls/ect.” It was exhausting at times. However, I’ve seen more friends, seen more places, and had more experiences in 6 months than I’ve had any other year, ever. It has been incredibly fulfilling and I am finally getting used to the lifestyle where I can enjoy the benefits while not spending much mental energy on the downsides. Starting to do house sits in very nice homes has made it much more manageable and enjoyable, too. I look forward to how I continue to maximize this lifestyle.
I was quite worried that living in a van would hinder my ability to pull, and have been pleasantly surprised about how easy it was. If they dig you, they dig you, and they don’t care where you’ll be hooking up.
There was also a part of me that wanted to prove to myself that Austin was not a fluke. That I could, in fact, have similar success in another city. Seattle has been a blessing for that.
Shoutout to the community. I’m honored and grateful I was asked to be a part of the mod team for the new forums.
What I learned
This year’s lessons section will be shorter, only because much of the dating lessons were remembrance of the fundamentals. They are covered in my journey previously in this log. Also, I’m sharing more lessons in my articles these days than in my logs. However, here are a few that stood out to me this year.
Lesson: Push the interaction as far as it will go.
- I read Game Solved this year and one of the lessons that stood out to me was that every interaction you have with a girl, you should push it as far as it will go. Get the hard no. The author not only met this in terms of getting the number or date, but even after you got the lay. The concept is to help you not be afraid to keep asking or seeing what more there is.
- Examples I distinctly remember implementing this were on a couple of approaches, I got the “sorry, I have a boyfriend” and I asked if they were open relationships. Small, but one girl told me she actually had a boyfriend and girlfriend. So I told her there was room for one more.
- Another good example was making plans and inviting one of my harem girls to travel to me in another city after I left Austin.
Lesson: It’s all just trade offs.
- This insight came to me after having traveled to multiple cities and met girls in those cities. It applies to all areas of your life. No matter where you go or who you are with, you will always have to compromise. One city or one girl may be great in one area, and shitty in another. So you go to find a different one only to find out they have trade offs too. There are no utopias and there are no perfect beings. Eventually you have to make a choice about what you’re willing to compromise on.
Lesson: It’s worth revisiting the outcomes of past significant life decisions in the present day.
- Every city I traveled to I visited people that were part of old selves. For example, my ex-wife, friends from high school, friends from college, and distant relatives. What is significant about doing so is observing their life and being able to place yourself in their shoes, assessing whether if you had not made the decision you made years ago, you might be in a similar situation. It brought me incredible confidence in myself during a time when I’d uprooted my lifestyle yet again to pursue a life that most would not.
Lesson: Invest in relationships.
- Building relationships is about quality and quantity of time spent together in person. Traveling allowed me to do that with many more people than I have ever before. I focused on building old relationships rather than creating new ones; however, I was blessed to have made some great new friends as well. It was one of the most fulfilling undertakings this year and will continue to pay dividends for years to come.
Lesson: Status compounds.
- Every time I rolled into a new city, I was more easily able to contact girls in that city because of the work I had put in previously on my FetLife. When I went to start a new munch, it was easier to do because I had evidence of doing it before in another city. I’m still relatively small in comparison to others, but I don’t think it’s out of the question that in a few short years I’ll be invited to national conferences and other special events, considering I got invited to a few in Austin. With that comes the rewards behind closed doors and the hottest girls of that scene.
- Obviously that applies to the BDSM scene, but the concept of status applies to any scene/ community. You put in the work, you get recognized, you get higher positions, you reap the rewards.
Lesson: Trust yourself. You’ll figure it out.
- This lesson is for all the newbies who feel they need to have every detail figured out before they move to a new city, get a new job, pursue some new goal, or whatever you keep turning your wheels about. When I started van life, I had a rough idea about how it would go, but there were so many unforeseen variables that it would have been debilitating to even comprehend in the beginning. While doing your due diligence to prepare is admirable, you also need to trust yourself that you will figure things out. Everything is ok. Everything will be ok.
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Year 4: Senior
Priority 1: Business
For those interested in what I’m building, it’s a non-profit, online university with a mission to provide free education for the betterment of humanity. We match students' passions with global challenges, teaching them skills not taught at traditional universities.
Next year I’ll be mostly in fundraising mode raising our first 250k to develop a bachelors program. I’m hoping my skills in relationship building will come in handy as I schmooze major donors.
I’ll also be applying for a couple PhD programs. To have your university accredited, someone on the team needs to be a PhD. Welp, I suppose that will be me.
Additionally, I’ll be growing my fledgling sex and relationship coaching business. Considering my main thing is a non-profit, this allows for a backup and uncapped revenue stream. Plus the status benefits for dating. Risky business mixing education and sex, but I think I’ll manage.
Priority 2: Spirituality
During my travels I took a 3 day silent meditation retreat with one of the men in my men’s group. It pointed out a semi undeveloped part of my life. In the past month I’ve been studying non-dual tantra Shaivism or also known as Kashmir Shaivism which some of its teachings have really resonated with me. I’ve also increased my meditation practice to an hour each morning before breakfast. I’ll be studying that more next year and implementing some of the spiritual practices.
Priority 3: Deeper Relationships
Look, the game is fun, but it’s tiring after a while. I also miss some of the romance of an LTR and the ability to go much deeper with someone both sexually and emotionally than you can really do even with a solid FWB. That said, it’s extremely unlikely I will do monogamy again. So what I’m ideally aiming for next year are long term partners.
I’m also going to be focusing a lot more on priority one and two above, and I’d like to recoup the time spent on going on dates and such to be funneled there.
Now part of my plan next year is to snowbird between Austin & Seattle every 6 mos. I don’t entirely know how that will work with more serious relationships, if I’ll have sets of girls in each city, or what. Remember the lesson: trust yourself. You’ll figure it out.
My hope is that one of those relationships is Politics Girl when I return to Austin. We’ll see. I’d have done the same with Bumble Girl, but she’s a wanderlust and will be off traveling south America. Whatever happens, I’m ok if I need to procure and build new relationships.
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Given my lifestyle, I anticipate I’ll have more new lays in the coming future. However, I won’t be doing reports for those anymore because I believe I’ve said all that needs to be said there, and as it’s not my focus right now so I don’t want the external validation feedback loop. If I happen to have some new milestone, like a threesome or cold approach lay, I’ll report that.
I’ll continue reporting any strategies I find useful, particularly pertaining to FetLife and Social Circle as those are my favorite sources. I’ve already been in touch with the leader I appointed back in Austin and he's created alliances with two other groups and they are holding a big Halloween play party. Plus he’s already ready to hand back the reins. I’m quite happy to see the group has grown in influence and that I was skilled enough to pick a competent leader while I was away who’s also humble enough to relinquish power.
As always, thank you guys for your support, advice, encouragement, and camaraderie this year. I hope that I’m able to keep serving and giving value to you so we may all succeed.