The Tao of DJ Fuji

So I finally found some time to sit down and write about The 21 Convention. In a nutshell, it was absolutely amazing. I had heard good things about the convention from prior years, but this was my first year both attending and speaking. I think one of the things I liked the most about it was that it encompassed a similar philosophy as my training:

“In order to be attractive, you have to work on all aspects of yourself.”

Dream got some of the best speakers in the industry but in keeping with that philosophy, he also had guys (and a gal ) there speaking on fitness, health, spirituality, and a bunch of other topics very closely related to overall personal development. I’m a huge fan of cross training and holistic self improvement, so it was awesome to see speakers from all walks of life, many of whom weren’t even your traditional ‘seduction coaches.’

To that end, I also want to comment on how utterly impressed I was with Dream. Sure, he looks like a 27 year old caveman with all that facial hair , but not only did he organize and direct an insanely complicated event, but he’s f’in TWENTY YEARS OLD. I served with some Marines who were twice his age and had half his leadership ability. With all due respect to the man, it is VERY rare that I come across someone that young with such maturity and leadership. Mad props to him for everything he’s put into this.

For those of you guys not familiar, the convention is a 4-day event with a couple dozen speakers and over a hundred attendees. The speeches are also taped by a professional camera crew and released free to the public after the event. A few days before the event, I kind of wondered how many people would realistically show up if they could get most of the speeches for free after the event. After all, it’s no secret that a lot of community guys are notoriously cheap. But after having attended the entire convention, I realized that there’s an INCREDIBLE amount of value in attending the actual event. Not only do you get to ask questions from the speakers and hear them live, but there were all these unpublished ‘bonuses’ that really made this a world class event. Things like:

• Being able to take infield training each night (for ridiculously low prices…some were even free) and having your pick of the “best of the best” among coaches there to choose from.
• Surrounding yourself with guys who are committed to actually making a change.
• Being able to talk to the various speakers and ask questions on anything.
• El Topo, Gone Savage, Adonis, Psych, Heartwork, and I (I’m probably forgetting a bunch of other guys too) doing nightly (and free) post-event mini-seminars each night.

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a big fan. But let’s look at the actual speakers and event. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see all the speakers because I was helping students and doing some last minute preparation on my presentation, but I tried to watch as many of them as I could. Here’s who I saw:

Dream – Great intro to the event. He gave us a lot of history behind the convention and talked about what it meant to him and why he does it. I think I’ve kissed his ass enough in this post (without even being paid for it, dammit), so we’ll move on.

El Topo – Steve’s a great friend of mine whom I really admire. I’ve seen a lot of coaches in this industry that just don’t give a crap about students, and it really shows. Topo isn’t one of those guys. He talked about his philosophy on pickup and about grounding yourself by using the events in your life (even the bad ones) to connect with people. This was appropriate because he’s one of the most genuine guys in the community. He’s also an amazing speaker. He gets on stage and unlike a lot of guys, I don’t think he even feels nervous. It’s like he’s at home up there. Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean. Great overall presentation.

Julian Foxx – A LOT of stuff in Julian’s talk struck a chord with me because he recounted a lot of the same experiences that I went through when I was starting out. As he talked about his epiphanies and realizations, I found myself nodding and smiling because I knew EXACTLY what he was talking about. Definitely a guy who’s been through it all and has the experience to back it up. Great stuff.

Adonis – Adonis and I actually met several years ago and seem to keep running into each other ever since. I’ve hung out with him in Vegas and not only does he know his stuff, but he’s just a cool guy. His speech was on his specialties: Same Night Lays. Really solid info, very reminiscent of Captain Jack’s style of SNL game.

Nilatak – Didn’t see all of his speech, but loved the exercises he did. Drills are one of those things that get you good but that most people don’t ever do.

Psych – This guy, aside from being absolutely, god-damned hilarious, was one of my favorite speakers at the event. I remember us talking before his speech and he was saying that he was nervous because this was his first time speaking here. Then he got on stage and just nailed it. Awesome, awesome speech. Very dynamic speaker with great content and one of those guys that you KNOW gets results even though he doesn’t ever talk about it. He ended with a really motivational call to action from the audience. Very impressed.

Erika Awakening – I’ve talked to Erika a lot about spirituality and inner development so her talk wasn’t all new to me, but still solid nonetheless. I’ve taken a more outer-inner type path to my own development, but I know several guys who have benefited a LOT from the stuff she was talking about — EFT and meditation. Although arguably controversial, what I really liked was that she provided a different viewpoint to personal development. It’s easy in industries or events like this for groupthink to creep in, and new perspectives really help to make us question our beliefs and assumptions.

Nick Sparks – Your quintessential natural. He reminds me a LOT of my wings, who are pretty much all naturals. Nick talked primarily about college type game, which was great because most of pickup is geared around the club scene. But by far the most interesting aspect of his speech was when he demonstrated different techniques onstage with Erika. Despite being onstage with everyone looking at them, Nick was able to flirt so effectively, that you could SEE the effects on Erika in real-time. It’s one thing to be able to open a bunch of sets in a club and find a few girls who like you. It’s a whole different ballgame to sit down with a woman who knows what you’re doing because IT’S A FREAKIN PICKUP SEMINAR and you’re sitting in front of an audience of 100+ people, and you STILL get her into you. THAT’S talent, my friend.

Christian Hudson – Let me start off by saying that when you see our video impressions of Christian (coming soon), you’re going to laugh your ass off. But we’ll save that for later. Christian talked a lot about what it means to be successful in life and how to achieve your goals. What I particularly liked was that he got on stage and he just OOZED sophistication. Everything from his suit to his manner of speaking screamed maturity and success. Definitely a speech worth revisiting.

Adam Lyons – I didn’t actually catch all of Adam’s speech because I had pulled an all-nighter the night before, but what I did see was classic AFC Adam stuff. That is, he captivates the room any time he opens his mouth. And that’s not even counting his obnoxiously-chickmagnet accent (yes I did just use chickmagnet as an adjective) or his genius and original content. Adam’s stories are so engaging that you want to take notes but you get caught up in listening and reliving them with him. At one point during a lunch break he and I were talking and he started telling stories of his natural wing in London. Within 10 minutes he had an audience of 40 people around him, enraptured with his epic tales of pickup lore.

Gone Savage – Jason is a legend. I remember reading his blog in 2005/2006 when I was first getting started into game. In fact, he was my first ever instructor at a boot camp I took with him in 2006. Aside from being absolutely immune to social pressure, I remember him going against nearly every rule in the book and still managing to pull more girls than I’d ever seen before. Literally, he lived in his car, didn’t do magic tricks or anything really high energy (remember, this was 2005 when the Game had just been published), got really sexual with girls in the club (this was a big no-no at the time), and wasn’t even really that funny. But he pulled CONSTANTLY. So I was really excited to meet up with him again and hear him speak 4 years after I had done a boot camp with him. He didn’t disappoint. I’m pretty sure he knows more about a woman’s body than she does. Highly recommended.

Heartwork—Heartwork and I also have an interesting history. We used to talk on AIM way back in the day when both of us were students. One day we started talking again and both realized that the other was teaching pickup. Small world. Heartwork is one of those guys that you assume is older than he really is because he carries himself really well. I don’t even know how old he is but I think he mentioned he was under 21. That’s just insane to me, because I’m outright annoyed by most people that age. He spoke about the friend zone and as usual, threw in his own blend of heartwork-humor. Pretty sure he was the only speaker to actually coin a catchphrase during his speech that students were repeating over and over for the rest of the event. Funny, funny guy.

Overall, it was a great event. 2010 should be even crazier. I’ll definitely be there in 2010 and Dream has some ridiculous ideas that will make the event even better. There are really good group rates or early bird prices right now, so if you plan on going, now is probably a good time to sign up. You can always sell your ticket later if you decide not to go.

I took several dozen pictures and about 2 hours of video while we were there. I’ll be posting those on youtube soon… as soon as I finish teaching myself how to edit videos in Sony Vegas. Keep an eye out for them.

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