Pick up Korea Origin Story

The Pick Up Korea story starts in 2011.

Shortly after arriving in Korea, where I found it to be full of attractive women which I couldn’t help, but approach in any way I could. I fumbled around without really having a method at all. I soon discovered the pickup community along with three major resources which changed my thinking and approach to game. One was the book “The Game,” and although very cheesy and over the top,  I realized that there were people out there using it to optimize their game. I decided I would do the same in my own way.

The second resource were videos by western pick up artists that emphasized a more natural approach to game rather than a “Routine based game”. In addition, I found content by some day gamers from NYC and London which were a useful introduction at the time. The videos covered social dynamics and some decent inner game concepts. Some of the stuff wasn’t very practical in Korea as it was aimed at western women’s cultural and emotional archetype. I quickly learned through trial and error that a lot needed to be discarded due to huge social/cultural differences. Unfortunately, at the time there was little to no useful advice on game in Korea available. The simple advice from a daygamer based in NYC’s had a huge impact as he was the first person I found who advocated street game. This relied heavily on number farming, setting up dates through the week in your area, and always going for the home bounce to close! A lot of other material at the time only focused on bars and clubs, or a 2-3 date model so this shifted my mind much more into leadership, managing logistics, and playing to win.

I was not alone in this process of learning and refining game in Korea. A friend who we shall call “Mr. A” was on the same path as me and liked to push the boundaries of what others thought was possible.  He had taken some boot camps in America and Australia, but also noted that not all of what he learned was applicable in Korea. Mr. A and I were constantly testing new ways of approaching, running dates, texting, pulling, and optimizing for Korea.  We’d set new challenges every week/month and filter down the lessons we learned from each mission we created. Mr. A has an insanely analytical mind and intense work ethic so being able to work on game with him was certainly fortunate as he always held us accountable – with no tolerance for excuses or mental masturbation theories which were prevalent in a lot of groups in Korea. Mr. A is currently retired from the game, but still perhaps the best gamer I’ve seen infield in Korea.

The third resource was a pick up forum in Korea which was the only Korea specific group prior to Pick Up Korea. It started out as a community forum where people posted field reports and discussion about their successes or failures. The guys were mostly based in Seoul and hosted a monthly meetup while also going out together to wing each other. I was located down in Gyeongsang-Do province, gaming in Daegu and Busan. At the time  I was mostly gaming with local Korean naturals as well as a couple of game friends down there who I soaked up invaluable insights while watching them and picking their brain. I started going to Seoul and going out with the guys when they’d visit Busan. Early on I earned a good reputation by going out and posting field reports of hooking up with girls from day game via first dates, as well as from same day lays. This was considered very rare at the time.

From around 2012-2015 the forum was a thriving community and I was the first to run a Daygame/Street Game workshop in it in Seoul in 2014. However, as time went on the leadership changed and the place became full of keyboard warriors who were all about pumping old western ‘canned game’ programs in the chats and in person.

Korea can be tough and a lot of advice out there doesn’t apply. I knew someday I wanted to share the lessons I learned. I would see guys from the forum doing the same thing over and over again on the streets of Seoul with little return. Some things they were doing I knew plain and simple didn’t work well in Korea due to vigorous testing with Mr. A, but these people were applying Western Canned game into a totally different country as a catch-all. As an outsider, it looked like they were trying to shove an American outlet plug into a Korean electrical outlet – the two just weren’t compatible. They didn’t seem to understand the importance of frames,  mindsets, sub-communications, nor the fundamentals of social dynamics. In addition, not adjusting to local culture hurt them even more as many of these behaviors weren’t calibrated for Korea.

They also seemed to be putting on a shtick – not realizing the real self always shines through. It was clear that an updated holistic form of game which focuses on mindsets, individual personality, and male-female dynamics, with a modification towards the Korean emotional/cultural female archetype, was needed for foreigners attempting to crack into the local dating market. When I hit the streets, it hurt me to see some good people being misled and wasting their time by not addressing the shortcomings in their methods. I imagined that if I hadn’t gone through the struggles and challenges with Mr. A, I too might be in the same position as them – not knowing what to do and looking for a mentor to trust in and a community to support me.

Personally witnessing how western game approaches didn’t make the cut, and gimmicky Asian based canned game flopped,  I knew the development of a new upgraded school of Korean pick up was my calling. I decided it was time to help these guys and couldn’t sit on the sidelines watching them practice for years with misguided theories or inappropriate methods for Korea. Even worse was to sit idly by while they didn’t address their inner game issues of scarcity, self-esteem,  among other glaringly obvious issues which impacted other areas of their lives.

Quickly, I discovered that I had an intense passion for helping guys by coaching them through the process of overcoming their inner game blocks and improving their game step by step. I started my immersion coaching program in 2017 implementing all of the lessons I learned along the way and fine-tuning the program for Korea. My first client went from two years of pick up boot camps and seminars a virgin to immediate success with my program – getting the first lay of his life after our second session.

Pick up Korea exploded from there by word of mouth. Now a new period of active gamers exists in Korea who are able to game in a way calibrated for it. They are focused on becoming their best self while achieving actual results with women.