Moment 97 - The SECRET Hack Behind The Perfect First Date: Paul Brunson

00:03Another question I had was about honesty from the jump. You go on a first date, you meet someone. How honest should I be? Should I tell them about my childhood trauma on the first date? Is that being authentic or is that offloading? Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, Chris Rock said it best. You know, when you meet someone, especially on a date, you're not meeting them, you're meeting their representative. You know? So from that standpoint, we have to understand that there is a boundary negotiation that happens, especially on these first dates.

00:36And it is that tennis game again, right? So what you're trying to do ultimately is you're trying to – and let me even back up. Can I say this about – one is that I think most of us do the first date completely wrong, entirely wrong. we set ourselves up from the jump to fail miserably and be disappointed. And the reason why is because the first date is too intricate. It's too big. You know, it's dinner, but to prepare for dinner, I'm going to buy a new whatever, you know, I'm going to get my hair done. You know, I'm going to get this, I'm going to buy this new thing. I'm going to get the car wash. I'm going to do all this stuff. We've spent, we've invested so much that we've set ourself up for failure. Also a first date, quite honestly, over dinner is an interview. It always turns into an interview. And then the culture I've noticed in the UK is fascinating is that this is not everyone, but typically I notice is we're going to get completely pissed before the date. Like, so we can talk to each other. So we're just going to drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink.

01:43Okay, now let's talk to each other. And so it becomes, we set ourselves up for having a very costly date in time, effort, all resources. Instead, it sounds so simple. I like meetups. Let's even take the pressure off of the date situation. Let's call it a meetup. 30 minutes, let's have coffee, right? The reason why I love that or a walk, sounds stupid, right? No, a walk for 30 minutes. Let's just go walk. At lunch, let's go take a walk. The reason why I love that is because the expectation is so much lower in that situation, so much lower.

02:25The cost, so much lower, right? So the investment, right, so much lower. So therefore, that return on investment, potentially so much higher. But then also psychologically, what I love is happening is if it's coffee, caffeine, if it's a walk, it's endorphins going, right? Those help us to bond, right? Opposed to alcohol, that's a depressant, right? It's doing the opposite. So in terms of elucidating ourselves for great conversation and preparing ourselves for success, a walk or coffee is great.

03:03The other part of that is I've had millions, not millions, I've had, let's say, thousands of clients who I've said, okay, in particular, this is for ladies telling men, tell the guy that you want to meet him for coffee in the day. A lot of guys are like, I'm not doing that. Yeah, because they want to get laid. They're like, I'm not doing that. Right? So right away. It's a good filter. It's a great filter. It's an easy filter for you. You know, so that's part of that.

03:34And then if it works well, and when I say if it works well is you just need two things on that meetup. Are you physically attracted to them minimally? And then did they listen to you? So if you have the ability to communicate, they listened critically, you listen critically, and you're physically attracted, that is chemistry. Because we have a hard time defining what is chemistry. You say, what is chemistry? What's the buzz? What does that mean?

04:00And everyone's like, I don't know. I don't know. It is, I think, one part, physical attraction, mutual physical attraction. Another part, critical listening, listening. If you have that, you have enough to move forward and then see each other in another environment. You know? It's so true. Because I'm just reflecting on how many of my friends, both men and women, will come back from a date that didn't work out and just resentfully talk about how much they've spent.

04:28and how and how much it cost like how how long it cost them yes and how much money it cost them and the preparation of the facial and the hair and the nails and and they sit there resentfully and it's all you you you're right bringing that level of expectation to a to a first encounter you know mo gaudat sat here and said we're happy when our expectations of how life is supposed to be going go are met and we're unhappy when our expectations of how life is supposed to be going go unmet. I'm coming in with one hell of an expectation that you're going to be my husband.

05:00Yes. I've put in all the work, all the investment, the time, three hours. And then if you fall anywhere below that, for whatever reason, I'm probably looking for, you know, oh God, it's not, you're almost setting yourself up to fail by, by doing such a huge initial upfront investment. Yes. And you know what you, you were making, I think a brilliant, brilliant point there is that When you've made that investment, what you end up doing is you're looking for reasons to weed them out.

05:27Yeah. Because you're like, I mean, I did all this. Yeah. And his trainers. What trainers is this guy wearing? Oh my God. You see those trainers? Those are last year's trainers. I bought new shoes for this shit. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. Crazy, crazy, crazy. What are you struggling with in your relationship? Oh, man. You know, it is time. Really? Time. Quality time? It is, I would say time, but quality time because I am, you know, right now I'm predominantly doing television work.

06:03And I've been in TV now, you know, since Oprah, you know, so 12, 13 years. So it's been a while. and one thing I've noticed about the television space is that there are moments when you're hot and there are moments when you're not and when you're hot it's that's the time to leverage so you have to you're already working your ass off but you better work it off even more and so I'm in that zone right now I mean I'm blessed I'm co-hosting two shows I'm contributing to three shows, one in the States, two here in the UK. So it's one of these where I'm constantly work every day, every day in work, every day in working. So that time with my wife, that time with my children, that's the time that I wish I can get some back. How are you negotiating that? How are you serving the ball over the net in terms of the tennis analogy to make sure things aren't, you know, she still feels like a priority and your family still feel like a priority yeah that's a great one i mean finding those moments and making sure that we're in or should i say making sure that we're intentional about the moments that we do have right so this morning for example before i came over here we had breakfast together went out had breakfast together sat talk with the dog right

07:26those moments are immeasurable Thank you.