How to get on a reality TV show January 22, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Beauty and the Geek, How to , 8 comments
Flex those networking muscles
Ankur from season 2 is a friend of mine, in my department at Berkeley. (Apparently there’s something about the electrical engineering department at Berkeley that the casting team really likes.) I went to a party at his house last spring where I met Cher and Wes. They were working with the casting team at the time, thought I was interesting, invited me to an interview the next day, and the rest is history!
Meet people in person
Yeah, I know Beauty and the Geek had this open casting call thing where you could send in a video of yourself showing off your glorious geekiness. But I don’t think more than one or two of the guys actually took that route. Nate, for example, was randomly discovered while handing out flyers on campus, Mario was at a comic book convention, and I just ran into some people at a party.
Offer something unique
When I was asked why I wanted to be on the show, I was honest. I told my interviewer that after after going years without a date, I’d gotten fed up and spent the past six months focusing on improving my social skills. When else would I have the opportunity to put everything I’d worked on to the test, surrounding myself with beautiful women and seeing how many of them I could hook up with?
Evidently no other applicant took that approach.
And finally, wear your underwear over your clothes.
I’m not saying it’ll help, but it can’t hurt!
Your thoughts?Stimulate change by changing your environment January 21, 2007
Posted by Niels in : How to, Personal, Work , 21 commentsOne of the most powerful ways to change your mindset is to change your environment. Obviously, part of this is because you’re forced to interact with your environment on a daily basis. But it’s more than that. Your environment is anything that other people see, anything that defines you in other people’s eyes. When you change your environment, you change how other people see you. Your environment defines your identity.
If I decide that making a lot of money is an important goal to me, I can take a step toward that goal by altering my environment. I could cover an enormous wooden dollar sign in gold leaf and hang it above my bed. And every new person who came into my room would see it.
The interesting thing is that they probably wouldn’t ask me about it. They’d know what it meant. But it would alter their perception of me, and my perception of myself would change as well. And when that opportunity does come by that I might not have had the guts to grab before, I’d have to seize it! I mean, c’mon! I’ve got a big fat gold dollar sign above my bed!
I’m in the process of making radical changes in my life, and I’ll incite (grrr, that’s not quite the right word) those changes through changes in my environment. So I spent a little while listing some ideas. Try it yourself. What changes do you want to make in your own life, and what changes can you make in your environment to encourange them? Don’t limit yourself to realistic ideas…
- Hang a curtain up to hide my junk
- Hang inspirational quotes on my walls
- Get rid of unnecessary junk to make travel easier
- Tell people about my changes to commit myself to them
- Mount photos of my desires on bathroom mirror
- Wash Sean’s car to inspire me to make it run again
- Hang up a photo of two girls and one guy
- Hang up a map of the world and mark where I’ve been and where I want to go
- Change the background on my computer
- Put my goals on Myspace
- Put my goals on Facebook
- Hang up photo of Amsterdam
- Hang up a photo of South Africa
- Rearrange my bookshelves
- Get a videocamera to encourage me to create content
- Mount inspirational photos over the toilet
- Tape a photo of hot woman on mirror next to me
- Hang motivational images on ceiling next to bed
- Hang motivational images on wall next to bed
- Keep track of my progress on my blog
- Put a thermometer chart on wall with my net income: goal $1,000,000
- Mark a “road to success” on floor with landmarks
- Put a sign in my front yard with my goals
- Tape a million dollar bill on my bike
- Affix different symbols on my doorway for entering (peace) and leaving (happiness)
- Build an altar in my room dedicated to my goals
- Clean the bathroom
- Put a hot tub in my room
- Move into a place with supportive roommates
- Buy a house so I HAVE to work myself out of debt (or a model house to remind myself)
- Get a live-in masseuse
- Buy marketing books
- Leave books in the middle of my floor until I read them (but don’t fall into trap of knowledge)
- Make a leisure suit out of money
- Get a graph of Steve Pavlina’s blog traffic
My life story: Two roads in a wood January 20, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Personal, Work , 7 comments
Life is a journey. I feel like I’ve been traveling through the woods, and some time ago I passed a fork in the road. At the time, the paths didn’t look that different, so I just picked one, the one that seemed a little easier.
I was comfortable for a while, but the further I took that path, the darker and narrower it got. When I finally stopped moving forward and just looked around instead, I couldn’t deny any longer that I was on the wrong path. And it was too late to go back.
Just recently, I gathered the willpower to bust through the woods to the other path. The trees are greener, the air is fresher, and the path is wide open. And even though I don’t know where my new path leads, I know it’s the right one.
Your thoughts?Video: Beauty and the Geek season 3, week 3 January 20, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Beauty and the Geek, Links , 31 comments
For those who missed it, the video from episode 304 (the makeover episode) has appeared on YouTube. I don’t know how long it’ll stay up, so enjoy it while it lasts!
Your thoughts?Ohhh, my ding ding dong…
Beauty and the Geek Fanmail Friday January 19, 2007
Posted by Niels in : Beauty and the Geek , 27 commentsIt’s my birthday today, and what better way to start the day than with the First Flippin’ Fanmail Friday Fiesta?!
Ok, fine. I can think of a few ways. But this is fun nevertheless. To protect the identies of the what seem to be mostly high school girls sending me these questions on Facebook and Myspace, I will be making up names for you, my adoring fans.
Tisha Dugalbutter: You look mixed, are you?
It’s funny, I know some people who get really offended when they’re asked this. I don’t know why. I think people see a look they’re not used to and are genuinely curious what caused it. That’s understandable. So I’m happy to tell you that my mom is Chinese and from Malaysia, while my dad’s side of the family is Scandinavian. I’m occidental-oriental.
Emokid: What was that “You touch my ta-la-la / tra-la-la / ding ding dong” song from the makeover episode?
Günther’s “Ding ding dong song”. Enjoy!
Betharino Bethinson: Did you get to keep the clothes?
Unfortunately for me, my outfit was ridiculously expensive. (The orange hoodie alone cost $1000, just so you have some perspective.) The hoodie and that sweet sweet leather jacket were returned. I do still wear those jeans all the time, but the women’s T-shirt may make its way onto eBay at some point…
Godzilla Puffykins: It seems that a good number of the beauties wanted to be on the show to use it to break into Hollywood. But what was your motivation?
I’d already become really interested in self-improvement. For my whole life, but in particular the last two years of graduate school, I felt like my social life wasn’t what I wanted it to be. I was already actively working to change it when I was presented with the opportunity to be on a reality TV show about transformation - how could I say no?
Doody McPoopyPants: And that you would lead seminars on the Art of Attraction is beyond me … what do you teach? … how to seduce women with your tight butt? … pleeeeeeeease.
Yes, Doody, in fact we surgically graft scale models of the instructors’ buttocks onto students’ butts and send them out to bars each night while Gunther songs play in the background.
Actually, Art of Attraction is about first impressions. It’s about teaching guys to make a powerful first impression and giving them the confidence to walk up to any stranger and start a fun, flirty, interesting conversation. It took a season of Beauty and the Geek to change my life, but I can do it for someone else in an afternoon. At least, that’s what my students say.
Cutie McJailbait: You’re cute.
Thanks! 