» Charisma Arts

The Truth Behind Wayne Elise & Charisma Arts

Donovan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 04:59:27 +0000

Remember when instructors were dropping like flies over at Charisma Arts? Wayne Elise (Juggler) apparently had some personal conflicts that needed resolving. First, Christian Hudson, his co-founder and manager who left, then instructor after instructor for over 2 years. I got an ex-instructor Dimitri to write a small expose on what the inside story was.

Farewell to Juggler

It’s been almost a year since I ran the last public workshop as the dating instructor represented by Juggler and Charisma Arts.

I’ve served as my own manager ever since, and yet I still receive emails from people who ask me how come I’m no longer with Juggler’s company.

Recently things went a bit more public as a few online posts commented on the recurrent mysterious disappearances of Charisma Arts’ instructors (the posts were triggered by the split between Juggler and Dan, the instructor who had managed to stay with Charisma Arts the longest, almost from the beginning of the company.) It was counted that no less than twenty people vanished from Charisma Arts within the last two years.

Donovan asked me if I would like to comment. I agreed, but I needed a a little more time to think over what I should say. This is my belated attempt to share my view.

Having been at different times a Charisma Arts’ client, instructor-in-training, instructor, senior instructor, and finally having been banished from that company (like pretty much everyone else who came before me and a few people after), I believe I have deserved the right to form the opinion on the matter.

I keep in touch with some of the guys who had at some point associated with Wayne “Juggler” Elise. It’s true that many of them have the grudge against the man. I understand these guys all have personal reasons to feel the way they feel.

But I do believe they are not always being fair.

Great American thinker Joseph Campbell once remarked that when someone accuses us of being bad, what they usually mean is that we are not doing something they want us to do for them. No one is ever bad. Someone whose dark side I’ve had a misfortune to experience may be a great friend to someone else. As a businessman, I know I can’t please all the people who think they have better ideas of how I should run my business. I’ve experienced a questionable privilege of having to fire two of my own contract employees in the last couple of months, so I know sometimes things like that are inevitable.

I like and respect Wayne “Juggler” Elise. Please keep in mind that I’m saying this even despite, technically, having been bluntly discarded from Juggler’s company without any reasonable explanation, so I believe that coming from me such statement should gain additional value.

My life would have been very different if I hadn’t met Juggler.

A few years ago I hit the rock bottom. Lonely, emotionally drained, brought down by a bitter divorce, stuck in a lousy job, I was slowly killing myself with alcohol and two-three packs of cigarettes daily.

Today I own a successful business, keep in shape, and have a relationship with a great woman who not only motivates me to become better at anything I do, but understands and accepts the unique challenges imposed by my profession of a dating guru. I feel I am finally living a meaningful life. I help men to meet women they deserve. I learn new things every day. I don’t smoke, and I only drink an occasional James Bond-ish martini when I’m hanging out at a night-game venue with my students.

I think I would have managed to put my life back together no matter what, but I would probably have much harder time doing so. The way it was, I have met Wayne “Juggler” Elise and became a Charisma Arts instructor.

My impression of Wayne Elise: his first and last name can be rearranged to spell “a senile yew”.

Just kidding. Seriously though, my impression of Juggler: the man believes in what he is teaching. I had never witnessed Juggler say or do anything that wasn’t one of the “Juggler method” techniques. He often seems to act goofy; sometimes he appears grim and detached from reality; and yet somehow he manages to blend these extremes into the elaborate, meticulously controlled seductive behavior projected at everyone and no one in particular. Charisma Arts disciples often try to imitate him. Most fail. You have to be the Juggler to be the Juggler.

I had never expected my collaboration with Juggler to last forever: on the very day when I became his independent contractor, Juggler had terminated his business association with the company’s co-founder Christian Hudson. Seeing Christian’s in a state of deep shock and bewilderment on that memorable evening prompted me to remain alert, and I promised myself to act as a true Buddhist and to not develop any attachments. I was with the company to do my job, not to take sides in any domestic conflict. As I kept teaching, I saw many instructors and business managers come and go. One day someone’s photo and bio would just suddenly disappear from the company website, and none of the remaining people would ever mention that person again. Eventually I suppose we all grew desensitized to an occasional vanishing act. (I’m not saying this wasn’t weird, I’m just saying after a while there wasn’t anything new about it anymore). That’s why it didn’t catch me by surprise when one evening (just a couple of days after a memo Juggler sent to everyone in the company, praising my performance as his top-earning instructor) I discovered that my photo and bio were no longer on Charisma Arts website, either.

Why do I keep teaching men how to meet women, even though Charisma Arts is firmly in my past?

I believe I have things to share. There are lives I can improve. That’s why on the next day after being cut off from Juggler’s agency, I’ve launched my enterprise that began rather academically as Modern Courtship, and is now transforming into GetATen. I do not expect my business to become a household name, and yet I’m pleased to see that many people find the stuff I teach useful.

I am grateful to Wayne Elise for making the choice that forced me to seek my own path. If he hadn’t fired me, I might have never found courage to “go it alone”. Now that I know how much fun it is to run my own business, what a gratifying experience it is to accept the undivided responsibility for my student’s happiness, I wouldn’t ever want to have it any other way.

I am grateful to Wayne Elise for having offered me the temporary alliance and for having motivated me to be useful to others. I think he is a talented man, and I know that he can achieve success in any endeavor he decides to pursue in the future. I remain friends with those of the current Charisma Arts instructors whom I met while working with that company. We meet and hang out together every once in a while when we have a chance. They are smart guys and I can see that they understand Juggler’s ideology very well. I do think Wayne Elise is charming, even in his mistakes, and I do believe Charisma Arts deserves more credit than it’s given. I think it’s a good place to start learning the dating basics.

I loved being a Charisma Arts instructor: riding my Ducati from city to city, staying in cheap hotels, watching my students gain skills and confidence with women. Now, on the other hand, my life consists mainly of riding my Ducati from city to city, staying in cheap hotels, and watching my students gain skills and confidence with women. Only these days I can set my students free from any brand-imposed limitation: I enjoy seeing them unpredictable and fluid as quicksilver.

Dimitri Vorontzov

Read Part 2: The Truth Behind Charisma Arts : The Sequel

As a gift for subscribing to the RSS, download my ~~$6.95~~ Blueprint To Inner Game Success for free.

Seduction Chronicles Quick Links: VH1 Pickup Artist, David DeAngelo, Neil Strauss, Ross Jeffries, Paul Janka, Double Your Dating, Mystery Method, Real Social Dynamics, Wayne Elise

What Is With The Bad Leadership Within The Community?

Donovan — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:14:40 +0000

First, Mystery parted ways with business partner after business partner. First, someone, then Savoy, then Mike Long of Area 51 Lifestyle. These splits usually ending up hurting Mystery more than anyone.

Now, Wayne Elise has followed Mystery’s example. Wayne Elise split with Christian Hudson about two years ago, and now has had a falling out with his lead instructor Dan.

Here’s Dan’s post of which Thundercat made me aware:

It has been an interesting journey with CA. I think they offer an amazing path for men to learn to be more social and better with women. I still highly recommend them. Unfortunately I see some failings in their leadership structure and business practices. None of this affects their past present or future clients. I still recommend people take their workshops. (IMHO Greg, their LA instructor is the best active instructor they have)

I have always wanted to expand what i learned beyond “pick-up” and teach more. In the last six months it really looked like CA was expanding in that direction. They had even changed their tagline to “Teaching People Stuff to People”. However waiting for it made me a bit apathetic and honestly i was getting burnt out. You can obviously see from my lack of posting that i was not passionate about creating new content. This was eventually what made CA justifiably think about focusing on other instructors. Younger less-experienced instructors are hungry for work. They are passionate about writing and bringing in clients. So in essence my fresh apprentice became my replacement.

The hardest thing I found about the end of my working with Charisma Arts was the way in which it came about. While the company is fantastic with working with their clients in their workshops, communication beyond talking to girls in bars apparently does not apply to their internal communication. I was taken off the schedule for two months and all of my workshops were changed to my apprentice who was the newest instructor on the team. I was not told of this change and I only found out about this because a client emailed me asking when my next workshop was because they wanted to work with me. I checked the schedule and to my surprise two months of workshops that i was scheduled for were no longer being taught by me. My full time employment for two years had come to a close without so much as a whisper.

Things must be stressful over at Charisma Arts, which used to be one of the top dating coaching companies, but is slowly diminishing to a non-influence due to mismanaged operations and internal HR strife. I think this stuff boils down to something Doctor Paul talks about called “Boundaries” on his mindOS series of products.

I think these events should be a red flag that guys start to notice. If our “gurus” can’t control their business, certainly with leeway for normal business challenges, I put my voice out there and say that they shouldn’t be teaching us to get our lives together.

What is going on with these guys?

As a gift for subscribing to the RSS, download my ~~$6.95~~ Blueprint To Inner Game Success for free.
Seduction Chronicles Quick Links: VH1 Pickup Artist, David DeAngelo, Neil Strauss, Ross Jeffries, Paul Janka, Double Your Dating, Mystery Method, Real Social Dynamics, Wayne Elise

The Master The Vibe/Wayne Elise Controversy

Donovan — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 04:17:04 +0000

Apparently, Wayne Elise has it out for Master The Vibe. As you know, one of the founders of Charisma Arts, Christian Hudson, created Master The Vibe with a fellow friend in the community, Sebastian Drake of theApproach.

Well… they have a recurring billing cycle in which they send you the latest monthly product, not unlike many companies (Double Your Dating, Mystery Method, every porn site ever). To me, this seems like a sensible option for many guys that want the latest conversational techniques without much hassle. This is a common business practice, especially with the advent of online billing systems.

A customer canceled his subscription of Master The Vibe, and got billed. So he contacted the company, they refunded him and admitted blame with a personal apology to him. Then Wayne Elise (Juggler) weighs in with his opinion on Charisma Arts forum (with Sebastian Drakes rebuttal) about the Master The Vibe co-founder :

What do you think guys – is Wayne talking a hit at his old business partner by saying he’s unethical and censoring his responses?

As a gift for subscribing to the RSS, download my ~~$6.95~~ Blueprint To Inner Game Success for free.
Seduction Chronicles Quick Links: VH1 Pickup Artist, David DeAngelo, Neil Strauss, Ross Jeffries, Paul Janka, Double Your Dating, Mystery Method, Real Social Dynamics, Wayne Elise

Charisma Arts on Nightline

Donovan — Thu, 24 May 2007 21:11:11 +0000

Charisma Arts were featured on Nightline recently. I’ve finally found the video where Johnny Saviour and all of them are doing there thing. They didn’t have Wayne Elise on the show which was disappointing. If you’re looking for more information on Charisma Arts, as well as their coaches personal blogs, go to their website.

As a gift for subscribing to the RSS, download my ~~$6.95~~ Blueprint To Inner Game Success for free.
Seduction Chronicles Quick Links: VH1 Pickup Artist, David DeAngelo, Neil Strauss, Ross Jeffries, Paul Janka, Double Your Dating, Mystery Method, Real Social Dynamics, Wayne Elise