Here at Next Level Lifestyles, our aim is to ascend men’s lives not only with women, but in ALL areas of their lives. The 21 Convention is another organization that is on a similar path. In an industry filled with not the most honorable of leaders, this convention is like a beacon amongst the fog. For over 4 years and running, it gathered the best and brightest men from all over the world to give talks on improving ones health, wealth and romantic relationships.
I invited its architect, Anthony “Dream” Johnson to talk about his brainchild, The 21 Convention. What’s also interesting is he recently sold the bulk of his belongings and has been living the mobile lifestyle ever since. In this interview we delve into…
- Dream’s personal path to get better with women.
- The 21 Convention and his favorite talks over the years.
- His motivation to sell the bulk of his belongings and become mobile.
- How much his current lifestyle costs and how he finances it.
- The UN-glamorized truth on being location independent.
- Nutrition, fitness and exercise tips for those living the digital lifestyle.
Dream’s Personal Journey
Tony: Can you tell us how you stumbled upon the community?
Dream: I found the pickup community a few days before my senior homecoming. Here is a picture of me on my way to pickup my date that night.
I found it after my former best friend – now dead – encouraged a girl friend of his to go to the homecoming dance with me. Upon asking her, and thanks to him, she said yes. This caused me to “freak out” a bit, since the idea of “dancing” terrified me at the time.
Naturally, I went to Google and punched in “club dancing”. Up pops FastSeduction. At first I didn’t realize what I found, but a quick glance around the site revealed ideas like “be a jerk”, “don’t buy flowers”, etc.
That of course, ran counter to everything I knew at the time about how to best interact with women. Not 5 minutes later I had an account on one of their sub forums (not MASF). The name should be “SVT” for those curious.
Tony: In embarking on the “success with women” journey, often times one experiences light bulb moments, where we get enlightening realizations for the first time in terms of game. Do experience this and if so, what were some of those realizations?
Dream: If you read my old posts, articles, and field reports, you’ll find a ton of “light bulb” moments. Most have faded or “dimmed” over time though, and been replaced by a conviction I was born with – total and utter independence.
The greatest mistake I ever made in this “community” was taking the advice or valuing the opinions of anyone who I did not ask or seek advice and opinions from. 99/100 of these opinions and bits of “advice” are a complete waste of time. The 1/100 (of the uninvited) that is useful, must be discovered on your own anyway.
The exception proving the rule.
In the end, I have come full circle to the attitude I came into the community with – an attitude the community lead me away from and told me to reject.
To stand alone, on my own judgment — and nothing else.
Only this time around, I am not fearful or ashamed of this concept, and absolutely embrace it.
I live for my own self, on my own terms, and pursue my own happiness. I do not acknowledge the validity of uninvited good intentions.
This degree of independent thought – of the value of your own judgment above all others – is frowned upon in the pickup community.
It is something I praise and encourage in what remains of this fragmented community.
Tony: In terms of 80/20, what should newbies be focusing their efforts on to get better with women?
Dream: It’s not so much a matter of proportion and time, but of supremacy and priority. Newbies should focus on themselves first, and the responses of women second.
This applies on every level.
Mentally - on their own thought processes when interacting with women – her thoughts, feelings, and desires are secondary to your own.
Physically – on losing 30 pounds of fat, gaining 20 pounds of muscle, sleeping 9+ hours a day, taking Vitamin D3 supplements, avoiding grain like the plague, and going for a walk to isolate yourself whenever the occasion is called for.
And above all – even experience socializing for those lacking in it (I was) — living a purpose they have decided on, and never compromising their ideals in the pursuit of relationships and/or sex with women.
Ever.
This is true success, the glory of mankind.
http://www.thedreamlounge.net/2011/01/03/success-defined/
The 21 Convention
Tony: For the guys that don’t know, can you tell us a little bit about your brainchild… The 21 Convention?
Dream: The 21 Convention is the greatest men’s convention the world has ever seen. It is the meaning of my life in physical form.
It began in 2006 as my idea posted on a community message board. It became reality in July of 2007 as “The Under 21 Convention”.
The content of T21C has surpassed every “pickup” company in existence in terms of video quality, quantity, diversity, and cost ($0).
It is the only annual, dual continent event for men in the world.
It has been my single, blinding focus since 2006. There is no goal, achievement, or creation of mine I care more about than it.
It is an end in itself.
Tony: Why does The 21 Convention matter?
Dream: Because it’s continued success is integral to the success of every young man of integrity left in the world – of every young man who desires to succeed where others fail.
It is a vivid demonstration that in the face of all odds, man can succeed. That man as an individual can triumph when the world tries to destroy him and prevent his creation from seeing the light of day – that man can succeed on his own merit and nothing more.
Tony: What were some of the greatest talks you’ve listened to from all the years T21C has been around? What were the biggest takeaways you’ve personally received from all the talks?
Dream:
- Nilatak (2007)
- Dejan ‘Zebra’ (2008)
- Christian Hudson (2009)
- Nick Sparks (2009)
- Jason Savage (2010 Europe)
- Doug McGuff MD (2010 America)
The biggest takeaway I’ve personally received from T21C is that there are other men who speak my language still alive in this world. The language of integrity.
The insights of Jason Savage are astounding. Jason did more to advance this community in that one speech (2010 Europe) than the cumulative efforts of Erik, Owen, and Neil.
Tony: A big misconception is that dating coach’s are cut from a different cloth and have super-human abilities they were born with. In actuality they aren’t too different from every other guy. Nevertheless, they do have a few distinct differences in their belief systems/personality/etc that separate them from the majority of guys. After meeting so many dating coach’s over the years, what do you think these differences are?
Dream: All men are born equal, yet, equality is not an absolute.
Men properly rise by their own efforts and achievements of such. Many speakers of The 21 Convention are such men. They have pushed, suffered, struggled, and persisted. All of them had the potential to succeed – the ones who stayed the course and made the decisions others rejected, won, in the form of speeches that stand the test of time.
The speeches listed previously are examples of such. They are not the only ones.
LIFESTYLE DESIGN
Tony: You recently sold/donated/gave away most of your belongings and became 100% mobile. What motivated you to do this?
Dream: There is nothing material I value more than The 21 Convention.
As such, when the convention needed currency – because of budget miscalculations, living off the funds it generated pre-maturely, et cetera – I exchanged items of lower value for T21C – what I value most.
I sacrificed nothing. These exchanges were easy bargains.
Simultaneously, I lost my desire to live in one location, as well as any need to remain locked in one location (school).
The backpacker lifestyle represents a great deal of independence. As you can likely guess, the math added up pretty neatly in my head for such decisions.
Tony: A big misconception with travel and living a location-independent lifestyle is that it’s expensive. How much does your current lifestyle cost per month? How are you able to finance this lifestyle?
Dream: That misconception is indeed a myth, so far as my experience tells me in the State of Florida.
Take the following numbers for example (a few expenses leading up to May 2010 before departing for Europe).
- $550 USD per month : rent
- $110 USD per month: car insurance
- $200+ USD per month: fuel
Total: $860 USD per month in land locked expenses
(And that rent is pretty cheap in Orlando considering that it included all utilities).
That’s nearly a thousand bucks a month to drive a car and live in a single spot – excluding car repairs/oil changes/phone bills/misc expenses, and obviously, food.
As for the cost of my lifestyle, it depends where I am and what I’m doing. I was traveling rapidly in the fall. I assume this is of most interest to you and your readers. In that situation I was staying in one spot for 1-3 weeks and then flying or busing elsewhere – usually flying believe it or not, largely thanks to Mobissimo.com (I bused once from LA to Vegas, for a total of four hours).
Anyway, the real key to living the lifestyle you want for the price you want is finding alternative value to offer people in the stead of paper currency.
For example, I stayed in downtown Orlando for a month (mid August to mid September), by loaning a friend my bed for ~5 months who had just moved out of a college apartment, and did not own a bed of his own.
The bed was valuable to him since he did not own one. It was of no value to me sitting in storage while I bounced around the country.
I then flew to Los Angeles from Orlando. A one way ticket bought a week beforehand was $160 USD. I found a few guys to crash with off the Casanova Crew forum. In exchange (they did not ask, but I did this anyway), I bought them dinner from time to time. I was there for three weeks and spent under $100 on food for them.
Keep in mind, their apartment was in between Hollywood Sunset, a few blocks from Owen and his family. This is an awesome place to stay in LA.
While I was there I attended the 2010 Pua Summit. A blog reader wanted to attend. I got him a 50% discount off the door price, and then Vince paid me a commission just under the price of my flight ticket.
My living expense for three weeks in LA, minus food/phone, was about $100. I could have stayed longer but I had to go to Vegas to meet with the lead videographer for T21C, who was in Vegas filming a TV show.
Plus, anything over three weeks is pushing it for “crashing”. At that point you teeter on “bumming” (regardless of what you offer in return), and that is something I do not accept, no matter what someone offers.
….
To reiterate this point, I stayed in LA about a month later for an additional week. Other than my cost to fly there from Texas, my cost was $0. In exchange I got a multi-thousand dollar job for the secondary video editor (who I stayed with this time around) of T21C. While I was there I got to oversee the DVD artwork production for T21C 2010 (which I did pay his standard rate for), and the DVD series promo video (free of charge thanks to the job I hooked him up with).
Regarding financing, ideally T21C and health coaching on my blog. It has yet to be seen if I can live the lifestyle I want off of this alone though, at least long term. In the meantime I took up a few extra jobs in Orlando for ~6 weeks. I worked 70-80 hours a week and saved up enough money to live off of for the next few months, without touching a dime of money from T21C. Combined with the convention and continuing to run my blog, it was exhausting, but I’m glad I did it.
Tony: Often times being location independent is over-glamorized and guys are left without an accurate depiction of what it’s all about. Can you tell us some realities (both good and bad) guys should be aware of having this type of lifestyle?
Dream: You are absolutely right about it’s glamor. The toughest part for me was learning to work out of coffee shops like Starbucks. It’s noisy, often crowded, internet is unpredictable, hell, even seating can be a problem sometimes (with regards to lower back pain and posture).
Eating properly on extended travel can be difficult to if you aren’t comfortable eating extremely simple foods. I have never been picky about what I eat, so this was not a problem for me. For others it may be at first.
On the flip side, living the vagabond life is definitely the reality of being John Conor a la Terminator 3* – and it’s pretty cool.
*Or as a friend of mine said upon my return to Orlando “You’re like a f*cking ghost man”.
Most people won’t have a clue where you are, and if you are determined to live an independent life in pursuit of your own happiness, it’s quite liberating in bursts.
I cannot definitively comment on living this way long term as I have not done it. My suspicion would be that doing this non stop and long term would be a form of escapism though, in most cases. My reasoning is that few people are truly that introverted.
Absolute independence does not necessitate total indifference to others.
Tony: You’ve stated on your blog that since The 21 Convention has grown in popularity over the years, you have viewers from all over the world. These are guys who you’re able to meet and possibly crash at their place. Can you talk about this a little bit?
Dream: The internet is a truly miraculous achievement of man in the sense of amplifying the true benefits of living in a society – knowledge and trade.
The21Convention.com is as easy to pull up in Sweden and the United Kingdom as it is in the State of California – meanwhile, nearly all of the videos have been uploaded in the State of Florida, and save Stockholm last June, produced there as well.
In this sense, and paradoxically, Florida is not a popular source for online visitors to The21Convention.com. The city of London for example, the site of our next European event, drives more traffic than most countries.
In this light, there are usually a number of passionate fans in a given large city who have dramatically improved the quality of their lives as a result of viewing video from T21C. How many thousands of miles away those cities are from the birthplace of T21C is of little consequence.
The consequence for me is a sort of private Couch Surfing network, as a backup for hostels and CouchSurfing.com.
Tony: When traveling, how do you approach game? How do you approach logistics?
Dream: Thus far there has always been a superior purpose while traveling than to meet women. So at best, it’s distant second behind whatever I am doing at the time in that particular city. For example
- Stockholm: The 21 Convention, logistics, talks, etc
- Gothenberg: lair talk, work, blog, leave (less than 2 days)
- Amsterdam: Lair talk, continue prepping for T21C Stockholm and Orlando (1 week)
- Munich: Huge lair talk, explore city, leave (total 2 days)
- Vienna: Huge lair talk, explore city, leave (less than 24 hours)
- Los Angeles: explore city, attend Pua Summit, network, train client in person from blog coaching, etc
- Vegas: meet with primary videographer, work some, proceed to waste time and pig out
- Austin: meet with future speakers, test out most advanced exercise machined in the world, strengthen relationships with past speakers, finish new website, scout Austin as future location for T21C
And so on and so forth.
In any case, you’re probably not bringing her to your friends couch. This is a given when a girl finds out your traveling. Just hope her kids aren’t awake when you get home.
Tony: You’re an insanely knowledgeable guy when it comes to nutrition, exercise and healthy living. Ironically, travel tends to take a toll on all of this. What are some tips you can give guys on nutrition, exercise and fitness when living a location independent lifestyle?
Dream: Thanks.
Yes, traveling can take a toll on your health. The biggest issue is sleep, both getting an adequate amount, and sleeping in the dark, which is vitality important. I recommend ear plugs, a sleeping mask, and a black sheet to cover your body in. This is pretty “weird” by most people’s standards, but the only standards that matter are your own, so who cares?
As for nutrition, I thrive off of ham, turkey, cheese, dark chocolate, nuts, and dairy fat/coffee, while traveling – which can always be found. Keep an eye out for flaws in grocery store procedures as well.
For example, in LA I ate a pound of cooked bacon a day, for less than $7 if I remember right. The flaw is that you are paying pennies for what would cost uncooked a ton – which is basically the real cost of the food.
Most people would never eat a pound of bacon 5 days a week though, hence the loop hole in how you pay for food at places like Whole Foods.
For the record, I completely reject the lipid hypothesis which says dietary intake of cholesterol and saturated fat negatively influence heart disease.
Also, on the same note, organic/non ultra pasteurized half and half can be had for incredibly cheap at some stores, namely Trader Joes on the west coast (Sweden also has excellent quality dairy fat for cheap).
If you are not lactose intolerant or allergic to small amounts of casein, you can literally get ~1,000 calories a day for under $2.
It’s like drinking liquid gold.
As for exercise, the best advice I can give is to hold out for good equipment and NOT STRESS about long recovery periods between workouts. Chances are you’re over training as it is, your body is totally out of whack biologically, and desperate for an adequate recovery period.
Here is a list of training studios in the US with excellent equipment.
http://www.bodybyscience.net/home.html/?page_id=889
Those aside, learn to do bio-mechanically correct static contractions and consider investing in a giant rubber band.
Regarding metabolic conditioning, if you are really keen on keeping it up, do a session of interval sprints once a week – be it on a bike, running, or swimming. This is more than enough to maintain any degree of “cardio” you’ve built for a sport, or any other reason.
Can you give 3 pieces of advice for guys who want to have and fund a mobile lifestyle?
- Let go of all the clutter in your life that doesn’t matter and invest it into what you do value.
- Invest in items that are both compact (but adequate for your needs) and durable. Don’t go cheap on a backpack, don’t get one that’s too small, invest in Icebreaker clothing, a good pack towel, and a LifeSaver bottle which will save you a ton on clean water while traveling.
- Push your comfort zones and hold on to your ass.
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