Hello + Updates (What I'm Doing, Where & Why)
Yeah, the quizzes on it work well. You can also set them to no grade, which works well for my stuff. I've put up some self-assessment checklists and you can attach documents to download as well. It's also possible to put up pure text posts rather instead of video lessons in it. As far as a total package goes, I don't think there's anything better overall, but I'm obviously biased.
Based on the stats that I've seen from the inside, about 30% of viewers use a computer while about 70% use the app instead. I've used it as well for other courses and for my own as a quality check, it works well but it's not mindblowing.
For me the biggest thing is that there are no glaring errors or missing pieces. They may not individually be as excellent as software that specializes in X, Y, or Z, but it's very competent and strong across the board. Built in affiliate system as well for your readers who want that, so that's a bonus. It's much better than going through scummy affiliate aggregator sites.
Self-hosting is definitely, as you said, the best way to maintain control. But if you ever get curious what us dum-dums live like, it won't take me even a minute to make you an admin login so you can see all the toys and tools inside.
Quick update from my side:
Where
Kyrgyzstan.
Been here almost two months, but still need the spell checker to write it properly :).
I remember making fun of an ex-GF originally from Kazakhstan, joking that I couldn't remember what God-forgotten "-stan" place she was from.
Of course, even if all in friendly jest, it was still a power move that self-frame me as... Well, you should know how it works if you're reading here :).
And now here I am :).
Some interesting experiences in socialization and dating.
A rather peculiar dating marketplace, added to my first-hand experiences to draw from.
And a couple of interesting power-dynamics case studies I might add to PU.
Website Update: Up (Products) & Downs (Sales)
It's been 2 weeks now since the website update.
I'm still working on many things at the same time, but so far:
The technical side went quite smoothly.
And the course is significantly better.
That's wonderful.
So a much better product, but... Very poor performance on sales.
I hoped that the installment format was going to increase sales/income.
But that wasn't the case: it's been a major drop.
I'm still in the dark as to the main culprit.
There have been several changes, including theme / style, sales page, price, checkout page, and checkout process (including no more guest checkouts).
So it's not easy to pinpoint the issue.
Price increase might seem the most obvious from the outside, but I'm not convinced yet.
Previous price changes had little effect on sales.
Now it's been a bigger increase of course, but the monthly installments also offer to start at a lower price than before.
So I'm not going to change the price until I first try something else.
These are the moments that make me grateful that I kept recurring costs low: no rush, no panic, keep cool :).
What's Next: PU Upgrade, Sales
As a consequence of the above:
Sales troubleshooting has been the unexpected stinker added to my priority lists.
And then PU upgrade, which was instead planned.
Since a big chunk of the troubleshooting is more project management of other people's development, I can in parallel upgrade PU.
The rest of the roadmap, I wrote it here.
What I'm Reading
I went through a few books and even a course that didn't warrant a stand-alone review.
But I added them to the reviews list.
And then:
- A Billion Wicked Thoughts: great, provided som data-backed insights for Seduction University
- The Wiley-Blackwell of the Psychology of Leadership, Change, & OD: it provided some good research-based wisdom for an upcoming lesson in Business University for management
- 6 Pillars of Self-Esteem: hoping there will be good info for the next "Ultimate Power" update
- 3 books on Machiavellianism + several studies: that together with my experience informed the post and lesson on Machiavellianism
Karting: All of My Life, Where Have You Been
I tried go-karting and oh man... I found what I was truly born for 😀
And by that I don't mean "born for" in the sense of being good, but in totally loving it.
My friend/opponent brought a go-pro and I added some (strategy-related) comments:
Quick update:
I've been back home for some time and it was awesome to meet again my childhood friends.
We talked about hiking and exploring the mountains nearby, but we didn't do any of that.
Just simple evening outs trying new restaurants, shooting pools, talking, laughing, and catching up. Simple and great.
Also wanted to get a driving license for motorcycles and on the test day it rained the whole day. If your question is "and couldn't you do it with the rain", then it would be a long story, and you'd go to the core of what I regretted the most in the last months 🙂 -but just lasted for a few days-.
Working On: Seduction University
I've started 2 weeks of quarantine, and I scheduled this time off without the possibility of "real life distractions" to ship this course.
It might not be enough to perfect it, but it's hopefully enough to go live, and then tweak it from there.
It's been so long that Seduction University was in the pipeline that I was almost feeling bad about it.
EDIT: wait for release to start it
I've noticed a few people purchased SU these days, probably reading here.
If anyone reads it again, I recommend only starting it once it's officially released as right now it's still a work in progress.
Working Next: SU tweaks / Power University upgrade
Power University is still undergoing its 7th upgrade, the longest in its history.
But I'm in no rush to end it, it's a living and breathing product anyway in constant upgrade.
As I work on Seduction University, I also update in parallel the dating module of PU.
And then I'll still do some more tweaks on PU, probably to further break-up the lessons.
Same amount of concepts, but spread out over more lessons so that people can more easily go through them.
Also some more:
- New infographics: I'm commissioning a few new infographics to add
- Maybe flash cards / summaries: I've spoken to a student who's done flashcards for PU, so if he feels like sharing -and maybe someone else will do the same-, then I might be able to pull some material together for a PU summary
What I'm Reading
- Dark Psychology Secrets: Listening to it right now. Nothing mindblowing and some factual errors, but of the "dark psychology" books I've read it's probably the best one and it deserves a review
And I've been adding a few texts on spiritual growth / enlightenment / inner peace (some of the very best will go into Ultimate Power eventually):
- Radical Acceptance: Finished it and good, it's worth a review
- Already Free: Buddhism Meets Psychotherapy on the Path of Liberation: reading it on ebook. It's good and worth a review
Hi lucio. I like to keep up with the book reviews is there a way to be informed when a new one is being published ? I used to find the new one in the links below the blog articles but they are not there anymore.
Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on July 21, 2021, 2:46 pmI hoped that the installment format was going to increase sales/income.
But that wasn't the case: it's been a major drop.I'm still in the dark as to the main culprit.
...
Price increase might seem the most obvious from the outside, but I'm not convinced yet.
Previous price changes had little effect on sales.
Now it's been a bigger increase of course, but the monthly installments also offer to start at a lower price than before.
Don't know if this is still relevant, and don't know if it is just me or if I reacted as most people would have done, but:
a) when I saw the option to pay in 9 instalments at a lower price each, I unconsciously thought "9 instalments... that's a long commitment";
b) when I saw the option changed to 6 instalments, each at a higher price, I thought "that's more manageable, it's a shorter time frame".
Come to think about it, I actually enrolled at b.
Makes sense, and I suspect something else is at play too. I've heard somewhere that people instinctively value higher priced items more, even if they seem the same on the outside. This judgmental heuristic also likely applies to seeing a reduced price below; likely the subconscious is only registering the monthly price instead of the overall one.
(Not so quick) updates:
Where
I finally visited Brazil:
Rio is quite a city.
LoF tried to scare me off with stories of kids playing football with people's heads 🙂 -and it can be a dangerous city indeed-. But there are plenty of good and safe areas of course.
I also visited a favela and rode through another. And albeit they can certainly be dangerous -best avoided for tourists- they aren't really that poor or run down.
The houses are in cement and there is running water -for the most part-.
For comparison, I've also once visited Kibera, one of Africa's biggest slums, and most favelas are first-class neighborhoods in comparison.
I was expecting a higher density of people in Rio's street, but outside of the weekends on the beach, it's quite spread out.
And I was thinking of also visiting Argentina, but it's more "no" now.
One, I also want to go back to Italy and visit family & friends.
And two, because I'm tired of running around for Covid paperworks and Covid tests (funny story: when the pandemic started I told myself "no fucking way I'll ever buy a mask or do a single test". Boy was I over-optimist and terribly wrong 🙂 ).
Working On: TPM Book
In the last few days Ali and I have been finalizing "The Social Strategist", the first TPM book.
(but all the credit to Ali for making it possible, I was just reading through and putting in some notes).
Thanks everyone for the votes, and to Growfast for the book cover tip
Working On Next: Refining Seduction University
In the next weeks I will re-delve into Seduction University.
Mostly, reading through to double or triple check, and adding some more examples in the form of videos, pictures, and recordings.
And adding more for women as well, since so far I prioritized the lessons for men.
Frankly, SU probably launched too soon when it first opened -the deadline I gave myself to focus 100% was too tight-.
But as of now, I think SU is of the most complete courses on dating success.
As crazy as that might sound, I feel that SU is more "complete" than PU.
It's not a knock on PU, which is still somewhat "superior" in the sense of added value it can provide.
But the difference is that power dynamics was a novel approach that had to be done almost from scratch -and, in part, still is-.
In comparison, there is much better and valid material when it comes to dating and seduction -albeit there is still plenty of innovative stuff in SU, including explaining and using power/value as a key component to dating success-.
As I go through SU again I will have some of the infographics redone professionally, and I will use some of the lessons as a base to release some articles.
Especially interesting will be the ones linking power to dating and seduction.
Of course, the lessons will always be deeper / better / more practical to provide added value to customers (and the recordings will never be public).
Working On Next 2: PU and/or Reviews
Next, I want to address:
- Breaking up lessons into smaller modules for PU: some PU lessons are long. The new course provider allows to break up lessons into smaller modules. Smaller modules should make going through PU easier, and learning more natural
- Adding new materials/examples: as usual, I take note of every good thread in this forum and every good example I come across. I'm also very excited about a few personal real-life examples on audio recording. So I eventually will be adding them to make PU even better
- Reviews: the backlog of good resources that I want to share here is growing. I'm actually wondering whether my time is even best used for reviews at all or if I should just focus on expanding power dynamics. Business-wise it is certainly better to drop new reviews and focus on marketing. But I still want to publish more reviews.
In terms of prios, not sure whether I should publish the reviews first, or go through PU first.
But I'll probably do a mix: the very best reviews first, PU later, and more reviews later.
Learning Now
For courses, YouTube, books that I've gone through or going through:
- Nutrition
I realized nutrition was taking too much time and mental resources. I want a better approach that is both healthy, fast (no more much label-hunting) and easy to implement.
To do that, I'm going to test things out for periods of time and take notes. I started with keto for a month, I'll do it seriously and give it a proper shot, but unless the benefits are overwhelming I'm not going to stick to it because it's very limiting.
And I'm also seeking better information
-
- Good channel for keto: edit, it has some great info for keto, but it's a dangerous channel as it doesn't provide an overview but focuses on keto/intermittent fasting and promotes that kind of harmful, geeky mindset based on over-analysis and "ingredient fear-mongering"
- Greg Douchette, Biolayine, are great in calling out the BS of many diet-hypes
- Intuitive Eating: a book that might contain the approach I seek
- The Disease to Please:
Just finished it, great book for "too nice guys / girls", with some great wisdom and exercises that I'll probably use as spin-offs for PU.
Harriet Braiker confirms herself as one of the best and brightest authors in the psychology/social disciplines.
- Dark Psychology Secrets:
There is no great book that has "dark psychology" in its title. But this one was the best of the bunch
- Dating real-life examples
Still looking YB videos and courses of dates / approaches to find the best case studies for SU.
- The Unplugged Alpha
Some of the typical generalizations of red pill thinking, but overall good.
It presents the best overview of everything red pill around dating and self-help
The author is probably one of the least black and white and most sensible of the red pill "gurus" around.
- Dating Essential For Men
Robert Glover is the author as "No More Mr. Nice Guy" and his dating books is more targeted at "dating for nice guys", but there are a few great ideas.
Probably deserves a dedicated review for those.
- Unscripted
Best book for "entrepreneurial thinking" and "entrepreneurial red pill".
The author's philosophy and approach to value-adding also aligns with TPM.
TPM: Doing fine
Overall, all good.
Google: Not Great
The few latest Google algorithm changes have penalized TPM.
Including one just a few days ago.
That might be a worrying trend and in my opinion, it's the biggest risk to TPM from a business perspective.
In part, it's because the reviews aren't bringing in many visitors -which was a conscious choice-.
But part of it might be because of Google's general approach towards "niche / edgier websites".
I've seen some great websites with top-notch wisdom being buried in search results for no apparent reasons.
It seems that Google might be favoring bigger and "safer" names with plain vanilla advice such as Inc, Forbes, or WikiHow.
The same can be said of YouTube, which now pushes higher and higher the "legacy media outlet".
I'm thinking that more PC advice and topics might be best to do well in Google.
Obviously, that's not something we'll be doing here.
Personally, I only worry of a huge drop that would put the business and lifestyle in jeopardy.
If it goes down a few percentage points, or if Google never makes it a top-page result, I don't mind. I think many driven people know they're not going to find anything life-changing in plain-vanilla and PC outlets.
Sales: Good
After the major website upgrade, I wrote here that sales had gone down.
It seems like they're closer now to around pre-change levels.
Hard to be accurate since: 1. I don't track all that well, 2. SU launched, and 3. Covid obviously has impacted people's financial decisions.
Even harder to say what might have helped since the changes have been many and massive (shout out to Matthew and Kevin who provided great feedback and to Ali, who shared tons of gold with marketing advice and sales page improvements that I implemented).
To be accurate, because of the higher price, there are now fewer transactions.
Which is good, because it means far less admin work.
From a Machiavellian point of view, some alumni might also see that as an advantage since fewer people now access PU wisdom (albeit I don't agree with that and generally see more power-awareness as win-win).
Quick updates:
Where / How / When / With Whom
I got back to Europe a few days ago, after another "emotional goodbye".
These last days have been quite full and "lively" -funny enough, that included things here on the forum, as you may know :)-.
And now I'm glad that I can finally chill a bit.
Plus, with this new shiny siren calling me over and distracting me from work:
I had bought the motorbike a few weeks prior so while I'm usually happy to get back home, this time I was truly excited -most of the dreams I remember were about driving a motorbike-.
It was an old passion coming back after an inexplicably long hiatus
So after many hours spent on planes I finally landed in Rome, I picked up the bike, strapped a phone mount, started the navigation, and rode the whole day, highway free all through the Apennines and back home.
To make it a "proper" trip we got some rain on the way, too, and some challenging gravel roads courtesy of Google maps :).
I also got reminded a couple of times that motorcycling can be a dangerous hobby.
Especially if you enjoy some speed and "designing" curves, you're almost bound to have some situations.
But it was freaking awesome.
My idea is to also drive back all the way to Germany now for some "on-the-road" adventures.
But for now, some chilling and easy times.
In the next days I'll also be catching up with old friends, which is awesome.
Speaking of which, unluckily we didn't manage to catch up with Bel, but we may arrange something outside the city, which may be even better.
SU & PU Upgrades Done
Happily done with the PU and SU upgrade I mentioned in the last message.
For PU alumni, you can jump to some of the updates here:
High-Value Socialization
Formerly called "social exchange":
- Advanced rules: separated it from the previous, longer main lesson, and added several examples and case studies
- How to recognize the takers: how to exactly spot the "takers" that you want to avoid
Power 101
- Power tests: important new concept in the "introductions" lesson on how some people test others early on
Frames
Plenty more examples and case studies, including:
- Keep your grenade technique: the approach was already in PU, but too hidden. It needed its own technique name and definition, which we now have
Dating & Seduction
We slimmed down this module and maintained, but also importantly improved, the foundations.
- Foundational Power Principles of Dating
- Power Levers of Effective Dating (and how to use them)
Leveling Up
New module for better granularity.
It includes:
- 4 case studies for socially challenging situation: a new interesting case study on how to handle a group that is laughing at you
Power Tech
This is were a lot of the new golden nuggets entered PU, including:
- Stock responses for unexpected requests:
- Stock responses and techniques for tasking and orders:
- Easy responses for EVERY SITUATION:
- How to apolozie and maintain power:
- Power protecting: an all-important concept that was scattered all over PU but that finally finds its own lesson with its own approaches and techniques
Learning Now
- Jordan Peterson "additional rules" book: The book has some genius sparkles, including some overlap with TPM, and some of the typical JP's heavy reading into what to me are more like simple stories and novels
About the author, JP has gotten a lot more political. He's not frame-controlling and semi-hiding his heavy conservative bent anymore and joined Ben Shapiro's network. I don't think that's good neither for his personal power, nor his authority -impartial folks tend to have higher authority outside of the turf of those who already agree with them-. - The Book of 5 Rings (For Executives): good
- When Men Behave Badly: Simply the new best resource available to understand intersexual dynamics / conflict (together with this website's material). May end up as #1 resource on "best red pill books"
Working On Next
Next up it's:
- PU sales page (as per original courtesy of Ali, thank you so much!)
- Publishing new reviews
And some more SU examples (took a few good notes and video examples recently), new articles, plus probably the first "free thoughts" articles on LucioBuffalmano.com
As well as looking forward to enjoying the forum.
Quick update:
Where / How
I remember one day as a teenager, sitting on my motorbike and practicing the proto-version of what I didn't even know the name of: gratitude.
Before dismounting I sat there and took a moment to "soak it in".
To reflect on how great it was to have that bike. And how empowering as well. "I can start it, and go anywhere I want. I may even start it on now, and go to Germany if I want", I thought.
Fast forward to today, and that's precisely what I did: drove from Italy to Germany.
It was a great little adventure.
To make it even better, more curves around the Alps would have been even more awesome. I went through the Austrian border where the streets are paradoxically "too easy, clean, and well-kept" for fun driving, including long tunnels that cut through the mountains, rather than letting you go up one curve after another.
For that type of fun driving, the Swiss side of the border is much I think:
That's a proper street for fun riding 🙂
Good to know for next time 🙂
Still, plenty of picturesque villages and panoramas:
And I stopped at Tavullia, the birthplace of Valentino Rossi. Rossi's charisma and ability to be loved is hardly matched: that place is built around him, including a park dedicated to him:
Focusing Now: Reviews
In the last weeks and up until now I focused on:
- Publishing reviews of the best self-development resources I've encountered in the last months
- Naive self-help article: a long article that will be foundational to the "resources" side of TPM, and will be linked from the (many) self-help reviews that we label as "naive" here
- Personal blog, where I write "less practical", more random, and more personal thoughts/opinions/crazy stuff
- Gathering data/resources/infographics for the 8.1 PU upgrade, including an important update to the "foundational strategies"
And of course:
- The Social Strategist launch, albeit that takes little of my time as Ali drivs it forward very autonomously
Learning Now:
- Good Strategy Bad Strategy, just finished it, very good, well deserving a review, and a spot in a future "best strategies' resources" list
- Leadership BS, reading it, same author as Power, it's fantastic and it may go straight to the top 3 of best leadership resources
- A manual for creating atheists, looking for persuasion wisdom, otherwise I find it too combative and misguided in its "mission"
Focusing Next:
- PU upgrade
- New reviews
- New articles
TPM: PU 8.0 further increased alumni's satisfaction
... As measured by refund requests, which collapsed since the 8th version.
My interpretation is biased since I was a big believer -and staunch defender- of the break-up project and "shorter lessons" format.
But since the break-up was the main structural change and PU's content was already very good even before the 8.0 version, it's a fair assumption that it was the breaking up that made a difference.
My guess is that the shorter lessons made it less intimidating. And the break up into more sub-modules and smaller and more laser-focused topics made Power University more organized, more functional, and just easier to consume and internalize.
So I'll stick with it going forward, and maybe do even more of it.
Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on September 10, 2022, 7:35 amFocusing Now: Reviews
In the last weeks and up until now I focused on:
- Publishing reviews of the best self-development resources I've encountered in the last months
- Naive self-help article: a long article that will be foundational to the "resources" side of TPM, and will be linked from the (many) self-help reviews that we label as "naive" here
- Personal blog, where I write "less practical", more random, and more personal thoughts/opinions/crazy stuff
- Gathering data/resources/infographics for the 8.1 PU upgrade, including an important update to the "foundational strategies"
Looking forward to all of this!
And of course:
- The Social Strategist launch, albeit that takes little of my time as Ali drivs it forward very autonomously
Looking forward to this as well
Learning Now:
- Good Strategy Bad Strategy, just finished it, very good, well deserving a review, and a spot in a future "best strategies' resources" list
Yes, some years ago I was and still am interested about developing one's strategic thinking. Books such as this one caught my attention.
- Leadership BS, reading it, same author as Power, it's fantastic and it may go straight to the top 3 of best leadership resources
Downloaded!
Focusing Next:
- PU upgrade
- New reviews
- New articles
Looking forward to all of this!
TPM: PU 8.0 further increased alumni's satisfaction
... As measured by refund requests, which collapsed since the 8th version.
My interpretation is biased since I was a big believer -and staunch defender- of the break-up project and "shorter lessons" format.
But since the break-up was the main structural change and PU's content was already very good even before the 8.0 version, it's a fair assumption that it was the breaking up that made a difference.
My guess is that the shorter lessons made it less intimidating. And the break up into more sub-modules and smaller and more laser-focused topics made Power University more organized, more functional, and just easier to consume and internalize.So I'll stick with it going forward, and maybe do even more of it.
Yes, re-structuring was a major improvement for all the reasons you wrote.