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The 21 Convention News Letter /w Dream & Dodger

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:13:12 +0000

As most of you have noticed by this point, I prefer to communicate and keep in touch – both personally and for The 21 Convention – through social media, and this website.

Blog, forum, Facebook, Twitter, in that order.

It wasn’t always like this however. We used to be solely focused on e-mail, before I realized that attaching my name to this convention was not only “okay”, but highly beneficial, in the sense of the transparency and authenticity it adds to the whole che bang.

That is my real Facebook account with real activity on it, created over 4 years ago. Paradoxically the convention takes up most of my time now a days, but never the less there it is, and all corresponding activity.

Anyway, social media is all well and good, but I have been keeping a tally of requests I get for an official “news letter” or e-mail list from and for The 21 Convention ever since we abruptly stopped sending e-mails en mass – and it’s broken my personal threshold.

Actually, what really tipped the scales were the in person requests I got while I was on my speaking tour of Europe to promote T21C Europe. Stockholm, Gothenburg, Amsterdam, Munich, and Vienna.

Read about it here on my blog and see pics here.

In Munich and Vienna for example, I got close to half a dozen – in each city.

This to me, was an omen. Time to start the news letter back up, and do it right this time. How are we going to do that?

1. Make it voluntary

No forced “opt ins” for our content. When I say “free”, I actually mean it, and mark my word, our event and documentary footage will never demand your e-mail address or any other contact or personal information. Free means free, not “fair”.

2. Structure the $hit out of it

Rather than send out randomly organized blocks of text, thoughts, and links, the T21C news letter will stick to a structure – ever evolving as it is.

Dodger and I need to work on this a bit more, but I’m currently thinking of including the following in each news letter, in the listed order.

A. Important announcements
B. Favorite article or video of the week (on site, from all time)
C. Favorite article or video of the week (from T21C speakers, their sites, current)
D. My answer to a reader’s question
E. Dodger’s answer to a separate reader question
F. Repeat of important announcements

Want your question answered on the very first news letter? E-mail your question to info@the21convention.com

3. Bring on Dodger for the news letter

My responsibilities and duties with The 21 Convention are constantly growing, expanding, and changing – rapidly. As such, I am going to bring Dodger aka “Hshudo” on board for the news letter. Long term there’s no telling what will happen, but potentially Dodger could one day run the news letter completely and I would only be there to answer a reader question each e-mail.

Why Dodger you ask?

Because he’s awesome, brings a lot of value to the table, and is a guy I trust (aka he’s responsible) to do something as important as this news letter – and do it right no less.

He may not be the only one of course, but for now it’s Dodger and I that will be doing this.

4. Create one main news letter, and two smaller announcement only lists.

For now there will only be one main news letter for The 21 Convention, however after The 21 Convention 2010 of Orlando Florida we will create two more, dedicated to announcements only. One for all things T21C in North America, and one for all things T21C in Europe. People on those lists will be contacted less frequently.

So if the main newsletter is a twice per month mail out, the geographically focused lists will be once per month, or even bi-monthly depending on the time of the year, what’s going on, etc.

…

And that’s it. You now know what’s in store for our news letter, and I encourage everyone and their grandma to hop on board for the main one starting TODAY. Your information is safe and secure with Aweber, and I promise never to spam your inbox with useless products or services, or even too many e-mails for that matter pimping our own awesome, relentless stream of free content.

We’re doing it right, and that means quality, not quantity.

The 21 Convention 2010 of Stockholm Sweden

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:43:15 +0000

I’m in Stockholm Sweden NOW!

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Mon, 10 May 2010 19:19:41 +0000

That’s right, I’m here, this is happening, it’s real.The 21 Convention is going multi-national and it’s beginning right here in Stockholm Sweden June 11th-13th. I don’t care where you live, this is an event you do not want to miss. With three full convention days and 15 of the world’s top dating, relationship, and personal development coaches, this is going to knock more socks off than I can count.

Event registration can be found by clicking here and further Stockholm convention information can be found here.

See “Zebra’s” stellar 2008 convention speech here.

Ps- I found a flight aggregating site event better than Kayak. It’s called Mobissimo. With it I got a super cheap flight to Stockholm. Highly recommend checking it out regardless of your location!

The 21 Convention on Orlando Trends

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:49:28 +0000

This is an interview featuring myself (Anthony), El Topo, and Hshudo, from the eve of T21C 2009. It has been seen elsewhere before, but I recently realized it was never posted on The21Convention.com – until now!

Anthony on The Barry Kirkey Radio Show 3/1/10

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:28:11 +0000

A comedy radio show I was on the other night. Check out the full show on Revolution31.com

A Pillar of The 21 Convention

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:24:05 +0000

The other day Peter Murphy and I sat down for an interview with the UCF paper.

Overall it went really well- and I’ll post it up here when it releases.

On the way home from class today though I was thinking about one of Peter’s responses- something that immediately sent off an alarm in my head (at the time, I made sure to correct upon his response).

For the life of me I can’t remember the question, or even Peter’s exact words- but it went something like so…

Journalist: Question xyz (it may have been “best piece of advice for a guy to go out and have “success” tonight, but I’m not positive).

Peter then decided to answer first- no sweat, he’s a big part of this and I want him to have his own opinions shared for sure. But his answer- as I said, set off an ALARM in my head.

It was something like so… (not verbatim)

“…women have all the power over men….we can change that by doing abc and xyz…”

I let him finish, and then interjected. Below, I’ll summarize my response.

*Edit*- this is not an exact quote from Peter M. It’s simply my vague recollection of a personal interpretation, of, what he said- used to make a point in this post. Do not let this define your view of Peter, who has experienced a great deal of “success” with many, many women .

The basic premise is this- what Peter said is a core, fundamental error in thinking about success with women.

Women do NOT have “all the power”. No, not by a long shot.

In fact in regards to gender roles, the only have power they have over us is the power we give them.

So how does this translate into practical advice?

The power women have in social settings is largely an illusion. It doesn’t exist, except in our minds (as we allow it).

Meaning- it’s all bull shit.

What’s worse- this then transfers over to a lack of gender respect (most men simply don’t demand enough, or any of it- so the norm is to go without). Women in western society simply don’t respect men- as a sex- as they do in other parts of the world.

I’ve seen it with my own two eyes in South America- it’s a totally different vibe talking to the women that live there.

Even watching the social interactions between the people who live there- it’s very different from what I’ve seen in various parts of the US (from Florida, to California, Vegas, and Tennessee).

It’s as if here, we just pretend- “role play”- and throw up this big image (ego) that separates male and female. It might look “okay”, because it is accepted as the norm at this point, but make no mistake about it.

It sucks.

Who’s fault is probably the next question to ask- the chicken or the egg?

Probably a bit of both, but I would lean towards US, as men if I had to pick one (male/female)- simply because we’re here to lead. It’s encoded into every cell in our bodies.

The last thing women want is our “power” as men- giving this to a woman is probably the most unattractive thing one can do- period.

Hence the classic “shit test” terminology.

This is when a girl “pokes” or pings you as a man- she tests you- and if you don’t know who you are (if you buy into the illusion that women inherently have power over men, knowingly or unknowingly, for example), you will fail.

Maybe not now, but inevitably you will. This lie will catch up to you sooner or later, no ifs ands or buts about it.

…

On my blog, The Dream Lounge, part of my disclaimer is that I do not represent The 21 Convention officially- even though I am the founder/director of it. This gives me a little more leeway to speak my mind without having to worry about repercussions (much).

But on here- you bet your ass I represent the convention. I stand behind every word or move, and take full responsibility, period.

In light of this, I want to make it clear- my official stance, and as a by product this convention’s- is that women do NOT have power over men.

This convention is NOT about “empowering men”, it’s about HELPING MEN REALIZE THAT WE ARE ALREADY EMPOWERED TO DO WHATEVER WE WANT.

Meeting a girl and assuming (consciously or unconsciously) that you somehow need to raise yourself up to her level as a person is pure poison- for you, and especially her.

Again, this is downright disgusting to her on a deep level, and I can only imagine a bit saddening to recognize night after night, time and time again.

She may not know it at a young age, but eventually she’ll catch onto this as she grows up- from a girl to a woman.

There is absolutely no need (long term), to tack anything on to your identity to attract women- and I simply won’t have that kind of thinking a part of this convention on the forefront.

It saddens both men and women alike, and I believe is a pillar of what has lead our generation astray with relationships, dating, and the like.

-Dream

The Dream Way & 340 Pages of Bonus Content: Now Free to the World

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:06:30 +0000

Today I release what has been long forgotten- my book, and it’s bonus content.

In total

5 PDF Documents
442 Pages
167,086 Words

All written by me personally, edited by a close friend- and I even had some simple design work done back in the day (see above).

Oh man…where to begin?

Fresh of the 2007 convention, I was on a bit of a high. Seemingly out of thin air, I had just pulled off something really cool. Never before had I done anything even remotely like that in my life.

But that high was short lived. Soon after- around my 19th birthday- I got kinda pissed. I still wasn’t enjoying the success I thought I deserved at that point in my life- it just didn’t “add up”.

Stubborn and simple minded as I am, my immediate solution was to take a bootcamp with one of the larger companies. I quickly realized, while that was a decent enough idea, the financial end of it just didn’t make sense- I would be putting myself in substantial debt for a workshop with someone I had never met.

Scratch that idea- by literally tearing in half the multi-thousand dollar student loan I took out (wish I kept it for memories sake).

My next idea was to simply go out to a bar or club, every night, until I had 3,000 approaches under my belt (or the fall semester ended, whichever came first).

This was mid August 2007. I went out every night until early December, without skipping a beat, or taking a sip of alcohol. Many nights, I was flyin solo. I didn’t care- I had set my goal and “nothing would stop me”- not even blatant warning signs of being emotionally and mentally TOAST.

…

The question you’re probably asking yourself now is, did I find that “success”?

You bet your ass I did. And not even far in- the night before my birthday (August 23rd/24th, my birthday being August 25th), I met a 24 year old girl in downtown Orlando at a club called Antigua.

It was on.

Long story short, my old room mate Slikk managed to hold off my drunk (former) best friend Curtis, and we hooked up later that night at the infamous “Project Orlando”.

Woohoo! My first Same Night Lay (which is what I then used to define “success”).

And the fun didn’t stop there- it was a snowball effect all the way through the rest of 2007- and even trailed off into mid 2008. Weekend after weekend, girl after girl… hell, I even managed to hook up with my 3rd grade crush.

It was a bit of a Cinderella Story, but there was a dark side to all of this- a price to pay so to speak for what I like to call “cheating”. Essentially, I made up for lost time with women growing up, in a very short amount of time.

The result was 3 months of heaven and hell- with no gray area. For sure, some of the highest highs, and lowest low of my life- legitimate thoughts of suicide? Yep. Lose most (all) of my friends?

Pretty much.

Do I regret it now?

Certainly not, it was a part of my path, and I appreciate that time of my life as much as any other.

Do I advise for or against it?

I spoke about just that this year actually. The short answer- for some people, going out every night is a viable option and can be done in short bursts (think of it as a “dose” of strong social medicine). For most people though, anything more than a fun and lighthearted wild burst (on very rare occasions) is too much.

As for doing it solo (at any point), that’s something unique to the individual, and therefore something you will have to decide for yourself. I’ll tell you this though, it will amplify any negative or positive effects of “going out every night”, for any length of time.

Anyway, I spend the first ~25 pages of The Dream Way detailing my history with women, my role with the convention up to that point in time, and a few key adventures I had growing up in my first 2 years of college- including my short trip to San Fransisco, meeting a famous young pickup artist named “Devious”, and then making out with a girl at 2 in the afternoon- in a MACY’S BATHROOM.

I shit you not, I’ve done some stupid and wild shit in my past- and to this day =).

I detail it all (well, up to certain points in time) in the content I’m releasing to you guys today- absolutely free. Keep in mind, this content once cost anywhere between $42 and $80 dollars. I spent thousands of hours living and learning the experiences and ideas in these e-books, and dozens upon dozens of hours writing it all and getting it up on the web- and it sold, left and right.

Why did I stop then?

Like I talked about this year with Dream and his Angels, I wanted to stop competing with the speakers. I realized long ago my true passion in this community is the convention, period. Nothing will get in the way of that or compromise it.

My thoughts on life, women, work, school, and so on- have evolved much since publishing what follows. As such, it didn’t feel “right” to sell them for much anymore- I knew I was capable of much more. For a while, short of illegally downloading them, they were not available.

A few months ago I then realized it was stupid to just have them sitting around on my lap top- I wrote them to help people. Agree with the content or not currently, I know it resonates with a lot of people at certain points in their lives, and I know the books have helped a lot of people.

I put them up for about 1/10th of the price they were at before, but paradoxically, they sold less. This was puzzling, but with the 2009 convention rolling around the corner, I didn’t have much time to think about it, so it sat there, not reaching it’s own potential as a book.

Well, eff that!

It’s time to release The Dream Way and it’s accompanying e-books, free to the world. Why the hell not? I have nothing to lose, only to give and gain, by helping you guys.

All books are download able and printable. You are free to do with them as you wish (just don’t try to sell them as your own, I’ll personally hunt you down and kick you in the balls if you do).

In fact, I encourage you to share this post with your friends, or even e-mail the PDF files yourself to friends that you think would benefit most.

The Dream Way: The Story and How-To Book for Getting Laid With Your Wii
- Yes, the title reads right, and yes that is a Nintendo Wii it refers too. As previously stated I spend the beginning of the book detailing my personal history with women, and life. It’s a bit long, but fun to read, and most say quite inspiring- but I’ll leave that call to you. After that I spend the rest of the book detailing my thoughts on picking up women- trying to look past the BS we are fed growing up, and get down to what worked for me. The major theme of the book is the infamous Same Night Lay, which is what I had the most success with and felt qualified to write about. Of course, you can imagine where the Wii comes into “play” . 102 pages in length.
The Dream Chronicles
- Raw and largely unedited, these are my “field reports” from many years ago (the early days)- including my senior prom night where I lost my virginity. They are complied neatly into the document, and only censored to ensure my friends remained anonymous. There are also a number of bonus journal posts from that time period in my life added into the book to make it more “complete” and fill in any blanks the reports left. 123 pages.
My Transformation
- Similar in format to The Dream Chronicles, but more relevant to The Dream Way- My Transformation is the nightly journal I kept during those 3 brutal months of soberly approaching women (almost like a machine) at bars and clubs for over 100 days straight. Not one night was skipped, in practice or in writing. Watch line by line as I venture through a decision that never left my life the same. At the end of the book there are also bonus “lay reports” that happened after that time period, but I felt were worth adding. Many of these women were discussed and referred to in The Dream Way. 196 pages.
The Lost Chapters
- Additional chapters that did not make it into The Dream Way before my month long backpacking trip to South America (right before the 2008 convention). A bit hard to explain, but I believe most will enjoy them none the less after reading the above content. 13 pages.
The Making Of
- A behind the scenes look at The Dream Way, this will prove interesting to anyone wanting to release their own e-book or anyone curious about how it was made. Additional hint not discussed in this document- the majority of this book was written in a very short amount of time (I seem to work better under pressure). 8 pages.

Other interesting bits of information.

I spoke about The Dream Way a lot in one of my 2008 speeches- you can find it here.
I was originally going to require people add me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or join the forum to get the above content free- but then I realized that was pretty gay. If you guys want to do those things you will- if you don’t, then so be it. I have no interest in forcing people to do anything, so, enjoy the content with no strings attached =).
www.TheDreamWay.net is going to re-direct to this very blog post. This should make it easy to direct a friend to the content and help spread the word.
Dream Vitality will be released some day, but I’m not in any rush- quality first.

And that’s about it guys. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy what I’ve written.

-Dream

Classic Dream- Are You a Statistic or Something More?

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:51:04 +0000

Hey guys

As you’ve noticed, things are changing on the site. I will release a short post soon on the details, but in the mean time I wanted to share this “classic” post of mine from the old days of going out every night for months on end- a post that really resonated with friends and readers.

It was written from the heart- and is definitely one of my more “raw and authentic” articles (and has not been edited in any way).

You can also find the original link at the bottom of this article, as well as it’s cross post on Grow Your Game at the height of it’s popularity.

Are You a Statistic, or Something MORE?

Apr 19, 2008 10:59 AM

_______________________________________________________________________

There are few people today that really KNOW me today, and of those even less that knew me growing up. People that saw me when I was a totally different person.

Friends that saw me CHANGE.

In fact there’s only three that I can name. Ermin, Mike, and Curtis. While all of them are aware of the community, not one is a community guy.

There are other guys in the community that have seen me grow and transform, one step at a time, but they weren’t there back in the day like those 3 I named off.

Anyways I got a text yesterday regarding some ‘rukus’ on a forum I’m causing by being totally honest and upfront with a guy.

The text convo hit me emotionally, pretty dead on.

Why?

Well basically the guy I’m being blunt with on this forum is coming from a similar place I was at one time in my life.

The text convo basically said that ‘that guy’ is just one of those people who will never “get it”, “never” understand certain things about himself, and that I was not one of those guys.

Why bother trying to help the guy? Why waste a few minutes of my life?

Because I don’t believe in that shit.

I was at the same place this guy was one time, like unbelievably weird/awkward. Almost completely unaware to top it off.

You know whats funny?

Back when I started rising up, back on the original Dream Lounge, people used to tell me I would ‘never’ get it. They would tell me that it’s all a lie, and people CAN’T change.

Well here’s the reality, everyone can.

That’s right, it’s true, the resources are there to become who you were meant to be, to self actualize, without a doubt.

Well here’s part two.

Most people won’t. Regarding success with women, 90% of guys just won’t ever get it.

You know what I decided when people told me all that bluntly negative bull shit?

I am not a FUCKING STATISTIC, I am something MORE.

I was ready to fight for what I wanted, for real.

People telling me it couldn’t be done only pushed me more, pushed me to the breaking point eventually, rock bottom in August of 2007. It’s pretty common human behavior to try to hold others down- I still see this today whenever I do something new and continue to ‘rise’.

You know what a really sneaky trap is though? Something that IMO is built into us to project onto others via evolution.

People telling you you’ve come farther than you have, without someone being totally honest with you.

This is far more lethal in keeping you happy and content, avoiding reality, and avoiding the NOW.

I think most guys that find this community are in a similar boat that I was in once (hey the more personal, the more universal right?)

And their path is going to follow something like mine did. Not all guys though, there are plenty of guys I know personally that will follow a different path to move closer to their potential, but this is like the majority of guys this community attracts.

First the guy has to hit the point of realizing there’s a problem, something deep inside. By realizing I mean a feeling to, most of us have ego’s far to big to let us see something like that up front early on. I know I was one.

And hence, we get into ’self improvement’. This quickly turns into ego-based learning, and tack-ons to ourselves. Things like methods/tactics/routines.

These are all cool, specifically because they lead us to the next step.

The ready to fight level. This is when you make a monumental decision. Your’s may relate to mine, or it may not. Everyone’s different.

Next is rock bottom.

This is when the ‘decision’ becomes nearly universal.

YOU WILL DO WHATEVER THE FUCK IT TAKES.

WHATEVER IT TAKES.

For me, this at first was taking out a huge student loan to buy a bootcamp way out of my price range as a college student.

When I got it I decided that wasn’t the best option at the time, and instead decided to go out every single night until I approached 3,000 sets (was at about 2,000 at that time).

Not 2 weeks in I banged a girl for the first time in over a year, one I liked on top of that (hey fatties need love too, but not from me).

This was not coincidence.

Moving on…

This is when you begin to scramble your brain.

This is when self destruction truly begins.

This is when the healing beings.

There are a few pitfalls to watch out for, and I’ll detail them this summer at the Under 21 Convention.

You eventually get to a point where you’re about to, or are going INSANE, and you KNOW IT.

You push a little more…

And then you let it all go. You see the fucking LIGHT. You may even find some of your self-esteem you lost growing up…

After that is when you pretty much start to fill in the gaps. You make it, but realize there is always room for improvment.

You begin to move on to bigger and better things…

This part is probably different for everyone, but for me, it was just starting to really ENJOY life for what it is.

Living the way I wanted, being the person I am, being AUTHENTIC, and just doing what the fuck I feel like doing.

So for anyone who gets the blunt end of my advice, take it for what it’s worth. I’ve been in your shoes, and mean the best.

Something I kind of stumbled upon in my mind yesterday thinking about this…

The 90/10 ratio for people self actualizing is a catch 22. The resources are there for everyone, but only because 90% won’t ever use them.

90% of people not utilizing what’s available makes it possible for those who want ‘it’ bad enough to pursue ‘it’.

Making the title of this post all the more important…

Are you a statistic, or something MORE?

Original blog post (/w pics), Grow Your Game feature.

Anthony Johnson on Proper Exercise & Nutrition

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:12:46 +0000

Anthony Johnson is the founder and director of The 21 Convention, and author of The Dream Lounge where he blogs regularly about proper exercise and nutrition. He was 20 years old at the time of filming, and currently attends UCF for a degree in entrepreneurship, health sciences, and education. You can find the books mentioned in his speech on his blog here.

Post notes and view further discussion of this speech on the forum.

Anthony “Dream” Johnson T21C 2009

Anthony 'Dream' Johnson — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:08:32 +0000

“Dream” is the founder of The 21 Convention, author of The Dream Lounge (popular blog), as well as The Dream Way. Dream also formerly instructed one on one weekend workshops via Under 21 Lifestyle and Dream and his Angels. He currently lives in Orlando Florida and attends UCF.