Expert Offers Advice on Dating

by Mark Lasick

The Lantern, 10/13/06

The real life “Hitch” made a stop at Ohio State Wednesday night.

David Wygant, a world renowned dating expert, held a seminar for students in the Conference Theater of the Ohio Union.

Wygant has been featured on Dateline NBC, CBS, ABC News and MTV’s “Made”, and has helped thousands improve their dating lives.

Wygant started off the seminar by asking the audience who wanted to be in a relationship and who just wanted to hook up and have fun. He then asked who was still in love with his or her high school sweetheart. He said those relationships will end. He said school was a time to experiment and if one wanted to date multiple people in college, it was his or her own choice.

“Everything you do in school is for yourself,” Wygant said.

He involved the audience in his seminar, bringing up several people to participate. He had members of both sexes interact and coached them along giving tips and advice on how to attract a mate. He said girls are “slick” and often pretend they do not notice guys, but that they really do. On the other hand, he said guys are very visual when it comes to females.

“We don’t notice obvious things, but we notice girls,” he said.

He gave specific advice for each sex. He said guys need to be confident and just “get the conversation started.” He said to get used to talking to girls and their friends together and not worry about rejection.

“Rejection doesn’t happen,” he said. “Rejection is your own hang-up.”

He said girls should not be afraid to show interest in a guy and should utilize the “finger roll” method to motion for a guy to come speak to them at a party or bar. He said when it comes to having a conversation, both guys and girls should ask questions.

“People love to talk about themselves,” he said.

He said above all else to “be yourselves. All of you are unique.”

After the seminar, Wygant took questions from the audience. He was asked how to get out of “the friend zone” and why guys and girls do certain things. He was also asked about his background and how he got into his career. He said he was shy growing up but eventually learned to be confident in himself. He said he was not a good student and never graduated college, but he loved public speaking. When it came to becoming a dating guru, he said, “it was a fluke.”

Wygant said his friends began to notice how good he was at talking to girls and started watching him in action. He said he gained success, was featured on Dateline and started getting clients. He said he loves his clients because “they are all so interesting and they pay me.” He said he charges $10,000 a weekend to move in with clients and teach them how to meet the opposite sex.

The audiences’ response to Wygant was mostly positive.

Carl Abt, a freshman in physics and one of the participants in the seminar, said he thought it was interesting and that he would use the tips and advice Wygant gave.

“Mostly, it was nice seeing (a) women’s point of view,” Abt said.

Not everyone was as receptive to what Wygant had to say. Lindsay Rego, a junior in industrial design, said she thought it was kind of cheesy.

“It made everything seem like a line,” Rego said.