Somerset's Journal for Older Guys in the Business World

Field Reports & Anecdotal Experience Men's Journals
21

The Conference - Day 3 - The Final Day

I’m leaving Vegas tomorrow. I’m not going to the final part of the conference tomorrow. I’ve walked enough in this place to rub a couple of lovely blisters into my feet, and there was a bit of blood in one of my shoes when I got back to the hotel. I’m not going to hike anymore, and just gonna leave. So, this is the final conference report, and what a fascinating day it was.

First set of sessions I tried an experiment. 4 Drops of A314 with 2 drops and two sprays of iS. No hits. Nothing that I noticed, at any rate. I sat next to a 20-something F in a waiting area for about 20 minutes, but didn’t notice anything from her. She was close enough to be in my cloud. A few other encounters, but nothing happened. I did sit next to an executive VP from a supplier company at lunch, and he was quite chummy.

I had some time to go back to my room before the next set of sessions, and scrubbed off the original dose. I went with 3 drops of A314, 1 spray of TUTH, 2 drops of iH, and 2 drops of iS. I went into one session and bumped into a guy I once worked with 28 years ago. I had sat down already, and he sat at a table across from me. We talked for a while, and then I realized that he had a coworker sitting with him. I’d seen her, but didn’t know they were there together. She was early 30’s, and quite attractive. The thing is, she never looked up at me before the session started. I think that’s important - she did not look at me at this point at all. We sat down and the presentation started. She was about 4 feet from me and the A/C was kinda blowing from me to her, so she was certainly in the cloud. I’m at about her 4 o’clock position, so I’m not even in her peripheral vision. She started to shift her seat several times. Then she started twirling the lanyard that her name tag was attached too. Then she sat still for about 2 minutes. (I’m oblivious to the presentation, by the way.) Then she started twirling her hair with the hand that was away from me. Then she shifted her seat a bit and sat forward with her hands between her legs. After a couple of minutes of this, she sat back, crossed her legs, and then started bouncing one of her legs. But again, she hasn’t laid eyes on me.

When the presentation ended, we were introduced by my former coworker, and that’s the first time she saw me. There were no IOI’s from that point on. We even happened to go to the next session together and sat next to each other. At this point, she’s giving IOI’s to my former coworker, who also happens to be her boss. So i suspect that she picked up the 'mones, but thought they were from him rather than me. We had a 20 minute conversation after that. During that time, you could say that her eyes were partially dilated, but that’s the only potential IOI there was.

So, there were two receptions next. I scrubbed down again, and went with the straight office mix - 4 drops of A314, 2 drops of iS, and 2 drops of iH. Nothing at any of the receptions.

So, back to my room and scrub down again. I decide to try the smoke-filled room again. I went with 4 drops of A314, 2 sprays of TUTH, 3 drops of iS, and 3 drops of iH. I went heavy because of the smoke.

Again, no OD effects. I still can’t smell much properly.

So I wander through the casino for a few minutes. I passed by the slot machines, then the blackjack tables, then the roulette wheels. I stop here and there, but nothing really happens. Then who do I see, but the Temptress from the night before. Ok, so I went to get some cash. I figured, that the hell, I’m gonna see where this goes.

So after the ATM stop, I head back to the craps tables. I spotted a table that was just getting setup, but wasn’t open yet. I stopped and asked the stick man the basic rules. After a quick five minute lesson, I head over to the Temptresses table…

To be continued.

22

The Temptress Event

So through a weird turn of events, I end up getting a spot at the craps table right next to the Temptress. Then some great thundering oaf inserted himself into an even smaller space between us. Time passes, 10 minutes maybe, and the oaf departs, and I sidle over to be next to the Temptress.

Again - 4 drops of A314 , 2 sprays of TUTH , 3 drops of iS, and 3 drops of iH . I went heavy because of the smoke.

I said hi, she said hi and smiled. I didn’t say anything else for a few minutes, to make sure the mones had a chance to penetrate the smoke smell and get to her. It was pretty obvious that I didn’t know what I was doing, so I asked her a couple of questions. About that time, a guy pulls up on the other side of her. We’ll call him Mr. Green (he was wearing a bright green shirt). Now, I’m wearing mones and now there’s a new guy in the picture. All he said was hi to both of us, and her reaction was almost immediate. She looked at me and said, “Would you watch my chips for a minute, I’ll be right back.” And she took off quickly for the restroom. While she was gone, Mr. Green looked at me and said, “so, where you two from?” I laughed a little, and told him that we weren’t together. He said we looked like a couple. I said I’d just met here here a few minutes early. He left shortly after.

A few minutes later, the Temptress comes back. She looked at me and said, “thanks. That guy was giving me the creeps.” I said something stellar like, “Which guy, the green guy?” She nodded. I smiled and introduced myself. She told me her name and we shook hands. Then I smiled at her again, leaned over closer a bit and said, “I figured I should introduce myself since Mr. Green thought we were married.” She said, “he did?!” I nodded. She was very cool and didn’t really react. But she didn’t leave, she didn’t back away, she didn’t even turn away. She had an ever so slight smile, and then just went back to the game.

A couple of her friends came up and I got introduced. The new arrivals were a couple - she in her early 20’s and he was my age - mid-50s (this looked like the classic trophy bride situation, but after talking to them they were very nice and clearly quite fond of one another). They were both very nice - everyone is a friend at the craps table. But the 20-something girl also thought the the Temptress and I were together. The Temptress said, “no, we just met.” to which I added, “Yeah, we’re old friends. We’ve known each other for all of 10 minutes.” The 20-something girl said something like, “well, in some circumstances 10 minutes is plenty.” That brought an interesting smile to the Temptress. And I don’t think it was lost on her that we’d been confused for a couple twice in just a few minutes.

Eventually, we all went back to the game, and I continued to ask for pointers. At one point, I screwed up a bet. The stick man corrected me. I leaned over to her and said, “ok, so what did I miss there.” She leaned in and we were shoulder to shoulder while she explained. if the smoke hadn’t killed off her sense of smell, she was certainly in my cloud for a good 30 or 40 seconds. There was some elbow contact after that. Nothing sexual, but there was no one crowding us together and we still made light contact off and on for several minutes.

I actually would have bought her a drink, but the waitress slipped in from an angle and I didn’t see her till it was too late. It’s probably for the best. I mean, I am calling her the Temptress, so buying her a drink was probably not a good idea anyway. But it was very tempting.

Shortly after that she cashed out and moved to another table. She’d been thinking of it earlier, but decided to when her friends turned up. She did move before it was her turn with the dice. That left me the shooter, so she left and I stayed. Interestingly, as soon as she left the luck changed, and I didn’t last long with the dice.

All in all, I can’t swear that it this was a phero driven event. I can’t say that my cloud penetrated the smoke smell. I think it did, but I can’t swear to it. And my sense of smell is so messed-up that I can wear 8 drops of A314 and not OD. But I’d seen her the day before, and I’d seen her that evening before I started playing, and she didn’t like to be crowded physically too much. But she was quite close to me for an extended period of time, and in light physical contact (albeit elbows and shoulders). She had glasses on so that I couldn’t see her eyes well, and I saw no skin reaction. She never really turned her full body toward me, but she never closed her body language either. And there was no hint of nipples tonight. I think the mones might have had an impact, but she played everything VERY cool throughout the encounter.

If nothing else, the mones gave me the courage to try this out while risking $100 at the craps table. I had a wonderful time, and almost tripled my money thanks to her coaching.

And today has been 16 hours, so I’m not going to take the time to proof this.

This concludes the conference posts. I’m going on vacation, and won’t be testing anything for a while.

23

The more I use these, the more I think the individuals are as much a part of the show as the pheromones.

For example, I use A314, iS and iH in a typical combination. All oil based. Some people react to them, most don’t. The men that react to them all seem to want me to notice them, or to impress me. The women differ. Some want to impress me in a business sense, but I’ve also seen some solid IOI’s beyond that. Some people just seem to click with the scent, and it seems rather random as to which person might pickup the details.

I also think there’s an effect relative to the length of exposure. Someone that I see daily for weeks seems to have a greater response than someone that I’ve just met. I get the impression that this is a result of the oil based products, so I does it make sense to go more spray based if I need a more immediate response? Again, this seems to be different based on the receptors of each individual.

Curiouser and curiouser…

24

Just ran a little quick experiment.

I had to make a run to a couple of stores. Decided to try something new. All I have handy is TUTH and iS, both in spray. I don’t use the sprays often, so this is something unusual for me.

About a spray and a half of TUTH. The first was a misfire because I’d never used this bottle before, so I figure about 1.5 sprays. This was followed by 5 sprays of iS.

Off to the store I go…

The grocery is only about half a mile from my house, so it takes little time to get there. But before I arrive, not much more than 5 minutes after application, I get this really strong wave of self-confidence. I’ve never had a self-effect as strong as this. By the time I get to the grocery, everything is sunshine and daffodils.

I walk through the store and get nothing from anyone around me. There were a variety of people from every age group you can think of. There was only one possible hit, and that was from a VERY young girl - maybe 14. She just looked at me funny, like she might have known me but couldn’t figure out where. There were three teenage girls blocking the strawberries (which I had to buy), and I thought they’d flee in terror of a guy my age wearing TUTH. But they didn’t seem to notice a thing. Everyone else ignored me, but I could not have cared less - by this time, I’m close to owning the universe.

Retail stop next, just a few minutes down the road. This is where it got interesting. There were three other males in the store. One early 30s black guy, and two 20-something Hispanic males. Two were customers, and one of the Hispanic guys was the cashier.

I had to wait behind the other two customers. Odds are good that everyone was in the cloud. The other two customers were non-events. No reactions from either of them. But the cashier was a hit. With the other two customers, he was really friendly - “dude”, “bro”, “what’s happenin’ my man?”. When they left, my turn came around, but it was all, “yessir” or “no sir”, or “Let me check on that sir.” Admittedly, I probably have 25 years on everyone else in the store, but I’ve seen this cashier before and he was all buddy-buddy with me in the past. But tonight, it was all very official.

I never would have expected a status vibe from this kind of combination.

I’m about an hour after application now, and the self-effects are almost gone. But it felt REALLY good there for a while.

25

Well, I’m off to a convention next week. There will be about 7000 people there, so the phero testing will be very easily done. But here’s the thing - I just found out that there will be a potentially very serious meeting involved.

About 2 months ago they announced a merger. Next week, I’ll likely meet my counterparts from the acquiring company. It’s not a certain thing just now, but the odds are VERY high.

I have at my disposal the following: A314 oil, iS oil and spray, iH oil and spray, TUTH spray, P96 oil, P83 spray, and P79 spray (I haven’t used the P83 or P79 yet. One of them was a slip-o’-the-mouse purchase, but I don’t recall which one just at the moment…I think 79).

I figure I’ll use my office mix for the most part - 4 drops of A314, 2 drops of iS oil, 2 drops of iH oil.

But two questions for you phero-veterans:

First, is there any benefit of adding the P96, P83 or P79 to this? From what I’ve read of them here, I don’t think there’s much use at all. But I thought I’d ask.

Second, is there a prospect - for this one critical meeting - of doing a mix of the oils and sprays? I’ll have to apply about 10 - 20 minutes before I go into the room, then there will be about an hour of peer-to-peer roundtable discussion, then the prospect for the critical meeting. So from application to meeting, somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours, I would think. My feeling is to try 4 drop A314, 2 drops iS oil, 2 drops iH oil, 1 spray of iS somewhere distant from the oil, 1 spray of iH somewhere distant from the oil.

Any suggestions? I’m going to have to make a big impact in a short space of time.

There will also be some downtime, and a lot of receptions. Any suggestions for those would be appreciated too.

26

So, I’m testing this new “Meeting Mix” today.

4 drops A314
2 drops & 1 spray of iShine
2 drops of P96

I toned it down a bit for the flight. I went with half these doses given the enclosed environment. No hits. Just one guy said, “sorry sir”, but that could have been the result of our relative ages.

Went to the hotel and checked-in. Washed off the old dose and reapplied. Then I went to my first meeting. It was very successful. I like this new mix. So far, there’s been no stiffness, as the original office mix could create.

it’s only one test, so far, but the results are promising.

27

I have to say that, so far, this new meeting mix is really great. I ran it today. Started at about 11:00 this morning, and went to the luncheon and trade show after. Total of about six hours. I was getting good respect hits almost the whole time, but it did diminish as the day wore on. A couple of specific notes…

After lunch, we all had to move to the trade show floor. The sales people go in about 20 minutes before the buyers, so I had to wait in a lobby for that 20 minutes.

I stood behind one woman just to see her reaction. I was about 3 feet from her (it was crowded). She stood there for a minute after I got there, then looked up (not toward me). She practically ran the opposite direction, away from me. She stopped about 40 feet away and resumed her phone work. I guess she didn’t like the mix much. She was in her early 30’s, I would guess.

But I wandered around for the entire time and stood behind or beside several people. Several glanced in my direction a couple of times. Like they sensed that I was there at first, then kept glancing back. I just stood stock still, not looking directly at them. This was repeated several times. Both males and females, ranging in age from mid-20’s to mid-50’s.

In the trade show (there are thousands of people present), I had several conversations with a variety of people. No one stiffened-up, as I have seen with the office mix. I got lots of business done, and got concessions from reps that I’d not expected to get.

All-in-all, it was a pretty spectacular day. Thanks to JustInTime and JDub for the idea!!

28

And gentlemen, allow me to offer a piece of advice.

If you haven’t done so already, invest in a nice dark blue sport coat and a set of pocket squares. People notice when you’re wearing a sport coat. And as ZZ Top taught us, women notice a sharp dressed man. I don’t think a sport coat would be misplaced on a 20-something, but after 30 a good sport coat is a very solid thing to have in your closet. Over 40 it’s a must have.

And never underestimate a good pocket square. That tiny piece of real estate can say a lot about the man in the jacket.

29

Great results! I’m happy it’s working out for you, but did you mean “2 drops P96”… rather than ‘2 drops P93’.??

I think you’re right about the sports coat thing, and I’m right at one of the cusps.. but I will say this, I feel incredibly suave pulling out my iPhone from the pocket of a sport’s coat. :smiley:
… or an envelope full of cash.. but I digress.

Great results man again! I’ve noticed that sometimes my clouds will do the same thing, quite often lately. A woman will walk passed me then once in close proximity, slow down to a complete stop, then turn around and linger around me, then leave. (At least indoors). All the while I’m watching in my peripherals and they just seem to be attracted to the cloud. It certainly gives me tons of opportunities to talk to many women.

If you feel like you get to much respect hits you can add a little more p96, but if it’s not enough, you can tone down the p96.

30

Yeah, it was P96 rather than the typo P93. I corrected it in the original.

I might try one drop of P96 today, given that today’s the big potential for a serious meeting. There’s been a slight change of plans for this morning. I’m going to have to apply about 2 hours before the meeting. So I’ll use the oils then, and keep the traveling bottle of iS in my pocket. I’ll use a couple of sprays of that 10 minutes before the session begins.

Will report further as time permits, but it may be tomorrow. Today portends to be about 16 hours…

31

And don’t forget the pocket squares! :slight_smile:

32

So, today was the day for the “Big Meeting”.

I got up early, showered, ate, etc. Got dressed. I decided to go all-in, and went with french cuffs and the red power pocket square.

About 90 minutes before the meeting, I dosed myself with 4 drops of A314, 1 drop of P96, and two drops of iS. 10 minutes before the meeting, I applied two sprays of iS.

So the session begins, and…

…they didn’t show up.

&$^( &$D &( #$ !!!

So, the session wore on, and I got plenty of decent respect hits. I didn’t say much in this particular round, but I did make a couple of comments that were well received. In fact, three people thanked me for my contribution (though my contribution was absolutely minimal in the grand scheme of things).

But this did present an interesting opportunity. It was decided that I was to sit with these folks at lunch (there are thousands of people at this event). Again, this may have been some of the respect hits from the group. One person actually insisted. So, even though I was previously committed for another table, I joined this group.

But I went back to the hotel before lunch, washed off the meeting mix, and applied the office mix. This gave a good opportunity to see what, if any, differences there would be between the two.

The second mix was 4 drops of A314, 2 drops of iS, and 2 drops of iH.

For the most part, there were no appreciable changes in anyone’s reactions at lunch. However, there was one younger woman that I happened to sit next to. She’s late 20’s, I would bet. She seemed to close-up when I sat down. She didn’t really shut me out as far as body language goes, but she was certainly more closed than she had been earlier.As time wore on, and she grew acclimated to the new sent, she opened-up again, and was laughing at my jokes by the time lunch was over. So she really did have a more stiff reaction to the office mix than to the meeting mix.

One other reaction. Right after I dosed with the 3xA314, 2xiS, 2xiH, I got on the elevator go go downstairs. There was a guy in the elevator already, and I walked in. This is maybe 10 minutes after dosing myself. He was early 30s. He immediately started fidgeting. He checked his watch twice before we got to the lobby. He even tried in a nervous way to tuck in his shirt tail and straighten his shirt.

Last one - Had two long conversations with two reps that I’d never met before. One was F, early to mid-30s and attractive. The other was M, 40’s, nerdy. This is about four hours after application. The woman gave some IOI’s, but after turning her chest toward me and pointing her foot at me, she suddenly turned away and crossed her arms. Then she’d eventually work back to turning toward me and pointing the foot. She even ran her hand over her thighs a few times to straighten her skirt, and there were a couple of hair tosses. I had to adjourn for another meeting, but came back half an hour later to finish our conversation. She immediately put her arm around my waist, and left it there far longer than is really normal for a rep that’s a “toucher”. She even twirled her hair a couple of times, and here eyes were slightly dilated. I may see her again at a reception later. Will report if there’s more to report.

33

I have to admit that I was completely wiped out by this convention. According to my Fitbit, I walked 23 miles in 4 days.I talked to reps till I’d almost lost my voice on the third day, and I couldn’t begin to tell you how many hands I’ve shaken this week.

But in comparing the two mixes -

Mix A. 4 drops A314, 2 drops iShine, 2 drops iH
Mix B. 4 drops A314, 2 drops iShine, 2 drops P96

I have to say that I think the differences are incredibly subtle and difficult to navigate from a users point of view - at least difficult to navigate relative to which one I use on which occasion and for which audience. My boss reacts very well to Mix A, so that’s likely to remain the office daily mix.

Mix A - UPSIDE:Lots of respect hits over the 9 months I’ve been wearing it. This is especially true with repeated and longer term exposure. I’ve gotten some solid IOI’s from women that make my weary male ego feel alive again. DOWNSIDE: It can make people stiff and wooden. I’ve seen people completely close down to a level of professionalism that’s actually a little annoying. And the IOI’s are few and far between.

Mix B - UPSIDE: Lots of respect hits here too, but they seem more natural. There’s none of the woodenness that I see in Mix A. People - especially women - are more relaxed in their dealings with me. DOWNSIDE: The IOI’s vanish entirely, or at least they’ve vanished so far in my testing.

And as to the IOI’s disappearing, I had a very solid test of this at the convention. I talked to one female rep over two days - early 30’s and quite attractive. The first day I had Mix A on, the second day I had Mix B on. She was flashing IOI’s with Mix A, and no such IOI’s were visible on Mix B. With Mix A, it’s like she realized that she was flashing IOI’s, or she realized an attraction at some level, and tried to suppress it. Then the attraction would kick in again, she’d flash an IOI or two, then realize it and step back again. This process was repeated four or five times over a 45 minute conversation. It was absolutely fascinating to watch. But with Mix B, she was very natural and gave not a single IOI. But the biometric response that no human can dodge is pupil dilation. With Mix A there was a decent amount of pupil dilation, though not fully widened. With Mix B there was none.

In another case, a 20-something assistant buyer reacted warmly and openly to Mix B, but when I switched to Mix A before lunch she got really intimidated - closed body language, no eye contact, etc. After I talked to her a couple of minutes (small talk), she opened-up again. But her initial reaction to Mix A was closure.

34

Wow! Nice observations.

Hmmm… If you can name each mix, what would it be? :slight_smile:

35

That’s an interesting question, Dee. I hadn’t really considered it. I suppose something better than Mix A and Mix B is appropriate. I’ll think about it, but in the meantime, any suggestions?

38

Oh. Sorry, I’m prohibited from doing that. My suggestions might influence your view. And besides, I don’t want to harvest later my own input. :slight_smile:

The “boss alpha” description I offered for the A314 in another journal was actually a popular description coined by users years ago.

39

Thanks, Dee. I hadn’t encountered the “boss alpha” term yet, so I searched it. That seems about right for what I’m encountering with it - especially around 20-somethings.

So Mix A may become my Boss Mix, or Leadership Mix.

Not sure what to call Mix B. Coltrane Mix comes to mind, since it’s much more smooth.

Dunno yet.

40

I ran into an interesting comparison this week. I had an opportunity to run a little experiment. I had two meetings scheduled with the same woman (mid-30’s, different subjects for each meeting, but limited time so we went with different days). So I wore a slightly different mix each day.

On Tuesday, I wore the mellow mix: 4 drops A314, 2 drops iShine, 2 drops P96. She listened intently, and was very engaged. She agreed to all my requests. It was a very successful meeting. There was no twirling of anything, no clothing adjustments, no pupil dilation. Zilch as far as physical reactions go.

On Wednesday I wore the original office mix: 4 drops of A314, 2 drops of iShine, 2 drops of iHonesty. She listened intently, and was very engaged. She agreed to all my requests. It was a very successful meeting. But she reached up to twirl her hair twice, but realized that it was pulled back and there was nothing to twirl. She straightened her skirt twice, and fidgeted more. She crossed her arms a couple of times, almost as if to pull back, but it didn’t last long and the fidgeting and skirt straightening began again. And her eyes were twice as dilated as they were before…and this in the EXACT same lighting as the previous day (same office, roughly same time of afternoon).

I find this REALLY interesting. What is it in the office mix that might be causing the IOIs? Or is she just particularly sensitive to a more status-oriented mix than a friendly-status-oriented mix?

41

IME, iOis come more from status and sexual mixes than friendly.

42

That makes sense, and thanks, JDub. I thought they were much more similar than that.