The premise of the film LEAP is to show that coaching can transform individuals, so they capture the process. When I saw the trailer for the documentary, I saw my client Chad for this first time. I noticed he was suffering, a look of depression and hopeless in his want to find true love. I knew that I could help free him from his self-imposed prison and find the one for him.
When I traveled to Malaga, Spain to work with Chad for the documentary, the producers warned me that he’s not very open to coaching, but I knew that Chad would find what he was looking for with my help. In a matter of weeks, he would be confident in talking to women. He’s a 6’4 broad shouldered 43-year old southern gentleman who’s a virgin. What woman would say no to him?
On a ridiculously hot day in August, I first sat down with Chad in front of the camera. He spoke of his experience thus far in the coaching process with other coaches in the film. Although the other coaches had helped him in some ways, he still felt like he wasn’t getting the guidance needed. After giving him some pointers, we started role playing. I pretended to be a woman in a bar, and he would practice coming up to me. Each time I played a different type of women. Sometimes being sweet and open, other times, I was cold and busy on my phone. Every time he came up to me he was so into it. He cared. He wanted to get it right. He wanted to find love.
By the afternoon, Chad had a whole new repertoire of skills and his confidence was rising but I wasn’t ready to send him out to the wolves until I gave him a makeover. I pulled the director aside and said, “Patryk, we need to make him over. When I’m finished with him, he’ll look like a new man.”
The director LOVED the idea!
Now, the south of Spain in the summer, there are not a lot of options for clothing. There’s no Nordstrom, Macy’s just little seaside shop, most of which didn’t have X-Large or XXX-Large clothes Chad needed to fit his Superman-like physique. With limited resources, I was able to pull it off. When he first walked into the dressing room, he looked like an overgrown lumberjack and soon walked out of the dressing room like a classy, handsome man.
I was proud of my work, proud of Chad for allowing us the opportunity to help him. I was excited to see what would happen when he walked through the crowds of the South of Spain as it was now time for him to approach women in some of the busy tourist areas.
Before approaching women, Chad would come to Devon and me for a pep talk and afterward, he would come back to us for a debriefing. Every time he spoke to a new woman his confidence grew. Watching him standing with these women, a sense of newfound confidence beaming from his smile, as he talked and laughed with them gave me so much joy. Devon and I looked on like proud parents.
Just as the sun set, Chad sat down on a park bench next to a sweet young woman, and there was a spark! They talked and connected and soon Chad asked her out and took her number. He gave her a hug and said goodbye.
Chad returned to us with the cameras rolling and tears in his eye. It was the first time he had a connection with a woman and asked her out. I was touched by his emotions and his words of hope he said to me. He was hopeful that he’d find love with his newfound confidence and coaching.
Sometimes hope is all we need to keep the fire alive in our quest for love.
