This journal will detail my journey through pickup. I have now logged close to 50 hours of field experience. Provide feedback.

VENUE: Mall
GOAL: Phone close in 1 min
CANDIDATE: Girl walking by
OUTCOME: Fail

Me: Hey, do you know where the blah, blah is.
Candidate: Yeah, OMG I just walked by it, but I can't remember.
Me: I'm so disappointed.
Candidate: (Looking a bit apologetic) I'm sorry.
Me: What you from?
Candidate: I'm from here.
Me: What you do?
Candidate: I work at JCPenny. (She's now running her hand through her hair and giving me an assessing look - She knows at this point that this is a pick up attempt)
Me: (She's intrigued; throw in some credibility) Yeah, I am meeting a friend at blah blah store. She is going to help me with blah, blah.
Candidate: Cool!
Me: (Think of continuing the conversation somehow - 1 second goes by; 3 seconds; nothing springs to min - and the candidate walks away).

QUESTION:
Thinking about it bit more, my options at this point were limited. I couldn't dive back into the JCPenny topic bc it would seem unnatural. I could have continue talking about myself, but that seems like a waste. Any experts out there no what to do?

The rapid fire question approach doesn't work because it's weird. Instead of this:

You: question
Her: short answer
You: another question
Her: short answer

Which makes the girl feel weird because this vein of conversation IS weird. No one talks like this except socially uncalibrated people... try this:

You: question
Her: short answer
You: related to her answer with a statement, opinion, or story
Her: related back to your statement, opinion, or story with a statement, opinion, or story of her own
Repeat ^ to find commonalities
Break rapport to spark attraction

Example:

You: Hey, do you know where blah blah is
Her: blah blah blah
You: I'm so disappointed
Her: blah blah blah

^ This part is good so far, especially if the I'm so disappointed part was playful

then:

You: Where you from?
Her: Here
You: (depending on where here is) Oh word! Do you know blah blah blah it's my favorite place here!
Her: yeah i love that place! or No, I haven't heard of it
You: (if the first one) Yeah, they have the most amazing blah blah blah (if the second one) Wait, you're from here and you haven't gone there? *playful disapproving look* Cmon...

ADD VALUE to the conversation, instead of repeatedly asking her to add value

Hope this helps!

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My Pick-Up Journal