Hey

Most likely you saw me on Instagram, YouTube or one of my other profiles and thought:
Who actually is this guy with the German accent who doesn’t really look German haha, interviewing all these girls around the world? In this post, I want to tell you my story and how dating and traveling abroad changed my life but probably not for the reason you think. How a football kid went from being introverted growing up, to leading international sales teams, to traveling the world, and eventually coaching men to improve their dating lives.

Let’s start with the basics. I was born in Recife, Brazil. One of the most underrated cities in Brazil. The girls are super attractive, social and approachable there. Women to men ratio is usually minimum 5:1 or even 8:1 in the surrounding areas. Gringos/ American usually avoid this place because people say it’s very “unsafe” which is actually is true. Recife is one of the most violent non-warzone cities in the world. So, it’s definitely not as inflated by foreigners as places like Rio.
Just as a side note: if you know somebody local like me who actually understands the city, it becomes much easier to navigate and Recife can be an amazing place to experience if you ever consider going there.

But let’s get back to my story.
Luckily and thanks to God, I was able to leave Brazil when I was still a baby.
A German couple found me in an orphanage and took me to Germany. Obviously, that’s the very short version. The full story would probably take pages to write down. But if we ever meet in person, I’m more than happy to tell you the whole thing.
So I grew up in Germany in a very structured world. Basically the typical German stereotype: organized, reliable, calm. I developed a German way of thinking without completely losing my Brazilian warmth. I always say: German brain. Brazilian soul. I think that’s actually a pretty good combination.

I was very shy growing up: Introverted and I didn’t really talk to strangers and avoided social situations whenever I could. But my Brazilian genes gave me at least some talent for playing football or soccer although, to my American friends, it’s called football haha. I started playing when I was five years old. Football gave me friends, a team and a tribe. I was always around people.
I played in official mostly German club teams for basically my entire life and only retired during COVID when I was 35. But when it came to women, that was a completely different story. I wasn’t really confident talking to women growing up. I was more of the “nice guy,” I would say. To be fair, I still got girlfriends. But not because I was particularly good with women. It was more because I had an exotic factor. Brown skin. Curly hair. Back then, I was basically the only kid at my school who wasn’t white, blonde or who didn’t have the typical German look. So luckily for me, there were girls who simply liked me because of how I looked. Which also meant I never really had to develop proper dating skills back then.

Life moved on. Besides playing football, I went to college, studied international business and eventually started a career in international sales besides playing football. Later, I moved to Switzerland for work, which was great. Honestly, Switzerland is probably one of the best places in the world if you want to work a corporate job. The salaries are crazy. I was basically making twice as much as I would have made doing a similar job in Germany. I traveled the world for work. Closed big deals. Led sales teams. On paper, I was successful but I never really figured out dating.
Like many guys, I entered a long-term relationship quite early and for years I didn’t really need to think about dating at all.

Then suddenly, everything changed. Like for so many people, COVID became a major turning point. Not just globally, but personally for me. My long-term relationship ended. At almost the same time, I stopped playing football due to an injury. So suddenly, my relationship was gone. My football tribe was gone and I was mostly alone. Don’t get me wrong. I never had a big problem being alone. I was never depressed or anything like that. I was simply alone, no real social circle, no dating life and then the realization hit me: Now I’m back on the “market”...and I have absolutely no idea about dating or women.
I had never approached women. I knew almost nothing about modern dating and honestly, realizing that was pretty terrifying. I had to start from zero. But somewhere deep down, I also knew something from instinct and life experience: Nobody was coming to save me. It happened once in my life when I was sitting in an orphanage in Brazil but it wasn’t going to happen again. If I didn’t take action, nothing would change. So I made a decision: This is not how my story ends.

I started taking action. I still remember sitting at home during COVID, binge-watching a dating coach on YouTube doing cold approaches on the streets of London. One evening, I watched one of his livestreams. He was in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, promoting a day-game bootcamp and something clicked. I didn’t think twice. I immediately checked if there was any possible way I could get from Switzerland to Mexico. At the time, almost everything was still closed because of the pandemic but Mexico was one of the few countries that was completely open. And there it was.
A flight. One of only a few operating out of Switzerland at the time. I booked it and the next day, I was flying to Mexico. Once I arrived, I contacted the coach and booked cold-approach training with him. Looking back, I think that was one of the most terrifying things I had ever done because now there was no more watching YouTube from the comfort of my apartment. Now I actually had to approach women. On the streets and in Mexico. A country I had never even been to before and this coach made me approach basically every beautiful woman we came across: On the streets, in bars, restaurants, shops. Pretty much every situation you can imagine. At one time I had to go into a full restaurant and get the number of waiter… total madness lol.
In only a few days, I easily approached more than 100 women. At first, I had shaking knees. I was sweating like crazy. Every approach felt like I was walking into battle but then something changed.
I started enjoying it. Especially because most of the reactions were actually very positive. It resulted in conversations, dates and a lot of fun. At that point, I had no idea that I would continue doing this almost obsessively for the next two years. I approached well over 2,000 women during that period.
I didn’t keep an exact count, so it was probably even more.

At the same time, I also started building a much bigger social circle in Switzerland. The skill of approaching women that I had developed over time became useful for something much bigger. I became comfortable just talking to people in general: Men, women, strangers, people at events and just people everywhere. Along the way, I invested thousands of dollars into other trainings as well: Social skills, networking, building a social circle and communication. It wasn’t always easy but every conversation changed something. I started hosting small social gatherings then bigger ones.
Networking events. Photoshoots. Charity events.
Different types of social experiences. Slowly but steadily, I built a social and dating life that at one point I honestly thought was impossible for me. Women I actually wanted to date and friends I could count on. A social circle I had built myself.

And during that journey, I had several big realizations. Confidence isn’t something you’re simply born with. Maybe some people naturally have more of it but the majority of us including me, have to build it. You can be extremely successful in your career or business and still have weak social and dating skills. And honestly, that might even be one of the reasons you’re reading this right now. But the good thing is: Social skills can be learned. Meaningful connections can be built. Dating can be improved. It’s not just luck. A huge part of it comes down to taking action.
And I always thought: If I could learn all of this from scratch, why couldn’t somebody else?

But I didn’t stop there. After doing all of this for some time in Switzerland, I also realized that I wanted more from life. More freedom, more experiences abroad, even more connections. So eventually I left the comfort zone of my job. I quit and a lot of people around me were basically thinking: How can he just walk away from such a good job? But I knew I wanted something different. I started traveling the world and turned something I once struggled with into a lifestyle I genuinely love.

And then something unexpected happened. While traveling, I started interviewing women. Mostly about life and dating topics. At first, I was simply sharing my experiences and having conversations.
Then some of the interviews started going viral. I remember one interview in particular with a girl in the Philippines. I simply asked her: “What is rich in the Philippines?” That video ended up getting more than 18 million views and brought me thousands of new followers. Men from all over the world started following my journey. For some reason, a huge percentage of them came from the US. But they weren’t just watching. They wanted to know more.

What started as interviews became something much bigger. Men started reaching out and asking me things like: How do you meet women abroad? Where are the best women? How can I get better with women? I still remember sitting in my Airbnb in Vietnam one day when a guy from Los Angeles messaged me. His question was basically:
“How much can I pay you to answer all my questions about dating and traveling?”
That was one of the moments where I realized something powerful. The system that had changed my own life could potentially help other men too. So I started mentoring men to build their own dating and social lives.

And today, that’s exactly what I do: I help men create better dating opportunities: Where to go, how to meet women and how to date better. And honestly, it doesn’t matter that much whether you’re doing this locally or abroad. The fundamentals stay the same.
Nowadays, a lot of guys want to try dating abroad for many different reasons. And if you follow me for long enough, we’ll get into all of those reasons step by step. But something I always tell guys is this: Going abroad doesn’t magically replace dating skills. Recently, for example, I started mentoring a guy from Florida. Before even thinking about his international dating strategy, we first focused on improving his situation locally. We fixed his dating profile, improved his Instagram and worked heavily on his social skills. These are things that are often completely neglected. Soon, he’ll start traveling to Eastern Europe. But now he’ll arrive there prepared as he already has the fundamentals. So instead of spending his trip struggling with basic things he could have learned at home, he can actually get the maximum out of the experience and that’s really one of the main ideas behind everything I teach. A different country can give you different opportunities. Sometimes much better opportunities but you still need the skills to use them.

Well… That was my story and maybe you’re wondering: What if you could create your own story without spending years figuring everything out through trial and error like I did? Imagine already understanding the right places to go. The right mindset. The right social skills and the right overall dating strategy. You can start building a better dating and social life wherever you are in the world. And I want to share more of what I’ve learned with you.

That’s exactly why I created The Global Dating Brief: My free newsletter with real stories, dating lessons and practical strategies: Where to go. How to meet women. How to date abroad.

If you haven’t joined yet, you can subscribe for free. And if you need direct help with your individual situation, reach out to me on Instagram. Tell me where you are right now, what you’re struggling with and what you’re trying to achieve. If I think I can help, I’ll tell you what I’d recommend.

Cheers, Julian