Hey bros,

There aren’t many things in a bromance (or any other friendship) that are more shocking and often hurtful than seeing a friend withdraw from you because he’s becoming depressed. Depression in this sense is a medical problem; it isn’t just feeling down because you lost your favorite ball cap. In fact, clinical depression doesn’t have much to do with sadness at all. It’s more like a sense of extreme numbness, that nothing and nobody matter, and there’s nothing left to care about. A depressed guy doesn’t want to be that way, but he’s lost the ability to restore his thinking on his own. Having help from a supportive bro won’t solve the problem completely, but it will be a major help.

Just to be clear, if you have a bro who’s started to put up walls, you can and should give him some space. But if he doesn’t return your calls or texts for weeks, you should start to worry about him.

If you have a bro or other friend who’s depressed, you need to understand that there are some things you shouldn’t say or do. First, don’t take it personally if your bro tries to push you away. Guys in particular hate to talk about feelings in the first place, and chemical depression magnifies that effect. It might not be easy, but don’t give up on the guy. Next, don’t try to give advice or tell them what to do. Sure, they’ll need some professional therapy, but you aren’t a substitute for that.

Most importantly, just be there for your bro and listen. He will get better, but depression doesn’t follow a fixed timeline, nor does it have a “cure” that instantly switches it off.

Here’s to good health, bros.

Later,
-The Blog Dude

Hey bros,

Judging by the number of subscribers our emailing list has, I’m guessing that many, perhaps most, of those guys have already set up an account. That’s very easy to do.

But it seems like a lot of these dudes haven’t set up a bro-file and gotten it approved yet. It’s kind of understandable: the process can be confusing.

So this time, instead of just bro-file tips, I’ve made you a full walk-through about how to get your bro-file set up on the website (the apps are similar). Here it is:

If, after this, you have any questions, please go ahead and leave a comment.

Later,
-The Blog Dude

Hey bros,

If you’re the type of guy who understands the power of setting goals and tracking your progress towards them, you might have wondered if you can apply this process to starting a bromance.

The short answer is: it depends.

One of the biggest problems people have with setting goals is that they choose goals that depend on what other people do. Huge mistake, man. There’s no point in setting a goal for yourself if it’s not achievable. And as soon as it stops depending only on what you do and starts depending on things outside your control, you can’t achieve your goal anymore. You’re just setting yourself up for failure. This is what happens to a sales guy who sets a goal of closing 10 deals by the end of the month, and it also will happen to any guy who sets a goal of finding bromance. Both of these things depend on how other people respond.

Bottom line: you can’t directly make it a goal to find bromance. The good news is, there are goals you can set for yourself that will move the odds more in your favor.

To understand the process, let’s go back to that sales bro-fessional who has to figure out how to close 10 more deals. He knows he can’t guarantee to get a potential buyer to agree to even one deal, much less get 9 other potential buyers to do the same thing. Fortunately, he’s been in sales long enough to figure out that there are other outcomes he CAN guarantee and that also are helpful in closing more deals. For example, he’s learned from experience that every time he gives a sales presentation, one person from the audience, on average, wants to sign a deal. So he decides to set a goal of giving 100 presentations by the end of the month. Giving the presentations is something that he – and he alone – can control, and the chances are high that meeting this goal is going to give him what he wants: the closed deals. Bingo!

Can you apply this way of thinking to the process of finding bromance with a new guy friend? Yes. Yes, you can. One of the best ways is to go where there are dudes you haven’t met, and to start talking to them. If you set a goal such as, “I’m going to talk to 15 new guys this month,” it’s something that’s completely within your control. Once you learn how many of these guys are interested in hanging out with you afterwards, you’re on your way to figuring out how to get what you want. Obviously it takes time and it takes effort, since the perfect bro isn’t going to knock on your door. However, a sensible set of goals will put you much closer to finding bromance than just random action will.

Later,
-The Blog Dude

Hey bros,

Some of you might have noticed that black dog in the sidebar of the seekBromance blog and on some of the web pages. We’ll tell you about it in a sec, but first I need to fill in a little background.

Early in the year, I started seekBromance on an investment fund raising kick. The reason was the same as always. The mission of seekBromance has always been to build the largest database of bros who are looking for friends, and it costs more than I can bootstrap to reach an audience that big. So we put together a formal business plan and paid for a listing on Funded.com for a few months. No takers, so of course I wasn’t going to continue wasting money on them.

But, as any good startup bro would do, I continued to learn and apply my new knowledge where I thought the biggest gaps were: in this case, the seekBromance ad campaigns. After some studying and tweaking, I saw some real improvement even with the peanuts I had to work with. Turns out this marked the beginning of the latest branch in my empire: Black Greyhound Online Marketing. After all, if I could learn the principles of online marketing and make them work for seekBromance, there’s no reason I can’t help other business bros. Like you.

So instead of investors, I’m going to be using this new agency to build up expansion revenue that I can apply to seekBromance. So if you have a site of your own, and you need help with your ads, your SEO, or marketing blog and video content, hit me up. I’ll be delighted to work with you.

Later,
-The Blog Dude