I'm Jerry Banfield. It's August 1st, 2026. I'm a full-time YouTuber. Some say I'm a cult leader. This is my vlog to give you the real, raw, authentic story of my life in the last day. I think everyone should vlog. Everyone should live like this, and the world would be awesome.
So what's interesting in my life? Well, after I was so destroyed meeting this woman a couple of weeks ago that I was so excited about — the first week went awesome, I've talked a lot about that in recent vlogs — everything fell off. One thing about her is that I was so excited because she actually said she played tennis. I'm like, man, I want a woman to date who plays tennis with me. Keep that desire in mind. Yesterday, I literally lined up two dates with women who play tennis within the next week. I had neither of them on the horizon at the beginning of the day when I woke up.
Dating Apps Are Pay to Play in 2026
The first woman I found on Hinge by sending a rose. Dating is pay to play in 2026. If you didn't realize that: if you're not paying money, dating apps are pay to play. There's very little point in using them as a man if you're not paying to send roses and paying for premium. You're just invisible most of the time — some exceptions, of course. I dropped $200 on Hinge a couple of nights ago, and I sent this one woman a rose. She said tennis on her profile, and she has a picture of herself playing tennis. So I'm like, let's play. And she matched me back yesterday morning. She's like, yeah, let's do it. So I got moving immediately. I can't believe dudes are out there trying to date women without planning stuff. Like, what are y'all doing?
Oh, and by the way, get in the family. Somebody joined yesterday and the day before. I want a new family member every day. Join the Jerry Banfield Family. DM me. Share your life with me. You don't exist to me unless you're in the family, and I want to get to know you. Post your picture in there. Tell me your story. Message me. Share a video with me. I want to get to know you. Almost all I watch are videos from people who follow me — I hardly watch anybody else. All right, back to it. Again, I'll finish with the sales pitch. We're moving on.
Setting Up the First Tennis Date
So I matched with this woman on Hinge, and within a few hours she matches me. She's like, let's play. I messaged her about one minute later. Okay, attention — let me look at my exact messages so I don't have to paraphrase. We're going to go through the exact messages I sent. And this is funny: this woman who was tricking, catfishing, just came up on my Hinge again — I've met her in person. All right. So she had the prompt about the way to win her over, and I said, let's meet for tennis. She said, let's play. I said, St. Pete Tennis Center, Fossil Park, or somewhere else? I'm free tomorrow at five, and flexible Sunday. She tells me where she wants to play and says only weekdays work — when, which day is good for you? I said Monday morning and gave her a time. She said, I can play Monday morning at that time, is that good for you? I'm like, yep, confirmed to play. She's like, confirm Sunday evening. I'm like, I'll confirm Sunday evening. Do you want to give me your phone number, or should I just message you here? She's like, message me here, thanks. So I left a like, and I'm like, all right.
What's funny is I'm not emotionally invested. I'm like, this is a woman from a dating app. There's probably a 50 percent chance she shows up. It's not a big deal, and I'll do something else if she doesn't show up. Not a big deal, but it's cool — I've got one date scheduled. I was like, all right, that worked well.
Then I had this woman that I've met before match me on Hinge with a rose yesterday, and she texted me at like five in the afternoon. I'm like, hey, I lost your number. I haven't seen you in a while. I would love to reconnect. She's like, we can just be great friends, that's for sure. I'm like: unmatched. Don't play with me. I'm not on Hinge to be great friends. I didn't spend two dollars on a rose for great friends. Unmatched. Do not waste my time. I'm tired of wasting my time and pouring my love out to people who aren't interested in it — people in YouTube comments, women who are like, oh, you like me more than I like you. No. I will never again like a woman more than she likes me. I will simply match where she's at. That's the lesson learned on that.
Hot Yoga at 10 A.M.
So yesterday I go to a hot yoga class at 10 a.m. at Beachtown. It's a power flow. It might rain — in Florida you're always risking rain — and I'm like, I don't want to risk not getting my exercise playing tennis later, so I'm going to this hot power flow. I like the instructor because she does some amazing yoga classes. And I'm like, I might meet the next woman. I've already lined up a date on Hinge; let me see if I can go meet a woman at yoga today. And then I'm looking around like, I hope this other woman's not here. I don't know if I'm ready to see her yet. And if she's watching these vlogs: why don't you reach out? Why don't you reach out, huh? I'm already moving on. So maybe I don't like you more than you like me. But I'm still a little hung up on her today. I'm like, man, we had a lot of compatibility — but obviously not enough compatibility. Who knows? Maybe something will happen with her. Why would she be watching my vlogs but not reaching out? Who knows.
So I go to this yoga class and I put myself right up in the front. And dude, it's so sweaty. I'm like, this instructor cranked it today. This is crazy. It's so hot. But it was a great workout. I start having friendly conversations with some of the women afterwards, because it's me and like two other dudes there and around 20 women. I'm not feeling any vibes from any of them, but I'm just being friendly, playing around, seeing if anybody's interested. I head home feeling like I got a great workout.
Then I get to work cranking out videos. Let me look at my video uploads: I filmed 13 videos with 114 minutes of content yesterday, including some shorts, all ready to go right now. I did some in the morning, including a 25-minute altcoin review — glad those are killing it. I'm trying to limit these vlogs to about ten minutes, so we're not going to do the long version of everything I ate and all that. But whole plant, basically — sweet potatoes, cooked in the oven.
The Rematch That Turned Into Chemistry
So then I go to tennis. I see on the app that I'm matched up against this woman I've played before, and I'm like, I'm going to do this. She's very attractive, very sweet. Last time, I beat her worse than I've ever beaten anybody in tennis before. She didn't win a single point in the first four games, and then she won maybe one or two points in the fifth game, at which point it was over. I hadn't seen her in a month. So I'm like, cool — rematch. I was playing my absolute best last time, and she seemed to be thrown off. I get there, and she's there. We've got a lot of chemistry. We're playing, we're having fun, we're laughing. And she beats me five to three.
And then I'm like, is she single? Because I don't see a ring. She's asking a lot of questions — where are you from? — and she's very friendly with everyone. It's mostly other guys there — men and women, but mostly men — and she's being very friendly. I'm trying to pay attention to her while she's playing with the other guys. Is she having as much fun with them as she's having with me? I know I've got to ask her to meet up and play outside of this tennis meetup sometime. But I'm like, wait — just wait until the time is right. I'm trying to sync up with her subconsciously, telepathically. If the situation comes up, fine — because this is a woman I may see again at the tennis meetup, and I don't want to make something awkward. I want to just be present, and if she's interested, it'll line up.
So I play the next guy. I beat him. Then I draw the last guy, because it's past seven. And she's out there talking, being real friendly with the other players. I'm like, this woman has got to be single. No woman with a boyfriend or a husband would be this friendly with the guys, asking them questions and listening. And I'm like, I think she wants to play with me. I think she would be willing to give me her number and play with me outside of here. But this other guy — she has engaged him in conversation constantly. So I sweep the court after I've already done mine. She tries to dismiss the other guy. She's like, oh, I'll just sweep it myself. I'm like, interesting. It seems like she at least subconsciously has the idea that she'd like some time with just me. And this guy is being super friendly. So the three of us — me and this other guy — walk out with her. And this guy is so polite. He's like, I'm going to go to the bathroom. I'm like, thanks, bro. You're on the same wavelength.
Now I'm walking her to her car, just the two of us. And I say, after the tennis we played, I think you and I need to play a full match — three sets. She's like, how about five? I'm like, all right, five. She's like, yeah, let's play five, like the men. I'm in really great shape. I'm like, dang. All right. So I'm trying to let her figure out how we're going to need to communicate.
Dang — somebody just joined the Skool community right now, while I'm filming this. Let's go. I don't know if I should have shown that on camera. Dude, let's go. Thank you. Somebody just dropped $81 for the whole year. Join the Skool community — 16 members, get in here. If I'm a cult leader — somebody even put a video out saying I'm a cult leader — if I'm a cult, this is where you get in, baby: the Jerry Banfield Family. Thank you. That $81 got my bank account going up on a Saturday.
So back to the story. I walk out to the parking lot, and I'm like, I'm not going to ask her for her number. I'm going to let her realize that she agreed to play a set with me — she should probably offer it.
So she's like, well, should we meet up on a tennis app, or should I just give you my number? I'm like, well, why don't you give me your number? Let me just help you with this a little bit. So I give her my phone, and she puts her number in it. And then we talk for like 20 more minutes afterwards. She and I have a lot of interests in common. Some of the dudes at the tennis club do watch my videos, so I'm not saying anything negative about anybody — but this is my life, and I'm not going to censor it in case somebody doesn't like it. If you don't like it, then don't be in the cult. All right? Why can't we just be honest with each other?
So I have a real nice talk with her, and then she's like, all right, let's get some food. I'm walking over to my car and I'm like, did you just ask me to go eat? I just want to make sure you're not feeling rejected or anything — I didn't say it exactly like that, but she's like, oh no, I just meant it's time to eat. I'm like, all right. See you later.
The Follow-Up Texts
So now I've got her number, but she didn't have mine. I'm all sweaty from tennis and everything, so I'm like, let me wait a little bit to text her. Let's not text her from the car right now — she's driving, and she's going to need time to get home. So I wait a little bit, and then I message her: hey, it's me. And then I send a book or something we talked about. I send her like three messages, and then I'm on the phone with a couple of people. After about 20 minutes she sends me like three messages back and says, have a good night. And after I get off the phone, I send her like three messages back: good night, also.
And I'm like, wow. I don't know for sure that it's a date with her. She seems like she's single. It seems like the date context might be there, and I'm going to treat it like a date — a first date. Casual, get to know you. If it goes well, then maybe I'll invite her to do something else afterwards. We'll see. I'm going to need to make sure she's actually single, too. Just because she hasn't mentioned a boyfriend or a husband, I don't assume a woman is single. Every woman has guys she's talking to — whether it's her husband, her boyfriend, her husband and her boyfriend, or some guys who would like to take that position.
But I'm really grateful. This thing with the woman I met at yoga a few weeks ago has just been a big reminder: there are all kinds of women out there who are single and will be compatible with you, and you literally just need to reach out — just make the approach. I know I made a video saying I'm never going to ask a woman out again. That's crap. All right, that worked fine for a while, but I'm not just cold approaching. This was a very warm connection at tennis yesterday. This woman is very friendly. She seemed like she was having a little more fun with me than with the other guys. It seemed like she was doing what she needed to do to set up me and her just ending up out at our cars — which happened to be parked next to each other, and we have the same brand of car. It all just happened to align perfectly.
What Organic Means for a Man
I was talking to my friend at a meeting this morning, and she's like, you need to let stuff happen organically. I'm like, well — that might work as a woman, but as a man, organic to me means I'm out there, I'm paying attention, I'm approaching. Like yesterday: if I'm in my head, this woman and I are not exchanging numbers. If I'm just not thinking about dating and I'm only thinking about tennis, then as soon as I finish playing the guy I'm playing, I brush my court, I walk off, and I go home. You see, that's the difference. But I was paying attention. I'm like, I think this woman wants to exchange numbers with me — therefore I'm going to linger on the court. I'm going to take more time drinking my water.
This is what can be hard for some people to get. If I'm going to yoga and I'm just there to work out, and I'm not trying to see if there's a woman who might want to date me, then I'm in and out. I'm not talking to anybody. I don't care where I put my mat. If I'm there just for yoga, I've essentially got blinders on — and I've been to yoga lots of times just for yoga. I've had women smile at me and be friendly with me who, if I'd reciprocated, it might have turned into a date. But I was like, I'm here for yoga; I'm not paying attention to anybody. So for me, organic means I need to be paying attention — especially as a man, because women send really subtle signals. Like the woman yesterday saying, oh, don't worry, I'll just brush the whole court myself. She realizes that if this other guy leaves right now, it's just going to be me and her over there. That's a subtle signal. And what's tough with subtle signals is that you need to put like five of them together. I put all of those together yesterday.
So this is what I'm learning right now. I dive into all of this stuff deeper on my Dating playlist — that's where I go dedicated on dating. I show literally my exact Hinge profile; my exact Hinge profile right now is up on my dating channel. I'm testing out some shorts again, too. I haven't been too impressed with shorts so far, but shorts seem to be growing some of my channels. So I really appreciate you watching, and I'll keep you updated here.
Facing the Fear of Being Honest
I had to face my fear with this one. It's like, okay — what if this woman watches this? I told her I'm a YouTuber. What if she watches this? It'll be out in a few days, but what if she watches it and she's freaked out? Well, if you're freaked out by me being honest — for the purpose of helping other people share their lives authentically — if you're freaked out that my work involves leading by example and being a role model of how to live an authentic life, then I don't think we're right for each other. If you're freaked out by me being honest, without even saying anything bad about anybody, then that's not going to work. I'm not going to just change. I have a job to do here, and this is my job: doing these videos and being there for you and the Jerry Banfield Family.
You saw how hyped I got when that person joined while I was filming. That's how hyped I'm going to get when you join — so get in there and join the Jerry Banfield Family. You've got the classroom where I've got courses — I'm putting up some amazing courses. You can message me. If you want me to talk about a specific topic, you've got a video request, or you want me to make a personal video just for you, I'm down. I'll get my phone out and make a minute-or-two video just for you. It depends on what you want whether there's going to be an upsell or not, but get in there, get in that family, and be a part of my life.
Thank you for having me as a part of your life. I want you to be a part of my life, and when you're in the family, you'll be a part of my life. Also, I won't talk about you in these videos.