I'm Jerry Banfield, this is my vlog for August 28th, 2026, and I'm wondering, is there anywhere I can go where I can be surrounded by my people? People who want to have real, honest conversations and aren't whiny complainers that any time are willing to just go, eh, eh, eh.
What motivated this today? Well, I got an email from the yoga studio I go to — well, I don't go there anymore. They said that they're giving me a studio etiquette warning, which I have to say, based on all of what they shared, was actually pretty nice the way they handled it, because there were two issues they had.
The Reviews From People Who Have Never Been There
One is that some of the internet trolls who watch my videos went and blew up their reviews, making reviews on their yoga studio promoting me, and I mean, these are clearly from internet trolls. This is stuff that everybody would know from online. This doesn't represent interactions with people in person.
Like, he wears a shirt with his name on it, claims to be a famous YouTuber, which I am, and tells female clients to join his school. This is a ridiculous part of this. I don't have any memory of any conversation telling a female client to join my school. In fact, I'd probably be more likely to sell a male student. So, calls himself Jerry Banfield to act like — to make sure to put the full name in. I wish they'd tell him to stop promoting to people who are just trying to relax.
Like, I told the studio, I'm like, this stuff happens. This is what happens when you get attention online. You get people doing crazy stuff. And this has always happened in one form or another, some much crazier forms. And part of the reason I deleted everything last year online is being tired of this. I just want to be a regular person who doesn't get random people on the internet to drop reviews on the yoga studio I go to that are trolling me.
That's pretty hardcore. I respect that. I can't imagine following someone and caring enough to go do that. At the same time, they sent me — there are more than one of these kind of reviews, obviously written by internet trolls. But then I replied and I'm like, sorry, this just happens.
The Second Issue Was Me
And they're like, well, we've had students and teachers complain that you ask them too personal questions. And we want you to just come and go at the yoga studio. And if someone is signaling they don't want to connect with you, then don't talk with them.
I'm like, oh, so when I asked the instructor, the yoga instructor, the other day, if she had a boyfriend, that was too personal. We're not allowed to ask that. And then I guessed at how old she was and she was offended at that. So I guess she complained after that. Like, really, we can't have regular conversations? What kind of a superficial environment is this where you spend money, you spend hours and hours at this place, but you can't ask ordinary questions? Asking about a boyfriend and age is too personal.
All right. And I guess maybe there are students that mentioned that — there's mostly women at this studio. And the challenge is I'm a polarizing, powerful guy. And it only takes, out of all the times I go, one or two women to whine that, well, I didn't like this guy, he was talking to me. And I guess that's what happened.
And it's like, damn, I can't even go to the studio and just have conversations. I can't stand just having superficial conversations. I like to ask people deeper questions.
And I've been going to this yoga studio for most of the year. I haven't made one friend. Not one friend with anybody there. Not once have I. Well, I did meet the queen there, and I wouldn't be surprised if she complained at some point. After things didn't work out, I would guess that she probably complained, because then she feels like she can't go there anymore because of meeting me there. So I'd imagine possibly one of the complaints was from her, and then one was from the yoga instructor that I asked how old are you and do you have a boyfriend. That's like, oh my God, these are way too personal subjects.
And I realize I need to be around my people, because there's people who don't act this way. And maybe it's not even most people, but there's people who are happy to have real conversations, who are interested in going beyond the superficial. And I don't need to be spending my time here.
Consider This Resolved
Now, I'm impressed. Between these reviews and between however many people complained, the studio is still willing to have me show up to class and they wanted me to keep practicing there. But I sent them an email. They said something like, just come to class and be sensitive about the conversations you're having and it'll all be okay, we want you to keep coming.
And I'm like, look, I canceled my membership. I'm not coming back. Consider this resolved. At the same time, I appreciate how you handled this. I need to go somewhere where people are not acting like this, because to me, this behavior is unacceptable.
If someone like that — I have a conversation asking, you know, it's not like I asked what was your favorite sexual position with your boyfriend, or I'm not asking anybody how much money they make every year. And a woman that's very friendly, it seems reasonable to ask if she's in a relationship or not, so I know whether to hit on her or not, because some women, believe it or not, do want to be hit on.
But the thing is, you don't know who you're talking to. And I've tried to be indirect, and I've had women hit on me at that yoga studio, and I wasn't even ready for it. Even if I've had mostly good interactions and there haven't been a problem, it only takes a few people to whine and complain for me to not want to go there anymore.
I'm Taking My Name Off My Shirt
I'm like, you know what? If this is the environment where whiny, complaining people are, then people have to look at me and watch me. And I am going to stop wearing shirts with my name on it.
I've worn shirts with my name on it for years so that it generates conversation. It gets people to follow me online. But I'd imagine at least one person who complained in person, they did look me up online. They did find my videos. And then they probably complained after that, after finding my videos. Then they decided, because that's happened before.
So I'm going to stop wearing shirts with my name on it, because I enjoyed wearing shirts with my name on it. When people recognize me in person, they could say hi. Like I was at the gym one day and this guy saw my name on my shirt and he's like, hey bro, we used to play Call of Duty 10 years ago, I used to love watching your gaming streams. I enjoyed when that would happen.
But sometimes that happens with just my face. And I'm going to go around and be anonymous in person now, because there's too many negative consequences. There's almost no positive consequences. Hardly anyone just goes and watches my videos and becomes a big supporter that I don't know. Or maybe there's five or 10 people at the yoga studio who have followed me online and who love what I do, but it only takes one or two whiners to hate on me.
What's interesting is that I felt this coming. I felt this coming for weeks. I could feel this before there was any evidence. And in some cases, maybe I even felt it before I even did anything that contributed to it. I realized that asking women if they had a boyfriend could be crossing the line. But you know what? I want to show up somewhere where it's not crossing the line. Maybe I need to go to a nightclub or something where I can not cross the line with what to me are ordinary conversations.
It seems yoga studios are incredibly sensitive environments where some women will hit on me and yet others are incredibly sensitive. You talk to them for five seconds too long. You probably could have somebody complain that I didn't even say anything you'd have a problem with. Seriously — there was this one woman I was talking to one day, and I was having a very ordinary conversation with her, and she started acting weird. I didn't ask if she had a boyfriend or anything. She started acting really weird all of a sudden and I just walked out. I'm like, I wouldn't be surprised if a woman like that was like, ew, why was that guy talking to me?
This is the insane environment we're in. And this does make me not want to cold approach either. And it's like, maybe I do just need to get on dating apps, because the screwed up thing is you've got some people who are ultra sensitive and you can't say or do anything before they freak out, and other people where it seems like you need to let women approach you. I've had women hit on me at these yoga studios. It seems I've got to just sit there and wait for them to hit on me.
Some people have asked, do you even like doing yoga? Do you even enjoy it? And I'm like, I like the result. I like being in shape. I like the stretch. But I am tired of yoga studios. I'm tired of this environment where you've got women that are scantily clad, and then if you say anything, it just feels unsafe to even talk, to even open my mouth as a man. It's like anything I say is going to end up generating a complaint. At some point, if I talk to enough people, somebody is going to complain about me. Well, he gave me a compliment on my sweater, I don't feel safe anymore.
It's like I need to just go somewhere. Maybe I need to go to the gym, or just keep changing studios. Just keep going to different yoga studios and be myself. I don't know if I even want to do yoga. I've done yoga for years and I've been having this weird feeling in my heel. It seems like doing yoga has contributed to that. Yeah, yoga is often very boring. I just do the workout, but I'm not that into it.
I'm grateful I haven't got all triggered like in the past. Whenever there was anything that made me feel like I was in trouble, I got really triggered. But today I'm like, this is just a sign I need to go somewhere else. I'm not sure where else I'm going to go yet, but I'm going to try some new places.
I want to see somewhere where I fit in better, because I did meet one woman that I had the connection with at yoga, and I did get a lot of good workouts. For all the time I went there and all the money I spent there, there's got to be some better places I can go to get better workouts, to meet more women, to make some guy friends. Lately I was talking to as many guys as women at the yoga studio. Who knows? Maybe there was even a guy that complained about me at some point. Like, bro, this guy was just wearing a shirt with his name on it and he was talking too much.
I'm Not Modifying My Behavior
A lot of times in these situations, people would think — they asked me to modify my behavior. No, I'm not going to modify my behavior. I'm not going to go to the yoga studio and go there with my head down and try not to talk to anybody and hope that some woman approaches me, or hope that I'm not taking a yoga instructor's class that didn't like something I said one day. I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to go somewhere where I can show up as what feels authentic to me and where everybody else is on board with that. Maybe that means I need to try a bunch of different places. Maybe I am a little more niche. Maybe I'm not just a basic guy that fits in anywhere. But it feels really good when you go somewhere and you really fit in with your people.
I want to go somewhere where I can ask women if they have a boyfriend and they're not weirded out by it, and where it's like, yeah, I got a boyfriend, or no, I don't, what's up? I want to go somewhere where having regular conversations is fine. I'm not having crazy conversations with people. I'm sure if you watch most of my videos, you'd find my conversations with people pretty boring. Maybe the only thing you'd find that crossed the line to some of you is like, oh, he asked if she had a boyfriend, or he guessed how old she was. Like, oh my God, that's so crazy.
But I imagine some people watch my videos and then spin up stories, because that has happened before. So we're going to roll incognito from now on.
Better Clothes and Better Rooms
And I'm going to get some nicer clothes too. I realized for dating, I should be wearing some nicer clothes. I need to be wearing clothes that make me look really good, that make me look like a movie star, because I am not a regular boring guy. But if you look at my clothes, I look like a regular boring guy. Now, if I showed up wearing some movie star looking stuff and then I start hitting on a woman, maybe that's not surprising. But if I show up wearing some boring dad looking clothes and then I ask a woman if she has a boyfriend, maybe it's different.
I went to Sober Bar last night and we had a great conversation. There was lots of swearing. There was camaraderie. There's talking about relationships, dating. Maybe I just need to find places where the way I talk and the way I think is welcome in that environment. It seems clear it's not welcome in a yoga studio. Yoga studios — at least maybe there is one that's not incredibly superficial, incredibly into this suppressed masculinity, like men just need to go there and shut up and not bother anybody. Maybe that's most of the yoga studios I've been to around town. Ultra, ultra sensitive.
And I'm excited to see where else I go from here, because as long as I kept going to this yoga studio, I kept feeling pretty locked in that, well, I got this membership, I should just go every day. But now I canceled my membership and I'm like, where am I going to go? What am I going to do? It's time to do something else. It's time to evolve.
I Take the Trolling as a Compliment
And I think this is funny. I think it's funny, people going around from the internet leaving reviews like this. I take it as a compliment. It's hard for me to get that obsessed. Unless I'm trying to get laid, it's real hard for me to get obsessed about anybody else that much. And I think it's funny that people on the internet get obsessed with me that much, to write a review at a yoga studio they've never been to. Maybe one of these reviews was from somebody who went to the studio, watched my videos, decided they were a hater, and then left the review. Maybe that is what happened.
But this is a lifestyle. I've chosen this lifestyle. I tried to get away from it for a while. This is my lifestyle. I am very good at creating content that generates emotional reactions, both positive and negative.
And I need to surround myself with lovers, like the dude that left a $50 tip. Somebody went to my website and left a $50 tip today.
The other side of this, and the other side of people complaining, is that I did find one woman that at least for a while enjoyed dating me — the queen.
And I have the video up for sale on my website now. I emailed it to the Who Are These Podcasts contact link, and we'll see what happens from that.
And I accept who I am. And I'm flexible. I'm willing to adjust my behavior to put myself, set myself up for success. But I'm not willing to adjust my behavior for people that are just whining and complaining and trolling and sabotaging, that are not right for me to be around.
Six Years of Yoga and My Heel Is Telling Me Something
I went to another yoga studio and it seems like I fit in better there. But I think it's time to stop doing yoga. I've been doing yoga as one of my main forms of exercise for six years. I think it's time to make a change. My body's used to yoga. Maybe I go to the gym and I work out more. Maybe it's easier to talk to women at the gym a little more naturally. Or we'll figure something out.
But anything else interesting? I don't think so. I went to my son's baseball practice last night. That was good.
Oh, and somebody paid for a call again. So between that and the tip, that's like another $150 or so I've made today. Really appreciate all of you supporting me.
I accept that the haters are a price I pay for having lovers and supporters. I accept that I've got a lot of true fans all over the world who love my videos. I get some haters that do stuff. If that means sometimes I've got to stop doing what I'm doing and going where I'm going, if sometimes it affects my real life — I mean, my YouTube had a negative effect on my marriage. One thing my ex wanted, she wanted me to be a regular guy. She was tired of the YouTube drama, tired of things like this happening in all areas of our life from my YouTube videos and my Facebook videos and all that stuff.
And my matchmaker said I have a second match also. So I'm excited for my dating life. I'm going super hard on it. Maybe I just need to go into online dating, because it seems like the women who are very interested in talking to guys, a number of them are on dating websites. Who would figure?
And it might be that maybe I was wrong about cold approach and talking to women in person, because these days you cold approach the wrong woman and here comes a complaint. And it doesn't even have to be that much of an approach. Like one single compliment — at the last yoga studio that this happened at, I gave a woman a single compliment on her sweater, complaint right after that. I mean, that's crazy to me. You can't even give her something. But she had read my books.
So I guess Jerry Banfield needs to go on the down low, because I've got enough followers online. I don't need to pick up more followers locally. It's just not worth the cost. If you want to see where all of this goes next, it's all in my Daily Vlogs playlist.
So thank you for watching all of this. And if you want to get to know me better and be one of the top fans, and help me get to know you, come get lifetime chat with me and the community.
Thanks.