Let’s talk about dates. Bad dates, specifically. I’ve been lucky enough to avoid the worst of the bunch myself, but I’ve heard some hilarious stories from other girls. One guy ordered an appetizer of hummus and pita chips for himself and his date, then proceeded to wipe the bowl clean with his fingers and lick it. Another put one of his own teeth in his food in an attempt to get it for free. Yet another got so drunk that he passed out on a girl’s bed and wet his pants.

Ouch. Seriously, what were those guys THINKING?

Now if you’re the kind of guy who is looking to improve his dating experience, I’m pretty confident that you’re not going to pee on a girl’s bed or start pulling out your own teeth. You’re already miles ahead of those guys. But you can still give a bad date and make a girl never want to see you again. Believe it or not, but dating is a skill, and if you don’t know what you’re doing, you might trip over your own feet without even realizing what you did wrong.

I’ve been there. But I’m also a dating consultant, and I like to make it my mission to ensure that no girl ever has to suffer through a miserable date again. So if you want to be the guy girls go home and brag to their friends about, here are nine tips to help you improve your dating skills:

1) Get out there and talk to more people.

The first and most important part of improving your dating skills is improving your communication skills. If you can’t communicate with a girl, what are you going to do on a date? Talk to the table napkin? Not gonna happen. So get out there and learn how to talk. Talk to everyone. Talk to the lady who does your dry cleaning. Talk to the guy who rings you up at the grocery store. Men, women, young, old, talk to everyone. The more you talk, the more social you become, and the more social you become, the more it becomes second nature and the easier it gets to talk to a perfect stranger. Eventually, talking to a girl becomes the easiest part, even if that thought terrifies you now.

2) Improve your social circle.

Now that you know how to talk to a girl, you need to know more girls, and that’s not going to happen if you play GTA5 by yourself in the basement every weekend. Start to invite people over to your place for parties. Organize social gatherings. Use every holiday as an excuse to get people over. Use every birthday. Throw a party just because it’s Wednesday. Word will get out that you’re the cool guy to be around, and your friends will want their friends to know you. This has two benefits: girls you get to know through your social network will have fewer reservations about going out on a date with a guy who is pre-approved by their friends, and you’ll gain even more social skills, improving your actual date experience.

3) Find a ladybro (a female best friend).

Friendzoned? No problem.

Contrary to popular belief, men and women CAN be friends. It’s important that you don’t cross boundaries and try to turn a best friend into a girlfriend, because sex changes perspectives, but having a female friend is one of the best tools you can have in your dating arsenal. Why? Because she’ll give it to you straight. You can always ask your guy friends for advice about what to do on a date, but nobody knows a woman’s mind like another woman. Have a disastrous date where you can’t figure out what went wrong? Ask your ladybro. Meet a girl who is completely different from everyone you’ve ever dated before and want to know how to make this date different and special? Ask your ladybro. Having problems with a girl you’re seeing? Ask your ladybro. Your ladybro is your friend, so she wants to help you out, but she thinks like a woman and can tell you things the rest of your bros don’t even think about.

4) Learn your city like the back of your hand.

I know what you’re thinking. What on earth does this have to do with dating, right? More than you might think. Have you ever had that experience where you’ve taken a girl out to go, say, bowling, but she looks like she’s bored out of her mind and you’d give your right hand to be able to salvage the date? I know I’ve been that girl. So how handy do you think it would be to be able to pipe up and say “I know this AMAZING go-kart place just down the street!”? Or what if you take her to Red Lobster but it turns out she’s vegetarian? Wouldn’t you love to be able to reroute to the nearest Olive Garden without even having to scramble over your GPS? Knowing what’s in your city and where it’s at helps you avoid situations where the girl and the place just don’t match, AND it gives you major brownie points to be able to keep a date going when you’ve finished the coffee, you like the girl, and you’d like to continue somewhere else. You can always have a backup without having to have a backup.