The times that I just said what was on my mind, without trying to impress, were the times I had the most success.
This would be good advice, but it's counterintuitive. People that have little to no success with women are being themselves as it is. They are saying what's on their mind, it's just that they're thinking the wrong thing. I never tell people "just be yourself", I advise they try to be the best version of themselves possible, and to be that, they need to build confidence. Confidence is intoxicating to everyone, not just the opposite sex. If they don't know how to go about it, I tell them to fake it. That's how I did it when I was an overweight teenager that had no interest in losing weight. I faked it til I made it. I got so confident that I tilted towards arrogance at one point, and had to bring it down a notch, but I did. "Fake it til you make it. Own yourself, own the situation, treat everything like it has to impress YOU, but without being an asshole. You'll eventually learn to walk the fine line between being an asshole and being flirtatious with confidence.".
Another girl I matched with, who was WAY better looking than I am, told me she had hundreds of matches so I better get to trying to impress her. Instead, I joked that I had a whole 10 matches, and that one other one had actually messaged me back too, for once. I was rolling in women. All two of them, I said, and that she is in fact the one auditioning for me. She thought it was funny, and gave me her number without even being asked for it.
I hadn't even read this part, but this is it exactly. The thing is that folks do tend to treat it as if they'll never get another chance, or build a complex that they're not worth anyone else's time, but it takes putting yourself out there and trying different things. I equate it to fighting in a lot of ways. At first you might be afraid to get hurt, but eventually you know that getting punched won't kill you (most of the time, lol).