It’s been a minute since Arie Luyendyk Jr. competed for Emily Maynard’s heart on season eight of The Bachelorette in 2012 — so naturally, he turned to a former Bachelor and close friend of his for advice before his own season. (And TBH, it’s advice all guys need to hear.)
Despite things not working out with Emily, Arie says one good thing did come out of his time on The Bachelorette: his friendship with Sean Lowe, who you may better remember as season 17’s Bachelor. According to Arie, Sean was the first place he went for advice when he found out he’d be appearing on season 22.
“I sort of leaned on Sean because I know Sean from my season,” Arie tells Her Campus. “We’ve kept in touch all through the years, and he has such a success story with Catherine.”
Considering Sean Lowe has been married to his Bachelor winner Catherine for three years, and the couple has one child together and a baby on the way, his dating advice is pretty much golden in the Bachelor Nation world — so what was the best advice Arie got from Sean?
“I think the best piece of advice was just to be present in every conversation and really make the person who you’re talking to in that moment feel like they’re the only one there,” Arie says. “I think that was really important for me, just to make sure I was a good listener and that I was involved in every conversation, and made them [the contestants] feel like they weren’t just one out of 29.”
He has a point — I mean, just a guess here, but when you’re trying to date 29 women at once on live television, it’s probably difficult to not get distracted. And even when you’re dating IRL, you should always make sure you’re taking the time to give your S.O. plenty of love and attention — even if it means not tuning them out when they’re venting about that one professor they hate for the third time this week.