My first few years as a matchmaker was really challenging. Instead of doing the interviewing, I was the one being interviewed. It was nothing like I had imagined.
Let me take you back to that time: it was 2009. I was in my late 20s, meeting singles who were easily double my age, coming to me for dating and relationship advice.
I had had success matching people long before I started the matchmaking company, but once I started promoting my business and started meeting with potential clients, everything changed. Suddenly, I was hearing from and meeting strangers that wanted to invest in what I had to offer, but many of them wondered what a person half their age really knew about a failing 20-year marriage.
I didn’t anticipate being under so much scrutiny, but that’s what was happening.
However, I could see their point. If I were in their shoes, I would probably have the same concerns. However, I knew that my connections, my talent for networking, my experience in relationship building, and my ability to truly hear what people are saying is what would help me help them. Boy, was I right!
I expected to jump right in and start doing what I do, but I found that I had to let people get to know me before they felt comfortable enough to invest in my services. After all, hiring a Canadian cupid is an investment – both in the financial sense as well as being an investment in your future.
I was confident, though. I have always been a natural networker and relationship builder, and have put many people together, both for professional and personal reasons. Now was my time to shine.
Every week, I was taking meetings with singles who were interested in hiring me to help them find love. At first, they were cautious. They wanted to learn enough about me to feel comfortable putting their love life in my hands. In most cases, about ten minutes in to our 60-minute meeting, they would start pouring their hearts out to me, divulging intimate details about their lives and feeling totally comfortable and trusting that their wellbeing was truly important to me.
But it works both ways. I get something amazing out of it too. There’s always a moment in every meeting where I have an out-of-body type experience: in it, I would get a sense of the situation that I was in and how incredible it really is to be welcomed into people’s lives so whole-heartedly.
Most of my clients begin as absolute strangers, but they invite me into their life to get to know them from the inside out, trusting in me and my team to help them find a partner that they will love and cherish.
Can you think of a better job? I couldn’t be any more in love with my life.
