I credit finding my husband to my career, and not because a fellow matchmaker set me up with him.
When I took the leap from working in social work to becoming a matchmaker in the late 90’s, I was newly divorced. I had gotten married too young; I wasn’t ready. I was extremely shy at that time, and even though I was in my early 30’s, I had so much more to learn about relationships.
That part of my life ended, and I bravely moved on from my first relationship and career to the next phase of my life.
Stepping into the world of matchmaking immediately forced me to master an entire set of skills that kicked the shyness right out of my system. To build a successful business I had to be bold. I had to recruit clients to work with, and find singles to fill my database. I was forced to take my own issues and insecurities out of the equation. I had to become the belle of the ball!
Suddenly I would enter a room and exude friendliness and confidence. I was assertive, and any fear of being rejected vanished. I no longer worried what others thought. I was confident in my own skin. Approaching men was no big deal because it was for the business, not for me. There was a lot of security in that.
I’d be lying if I said that this change happened over night. It took practice and repetition, boundaries and resilience. It also took a lot of motivation to keep moving forward until my business was successful.
When I was ready to find love for myself again, I set out with a mission in mind. I brought all of my new personality traits with me each time I entered a room to meet other singles. With those qualities in my back pocket, it took me only one week to find my husband after I decided I was ready to get married. We were married just two months after we met.
Yes, it can happen that fast. There are no rules when it comes to love. Now, two children and over 12 years later, I have a pretty amazing marriage. Of course, our relationship has grown and evolved tremendously over the years, which I also credit to my career as a matchmaker. I see and hear so many stories about why relationships succeed or fail, and I am lucky to have the opportunity to learn through other people’s experiences.
I will forever be grateful that I made the intimidating move away from my secure career as a social worker to becoming an entrepreneur and a matchmaker. It truly changed my life. It found me my family.
