Posts Tagged ‘dating’

 “What if someone you never met, someone you never saw, someone you never knew was the only someone for you?” – Sleepless in Seattle.

Sleepless in Seattle

What if we could introduce you to someone you’ve never met, someone you’ve never seen, and someone that we know is that someone for you? Guys And Girls Next Door (GND) is the matchmaking service that combines face-to-face events, dating coaching and feedback. GND is designed to meet the needs of today’s busy singles and professionals, creating social scenes for people with an interest in dating and extending their social circle.

“This is what single people do. They try other people on and see how they fit.”

Since October 1, 2009 GND has been helping its members look at themselves objectively using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® MBTI before setting them up on dates based on their personality type. But GND differs from other dating websites.

There are three membership services you can choose from at GND.  If you want to expand your social circle and meet dozens of people in a single evening, you can sign up for GND’s matchmaking social events. If you want to receive one-to-one personalized introductions and go on dates, you can choose the Matchmaking membership. Or, if you’d like to find out more about yourself, your dating patterns, who your best matches are and receive feedback, you can develop a relationship profile plan using the Dating Coach service.

“When was the last time you put yourself out there?”

“ Uh… Jimmy Carter. 1978.”

 With a wide range of members including single parents, high net worth clients, middle class workers, and young, busy professionals, there is a dating service offered for everyone looking for a committed relationship.  “We have a social strategy that allows us to easily move in and out of different social circles in order to cater to a greater clientele,” says Angel Cruzado, a founder of GND. “Right now we are offering a free service. Anyone who would like to date our members can check out our website and sign up to be matched on a one-to-one personalized date.”

“If you just tuned in, you’re listening to Sleepless in Seattle…”

Angel and Mary Starks, co-founder of GND, will have a weekly radio show starting next year on 1150Am KKNW Progressive Talk Radio. It will air every Sunday night at 9 p.m. and feature authors, dating experts, and dating and relationship stories. People can call in on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. Pacific Time at (425) 373-5527.

For more information on Guys And Girls Next Door, you can visit GuysAndGirlsNextDoor.com or call (206) 866-5783. You may also send an email to contactus@gnd-seattle.com.

###

Is dating in Seattle so different than any other major city in the United States?  I have lived in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Boston.  These five cities not only have baseball and football teams, but they have a lot of cool and diverse people that have relocated to live there.  These beautiful cities also offer a lot of dating opportunities for singles, but what do they have in Dating Common?

Before I answer that question, I’m going to address something that has been shared with us over and over again.  Strangers and clients of Guys And Girls Next Door alike have shared with us how difficult it is to date in Seattle. That people are not friendly.  That something happens to people when they move here.  Their experience is so palpable that they have given it a name. They call it the ‘Seattle Freeze.’

What is the Seattle Freeze? I looked for a definition on Wikipedia and could not find it.  Let me see if I can describe it. It’s when you say ‘hi’ or ‘how are you’ to a complete stranger in Seattle and the person looks at you like you have two heads and eight arms.  The stranger that you just said ‘hello’ freezes up like a deer looking into headlights.  They literally freeze – not sure what to say or do.  They may even make an unintentional facial expression that may make you feel bad that you even said hello.  Worse yet, the person may walk away in a state of shock and update their online status on Facebook or Twitter to 300 or so of their friends saying the following: ‘I just told a creeper to leave me alone.’

Have you experienced the Seattle Freeze? Did you receive it or give it?  I know that you know that I am exaggerating my point here a little bit, but people freezing up is not unusual.  They are just in a state of shock that someone actually talked to them because the 40,000+ people from Microsoft have been behind the computer all day working on Windows 7 or Bing; the 76,000+ people working at Boeing building airplanes or the next 787, or the 4,000+ employees at Amazon developing the next amazing logistics/distribution system and ensuring that the Kindle is distributed globally using their amazing distribution system.

I don’t have the research to prove it, but I am willing to bet that a lot of these jobs require people to spend a lot of time behind a computer – developing code, inventing new things, designing or redesigning software, hardware, or mechanical equipment.  What would happen if you spend 40+ a week behind a computer or 2080+ (one year of working full time) hours a year behind a computer?  Let’s face it.  People in Seattle do freeze up a little bit, but it is not the end of the world.

What if I were to tell you that every city has, in my opinion, its own Seattle Freeze?  Yup!  I believe that every city has its own culture and dating norm.  Allow me to provide you some context.  Lets start with Los Angeles.

Los Angeles. I remember living there and signing up for a beach volleyball class and hearing how impossible it is to meet someone new.  People would say: everyone is so superficial – that you can’t date anyone with substance.  People work out, go shopping, drive fancy cars, go to cocktail parties, yada yada, yada… everyone is just trying to get a leg up in the entertainment industry.

Chicago. I was only there for a few months, but long enough to hear the phrase – everyone in Chicago is so Midwest nice.  Whoa!  Yup.  You get invited to come over and watch football, have a beer on a deck, go to a baseball game, but everyone is so Midwest nice.  In other words, everyone is so friendly, you get invited over to barbeques, but when you leave the barbeque, your personality gets shredded to pieces.  In brief, people will smile, be friendly, but like a Seinfeld episode, it can be pretty much a conversation about nothing.

New York. This is where it gets super interesting.  The common phrase from women: the guys here are so aggressive; from men: the women are all stuck up.  Women would complain how they could not go anywhere without being harassed by men.  Men will complain that women don’t want to talk with them.  Women, that you can’t go to a bar lounge without someone hitting on you or making a romantic pass at you.  Uggh!

Boston. This is my hometown.  I love Boston. There are 85 private colleges and universities in Boston. Note here that I did not say public.  There are 85 private colleges and universities and, if you think about tuition and room and board, that means that on average each student pays $32,000 a year to go to school.  So, take the wealthiest people from all over the world and place them in one city and that is Boston for you.  People in Boston don’t freeze. On the contrary, they are direct, but the conversation starts like this:  Where do you live? Where did you go to school?  What do you do?  If it sounds a little invasive, it can be if you did not go to school there.

Every city has its own version of the Seattle Freeze. The one thing that we all have in common is that everyone, at one point in time, was a stranger. That’s right.  I can almost guarantee to you that if you are a busy single or professional you will always be, at one point in time or another, a stranger. Let’s think about that for a minute.  Do you remember when you first went to summer camp? Studied overseas? First went to college? Moved to a new neighborhood? Started your career? Took a new class?

Now, let’s look to the future?  Will you move to a new neighborhood?  Get a new job? Relocate to a new city? Take a new class?  Join a (kickball) team? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, you will be a stranger again.  That is what we have in Dating Common.  We all have in Dating Common that we are all strangers, will be strangers and will meet strangers. Next time you meet a stranger, extend your hand, smile and reply by saying:  hi, I am great, thank you, my name is…, what is your name?

Guys And Girls Next Door

Angel Cruzado moved to Seattle to pursue a romantic relationship in 2006. When things didn’t work out, he found himself single last year. As a single and busy professional, he explored all his online dating and matchmaking options. He took time out of his workday and evenings to compose multiple online matchmaking profiles, and even placed online matchmaking ads with no lasting or real results.

When the cyber world failed him, Angel tried local franchises for dates and events. Exorbitant prices and uncomfortable high-pressure sales tactics sent him out the door. The whole experience left him feeling even more lonely and isolated than when he started.

As a busy or single professional, your experience should never be like his. Angel left his job at Microsoft in June of 2009 and created GND-Seattle LLC (dba GuysAndGirlsNextDoor.com) to take online dating offline for Seattle Guys And Girls Next Door.

Guys and Girls Next Door (GND) is a new matchmaking service that combines face-to-face events, coaching and feedback. It is designed to meet the needs of today’s busy singles, creating social scenes for people with an interest in dating and extending their social circle.

GND offers three distinct services:

• Matchmaking: one-to-one personalized introductions.
• Social Matchmaking: an invitation to meet new people in fun, comfortable social settings.
• Relationship Coaching: have a one-to-one session or take a dating class to develop the skills you need to enter a new relationship.

Prior to starting the company, Angel was a Management Development Consultant with Microsoft and worked as a Human Resources Business Partner and Coach with employees in multiple professions in global Fortune 100 companies located across the United States. Angel graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Madison with a graduate degree in Management and Human Resources and Bentley University with a undergraduate degree in Management.

Mary Starks, Allen Rodriguez and Angel Cruzado are the founders of http://www.GuysAndGirlsNextDoor.com.

Angel Cruzado, Executive Director

Do you know that according to the MBTI there are 16 different personality type preferences – each equally valuable with its natural strengths and weaknesses? Rather than limiting your understanding of yourself by stereotyping yourself, we use the MBTI to help our members better understand themselves and find their complements.

The feedback that we are receiving from our members (busy, single professionals, ranging from mid 20s to late 50s) is that they wished they had learned about their Type in prior relationships.  Understanding your Type enables each person to understand his or her values, drives, and motivations.

We use the powerful tool of the MBTI to provide our members with common language of their Type and their opposite/complement prior to introducing them to other members.

We are a new matchmaking company. We created this start-up from the ground up for Seattle singles.  We are investing in Seattle.  We are increasing our database every day.  If you have single friends, family members and business colleagues, please tell them about our new matchmaking company and our services:

• Matchmaking: one-to-one personalized introductions.
• Social Matchmaking: an invitation to meet new people in fun, comfortable social settings.
• Relationship Coaching: have a one-to-one session or take a dating class to develop the skills you need to enter a new relationship.

By discovering your Type you can learn how to understand, accept, and appreciate yourself and your new romantic interest for who they really are.  By investing in Guys And Girls Next Door, you and your Seattle single friends can Meet People… Not Their Profiles. Check out our MBTI services now in our Relationship Coaching webpage: www.GuysAndGirlsNextDoor.com/services? 

Guys And Girls Next Door

Thank you for being our friend and supporting our new matchmaking company. We had a great weekend visiting neighborhoods in the Greater Seattle area on the Conference Bike promoting the Group Date .

Since April 10, we have been working with a team of individuals to start a matchmaking company for Seattle singles. Some of these individuals have donated their time, others have worked with us to get experience, but most have come to us because they hate the dating options that are available to them.

The feedback has been crystal clear: “Dating online can be lonely and isolating. How many online matchmaking profiles do I really need to meet someone? Going to franchise matchmaking companies is an option, but it’s just cost prohibitive.”

Here is the deal. We have invested a lot of time, energy and money to create a local Seattle company that meets your needs and the needs of your single friends, family and business colleagues. No more hiding behind profiles: Meet People. Not Their Profiles.

Our ask. Our ask is that you and your friends make the switch from online matchmaking companies to Guys And Girls Next Door. We have a great promotion that ends in 15 days, October 31. Seeing someone? Forward this blog. Intrigued? Visit us online.  Want to show us some love? Post this blog on your profile.  Want us to make some changes?  Provide us feedback.  Want to meet singles in Seattle?  Sign up.

Joining is easy: Your next step is to have you or your friends call us now at 206-866-5783 or complete your membership profile online and we’ll meet you offline.

We offer three distinct services:

• Matchmaking: one-to-one personalized introductions.
• Social Matchmaking: an invitation to meet new people in fun, comfortable social settings.
• Relationship Coaching: have a one-to-one session or take a dating class to develop the skills you need to enter a new relationship.

Check out the “hands on,” AMAZING WORK that Allen, Amy, Brittany, Brooke, Colleen, Charm, Chuck, Flora, Fred, Jennifer, Jude, Justin, Manjusha, Mrigendra, Mary, Nick, Rajesh, Renae, Richard, Saba, Sanjeev, Terri, Vibhasha, Vickie, Vipin, Zac, etc. have done at http://www.GuysAndGirlsNextDoor.com.  Thank you www.dibpace.com, www.odesk.com, www.99designs.com, www.craigslist.org, www.biznik.com for your online collaboration and support of Guys And Girls Next Door.

Angel

Angel Cruzado
Executive Director
GuysAndGirlsNextDoor.com

- I focus my attention or get my energy;

- I perceive or take in information;

- I prefer to make decisions; and

- I prefer to orient myself to the external world.

Sounds interesting? Remember… I love psychology.  Broken down, I am one of 16 personality types and my natural preference is an INTJ.

If you look at external research, I can be described as: Analytical

Like INTPs, they are most comfortable working alone and tend to be less sociable than other types. Nevertheless, INTJs are prepared to lead if no one else seems up to the task, or if they see a major weakness in the current leadership. They tend to be pragmatic, logical, and creative. They have a low tolerance for spin or rampant emotionalism. They are not generally susceptible to catchphrases and do not recognize authority based on tradition, rank, or title.

I first learned about the Myers-Briggs as a sophomore at Brighton High School in Salt Lake City, Utah.  A mother-daughter team developed the instrument to help women enter the workforce for the first time during World War II, and secondly, as I would come to learn later, to help the world peace effort by helping people understand others.   Not a sexy topic, but it planted a seed that I would later revisit eight years later.

Later in my academic career, groaning and grumbling…  I completed a career-counseling course, (not exactly a course of riveting interest for me)  but one that  required me to take the MBTI.  I sat in a grey isolated room in a back room of Gonzaga University  with the attention span of a flea and took the assessment  for the very first time.

Last week, I sat down for an entire week and attended an MBTI Credentialing program.  I didn’t have to take it as my graduate degree in Psychology allowed me to interpret the MBTI in my new social matchmaking role, but I wanted to make an investment of time and energy to better understand what this tool was all about and why it has earned such a prominant place in the psychological field,  from marriage counseling to the corporate world.

MBTI

I was the only matchmaker in the room with seven participants coming to Portland, Oregon from all over the world.  I couldn’t believe how different organizations use this assessment – from Federal Government to Spiritual Direction to HR Executives at Regional Bank.  We entered as strangers, but left with incredible insight into each other’s lives. The MBTI has a compelling way of providing insight at work, at home, in our personal lives, and in our relationships.

Looking back, I don’t think I really became intrigued about the MBTI until Angel and I talked about it.  When he found out about my psychology background in our second conversation, he asked me if I knew my type. I dismissed him.  What does an HR guy know about psychology? I said to myself.  Looking back, Angel was sizing me up to see if we were compatible with each other.  Interesting.

As an INTJ, I learned that at times I have been over-reliant on certain preferences and have been known to get lost in my head, inner thinking is a trait of an INTJ profile. If left unbalanced with other preferences, aloof, uninterested, even self absorbed as my mind is internally processing things logically and in minute detail.

Last week I learned something called “best fit type.” This connected the dots for me. I left with a deeper understanding of my family, my relationships, my relationship with my work colleagues and past and present romantic relationships.

Through my self-assessment I could see my introversion and thinking preferences were evident early on. As a young child I collected bugs in jars in solitude and put numerous holes in my bedroom rug from mixing reactive chemicals in test tubs over an open flame.

My dogged pursuit of knowledge for my own curiosity will never stop. If not kept in check, I could obsessively and haphazardly pursue degrees of all kinds, driven by my own curiosity.

The INTJ description resonated with me on a deep level and I connected with others who had similar experiences.  It was a tough decision to defer my doctorate  in psychology to help start Guys And Girls Next Door.  My experiences have been both amazing and uncomfortable, but I have zero regrets.  My decision has made me learn more about myself and helped me grow in life changing ways.  When I explained this to my classroom colleagues, the guy next to me said: “even that is an INTJ answer, you are logically processing your decision.

How do my personality type preferences show up in relationships?  As some of you already know, Angel is an ENFP.  He is my opposing personality and “natural partner” on the MBTI. Many of his dominant preferences that are front and center for him are underused in me and some are even below my awareness level.  In other words, he is my complement.  I learned a lot about myself.  I learned how aspects of my personality type have shown up in me neglecting relationships and self-expression.  Every personality type has strengths and areas of development.  I now have strong awareness of my type and better insight into myself and others.

At Guys And Girls Next Door we will help our members look at themselves objectively using a personality assessment prior to setting them up on Group Dates or Traditional Dates.  If you have an interest in breaking your personality type code, please visit our website on October 1st as we promote the launch of our innovative Social Matchmaking Dating company.

Mary Starks

My personality type preference is “INTJ” in the Myer-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI).

 INTJ is an acronym for Introvert iNtuitive Thinking Judging.  The MBTI preferences indicate the differences in how:

Why Social Matchmaking Dating?  NOW THAT is a very good question.  You are probably saying:  “Oh My God.  Another online matchmaking company?”  Let me answer that fast and hard.  Guys And Girls Next Door (GND) is NOT an online matchmaking company.  Nope. You can’t go online, complete a profile and then send winks, e-mails, and instant messages.  No emoticons.  No LOL  |  No  |  No    |   No :-p | No WTF!  Nope.  Nada.  Zilch.  If you know someone with an online profile, I am willing to bet that they don’t use their first and last name.   Hmm.  Do you see where I’m going? 

Before I tell you why Social Matchmaking Dating will change things up in the Bellevue, Kirkland, and Seattle metropolitan areas, I want to share with you my thoughts.

Let’s talk about online matchmaking.  Let’s face it, online matchmaking can be lonely and isolating, but it works.  It doesn’t work for everyone, but for some people it truly works.  I have met a lot of people that have been married as a result of online matchmaking companies. The problem is: which service do you pick?  Do you sign up with one online matchmaking company or all the online matchmaking companies available?  Cost ranges from $0.00/month  to ~$50.00/month. Here is the problem.

Meet People. Not Their Profiles.

Let’s move this conversation to matchmaking companies.  Some matchmaking companies provide a lunch, dinner, or cocktail service to busy professionals at a contract cost of $1,000+ or a fixed number of dates (whichever comes first). Other companies create events for their members to attend on a weekly/weekend basis at a contract cost of $1,500+ (not including the event itself).  This is cost prohibitive.  We are in a recession.  I am sure these services work for some people as they do all of the planning, but what options are available out there if you don’t want to write a check for $1,000+?  The reputation of these companies vary.  Don’t believe me?  Check for yourself. Do a google search if you know them by name with the word “feedback” and/or “complaint.” 

This is now where we come in.  Guys And Girls Next Door is a new Social Matchmaking Dating company based in Seattle, Washington that combines face-to-face events, coaching and feedback. That’s right.  No winks.  No e-mails.  No instant messages.  We don’t do contracts.  We will earn your business every month.

Angel and Mary

When Mary and I sat down and discussed the options that were available to Seattlelites, we got pretty upset.  Actually, we were mad as hell.  We were lucky to find each other through a BEAN event, but our situation was quite unique.  So, we put pencil to paper, paper to computer, and computer to internet in June and started a company by the people… for the people.  A social matchmaking company where singles will meet people…. not their profiles. 

How Does It Work? How Is This Even Remotely Possible?  We first help our members look at themselves objectively using a personality assessment.  We then proceed to match them on Traditional Dates and/or Group Dates based on their interests, personality types, and membership profiles.

Let’s face it, online dating can be lonely and isolating — you don’t get to see the person behind the profile and you don’t receive feedback on why things didn’t work.  GND resolves these issues by:

• Helping to introduce members to each other that want to be in a committed relationship;
• Helping members learn about themselves and how they relate to others;
• Providing the option for individualized coaching to track members’ progress; and
• Providing facilitated feedback in a safe and comfortable group setting.

Mary and I are open, honest, and transparent with each other and will be so with our members.  We are excited about Social Matchmaking Dating.  It’s real.  It’s happening.  We BETA launch on October 1.  If you know someone who is single (friends, family, and/or business colleagues), please refer them to us.  Of course, we encourage you and your friends to track our fast progress and become our Fan on Facebook, Twitter with us, or just write a comment about your online matchmaking or matchmaking experience. 

Thank you for reading and THANK YOU for helping us take online dating offline.

Angel

It’s Tuesday evening and everyone is heading home, Angel, however, is just getting warmed up. The topic for the evening: Group Dates. What type of Group Dates should we offer? What kind of Group Dates would our members want?

We discussed the differences between men and women, which gender has the higher sense of smell, are guys really visual, what does the research tell us, the pros/cons of speed dating, blind dates, etc. We discussed operations. How long should Group Dates last, where should we have them, why is it an important product, and how do we provide an amazing level of service to our members? We discussed how we want to make sure we offer a variety of date types, from ‘outdoors’ to ‘romantic’ to ‘adventure,’ and all combinations in between…

 My name is Eric Franzen. I was a summer intern with Guys And Girls Next Door (GND). I am 20 years old and a junior at Kenyon College, a small liberal arts school in Gambier, Ohio, currently studying abroad for a semester in Lima Peru.

Not many people spent their summers like I spent mine, talking group dates, moving furniture, advertising, studying laws of attraction, or identifying pricing structures at a new boutique social matchmaking dating company. As soon-to-be juniors in college, my friends and I were all hoping for career-oriented internships, but with the recession still hitting hard, most of us found ourselves exploring options that we would not have explored in a great economy. I was doing part-time construction work when I stumbled across GND’s Craigslist ad, a plea, or an ‘all hands on deck needed’ e-mail for any and all interns.

Within 24 hours of sending GND an email, I was heading to Madison Park to interview with GND on a beautiful Saturday morning. The thought of skipping the interview and going to the beach in 85 degree Seattle weather did cross my mind. But I needed experience and this was a unique ad. I signed up with GND.

When I joined, they had just leased office space.  A handful of us became interns, spending our summer building on the foundations laid by Angel and Mary. And over the last few months, it was hard not to be impressed with the progress: the website went from an empty shell to the functioning, polished online face of GND. In just a few short weeks, our office underwent the same transformation, with new paint, décor and atmosphere. The brand and concept grew into a triple-digit waiting list for new members with very limited advertisement.

What most amazed me was the efficiency with which Angel was able to accomplish these radical transformations. Interns, furniture, designers, photographers, and consultants were all found on sites like Craigslist, 99designs, Dibspace, and oDesk for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars below market. When I was ready to bite the bullet on costly radio advertising, Angel was on Facebook, buying ad space for fractions of a cent. Every dollar counts. Now this is how to start a business, I quickly learned. Angel and Mary have created an entire company for what most businesses spend on a website.

As an aspiring entrepreneur myself, I now know firsthand that it is now possible to take an idea and make it into a reality. I have seen Mary and Angel take an idea they had in April and work together to make it into a reality today.

Much of what I learned over the summer has stuck with me. We are in a global economy. We are interdependent and doing business overseas is incredibly easy to do if you have a relationship built on mutual trust and respect.

My summer internship provided me advice, innovation, and insight into labor markets and how social technologies work. I am happy to say that I had a great summer and the experience I had in this new social matchmaking company will last me a lifetime.

Eric

Angel Luis Cruzado

My first job was picking strawberries at Sunshine Farms in Sherborn, Massachusetts. If you’re thinking this was some cruel child labor, you are probably correct, but it’s what I did.  I was only 13 years old, but my father was feeding a family of six.  He was a Machine Operator for Denison, prior to it merging with Avery and becoming Avery Denison in the fall of 1990.  My mom was a homemaker and, at times, a housecleaner.

Since child labor laws prevented companies from employing me more than 12 hours a week at a time, I usually held two to three jobs at a time to get around the labor laws. As such, over the course of my high school education, I worked as a Movie Usher, Gas Station Attendant, Stock Clerk, Car Wash Attendant, Busboy, Food Runner, and a Waiter.

Focusing on one thing at a time was pretty much impossible because of time limitations.  I was never a straight A student as I was pretty much involved with a lot of things, but never involved enough to do anything perfectly. During my senior year, I became the Vice President of Student Government and Co-Captain of the Track and Field team.   I missed a lot of meetings and practices and should have shared that I had a full time job with my teammates, but never got around to sharing that data point.

I knew that I wanted to go to college, but had no idea how to get there as my folks didn’t go nor encouraged a college education.  Guidance was not as easy as it is today.  We didn’t have e-mail, instant messages, text messages, use the internet, or write blogs.  We had the town library.  Unfortunately, getting to the library with my schedule was pretty much impossible.

In high school I became very inquisitive. Not sure this was because my classes seemed below par to my track and field classmates or me trying to understand if I was being treated differently because I was Latino as most Latinos at the time didn’t go to college and didn’t really understand why.

To go to college I had to ask good questions to better understand my environment. My track and field schoolmates, after all, were going to college, but my schoolmates in the housing project where I grew up, for the most part, didn’t have the same aspirations.  By learning from others, making a commitment to myself, and not allowing my socioeconomic status to prevent me to reach my goals, I learned what steps I needed to take to attend college from others.

A lot has happened since high school. Since graduating from high school, I have had an amazing education with Bentley University; I worked as an Inroads Intern with the Otis Elevator Company; worked in Sales with Automatic Data Processing in New York City; recruited college seniors for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; went to the school of business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, worked in human resources with Hewlett Packard in San Francisco, Sun Microsystems in Boston, Medtronic in Los Angeles, and Microsoft in Seattle.

I have worked with non-exempt and exempt employees across all fields and professions (e.g. marketing, finance, sales, engineering, research and development, etc.) and with people from all socioeconomic statuses and ethnicities across the United States.  After all, my job required me to work with different people to achieve the organization’s mission and vision.

In writing this blog tonight, I realize that the experiences I have had have shaped me. More so, these experiences have allowed me to learn greatly from others.  Learning in and outside the roles I have had with different companies, I will apply what I have learned to Guys And Girls Next Door.

I continue to be inquisitive and ask a lot of questions. My goals today are different, but in a weird kind of way, the same.  As I evolve and continue to learn how to start a social matchmaking company from the ground up, I will use my education and experience and collaboration with others to set our members up on Traditional and/or Group Dates.  Every member will have a resume, personality trait, resume/cv, and membership profile.

We will learn a lot about about our members before we send them on Traditional and/or Group Dates.  We are excited to launch the company on October 1st, to learn more about our new members, and to set up our members on amazing dates.

Mary Starks, MA, LMHC

My name is Mary Starks and I am responsible for the psychology and science behind Guys And Girls Next Door. This is a dream job… who can say on their resume that they were a matchmaker?

I love Psychology… which also means that I love it so much that I have an undergraduate and master’s degree in Psychology. I deferred admission to my doctoral program to start Guys And Girls Next Door. I felt that this project would give me an opportunity to be part of a start up company that has the potential to develop a unique social matchmaking concept that can be duplicated around the world.

WOW! Did I just say around the world? Well, we have high aspirations. What can I say?   

When not working my full time job at Sound Mental Health, I am responsible for the: 1) social matchmaking process behind the Group Dates; 2) the curriculum and content for GND University (GND U); 3) and the GND Bi-weekly Meet Ups.

GND U, Meet Ups, Social Matchmaking… what does this all mean? Well, let me explain it to you in a Q&A format:

What is social matchmaking?
We first help our members look at themselves objectively using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI). We then proceed to match them on Traditional Dates or Group Dates based on their resume, interests, personality type, and membership profiles. Social Matchmaking is the process of providing coaching and feedback for constructive self-development and relational improvement.

What is the social matchmaking process behind the Group Dates?
There is no magic formula that will produce your perfect partner in minutes, but we have found through research that people have, what are known, natural partners who are often similar on core beliefs and values and different on personality traits. But this isn’t all we look at to select who will be present on the Group Dates. In our selection process we take in a wealth of collateral information, but as a starting point we capture from all our members their resume, membership profile, personality type (using MBTI) and interests.

What classes do we expect to host at GND U?
To be completely honest, it depends. It depends on which subject matter experts we partner and collaborate with and where the interest lies.  We will work closely with local learning and development consultants who have an interest in helping our members step outside their comfort zone and expand their knowledge base.

We want to help our members gain self awareness and understand the impact they have on others so they can happily explore a long-term relationship. In short, help our members become the best version of themselves. As such, we will partner with local authors, psychologists, professors, and well known image consultants who can enlighten our members in their area of interest.

What happens in the GND Meet-Ups?
It depends on the membership level they select.  We offer two membership levels:
          1)  Individual and Group Membership
          2)  Group Membership

If members select the Individual and Group Membership, they will meet one on one with me twice a month for a highly individualized and collaborative session. Our first two sessions will identify measureable objectives that will help them achieve their goals.

This is a powerful aspect of the GND experience; I am passionate about results and witnessing the transformation that can be key in leading to their future mate.

If a member selects the Group Membership, we will host GND Group Meet Ups weekly where our members can drop in to discuss feedback in a group setting.  Feedback that our members have received directly or indirectly. The Group Meet Ups are confidential to the people that are attending the meet up.  Group Meets Up will be fun and we believe this is a good way to make new friends and develop a support system.  At Guys And Girls Next Door, we encourage openness, honesty, and transparency and believe that there is value in sharing experience and knowledge with others.

We have been working around the clock to start a social matchmaking company that makes sense. Our objective for our member is quite simple: Meet People. Not Their Profiles.

If you have a single friend, family member, or business associate who wants to be in a long term relationship and is ready to step outside their comfort zone, please have them sign up to our waiting list at www.GuysAndGirlsNextDoor.com

If you have any questions or feedback for me or our new socialmatchmaking company, please feel free to e-mail me at Mary [at] GND-Seattle.com

Mary