00:00It's my job to help our Essence family solve your love dilemmas.
00:07Each week, we bring you must-have dating advice from our professional matchmaking duo.
00:11Ladies, welcome and why don't you introduce yourselves to the readers.
00:14Thank you, Charlie. I'm Kelly Fisher.
00:16And I'm Tana Gilmore. And together, we're the Matchmaking Duo.
00:20And you all know them well. And if you're coming to Essence Festival this year,
00:24you'll get a chance to learn from our duo firsthand.
00:26The ladies are going to be hosting an Empower You panel,
00:29so please make sure that you come and check them out
00:32because they're going to give you amazing dating advice.
00:34So you have a full-service matchmaking website.
00:37Yes. TheMatchmakingDuo.com.
00:38Yes.
00:39Tell us about what type of services you offer there
00:41and what you do, what your business is for single men and women.
00:44Sure. Well, as Tana mentioned, we're both certified life and relationship coaches.
00:49So everyone that comes to us usually starts with coaching.
00:52So we can just kind of tweak a few things and see what's happened in the past
00:55and how we can move forward.
00:56So our motto is helping people who are looking for long-term relationships.
01:00So it's not really like maybe online dating.
01:02Someone might be looking for a hookup or maybe casual dating.
01:05Right.
01:06So we are looking to—
01:07Nothing too serious.
01:08Yeah, nothing too serious.
01:09But we're looking for people who are looking for committed relationships.
01:12So they come to us either through workshops or we have our new book,
01:16Relationship Do-Overs, that we might give to them.
01:19So we have a lot of different things that we do.
01:20And then matchmaking is always fun.
01:22And what is full-service matchmaking?
01:24Just so that we're clear and everyone knows what that is.
01:26Are you helping them from day one to the wedding date or—
01:29We are.
01:30So we're helping them starting with coaching and then helping—
01:33Another motto of ours is giving you a lot of what you want but even more of what you need.
01:37I love that.
01:38So a lot of times you'll put someone by a picture or, you know, just that's my type.
01:42But that's not what we do.
01:43We go from the back to the front saying, you know, these are morals, values, things that are aligned.
01:48And then we go from there.
01:49Young, busy, single, professional women, right?
01:52Sure.
01:53Especially, that's our reader, you know.
01:54Sure.
01:55And our biggest question is always, how do I find love?
01:57How do I make time for love?
01:58What's some advice for those women looking to work love into their schedule?
02:02Sure.
02:03So we encourage them to incorporate it somewhere.
02:07You know, you may have to reevaluate your schedule.
02:10You may have to come off a couple of boards here and there.
02:12We're all, you know, over so many boards.
02:15And so we ask that you just make time for it.
02:18It's now a priority for you.
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