Women-Owned Business Spotlight: Amy Van Doran from Modern Love Club

At RC, we’re all about spreading the love – especially with Valentine’s Day right around the corner. And this month, Victoria sat down with friend (and neighbor!) Amy Van Doran this month from The Modern Love Club. Watch the interview below! (PS Head to our Instagram to learn how you can win a FREE love consultation with Amy!!)

Tell us about your business

A “matchmaker for extraordinary people” for 14 years, Amy escorts only 16 clients every six months on their love journey, preferring to work with quality clients over quantity of clients.

“I pick people I adore to be matchmaking clients,” she said. “People who inspire me, that are doing great things in the world.”

At Modern Love Club, Amy provides dating coaching, matchmaking, help with online dating profiles, and creates strategies to help people achieve their love goals.

Why do you do what you do?

When it comes to her why, Amy says she loves having an impact on all the happy couples she helps to find one another.

“I get to see them coming into their highest self, making sweet little babies, and doing nice things in the world,” she said.

And an unintended result from all these happy couples are her newfound love of Christmas. As someone who didn’t quite *love* Christmas, her views have changed, now that she receives all the Christmas Cards from her happy clients.

As a love professional, what do you think about Valentine’s Day?

Valentine’s Day is often hailed by cynics as a capitalistic holiday, designed to urge people to spend money on cards, flowers, chocolates, or stuffed frogs holding a heart. But unsurprisingly, Valentine’s Day is a very busy time for matchmakers.

“It’s like being Santa Clause to Christmas,” she said.

But she also says that she thinks the day of love is something to be celebrated – not frowned upon.

“The opportunity to show people that you’re thinking about them, that you care about them, and that everyone wants to be 10% more loving and more thoughtful on one day,” she says, “is a wonderful thing.”

Plus, she adds that it’s a great day for singles who do wish to be coupled to reflect on what small improvements they can make to achieve their love goals.

“You can take this day to hold space, to really look at what your romantic goals are,” she says, “and carve out an opportunity to really look at what you need to do so you can make higher love possible.”

What’s your best piece of advice for those looking for love?

Over the course of her more-than-a-decade long career, Amy has interviewed with over 10,000 people, all looking for love or advice on how to keep it. And her number one piece of advice for those searching?

“You have to keep your heart open,” she said. “You have to keep your cab light on so someone knows they can hail you. “

But she also says that, well, you should be reasonable. One of the top reasons people are unsuccessful when trying to pair up is that they are searching for something – some quality or trait – that they can’t supply themselves.

“If you’re looking for a ’10,’ you better be a ’10’ yourself,” she said.

On Being a Female Business Owner…

One of the interesting things about being a matchmaker is that many of her contemporaries are women. Meaning, if she’s in competition, it’s with other female owned businesses, facing the same challenges or hurdles as her. Amy says this breeds a certain level of community that she thinks is necessary for women-owned businesses.

But, Amy does think that female business owners could benefit more from being honest about finances, honoring how important money actually is, especially when running a business.

“It’s important to talk about money,” she said. “Me and my friends, when we get together, we talk about emotions. But when men get together in a room and talk, they’re going to talk about what stocks to buy, what to invest in…and I don’t think women should have to feel shame about that.”

The Evolution of Love

Amy believed – years ago – that Tinder and the mainstream popularity of online dating would mean the death of her business. Having so many eligible partners in an easy-to-use app would eliminate the need for a matchmaker, or so Amy thought.

Instead, it ended up evolving – and adding services – to her business model. Now, she helps curate online dating profiles and weed through partners on her clients behalf, a service that didn’t exist before online dating.

She believed that COVID, too, would mean her services wouldn’t be in high demand. Without in-person matchmaking sessions, how would she able to form emotional bonds with her clients? “I was ready to be a carpet salesperson or something,” she said.

But again, her business model evolved to meet the needs of the a shifting culture. She now conducts meetings over Zoom, and with the added flexibility – and expansiveness – of the internet, she can match couples from all over the world.

“People can meet over zoom and develop a heart and soul connection before ever meeting,” Amy said.

In fact, people are hungrier now for love and connection after spending months in isolation, Amy explained.

Getting Your Own Free Consultation

If you’re interested in working with Amy, you can always reach her on her website to begin with an initial consultation to see what services she can provide to you.

But, in honor of Valentine’s Day, Amy is donating a FREE matchmaking consultation ($300 value) to one lucky individual who likes our Valentine’s Day post on Instagram and follows @modernlovelcub AND @realtycollectiv. Keep your eyes peeled so you don’t miss it!

If you’re interested in being featured in our Women-Owned Blog Series, send us an email! We’d love to interview you via Zoom OR you can fill out this questionnaire. Let’s celebrate BK-based, women-owned businesses!