Top 7 Characteristics You Need to Become a Matchmaker

Professional matchmakers run introduction services in their communities. The characteristics of a good match maker can be summed up by the "four Cs" -- commitment, chemistry and communication within your community. When people ask how to become a matchmaker, I always explain that they must either have or develop these key personality traits:

1. Caring
   
   First and foremost, you have to genuinely care about your clients and their happiness. You must want people to have fun, you have to care about people and want them to not be lonely.
   
   
2. Curiosity
   
   To become a matchmaker, you have to have a real and genuine interest in people, and be curious and inquisitive about them. You must want to know why people are attracted to particular type, what makes relationships work.
   
   
3. Intuitiveness
   
   While there are plenty of books on relationships and personality types, you must be able to nurture your own intuition about people and their needs.
   
   
4. Empathy
   
   You'll meet people who seem like powerful professionals, with all the confidence in the world. Once you get to know them, you'll be privy to their most vulnerable fears and doubts. You must be able to empathize with them and their experiences, and feel what that person is going through.
   
   
5. Professionalism
   
   As much as you have to be able to deal with the emotional, caring side of the business, you have to remember this is a profession. You must be able to maintain a certain professionalism with clients, and remember what your role is.
   
   
6. Discretion
   
   As a trusted advisor and consultant, your clients will be entrusting you with painful and personal information about their lives, their past, and their hopes. It is absolutely crucial that you earn and keep that trust by maintaining the highest degree of confidentiality. These people's lives are not a soap opera with which to entertain your friends. This is especially important in smaller communities, or if you're working in a business community, where everybody has professional dealings with one another.
   
   
7. Open-Mindedness
   
   While you will draw on your experiences and intuition, a good matchmaker must remain open-minded. You have to keep listening and learning, and making sure you approach each client willing and able to understand their perspective and experience, even when it differs from your own. Assuming you know what the person needs is a poor substitute for actively listening.

Ric Mazereeuw is the author of The Insider Secrets to Becoming a Matchmaker, a complete guide to starting and marketing a matchmaking business. For more tips and resources, visit http://www.becomeamatchmaker.com/