We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Xiaoli Mei a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Xiaoli, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Often time we ask young kids what they want to do or become when they grow up. A few people are lucky to know their passion or purpose at that age, the majority people might have to go through life experience to find their answers to this question. I remember when I asked my son when he was 3 years old what he wanted to become, of course as a boy, he said he wanted to become a superman or police, now he just graduated from PhD in bio physics. As for me, I don’t remember what I told my parents in my childhood, but I certainly wanted to become journalist in high school when deciding my major in college. well, growing up in a traditional Asian family with typical Asian tiger parents, I was told journalist didn’t make a lot of money, I should study to become a lawyer or doctor or CPA like other Asian kids. Since Match is not my strength, I got frustrated with numbers and excel sheets. Being a doctor is such an honorable career to save people’s lives, but somehow, I will faint when I see blood. apparently, it didn’t leave me many choices. I chose the law degree for my college. I did very well in law school and became the No.1 top student, but I also realized it was not my passion. I landed a great job as a paralegal but quit the job in 6 months because I didn’t enjoy it at all. I couldn’t see myself to be a lawyer for the rest of my life. I began to search for my next goal in my career. I love doing business and travelling, so I decided to pursue an MBA degree to become a corporate executive travelling around the world doing business. I worked for four different fortune 500 companies in various positions. My roles in marketing, corporate hiring, training, and recruiting allowed me to hone my understanding of people and interpersonal dynamics. However, despite my good job with good pay, I still felt unfilled and empty inside. Something was missing, meanwhile my personal life suffered, I went through divorce twice struggling to figure out how to find happiness while balancing a career. I would say that was my darkest moment in life, confused and miserable.

In 2007, a company-wide restructuring forced me to reevaluate my career, and I began exploring ways to combine my professional skills with a deeper purpose, something I would be passionate about. Initially, I started as a career coach, guiding professionals through layoffs and career transitions by unitizing my HR and people skills. Yet, a recurring theme emerged: my career coaching clients often turned discussions to their personal relationships. Recognizing an unmet need and fueled by my own passion for self-growth after two divorces, I pivoted toward relationship coaching, naturally into the matchmaking space. believe or not, this is the first time in my life, I felt so certain this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I can’t wait to get up in the morning to go to work, I found my heart signing when I heard a couple, I matched decided to be exclusive, or got engaged, married. My joy for their happiness is way beyond anything I can measure.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My journey as a matchmaker began with my own quest for love and happiness. Having experienced two failed marriages and numerous unsatisfactory dating experiences, I became determined to decipher the elusive “Happiness Code.” My understanding of this was a delicate balance between a thriving career and a gratifying relationship. Finding fulfillment in all areas of my life was the key to being happy so I explored this rigorously. In fact, I spent over 10 years searching and learning before I finally discovered the breakthrough in love and in relationships. Today, because of this breakthrough, I’m living with the love of my life…my forever man…my husband Jim! What started as a “selfish” attempt to find the love of my life, turned out to become a personal mission and passion to help other singles looking for their own version of happily ever after…Ultimately, I discovered the key to unlocking love and relationship fulfillment that has forever altered the course of my life. The complexities of modern dating are very real. We read headlines all the time that tell us “You cannot have it all” and I am here to tell you that you can. That’s how I founded Elite Asian Matchmaker agency and became a certified Professional Matchmaker and a certified Relationship Coach. Over the years I’ve helped a lot of singles find happiness in love. I know for sure: you did not find my website here by accident. I know you are searching for love. You may feel exhausted and frustrated about online dating or you might have had a hard time meeting quality people in your social circle, or you’re very particular about what you are looking for. Elite Asian Matchmaker is the top Asian matchmaking agency. We specialize in serving the needs of clients from West Coast to East Coast in major metropolitan areas and across the globe wherever singles are looking to find love with an extraordinary Asian partner.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Every business starts with small. as a founder for Elite Asian Matchmaker, my vision is to become a global agency helping singles find love and happiness. I started with referrals from friends and family members. One thing I am very proud of myself, and our service is that once clients working with me, they can feel my passion and my sincerity to help them. As the business grows, our referral rate is up 50% not only from friends, but also from our previous clients. When they have success with us, naturally they are happy to recommend us to their friends’ circle or community. Matchmaking is very private and touch people’s personal life and vulnerability; therefore, trust is critical. Because of my passion and my heart in my clients’ desire and interest for love and happiness, I believe the Universe is also on my side to help me. I can always find matches for my clients. Some find sooner, some might take a bit of time, with my psychological knowledge and coaching experience, I can always identify what blocks prevent the clients from finding the ideal partner sooner. We also use Press Release and social media to build brand awareness. We have about 30% of new clients from social media and PR. SEO is another factor we are currently focusing on.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

For our current clients, we communicate on a weekly basis or biweekly basis depending on their schedules either for date follow-up feedback or coaching to improve their dating skills and knowledges. Even if some clients being exclusive with the matches we provided, I would still guide them in the beginning of the dating period, to answer their own confusion/frustration about dating or misunderstanding of their partner’s behaviors. Dating is a great experiment for singles to self-reflect and grow, with mutual understanding of opposite sex. I firmly believe there will never be a lack of matches for clients to meet, but sometime its clients have limited belief in preventing them from being open-minded to meet a variety of matches. Clients who came to us for help usually are the ones who tried on their own for many years but didn’t work out, however majority of them had prefixed notion or pattern what their ideal partners should look like. My job is really to break through their old patterns and to think outside box. A lot of our success stories are about how two people were not each other’s usual types, but because they were open-minded, magic happened! Most singles have a type for ideal partners more focus on physical appearances. As a matchmaker, we encourage clients to focus on the compatibilities for values, life goals and share interests, not solely on physical attraction and chemistry.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.eliteasianmatchmaker.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/xiaolimei.matchmaker
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/xiaoli.mei
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xiaolimei