As one of the newest entrepreneurs on the South Coast, Lisa Darsonval started Santa Barbara Matchmaking earlier this year after returning to the South Coast.
An entrepreneur for more than two decades, Darsonval also is a trained accountant who has decided that her newest enterprise will be putting one and one together around Santa Barbara, where she resided from 2000 to 2003. Today, she said half of the area’s population is single, with many people looking to find a partner.
“I keep hearing women say, ‘There are no single men,’” Darsonval said, adding that, ironically, most of her current clients are men. She said many of them are too busy to search for a partner on their own. So, they hire Santa Barbara Matchmaking to do the work for them.
“I don’t want to be a ‘mega-business,’” Darsonval said.
Rather, she said she wants SB Matchmaking to be the best-known and most-trusted company of its kind on the South Coast. The area has a median age of 35. Darsonval said her clients usually are in their 30s, 40s and 50s, with a few in their 20s and even one in her 80s.
While matchmaking is a tradition in itself, Darsonval said she gathers data from her clients and puts it into a private database. “I’m a good listener,” she said, adding that it makes her able to put two people together based on their characteristics and needs.
“There is no better feeling than knowing you’ve introduced two great people and then watching them fall in love,” she said. “My goal is not only to find my clients love, but to make sure the matchmaking process is easy, relaxing and maybe even fun.”
While some people may wonder who might employ a matchmaker, Darsonval pointed out that many people hire a Realtor to find a house for them or a broker to buy stock. Why not hire a matchmaker, or “dating headhunter,” to find a partner?
Darsonval also provides dating coaching. She said she sometimes accompanies men and women to help them overcome the frustrations of dating.
“Women are more open to going out, while many men just stay at home,” she said.
After a professional matchmaker trained her on the East Coast, Darsonval decided to return to Santa Barbara as a single mother of three. However, she maintains a separate business in Bend, Ore., called U FlyTandem. Also trained as a paraglider, Darsonval is one of those people who can be seen riding the wind down from the mountains to the beach on a sunny day. In addition, Darsonval was a member of a women’s roller derby team in Bend and said she would like to join the Santa Barbara squad.
Click here for more information about Santa Barbara Matchmaking.