H4M: Gay & Lesbian Matchmaker Tammy Shaklee Arranges Schedules to Facilitate Long-Term Affairs
The information: H4M is a premier gay and lesbian matchmaking organization situated in Austin, Colorado. Since 2012, this boutique firm is becoming an ally to LGBTQ singles finding really love. Mind matchmaker Tammy Shaklee worked challenging make standard matchmaking and online dating training services available to LGBTQ singles across the country. Courtesy her inclusive and collective heart, H4M has actually successfully won the minds of countless serious daters.
After the woman splitting up, Tammy Shaklee gone to live in Austin, Tx, to produce a new start. She took a leadership position for the Make-A-Wish Foundation and centered on living her best life. She thought she’d fulfill males and continue dates organically, but a two-year relationship dry enchantment proved if not.
Tammy didn’t wanna submit the woman information that is personal on a dating site, so she made a decision to look for a far more private and tailored option. She chose a professional matchmaker, and therefore performed the secret to success. Tammy and her next spouse found through an arranged day, and they could not be more content today.
Many years later, Tammy attempted to send among her unmarried buddies on matchmaker and learned that the service ended up being for directly singles merely. The woman friend ended up being a gay guy, so the guy could not make use of the exact same source Tammy performed to track down love.
“I was surprised by that,” she informed us. “used to do some research and watched that none on the matchmakers in the area took on homosexual men as clients. Thus, I made the decision to begin a matchmaking organization for them.”
H4M began as a niche matchmaking solution for homosexual guys, it has actually since expanded to incorporate lesbian singles, bisexual singles, transgender singles, and queer singles. Tammy has now reached out to the LGBTQ community and learned about their own matchmaking requirements by performing focus teams, one-on-one interviews, and personal talks.
These days, Tammy is actually a well-informed straight ally and matchmaker using the contacts and knowledge to match customers in great partnerships.
“We lead with really love,” Tammy stated. “the matchmakers result from varied experiences, but every one of all of us thinks that really love is love.”
a comprehensive deal with conventional Matchmaking Services
H4M matchmakers tend to be concentrated on giving an excellent matchmaking experience, and this takes many scrupulous time and energy. They carefully monitor new customers in 2 separate phone/Skype phone calls to make sure their unique matchmaking method is the proper fit. Tammy said she looks for clients just who know what they desire and are usually prepared to maintain a relationship. H4M’s procedure is designed to assist individuals find a committed and warm companion.
H4M presently features 100 energetic consumers from coast to coast. The youngest customer is actually 23, together with earliest client is actually 77, but most come into their own 30s, 40s, and 50s. The matchmakers provide the whole LGBTQ range, in addition they anticipate assortment within their ranking. Tammy said the standard customer is actually well-educated, relationship-minded, and sick of online dating sites. They would like to attempt something new, and H4M is a reliable lover for the dating procedure.
The matchmakers are traditionalists, so that they cannot reveal customers any pictures regarding potential fits. They don’t pay attention to shallow characteristics. Rather, they appear for usual goals, lifestyles, and interests just like the basis for an intro. Required a small amount of knowledge and plenty of instinct, but H4M’s staff has actually years of knowledge getting it right.
“The matchmaking may be the most difficult part, but it is the quintessential fun nicely,” Tammy stated. “It really is so rewarding at the end of the day whenever you make the match.”
H4M organizes the first and second dates due to their clients, plus they require comments as you go along to allow them to fine-tune their particular suits making all of them a positive knowledge.
Many of Tammy’s clients come through referrals from either a former client or another matchmaker. Tammy said she is always very happy to make use of the woman colleagues inside the matchmaking industry to make certain customers get the best possible experience. Her collaborative heart provides allowed her to cultivate the woman company and support really love tales for singles of all orientations.
“I do not find it as a competition. There are plenty of singles to visit about,” Tammy mentioned. “I want all singles to have a positive experience, thus I on a regular basis talk to various other matchmakers to see what we should can do to greatly help one another.”
The group of right Allies Coaches Clients
Feedback is a huge part of H4M’s matchmaking procedure. The matchmakers run post-date comments calls after the basic and next dates to see how introductions moved and how your client is feeling.
These dating and union specialists provide endless mentoring in the matchmaking knowledge since they accept it’s important to steer singles while presenting these to potential fits. They want to emotionally and psychologically get ready their clients to bump it regarding the park on each and every date.
The best aim will be instruct customers how to become successful daters with or without the assistance of a matchmaker. Like that, they can carry those classes using them as they navigate the online dating world themselves.
“We coach our consumers to achieve success first-date friends,” Tammy revealed. “quite a few customers think it is refreshing. They want to have someone capable use to assist them to present their finest selves.”

H4M matchmakers can give knowledge on many techniques from exactly what concerns to inquire of on a primary time to building a first step toward rely upon a connection. They can address the emotional concerns and insecurities encountered by LGBTQ singles and provide functional approaches to help them move ahead.
Tammy informed united states that while LGBTQ singles possess some special dating challenges, they likewise have a large amount in keeping with directly singles regarding love.
“just what my clients seek is similar thing many people are looking,” she said. “Whether you are right or gay, you would like special someone to stay in your lifetime. The internet dating business can provide every person when we inform and train our selves getting much more inclusive.”
Having a Positive influence on some people’s Lives
H4M is actually a boutique business on a purpose to evolve everyday lives one match each time, and matchmakers make this happen by enjoying their clients and having every introduction severely. They don’t merely put darts at the wall structure and set up times randomly. They very carefully arrange very first times (and next dates, also) to suit the tastes and goals of each individual.
Over time, H4M’s curated matchmaking procedure features produced great results, and the group provides many good reviews their credit score rating.
“i can not show exactly how grateful i will be you are out there and achieving this for all of us,” said a 50-year-old customer exactly who stays in Austin. “I do not check-out taverns, I do not use the internet, I’m not very personal truly, and I love my personal job. Thanks a lot for those introductions.”
“he could be the thing I could start thinking about a perfect match,” praised a Texas bachelor. “No matter if circumstances don’t work aside for all of us, I’m entirely sold on H4M.”
An old client from San Antonio said cooperating with the matchmakers and happening times inspired him to lose 90 lbs. “i am truly happy that I did it,” the 33-year-old individual mentioned. “I believe such better. I am just prepared.”
Whether they’re increasing an individual’s self-confidence or helping a few start a life collectively, the matchmakers go the extra mile with regards to their customers and take a vested desire for seeing them do well. “Our reviews tend to be tangible â you can observe the real difference within confronts,” Tammy stated. “we actually comprehend and worry about our very own consumers, and we love to notice that matchmaking experience features led to a relationship or a point of view on online dating.”
H4M Will Continue to Support LGBTQ Singles
When Tammy found homosexual singles in Austin, Texas, did not have entry to the exact same dating services as direct singles, she got action to complete that emptiness and make sure those sounds happened to be represented inside matchmaking globe. Now she’s got broadened the woman procedure to provide the LGBTQ area from coast to coast.
H4M makes a huge selection of successful matches, and it’s simply getting started. Tammy is now growing the woman circle of bisexual and transgender singles, and she told us she is thrilled to hear their tales which help all of them overcome their unique internet dating issues.
The past six many years, this rainbow matchmaking organization might a buddy, coach, and wingman to gay and lesbian singles who happen to be dedicated to locating really love, and Tammy has not lost look of this significance of that purpose.
“We embrace folks across the range,” Tammy stated. “it will take a lot of knowledge, comprehension, no judgment to inquire of the right concerns and take singles for who they really are.”