Dating: The Biggest Hurdle is Your Own Conclusions
With an undergraduate background in journalism, dating strategy expert Kristin Sokol found herself the most surprised of anyone when in 2004 her friend's suggestion to start an online dating profile turned into meeting her husband and led her to a decades long career in the love industry.
She realized that her journalistic background had made for excellent profile writing and interviewing as she helped friends and family members find the relationships they were seeking as well. What started as interviewing and writing profiles for friends turned into a real life matchmaking business with great results.
After getting her matchmaking career off the ground, she wanted more education in the field of coaching and leadership. Kristin sought out an academic graduate certificate in Executive and Professional Coaching through University of Texas at Dallas and has worked on many other professional certifications and continuing education programs that have helped shape the way she interacts with her clients.
Kristin recently celebrated the 11th client engagement in 2026 as her strategy coaching is being proven time and time again.
In her work with clients, Kristin says she spends half of the time on curricula she has developed and the other half troubleshooting real life scenarios and dating dilemmas her clients are facing.
The majority of her clients are in the 30 to 50 year range. While this age group has their own set of dating ideas and challenges, Kristin suggests there are more similarities than differences in dating as a whole, including gender differences. While many clients, and professionals, are quick to find the differences in how men and women date and what they are looking for, Kristin says most people are experiencing very similar issues, just painted in different colors. As she works with clients and they come to see this viewpoint, more empathy and openness are brought to the clients understanding of potential dating opportunities.
While there are many different trends in the dating world, one that stands out currently is the focus on In Real Life mixers (IRL) as daters recover from the burdens of the pandemic and its effects on the dating scene.
Other trends have evolved over time like online dating and dating apps. Much of the focus in her coaching is meeting clients where they are at and adapting dating apps and strategies to the personalities, feelings and abilities of the clients, while challenging them to see and try things in a new way.
One of the biggest hurdles for dating coaching clients is their own conclusions. Many will come into the program with firm ideas on what dating is like, what people are like, and why there hasn’t been success in their dating previously. From years of experience with clients, Kristin has seen that one of the most important pieces of helping clients is helping them challenge their own conclusions.
Because clients have ideas and expectations about who they want to date and eventually marry, they tend to ignore other major possibilities and people. These short-sighted and sometimes unrealistic expectations often hold them back from being curious and investigating other opportunities or people that could be a great fit in their lives.
For individuals looking for date coaching, Kristin offers individual private coaching as well as small group cohorts to fit the needs of the client. For professionals feeling pulled to a similar career trajectory she advises to read as many expert dating books and learn as much as possible from what’s out there.She advises professionals to look for good research and extrapolate all the knowledge you can from them. Then start talking to daters! Getting to know what daters face is the best way to start supporting the challenges they are working through. She also says finding good mentors is an imperative step to knowing what to read and find good research. Mentors in this field will continue to be one of the most fruitful sources of help and encouragement to dating coaches like her. Finally, getting rigorous coach training and education will fill in the gaps that don’t come as intuitively to each professional.
Getting real results for her clients is an apparent part of Kristin’s coaching program and sending clients her way will undoubtedly lead to many great relationships.
