Posted on 07/16/2002 3:22:50 AM PDT by 2Trievers
Last July, Christine Stelmack moved to Seattle after hearing it has the nation's highest concentration of men who are millionaires.
She wasn't out to land one — at least not for herself. Instead, her one-woman operation, MultiMillionaire MatchMaking Club (4M Club), aims to match men with a net worth of at least $1 million with women — for a long-term relationship and possibly marriage.
She chooses men who have earned their millions on their own, not by inheritance.
"These aren't trust-fund babies," said Stelmack, who recruited most of her clients by sending letters to the men on the List of Lists published by the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Stelmack, who has a degree in psychology with a minor in business and marketing, has done matchmaking work before — sort of. She was the owner of LaSalle Services, a Chicago temp agency that matched administrative assistants and receptionists with Fortune 500 companies.
And although she is single, she won't use the service herself.
"I don't date my clients, but I have been asked," the Chicago-area native jokes.
She caps the age of her male clients at 50. She would not say how many have signed up, but said about five join per month — at a rate of $3,750 for three months and up to $15,000 for a full year.
Women participate for free. Stelmack started recruiting in August, using a strict list of credentials: attractive, at least 23 years old, career-oriented, educated, personable and, of course, single.
The first requirement is key: Women must send in a photo before they even fill out an application with their other information. The results are evident on the club's Web site, where images of attractive women in seductive and flirty model-like poses flash across the screen in a slide show.
Mark, who asked his last name not be used, is a Seattle resident in his late 30s who made money on Microsoft stock. He has used the service for about two months.
He's gone on two dates, but hasn't found wife material. (He's looking for someone independent: "I don't want someone whose world will fall apart if I can't contact them for a few days.")
There have been no announcements of marriage or engagement, but it's early yet; Stelmack said that could change in a year's time.
Mark said he was skeptical at first but after talking to Stelmack he realized she was a professional.
"[Stelmack] is not a madam. She doesn't have a harem of girls," he said.
Instead, the women are housed together on a CD-ROM featuring their profiles and pictures in outfits ranging from bathing suits to business suits. It also has their answers to questions such as how they feel about money and dating someone with a lot of it, and what they are looking for in a man.
A graduate student from Seattle, for example, writes, "I'm attracted to men who are compassionate and engaged in life, who challenge me physically and intellectually, who have an alluring edge and a monogamist's heart, and who sincerely care about worlds outside their own."
"Resources don't make the man," says a medical provider from Yakima. "It's the other way around. A person will have the same personality with or without a significant income, but ultimately we are all looking for the same thing in life: to laugh, to share, and to meet someone special."
A word processor from Seattle says, "I'm comfortable with (dating a millionaire) as long as someone's resources are not used to cover up a rotten personality (i.e., Donald Trump), or to make up for a lack of one."
A professional photographer from Seattle has simple requests: "Good things are white button-up shirts, a great smile, good personality and someone who is a good boy on the outside and bad boy underneath."
And an owner of a marketing and advertising consulting firm in Seattle says she values family, integrity and commitment: "I really am not impressed by who you know but rather if the people in your life would say they're proud to know you."
The 165 women on the CD-ROM, mostly from the West Coast, include corporate executives, actresses, doctors and consultants.
When they sign up, men get a copy of the CD-ROM. Stelmack also makes herself available for suggestions, just in case they aren't having any luck.
There are several clubs nationwide that promise to serve millionaires, such as Kelleher & Associates and MillionaireMatch.com, but Stelmack feels hers is unique because she maintains a close relationship with the participants. She says she keeps her number of participants low so she can talk to them on a more personal level.
"I play their mom and their psychologist and their friend," she said. She often advises them about their looks, their expectations and having realistic relationship goals.
Rusty Pulliam, 44, owner of a commercial real-estate-development company in Asheville, N.C., said he talks to Stelmack about once a week.
Pulliam said he has traveled to Los Angeles to date about eight women in the month and a half he's been a member. Pulliam says he's looking for a woman like himself: athletic, educated, a traveler, fun, and family-oriented.
"Chris does the weeding out more than other dating services," said Lori Schwartz, a Tukwila waitress in her 40s who joined in December and is still waiting for her first date with a millionaire.
She said she joined because she doesn't go to bars anymore, doesn't like to date co-workers and hasn't had luck with other methods, such as online dating.
Mark said he hadn't found a partner before joining the club because dating hasn't been a priority for him. He's been too busy with work to make a love connection.
"For business people, it's hard to meet quality people because of hectic schedules," said Helen Han, 33, a financial consultant for CitiGroup who joined the 4M Club to try a new avenue for meeting people more like herself. She'll be having a date with her first match sometime this month.
Money, the saying goes, can't buy love. If the premise of the 4M Club is right, however, it's a good place to start.
Mydria Clark: 206-464-2038 or mclark2@seattletimes.com.
Wait! That didn't come out quite right! LOL &;-)
BTW, be careful ... you know what side your bread is buttered on, don't you?
Ut oh ... that didn't sound right either! I feel a deluge of blonde jokes flooding in about now! &;-)
WARNING: Bring your own bodyguards!
No one's life is known to others. On the other hand, everything is recorded forever in the Akashic Records and known to all.
You didn't win the bear, and you did deserve to win it. On the other hand, with your resources, you can have any bear in Alaska. In some respects, you already do. And since you have such resources already, paradoxically you didn't deserve to win.
No one understands. Yet, paradoxically, everyone does.
You didn't really want it. Yet, paradoxically, you did.
You are independent and self-sufficient; you maintain an intimate connection with the Italian High Renaissance while exploring the wilds of Alaska. Yet paradoxically you are gentle and vulnerable and need to be comforted when disappointed.
Beyond paradox is chaos.
Beyond chaos... ???
--With love from Him Who Sees All, Knows All, Tells All (but paradoxically doesn't see, know, or tell anything)--The Beast
I want some of that strong double Latte you've been drinking! &;-)
True.
"You cannot praise it enough or perceive it."
True again.
" No place can be found in which to put the Original Face; it will not disappear even when the universe is destroyed."
True also.
"I want some of that strong double Latte you've been drinking!"
Never mind that. Whatever you've been drinking is better.
(Not only the Italian Renaissance but also the D'ao.
Are there no limits to this woman's brilliance?)
Uh...don't you fly airplanes also?
I'd like to know...
Beyond that, I don't know. I'm always looking for endless blue skies and rainbows. &;-)
1, 2, 3. The first two will get me to run to the hills faster than you blink. The third would get me to run if I had money.
I'm lookin' for the pot o'gold that the leprechaun has.....
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