Hi, I’m Virginia! I laugh a lot. And I really love my job, which is helping people find love online.
I met my husband Grant on Craigslist in 2006. I know, right? Crazy. (That site is not a good place anymore, just in case there was any confusion. But I’ll help you find the best spots.) I wasn’t always great with online dating—in the early days, no one was! But I kept at it, made fewer mistakes over time, and eventually got really, really good at it. I started helping friends with online dating, too—and eventually, a bunch of us met our eventual spouses with my help.
I don’t know that I would’ve recognized what an amazing catch my husband is if I didn’t have plenty of market research under my belt. 🙂
Things are different now; this was all before smartphones! Online dating is such a robust market now that it can be confusing as heck. But there are some tried-and-true strategies that can help you connect with people you actually want to get to know better—I blend my experience and knowledge of what works with my rapt attention to the ever-shifting market.
Plus, I’m insanely good at getting inside people’s heads and helping them write in a more entertaining fashion! I’m good with all the other stuff, too, like pictures and username choices, and figuring out who to message, and making those messages super-snappy, and talking you off the ledge when you didn’t hear back from that one really adorable person.
Oh, you wanted a more formal About Virginia? OK, how’s this? I’m half English and half South Carolinian, but you’d never know it unless I get around my accent-heavy family. Then you’ll hear my weird drawl(s) shine. I was a linguistics major at Bryn Mawr College, sort of—they don’t have a linguistics department so I did my major at Swarthmore. I speak a few languages, including Spanish and Catalan. (I lived in Spain and Mexico for a while.)
I used to teach both Spanish and English. My whole childhood people kept telling me a lawyer, which I hated. Maybe they were right, but arguing stresses me out even when I win—so instead, I help people find love online.
I’ve also worked in software testing and localization for many years, which I still do here and there. I’ve worked in a few law offices. I don’t plan to do that again. I sometimes work with small businesses to manage their online presence, and I sometimes work for major corporations helping them write with a less boring voice. It’s delightful how much crossover there is at times between running this business and running a major corporation!
I occasionally write for other purposes—I have a personal blog at virginiaroberts.com, an infrequently updated food blog at framboi.se, and another infrequently updated beauty blog at heliotro.pe. Oh, and we have a never-updated joint blog at grantandvirginia.com. You can probably tell from all the crazy websites that I’m a bit of a geek. My husband is a video game designer, so that only feeds into my geekiness. That said, I try to avoid using phrases like FTW and AFK when I’m talking to people IRL. 😉
Oh, I HAAAATE graphical smiley faces. Punctuation FTW. Oh crap.
This is my assistant Trumpet, who does all of my typing (that is code for “who walks on my keyboard when I’m trying to suggest helpful profile edits”):
He has is own Tumblr. It’s called Trumpblr. Grant came up with the name.
And I’m just kidding—I don’t have an assistant. I run this business entirely by myself. Sometimes it’s scary, but when I hear from people like you that I helped you find a happy lasting relationship, it’s all worth it.
That about covers it! Now, pretty please, drop me a line and tell me about YOU, and how I can help! [icon-heart]