The book helps readers create their own “personal brand” by suggesting that they highlight three attributes about themselves that are unique—though not necessarily the three best.
“It is just like when you are marketing a product,” she says.
Greenwald cites Federal Express and their fame for overnight delivery as an example of excellent marketing from which women can learn valuable lessons.
“Federal Express has other attributes, like safety, timeliness and convenience of locale, but one brand stands out among them: overnight delivery,” she says.
Branding and other strategies may appear to be overly calculating to an undergraduate student, but Greenwald says that the sheer volume of men that cross an undergraduate woman’s path on a daily basis makes finding someone a lot easier.
After graduating from the Graduate School of Education in 1987 and the Business School in 1993, Greenwald went on to work in several senior marketing positions in the education, beverage and jewelry industries. She also ran her own marketing consulting firm.
She says she got the idea to write her book and go on the self-help circuit when speaking on the phone one day to a 40-year-old friend who just couldn’t find the right guy.
“I realized that I was saying the same thing to her in the evening that I was saying to clients during the day,” Greenwald says.
Putting her niche marketing skills and branding to use on her friend’s love life, Greenwald’s friend found her soulmate in one year.
The friend started to tell others about Greenwald’s magic touch and pretty soon Greenwald started her own husband-finding consulting company.
Now, in addition to her teaching tour and newly-published book, Greenwald will have her message depicted on the big screen, as well. Paramount Pictures has bought the rights to her book and a romantic comedy is being developed from the text.
Greenwald says she believes in her system because it has worked for many of her friends—and for her.
She met her husband, Brad, through her “Step 12,” a networking event where people invite friends with fat Rolodexes so that guests may cast their nets far in the hopes of reeling in a husband.
Greenwald says her undergraduate experience at Wellesley College taught her to be more assertive in her social life because men weren’t as easily as available as at coeducational colleges.
“I had to develop a method of planning. My academic work would be finished by Thursday afternoon so that I could have time on weekends to enjoy a full social life,” Greenwald says.
Greenwald’s college life was indeed full—in addition to being a “Little Sister” for the Sigma Chi fraternity at MIT, she had Harvard boyfriends in Eliot, Pforzheimer and Winthrop Houses during her Wellesley years.
“I want women of college age to be in a situation where they do not need this book,” Greenwald says. “Don’t waste your time during your prime dating years.”
—Staff writer Maria S. Pedroza can be reached at mpedroza@fas.harvard.edu.