5 Minutes with... Tamsen Fadal

Tamsen Fadal is an Emmy award winning journalist and the host of WPIX-TV Morning News. She cofounded The Love Consultants, a matchmaking, dating- and relationship-coaching service, with her husband Matt Titus. Fadal is author of Why Hasn’t He Called?, Why Hasn’t He Proposed?, and the soon to be released Don’t Date Dumb. With the recent launch of her jewelry line, Spiritual Awakening Jewelry, Fadal can add designer and serial entrepreneur to her business card. NY Report executive editor Daria Meoli sat down with Fadal to discuss why she chose to become an entrepreneur, the secret of working productively with your spouse, and how the definition of success changes over time.

Daria Meoli: You have a successful career in journalism, why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?

Tamsen Fadal: Journalism has got my heart. It’s my first love and my first career, but there were a lot of different ways I wanted to help people. Our business was primarily about helping people find love, but I moved into doing image consulting, which is something I knew from my job. I was able to transfer skills. I didn’t start out as an entrepreneur because I thought, ‘I want to start this business and make millions of dollars.’ It was really a way to transfer my skills and to make money at the same time, but be able to do something I enjoy.

DM: How are you able to balance a demanding job while starting your own business?

TF: It’s hard. My day starts at 2:00am; so, I have a couple more hours than everybody else. And I have partners in the business, which really helps. But I balance by being really organized and running my life by lists. I have to be structured with my time. In journalism, the job never ends. You’re constantly checking the news, reading newspapers, updating yourself so that you know what’s going on for the next day. I would always have the news on in the background and be plugging away on the business and the books.

DM: You started The Love Consultants with your husband. Any survival tips for working with your spouse?

TF: You have to be separate and do what you do best. In the beginning, we tried to both do everything, and it doesn’t work. We have two different skill sets. I come from a very corporate environment. It’s very organized and structured. He is a diehard entrepreneur from the day he was born and never worked for anybody else. When you have those two skill sets clashing, it can be difficult. So we realized that we both had to go into our own corners and say, ‘This is what I do best; that is what you do best.’ We come together and agree on what the goal is for the week, the month, the year, but you can’t walk over to your spouse’s space and say, “You’re doing that wrong.” Because it doesn’t work; it doesn’t work.

DM: What does Spiritual Awakening Jewelry mean as a brand?

TF: It’s not a religious connotation, but it’s an awakening of where you are. For me, that happened when I turned 40 years old. I realized there are things in life that are important that don’t have to do with whether or not my hair’s perfect today or if my lip gloss is on. My awakening was that I can be whole, and it’s sexy to be smart, sharp, and successful, and being successful doesn’t have to mean what it did when I was 26.