THE WAYWARD HEARTS CIRCLE

The Moment I Knew Wayward Hearts Was Working

There is a question I ask almost every new paying member during their intake video call.

How did you find Wayward Hearts?

Its important for me to know this for so many reasons. As a small business it is really important that I use my limited funds marketing in the right way.

Sometimes people found me through an ad. Sometimes through the blog, or a radio spot, or a Google search at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night when they had finally had enough of the apps. Those answers all matter to me. I want to know what is working and what is reaching people. And how it is reaching them.

But over the last couple of months something else incredibly exciting has been happening. Something I did not engineer and did not ask for.

People have been saying: “Someone told me about you”.

A friend. A colleague. A family member. Someone they trust. Someone who had been through the intake process themselves, or gone on an introductory date, or simply watched from the sidelines as Wayward Hearts found its footing on this island. And that person had thought of someone they cared about and said: you should talk to Cheryl.

I cannot tell you what that feels like to hear.

When I launched Wayward Hearts in July 2025, I had a very clear picture of what I wanted this service to be. I wanted people to feel genuinely seen. I wanted the intake conversation to feel like talking to someone who actually cared about the outcome. I wanted the introductions I arranged to feel thoughtful and considered, not like being handed a name and told good luck.

I wanted people to feel, maybe for the first time in a long time, that someone was actually working on their behalf.

When a member refers a friend to Wayward Hearts, they are telling me something important. They are telling me that the experience was worth vouching for. That it felt the way I hoped it would feel. That they trusted me enough with their own heart that they were willing to send someone they care about through the same door.

That is not a small thing. On a small island where word travels fast and reputations are built slowly, that kind of trust is everything.

So I decided to honour it properly.

Introducing the Wayward Hearts Circle.

The Circle is my formal way of saying thank you to everyone who has referred someone to Wayward Hearts, and to everyone who does so going forward. Paying members who refer someone who joins as a paying member earn a discounted membership renewal at $99 plus HST.

Free Date-a-Base members aren’t left out either. If they refer someone who joins as a paying member, the free member can convert to a paid membership themselves at $145 plus HST, which is the pre-July rate, even after the price increases on July 1.

But more than the reward, the Circle is recognition. Of the people who believed in this enough to put their name behind it. Of the fact that referrals are not just a marketing channel. They are proof that something real is happening here.

Wayward Hearts is not quite a year old. I already have over 100 members. I have arranged more introductions than I ever imagined possible this quickly. And now people are referring their friends.

That is not luck. That is what it looks like when a service actually does what it promised to do.

If you know someone whose wayward heart is looking for its match, please send them this way. And you can be sure that I will take care of them the same way I have tried to take care of everyone who has trusted me with something this important.

You can learn more about the Wayward Hearts Circle at waywardhearts.ca/circle.