Valentine’s Day can be a very romantic, memorable day for you and your loved one. However, if you’re part of the 1% of the world, you might find that you don’t have the time – or the loved one – to celebrate the holiday of love. Enter Ivy International, a service that helps the most elite members of society find and connect with other people of similar stature. Ivy helps to create romantic relationships, friendships, business partners, and more. They’ve taken Valentine’s Day and turned it on it’s head.
Inga Verbeeck, the head of Ivy, is a strong, independent woman who experienced what it feels like to be the CEO of a large company after taking over her family’s steel company. She experienced the time crunch that often comes with leading a company and how easy it is to lose time for the little joys in life like enjoying dinner with a date or going to a sports game with a good friend. She was inspired to create a company that helps some of the busiest and most successful people in the world get back in touch with those little moments.
While they may have many people in love with them, it’s not easy for a titan of an industry to just go out and find somebody to fall in love with. Their lives are hectic and often changing, which can be trying for most people who attempt to sustain a relationship. Having somebody along to help “manage” the relationship is an extremely valuable asset, and is exactly what Ivy does for their clients.
Ivy’s process is organic and unique to every client they work with. There is contact and discussion every step of the process, which starts with getting to know the client as well as the things they love or hate. For example, some clients may not be looking for a serious romantic relationship and instead just want a friend they can take a trip with or play a game of tennis with. If the client does want a romantic relationship, Ivy will find several options and suggest them until there is interest in one, and then set up a meeting between the two. The company also has access to exclusive events all over the world and can get clients into places they might not have been able to on their own.
The important thing about Ivy is that their services don’t just stop once the two people are matched together. They continue to work on the relationship, making sure the client is happy and accommodating any needs they may have. Ivy can help plan a future event, they are available for venting or bouncing ideas off of, and they are on hand to support from beginning to end. This allows them to help their clients really deepen their relationship and create something that will last for a very long time.
An interesting problem that many of Ivy’s clients run into is somewhat of a pop-culture phenomenon: “gold diggers.” Since many of the clients are very wealthy and/or famous, they have a number of followers that would love to be involved with them simply for their status or money. Ivy’s services help to eliminate that issue by matching clients with other people that are on the same playing level as them as well as through extensive background checking. When the individuals don’t have to worry about somebody liking them just for their money, they are more willing to trust and commit to a relationship.
Thanks to modern technology, Ivy is able to truly operate on a global scale. They can connect American supermodels to Japanese CEOs, French musicians to Brazilian athletes and more. It’s this far reach that makes Ivy such an effective service. Clients don’t need to feel “boxed in” by their geographical location and can have access to the best that the world has to offer. In their time operating, Ivy has learned some interesting anecdotes, like how Italian men typically find Italian women to demanding and how French women feel French men are typically not loyal.
So this brings us to Valentine’s Day. While the average person may get off work at 6 and hurry over to meet their loved ones for a romantic dinner at a restaurant they have been thinking about all week, things work a little differently for those at the in the upper echelons of society. First of all, they don’t get off work before dinnertime more often than not. They can’t plan things that far in advance because the schedule changes so quickly. And, it can be a risk for them to take time off of work to take a chance on somebody they might not even like that much. Because of such limited schedules, they might not even know a Valentine’s Day “date” very well. With Ivy, there’s no need to take that risk or sacrifice and success for a date. Ivy finds the time for you and adapts with your life.
Instead of stressing out so much about Valentine’s Day, Ivy believes that any day can be special so long as you’re spending it with somebody that is dear to you. This allows their clients to work on Valentine’s Day, knowing that there will be another day filled with fun activities or romantic events. Ivy can help get reservations at exclusive restaurants or tickets to sold-out events to make any day just as special as the holiday.
When you have the financial success of Ivy’s clients, the most valuable asset becomes time. Between the daily meetings and other work needed to maintain and expand their businesses, they don’t have the same opportunities to go out for a night with friends. Having Ivy lets them delegate the effort and time needed to plan something, plus Ivy works to ensure that any event planned for you is very convenient when they know your time is limited.
There’s an old expression that says, “It gets lonely on the throne,” and it rings true for many of Ivy’s clients. Having somebody to share your success with leads to a much happier life. When you’re happier, you’re work better and are able to achieve even more. More and more studies are revealing the extreme danger that stress causes on the body, and a relationship or friendship provides an opportunity to destress. Thanks to Ivy, clients will be able to have as many Valentine’s Days as the want – even if they’re not in February.
As featured in CEO World Magazine