RELATIONSHIPS Author: Finding a husband is serious business

Rachel Greenwald applies marketing expertise to the quest for marriage.
By RACHEL BRAND
SCRIPPS HOWARD
Single women over age 35: It's time to expand your portfolios.
We're not talking stocks and bonds. We're talking men.
Dating a lot of men is one piece of advice from dating diva Rachel Greenwald in her new book, "Find a Husband After 35 Using What I Learned at Harvard Business School."
Five years ago, Greenwald launched a dating business, www. findahusbandafter35.com. The happily married mother of three applied the same principles she learned marketing Evian water to singlehood.
Her approach brings new meaning to terms such as "product marketing." Under her program, a woman is a "product" to be marketed; her social life is a "strategic plan" to be implemented.
Why such a hardheaded approach to love?
"The search isn't romantic," Greenwald said. "I think it's just practical."
Greenwald met her husband 11 years ago using a technique she calls "event marketing."
She threw a party of handpicked guests, otherwise called a "strategic networking event."
Crisis situation?
Feminists criticize Greenwald for approaching women as objects. That's not the point, contends the author, who calls herself postfeminist.
"It's a crisis," Greenwald said.
There are 28 million single women over age 35 in the United States and just 18 million men, according to census figures.
"They broke the glass ceiling, but they broke their glass slipper as well," she said. "When you start talking to these women who are single and find out how much they want to get married, it's very painful."
But aside from occasional moments of sympathy, Greenwald has little patience for always-the-bridesmaid brooding.
Instead, she is quick to deliver an espresso shot of practical advice telling women how packaging, branding, mentorship and marketing can lead them to the altar in 12 to 18 months.
"I'm the last stop on the subway line," she said. "I don't want to hear why you are still single, why you don't trust men. I'm all about action."
Branding yourself
In a chapter titled "Packaging," she tells readers to measure their appearance on the "Dow Jane index." That involves the mildly humiliating act of soliciting honest feedback from six friends, then acting on it.
Later, she advises readers to use three personal attributes to create a catchy, individual brand.
Your brand comes in handy for online marketing, telemarketing and event marketing, which mainly involve asking everyone you know to set you up on a date.
These days, Greenwald, 39, is a model of modern motherhood.
Between shuttling her children to chess, tennis and soccer lessons, she runs a consulting and coaching business from home.
She's accepting no new clients.
"My most important clients being my three small children," she said.
Her book will be in stores Sept. 16.