About Damona Hoffman
Damona Hoffman is a dating coach & on-air personality who starred in two A+E Networks’ TV series: #BlackLove and A Question of Love. Her first book F the Fairy Tale was published in January 2024 and became an instant Amazon #1 bestseller. She’s a regular contributor to The LA Times, The Washington Post, The Drew Barrymore Show, NPR, CNN Headline News (HLN), BET, and more. Plus, she is the OkCupid Official Dating Expert. Damona’s weekly podcast Dates & Mates consistently charts in the top 50 in the Dating and Relationships category. She is also the host and producer of Freshbooks’ I Make A Living Podcast, which features her advice for new entrepreneurs and interviews with expert entrepreneurs.
Access Daily: Dating Dictionary with Mario & Kit
Mask fishing, roaching and throning – oh my!
Will how fast dating technology has developed in the last 10 years, so has the creation of internet dating terms. Luckily, Damona is back on Access Daily to clear things up for Mario and Kit with a segment called “Dating Dictionary.” See what happens below…
Cosmopolitan: The Physical Touch Love Language
Whether you learned about love languages from a personality test, love quiz, or during an online spiral, it’s likely you know a thing or two about them. Because when it comes to building lasting relationships—both romantic and platonic—these languages are pretty damn essential.
Very simply, love languages explain how different people give, receive, and feel love – this is why learning other peoples’ love languages are so important.
The Physical Love Language is alllll about physical connection and intimacy, explains OkCupid’s dating coach and the host of the Dates & Mates podcast, Damona Hoffman. “Physical touch folks give and receive love by being touched or held,” she explains.
Granted, while sexual expression is likely vital to those with this love language, other types of touch with friends and family are important as well. And all the experts agree: There’s nothing wrong with the physical touch love language. In fact, there’s nothing wrong with any of them because, as Hoffman explains, love languages are simply “tools to better understand yourself” and the people around you.
Check out the article HERE for the full download on the Physical love language.
Date Lab: Mutual Friends
“Bara Elshaer was nervous. The 27-year-old public health data scientist had never been on a blind date. He bought a new sweater in the hope that his date would think he was well dressed. When Amina Azmat, 25, walked into Ragtime in Arlington, she did notice Bara’s sweater, but focused on how he wasn’t wearing jeans, taking it as a sign that things were off to a good start. Well, better than other Date Labs that she’d read. Bara thought she looked “organized and fashionable.”
As they took photos, Bara started making small talk to break the ice: “Where are you from?” Amina answered, “Chicago.” Bara followed up with a casual and unassuming “Do you know my cousin?” When he said his cousin’s name, her eyes widened and then she asked for a picture. She did, in fact, know his cousin. Amina’s best friend had married him over the summer and recently moved from Chicago to the D.C. area. This coincidence was just the beginning of many.”
Click here to see what other coincidences Bara and Amina discovered…
New York Times: New Year’s Relationship Resolutions
For many people, romantic relationships have taken a back seat during the pandemic.
“Couples fell into routines that became a more casual way to relate to each other,” said Damona Hoffman, a dating coach in Los Angeles and the host of the podcast Dates & Mates. “We couldn’t do a date night out or many of the activities we normally would have done to get us out of a funk or give us a change of scenery.”
To help improve intimacy and romance with your partner in the new year, here are four key strategies to consider, according to relationship experts.
Check out the full article HERE for all the relationship advice from Damona and other dating experts!
Publisher’s Weekly: The Modern Love Myth
Damona has officially signed with Seal Press to release The Modern Love Myth in 2024!
As detailed by Publisher’s Weekly, the book is “a sociological deep dive that targets and breaks down the outdated relationship ideals—including religion, race, gender, and more—that hinder people’s ability to find love.”
Keep your eyes peeled for Damona’s first book on shelves in 2024…
E! Daily Pop: Celebrities on Dating Apps
Damona joins the hosts of E! Daily Pop to dish on how to slide into a celeb’s DMs. Here’s what she suggests:
1. Follow your celeb crush on IG.
2. Like a few of their posts.
3. Try to comment on their next couple of posts within the first hour.
4. Make sure your IG profile pic is cute AF.
5. Send a short and sweet DM – aka “Hey and Pray”
“Everyone else said it was too thirsty but I say you need to make yourself visible. Your celeb crush isn’t hanging around in their inbox waiting for your message. You need to command their attention.” – Damona
Watch the full segment below…
Damona Quizzes Alicia Silverstone & Drew Barrymore on Dating Red Flags
What happens when celebrities join dating apps?
In this segment from The Drew Barrymore Show, Damona gives advice to Alicia Silverstone and Drew Barrymore as they dive back into the dating pool. Damona also quizzes A & D on what counts as a dating red flag, including:
Check out the full interview here:
Drew’s Love Bug: Picky With Love
In this appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show, Damona joins Drew to analyze one picky 20-something’s dating app messages, and breaks down how to date while grieving.
Watch the full segment below for Damona’s advice…
Date Lab: Lessons from Non-Binary Daters
This was the very first article I have ever written about a non-binary dater. Nat and Sydelle prove a lot of what I have been teaching about attraction and chemistry. Give it a read!
“Sydelle Barreto, 25, had no idea who was going to walk through the door at the Smith restaurant on U Street NW. As a cisgender woman who dates all genders, she was open to meeting anyone and eager to see who we matched her with.
When Nat Berelovich, 24, arrived, Sydelle immediately noticed their piercings, cool black boots and tattoo that resembled a watercolor painting. Nat noticed Sydelle’s tattoos — and thought she was really cute.”
Click here to read the rest!
Bustle: How To Have The “What Are We?” Convo
As your feelings continue to grow for someone you’ve been hanging out with, it may feel like it’s time to set sound boundaries. And even if you know that you’re looking for a capital-P Partner, you may be at a loss when it comes to telling your situationship you’re looking for a relationship.
According to Damona Hoffman, certified dating coach and host of The Dates & Mates Podcast, a “situationship” is somewhere in between friends with benefits (FWB) and a committed relationship. But unlike a strict FWB situation or an official relationship, the marking of a situationship is a lack of commitment, labels, and any sort of DTR. You may know how you feel, but you have no idea what you are — hookups? Lovers? Seeing each other?
“The issue with many daters today which causes them to feel stuck and dissatisfied is that not enough people are willing to express what they truly want due to fear of rejection,” Hoffman says. “If you’re seeing someone casually and want it to be something more, you owe it to yourself and to them to express how you’re feeling.”
Read the full article for Damona’s tips on how to have the “what are we” convo…
Dating Tricks & Traps on Access Daily
Damona and Rob Mack talk about all the current dating terms you need to know – Glamboozled, Orbited, or Cricketed, and more. But more importantly, Mario shares how you can avoid the worst ones happening to you.
The New York Post: What is ‘roaching’?
Like the nasty namesake insect, the act of “roaching” gets its strength from numbers.
The latest memeified dating discourse is here, defining a phenomenon of courtship that is so unfortunately common as to be unavoidable — much like the infamous cockroach itself.
So-called “roaching” refers to the act of hiding the fact that you’re seeing multiple people from a new romantic partner… To roach is not to cheat, per se, but to be purposefully opaque about your sex life — and there are some telltale signs of this, the latest in a long line of dirty dating trends.
“You can tell if you’re being roached if you feel like the person is not really available or present for you, and very private about certain details,” OkCupid dating coach and host of “The Dates & Mates Podcast” Damona Hoffman told The Post.
Want to know the roaching red flags to look out for? Read the full article here for Damona’s tips.