Today we’d like to introduce you to Yalonda And Clarence Lewis

Yalonda And Clarence, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

We met in college in ’92, ironically in a sociology class called Marriage and the Family. Four years later, we went to the courthouse with Yalonda’s little sister and best friend to get hitched. Twenty-five years later we’d gone to graduate school together, spent time living abroad, had 2 kids, were hosting a weekly Sunday-night livestream around music and relationships, and were writing a book about what we’d learned in those 25 years. The book is called Rhythm of Love: 25 Things that 25 Years of Marriage Taught Us. We now have a podcast of the same name. (Shameless plug: Rhythm of Love the book and the podcast can be found most anywhere you get your books and podcasts.)

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?

We’ve had our moments of upheaval. The first was when Yalonda dropped out of medical school with barely a plan for next steps. The second was when our first child was showing significant developmental delays and was eventually diagnosed with autism, and later an intellectual disability as well. Her challenges growing up have had a profound impact on each of us, our marriage relationship, our second child, and the dreams we had for our family. Our lives heavily revolve around her needs. Caring for a child with special needs coupled with the typical trials of trying to make any relationship work has caused us to often ask ourselves how we made it this far.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?

We each have our separate careers in software (Clarence) and public health (Yalonda). What excites us the most are the things we do together. Since 2020, we host a weekly livestream on Twitch.tv called HeartBEATS in The Basement. We stream to share our love of R&B — under his DJ moniker C Sharp, Clarence spins, mixes, and blends our favorite slow jams. We also stream to share our family experiences — we talk about what we get wrong, how we eventually get it right, and what cracks us up as we work to grow our relationship and each other in the face of life’s ups, downs, and surprises.

To celebrate our 25th anniversary in 2021 we wrote a book together. Called The Rhythm of Love: 25 Things that 25 Years of Marriage Taught Us, it is a collection of short blog-style essays about managing expectations, using disagreements to understand each other better, and communicating with transparency and vulnerability. In April 2024 we started sharing our stories and lessons via Rhythm of Love: The Podcast and our Rhythm of Love social media pages.

What sets us apart is that we don’t presume to be experts on marriage and relationships. We openly disagree and laugh about our mistakes and each other’s quirks. We share what we’ve learned works for us to inspire conversation so that couples can tune into the rhythm of their love and what works for them. We invite couples onto our livestream to share a playlist of their love story. With the goal of sharpening iron with iron, we gather groups of couples together virtually and in person to discuss themes from our book and to learn from each other. (We call these gatherings “book clubs.”)

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?

Our success is based in our authenticity first and foremost. We are completely without pretense in all the ways we choose to share ourselves. We actually love spending time together and talk about discussing any subject. And, as our close friends and family can attest, our online personalities match what we give each other in our daily lives. Being caregivers for our adult daughter with special needs, and being the polar opposites we are means that our baseline stress levels tend to run relatively high. Sharing with others in the ways that we do is stress relief for us, and we believe our audience values how we can be honest about our stresses, but also bright and joyful at the same time.

Pricing:

• The Rhythm of Love: 25 Things that 25 Years of Marriage Taught Us – $12.99
• 90-minute Virtual or In-person Book Club – $129.90

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cylentertainment.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Rhythmoflovepodcast
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Rhythmoflovepodcast
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RhythmOfLovePod
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RhythmOfLovePodcast