Tim & Anne Rulo: Marriage Event Speakers

I’ve been writing and speaking for quite a few years. In that time, sometimes I get to talk about fun stuff and, sometimes it’s about tough stuff. But, today is a first because while the topic itself isn’t difficult, the angle is. I’m talking about myself, my husband, and what we do as a job sometimes. And, while people in the biz will say “it’s not self-promotion, it’s offering your gifts” until the cows come home, I expect I’ll still always feel a bit awkward about it. So, here we go, bring on the cows.

Top 5 Things My Husband and I Love About Marriage Events

1. We get to talk about how we got started. By this, I mean we get to talk about how, over a decade ago, a couple who was supposed to lead an FCA Coaches Marriage Event event had to back out of a Sunday morning session. In a moment of complete naive compulsion, we went up to the director and said, “Hey, he’s a coach and I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist. Want us to fill in?” That next morning, we gave our first talk/comedy routine and we were hooked. We really enjoyed caring for others in this way.
   
   
2. Our bent toward vulnerability is welcome. I don’t know why, but Tim and I don’t seem to have many airs. I don’t say this to be prideful, I say it to tell you that I am the kind of girl who owns what she’s not good at (i.e. cooking) and, as a couple, we regularly wear sweatpants to the store. Personality-wise, this seems to translate as marriage speakers who are real about how awesome marriage can be and how messy it can be sometimes too. At the end of one of our talks a few years ago, a man came up to us and asked if either of us were “in recovery.” If you know anything about the addiction community, this was a huge compliment. He had asked because we were so vulnerable.
   
   
3. We are qualified. Ooh, that was hard to type (can you hear the cows?) but, it is true. I am a licensed marriage and family therapist and my husband is a coach. And, while that makes us particularly relevant to coaching families and organizations like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, we have also presented at several churches. We know what it means to have a marriage under pressure, to actively work on the quality of our marriage and communication, and I have the training/theory/education undergirding what we share.
   
   
4. We are funny, apparently. I don’t necessarily get why we are funny but, I will tell you that people laugh quite a bit at our events. I’m fairly sure they are laughing with us. Maybe sometimes they are laughing at us. No matter, you can rest assured that when we speak we come with humility, ridiculous personal examples of marriage mishaps, and in-the-moment pivots for situations like that one time when I busted myself in the teeth with a microphone and the other time I fell off the stage (true stories).
   
   
5. We aren’t afraid of the awkward stuff. We talk about struggles, we talk about arguments and apologies, we talk about sex, and in faith-based spaces, we even do a little chitty-chat-chat about the concept of submission without anyone in the room imploding. We answer questions in real-time and hope no one films it for YouTube. Marriage is sacred and has sacred hard questions. We always hope to hold space for that.
   

So, there you go people. I have self-promoted myself and my hubby because our 2023 calendar is filling up and, as awkward as it is to talk about ourselves, we really do love to love on couples. If you are interested in chatting with us about coming to your town, church, or organization for a night, overnight, or weekend, we’d love to hear from you. Click here for the link to our speaking info/contact info.

PS – If you are interested in what I speak about on my own (i.e. faith, mental health, the intersection between the two, suicide prevention, educator burnout prevention, etc.) tune right back in here next Thursday. The cows and I will be back with more information.