Meet Kelly And The Foundation

Speaker 0:30

My name is Kelly Kirk and the foundation is 2 2 2 Muscle. The Sophia Graham Foundation.

Speaker 2 0:35

Wonderful. I can't wait to just learn more about everything. So Kelly, for listeners meeting you for the first time, can you introduce yourself and share a little about the journey that has shaped you to who you are today?

Speaker 0:48

Yeah I am the owner of a 5 0 1 C3 nonprofit, the Sophia Graham Foundation. We started it four years ago when Sophia, my fiance, passed away. And. We offer gym memberships and training and basically try and teach growth to people when they didn't think it was possible. Since then, I've turned it into a speaking company where I go around to companies and schools and sports teams and churches and talk about the same thing. And I'm also recently published a book.

Speaker 2 1:23

Okay, wonderful. A lot going on.

Speaker 1:26

Yep.

Speaker 2 1:27

And you know, since. Your last appearance on the podcast, you've reached a major milestone by earning your IFBB Pro bodybuilding card. What did that accomplishment mean to you personally, especially knowing the deeper promise and purpose behind it.

Speaker 1:44

It's something that if you had asked me 20 years ago, I never in a million years thought it was something that was achievable. I've competed and been in the bodybuilding world since I was. I don't know, 22, 23.

Chasing The IFBB Pro Card

Speaker 1:59

So I've been part of it. I owned a powerhouse gym for a decade, so I've always kind of been in the industry and I now work for the IFBB and NPC. So I expedite backstage at the Mr. Olympia and some of these big shows, but I hadn't been on stage in 19 years. And Sophia. Was competing on the national stage, and she had told me that I needed to go back and compete again. I said, I, I don't need some plastic third place trophy. I don't wanna do that. I'm good. And she kept pushing me and kept pushing me. And anyway, we ended up having a couple of the judges that are friends of ours, take a look at me. Um, we were at an event and they said, well, let me see what you look like. Oh, here. Yeah. And I said, okay. So I stripped down to my drawers in the middle of this place and these two guys that look. Yeah, you could, you could, you need to get back on stage. And I said, okay. So Masters Nationals was in nine weeks. I said, do you think I can get ready in nine weeks? Yeah, we can get there. Anyway, long story short, uh, we went to Orlando. I competed, I was positive I was gonna be 10th place, and I took second and I walked off stage and Sophia was like, told you so, so it kind of hooked me in. I was like, all right, second's. Not first, but it's close. We're in the right ballpark and um. 10 days later, she passed away and it was unexpected and. I look back now and our last text message, we were talking that night, I had been to dinner with the judges and we were talking about me being on stage and I text her and I said, babe, I said, I had dinner with the judges. They not only think I can win my class, they think I can win the whole thing and get my pro card. And her text message back to me was, baby, I love you. I believe in you. Go out there and win the whole effing thing. And uh, I don't know if that was. You know, a glimpse into the future, or, or, or what it was, it, you know, it, it meant something to me then, but not what it does, you know? Certainly now. So I lost her and I immediately mentally put myself into prep mode. That was my goal. I've got to get this pro card. Yes, I wanted it, but I needed to do it. For her, that was what she wanted. That was what she pushed, and she believed in me. And it was the second or third time, you know, on something big where she believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. When I first met her. A few months after we started dating, I lost my business. I ended up living in my car at a rest stop. I was done. I was literally ready to. Ended and she just kept pushing me, I believe in you. You can do this, you can do this. And she was right. I ended up getting a job teaching, I now teach high school nutrition. And she was right on the bodybuilding, so I said, I've, I've gotta do it. So for the last four years I've been in prep mode. And anybody that's around the sport knows that is not fun. It's a lot of work. And it's not prep. A hundred percent where I'm on this big diet and I, but mentally my focus has been, I've gotta get this pro card, I've gotta get this pro card. And there's very limited number of places where you can do it. There's two or three shows a year you can do it. So it's not like I can go try every weekend, the first year after I lost her, I came back and I took fourth. I looked horrible. I wasn't. Mentally prepared. I wasn't physically prepared. And I think just the loss and everything had it to do and I walked off that stage and kind of thought, all right, maybe I was right. Now I'm not right, I gotta do it again. So I went back at it for another year. Came back the second year or the third year and took second. I guess that was the second year. Came back the third year and won my class at Masters Nationals in Pittsburgh, but did not get a pro card. So I won the number one in the country at my weight and age, and everybody was just, Hey, congratulations, way to go. And I was like, that's a failure. What do you mean it's a failure? I said, I need my pro card. This. This wasn't, it wasn't enough, you know, it wasn't what I told her I was gonna do. So I locked back in and came back this past year in July and went to Universe in New Jersey. And there I did when my card and my class again. So it was a big deal, something I didn't think I would ever do. It's a big deal for me, but it took a while for that to settle in, that it was something that I wanted. In the beginning it was just. I need to check that box and I need to do that for her. She believed in me, she pushed me. This was for her. So it's definitely got a little bit different meaning that being said, to be able to say I'm a pro athlete at my age is something I never thought I would do either. So there is an accomplishment there, but I laugh because everybody. When they get her pro status, they'll walk off stage and the first thing they do is grab their phone and they're gonna go change it on Instagram and Facebook. And, and I didn't, I didn't tell anybody. You know, people, my friends knew and they saw, but I didn't. I didn't, that wasn't the point of it. And it's not that I'm not proud of it. Just, that wasn't the reason for me. I do like people to know and I like to tell people, but that wasn't ever the, the goal. So it was a big accomplishment. I'm, I'm proud of myself for it.

Speaker 2 7:13

Absolutely. I wanna tell you. Congratulations. Thank you. That's just so amazing. Yeah.

Speaker 7:16

Pretty neat.

Speaker 2 7:17

And I, I also wanna say, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Speaker 7:20

Thank you.

Speaker 2 7:21

But I think it's so beautiful that you sought out to do exactly what she saw in you. Mm-hmm. You did it, you accomplished it. And I just think that that is so, so beautiful and magical.

Speaker 7:30

Yeah. I appreciate that. I, I hope that's what it is. You know, she believed in me when I say nobody else did. I don't know whether anybody else did or not. She believed in me when I didn't believe in myself, and that's kind of the point of the foundation in the book and everything and my speaking is to get people to believe in themselves when they don't, give them belief when they don't believe in themselves and teach 'em growth when they didn't think it was possible.

Speaker 2 7:56

Absolutely. I think that's great advice for just anyone. Yeah. Of all ages as well. And out of that season you wrote and published your book, broken. Still Built.

Speaker 8:06

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 8:07

What inspires you to turn grief, reflection, and life experience into something others could hold in their hands and learn from?

Speaker 8:15

Okay. Really just the story that I, that I told, having somebody believe in me and push me and tell me I could do something when I was at Rock. Bottom. Like I said, when I had met Sophia, I was living in my car at a rest stop. I had lost my business, I lost my house, I lost, I had absolutely

Turning Grief Into A Book

Speaker 8:33

nothing and. I remember sitting in my car, I had bought a can of tuna from Walmart and this story is in the book. I bought a can of tuna and I'm at the rest stop and I pull everything out and I get a water and a tuna. You know, I had, I mean, I was doing day jobs on Craigslist to try and make ends and meet at this point, and I had lied to everybody. Nobody knew where I was when I lost the gym and I lost everything. My family would call or text, Hey, where are you? Where, where are you staying? Are you okay? Yeah, I'm good. I'm staying at a friend's house. Friends would call, Hey, are you doing okay? Where are you at? Yeah, I'm staying at family's house. I lied to everybody. I didn't want anybody to know where I was. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed. Sophia knew she was the only one. And I remember sitting in my car with that can of tuna and I go, well, this is gonna be good. And I opened up the can tuna and I went, I don't own a fork. I didn't have a plastic one. Now I could go get a plastic one, but it wasn't the fact. It was the fact that I realized I went from a business and a house and all this stuff. To nothing, and I don't know why that was the catalyst, but not having a fork hit me like a ton of bricks. And I just still remember that, that to me, was rock bottom when I realized I didn't have a fork. And then fast forward to losing her and when I lost her that night. Six hours after she passed away. I went to the gym. I didn't know what else to do. I got dressed. I went to the gym. I didn't know what I was gonna be able to do. I walked in the locker room, I'm bawling my eyes out in the locker room. I get myself together. I go out on the gym floor. I'm trying to work out. And I remember sitting on the bench. I had my hoodie down and I'm sitting here in tears, are running down my face. And I just kept saying to myself, what do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? I don't know what to do. And that was when I said. I go into prep because that's what I knew. I could control it. I can control my diet, I can control my workouts, and I know that's what she wanted. I go into to prep. Fast forward four years later, I win my pro card. I'm standing on stage. That's a huge moment, and in my mind, I had pictured just this big celebration and I was gonna be high fiving and hugging everybody and go out on the town and I couldn't wait to post pictures. And that was what I thought. And it wasn't that at all. I went my pro card, I get off stage, went to dinner, went back to my hotel room by myself. And went to bed and I woke up about two 30 or three o'clock that morning and it just hit me all over again. What do I do? I just checked this box that I've been chasing for four years that I promised her. What do I do? And I remember saying those same words all over again. What do I do? What do I do? And, and I was like, I, I didn't really know what to do, so I shut down, turned my phone off, got up left, checked out, and I went to the beach. I sat on the beach for five days, didn't talk to anybody. Didn't tell anybody. Radio silence. And while I was there, I started writing, just journaling stuff. And I started writing about winning my pro card. It just kind of started coming together and little by little I kept adding to it and a few weeks later I went, I might have something here. And I kind of changed it from just telling my story. So now every chapter is a story. It. All the way back to third grade math, Ms. Costas evil, third grade teacher that I hated all the way up to, you know, a lot of funny stuff and a lot of different stuff that's happened. But at the end of each chapter I'm certified through John Maxwell as a. Speaker and leadership consultant, and I did that after I lost her too. That was one of the things that she had wanted me to do. So at the end of each chapter, I talk about different laws of growth that John Maxwell talks about, and I kind of put 'em in my own words. And then after that is a reflection page with questions for each person to read. You know, what is your pro card? How does this affect you? What are things you can do? So that way the book is. A memoir, my stories, but it also is motivational with the growth principles and hopefully it's a self-help book where you can kind of read it and take notes and talk about it. And I want anybody who's gone through something to see they can still grow through it. And that's kind of where the book came from and how it ended up.

Speaker 2 13:08

Yeah, absolutely. Do you wanna hold it up? I just love, I love the cover of

Speaker 13:12

it. Yep. So the cover is supposed to be, is the Japanese is it jitsu? I might be saying that totally wrong. Where they have broken vase, if a vase is broken, they will put it back together and they stitch it back together with gold and then the broken vase becomes worth more than the vase. It's, so that was kind of the idea behind it.

Speaker 2 13:31

How unique,

Speaker 13:31

um. And I love it. It's a quick read. It's fun, but it's, it's, I've had a, a great response both from. Teachers and administrators and talking about we should be able to use this to, to places I've been to speak to just random people online. So I'd love when I get, somebody sends me a message, just had a nurse sent me a message two days ago. Um, that I don't know. Hey, just wanna let you know I purchased your book. Absolutely loved it. It was very impactful. I want to talk to the hospital administration about having you come out and speak. That's when I know I'm doing the right thing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:01

All that hard work, it was so worth it.

Speaker 14:03

Yep.

Speaker 2 14:04

And you know, going into that, you've spoken about how meaningful it has been to hear from readers who see themselves in your story.

Speaker 14:11

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2 14:11

What has it meant to you to know that your words are helping other people process their own pain, growth, and just resilience?

Speaker 14:22

I guess it's who I am now and I. I say that with a little bit of reluctance because at school I tell my story about the second or third week of school and I didn't know when it first happened. She passed away and the end of July and I was back at

When Your Story Helps Others Heal

Speaker 14:42

school. School started 10 days later. And I didn't know what I was gonna tell the kids, you know, what was going on. And I did in the first year, it was very. Emotional, not in even a good way. It was just me kind of sobbing and telling my whole story and not just her story. I tell my whole story growing up, going to high school, so I'm, you know, they can in their place, college owning a gym. My nephew and niece were murdered in 2009. They were 11 and 12 years old. Lost my mom. My dad had a brain tumor and passed away. I mean, I went through a lot. So I kind of tell these kids the story and I told 'em the story of Sophia and it was rough the first year. Second year came through and I started telling the story and it was a little more put together and it was a little more impactful. And I went, oh, this makes sense. And I started having kids come up to me and talk to me and tell me stuff. There was a kid that came up to me that second year and. These kids grew up very different than I did, and the kid came up and he shook my hand. He waited till the whole class was empty and he said, Mr. Kirk, I just wanted to thank you for telling me your story. And I said, you're welcome. I said, I don't tell it because, you know, I want a pity party or you guys to feel sorry for me. I said, I tell you guys this story because I want you to understand when I give you advice, I've been through crap. Maybe not what you have. But I've been there. I know what it feels like to be rock bottom. So I said, I'm not blowing smoke up your butt. And he said, well, I just wanted to tell you. He said, because my dad was murdered about a month and a half ago. And I said, oh my God, I'm sorry, what happened? And he said, well, he was in a gang. And he said it was a drive-by shooting. One of the rival gangs killed him. And he said, I'm in a gang, and my gang just thinks that, you know, I, I shouldn't be so upset and I should just move on, and I need to go get vengeance and all this kind of stuff. And I said, well, I will tell you, you know, I, I can't tell you what to do about the gang. You've gotta make your decisions and what you think is right. But from the grief standpoint, don't let anybody tell you, how to deal with it. You've gotta be able to deal with it yourself. So, he came to me a couple times that year, you know, kind of dealing with it and going through it. So that was when I knew, and it's, it's made a difference now with the book and the story and, and having that impact because there are a lot of days I wake up, there's other stuff I could do, you know, there's other jobs I could get. Teaching. I absolutely love it. Not something I thought in a million years I would do. I've been in sales my whole life, so I've always made money. That is not what you do as a teacher, so that's very different. But I know I make an impact with the kids. Not just from my story, but what I teach and just being there for 'em. And now with the book it's, and the foundation, it's reached out to other people. So when I get a message back from somebody or I, I help somebody, um, that's going through a trauma or a tragedy, and we donate a gym membership for them and they message me back and talk about how it made a difference for them, I know I'm doing the right thing and it's just. Validation. I think, you know, that what I'm doing is the right thing and I'm heading in the right direction. I think it makes her proud. Hopefully it makes my parents proud, but I think that's, that's why, and it's kind of just who I've become. And like I said, I say that hesitantly. 'cause I don't want to be the guy everybody goes to when somebody dies. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's not, but I've dealt with it so much and I've made it through. So much, or I'm making it through, I won't say I've made it through that I think people feel comfortable coming to me and, you know, I'm, I'm happy when I'm able to, to give that advice and do something. A quick one more story. There was a kid at the gym, he's in college, he's at Ohio State, and he's, I've met him at the gym. He talks to me, asks advice and all this, and he follows me on Instagram and randomly one night. 11 30, 12 o'clock at night, I get a message on Instagram and I open it up and it was from him. And he says, I, he says, Hey, I, how are you doing? And I said, Hey dude, I'm doing good. How's school? And he goes, actually, I'm not doing O okay. Can I call you? And I'm thinking, oh boy. And I text him. I said, yeah, here's my number. So he calls 1130 at night. His brother, sister-in-law and two kids had just been killed in a car accident like four hours before that. And he's like, I don't know what to do. I don't know who to call. I don't know how I'm supposed to handle this. I'm not a counselor. That's not, you know, and that's not what he was looking for. And I sat and talked to him. I said, dude, you, you, and they, he's in Ohio. They were in South Carolina. His dad's in Virginia. You know, first thing I was like, what? What about the rest of your family? He said, it's just my dad. I said, take care of your dad first. You know you. That's unfortunately, you gotta make sure your dad's okay. If your dad's okay, then you gotta take care of you, and there's no right or wrong way to take care of you. I said, you might need to. Yell and scream. You might need to get drunk. You might need, I, I, I don't know what it is. You gotta kind of figure that out. But I'm like, if you need anything, let me know. You know? And I checked in on him for the next few days and he's doing better. That's a hard thing to deal with, especially at 19 or 20 years old, five states away. You're not there with family. You're in your dorm room, you know, with your roommate. It's tough. But it's things like that where people come back to me where I know. I'm making an impact, you know? And the impact wasn't necessarily from him reading the book, but he knows my story and knows what I've been through. And I like the fact that people trust me enough to kind of open up and come to me. I'm an open book. I'll tell anybody anything. So it's nice to feel like they can kind of come back to me for the same thing.

Speaker 2 20:27

Absolutely. Like a mentor in a way.

Speaker 20:30

Yeah, I think so.

Speaker 2 20:30

People know that you just understand

Speaker 20:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:33

You've been there. Yeah. You're, you're speaking from personal experience.

Speaker 20:36

Yeah,

Speaker 2 20:37

I think that's wonderful.

Speaker 20:38

Yep.

Speaker 2 20:39

And in addition to your book, you're now traveling to companies and schools to speak on growth, leadership, grief, and resilience. How has stepping into that speaking role expanded the mission of 2, 2, 2 Muscle, the Sophia Graham Foundation,

Speaker 20:56

Huge bigly for a better when I started the foundation, I didn't really know. Where it was gonna go, what it was, it was an idea. Let's give people free gym memberships if they're going through a trauma or a tragedy where this gym membership might save their life.

Expanding From Grief To Growth

Speaker 21:09

That was it. And I'll raise money and we'll, again, if we'll, somebody needs a gym membership, we'll give it to 'em. And that's what we did in the beginning. And I've, um, on the website, I've got, people listed. I've had a, a woman in California with a brain tumor. I've had drug addiction, somebody got outta jail, people that have lost, you know, spouses, different stuff. That's still the, the mission, but it's grown. I got certified through John Maxwell not long after we started the foundation. Like I said, I work for the IFBB, I teach nutrition. Everything I do is tied together. Somehow. They're different things, but they're still all tied together. Nutrition class ties in with bodybuilding. Bodybuilding ties in with the foundation. Foundation ties in with the speaking, you know, so now being able to. Have the book that expanded the mission a little bit. It's all about what I went through to start the foundation and you know why it exists now, being able to go out and speak. It's a 38 to 42, 43 minute keynote depending on how much I run my mouth. But it's talking on, again, growth when you didn't think it was possible. And it's pretty quick and bullet points and I tailor it to whether the kids or church group or business or what it is. But it takes the mission from, or the, the message from being just about grief to growth because people can be stuck in any number of ways When I've been out to some companies and talked to like their sales teams. Being stuck is, it's the end of the month. I don't have any sales. I suck at my job. My boss is gonna fire me. What do I do? I've been there, I've been in sales my whole life. That hero to zero complex we're on the 30th. You've got 500 sales and you're number one, and then on the first you suck and you've got no sales and they're on your butt. Again. We've all, you know, been there. So with the group, with the. Businesses I tailor it to that it's still my story and it's still what happened, and it's still the foundation, but growth is tailored to sales growth, not. Grief growth, you know, and I tell the kids, I teach nutrition and wellness and the wellness part is growth. And there's growth in your grades. There's physical growth. Maybe you want bigger biceps. There's mental growth, there's spiritual growth, there's friendship growth. Growth can happen in any way. And that's the big thing with me being able to speak and have the book is the foundation went from let's give people free gym memberships who are going through something tragic to, let's talk about growth. To everybody, whether you're going through something or not.

Speaker 2 23:42

Absolutely.

Speaker 23:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 23:43

It's beneficial for us all. 'cause at some point in our lives we all deal with it. Yeah. Unfortunately. So I think that that's amazing. And how has being in the classroom added another layer of just purpose to the work that you do?

Speaker 23:59

The kids, they don't know it. But they've probably helped me more than I've helped them. I am very, I am so much better when I'm at school than when I'm off. And then that being said, I'll be at school and I'll bitch and complain the whole time. When is it two o'clock? Is it Friday? Is it spring break? But I'm better when I'm at school. I'm better when I'm organized

Teaching As Purpose And Recovery

Speaker 24:22

and there and do, you know, doing stuff, but being able to. I'm kind of a safe space for a lot of the kids. I mean, the kids come to my room. I the, in the, I laugh in the morning. I get there, I open my door and I've got, most of the teachers still have their doors locked until the bell rings. I open my door. I've got 10 kids in there. I've got. Girls in there who are not allowed to wear makeup at home that come in and sit in my class to put makeup on so they can do it. And you know, I've got just tons of stuff, kids coming in to tell me what's going on, kids coming in to leave their sports bags there. So I know that the kids, like me, but it does me just as good to talk to them as it does for, for them to talk to me. So I think that's where a big change in the, in the purpose is. And like I said, I love teaching. And I never in a million years thought I would. This is my eighth year, I guess now, and I've always been in sales, so I've always had my own job, my own hours. I'm doing my own thing. I sold into the operating room for a while and I thought that was just the coolest thing. 'cause I put on scrubs and now looking back, it's pretty cool. I've seen brain surgery and back surgery and all this cool stuff that I most people never get to experience, but not in a million years. Would I go back to that now because I, I, you know, I like what I'm doing. Definitely the kids make as much of an impact on me as I do on them, you know, through all of this. And it's funny because they all follow Sophia on all of her social media stuff. They all follow me at some, I always tell 'em, I'm like, I am not following you when you graduate. I can follow you back up until then, you're on your own. But my pages are all open and they're business pages. One of the funniest things, I walked in one day, this was a couple years ago, and there were two boys and they were arguing with each other. And I hear one of them go, whatever Sophia would crush you. And I stopped and I go, what are you guys doing? We're talking about arm wrestling, Mr. Kirk. And I'm telling him that not only would I beat him, but Sophia would arm wrestle. And I just laughed. So I love that. So the kids know her, they know the book. I've had kids that have bought the book, kids that have taken it home and read it. They all know the foundation. They all know that I'm on podcasts. They all know that I speak, so they support me and in turn, I'm able to support them. So it's a, it's, it's a perfect fit for me.

Speaker 2 26:36

Yeah.

Speaker 26:37

Yeah.

Speaker 2 26:37

Teaching was definitely your calling. I feel it was just meant to be,

Speaker 26:40

well, I missed it for the first, I don't know how many decades. But here I'm,

Speaker 2 26:45

and as we were saying, I mean, how lucky these kids are to be a part of your class. I know everybody is jumping to be in

Speaker 26:50

I hope

Speaker 2 26:50

so. In your classroom.

Speaker 26:51

We have, we have fun. Like I I told you we eat insects out the year. We had a, um, big Mac party. There was a kid a few years ago that everybody picked on and he had a. Instagram or a YouTube page, and he started eating food on it. And that was his page. And I was talking to him and he said, I, I want to get a million, million followers or a million likes on one of these. And I was like, all right. And he ends up making one of him eating a Big Mac, just eating a Big Mac.

Building Community With Students

Speaker 27:24

And he had like 50,000 views on it. And I'm like, why is anybody watching somebody? I'm blown away by this. And the kids were like, yeah, Mr. Kirk, we follow this guy and this guy and all they do is eat. I'm missing my calling 'cause I could eat on camera and get paid. This works. So I tell this kid, I said, dude, I tell you what, if you get a million views on this, we will have a Big Mac party. What? And I go, yeah. So he was a freshman. Everybody picked on him. I tell the seniors, I was like, guys, it's your job. Hype him up. Get this going. So all the seniors started sharing his videos and talking about this Big Mac video, and it gets to a hundred thousand views, 150,000 views, 200,000 views. I tell admin, I go, I might have goofed. I told them I'm gonna have a Big Mac party if he gets to a million views. Three or four months goes by, I get a knock on my door. It's him and his counselor, and I open the door and he's got a grinning from ear to ear. And this counselor goes, go ahead, tell him. I'm like, what's up dude? He goes, I hit a million views today. He said, you have got to be kidding me. So I went to McDonald's and um, the foundation, we paid for half of them, and the manager gave me the other half and we had a huge Big Mac party that was 40 Big Macs going down pretty quick. Like I said, we eat some insects, we do a water taste test, we take some field trips, so we have fun in it, but because it's a mental health it's a nutrition and wellness. Everything ties back to mental health. You know, when we walk in on the weekend, my first question is, what'd you guys do this weekend? And where did you grow mentally, physically, and, and socially? I need something. Did you go out with your friends? Did you read a book? Did you sleep? What'd you do? And we always try and, you know, turn everything back to that. If there's something big going on in the school, in the world. Um, we had a kid got murdered not long ago. Lock the door, close the door, put your phones away, let's talk about this. What's, what do we gotta do? So I'm happy to, to be able to give that back to them. 'cause they certainly give it to me. They just don't know it.

Speaker 2 29:24

Yeah. And I, I love the point you make about, you know, mental health. If, if we don't have mental health, we have nothing. It's kind of just kind of the core of everything that we do.

Speaker 29:33

And it's so different from when I was a kid growing up, you know, no, there was no mental health. It was stop crying, rub some dirt on it and you know, get back out there. And it's very different now. And you know, and I, I tell that to so many people, especially guys my age that grew up, that are Gen X and, and are, you know, don't think that way. And I'm like, it's,

Mental Health And Modern Strength

Speaker 29:56

it's okay, but I love it. Being able to go into businesses and stuff. Now what I do now, you couldn't have done 15 or 20 years ago 'cause nobody, you know, was part of that. So now it is

Speaker 2 30:06

absolutely. And for listeners who want to support the foundation, book you to speak or pick up a copy of Broken Still Built, where can they find you and connect with your work?

Speaker 30:19

All kinds of places. Um, the website's probably the quickest and easiest, which is, um, sophia graham foundation.org. Uh, but also any of the social media, Instagram, Facebook, either myself, Kelly Kirk, or. Both pages. 2, 2 2 Muscle. Sophia Graham Foundation on both of those. And

How To Support And Connect

Speaker 30:39

I'm pretty active on those. There's plenty of videos posted and see me there, so any of those, they can get ahold of me and that's generally how people will find me is on one of those three and just shoot me a message and I'll get back and we can kind of work it out from there.

Speaker 2 30:53

Okay, got it. Multiple ways to reach

Speaker 30:55

out Oh yeah. Anywhere. And to

Speaker 2 30:56

find your

Speaker 30:56

book. And to find my book. Yep. Absolutely. And the book's on Amazon, so it's. A quick, easy, uh, easy get there, hardcover, paperback, and an ebook. And what I wanna do, I haven't gotten to this point yet, is I want to read it, do the audio book. I think that would be fun, but I haven't gotten to that part yet.

Speaker 2 31:14

Oh, that would be awesome. Yeah, let us know when it comes out. That'll be fun. And as we wrap up, is there anything you'd like to add that I haven't touched on today?

Speaker 31:25

No, I don't think so. Just. If you're going through something, I was, when I lost Sophia, I thought I was done and I touched on my nephew and niece had been murdered 15 years before that, and when they were murdered, their dad, my brother, he died that day.

Final Advice On Letting Grief Build You

Speaker 31:56

He's alive physically, but he died that day. And I love my brother to death, and he was my hero growing up and still is. But he's a very changed man. We all are from dealing with that. But when I lost Sophia, I was afraid that the same thing was gonna happen to me petrified, and I didn't want that to happen, and I threw myself into. Everything I could. So getting certified at John Maxwell, becoming an IFBB Pro, writing a book, teaching all the stuff that I'm doing, speaking, working for the IFBB, and what I found is that grief doesn't have to break you if you accept it, if you learn from it, if you sit with it and just accept it and live with it. Not only will it not break you, it'll build you. And that's something for everybody.

Speaker 2 33:01

Absolutely. I think that's just great advice and, and how much stronger it has made you into the man you are today. Definitely.

Speaker 33:08

I think so. Thank you.

Speaker 2 33:09

I know she is so proud of you.

Speaker 33:11

I hope so.

Speaker 2 33:12

Everything you have been doing and accomplishing and continue to do.

Speaker 33:16

Yeah, I hope so.

Speaker 2 33:18

Thank you so much, Kelly for joining me on the podcast today and sharing your knowledge and passion and just inspiring story with us.

Speaker 33:25

Thank you.

Speaker 2 33:26

I wish you the very best in all that comes your way in the future.

Speaker 33:29

This is the second time, so I'll be back again in two more years with something else happening. Hopefully

Speaker 2 33:34

we'll be ready for you. Just let us know.

Speaker 33:36

Sounds good.