00:02 - Mark (Host)
Clayton Kellam. Clayton Kellam, today's guest. Can I call him CK? You call him CK, I call him. Ck. I've known him for a little while. He's got a hack of a story. You want me to talk about obstacles. He has obstacles, huge obstacles. You want to talk about gurus in his life and game changers in his life. He had a team of them that pulled him out of where he was, which was not a good place, and took him to propel his future in a completely different way.
00:27 - Stacey (Host)
We're learning a bunch of prison terms doing this podcast that we learned he was in the hole for four months and the hole for anyone who doesn't know is solitary confinement. While he was in the hole, you got to hear the story of how he pulled himself out of the proverbial hole.
00:43 - Mark (Host)
How he spent the time, how he went in and how he came out and how other inmates I mean it's more than just about his prison story, but how other inmates really changed the direction of his future. They didn't have to.
00:56 - Stacey (Host)
They took him under the wing. They saw something in him. They saw something. He was an athlete. I think he was probably pretty impressive. I think he was super humble about what kind of an athlete he was. You know what? He's an impressive guy.
01:06 - Mark (Host)
I've known him in his post-prison life. I've known him as a trainer, as a business owner, as just somebody you can connect with. He's incredibly motivational and I think he brought that in with him, that mindset with him as an athlete in prison, into the prison, and people noticed that Right, they recognized that he was somewhere part of his car, which actually means a pod of workout buddies.
01:29 - Stacey (Host)
A pod of workout buddies in prison. He's so calming in person. He has an energy about him but yet he's calm. He picks his words. He's a lyricist. He says he did some rapping back in the day. You can tell the way his words go together. This is a really good one. You guys, you have to listen.
01:48 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, you're going to love it. He's an incredibly motivational person. He's gone through a lot and come out way ahead. Enjoy Clayton Killen CK.
01:59 - Stacey (Host)
Hi, I'm Stacey.
02:00 - Mark (Host)
And I am Mark, and this is the Guru's and Game Changers podcast. Welcome to Guru's and Game Changers. So today's guest is probably the best example we have of somebody who's gone through adversity and succeeded, come out really strong on the other end, and even when saying that it doesn't really do justice to the profound adversity that our guest has gone through, and yet he's been so successful. And I know by the even early on in this podcast, you're going to be inspired by this guy, the same way I have been for many years. So please join me in welcoming the one and only Clayton Kellam CK.
02:39 - Stacey (Host)
Hey guys, the one and only.
02:40 - CK (Guest)
I'm happy to be here. Thank you for coming. Thank you for having me. Yeah, we're thrilled. I appreciate that, Mark. I really do.
02:46 - Mark (Host)
So I want, if you can, I want to kind of start with you giving our audience sort of a general overview of your story, right, because that'll help frame everything else that goes on in this conversation. I'm the youngest of 10.
03:01 - Stacey (Host)
You're the youngest of 10? Yeah.
03:02 - CK (Guest)
Wow, I'm the youngest of 10.
03:05 - Stacey (Host)
What's that like?
03:07 - CK (Guest)
I think in my circumstances very interesting. We all weren't raised in the same household. It wasn't until I was 17 that I actually knew everybody. I had two sisters that I didn't meet until I was 17 years old. I met a majority of my family around like eight years old. So yeah, it's a lot of us.
03:29 - Stacey (Host)
And what was life like in South Philly? Like were you there for a while.
03:33 - CK (Guest)
No, I was not there for a while. I was born 1979. And I guess I would only be able to say that I was probably there maybe two years. My mother was. Unfortunately, she was murdered when I was three months old. You know the things that we experience and that we go through. They do define us, but they don't make us late, like they're not the final type of us.
03:59 - Stacey (Host)
You know what I'm saying. It's just things on a timeline.
04:03 - CK (Guest)
Like when I was in prison, to come to the realization that my life was not over was a big thing.
04:10 - Stacey (Host)
You're in prison.
04:12 - CK (Guest)
You think that your life is over. Everybody's out there living life. You actually feel like you're not living life until you're back out there and at some point I had to embrace that this is just something that's on my timeline, Like my life is still going.
04:29
So I got to make something out of this time and embrace it as not being deaf. It's not deaf, I'm not dead. This is something on my timeline, and so I got to make this my life experience. You know, I got to build a life in prison and treat it like I'm living and not like I'm just dying, waiting to live, you understand.
04:50 - Stacey (Host)
So how long were you in prison?
04:51 - CK (Guest)
15 years. 15 years.
04:52 - Stacey (Host)
And why did you go?
04:54 - CK (Guest)
I went to prison for basically I was a drug dealer. My charges were possession with intent to distribute and also with possession of a firearm Two charges that together equal a lot of time.
05:10 - Stacey (Host)
Equal a lot of time.
05:11 - CK (Guest)
You know, a lot of people say, man, what's the worst thing you've seen or been through? Or did you see somebody get killed or stabbed or raped and duh, duh, duh. And I say, man, prison is prison. But the worst thing I've seen in prison that changed me.
05:27
And there was a guy from Chicago that I played chess with, a lot very lively man. He was a hype guy, just a funny guy that everybody knew, respected, and I sat with this guy almost every day, played chess, laughed, kicked it all types of stuff. And one day I noticed that he just wasn't coming around. That turned into like a week, two weeks and then it was just like the talk Like people was like yo, something wrong. Maybe nobody knew what was going on. So one day I went in there and just was able to talk to him and he just blew my mind what he said. And at this time I had three years in and I sat on the chair. He was sitting on his bunk and he said, yeah, I'll get out in six months. And that was the most exciting thing for me to hear for him. He didn't want to go home.
06:25 - Mark (Host)
Wow, why was that?
06:28 - CK (Guest)
He didn't want to go home he had 26 years in prison and he said to me he said that one by like the snap of a finger. He said all I did was play chess, interesting, watch TV, laugh and joke, play sports. He said I don't know what I'm gonna do when I go home?
06:46
I don't know anything, and that frightened him, wow, and it scared the death out of me, because I had three years in and that's all I was doing Playing chess, watching TV, playing sports, et cetera, et cetera. And so this conversation with him just opened my eyes to just this was the worst thing that I could see. I looked at him and I felt to myself I cannot be that.
07:10 - Stacey (Host)
Like.
07:10 - CK (Guest)
I cannot feel that way. When I got six months, you know, to go home, when I'm that close to the door, I can't feel like I don't know what I'm doing with my life, that I just wasted like 15 years just went by in prison and now I gotta just go home. So that was my wake up call.
07:26 - Stacey (Host)
So, when you walked out of there, what did you decide at that moment, like what did you decide to do? Conversation Out of that conversation.
07:33 - CK (Guest)
I mean again, that was a immediate switch. Immediate switch of being able to, you know, write home and being able to sit down with myself and say you know, what is it that I wanna do? And there's some things that I was already doing, that I was passionate about, and it was just about really now, how do I put this together so that I can really create something for my life?
07:56 - Stacey (Host)
I'm curious, like did you ever look up that guy and tell him like you saved me?
08:00 - CK (Guest)
He did get out, but he ended up getting killed in the street.
08:04 - Stacey (Host)
Oh, ck, I don't like that ending to that story.
08:09 - CK (Guest)
Yeah, well, I will say this unfortunately, that's the ending to a lot of stories.
08:14 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, yeah.
08:16 - CK (Guest)
And you know as hard as it was to do so much time right, Gave me the ability to kinda learn. You know and it was prepping me for you know things that I shouldn't do and things that I should do, you know, when I walked out the door, what was the career path that you decided for yourself so that you wouldn't end up like those guys?
08:37 - Stacey (Host)
Like what was it?
08:38 - CK (Guest)
You know I was never really into fitness. I was always an athlete. I always tell people this. You know me getting into fitness was purely mental health, purely Naturally athletic. You know all American national champion at Lincoln University, oh which sport, track and field, wow yeah, and so never really felt like I had to work out. When I came to prison I was so like just destroyed, literally destroyed by the reality of my situation, and it wasn't till I ended up in the hole. I don't know if you guys know what the hole was.
09:13 - Stacey (Host)
Is that solitary?
09:14 - CK (Guest)
Solitary confinement and I ended up in the hole. And you know this was a very defining point where I felt like I was done, like I really wanted to die in the hole.
09:25 - Stacey (Host)
How long did you have to be in there?
09:26 - CK (Guest)
I ended up in the hole for four months. Yeah, I was in the hole for four months CK.
09:30 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, very, very tough. Did something happen?
09:33 - CK (Guest)
Well, there was an altercation, yeah, I ended up in a fight and so in the hole I'm losing my mind. And they came around with a book cart. I grabbed the Bible off of the book cart because I was like my grandma is on me about reading this Bible. And so I got the Bible. I would try to read it. Put me to sleep. But I mean, how long do you want to sleep?
09:55 - Stacey (Host)
Right, how long?
09:57 - CK (Guest)
So I'm like I'm gonna start doing some pushups, sit ups and stuff. I did not do that stuff, so I was not really into working out, even though I was an athlete. And so I started doing like pushups, pull ups on the bars, squats, box jumps on the bed you know what I'm saying. And then it started changing me, like I started having a psychological effect to working out and my mindset moved from suicidal to actually somehow, some way this all is gonna work out Like.
10:32
I became very motivational in that hole to myself and so I created like this schedule of reading two chapters in the Bible and doing 25 pushups, read two more chapters. And the reason I had to do that is because the Bible literally put me to sleep. I couldn't understand none of it. I realized how it was changing my emotions and my feelings and my mind this combination of the Bible and working out. And so when I got out of that hole, I got out knowing this is what I wanted to do. I really wanted to help people see how fitness and working out is changing our mind.
11:14
So that was my initial passion. I didn't know anything about mental health. I didn't know anything. I didn't know the connection. I just knew it felt good to me.
11:24 - Mark (Host)
Did it give you a hope or did it give you a fire? Like what was it that you said that made this connection it?
11:29 - CK (Guest)
gave me both the people who you work out with. You call them your car right.
11:33 - Stacey (Host)
That's a prison thing.
11:35 - CK (Guest)
Yeah, it's a prison thing. I come from a team, understanding team background and doing working with others, but in prison, you know, the guys that I worked out with was very, very motivational. I worked out with a group of guys that loved I mean, we worked out at 5.30 in the morning. They loved getting up, loved getting to the gym. It was fun, it was regimented, it was, you know, it was serious. You know I felt like I had. These were guys that became my family, became my friends, but they were very passionate about fitness and life.
12:11 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, that's awesome. I've always known you to be a motivational guy and I've always said you're like a motivational speaker that doesn't need a stage. Your audience can be one person and you're still dialed in all in on that person to make them feel it at that moment. Did that come from this time? With these guys, it did, it did, they created that in you, you know what?
12:31 - CK (Guest)
there was a lot of times where I couldn't figure out where exactly I was. A very you know, even in playing sports I wouldn't never say that I was like the just the leader, leader person on the team. They were made men in prison. But they took a liking to me you know what I'm saying and they wanted to see me, you know be something.
12:51 - Mark (Host)
Do well, aw, they wanted to see you get out and not come back.
12:54 - CK (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, it was almost like they was kind of like living through me, you know, and so I had that immediately Think they kind of saw that I was just a little different and so guys would always try to get me to come join a car.
13:09 - Mark (Host)
Hey guys, thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review, give us a follow, subscribe, like subscribe, all those things, all those things, all those things. We love it because we read each and every comment and it helped shape the show, so we would appreciate it.
13:22 - CK (Guest)
Please and back to the show One of the guys. He was a big time lifter but he wanted me to help him lose weight. So he's like yo, I'll start running with you, but you gotta come to work out with me. And I was like man, I ain't ended up working out.
13:40 - Stacey (Host)
I'm not trying to work, I'm not trying to lift, I'm cool with this.
13:43 - CK (Guest)
And I'm like nah, man, if you start lifting, you don't know man, your body gonna be crazy, you gonna be man, you boy, you'll be this and that.
13:49 - Stacey (Host)
And he just was hyping me up, talked you into it, so I was like yeah, all right, I'll do it.
13:52 - CK (Guest)
And that's how I actually got into lifting. You know, I would. He would come out there run with me and then I would go in and work out with them and they had a good I mean that car. You know, these guys, I'm still I'm still friends with these guys, how many people are wearing that car? It was six guys, six, six guys, and they was all from Chicago.
14:09 - Stacey (Host)
Do you remember clearly the day you got out? What was that like?
14:13 - CK (Guest)
I do. It was, I would say it was very inspirational. It was very inspirational, it was very deep. And it was deep mainly because, again, I grew up as a man in prison. I went to prison at 20, I'm leaving at 35. And again, I was maybe 24 years old when I embraced it and started building a life, you know, for what I was gonna do out of prison and being focused, et cetera. So you know, it was still like this interesting feeling of you know I'm leaving. You know, these people, these friends, these guys who have become family.
14:56
You know, and I'm leaving also a different person than who I came in. Wow, and I'm taking everything that I learned. I'm taking everything that I put work into. And so there's this amazing excitement. When I went to prison, my son was one years old and I always say I was a parent to him through visits. My sisters made sure that I still was a father to my son. It's wonderful for those whole 15 years. Wow, that's crazy.
15:31
So there was a lot of emotion, a lot of excitement. Again, I watched my son on a visiting floor. I raised my son on a visiting floor and then all the things that you hear don't look back, like when you drive off, don't look back at the prison, and you think and see yourself, I'm really never going back there and your family's just happy to see you Again. My son I'm looking at just he was a kid. Now look at him, he's tall. I came out very, very focused and motivated and determined. I really wasn't looking for a party. I really wasn't looking for. I was looking to start my life Because I felt like I was behind.
16:19 - Mark (Host)
But were there elements out?
16:19 - CK (Guest)
there, pulling you back. When you've transitioned your mindset to be in a different place, then you're really not connecting yourself to a lot of things that you would have connected yourself to. So if you're not reaching out, asking what's going on in the streets and how the streets is doing and all this stuff, then again that part is kind of leaving you alone. I made these choices, but I can't see myself making these choices again. I've never had a temptation to be in the street. At the end of the day, it's about you.
16:50
It's about you. Gotta change you. The environment can change. But if you're still in a mindset of doing whatever you used to do, then you'll figure out how to do that in a new environment. So it's not necessarily the environment you know what I'm saying or the people. At the end of the day it's still you?
17:10 - Stacey (Host)
What was your plan as you were leaving prison? What were you gonna do?
17:14 - CK (Guest)
Well, again, that started way back when my friend yeah, yeah, so what formulated? For me it was a process of how do I now get myself in a position where I can make this a business, and so again, a lot of positive influence around me. That motivational part of me became a real big part of my prison life and experience. I didn't even know it, it wasn't even purposeful. Again, I was around prison, guys that were that, they were that.
17:51 - Stacey (Host)
The same mindset.
17:52 - CK (Guest)
And I was surrounded with some very positive, strong men who were super intelligent, super wise and who wanted to see me succeed, and they were always pushing me in that direction.
18:04 - Stacey (Host)
Did you know you're gonna start a gym? Like, how did the what happened? I did, I did.
18:11 - CK (Guest)
I would say maybe in like my six year I'm in my studies and I started looking around at what I could create. Now I'm a personal trainer. At this time I've already got my Nassim and now I'm looking at how to make money in prison, how to support myself, and so I'm like I'm personal training everybody here and so I started putting it out there. Hey, you wanna train with me? I trained a certain way and people saw that. People saw how I trained. I started personal training, I started group training and then there was a lot of support around that because it was changing people.
18:51 - Mark (Host)
So how long after getting out did you start your current business? Build Fitness.
18:55 - CK (Guest)
When I came out, I was Bill Fitness.
18:57 - Stacey (Host)
Bill Fitness was me. What's that? Why the name? Why Bill?
19:00 - CK (Guest)
So, another interesting thing I, a good friend of mine, his name is Jeff Foster and he said look, you know, you're gonna, you're gonna change my body, you're gonna help me getting shape and I'm gonna help you, you know, create a business. So when it came down to putting together a name, we really just sat down and was like you know, let's just think of all these names, such and such, fit I fit, this fit that everybody fit. You know, we're sitting down writing down all these names. And of course, he would be like you know, what do you feel? You know, fitness is for you.
19:32
I read a scripture and in that scripture this word Bill, stood out for me. And the scripture said you know, there's no foundation. That can be late. Then that that is already late. And that's Christ Jesus. He says but be careful how you build on that foundation, right? And that word build stood out. And now you know, and then that made me think about what I'm actually doing.
20:01
Like, as far as fitness, you know, I'm not necessarily building a body, like I'm building a person. It wasn't about Building the body, it was about building my mind. I was looking for, you know, a way out. I was looking for an escape. I was looking for what was going to help me get to a mental place that was positive for me in prison, and so that word build, build, be careful how you build on this foundation stood out and I was like that's the name. Built fitness is not just Building your body and this mark you know it's true because you're a member at built. You know and you can attest to this. You know the members there are more. They know that it's more than just a body.
20:41 - Mark (Host)
We actually we talk about it all the time, like when, in the morning before the class gets started, we're always talking about how we're there more for our heads than for anything. Yeah, we're there for resiliency. We're there to get our days started in productivity. We're there for the mindset. We're there for all of that. The sweating just happens. The rest is around it, right, but so we're all in. We get it.
21:00 - CK (Guest)
Yeah, I was gonna sell one thing to die. You know, I don't know if you know we think about like you know, hey, somebody's sitting down on the couch like all my butt. You know I want a bigger butt.
21:10 - Stacey (Host)
Or else I'm a die, you know, or?
21:13 - CK (Guest)
I want better arms, or else I'm a die. No, I'm in a cell wanting to die and what saved me was one being able to start connecting to. You know, my grandmother saying read the Bible. And also my mindset shift and feeling what fitness was doing for me. I didn't know that. You know, I didn't have no degree in psychology, mental health, anything. I was experiencing it, yeah right, and I'm like whoa, I'm experiencing feeling better as a result of working out. I want people to know even if you did things wrong, even if you, even if you didn't understand, even if you didn't know how to do it, don't feel bad. Embrace that as a part of your journey. You know I'm saying keep pressing forward to your dreams, your visions, your plans. Keep doing that, because so many people give up in the process.
22:01
Oh yeah because they are titling themselves. You know, like we said earlier, you know you are not what you experience. It's a party. Right, you know you are not what you're, not even what you do. It's a party and you got to be able to embrace. So we need some very Transparent people who are willing to look bad or willing to sound bad, or willing to give their experiences from a truthful place. Yeah in order to help people see vulnerability.
22:24 - Stacey (Host)
This is real vulnerability.
22:26 - CK (Guest)
Yeah, I want people to know that they can achieve their goals, that they can achieve achieve their fitness level. I want people to know that they have trainers who are there for them, to hold them accountable To. You know, we're not there just to give you these hard workouts. Like, we're not. We're not purposeless and in our you know, in our teaching and in our gym it's very purposeful. You know, we know what we're there to do and all the trainers embrace that. As you know, a mantra like we're here to help you get bill fit. We got people who are 72, 73, 63, 68. We got people who are overweight. We got people who were short, tall, athletic. You know, male, female, every type of person that you would say Would be intimidated about coming to build fitness has already been in build fitness, experienced it and got the result. You know they, they've got it and so we want we want I personally want people to see build fitness as the place to go to yeah, you know, to get everything that I need for my fitness journey.
23:30 - Stacey (Host)
It's amazing you know, it's a journey.
23:32 - Mark (Host)
Everything he's saying about that place and the mindset and what he's trying to accomplish plays out in every class amazing.
23:39 - Stacey (Host)
It's great. It's a great place to be. Well, this is been wonderful. Oh, you're welcome, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much.
23:45 - CK (Guest)
I appreciate you guys. Mark, I appreciate you again for having me. Yeah, I appreciate you for bringing me on. And you know, allow me again to to be a part of your platform. Major shout out to my babies, my twins.
24:00 - Mark (Host)
You come back, we'll talk about a lot more stuff.
24:02 - CK (Guest)
Yeah, you carry your kids with you everywhere. There's that dynamic I didn't get to. You know, raise my first son.
24:10 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, like.
24:11 - CK (Guest)
I get to raise now you appreciate it. I'm saying so you just appreciate things differently, yeah it's wonderful.
24:19 - Stacey (Host)
Thanks, I'm gonna go to build, go to love to hear audience feedback. Oh, you guys just heard yeah.
24:25 - Mark (Host)
Super inspiring, super exhausting, super exhilarating. Everything about Bill fit and CK's mentality I Benefited from for many years and that's one of the reasons we wanted to have him on so you could benefit as well. Thank you.
24:39 - Stacey (Host)
Thank you. Thank you, you're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the gurus and game changers podcast while you're here. If you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might have helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks, see you next week. You.