Day 109: Kelly Adolph

January 17, 2010 at 12:01 am, Category: Featured, Inspiration

“There’s a lot of things that I want to achieve before I leave, and I want to be an example.  You can always preach to people, but if you’re not an example, then they’re not going to follow.  I want to live by an example.”

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Toni Reece: Thank you so much, Kelly, for giving your time today and being with us on the Get Inspired! Project.  Before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?

Kelly Adolph: My name is Kelly Adolph, and I do artist management for BCO Media, Incorporated, in addition to being a published author.

Toni: Wow!  Well, let’s go right into the questions, Kelly.  When you think about inspiration, who do you think you inspire and how do you do that?

Kelly: When I think of inspiration, I know who I hope to inspire.  I’ve always longed to inspire young adults and teenagers, because they’re the leaders of tomorrow.  And I like to do things … I like to speak honestly, candidly, present all options so that instead of having a closed mind growing up, they can have an open mind, and it encourages them to do better.

Toni: Right.  I would imagine it does.  How do you get in front of that group of people?

Kelly: I’m a mom of three … well, not teens anymore, my oldest is 21 now, but I’ve started … I don’t know, when I was the house with all the kids that kids used to come to, and I just sort of took on, I wouldn’t say motherly role, but sort of a sisterly role to them because I allowed them to speak to me as a friend and open up.  I’ve been able to channel through kids that way; also, through my writing.  I try to write in a formation that younger adults can understand, not so much for people who’ve already experienced life, but for those who have yet to experience certain things in life.

Toni: How do you think that by doing that, Kelly, helps them to explore their own potential?

Kelly: I think it gives them … I think having my story told or sharing other stories with people, I think it gives them an okay to go after their own dreams.  Because a lot of times kids — and I know myself, and I know from Brian, I’m sure after speaking to him — parents don’t encourage their kids to follow their dreams or follow their hearts.

They might have a passion for something within them and they’re afraid to pursue it because it’s not said to be the way to go.  As an adult, you have to do … I know I was raised by my parents, my father, to … you’re supposed to … it’s a structure.  You’re supposed to … you’re born, you go to school, you go to college, you get a job, you take care of your family, you go, you die … that was just it.

It’s a lot more to life than that.  It’s a lot more enjoyable things.  You can earn a career in doing the things that you love to do.

Toni: So, Kelly, what kind of books have you written?

Kelly: Mostly … I’ve written two that’s been published.  They’re both inspirational fiction.

Toni: Inspirational fiction?

Kelly: Yes.

Toni: What are they about?

Kelly: The first one is titled Perilous Times of a Young Black Woman, and that was a story of a young woman who didn’t really have … who had a hard time coming in life.  I kind of had her experience.  A lot of the things that some people experience in their lifetimes, like molestation or rape or physical or verbal abuse, just things that some kids … it’s behind closed doors.  People don’t understand what’s going on.  It’s sort of teaching … in the story it’s showing how she overcame those obstacles and still achieved her goal, her dream.

Toni: And so that really is a personal way for who you inspire and how you go about it, as you said, through your writing and being very, very honest and open so that people can learn from that experience.

Kelly: You know, so many people, they try to sugar-coat things to try to … to me, it makes the person live in a world of fantasy when we don’t actually live in a world of fantasy, we live in a world of reality. So I think if you’re armed and you’re prepared for certain situations, it allows you to handle those situations a lot better.

Toni: Now what about you?  How do you come to inspiration?  What inspires you?

Kelly: Actually, I have a thirst, and I’ve always been this way, like for knowledge.  I spend hours of free time – well, since the internet came out because you can go on the internet and find everything – researching, reading, just to increase my knowledge base.  I’ve always been that way.  That’s my inspiration.  When I read stories of other people and their achievements, that pushes me to do more.

Toni: Well, let me … that’s a great segue … aren’t you also a part of the DO Foundation?

Kelly: Yes.  Co-Founder of the DO Foundation.

Toni: Can you give us a little background on that, how you came to do something like that?

Kelly: Well, Brian and I, we both had an interest in those less fortunate, and back when … for years, I’ve always been the one, like I said, that the kids … if the mom put them out of the house, I’d take them in, or different family members or friends.  I’ve always had that passion to help people.

We used to talk, you know, for a long time about the homeless situation and how sad it was that the awareness is there, but people kind of ignore it like it’s not that serious when it really is.  So Brian brought up the idea of the DO Foundation, and we tossed it around for a while and then finally decided that we would implement it, and it’s been sort of viral – it’s taken off.

Toni: Now how does that inspire you?

Kelly: It inspires me because of the warmth that you get from helping somebody.  There’s so much that we want to do that we’re not in a position to do right now, but we will be.  But there’s a little bit that we give like when we go out and we hand out gloves or shoes to a woman who hasn’t had shoes in a while, or food.  Just for that moment, to see their faces and their appreciation, that’s inspiration for me enough to keep going and doing it.

Toni: Have you always been like that, Kelly?  Have you always been candid and frank in helping others?

Kelly: Always.  I used to get in trouble when I was a kid.  They would be like “Use a little tact.”  I’m like “I’m not trying to be mean, but …”

Toni: But was it just the way you were to get things done or just the way you were to get people to move?

Kelly: It was just the way I was.  I don’t think I was raised that way.  I’m not for sure … I don’t remember my dad ever really being that way.  It’s just the way that I was.  It’s just something in me to say “Look, why would you sugar-coat it?”  It takes more time when you sugar-coat things to get it done when you should just be right on the spot, boom.

Toni: And Do Something!

Kelly: Right.

Toni: That’s a very appropriate goal.

Kelly: Why go around the block when you can just go right down the street?

Toni: And take no prisoners along the way.

Kelly: Right, right!

Toni: How do you then continue to explore your own potential, Kelly, so that you can keep doing the great work that you’re doing?

Kelly: I keep educating myself.  I don’t pretend to know everything, so I try to keep educating myself.  I like to surround myself with people who can add to my knowledge base.  I work hard.

There’s a lot of things that I want to achieve before I leave, and I want to be an example.  You can always preach to people, but if you’re not an example, then they’re not going to follow.  I want to live by an example.

Toni: When you say that you … you also referred to the same statement as far as things that inspire you, which is, you said you have a huge thirst for knowledge, and then to continuously explore your potential you said that you want to surround yourself with knowledge.  Is there an area that excites you the most, that really gets you, that you’re drawn to in a knowledge area, in an information area?

Kelly: A particular area?

Toni: Yeah, that would …

Kelly: I wouldn’t say an area.  I write fiction, but I don’t read it.

Toni: Okay.

Kelly: I read all nonfiction.  Educational things.  I work in the music industry, so I like to stay on top of things in the music industry with writing.  I like to stay on top of things with that.  I like to read biographies, because that tells me from where people came and then where they are now.  I think my thirst for knowledge is just for continuous factual information, nonfiction.

I love creativity, don’t get me wrong.  I can create.  I used to do poetry and things like that.  Creativity is fantastic, but as far as my own personal preference, I love things that I can learn from and I can take with me.

Toni: It sounds to me as though that’s … in this interview with you, with what you guys are doing with the DO Foundation — and we will also have a link to your Foundation and how to get a hold of you at the bottom of this interview on the Get Inspired! Project as well as spotlighting your Foundation on our Project page so people can find out the wonderful things you guys are doing — but the theme for me that I’m taking away from you in this interview is that your frankness, you’re open, your honesty, your thirst for knowledge is all about facts, making it happen, how did they do it, and getting it done.

Kelly: Right.

Toni: If that isn’t very much in line with what you guys are doing with the Do Something, the common theme has been all through this interview.

Kelly: Well, thank you.  I like to stay on that side.

Toni: Well you know what, you were there.  Whether it was purposeful or not, you were there.

Kelly: It wasn’t intentional, I’m just talking.

Toni: Well, you were lovely.

Kelly: Just being honest.

Toni: Absolutely.  Well thank you so much, Kelly, and really congratulations on the fantastic work that you guys are doing.

Kelly: Well, thank you.

Toni: I hope to see the impact of what you’re doing on a larger scale very, very soon.

Kelly: Oh, and you will, definitely.

Toni: Well, we thank you from the Get Inspired! Project.  Take care.

Kelly: Thank you, Toni.  You too.

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For more information about Kelly Adolph:  www.dofoundation.net, info@dofoundation.net

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