We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eric Kellum. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eric below.

Eric, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Everything I do is inspired by the meaning of family, starting from the void of family. My biological mom abandoned me when I was 5 at a Greyhound bus station. I’ve never met my biological father. And you know, if you’re black and you deal with any time of trauma as a kid, it’s taboo to get counseling…so, many of the consequences of this trauma lingered in my life and ultimately affected me as a married man. By God’s grace, I have healed from these past issues (and still healing) and I’ve been driven by the self-inspired mission to promote family. All dynamics of family. This has compelled me to create art, books and content on all dynamics of family. I have written and published children’s books (The Adventures of Diggle, Boogie & LoLo), an autobiography of my exposure to porn and how that almost destroyed my marriage (Sexual Healing: A Man’s Sexual Journey and the Lessons Learned Along the Way). My wife and I counsel couples from our personal experiences, as well as, conduct workshops and seminars about relationships, marriage and sex.

Everything I do or will ever do with have significant meaning because it is based on what I’ve overcome with goal of helping others overcome as it pertains to marriage, parenting, family and sex.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Eric Kellum. I am in the content creation industry. I specifically create content around family, relationships and sex, usually helping people find healing in those areas. I offer coaching/counseling sesssions. I also have books available. The problem I solve revolves around the issue that families are broken. Many marriages are broken. People seek relationships for the wrong reason. Sex is pursue for personal pleasure devoid of true authentic intimate communication between a husband and wife. I help people recalibrate and heal and hopefully thrive in one of the areas I mentioned above.

It blesses my heart that my transparency and the transparency of my wife and my marriage has helped heal marriages and helped couples understand each other. I’ve had grown men cry in my arms, hugging me and thanking me because they have not heard anything like what I’ve share before and they needed to hear it.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to help marriages heal, to help people understand why they are in relationships in the first place, to help parents and children connect and help people understand why God created sex (procreation is just a bi-product).

I entered marriage 24 years ago completely ignorant of why God created marriage, relationships and sex, and I almost destroyed everything 8 years in. In my effort to self-correct….or rather, God correct, I made it my mission to be a student of relationships, marriage, parenting and sex. I discovered healing in all of those areas. And once fully healed, I began to seek out to help others heal as well.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The story behind me almost destroying my marriage can be summed up to one common, yet intriguing plot scheme…infidelity. I cheated on my wife. Although I did not know it. I had not physically been with anyone else, but I underestimated the power of emotional infidelity. And I know for a fact that I was on my way to physically cheating. It was only a matter of time.

I will never forget that date
January 8 2008
The time…about 5:38
…and I was late

My 7 year old son needed
to be at practice by 6
So I threw on my kicks
Rounded up the kids
Got them all in the van
Give my wife a break….
That was the plan.

Pulling out of the driveway,
Leaving my home…
Leaving my wife all alone.
Hold up!
Wait!
I forgot my phone!
Hold up!!
WAIT!
I have to go back!
“Dad! Let’s go! We’re going to be late!”
My son did react

And even though it’s summer And I’m late-
At that instant
I’m
frozen
in time
As I deliberate-
No, it earnestly feels more like
An eternity
As I contemplate
Which door do I choose?
If my son is late, then he runs laps
due to my actions
But if his mother finds my phone,
then my family is at risk of being fractured
Due to my infractions

And while one course of action
appears more severe
With the nagging harassing
of my son near my ear
At that moment
An overwhelming state of emotion
Feels quite clear

I’m tired.
I’m tired.
I’m Tired.
I’M TIRED!!!
I’m so tired of being here.
I’m tired of the lying.
I’m tired of the hiding.
I’m tired of the image I see
when I look at me.
I’m tired of changing the screen on my phone
when my wife walks by
I’m tired of trying to remember
what lie I said to cover up the last lie.
I’m tired of going through the motions
I’m tired of pinned up anger
I am tired of the sporadic outburst
which are only getting worse.
I’m tired of playing house
with an absolute stranger.

And at that moment,
This discovery of depletion
made a usual 10 second jog into my home
from my driveway
…seem so far away.
And with my son’s nagging harassing,
I made the decision to just drive away
And only pray
That my wife doesn’t
Find my phone
So I could live another day…
…Yet in the back of my mind,
I’m wondering…pondering.
If
If she does find my phone
If she Finds
My phone
can she get past
The last
text I sent to Tracy
Or that thick pic
That was just sent
to me from Stacey
When she’s glancing in
On the dirt I’ve been dancing in
like Swayze…
I know this will sound crazy
But when
I mean if
my wife
finds my phine

If she
FINDS MY PHONE
maybe

If
My wife
FINDS
MY
PHONE
…Maybe

Maybe
she can
Finally…
…trace me

And then
I no longer have to hide away

I will never forget that date
January 8, 2008
The time about 8:08
And it was fate.
It was the time & date
When my wife…
…Did find my phone

January 8, 2008 was the day I put my wife and I on a first class ticket to hell on earth. And we lived there for about 2 – 3 years. It was horrific. And on top of that, I was trying to start my business endeavors then. And on top of that, I didn’t get the memo about the recession. Imagine living in a home that feels like a cemetery and you have to find the encouragement each morning to go make money to eat and stay in your house. And your wife is in so much pain, reminding you as often as she can that when she gets herself together, she’s leaving. She’s getting a divorce.

I don’t know how it happened. But we overcame.. We rediscovered ourselves and we rediscovered each other. We discovered intimacy beyond the physical. We embraced each others humanity. He allowed God to heal us and we healed together. There were times I definitely wanted to give us. I thought it was pointless. I was sure my wife would never forgive me, let alone love me again. But God helped her forgive me. God helped me to see why I cheated. He helped me identify the hole in my soul that caused me to operate in such desperate behavior.

Now that we are healed and 24 years strong, we believe that it’s our assignment to help others heal and thrive too!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @erickellum
• Facebook: Eric Kellum
• Linkedin: Eric Kellum
• Twitter: @erickellum
• Other: We offer counseling/coaching sessions for marriages, relationships, parenting, sexual healing and rehabilitation, Simply go to https://calendly.com/kellum

Image Credits
Ashleigh Bing