- 8 months ago
On the second episode of Shop Essence Live, host NöNe talks with the owner of Mess in a Bottle, Kalilah Wright, about how she started in the clothing design business and her products.
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00:00hello hello hello i am coming to you live this is noni coming to you live from my house
00:10um thank you so much for tuning in to the second episode of shop essence live as i promised
00:18previously um last week essence is doing its part to support our black owned um businesses as well
00:26as entrepreneurs and vendors so this is a show where we do our part to support i'm going to be
00:32talking to a new vendor every single week not only that but they're going to be giving you product
00:38demos um showing you their products and you can actually go to shop.essence.com to support
00:45and i'm so so excited for today's vendor she rushed and got me one of her t-shirts which i'm so excited
00:51about um i want to welcome kalilah wright founder of mess in a bottle hey hey hey how are you hey
01:03great absolutely and thank you so much for joining us um for this show so when we before we get started
01:12if you guys have any questions for kalilah right you have questions about her products um if you
01:18have questions about her story how she got started because you're an entrepreneur a small business
01:22owner yourself but you just have an idea this is your opportunity ask those questions now so kalilah
01:28why don't you share with us your journey how you got started um with your business so i'm a designer and
01:36architect by trade and in 2015 um unfortunately a black man by the name of freddie gray was killed here in
01:47baltimore maryland while in police custody so i was at you know at my nine to five and i really felt
01:56like i wanted to make um a difference and it felt like my community was being stifled by all the writing
02:05and the things that were happening and so i decided to start a t-shirt company with messages um for us to
02:12have impactful and powerful messages that people can start important conversations so we gave a voice
02:20to the voiceless by starting mess in a bottle and you know this comes from the 310 bc concept of
02:27receiving a message in the ocean so mess in a bottle was formed during a time where baltimore was in chaos
02:35and during the uproar um we wanted to give people a voice that's absolutely incredible and amazing um i
02:44absolutely love that so what i find too with vendors that i talk to there's always some kind of cry or
02:52answer that they're trying to do and you had this idea you saw that this is something that was important
02:58and you made it come to fruition so why don't you talk to the people about how you went from that idea
03:05to now having celebrities wear your shirts that having like being featured on shop essence live
03:12and shop.essence.com tell us about it so when i first got started i think that i wasn't sure like what
03:19magic i was really creating and um you know i think that i've created the voice for people who may not
03:27know what to say in time of like a crisis or you know even if they are more reserved and shy like
03:35some of my messages are really impactful and powerful and you know and boisterous where some
03:40people feel as if i'm speaking for them and so um you know people in general gravitate towards that
03:48conversation and i think celebrities just um you know one thing led to the next um we i have a great
03:56following as well as people like lovey and bosoma saint john and um even lena waith uh they're all kind
04:04of become this you know these women who have rallied to want to spread the message and that was you know
04:11something that we really strived uh to do and so these women they pushed me forward and you know and
04:17they got my product in people's hands like serena williams um so the i think the messages themselves were
04:24very impactful and um and people just really wanted to share it and continue you know giving
04:30a message and so even essence essence has definitely rallied around me as well with my effort to share
04:37the message yeah that's so so dope so the next question pamela done stole my question pamela because
04:44that was my next question but pamela wants to know how is business during quarantine we know
04:50how everybody's had to pivot how they sell if you have a storefront and you know that's closed now
04:57black businesses and entrepreneurs are hit um just like everyone else if not more so how have you shifted
05:04during this time so what i haven't made public um to my audience is that i was actually in the process
05:12of opening like a storefront um a collaborative space and this you know thing just came in i uh
05:20related to almost like a tsunami like it just like came in out of nowhere and it's just like now we have
05:25to figure out what to do in the midst of it and so um for me you know i have an e-commerce business we
05:32were online already as well as um i have what's called the t class and we teach people how to create and
05:40make their own t-shirt company so surprisingly enough you know i've had things you know sort
05:46of in place for something like this and i think i didn't even realize that and now i'm leaning heavier
05:52on those other elements so we even do really cute things like the tea party which is a virtual t-shirt
06:00party and you know so now we are really um being able to incorporate the community a lot more by doing
06:09those things virtually um and as far as my retail space you know i've been a little bit hesitant
06:16and not sure how to move forward um but i am still um i'm very sure that we're gonna get out of this
06:24sooner than later and so my goal is to sort of begin to still build on the things that i'm working on and
06:31um i'm a runner i love to run and it's you know my therapy and so i i try to tell myself um you know
06:40one foot in front of the other even though you're pivoting or i don't even like to say pivoting because
06:45i don't think i you know i'm not a person who's doing anything new um i'm just navigating new waters
06:51um and just making sure that i'm still keeping one foot in front of the next and um and i'm continuing
06:56to move um and move forward so you know i was a little hesitant and i wasn't sure if i should um what
07:03should i do about this space but i've decided one box at a time i'm gonna move forward yeah so dope you
07:10are as inspirational as your messages on your shirts girl so speaking of that why don't you run through
07:18your products that you have um available on shop.essence.com um so on the shop website we
07:26have on one of our favorite messages is a hundred percent black owned um you know i'm a huge fan of
07:33richard lou dennis and um i just that shirt for me is very impactful and powerful and having this
07:40a hundred percent black owned so you know like we are a hundred percent founded and owned um solely by
07:47me the owner and um another item we have on there is like black girl magic is very real um one of the
07:55items that i wanted to show you guys today is our journal um it says to heal to love and to figure
08:02ish out and so this is like one of my favorite things and so even right now while um you know
08:09i think so much is happening in the world and everyone is trying to figure things out through
08:14covid um i needed a moment you know i needed a minute to pause and so i decided to pick up my
08:22journal and it has on these like black pages it says um full of passion but straight savage and so
08:28this is one of the things where i've been really pushing myself to every morning or even once a day
08:36even at night before bed you know put down your cell phones and try to really write to yourself so
08:42it's a um it's a writing prompt journal so it's 365 uh prompts and it's to help you heal and
08:51to love and to figure your ish out all right so it's it's one of my favorite things um we also have
09:00my t-shirt dress and it says i love this tee so much that i left my pants at home and so again summer
09:07you know i don't know i someone might be kind of canceled but it's one of the fan favorites where the
09:13t-shirt dress is just our thing uh also i have one of my favorite jackets um we put it on leather for
09:22the spring and so it says queen don't be afraid to rule like the king and that is one of my favorite
09:30items that i just love to wear and as you guys can see also my turtleneck like right now because we're
09:40all in our quarantineville quarantine time you know i didn't know how good a turtleneck with a
09:46pair of tights like i look so professional right now and i just did a little something and put on
09:52my turtleneck i'm like i'm ready for that check you know so i think that um just having great tops with
10:00that are very simple um our turtleneck this is one of our newer items especially for the fall
10:06um and it's lightweight very comfortable so i highly recommend it and we're going through some
10:12transition and changes but as you guys know these are our bottles and so you get your um reusable
10:20bottle so that's one of my favorite things and then you got we just got the social distancing shirt
10:28that's like i'm like you need every all need that and it says uh social distancing that thing that
10:35introduced introverts do well and extroverts struggle to understand and so if you're extra
10:41extrovert like me i'm like all right i get it social distancing and i get it that but i'm struggling
10:48to understand what this is i need social i need my friends no but this is so so great so we do have some
10:59comments and questions in here love that jacket we see you alessandra love the journal so you guys
11:06know if you love these products this is shop essence um shop essence live we're highlighting a new vendor
11:11every single week bringing you essence approved products um and vendors so support her shop.essence.com
11:19let's get into these questions um so people are asking alessandra wants to know the prices
11:26do you want so the dress so i believe the dresses are sixty dollars the jacket is a hundred um and the
11:37journals are only 10 or 15 bucks so yeah all very affordable awesome awesome um and then hello from
11:47seattle wanda she wants to know i have a clothing sales business via home parties how can i have a
11:54clearance party to move clothing during quarantine i think you hit on this a little bit earlier you
12:00can just yeah so we have these cute um parties they're called the tea parties you know i might
12:06do the same like where we have a lot of inventory um that's just sort of sitting and um sometimes it
12:13becomes cumbersome to try to sell it like you know in our online e-commerce shop so i would highly
12:19recommend you figuring out like a system and um one of my girls uh sassy jones she does these amazing
12:27sparkle parties and um i am so inspired you know she just kills it like she just knows and people rave
12:36and they love it so um i think that having a couple of products at home and just you know and once you do
12:43that and build your community and just talk as if you were naturally selling this item to friends and
12:49family like people if they love your product they'll love it they'll want to buy and they'll want to
12:53support so you know do something cute by putting putting it on and yeah and doing being your own
13:00model for your fashion show that's it you know and and i think that people what um covid is really
13:07revealing is you know just like similarly to my son sometimes you think like oh let's buy all these toys
13:13or let's buy this and then he plays with a box or you know right house and you're like wait
13:21we don't need all the bells and whistles you don't need to have any you know fancy lighting or um you
13:27know just be you and i think organically your audience will support yeah that's really really
13:34great advice um cassandra wants to know how long have you been in business maybe talk a little bit
13:39about the road map from the idea to getting here so we started messing a bottle um 2015 is when freddie
13:48gray um was killed and i decided to officially make it a company in 2016. you know 2015 it was just an idea
13:59and it was a thought and i started dabbling with putting it out but 2016 is when i officially made it a
14:06company and um and we've been up and running for four and you know four and a half years uh strong
14:13so um yeah the the company itself like we're almost at year five yeah i can't believe it because it
14:20doesn't feel like it's been congratulations no that's great yeah and we're still standing and um
14:27and we're still making noise so i i'm definitely very proud of that i absolutely love that all right
14:33we're getting into some technical questions we have some entrepreneurs on here so christina wants
14:37to know do you have your own distribution center like talk a little bit about the mechanics of
14:42getting your shirts out and mass producing them so we do print all of our shirts in house
14:48well i'll say 90 of our products are printed in house so we do have um a fulfillment center in which
14:56you know it's a studio space in baltimore and we create all of our you know most of our um items in
15:02house and we package and ship them out so great um i did see another question come in from miranda
15:10she wants to know did you ever experience any hardships that prepared you for the times
15:16times like these so um if you follow my journey or my story um you may know that uh a couple years ago
15:26in 2018 in baltimore when i first went into my first studio space i was unfortunately in an armed
15:34robbery that was very automatic um for me and so um it was you know a devastating turn to the business
15:43where at that point um i said i didn't want to do it anymore and i was ready to hang it up and
15:49i was like yeah but um a lot of people surrounded me and they were like look we've got you and we
15:56want you to continue and to keep going and so i think you know um that push um that was something
16:03that it took me a year or two to really you know this year is like the first year like i'm even feeling
16:09uncomfortable enough to now go back into a retail space right even that i still have a lot of
16:16reservations and i'm nervous and i'm you know but i think that i have learned that um when the robbery
16:24happened um i realized that dreams can get deferred but they only um you know stay deferred however long
16:32you allow it to be and so i just know that this is something that i'm passionate about and that
16:38it's something that i know i can do and um i see the greatness in what i'm building and so for that
16:45i'm just running towards it so absolutely amazing you are an inspiration kalila for sure um you guys
16:53keep sending your questions kalila if there's someone watching right now and i'm sure there is um
17:01watching live and they have an idea and they have no idea how to get to where you are celebrities
17:07wearing your clothing being featured on essence what piece of advice would you give them um to get
17:13started i would tell them start by starting and um you know the biggest message that i've received
17:22is to really just to get started i was a designer and an architect but i was not an apparel maker and
17:30creator you know that wasn't i did buildings i was a designer in a building landscape not in apparel
17:37and so i had no idea about um you know creating shirts pressing shirts what that included you know
17:44or making the products and um cut and sew and dealing with manufacturers and vendors and what
17:50shirts to get like this was all new to me when i first started um but um i think what you know what
17:56leads to successful people is the fact that they take the chance to try and um there's so many people who
18:03have probably amazing ideas but they will never know how great it is because they've never took the
18:10risk to try and um and i think and maybe this is where the power you know comes in me i'm not afraid to
18:19fail um i'm okay with if you know if i fall i i just i already have the confidence and i know i'll be strong
18:27be strong enough to get back up um and so i think a lot of people are very afraid of failure
18:34but i know what that looks like i know what all of that looks like so if you know what it looks like
18:39you won't be afraid of it i absolutely love that and i think that's really really important advice
18:45not being afraid to fail because i know a lot of people are just like pigeon-held and afraid to take
18:50that step because they don't want to fail but great risk great reward all right alana she wants to
18:57know did this start as a side business when was the moment you decided to go full time i know that's
19:04a huge question for people yeah so i am not orthodox so don't listen to me don't follow this hey this is
19:14one black woman's journey so i'm gonna jump out everyone's balance you know before i land on a
19:20concrete kind of person and so you know when i met um other entrepreneurs people were like save
19:27thirty thousand dollars save ten thousand you know and um they were like make sure you're ready before you
19:33start um i was definitely not that person you know i was at work and i had the idea in 2015 and in
19:43february of 2016 was my last day at a full-time job and as an architect and i left my six-figure job
19:52as an architect to start my company with less than five hundred dollars and um i officially launched
19:59the company february of 2016 and i didn't look back i would say the first couple of months were
20:08definitely the hardest uh but i continued to position myself in different places within um
20:15you know with people around people around other creatives to kind of get my creative juices flowing
20:22and just to make sure that i was going in the right direction and um i just continued on that path i just
20:29knew that as long as i was able to eat feed my son and have shelter over my
20:34head i was like i'll figure out the rest yeah really really dope now speaking of your journey
20:42like you've been on shows pitch competitions with mark cuban i know a lot of people like the big
20:48hurdle is speaking in front of people right like what would you say is the key to success when you're
20:54selling a product that hasn't proven itself yet and it's just like this idea and you have a prototype
21:00what has been your secret um i think my secret is probably having confidence in myself like knowing
21:07you know of course my family and friends like they love me and they cared for me um you know but there
21:12were definitely some naysayers there were some people who are like you're leaving what for what
21:17um but my confidence about what i was creating like i'm sure i didn't know that i would be where i am
21:24today here but i just knew that i wouldn't know what's on the other side of the door unless i walk
21:32through that door yeah so um i think that for me i just really held on to the fact that i knew that
21:41there was greatness like this couldn't be it like this is not it my job is cool i love what i did as
21:47an architect um but i was just like there has to be more and so i just i'm that type of person where
21:53i'm still looking for the next thrill so absolutely love that such an inspiration everybody kalila
22:01right founder of mess in a bottle why don't you just hold up your products one more time
22:06so that everybody can see these are available at shop.essence.com my teacher too look at this look
22:13at this social distancing t-shirt um is there anything if you want to plug your social media
22:19kalila before we go sure follow me yeah follow me at mess in a bottle or at owner of mess um listen to
22:29my podcast if you want to know the real real real real real you know we love the real
22:34yeah you want the real so that is um on spotify as well as um apple podcast under what a mess
22:47yep so that's my podcast what a mess and i um i also have the t class which is we teach other people
22:55how to start and create their own t-shirt company so follow me on all social media platforms and feel
23:01free to you know shoot us a message absolutely love that kalila thank you so much for joining us
23:08and sharing your amazing products sending me this t-shirt in time i love it something i can go around
23:13the house in and outside and be fly um thank you so much all right so much yes thank you so this has
23:22been the second episode of shop as is live thank you guys so much again make sure you go and support
23:28support support support um mess in a bottle you can go to shop.essence.com and get these products
23:35really really important that we support um black businesses period even after um this pandemic passes
23:43we want to support our black businesses now i did see a question there's some questions here about how
23:49you can get your black business um involved in this if you're an entrepreneur or a small business
23:54owner we have information right here you can be featured on shop essence live at um email shop
24:01essence partners ships at essence.com um and then also we have tons of resources essence has been doing
24:09its part to make sure that everyone is armed with as many resources as possible we did a wellness summit a
24:16few weeks ago you can see that on essence studios.com um if you're dealing with covet or coping with
24:23isolation there are a lot of amazing things on their doctors um as well as meditation workout sessions
24:32charlamagne the god talks about mental health that's all at essence studios.com and then also
24:37um we talked about the cares act if you have a small business i saw someone comment uh if there were
24:44resources for businesses i see you urban if you go to essence.com slash cares dash act uh we had a really
24:55comprehensive session about the cares act and all the qualifications you need who is eligible when to
25:02apply all those resources go to essence.com and you will find it there um make sure you tune in every
25:09thursday thursday tag a vendor have them email us um and it's been amazing thank you guys so much for tuning in
25:17all right