Express Yourself: Kalilah Wright and Mess In A Bottle

quotes are funny, are insightful, are amazing. Khalila, Welcome to PM Mood. Hi, thank you guys so much for having me. So you are Jamaican, I am. I was born in Jamaica and I migrated to the United States around five years old. So I'm Jamaican. I don't know that. Yeah, my parents came to the United States in nineteen seventy so I was born in the States, but they Jamaican. Jamaican, So you can up yourself. Yes, I love it. I love it. So tell me about the idea behind Mess

and a Bottle. You are this incredible black woman entrepreneur. Tell me how Mess and a bottle came to be so mess and a Bottle we started in twenty sixteen and in twenty fifteen the Freddy Gray Riots here in Baltimore, Maryland. I really just wanted to figure out a way of being expressive. And you know, after the Freddy Gray Riots, people were kind of walking around like almost on shore of how to say how they felt. And I think that the riots made people a bit stifled, like they

didn't have a voice. So I created mess in a Bottle as a way of giving a voice to the voice less. And so I just started creating messages and putting them on T shirts and people were very intrigued and they were like, this is how I feel, Thank you for saying it. So, you know, that was my way of being able to give a voice to the voice less and getting people to say something without saying anything at all. I love the fact that your products come in a bottle. Yes, tell me about that, because

that's so interesting. And one of the things that I followed as I was following your Instagram was your first visit to Essence Festival and your vending machine, and I just thought this was, like, your concepts are so cool, So tell me about how well about the idea of putting the products, putting the shirts and everything inside of an actual bottle. Well, that happens because I am an architect and designer by trade, and I used to work

for under Armour. And while I was at under Armour, I was listening to music and I had no idea who the person was, what the album was. But when I looked down at the screen, it was an album called Surf from Chance to Wrapper and it had you know, it was like a bottle in the ocean, in the sands, and it was like a message in a bottle. And it just really quick that these messages that I was putting on a T shirt were my messages in a bottle.

And so this was my way of kind of giving a form of communication in the twenty first century way of like this three hundred and ten DC concepts of receiving a message in the ocean. And so, you know, I decided, I was like, okay, I want to name the company message in a bottle. But of course, you know, brand wise, there's a lot of messages. Ian quickly realized that I'm a mess, Like this is a mess is

you know behind the message? I decided to name the company Mess in a Bottle, and I was like, okay, well, you know, such a mess and a bottle, you gotta have it in a bottle. So initially when we started out, we did these glass bottles from Ikea with like a round mouth, and we quickly then within probably a year after starting, after launching, we then ended up, you know, manufacturing our own plastic bottles. And that is how Mess

and a Bottle was birth. I just I love it so much because, you know, it conjures up memories of my childhood going to the beach. I grew up on Eastern Long Island going to the beach as a little kid. Like I literally did this was you know, before we understood you know, pollution is bad, but I did. I didn't put messages in bottles and throw them into the ocean because I felt like it was like, you know, my little time capsule. At some point it'll wash up

somewhere and somebody will open it. So I just I love the concept behind it, and I love the idea. I was so excited for you and for your brand when Serena Williams wore one of your jackets, Queen what it? Queen? Don't be afraid to rule like a king. Tell me about that particular message. And then also you're feeling that moment when you saw that she was rocking your coat. So you know, the whole evolution of Serena, it's quite an interesting journey, and it's a good one. I think.

You know, I had a run in with her at one point and I wasn't able to give her any products. And then I have a really good friend who's now a friend, Bozoma Saint John. She is great friends with Serena, and so Bozoma had on my queens don't be afraid to rule like a king jacket. And you know, she worked to Coachella, So when she worked to Coachella, of course Serena being her friend, was like, I want that,

And that is exactly how the connection happened. And so the message itself, you know, I create these messages and the queens don't be afraid to rule like a king. It's really a message that's saying like the strength of a woman should not be minish because you're not a man. And I think a lot of the times, you know, women get a bad rap for really like ruling and

being strong and their strength. You know, we've been taught for most of our lives to be you know, very subtle and very like scene and not heard, and you know all these things. And so my jacket is saying, don't be afraid to rule just like a king might rule. Don't apologize for that, be unapologetic. So I think that Serena she realized, like you know, the message itself was very powerful, especially in exactly in Tennis, where I think

that she really resonated with the message. And just to answer as well in regards to the vending machine and the bottle, you know, that was also something where when I created the T shirts and in the bottle, I had the vision of being able to spread and share my messages all over the world. And so that is how the vending machine also played into part. I did not know until I was prepping to talk to you

that you are an architect by trade. I am, And so how did you make that or do you feel like it's even a transition from designer of buildings right to clothing. You know, when I was in high school and trying to figure out my profession, I loved fashion, but I told myself that doing architecture will probably get me to be a well rounded designer. And I think that that is actually what happened, where now I became

a great designer. So of course creating buildings is different than creating you know, fashion and design and all this other stuff. But I think that within architecture I can now use you know, my background. Where for the vending machines, we've design certain things, and I need to have certain architectural drawings, and you know, for our bottle design, again we have to have elevations of the bottle, how does it look, where does the cap? How tall is the cap?

So those are all things that architecture really has helped me, you know, even with spacing and figuring out like okay, well where the position you know, the machines, or how to lay out a space when I'm vending. So I think all of those things have really played a part within my career and it's a lot more well rounded.

I just think that that's extraordinary, the fact that you have all of that spatial understanding and all of those things, and how art kind of translates into all of these different spaces, from buildings to you know, creating the vending machine to your actual clothing and home decore products. I just think that that's so incredibly cool. As a black woman entrepreneur, What are some of the obstacles, if any, that you have had to face over the past couple

of years since launching in twenty sixteen. You know, I would think that the biggest obstacle, I mean, everyone you know knows it. It's capital, and I asked us to capital. I think that that especially as a woman own you know, black women owned business, it's different because you know, you know that there is a lot of capital available, but then within our sector, it just feels like we aren't growing as fast and as big. We don't have as

much access. We're not you know, so that becomes really difficult, you know, to build a business. And I think that's why, also just being a black woman, so many people root for us because we know how much odds, you know, there is to actually get to the point that we're at, especially with nothing. I started this company with less than five hundred dollars and I am where I am today and I'm four years you know, we've been in business

for four years and still standing. You started the company with five hundred dollars, less than less than five hundred dollars and a two year old right as a single mom. So yes, I did. Yeah, that's extraordinary. That's that Jamaican hustle right there. All the way, all the way you refer to your sons. Is he your co CEO? He's a CEO. I don't run this thing. I'm the oldest thing. Like I'm in the process of transferring at all and

making sure that his name is on everything. And so, you know, I want my son to understand that he can have ownership, you know, of his life of things. And I want him to understand at a young age that he is a boss. And so I think, you know, some days I do have a lot of mommy guilt about like maybe staying up LAIDs or not being able to, you know, do certain things, And quickly friends and family remind me that I'm giving him so much more. You know,

he's really learning about entrepreneurship. You know, he asked me like, oh are the workers in today? What hours do they work? You know, like there's a lot of things that he taps into. You know, he's starting to understand certain things about paying in voices and do it on a regular basis. So he's like, you know, if we go to the post office, he knows, like, you know, where to go, what packages, like I tell him all the time, like

he's the male person. So he helps with you know, trying to help me with the labels and sing labels and putting stuff and packages and sending them out and helping us, you know, when he's in the shop. You know, at times I get him to do some work as well. You know, that's so wonderful because I tell you, you know, oftentimes people who are parents. I'm not a parent myself, but people who are you know, keep such a distance

from their work and their family. So it's like they leave the house, they go to work, but their kids really have no idea what they're doing, right, Like they have no investment in it. They don't understand it, and it's never really explained to them. It's just like, oh, you know, mommy or daddy or grandma whomever is at work, right, but what does that actually mean? And so I love the idea of teaching and showing at the same time.

You know, seeing those late hours I think is incredibly important, right, Like things don't just happen, you know, you have to make them happen, and I think that that's an incredible message that you're sending to your son. Well, yes, what was it like to go too? I tell you, I felt like I was on the road with you when you when you went to Essence fast. I loved your telling everybody every step of the way what was happening, so that we could feel like we were on this

major journey with you. What was it like to get there? It was difficult, you know, like the vending machine or was our first time bringing it on the road, as well as just trying to figure certain things out packing up. So Essence Fest is of course one of our favorite, you know events, It's one of our things that we

love to do. This was our second year and launching the vending machine, and it was a really good experience until our truck you know, broke down like an hour yeah before we got to Essence and it was like no, and um, you know, I had my PR marketing person, Regina, as well as one of my great girlfriends, Lavandre, and we just got in a truck from VC and we drove all the way AID to New Orleans and baby it was it was hot. We have to know each other,

ye well, yeah, it was a road trip. Like we got there, we were like, we need out of these clothes, We need to you know, pull it all together. But it was a great experience and I'm really happy that I did it. It taught us a lot. And that's what entrepreneurship is really about. You have to sometimes get in the car and drive the vehicle and you know, and gets to certain places and things will break down and you know, shirts and stuff might go missing or

you can't find something. But it's really how you problem solve and you figure things out. Do a lot of women come to you now that you are four years in Do a lot of folks come to you for advice about how they start their business? Or many people who are like, you know what, I don't have the money.

I know for a fact that denture capitalists, right, who fund a lot of companies, a lot of businesses Black women get zero point zero zero zero zero zero zero one percent of the hundreds of millions of dollars that

are given out each year. And so what advice do you provide to women and especially women of color who want to do something but capital really is the obstacle that they can't seem to get over Well, what I do tell people all the time is your journey is going to be your journey, and you really need to feed on that path. I think sometimes people look at others and feel like, oh, I want you know, I can obtain the same success, and the truth says you can,

but it might be different. So you might unfortunately have to stay at your nine to five a little bit longer and get that to help fund your business a little bit more. You might have to you know, volunteer at certain places and get you know, almost funding through that by letting them give you free space for certain things. You know. I tell people to try to be flexible and not think that their journey and story is gonna be the same. And like, you know, my success at

all is not overnight. You know, it might have came a little bit faster than others, but I've worked my ta A law to accomplish it, and so you know, I try to be transparent about my journey because I want other people to realize, like, there's a lot of work that is put into this for you to get those results. And I think that you can't think that what I've attained is going to be what you'll attain because your journey and your story is going to look different. Yeah,

And I think that that's right. You know, oftentimes people think they see people's success right, and they believe that it happened overnight, that they believe like, oh, those people are just lucky. What frustrates me is that people only ever see the end product. They don't actually see the journey.

Which is why I think I was so excited as I became a part of the mess and a bottle community on social media because I love the fact that you were sharing all parts of your journey so that people don't look at you and say, oh, this is so easy, like it doesn't take any effort. And I think that you sharing the way that you do really

opens up people's eyes to what effort really looks like. Right, Like, I think one of my favorite pictures I think that goes around on social media a lot is of a ballerina looking, you know, absolutely beautiful, but then the next shot is of her feet and it's like broken and mangled and twisted, and it's like, this is what it looks like. Like it may seem like it's beauty, but

this is the work. This is the literal blood, sweat and tears that it takes other than telling people that they need to keep at it and focus on the fact that everybody's journey is going to be different. What other advice specifically have you gotten that people have given you, whether it's family members or friends that keep you going, that continue to push you to be your best you put out your best products and come up with bigger and bolder ideas. What is some advice that has inspired you?

You know, I think that one of the biggest advice that I probably haven't given is to like not be afraid of change. I think that if you want to get to the next level, if you want to, you know, do something different, it does consist a level of concentration, and it does consist you shifting and changing. And I think that sometimes we kind of get so stuck in our way and we see things working in a certain vision that we already have implanted, that sometimes we don't

look ahead. So I think like being able to you know, be able to adjust, and right now we live in a time where things are changing at the minute, So I think that that's probably one of the better advices I've been getting. Yeah, I think that It's just so important to keep pushing, to keep doing, to keep growing. It's what makes you better. I'm looking at you at your site and folks, you have to check it out. Mess and a bottle dot com. Do you have a

favorite shirt? Do you have a favorite saying? Yeah? The first one that I've created is probably one of my favorite. It says entrepreneur, a fancy word for a crazy person been following their dream. And I think that that's probably the epitome of what a true entrepreneur is. And I'm just like a crazy girl that I'm like, look, I'm going to continue following this dream no matter where it takes me. So I think that that's one of my favorite messages. I love that message because I feel the

exact same way. I also love the creative one as well, which is a fancy word for a person who came up with this shit you couldn't think of right, who can't come up with it right exactly? I love it. Yeah, I love that one so much as well as you're one hundred percent black owned. Yeah, a black woman created this. Like the list goes on, I like, I'm like, I just love them all. Do these just pop into your head.

Do they come up in conversation with friends. No, they really just thought, Like I go to sleep thinking of messages, and things just come to me. The one that we just mentioned, one hundred percent black owned. To me, that one is so incredibly bald old, right, tell me a bit about that particular one. So one hundred percent black owned.

I think I created that during Black History months. I think it was just one of no, you know, I think I was either heading maybe to an essence of them, and I just really wanted a shirt with a message that said exactly how I felt, and that was that

I was one hundred percent black owned. I think right now, even you know, not that I wouldn't want investors and all this stuff, you know, to expand the business, but I think that it just says something to know them I am and the company is one hundred percent black owned, and I think it's a big deal. I do. I

think that it is really a big deal. And you know, I often talk on the other shows that I host, I talk a lot about race, about racism, about white supremacy, and so for me, that shirt stands out so much because we're told not to be proud of being black, right, we're told not to be proud of our skin, of our history, of our existence. And so when I saw the one hundred percent black owned and also a black woman created this, yes, that's probably one of my favorites.

It is just it's so much power, right, Like, it's so much power in that message, and like you say, you know, the whole point is that you're giving voice to the voice list for people who you know, may not have a platform right who have not created what you have created, or don't feel like they can say what they want to say, and you literally put it on a shirt for them so that they can own their blackness, they can own, you know, their womanness and

feel really good about that. And I just think that it's so inspiring what you're doing. What are your plans from Mess in a Bottle? What kind of upcoming events and projects that you're most excited about. I think right now, we've got a cool podcast happening and it's called What a Mess. You can find it on Spotify and Apple Music or Apple Podcasts and all that good stuff. As well as we're just expanding and looking at the growth of the brands. We have some great collaborations coming up,

so we just got stuff. We got a lot of mess happening. You got a lot of mess happening. You know. One of the questions that I ask everyone who joins PM mood is what gets you in the PM mood to change the world, because you are indeed doing that with all of your mess, all of your mess in a bottle. What gets you in the mood to do that?

You know? I think what gets me in the mood the most is either a really long run, a quiet run, or just being in a room alone, Like you know, when I'm at my shop and I'm looking out into the space and I'm seeing the clothing and there's no staff here and I'm just looking that definitely gets me in a space where I am I'm happy, where you know,

I'm just looking out at what I'm building. I just you know, and I love the fact that everything is done in Baltimore, in Maryland, that creating and shipping and all of that is happening in the city of Baltimore. You know, I talked about Baltimore and how Donald Trump attacked your city in such a horrific way. How did you feel about that? You know? How did I feel about that? You know, I am from Brooklyn, New York, but I've been in Baltimore for twelve years, so I

really call Baltimore home. And Donald Trump can't understand Baltimore, Maryland, you know what I mean. Like so, I mean for me, especially being the owner and founder of the company, I try not so he is still the President of the United States. But at the end of the day, like

you know, he's probably very disconnected. He's disconnected exactly is he's disconnectually happening, especially an urban African American community such as hours and so for me, I just look at his comment like, you know, unfortunately as ignorance and just not being here, not connecting with the city, not understand ending the city. And so that's all I had for it.

With Mom, I was just like, you know, the same, He's just, you know, he doesn't understand what's happening in this city, So how can he comment he doesn't understand what's happening, Just full stop, That's right. Khalila, thank you so much for joining PM mood. Thank you for the work that you're creating and the inspiration that you give me. On a regular basis. I love to go to your Instagram page. I love to see what message I'm getting today. It's really a pure joy. Thank you so much. Thank

you guys for having me. Absolutely we'll have to have you back again as you continue to grow and branch out and develop new products and new things. So we really appreciate you. Thank you so much, folks. I'm so excited to announce a special gift that I have for all of you. For the next three weeks, my daily political talk show, Woke a F Daily, will be free. That's right, you heard it free and you can hear

it right are on this podcast feed. This is my gift to you as we all moved through this pandemic together while separated in our own homes. So for the next three weeks, if you're already subscribed to PM Mood, you'll be getting Woke a F Daily in your feed four free. Stay tuned by following me on Twitter and Instagram at D two cents, d E E T W O c E nts, and stay in the PM Mood to change the world.