Meet Melissa Teichert | Founder & Owner of KALLISTII

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melissa Teichert and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melissa, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I grew my passion for art through my grandfather, Wilson Patrick Hurley, who’s paintings are my current inspiration for some of the garments I have created. Since I was 16 years old I have tried to be successful in e-commerce but was never able to sell many of my creations. I was sewing my own clothes at the time because skinny jeans were not available in stores, so I would make my own out of the flared jeans my mother bought for me because I wanted to wear something different from the normal trend. My friend from school mentioned that she had some success selling her paintings on Etsy so I started to try to l start my own store to sell the things I was making. I listed some jewelry I had crafted and sold a necklace within the first year of my store being open but, I had no luck after and was losing money that I wasn’t making in paying for my listings. I deleted my store and decided to focus on school and working in retail. After about 10 years from my first launch, I decided to try again. Due to the pandemic, I lost my job and was straining to find a way to make income as I have had no luck finding work at another firm since 2020. That’s when I started brainstorming the type of business I wanted to work for. I started messing around with print on demand services to use some prints I had created on clothing. My inspiration at the time was greek mythology because I could not really find clothes that fit the category of every day wear with a high fashion, fantasy like theme. I began working with some concepts and found my ideal design through the beauty of sculpted statues. I then created a brand logo and posted it online through a company that allowed store integration. My products started gaining attention, but still no sales. I left it on the back burner for about a year and decided to come back to it with a much more organized approach. I have made more sales in the last two months of my business being open than I have in 14 years. I decided to go ahead and file for a license under LLC as I began thinking that it would be best to try to distribute my products wholesale to retailers. I enjoy everything that I do from creating prints, to marketing and connecting with collaborators, as well as speaking with people who have helped me begin the steps to create something established. I know KALLISTII LLC will be a success. Uniqueness and diversity are what stays in my mind as I take each step forward to growth and stability. That’s what I want to give to people who support this business. I want them to feel the comfort of stability and have the confidence to be their unique selves when they chose to wear KALLISTII.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I have gain a lot of experience in many different types of work over the years. For starters, I graduated from Barbizon USA Modeling and Acting school with a certificate in 2008. I began doing promotional work for the school until I was able to get my first job in retail. I left highschool and obtained my GED that same year and decided to take my first college course that was offered in music production. I am very passionate about music and arts. For as long as I can remember, I have been writing songs and learned everything I know about painting today from my grandfather who also passed away that year. It was a big, life changing time. I was asked to be a singer in a band in Nashville, TN and we had quite a bit of success playing shows up and down the east coast. I had a lot of small successes in modeling, acting and performance art, but none were enough to be long lasting. I stayed in retail for about 13 years until I became desperate for a change because I didn’t have financial stability to live on my own. I decided to go back to school and earn my degree in music. Towards the end of my degree, I realized that the complications for getting a career in the field were still great because while I had the skills as a performer, I didn’t have the money to promote myself or friends in the field that would support me as a solo artist. I began taking more classes in technology and decided it would be in my best interest to begin a career in the computer science field. I took an eight week IT course at CompTIA and landed my first job at a small company doing procurement and service desk host. I realized after some time that I wasn’t feeling fulfilled because there was almost nothing creative about the work I was doing. I left the company and decided to try to get a job as a software developer in gaming or sound design. I was able to find a job teaching game design and robotics in an after school program for kids. Through one of my co-instructors who I would also like to mention that I am still grateful for to this day, I was able to gain my first entry level programming job designing audio plugin software. It was challenging but I was so excited about working in music again that I dedicated every waking hour I had to learning C++ and the foundations of audio software. This was right before the pandemic took over and I lost my job because I was not able to handle the up and coming stresses of the financial challenges that were about to happen within the company. I decided my safest decision was to continue my studies and complete a Bachelors degree in robotics Engineering and Embedded Systems because I needed the experience and understanding of machine learning to be able to create audio applications on a level that would bring me above competitors. After such a long period of unemployment, I naturally circled back to my personal creative pursuits which is when I moved forward with creating my own brand.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Art galleries are one of my favorite things to check out with friends. I love a good bar and venue, but I find it so satisfying to set the stage with a foot art show and move on to a celebration of the city nightlife after getting our inspiration electrified. I would also highly recommend taking some time to hike through the national parks because that’s where a lot of artistic inspiration comes from. There are views and scenes that can’t be captured anywhere else.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I would love to give a shout-out to my family and friends that have all supported me in these first steps to growing my own business. I wouldn’t have the funding, inspiration or ideas that I have gained if it weren’t for them. I want to give back so strongly that I have something saved from my catalog ready to send out when I can as a personal thank you gift for helping me with getting things started and moving forward.

Website: https://kallistii.bigcartel.com/

Instagram: @kallistii_

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/winterz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kallistii-101741542507822/

Youtube: https://youtu.be/amLlnbbo1H0