Rikki Kelly is Creating Her Own Future
The young tequila entrepreneur doesn’t have time for haters.
From shoveling neighbors’ driveways at age seven to stocking shelves at a grocery store when she was 15, Rikki Kelly is a lifelong hustler who knew early on that she was destined to become her own boss. By the time she was 24, she’d already started creating Ego Tequila, which became the first Black-woman owned tequila brand in Texas and the third in the United States when it launched in the summer of 2021. Now coming up on its second official year, Ego is poised to expand into new markets and according to Rikki, that’s just the start. This is the story of that future. This is Rikki’s story.
Some people are meticulous planners who don’t take action until every contingency is mapped out (raises hand). Some people are eternal dreamers, afraid to take that first step towards the possibility of a new future. And some people, like Fort Worth’s Rikki Kelly, chase their dreams by doing the work needed to turn aspirations into reality. Rikki describes how, despite youth and nascence in business ownership, she transformed Ego from abstract concept to actual commodity.
“One day I was sitting down and was like, ‘I want to get into something. What can I do?” says Rikki. With all the celebrities launching their own brands, many in the spirits space, she thought “Why not me?”
This buoyant confidence echoed throughout our conversation. As we talked, it felt surprisingly easy to get swept up in her self-assurance—to feel her boldness rub off on me like an audacious talisman, giving me courage to take chances I previously may have hesitated to pursue.
“There aren’t a lot of women in the industry, and there aren’t a lot of female minority women in the industry. I love tequila—it’s the only liquor that I drink—all the boxes checked off. So I thought, ‘I can do this!’ I just had this idea and executed it, I guess,” Rikki laughingly explains.
Sounds easy, right? Not quite that easy, she says. She knew that for her to reach her highest ambitions, she’d need all the help she could get. Luckily, a tight-knit network of strong women was ready and waiting. “My entire family, it’s a matriarchy. It’s nothing but women that lead this family,” says Rikki. With their support and encouragement from friends, she officially—and somewhat riskily—launched Ego mid-pandemic.
“I was scared,” she admits. “In my head, I was late to the game, like I should have launched a year ago. I was shooting myself down. But I was very shocked to see how well it did and all the support that the brand has.”
To Rikki, a tendency to second-guess herself stands in direct opposition to her goals. That’s why in January she announced on Instagram: “I will be moving with intention in 2022.” What, I asked, does moving with intention mean?
“I just want to make sure that this year, I am confident and comfortable in my decisions that I make. I want to make sure that they are very intentional and I won’t have any regrets later,” she says. When one stops to consider what “ego” actually means outside a sense of self-importance (that mediation between conscious and unconscious self), her path towards living an intentional life makes perfect sense for herself and for the brand.
Knowing her purpose and having a plan this early in life has proved to be both helpful and challenging, Rikki says. Watching her mother, who she calls her “big inspiration and biggest supporter,” occasionally struggle to succeed lit a fire under her. Rikki describes other aspiring entrepreneurs’ admiration for her early start as motivating, but she’s quick to reveal some of the difficulties she’s encountered along the way.
“I made a lot of mistakes at first. I was such a baby going into it,” admits Rikki. “I feel like right now, I’m a toddler. I’m still learning a lot!”
One of the learning curves she had to navigate was acquiring funding. As one of the few young Black women launching their own spirits brand, she says lenders and other financial institutions didn’t always take her seriously. But with some financial help from family, friends, and putting her own money on the line, she was able to bring Ego to life. Still, Rikki admits, she’s hoping that after seeing her initial success, more investors will come on board. (Hint hint, readers.)
And for all the skepticism she faced on the financial side, Rikki says there was one group quick to embrace her efforts: the spirits industry at large. “I feel like people have really taken care of me. They’ve really given me opportunities and are really supported,” despite still being a male-dominated industry. “You just love to see it.” It’s encouragement like this from peers that Rikki hopes will help open the doors for future makers.
“If you have a vision, go ahead and execute it,” she encourages. “Whatever you want to do, just do it. Stop waiting, go ahead!” And whatever you do, she cautions, make sure you have a strong and trusted support system ahead of time.
Looking forward, Rikki hopes to “bring tequila to everyone” and to one day be able to look back at where she started and be amazed at where she ends up. That would feel like success, she says. But, she adds, there’s one more goal she’d love to accomplish in order to really feel like the successful business woman she’s already become. “I’d like to move out of my mom’s house,” she laughs.
This interview was very lightly edited for clarity and length. Follow Rikki at @iheartrikki14 and Ego Tequila at @egotequila.
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What I’m Reading
Online, it’s Andrew Genung’s Family Meal on Substack. His recurring roundups of global restaurant and hospitality news are funny, fresh, and always on the nose. I love it! Books-wise, I absolutely loved Radiant Fugitives by Nawaaz Ahmed, a novel told from the perspective of an unborn child narrating his mother Seema’s life as a Muslim Indian lesbian during the Obama era. The ending floored me. It’s absolutely excellent—to even try and describe it further would be doing it a disservice. Pick up a copy from your local library or Bookshop.org.
What I’m Writing
Honestly, after the holidays and weeks-long COVID closures at my kid’s preschool, I need to get back in the pitching game (as soon as I get back from CiderCon, of course). I’m also open for assignments! Any takers, editors?
Fun Fact!
I truly, deeply, unironically love the 1996 film classic Space Jam (and yes, I did see A New Legacy in theaters and did not hate it). One Easter egg I love about the original is the reason that Marvin the Martian is the referee for the big game is because as both an alien and a Looney Tune, he’s the only impartial person there! #themoreyouknow
Do you know of a woman or non-binary person working in beverage alcohol who hasn’t seen the spotlight—and should? Nominate them for a future feature!