On The Spot Featuring Alta Alexander, owner of Altatudes boutique

We're starting 2019 with fashion and flare! Our very first guest on the show is Alta Alexander, the founder and owner of the up-scale east-Austin boutique, Altatudes!
Alexander found the inspiration for Altatudes nearly 17 years ago, when her now husband asked her if what she would do if she were an entrepreneur.
Alta earned her Bachelor's in Business and Communications, then held a number of managerial positions at high-end boutiques and department stores.

On working in the corporate tech world she says,

> "I believe, just thinking about it and looking back, as soon as I got to whatever room I was in, that’s what I would do. I would go to another woman. I felt more comfortable, of course, with someone who was like me.”

Her store has given her the opportunity to live out her childhood dream, but also to provide others the opportunity to expand on their own "tude," or their style. Alta styles customers to achieve their fashion goals, whether it's for an upcoming event date or work presentation. Alta says she gets her style inspiration from her mom and grandmother. On the side, Alta gives back to her community, which she says is integral to the boutique's success.

_"In my earlier career life, yeah, there were lots of times I was the only African-American in the room. And these were some of my first introductions to just kind of pushing through the fear, you know, just making sure that you just don’t become a wallflower. Just because you’re the only one of a certain hue in the room. And I would tell myself as I was going to whatever event, so you’re gonna probably be the only one, so you’re going to have to deal with it. And luckily people were pretty embracive.” _

“I wanna be here every day, I wanna be here everyday so that I can really meet and engage with my customers. So that’s really big for me. I like to be able to at least know that since I’m horrible with names, always have been, but I can tell you the dress that you liked, and I can usually tell you the dress that you’re probably gonna get because I’ve seen you come in before, which things you kind of gravitate to, so I like having that kind of reference point.”

Key takeaways:

_“There are going to be many many points of fear, and I just say push through the fear."
_

ICYMI: Make sure to check out Alta's On The Dot #WomanToWatch feature on our website OnTheDotWoman.com and on our daily newsletter and podcast Four Minutes With On The Dot!

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Tune in next Thursday when we sit down with Cameron Cruse, the co-founder of R. Riveter!

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