Christina Liedtke is the Founder and Creative Director of ASTOURI™, a multifunctional, multi-seasonal, multi-benefit community, and travel-friendly women’s ready-to-wear brand. Christina is also Founder and Creative Director of her custom couture brand Christiana J. Paul™. With over 10+ years in fashion design and 15+ years in beauty care working for fortune 500 beauty care brands across several roles, her synchronized creative, artistic, and business savvy ability to design, build, and grow brands is world-renowned. Christina’s innovative approach pushes the limits in design and imagination. www.astouri.com and www.christianajpaul.com

What inspired you to start your business?

The inspiration behind ASTOURI™ is the gap in ‘community’ apparel for women. We, as women, are all a part of communities and yet, there is nothing stylish in apparel and accessories being offered to us. For example, the standard “I heart New York” T-shirt, bag, or any other garment is not stylish and has no consumer value. These types of garments are all over cities in tourist shops, airport retail, and other places. Yet, I could not find one brand offering STYLISH community apparel for women that also offered consumer value. So, I simultaneously combined ‘community’ prints with multi-functional, multi-seasonal, and multi-value apparel and accessories to create ASTOURI™ with a mission to offer women not only clothing but a complimentary community conversation.

Where is your business based?

My business is based in New York, New York. 

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

When I started ASTOURI™, I started with one garment, our multi-functional skirts. I test printed a handful of materials that would print and scale well, including having multiple benefits, machine-wash friendly, multi-seasonality, etc. I launched with three different city prints (NYC, Detroit, and Los Angeles) and began selling the skirts to friends and family. Eventually, sales grew enough through referrals to be able to slowly expand the portfolio to other garments. Simultaneously, I started a website, social media channels, and selling in different markets. 

When this business started it had a different name, different focus, and different energy about it. As I started selling in different markets and conducting focus groups, I obtained constructive feedback about the brand and products which helped ASTOURI™ get to where it is today. 

The other important step was resourcing and finding the right fabric suppliers, print, and production partners. I wanted to make sure we are conscious and circular in our operational ecosystem and Made in America.

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

The most effective way that I raise awareness about ASTOURI™ is through community markets and pop-ups. Community is the heart of everything we do, so connecting with the local consumers and having authentic live conversations is really important to building a community around ASTOURI™. Additionally, it allows the consumers to remember the brand, allow us to hear live feedback, experience real-time reactions, and gather consumer information to keep the conversation going digitally. As the brand continues to grow in distribution, I continue to focus on local markets because of how effective they are in growing our consumer base while driving sales.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

One of the biggest challenges is how to stay resourceful while growing ASTOURI™. As with all small businesses, managing resources and output is a vital part of managing the P&L. Some of the key successes in overcoming this has been utilizing as many effective third party resources to stay organized, delegate work appropriately, stay focused on short term gains while working towards the long term, and balancing speed and decisions.

How do you stay focused?

Staying focused can sometimes be a challenge between meetings, conference calls, and multiple demands happening at once, however, the most important action that I take on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis with myself and my team is staying organized through a focused agenda on what needs to be accomplished each day and the goals that need to be reached in the future. I learned very early on in my career that strategy, process, and tactics are as important as the creative process, and combining both keeps the ball rolling in the right direction.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

ASTOURI™ is differentiated from the competition through consciousness curation from our back end and operations to the prints we use and patterns we select. The biggest differentiating point is the female empowered community is at the heart of everything we do. ASTOURI™ is female-founded and operated, made in the USA, and gives back to the community. Additionally, all of the prints are licensed and we partner with local photography partners to offer exclusive iconic prints that resonate with the community.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

The most effective marketing strategy that I continue to integrate into ASTOURI™ is our customer referrals. Some of our VIP customers are very integrated into their communities through their jobs, networks, and events they attend. If one of our VIP customers wears one of our garments to an event, we get a lot of customer engagement, brand conversations, and orders. As a part of our marketing efforts, we have started integrated ‘personal’ VIP promotions to drive brand rewards and connections. 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

There are two pieces of advice that I have for aspiring and new entrepreneurs, the first is to find something you love doing every day and that you can continue to do for a long time. You live and breathe your company every moment. It is will power every day to believe in yourself, what you are putting out there, and keep doing it over and over until it grows. If you don’t believe in it every day, nobody else will either. Repetition and practice are the best virtues.

The second piece of advice is to put something out there that is consumer-centric, whether it is a service, product, or anything else. Finding a niche that creates a consumer demand that wasn’t present in the market is the unicorn. Consumer centricity in design, branding, and mission is connecting with the consumer authentically and memorably. Creating dynamic stories with your brand is the foundation for growth and brand love.

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app is Insight Timer. A very important part of keeping my creativity energy thriving and leading effectively, keeping myself going, and keeping the business organized for constant action is by taking quiet time everyday to decompress. Insight timer is a meditation resource that I love with different music, courses, and meditators. Out of all the meditation apps, this one is my favorite.

My favorite blog is Business of Fashion. This is not really a blog as much as an industry news site, however, it keeps me updated on what is going on with the fashion industry and is an incredible source of creativity in both business and design.

My favorite book is ‘Women who run with Wolves’.  This book was recommended to me by an incredible yoga teacher, meditator, and healer. It holds a very special place with me and should be read at least once by all women. The dynamic and multi-faceted attributes we have as women, our strength, intuition, love, connections, and stories are delivered via this book and the folklore and stories this book offers. It changed so many of my perspectives as a woman.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

My favorite business tool is Planoly. This tool is great to be able to organize content across all of our social media sites, our e-mail blasts, and other channels in a very thorough, consumer-centric way and not miss a beat on our brand DNA and sales funnels. It is a great time saver across the team and really allows for effective sales and marketing planning.

 Who is your business role model? Why?

There are so many amazing women who are leading amazing organizations and continuing to pivot the conversation on the influential power we have as women, so it is very hard to pick one, however, I very much admire Reese Witherspoon. She is such a powerhouse and continues to not only produce influential and authentic content from movies to books, but also continually evolves the roles of women from an equitable and inclusive way to live bolder, emotionally connected, and full lives in not only our careers but for our beings.

How do you balance work and life?

Honestly, as an entrepreneur, I am not sure there is a lot of distinction between work and life. When you love what you do and thrive on growth, we as entrepreneurs are constantly engaged. However, with that said, I do try to be smart about my time and holding space for myself and for my relationships. This is as important as running a successful company. Having my own company can equate to many long days and nights, however, finding time for meditation, exercise, and my relationships is important to stay present for myself and my loved ones. There comes a time every day to put down the work and phone, relax, reflect, and be present with others. Some days that doesn’t happen, but I work towards that goal because of its importance and prioritization.

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

My favorite way to decompress is through yoga and meditation on a daily basis. I usually start my day off with a good 75 min yoga class to get my breath flowing evenly and get my body moving in a balanced way and then finish the day with a soothing meditation. It is really important to start my day and end my day on the same note. Starting off the day and ending the day peacefully allows for a lot more calmness throughout the day and keeps me conscious even on the busiest of days. Additionally, I enjoy getting away for long weekends, reading books, and being with friends. 

What do you have planned for the next six months?

Given the current situation around the pandemic and the global disruptive effects it has had on the economy and industries, we are looking at making strategic changes to our designing and marketing efforts. Our current timeless portfolio pertains more to travel, nightlife, and ‘going out’ attire. Our strategic design plan is to keep the brand DNA and mission on par around multi-functionality and community, however, pivot to more leisurewear. Additionally, we are looking at new marketing efforts to engage the consumer. With retailers shut and markets closed, the new digital consumer engagement plan is centered around escalating the brand to the consumer via her home through several technologies.

How can our readers connect with you?

My readers can connect with me via websites www.astouri.com, www.christianajpaul.com or IG @astouri_style and @christianajpaul