Community Highlights: Meet Lyndsey McCallister of Turquoise Sisters Boutique

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lyndsey McCallister

Hi Lyndsey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
In 2021, my sister, Randi & I started Turquoise Sisters Boutique out of a 10’ x 10’ office in my house. We would do Facebook Live Sales as well as hold Open Houses for our family & friends to come shop. We have always had a passion for the Western Industry & would find it frustrating that we could never find plus sizes in the bigger stores or at shopping at other boutiques. As plus size girls ourselves, we wanted to change this & give everyone a place to come & to not feel judged in any way. As TSB started to receive a larger following, we decided it was time to do smaller Vendor Shows around town. We were still working out of the small office in my house and would load the trailer up almost every other weekend to go to events. In 2023, we put in applications for larger rodeo events, thinking that it may take a few years to actually get in. Much to my surprise, TSB got in to ALL of them that year. So, we hit the road and attended Greeley Stampede and Cheyenne Frontier Days. I was constantly being asked where our store front was and just had never thought about really going down that route.. On our way home from Cheyenne, we stopped in the little town of Eaton and found the new home of Turquoise Sisters Boutique. It was perfect at the time & it was such a surreal feeling to know that all of the hard work was paying off and that I could be a little more settled in the day to day operations. It was small, only about 550 square feet. But it was a great starting place! We were open until December and we closed for 2 weeks, it was time for our furthest distance show we had traveled to, we were heading to Las Vegas for the National Finals Rodeo! We spent 14 days in Vegas with some of my amazing family and friends who came out to help & continued to grow our following outside of Colorado and in the Rodeo community.

It’s now 2024, and I have since moved the store to Ault(just 4 miles up the road from our previous store) to a 2000 sq ft space! I have a few gals & close family members who work for me at shows & I truly couldn’t do any of this without them. I also receive a ton of help from my amazing husband who has been my biggest cheerleader since day 1, he certainly didn’t sign up to drive our caravan for 13 hours in the snowy mountains in December, but he does it without a single complaint and I’ll be forever grateful.

We are attending large shows that now include the Denver National Western Stock Show! We continue to stay true to our roots and are still a full size inclusive boutique and that will never change. We also now carry many other products in the store including a few items from other local businesswomen.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Absolutely not, starting a business is such a scary thing. You have to work really, really hard. It’s time away from family & friends, working late nights, constantly doing market research, etc. But if it’s truly your passion, you won’t work a day in your life! It’s putting yourself out there everyday on Social Media to continue to bring in new customers and new product ideas. I’m a firm believe in if something isn’t working, pivot! Don’t get stuck on something if it isn’t going the right way.

In June of this year, we were 2 weeks from attending Greeley Stampede. A 12 day Rodeo event that we’ve attended before. My enclosed trailer where we stored all of my grid walls, shelves, signage, etc for all of our vendor events was stolen. I was devastated & only had 1 week to repurchase everything that was inside as we were committed to 2 huge events this summer. I had my breakdown and then I got to work to get everything pieced back together! We made it work & had an amazing summer full of fun and meeting so many people!

As you know, we’re big fans of Turquoise Sisters Boutique. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Turquoise Sisters Boutique is a family owned small business. We started in 2021 in a small office of my home. We have since grown and have a 2000 sq ft store front in Ault, CO. We are a women’s western boutique and specialize in carrying sizes Small-3X in EVERY item that comes into the store. We do not just have 1 rack with plus size women’s clothing. We also carry jewelry, home decor, freshies(air fresheners) that my sister makes herself, and now a Hot Branding Bar where we fully customize any of the hair on products that we sell in our store(think of it as when you brand a cow).I hand pick every piece that comes into the store and am so proud that we have been able to stick to our roots and only carry size inclusive brands in our store!

We are open Tuesday thru Saturdays from 10-5p at 216 1st St, Ault, CO 80610 or online at www.TurquoiseSistersBoutique.com

We’re always looking for the lessons that can be learned in any situation, including tragic ones like the Covid-19 crisis. Are there any lessons you’ve learned that you can share?
Since Covid, I truly believe that people want to touch and feel products before they purchase. We have a website that you can shop, but for me, it’s about the experience that you give your customer and knowing that they are receiving a quality product that they can wear multiple times. I truly want to meet each and every customer, whether that’s at one of our vendor shows or is in the store!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.TurquoiseSistersBoutique.com
• Instagram: @turquoise_sisters_boutique
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100089158491324&name=xhp_nt__fb__action__open_user