Five messages, worked live.
Hear five real messages, the questions they raise, and the live coaching that sharpens them.
Make valuable expertise make sense to another human
Your message needs to work outside your head.
Your work is valuable. People need to understand why.
BetterStory Studio™ is a live working lab for your real pitch, offer, recommendation, presentation, or ask. Hear what people understand, change the message, and try again.
Say it. Hear it. Sharpen it. Use it.
December 9 in Raleigh: VIP sold out. Audience tickets · $80. Team Studio: built around the message or idea your people need to practice.
December 9 · The Eve Edition
Five live hot seats.
Work on your message from the room.
Valuable expertise becomes useless when nobody else can understand it. You need people to understand why your work matters, what it’s worth, and what you’re asking them to do. Bring that message into the room. Work on it as Kristi and Eve respond to five real messages live.
Raleigh · December 9 · 6–9 p.m. · Terrace Raleigh
The Eve Edition.
Kristi Straw is joined by guest expert Eve Keil.
Eve’s work lives at the intersection of self-worth and self-leadership. She helps accomplished women see where they’ve stopped choosing themselves, reclaim their voice, and lead, love, and build without disappearing inside someone else’s expectations.
“Where in my life have I stopped choosing myself?”
VIP sold out · All five live coaching places booked · Audience tickets available
What your audience ticket gets you
Bring your real ask. Use what you hear.
A working version of your own message.
Use the worksheet and coaching to work on your own wording, proof, and next ask from your seat.
Kristi’s coaching + Eve’s perspective.
Kristi coaches the message and commercial opportunity. Eve brings self-worth and self-leadership to the conversation.
People + professional photos.
Meet people working on real messages. Professional event photography by Tatiana is included.
Audience participants work from their seats and respond to the live practice. The five booked VIP speakers have the guaranteed personal coaching turns at the mic.
Get my audience ticket · $80Five mystery VIPs: who’s taking the mic?
Five VIP speakers · Five real messages
Who’s taking the mic?
All five VIP hot seats are booked. The lineup is a mystery for now. You’ll hear their real messages, Kristi’s live coaching, and Eve’s point of view. Bring your own ask and use what you hear.
Mystery VIP 01
Hot seat booked
December 9Mystery VIP 02
Hot seat booked
December 9Mystery VIP 03
Hot seat booked
December 9Mystery VIP 04
Hot seat booked
December 9Mystery VIP 05
Hot seat booked
December 9
The mic is booked. Your seat is still available.
Be in the room · $80Do I have to speak in front of everyone?
No. Your audience ticket lets you work from your seat, respond to the live practice, and apply the coaching to your own message. The five guaranteed VIP coaching turns are already booked.
What should I bring?
A real pitch, offer, recommendation, presentation, or ask. It can be unfinished. Bring something you want another person to understand or act on.
What is included in my $80 ticket?
The December 9 Studio from 6–9 p.m. at Terrace Raleigh: five live VIP coaching sessions with Kristi Straw and guest expert Eve Keil, work on your own message from your seat, and professional event photography by Tatiana. The audience ticket does not include a guaranteed personal turn at the mic.
Can my team book a separate Studio?
Yes. Use the organization inquiry to share the team, message, or idea you need to practice. The public December 9 Studio is one experience; a team engagement is scoped around your organization’s work.
Get my audience ticket · $80 Raleigh · December 9 · 6–9 p.m. · Terrace Raleigh · The Eve Edition
See how the live practice works
How the Studio works
Stop polishing alone.
Put the message in motion.
Bring it
The real pitch, story, recommendation, offer, ask, or presentation.
Say it
Out loud. In front of humans.
Hear it
See where attention rises, drops, questions appear, and meaning gets lost.
Sharpen it
Fix the language, structure, proof, or ask.
Use it
Take it into the consequential room.
Your room. Your host. Your real work.
Bring the thing you need to say.
Kristi knows how to work with it.
You have a pitch, offer, recommendation, or ask that matters. Kristi leads the conversation, hears where the value gets lost, asks the question that helps, and coaches the next version. The people in the room give you human response you can use.
VIP participants bring the message into a live hot seat. Audience participants work from their seats, hear the coaching, and apply it to their own message.
The same host on another stage
What people said after Kristi’s NC TECH opening keynote.
At the September 29 summit, audience comments described attention and self-recognition. Here is that feedback, from the people who shared it.
Read the feedback
“They realized a lot more about who they are and how they see the world.”
Excerpt from the comment shown on the card.
Read the feedback
“your keynote had the crowd hanging on every word!”
Excerpt from the comment shown on the card.
See examples of what gets clearer
Illustrative practice examples
What gets clearer?
Examples of the changes we practice, starting with a real message.
Make the idea repeatable.
Before: A 90-second explanation nobody could repeat.
After: One sentence a buyer can repeat accurately.
Listen for: Can another person explain the value in their own words?
Give the presentation an ask.
Before: A sales presentation full of features.
After: The buyer’s problem, relevant proof, and a clear next step.
Listen for: Does the buyer understand what they are being asked to decide?
Make the change usable.
Before: “We’re transforming how we work.”
After: What changes, why it matters, and what each person should do next.
Listen for: Where do people need clarity before they can act?
Bring the Studio to a sales, leadership, or innovation team
For sales, leadership + innovation teams
Your people know the work.
Can they explain it when it matters?
Bring a real sales conversation, recommendation, change message, presentation, or unfinished idea. The team practices it with humans, hears the response, improves it, and tries again.
Sales + commercial leaders
The presentation explains the product. The buyer still misses the value.
Work on the buyer’s problem, relevant proof, the recommendation, and the ask. Hear where people lean in, get confused, or need a clearer next step.
Bring: a pitch, offer, recommendation, or live sales conversation.
Discuss sales practicePeople + leadership teams
The same change sounds different from every leader.
Practice the message people need to understand and act on. Find the missing context, unclear ownership, or question the presentation did not answer.
Bring: a change announcement, leadership recommendation, or team presentation.
Discuss leadership practiceInnovation + founder teams
Test the idea before the stakes get higher.
The concept makes sense to the team that built it. You need to hear what another person understands, questions, or misses.
Bring an unfinished idea or customer message. Choose the people whose reaction will be useful, try the language or concept, change it, and try again. The scope identifies who needs to be in the conversation.
Use the response to choose the next version or question to test.
Discuss an innovation Studio
What a team Studio works on
- The message and the job.What must people understand, trust, or decide?
- The people in the conversation.Whose response is useful to the work?
- Live practice and revision.Hear the questions, adjust the message, and try it again.
- The useful next step.A clearer version, questions to resolve, and a next action.
The goal, participants, format, timing, and follow-through shape the scope. Start with the work your team needs to practice.
BetterStory Studio™ at UNC CharlotteRevenue-Ready Founder Communication LabM.S. in Entrepreneurship · Scheduled October 19, 2026
A university application of the Studio: founder communication practice. This is upcoming work.
From leadership practice to live practice
Innovation needs people willing to share the unfinished idea.
UNICORN Leader™ gives teams practical leadership tools, including a Braggy Board and an Innovation Wall. Authentic Authority™ helps people understand how they communicate and build trust. BetterStory Studio™ gives them a live place to test the idea, hear the response, and improve it.
Bring a real change message, customer idea, recommendation, or ask. Leave with clearer language and a next action.
Explore UNICORN Leader™ for your team
Guest experts in the room
Sharon Delaney McCloud, CSP® · Emmy Award-winning journalist + leadership storytellerCrissy Fishbane · Speaker, writer + community builder · Raleigh guest expert, September 23Eve Keil · Self-worth + self-leadership · Raleigh guest expert, December 9Cara Truitt · Founder, executive producer + lead curator, TEDxSugarCreekWomen
Start with the work