BetterStory Studio

A Live Story and Visibility Lab

 

July 22 | Raleigh, NC | Terrace Raleigh

Dinner.  

The skyline.

A mic + your story. 

real-time  refinement.

Featuring guest expert 

Sharon Delaney McCloud, CSP®
Emmy Award-winning journalist, keynote speaker, and founder

Charlotte proved the concept.
Raleigh is the expansion.

Our Charlotte Studios sold out and Raleigh is next.

BetterStory Studio™ is a live working room for founders, executives, speakers, creatives, and ambitious professionals who want sharper language, stronger presence, and better positioning in the rooms that matter.

This room is for people who want to hear themselves more clearly, refine their message in real time, and leave with sharper language they can use immediately.

What Makes This Room Different

Most rooms give you ideas.

This room gives you practice.

BetterStory Studio™ is a curated live lab for people who want their voice to sound more like their authority.

You can join as a participant or as an observer. Either way, you will leave with clearer language, stronger discernment, and a better sense of how to talk about your work, your value, and what comes next.

 

What You'll Experience

A live working room

This is an active, facilitated experience designed to help people refine their message in real time.

Coaching moments on the mic

Watch real people test their language, strengthen their delivery, and sharpen their story live.

A teaching segment with Kristi Straw

Practical insight on story, visibility, authority, and the language that moves opportunities forward.

Guest expert spotlight

Each Studio includes an outside voice who brings an added lens on influence, communication, and visibility.

Our Charlotte Studios have featured TEDx producers + expertise, podcasting experts, marketing and storytelling experts, and other strategic voices that help people sharpen not just what they say, but how they are remembered.

Braggy Boardwalk™

A guided feedback ritual where attendees receive specific, usable language about how they show up. These are words you can use in your bio, your content, your pitch, and your next introduction.

Professional event photography

The Studio is documented in real time, including on-mic moments, so you leave with visual proof that you were in the room.

Meaningful connection

You will be in the room with thoughtful, ambitious people who care about growth, credibility, and momentum.

july 22 | raleigh, nc

pricing details

$80  - general admission

$175  - vip visibility pass

SOLD OUT

Bring a colleague, client, or friend and make a night of it. 

This is a very good room to experience with someone else!

Date: July 22nd
Time: 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

Location: Terrace Raleigh

225 S. Wilmington St., Raleigh, NC 27601

Parking: Nearby parking available
Food: Elevated heavy appetizers included
Drinks: Premium cash/card bar
Dress: Come as you are, or as your next chapter

Sharon Delaney McCloud

Guest expert spotlight!

July 22 Guest Expert: Sharon Delaney McCloud, CSP®


Emmy Award-winning journalist, keynote speaker, workshop facilitator, university lecturer, and founder of a 3-time honored INC 5000 company.

Event details -

vip

visibility

pass

VIP Visibility Pass - SOLD OUT!

Limited - only (5) VIP passes are available per Studio

VIP is for the people who want to step into the work vs only watching it.

VIP is for the people who want to step into the work, not only watch it.

Your VIP ticket includes a guaranteed Live Lab Moment with Kristi, where you will practice and refine your message in front of the room.

Bring:

  • a pitch
  • an interview answer
  • a talk idea
  • a founder story
  • a launch message
  • the thing you know is there but have not fully articulated yet

Kristi will coach you live to:

  • tighten your language
  • clarify your positioning
  • remove filler
  • strengthen your authority
  • help your message land with more precision

You will leave with specific words and positioning that you can use immediately.

VIP includes:

  • guaranteed Live Lab Moment
  • live coaching on the mic
  • personalized feedback
  • premium seating
  • full Studio experience
  • professionally edited photos of your on-mic moment

If your words affect revenue, promotion, platform, or perception, VIP is the move.

If you’ve never experienced live story coaching, this will change how you show up.

Event details -

general

admission

General Admission

General Admission is for the person who wants to experience the room, learn from the live coaching, and leave sharper without taking the mic.

You will leave with:

  • practical language insight
  • a stronger lens on storytelling and presence
  • the energy of the room
  • meaningful connection
  • professional event photos from the evening

General Admission includes:

  • full Studio experience
  • Kristi’s teaching segment
  • guest expert spotlight
  • Braggy Boardwalk™ experience
  • community connection
  • professionally edited event photos

we create rare rooms

rare rooms™

Why BetterStory Studio™ Exists

  1. Because most people are underprepared for the moments that matter most.
  2. Because opportunities often hinge on how clearly you can speak about what you do, what you know, and where you are going.
  3. Because visibility is so much more than confidence. It is language, reps, feedback, and the right room.

BetterStory Studio™ exists to give people a place to practice that work - live.

This is rehearsal for the rooms that count.

a creative collision

Where Raleigh’s most ambitious thinkers meet over good food, bold storytelling, and unexpected visibility breakthroughs.

The Studio Effect:

A guided experience designed to sharpen your story, strengthen your presence, and give you language you can use in your career, your pitch, or your next big move tomorrow morning.

Reserve your seat now.

Because most people stay quiet in the moments that matter most.
Because your next opportunity depends on how well you tell your story.
Because no one teaches us how to do this - at work, in business, or in life.

Because visibility is capital.
And language is the vehicle.

Better Story Studio™ fills that gap with a creative, strategic, experimental experience designed to make your voice grounded & powerful.

Charlotte proved the demand.

Raleigh is where we show the room can travel.

Installation #1 sold out because Charlotte had never seen a room like it.

Installation #2 & #3 sold out because the proof was undeniable.

Installation #4 takes the Studio to a new city and a bigger stage.

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meet your raleigh expansion partner!

Molly Lukes is helping lead our Raleigh expansion of BetterStory Studio™ as Charter Expansion Partner for Raleigh-Durham.

She brings strength in people strategy, culture, organizational alignment, and local relationship capital across the Triangle. Her role is helping shape this room so it fits the market, the people, and the energy of Raleigh in a way that feels intentional, relevant, and strong from day one!

Expansion only works when the room is rooted in more than a zip code.

Molly helps ensure this Studio is locally informed, thoughtfully connected, and built to resonate with the founders, professionals, and leaders who call this market home.

BetterStory Studio™ is expanding with the right local partner, in the right city, at the right time.

HEY,
I’m
kristi!

I create the conditions for people to hear themselves more clearly.

My work sits at the intersection of positioning, strategic authority, visibility, and ecosystem design. I help founders, leaders, and high-capacity professionals find the language that fits where they are going, then build the room, relationships, and strategic momentum around that message so it can actually move.

That means you leave my rooms with:

  1. sharper positioning
  2. stronger language for what you do
  3. clearer ideas for how to talk about it publicly
  4. better instincts for where your story belongs
  5. marketing, visibility, and ecosystem ideas you can use tomorrow

BetterStory Studio™ is one of the most live, visible, and immediate ways to experience my work.

This is the room where your message gets refined, your authority gets reflected back to you, and your next chapter starts sounding real.

If you have ever thought, “I know what I do, but I do not always know how to say it in a way that lands,” this room was built for you. 

Your story is already inside you.
You don’t need to be louder, or braver, or more polished.
You just need the right room — the kind that reflects you back to yourself, clearly and confidently.

Better Story Studio was built for that moment.


A place where your voice lands.
Your ideas sharpen.
Your next chapter starts making sense.

Come eat, learn, laugh, and rise with us.
You’re one decision away from stepping into the room that will change your year … and your life.