Leadership
Our leaders need to lead better.
Decisions, feedback, communication, trust, accountability, and change.
Discuss your leadersLighthouse Leadership Consultants™ · Enterprise strategy
Your people still have to think, decide, communicate, and lead.
AI can help people work faster. Lighthouse helps leaders and teams get better at the human work that keeps the business moving.
Leadership. Sales. Communication. Judgment. Trust.
Selected clients, stages, and collaborators
Washington National Opera · UNC Charlotte · Philadelphia SHRM · Elevate Digital · GABA
Selected work, stages, and collaborations. Organization names describe the context of the work.
1,900+
people assessed through Authentic Authority™
$5M+
documented business movement connected to Lighthouse-designed rooms, relationships, and experiences in 16 months
100%
post-room opt-in to the private relationship directory across two Rare Rooms™
9.8/10
average overall experience rating for The Pinnacle Dinner™
Start with the business problem
What needs to work better?
Keynotes, working sessions, leadership retreats, and strategic advisory built around what your people need to do next.
Teams
Our team needs to work better together.
Sales, leadership, execution, hard conversations, and human judgment.
Discuss your teamBusiness movement
Something important needs to move.
A market, idea, partnership, customer opportunity, leadership transition, or strategic priority.
Discuss the priorityStrategic advisory
Bring Kristi in when the opportunity is bigger than the brief.
Kristi sees the enterprise hiding inside valuable ideas. She connects strategy, language, trusted relationships, market access, experience design, and commercial follow-through so the opportunity can become easier to understand, support, and move.
Executive strategy
Clear thinking and candid counsel for leaders navigating consequential decisions, growth, visibility, and organizational change.
Founder readiness
Programming and curriculum that strengthen authority, commercialization readiness, decision-making, and the ability to communicate value.
Market expansion
Positioning, partnerships, curated access, and executive experiences designed around a new market or strategic priority.
Enterprise experiences
Keynotes, workshops, executive retreats, diagnostics, and Rare Rooms™ built around what leaders need to move together.
UNICORN Leader™ · Innovation + change
Your team needs to try something new. Help them do it.
Recognition, experimentation, learning, and communication shape whether people contribute during transformation. Kristi’s book gives this work practical tools, including a Braggy Board and an Innovation Wall.
Build the conditions
Use UNICORN Leader™ practices to make contribution, ideas, and learning visible.
Work on the conversation
Apply Authentic Authority™ to feedback, performance conversations, change communication, and sales.
Test the message
Use BetterStory Studio™ to try the idea, hear the response, and sharpen the next ask.
The human work · 2027 and beyond
AI can do more of the work. People still have to make the call.
Think. Decide. Communicate. Lead. Sell. Challenge. Listen. Give feedback. Build trust.
A shared language
Authentic Authority™ helps people discuss trust, communication, and decision-making.
Explore Authentic Authority™Somewhere to practice
BetterStory Studio™ lets teams test messages and unfinished ideas with real human feedback.
Bring the Studio to your teamA room with a purpose
Rare Rooms™ bring people together around an actual business goal.
Design a Rare Room™Capacity to sustain it
Lighthouse Wellness examines the conditions people need to keep performing well.
Explore human capacityDocumented outcomes
Human insight becomes useful business practice.
A keynote. A leadership engagement. Two purposeful room applications. See what Lighthouse did and what happened next.
Three applications connect human insight to business results and continuing work.
01 / NC TECH · September 29, 2026
Human judgment in an AI-powered workplace
3 engagements in 3 hours · Books sold out
- The situation
- Kristi delivered the opening keynote for 300+ attendees at the NC TECH Summit for Women in Tech, connecting AI with human judgment, trust, and decision-making.
- What Lighthouse did
- Kristi used Authentic Authority™ and practical decision questions to connect trust and leadership styles with human judgment, decision ownership, and the people affected by a decision. Archetype stickers gave participants a visible way to start the conversation.
- The result
- Within three hours of the keynote, Kristi was hired for a leadership retreat, a workshop, and a keynote. Every book she brought to the summit sold, and the opening keynote received a standing ovation.
- After the room
- The keynote led directly to three new engagements. Authentic Authority™ gave participants a shared language to take into their teams and continued conversations after the session.
02 / Confidential enterprise leadership engagement · September 2026
Hiring decisions with $2.3M in savings
$2.3M saved through hiring decisions · Under 8 hours
- The situation
- A private enterprise leadership engagement brought a senior team together around priorities, decision-making, communication, and cross-functional work.
- What Lighthouse did
- Lighthouse facilitated leadership working sessions and applied Authentic Authority™ to leadership and hiring decisions: who needs to act, what helps them trust a decision, and what the situation requires beyond a leader’s default approach.
- The result
- Less than eight hours of work together helped the client save $2.3 million through hiring decisions.
- After the room
- The engagement grew into six-figure ongoing client work, continuing the leadership, decision-making, accountability, and communication support.
03 / Rare Rooms™ · Cultural, philanthropic, and business applications
A conversation becomes a result and a next step
$20,000 raised · Ongoing client work · A new co-host partnership
- The situation
- Rare Rooms™ bring carefully selected people together around a clear purpose, with attention to what can happen during the room and afterward.
- What Lighthouse did
- Kristi helped an advisory client create the Washington National Opera Rare Room™ at Field & Main. The work connected the people, purpose, conversation, and ask. Pinnacle Powered™ brings the Rare Rooms™ method inside an organization.
- The result
- The WNO Rare Room™ brought together 30 guests and raised $20,000 in support of Washington National Opera. It also led to ongoing work through the advisory client relationship. In a separate Pinnacle Dinner example, Drew Burdick, Founder of StealthX, attended as a guest and became Kristi’s partner and Operator Dinner co-host.
- After the room
- The work continues with The Voice at the Table™, a WNO collaboration on October 8 in Tysons. Drew and Kristi’s second Operator Dinner is confirmed for October 29 in Charlotte.
Additional reported client outcomes
reported compensation increase and a new executive role after five sessions
reported increase in sales conversations for a wealth advisory business
reported increase in booked business for a hospitality client
from CFO uncertainty to a paid fractional consulting engagement
“Kristi’s energy and authenticity moved the room. It was an unforgettable experience that left people ready to use what they learned.”
“Honesty, integrity, empowerment, passion, and confidence became hallmarks of our management team.”
Rare Rooms™
Build the room your business actually needs.
Rare Rooms™ bring carefully selected people together around a clear business goal. We design who belongs, what happens in the room, what needs to be asked, and what happens after everyone leaves.
Pinnacle Powered™ brings the Rare Rooms™ method inside your organization.
BetterStory Studio™ gives teams a live place to test sales conversations, leadership messages, and unfinished ideas, hear real reactions, and try again.
$5M+ documented business movement connected to Lighthouse-designed rooms, relationships, and experiences in 16 months
100% post-room opt-in to the private relationship directory across two Pinnacle and Pinnacle Powered™ rooms
9/10 average curation rating for ArtPop × The Pinnacle Dinner™
Design a Rare Room™
Current strategic work
The work is already operating at enterprise scale.
Selected active engagements show how Lighthouse combines advisory judgment, founder development, leadership experience, and market-making. Current work is identified separately from completed outcome proof.
Cultural and philanthropic rooms
Washington National Opera
Kristi helped an advisory client create the WNO Rare Room™ at Field & Main. Thirty guests and $20,000 raised in support of Washington National Opera. The work has continued through that client relationship.
The Voice at the Table™, October 8 in Tysons: upcoming work around guest curation, conversation, relationships, and follow-through.
See the Rare Rooms™ applicationCompleted September room · Upcoming October collaborationGlobal commercialization
GABA
Kristi serves as Strategic Advisor, Sponsorships & U.S.–Africa Partnerships. She helps GABA convert Global Africa and Caribbean relationships into credible sponsor, institutional, government, investor, market-access, and commercial pathways. Current work includes the September 8–10 Global Africa Summit in Charlotte and defining paid 2027 advisory, cohort, and curated-room scopes.
See the Global Africa Summit Active strategic advisory and 2027 scope developmentFounder development
AYANA
Kristi is Global Head of Founder Programming and Curricular Development. She is developing founder-readiness programming and will facilitate Invested: An AYANA Founder Readiness Workshop at Austin Tech Week on October 26.
Visit AYANA Capability in productionMarket expansion
Elevate Digital
Lighthouse is Elevate Digital's Charlotte market-development and executive-experience partner. The work includes private prospect rooms, the November 3 INFUSION Charlotte event, and commercial follow-through into 2027.
See INFUSION Charlotte Active strategic partnershipExecutive alignment
Confidential life sciences company
Delivered a multi-day executive alignment and leadership experience for a senior team in Baltimore.
Completed · September 2026Opening keynote
NC TECH
Opening keynote for 300+ attendees. Standing ovation. Books sold out. Within three hours, Kristi was hired for a leadership retreat, a workshop, and a keynote.
Completed · September 29, 2026Private-room architecture
Pinnacle Powered™
Pinnacle Powered™ brings the Rare Rooms™ method inside your organization.
We help you build a room around a business goal, choose who should be there, shape the conversation, make the ask, and follow through.
Enterprise application of Rare Rooms™Joint operator room
StealthX × Lighthouse
The first Operator Dinner was called “an absolute slam dunk.” Drew Burdick and Kristi Straw return to the table with a second Charlotte room on October 29.
Repeat partnership · 2026Organizational names describe the context of Kristi's work and do not imply endorsement. Confidential work is described without identifying the client.
Now moving
Current rooms, stages, and activations.
November 12 · Charlotte
The Pinnacle Prom™
Portraits, dinner, cocktails, dancing, and a guest list designed for real connection. Tickets are $200.
Explore the PromNext · UNC Charlotte
BetterStory Studio™
The next live story and authority lab. See current dates and ticket options on the Studio site.
Explore BetterStory Studio™Completed · September 29 · Asheville
NC TECH Summit for Women in Tech
Opening keynote. 300+ attendees. Standing ovation. Books sold out. Three new engagements within three hours: a leadership retreat, a workshop, and a keynote.
See the speaker lineupNovember 3 · Charlotte
INFUSION Charlotte with Elevate Digital
An invitation-only AI and digital transformation event at Lincoln Street Kitchen & Cocktails. Lighthouse is the Pinnacle Powered™ partner for the Charlotte room.
See INFUSION CharlotteOctober 14 · Charlotte
Lighthouse Wellness
Michael Straw, MA
Principal + Chief Wellness Officer, Lighthouse Wellness
Human Capacity + Sustainable Performance
Lighthouse Wellness is the human-capacity application of Lighthouse Leadership Consultants. Michael is Lighthouse’s primary human-systems authority. He brings more than 20 years of behavioral-health experience to organizational questions involving decision load, manager capacity, change fatigue, recovery, trust, and sustainable performance.
The October 14 working Rare Room™ will examine what organizations ask people to carry and what those people need.
Explore Lighthouse WellnessOctober 29 · Charlotte
Operator Dinner with StealthX
The second operator room with Drew Burdick, returning after a June experience he called “an absolute slam dunk.”
Private invitations opening soon
Kristi Straw, MBA
Executive strategist. Speaker. Market maker for expertise.
Kristi helps credible people make their value easier to understand, place, and buy. Then she builds the strategy, relationships, rooms, and commercial architecture around what needs to move.
She is the founder and CEO of Lighthouse Leadership Consultants™, creator of Authentic Authority™, The Pinnacle Dinner™, BetterStory Studio™, and Rare Rooms™, and author of the bestselling UNICORN Leader™.
- 2026 NC TECH opening keynote
- 2025 GlobeSt. Woman of Influence
- Career Mastered Leadership in Action Honoree
- Mecklenburg Times Most Influential Women in Charlotte
A clear next step
Begin where you are. Build from there.
AAAQuiz.com
Discover your authority archetype and receive the matching guide.
Take the assessmentAMPLIFIED
Turn the value in your work into language people can understand and repeat.
Get AMPLIFIEDTrusted Brand Blueprint™
A focused 45-minute session to clarify your message, proof, and next move.
Build your blueprintCareer Clarity Sprint™
Three private sessions for an experienced leader making a serious career move.
Explore the sprintPrivate executive and strategic authority engagements are scoped through a direct conversation.