Member since April 2025
Kristi Straw, MBA is the Founder & CEO of Lighthouse Leadership Consultants™, an executive strategist, keynote speaker, board advisor, and creator of Authentic Authority™.
She helps leaders, founders, and enterprise teams close trust gaps, strengthen strategic authority, and move decisions forward under pressure.
With more than 20 years of executive leadership experience, including C-suite responsibility, enterprise team leadership, financial services expertise, sales performance, client trust, and organizational transformation, Kristi brings both business credibility and human depth to the stage.
Her work blends leadership psychology, strategic communication, culture execution, and commercial strategy so leaders can build trust when the stakes are high.
Kristi is the creator of the Authentic Authority Archetype Quiz, UNICORN Leader™, Rare Rooms™, and The Pinnacle Dinner™. Her keynotes and workshops are designed for organizations, conferences, ERGs, professional associations, and executive audiences navigating trust gaps, decision fatigue, AI disruption, culture drift, burnout, visibility, and high-stakes communication.
Audiences leave with practical language, stronger trust, clearer decision pathways, and next steps they can use immediately.
Signature topics include:
Authentic Authority™: The Trust Code Behind Credible Leadership
The Trust Gap: Why Smart Teams Stall and What Leaders Must Name First
The Right Room Changes Everything: How Leaders Accelerate Decisions, Influence, and Deal Flow
AI Adoption Is a Leadership Trust Test
Executive Confidence + Cohesion
From Visibility to Revenue: Turning Authority Into Strategic Opportunity
I am passionate about helping leaders understand the trust they create, the authority they leak, and the decisions they are uniquely positioned to move.
Too many high-capacity leaders are over-functioning, under-supported, and misread in rooms where their credibility should be creating more movement. My work gives them the language, strategy, and structure to lead with more clarity, influence, and confidence.
What lights me up is watching a leader realize they do not need to become someone else to be powerful. They need to understand how they build trust, how they are perceived under pressure, and how to use their authority with precision.
That shift changes how they communicate, how they lead, how they are chosen, and how they move opportunities forward.
In high school, my last name was Spray.
During one of our first basketball games, I earned the nickname “Wrong Way Spray.” On an inbounds play, in front of the entire student body, I took off toward the wrong basket.
The gym erupted.
It was humiliating.
But I did not get cut from the team. For the first time, I was not benched. I was still in the game.
That moment taught me something I still teach leaders today: shame loses power when you survive being seen.
Most leaders are not afraid because they lack ability. They are afraid of being visible at the exact moment they might be wrong, challenged, misunderstood, or exposed.
That experience became part of the foundation for my work in Authentic Authority™. Leadership is not about flawless performance. It is about recovering direction, owning the moment, and building enough trust that one mistake does not define your credibility.
The room matters. The language matters. The recovery matters.
That is where real authority begins.
I was lying on the cold tile floor of my office, physically sick from stress after months of pushing through.
My body had finally said, “Enough.”
As I wiped my face and tried to pull myself together, my phone buzzed.
“Are you going to be in the meeting? We start in 3.”
So I stood up, straightened my blazer, and walked into that room like nothing had happened.
That moment stayed with me because it was not unusual. It was normal.
I realized how many high-performing leaders were doing the same thing: over-functioning, holding everything together, carrying the emotional weight of the room, and quietly burning out while everyone around them called it success.
I had climbed the system. I had the title, the credibility, the responsibility, and the results. But I also saw the cost of leadership environments that demanded courage without designing the trust, clarity, and support required to sustain it.
That became the beginning of Lighthouse Leadership Consultants™.
Today, my work helps leaders and teams close trust gaps, strengthen strategic authority, and move decisions forward under pressure. Through Authentic Authority™, UNICORN Leader™, Rare Rooms™, The Pinnacle Dinner™, and enterprise leadership activations, I help organizations build rooms where people can tell the truth, make decisions, follow through, and lead without losing themselves in the process.
What if your team's greatest leadership edge isn’t in a new platform or policy, but in knowing how your people naturally lead, communicate, and build trust?
This eye-opening session reveals the five Authentic Authority™ Archetypes that shape everything from how employees show up online to how they contribute in the boardroom. Participants walk away saying, “I’ve never felt so seen,” while leadership teams finally understand the invisible dynamics impacting performance, retention, and brand alignment.
You’ll learn:
-Why visibility is now a team sport and how to play to win!
-How each archetype drives different styles of trust, influence, and content creation
-The hidden reasons some voices go viral while others stay silent
-How to transform employee-generated content into brand-aligned momentum
Whether you lead a sales team, firm, or creative crew, this talk will change the way you see your people and yourself.
In high school, my last name was Spray.
During one of our first basketball games, I earned the nickname “Wrong Way Spray.” On an inbounds play, in front of the entire student body, I took off toward the wrong basket.
The gym erupted.
It was humiliating.
But I did not get cut from the team. For the first time, I was not benched. I was still in the game.
That moment taught me something I still teach leaders today: shame loses power when you survive being seen.
Most leaders are not afraid because they lack ability. They are afraid of being visible at the exact moment they might be wrong, challenged, misunderstood, or exposed.
That experience became part of the foundation for my work in Authentic Authority™. Leadership is not about flawless performance. It is about recovering direction, owning the moment, and building enough trust that one mistake does not define your credibility.
The room matters. The language matters. The recovery matters.
That is where real authority begins.
I was lying on the cold tile floor of my office, physically sick from stress after months of pushing through.
My body had finally said, “Enough.”
As I wiped my face and tried to pull myself together, my phone buzzed.
“Are you going to be in the meeting? We start in 3.”
So I stood up, straightened my blazer, and walked into that room like nothing had happened.
That moment stayed with me because it was not unusual. It was normal.
I realized how many high-performing leaders were doing the same thing: over-functioning, holding everything together, carrying the emotional weight of the room, and quietly burning out while everyone around them called it success.
I had climbed the system. I had the title, the credibility, the responsibility, and the results. But I also saw the cost of leadership environments that demanded courage without designing the trust, clarity, and support required to sustain it.
That became the beginning of Lighthouse Leadership Consultants™.
Today, my work helps leaders and teams close trust gaps, strengthen strategic authority, and move decisions forward under pressure. Through Authentic Authority™, UNICORN Leader™, Rare Rooms™, The Pinnacle Dinner™, and enterprise leadership activations, I help organizations build rooms where people can tell the truth, make decisions, follow through, and lead without losing themselves in the process.
What if your team's greatest leadership edge isn’t in a new platform or policy, but in knowing how your people naturally lead, communicate, and build trust?
This eye-opening session reveals the five Authentic Authority™ Archetypes that shape everything from how employees show up online to how they contribute in the boardroom. Participants walk away saying, “I’ve never felt so seen,” while leadership teams finally understand the invisible dynamics impacting performance, retention, and brand alignment.
You’ll learn:
-Why visibility is now a team sport and how to play to win!
-How each archetype drives different styles of trust, influence, and content creation
-The hidden reasons some voices go viral while others stay silent
-How to transform employee-generated content into brand-aligned momentum
Whether you lead a sales team, firm, or creative crew, this talk will change the way you see your people and yourself.