The Best of Raleigh

She bought a pregnant cow during the pandemic. Then that cow had twins. And that's how a 2,000-acre Wagyu farm in Turkey, North Carolina got its start.

Jaclyn Smith, co-founder of Wilders, joins host Gretchen Coley to talk about leaving a thriving real estate career to raise 100% full-blood Wagyu cattle and heritage Berkshire pigs on pasture — no growth hormones, no shortcuts. She breaks down why Wagyu isn't just a fancy restaurant splurge (ground beef starts at $12 a pound), what 30–40% digital marbling percentage actually means, and why locally raised Wagyu beats USDA Prime in ways most people don't realize.

In this episode:

• Why Wagyu is lower in cholesterol and higher in omega-3s than some fish

• What "100% full-blood" means — and why it makes every bite more consistent

• How the One Compassion nonprofit feeds 150–200 families every holiday season

• Why their first farm tour sold out in under 24 hours — and what's coming this spring

About Jaclyn Smith: Jaclyn and her husband Reed are the co-founders of Wilders, a 2,000-acre farm in Turkey, North Carolina raising 100% full-blood Wagyu cattle and heritage Berkshire pigs. Born in New York and raised in Pennsylvania, Jaclyn came to North Carolina on a golf scholarship to Campbell University, where she also met Reed. They now live on the farm with their three children and run Wilders alongside their real estate and construction company, Riverwild.

Subscribe to The Best of Raleigh for new episodes every two weeks. Hosted by Gretchen Coley of The Coley Group. Find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen. Moving to Raleigh? Start at thecoleygroup.com/welcome-to-raleigh.

Dr. Vivian Throop saw the same patient three times and still didn’t recognize him. That one moment changed how she practices dentistry for good.

Dr. Throop, owner of City of Oaks Dental in Raleigh, joins host Gretchen Coley to talk about building a relationship-first dental practice outside the insurance system, how far cosmetic veneers have come since their fake, boxy 90s heyday, and the overlooked link between dry mouth and cavities. She also breaks down the oral warning signs her office looks for to catch sleep apnea and TMJ issues before a patient ever gets a diagnosis.

In this episode:

• The neighborhood run-in that made her rebuild her whole practice around relationships, not volume
• Why dry mouth, not sugar, might be the biggest hidden driver of cavities
• What modern veneers actually involve, and why they no longer mean filing teeth into “nubs”

About Dr. Vivian Throop: Dr. Throop owns and operates City of Oaks Dental, a general and cosmetic dental practice in Raleigh built around 90-minute new patient visits and a fee-for-service model rather than insurance-driven care. She’s a North Carolina native trained in cosmetic dentistry and a go-to voice in the Triangle for smile makeovers, veneers, and sleep-related dental care.

Subscribe to The Best of Raleigh for new episodes every two weeks. Hosted by Gretchen Coley of The Coley Group. Find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Moving to Raleigh? Start at thecoleygroup.com/welcome-to-raleigh.

For 20 years and 20 doctors, Dr. Elizabeth Sierakowski couldn't get a straight answer for her own body. Now she runs the practice she always needed.

Dr. Elizabeth is the co-founder and medical director of Essential Health Raleigh, and she's triple board certified in family medicine, integrative medicine, and functional medicine. In this episode, she opens up about being dismissed by doctor after doctor starting at age 15, the $6,000 appointment that finally changed everything, and how that experience shaped the boutique, sanctuary-style practice she built in North Raleigh.

In this episode:

Why "functional," "integrative," and "traditional" medicine aren't actually competing approaches, and how Essential Health combines all three under one roof

The real story behind being labeled with IBS, eczema, anxiety, and vertigo for two decades before anyone looked deeper

Inside the therapies at Essential Health, including hyperbaric oxygen, blood ozonation (EBOO), and a new exosome offering

Why Dr. Elizabeth built her North Raleigh facility to feel like a boutique lounge instead of a doctor's office

Her philosophy on resilience over restriction, and why she tells patients to "wag your own tail"

About Dr. Elizabeth Sierakowski: Dr. Elizabeth is the co-founder and medical director of Essential Health Raleigh, a precision health practice offering hormone optimization, longevity care, and integrated wellness services in North Raleigh. She is triple board certified and fellowship trained through A4M, the Academy of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine.

Subscribe to The Best of Raleigh for new episodes twice a month. Hosted by Gretchen Coley of The Coley Group. Find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen. Moving to Raleigh? Start at thecoleygroup.com/welcome-to-raleigh.

Turns out your "permanent makeup" is legally, technically, unmistakably a tattoo, and Jeanette Ivey is completely fine with that.

Jeanette Ivey, owner of Ivey Artistry and one of Raleigh's most in-demand permanent makeup artists, sits down with Gretchen Coley to talk brows, lash lines, lip blushing, and the new nano machine hair stroke technique quietly replacing old-school microblading across the industry.

She also gets honest about the technique she used to hate, the biggest mistake clients make when choosing an artist, and why she still won't get her own lash extensions.

In this episode:

• The moment Jeanette went from hating permanent makeup to building a luxury studio around it

• Why anyone who got microbladed brows between 2017 and 2020 should book a consult now

• The nano machine hair stroke technique almost nobody in Raleigh is trained on yet

• Why she still won't wear her own lash extensions

About Jeanette Ivey: Jeanette started her beauty career at 18 behind the MAC Cosmetics counter and opened Ivey Artistry in a single rented salon room before growing it into a 2,400-square-foot studio in Lafayette Village. Today she also runs Muse Academy, training the next generation of Raleigh's permanent makeup artists.

Subscribe to The Best of Raleigh for new episodes every 2 weeks.

Hosted by Gretchen Coley of The Coley Group.

Find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Moving to Raleigh? Start at thecoleygroup.com/welcome-to-raleigh.

Michelle Murphy has been designing homes for the same families for over 25 years, and she says the secret is trust, not taste.

Michelle is the founder of Demi Ryan, a full-service luxury interior design firm based in Chapel Hill that works with clients across the country, including professional athletes and executives who relocate and bring her with them. In this episode, she talks about her first big break at an HGTV show house, why she refuses to repeat a fabric twice, and what she thinks most people get wrong when they try to design a room themselves.

In this episode:

• Why more homeowners are selling their houses fully furnished, and why buyers are asking for it

• The real reason handmade means handmade at North Carolina's furniture factories

• How Michelle furnished an entire five-bedroom beach house for $35,000

• The one design trend she wishes would disappear

• Why scale, not style, is the mistake she sees homeowners make most

About Michelle Murphy: Michelle is the founder of Demi Ryan, a Chapel Hill based luxury interior design firm featured in HGTV Magazine, Cottages & Bungalows, and Southern Home. Her work spans the country, built on personal style over trends and clients who come back for decades.

Subscribe to The Best of Raleigh for new episodes every two weeks. Hosted by Gretchen Coley of The Coley Group. Find us on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. 

Moving to Raleigh? Start at thecoleygroup.com.

He almost sold pharmaceuticals. Instead, Mick Michael built one of Raleigh's most talked-about home building companies. 

Mick Michael, co-founder of Envision Homes, sits down with Gretchen Coley to talk about trading an Army infantry officer's boots for a builder's toolbelt, why "inch wide, mile deep" became his company's model, and how a $745,000 townhome in downtown Cary is now worth $1.6 million. 

In this episode: • Why Mick calls home building "the greatest form of retail" most people never realize they're buying into • The military lesson that still shapes how he leads his team: soldiers first • Why the 50 acres behind The Park at Wimberley in Apex could be the Triangle's next big investment story 

About Mick Michael: Mick Michael is a co-founder of Envision Homes, a vertically integrated home building and development company based in Raleigh. A former U.S. Army infantry officer, he has spent 26 years in the home building industry, leading projects across Cary, Apex, and Fuquay-Varina, including the award-winning Park Station community. 

Subscribe to The Best of Raleigh for new episodes every week. Hosted by Gretchen Coley of The Coley Group. Find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Moving to Raleigh? Start at thecoleygroup.com/welcome-to-raleigh.

Ryan Prestel says the biggest myth in smart home tech is that everything's wireless. Here's why that's costing homeowners.

Ryan Prestel, co-founder of Connesso, joins Gretchen Coley to unpack what it actually takes to build a smart, connected luxury home in Raleigh. They cover Josh AI, app fatigue, lighting design, and why the old guard of home technology is being disrupted.

In this episode:

• The biggest myth in the smart home industry, and why the first four letters of wireless are W-I-R-E

• What Josh AI actually does, and how it solves "app fatigue" for homeowners

• Why lighting is the fastest-growing category in smart home design

• How VR lets Connesso preview sound and sightlines before a home theater or golf simulator gets built

About Ryan Prestel: Ryan is the co-founder of Connesso, a custom electronics integrator bringing connected technology experiences to luxury homes, offices, and commercial spaces in Raleigh and beyond. A recovering software executive with 15+ years scaling technology companies, he now leads Connesso's mission to make home automation feel effortless.

Subscribe to The Best of Raleigh for new episodes every week. Hosted by Gretchen Coley of The Coley Group. Find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Moving to Raleigh? Start at thecoleygroup.com/welcome-to-raleigh.

What does it take to build an entire city from the ground up?

In this episode of Best of Raleigh, host Gretchen Coley sits down with Joe Graziose, Executive Vice President of Residential Construction and Development at RXR, the developer behind Veridea, the 1,200-acre master-planned community rising in Apex. Joe is a 40-year veteran who started as a busboy at 13 and a New Yorker who fell hard for southern hospitality. He walks us through why he builds places instead of just buildings, how he is solving for traffic on NC 55, and what a Saturday morning in Veridea will look like in twenty years. Whether you live in southwest Wake County, you are watching the Triangle grow, or you just love a great Raleigh story, this one is worth your time.

📍 Raleigh, North Carolina

🎙 Best of Raleigh Podcast.

Subscribe for more conversations with the people shaping the Triangle.

What does it take to build one of the most recognized brands in American menswear, walk away from it, and then help scale another from $10 million to nearly $200 million?

In this episode of Best of Raleigh, we sit down with Chris Knott, founder of Peter Millar and Chief Merchandising Officer at johnnie-O. From his first retail job at 14 in Fuquay-Varina to building a global brand from a side hustle selling cashmere sweaters out of his van, Chris shares the real story behind two of the most influential brands in menswear. We dive into sales, merchandising, brand building, company culture, and why relationships still beat marketing every single time. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a fashion lover, or just love a good Raleigh story, this conversation is full of insight and inspiration.

📍 Raleigh, North Carolina 

🎙 Best of Raleigh Podcast 

Subscribe for more conversations with the people shaping the Triangle.

What does it take to actually feel like yourself again, not just “fine for your age”?

In this episode of Best of Raleigh, we sit down with Dr. Philip Deibel, founder of D5 Health and former OBGYN, to talk about the new model of personalized longevity medicine taking root in Raleigh. From his twelve years delivering babies at Arbor to building a concierge practice where he sees only three patients a day, Phil shares the real story behind his shift into root cause medicine.

We dive into hormones, advanced biomarkers, peptides, gut health, the perimenopause conversation most women never get to have, and why the standard “normal range” is calibrated to a sicker America. Phil opens up about his own testosterone wake-up call, the Oura ring moment that changed his marriage, and the 90 percent rule that protects margin for the people who run too hard.

Whether you live in Raleigh, work in Raleigh, or are simply tired of being told to wait it out, this conversation will change how you think about your health.

📍 Raleigh, North Carolina

🎙 Best of Raleigh Podcast

Subscribe for more conversations with the people shaping the Triangle.