Uncorked. Unapologetic. started the way most honest things do — with two women who were tired of pretending.

Tired of networking events built for men in suits, in rooms designed to keep everyone polite and nobody real. Tired of the idea that "professional" meant quiet, small, and agreeable. Tired of watching women show up ready to build something extraordinary and get handed a name tag and a rubber chicken dinner instead.

So Emma Dunbar and Stacey Martin built something else.

Emma Dunbar

Owner, Tandem at Carr Mill

Emma's story didn't start in Carrboro. It started in Sheffield, England, in a place with dwindling industry and not much room to dream big — "no jobs, no prospects," as she puts it. She left anyway. A stint exploring the Army, a season with Camp America in Vermont, and then a serendipitous turn into luxury hospitality that took her through five-star resorts like Crowne Plaza and Loews in Orlando.

She landed in North Carolina as a single mother of two, chose Cary as a starting point — and found her real home in Carrboro, where she met her husband and business partner, and where their family grew to six.

Tandem is what happens when someone who's rebuilt her own life from scratch decides to build a space for other women to do the same. Not a stiff, business-card kind of place — a table where women can let their hair down, kick off their heels, and be exactly as loud, ambitious, or unfinished as they actually are. "We need this," Emma says. "A place where we can be ourselves, celebrate our successes, and vent about the challenges — without judgment."

Uncorked. Unapologetic. is that idea, turned into a season.

Stacey Martin

Founder & Principal, Content Matters

Stacey has spent over 20 years helping organizations — government agencies, universities, healthcare systems, nonprofits — say what they actually mean. As founder of Content Matters, she's built her career on a simple belief: content is a strategic asset, not an afterthought, and clarity is a form of respect for the people you're trying to reach.

That same instinct is what drew her to this project. Somewhere between board rooms and brand strategy sessions, Stacey kept noticing the same gap: women were building extraordinary things and still getting handed the same tired, forgettable playbook for how to talk about it. Uncorked. Unapologetic. is her answer to that — content and connection, done honestly, in a room built for women instead of around them.

Why We Built This Together

Emma builds the room. Stacey builds the story. Between the two of us, we've spent our careers learning the same lesson from opposite directions: the polished version isn't always the true one, and the true one is almost always more powerful.

Uncorked. Unapologetic. is what happens when you stop editing yourself down to fit the room — and build the room around who you actually are instead.

Real. Raw. No bullshit. Pull up a chair.

Uncorked. Unapologetic. is a women's event series co-founded by Emma Dunbar and Stacey Martin, hosted at Tandem Restaurant in Carrboro, NC.