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Booking firm specializes in big names

08:09 AM CDT on Sunday, May 6, 2007

cherylhall@dallasnews.com

Michelle Lemmons-Poscente books rock stars – but they don't sing or play music.

The founder and managing partner of Dallas-based International Speakers Bureau Inc. likens her job to a concert
promoter. Her business speakers are her musical talent. Their books and training materials equal record sales and touring
power.

And she's doing quite well at it.

This year, the company that was started in her bedroom in San Angelo 14 years ago will bring in $25 million in revenue
by booking some of the most noted names in the global business world.

Want convicted-felon-turned-ethics-guy Michael Milken to keynote your business event? She can get him, but it'll cost
you $75,000 to $125,000, depending on the location.

In the early days, Ms. Lemmons-Poscente was selling motivation one hour at a time. Now companies want considerably
more meat to the matter. And they expect it to be both entertaining and educational.

That's edutainment.

"They want a message that's going to help move their company forward or in a new direction or inspire their leaders," Ms.
Lemmons-Poscente says in a conference room on the 41st floor of the old First National Bank Building in downtown
Dallas.

"It's no longer the old 'Rah rah! Get out there and sell.' "

Speakers' fees range from $5,000 to $300,000, with an average of $25,000.

British entrepreneur Richard Branson will run you $200,000 to $250,000.

Harvard professor John Kotter, author of Our Iceberg is Melting, is a hot property, pulling in $65,000 to $80,000 for U.S.
engagements, more when he speaks internationally.

"The industry as a whole has matured and become more educated on pricing," says Ms. Lemmons-Poscente, who thought
booking Charles Kuralt for $2,000 to speak at the Super 8 Motel's annual convention in 1993 was a really big deal. "They
want some of the best thought leaders in the world, and they're willing to pay for them."

And it's no longer one speech and done.

"Now we'll do three- or four-day events with companies to create a strategy for a new product or service," she says.
"We're involved more as a consultant than a speakers' bureau."

'Lasting change'

A year ago, Ms. Lemmons-Poscente brought in Greg Ray, who has extensive experience in events and corporate training,

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to broaden the company's scope.

Bret Skousen, director of employee and organizational development for Black & Decker Corp., has tapped the talents of
Dr. Kotter for an ongoing change-management program through ISB.

"Not only do they have access to most of the best names out there, but they're also developing what I call a back end of
what these speakers do," Mr. Skousen says. "All these authors typically have is a book. They go out and speak and make
everyone feel good for a week or two.

"By developing the training and discovery process that goes behind the book, they help people implement an action plan.
They go beyond the one-hit wonder. They try to get lasting change in companies."

ISB's corporate digs in downtown Dallas represent just how far the 45-year-old Ms. Lemmons-Poscente has come.

At 24, she bluffed her way into a grunt-level job at Life Styles of the Rich and Famous. She didn't earn much as host
Robin Leach's go-fer, but she built a Rolodex full of direct numbers of celebrity managers.

That contact information would be the seed for her speakers' bureau in 1993 after a failed relationship forced her back
home to San Angelo and into the working world.

The next year, Ms. Lemmons-Poscente moved her company from West Texas to a storage room at the Studios of Las
Colinas.

She thought she'd hit the big time in 1997, when her placements and sales of related books, videos and CDs reached $2
million.

Today ISB Global – the umbrella company that owns the speakers' bureau and companies that handle training, events and
talent management – is more than 10 times that size.

This year, the company will provide talent for 800 events using speakers from a database of 30,000 – most of whom won't
get an assignment.

About a third of its revenue will come through its two dozen rock stars.

The 'it' factor

So what does it take to hold center stage?

First you have to have something to say. Then you need charisma and the ability to deliver the message dynamically.

"You can't be Milli Vanilli," says Mr. Ray, proving that he's 44. "You have to have an authentic message that oozes from
your pores. If you don't, you're going to get tuned out in a hurry."

"We're like a talent agency," adds Ms. Lemmons-Poscente. "There are a million people who want to be the next
supermodel. But they have to have that special it factor."

A name helps.

"If you don't have a name, your company has to be recognizable," she says. "It's extremely difficult to build someone from
scratch."

And big names aren't necessarily a road to stardom.

She's learning artful ways to say no to the steady stream of CEOs wanting to break into the speaking circuit.

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"We've had some big names come here – I'm not going to tell you who – who we've even put on stage a couple of times.
We finally had to be frank and tell them they didn't have it."

Their cat barked

She thinks Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg do. The co-founders of Future Now Inc. and authors of two best sellers (including
Waiting for Your Cat to Bark) are considered Internet marketing's version of the auto world's Click & Clack. They signed
with ISB a month ago.

"Two brothers, very funny, East Coast, and they are gurus of Internet marketing strategy," she says. "We identified them,
read their books, listened to them speak, found a message that's unique – and no one knows them."

No one, that is, outside the e-commerce world.

"We're pretty well-known within our industry. But we don't have the resources or the expertise to build relationship with
the major corporations they work with," says 37-year-old Bryan. "Michelle and Greg are helping us reposition how and
what we speak about to broaden our platform."

One way ISB intends to expand its reach is by producing its own leadership shows.

The first three-day event will be held at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas beginning May 15. Five more are planned this year
and 20 in 2008.

Mr. Ray expects the Dallas show to draw 500 attendees, from top execs to operations managers and small-business
owners.

One of the speakers will be Keith Ferrazzi, author of the business best-seller Never Eat Alone.

He says ISB practices what he preaches by building long-term, trusting relationships with meeting planners.

"When these guys say they have a rock star, the meeting planners believe them."

Something Completely Different

Sometimes even entertainers aren't entertaining.

Michelle Lemmons-Poscente used to set up speaking events for comedian John Cleese.

Unfortunately, Mr. Cleese liked to deliver serious talks about creativity and leave all things Monty Python behind.

At one event in Los Angeles, someone asked him to talk about the fabulously popular TV show. He refused to even
acknowledge the request.

"I had to sit him down one day and say, 'People expect you to be funny, and when you're not, you disappoint.' "

She's not representing Mr. Cleese anymore. He went back to his talent agency and is doing stand-up again.

Cheryl Hall

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